Meet the Fellows
GK-12 2004-07

Seth Baum

Major	Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree	PhD
GK-12 Assignment	The English High School (2005-06) John D. O'Bryant School of Science Math (2006-07)
Host Teacher	Paul Muller (2005-06) Steven Fernandez/Myriam Hibbard (2006-07)
Student Journey	[pdf]
Presentation	A Year At English High School: Reflections (Apr 05) - CenSSIS research poster (Apr 05) Health Careers AcademyActive Physics (Dec 05) HCA Ninth Grade Physics (Apr 06) O’BryantAP PhysicsChemistry, Marine Biology (Sep 06) Mid-Year (Dec 06)
Products*	• Waves and Optics (Physics) • Campus Lab Tours • Student Employment/Internship Connections 2005-06 Nugget [pdf] [doc]
email	sbaum@ece.neu.edu
Advisor	Carey Rappaport
Project Title	User and Developer Interface Improvements to a Finite Difference Time Domain Code

Project Summary:

For electromagnetics problems involving complicated source patterns, scattering objects, and inhomogeneous background media, analytical solutions to electromagnetic field solutions are usually not available. For these cases, numerical solutions are desired. Of the various numerical techniques available, the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is emerging as the most popular technique due to its conceptual elegance and the completeness of the results it produces. Though FDTD has existed since it was first proposed by Yee in 1966 it has only risen to prominence in recent years as the computer industry has made it possible and cost-effective to handle FDTD's significant memory requirements.

Our group at Northeastern University uses a Fortran-based FDTD code developed and placed on the public domain by the Luebbers group at Pennsylvania State University. Since its adoption by our group, it has been used by several group members to solve various electromagnetics problems and has also been extended by several group members with various improvements to the underlying computational technique. However, the code's use and extension has been restricted by its steep learning curve which forces users to learn the Fortran programming language, the FDTD technique, and the inner workings of the code itself, and its use was restricted to a limited set of predefined cases.

Here, we present an enhancement of our code making it user- and developer- friendly. Now, code users need only a superficial understanding of Fortran and the FDTD technique, and rarely if ever need to modify any lines of the code to use it successfully.

Arbitrary material distributions can be designed external to the code and loaded into it. Code use is augmented by an attractive User Manual that guides users through using the code. Furthermore, the code itself is now written in an elegant and modular form, which makes it easier for developers to extend the code.

*contact Claire Duggan for further information.