A new type of text for non-majors in electrical engineering, this book satisfies the need for all educated persons to comprehend some basics of electronic technology and the Internet. Class-tested with 300 students at Northwestern University, Electronics and Communications for Scientists and Engineers has been written to meet the recent recommendations of the ABET Criteria 2000 standards for revised engineering curricula. This text covers the essential topics of electronics and communications that need to be understood by students and practitioners in various engineering fields and applied sciences. It contains the best layman's explanation of electronic underpinnings of the World Wide Web currently available in a textbook. It is also appropriate for science and liberal arts majors who need to take an elective course in digital technology, including computing and communications.

Author Biography

Martin A. Plonus (Ph.D., University of Michigan), Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the Electromagnetics Academy. He was Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (1968-1971), was Director of the Center for Integrated Microelectronic Systems (1986-1989) and was EECS Graduate Program Director (1989-1991). As a student, Professor Plonus worked part-time and during the summers in the production and engineering departments of Motorola, Inc., Zenith Co., and Telequip Co. From 1957 to 1961 he did research at the Radiation Laboratory of the University of Michigan on scattering and diffraction of electromagnetic waves. In 1961 he became Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. In the summer of 1963, on leave from Northwestern University, he worked at the University of Michigan Radiation Laboratory as Associate Research Mathematician, and again in the summers of 1964, 1965, and 1966 as Research Engineer. From 1962 to 1966 he was on the Board of Directors of the National Electronics Conference. In 1963, he was a consultant to the Western Electric Graduate Engineering Training Center in Chicago. From 1961 to 1968 he was the Faculty Counselor of the IEEE Student Branch. In 1966 he was Secretary of the Chicago Chapter of the IEEE G-AP, 1967-1968 he was Chairman, and in 1968-1969 he was Vice Chairman of this section. He is a member of the U.S. Commission B of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). In 1978 he published a book Applied Electromagnetics and in 2001, the first edition of Electronics for Engineers and Scientists. He was on the McCormick Faculty Teaching Honor Roll in 1990 and guest lectured to Tau Beta Pi and to Freshman Physics Classes and chaired a departmental committee on Effective Teaching. His interest in teaching led him in 1994 to become involved in a national project sponsored by AAHE (American Association of Higher Education) to explore peer review in teaching at American research universities.