Question: how do you use maths in your job

Pawel Rulikowski answered on 8 Nov 2024:

I am radio frequency (RF) research scientist and engineer, hence I need to understand how electronic circuits work. RF engineering has many subdomains – circuit analysis, where graph theory sometimes come handy, linear algebra is a must, especially in a matrix formulation. System engineering uses lots of matrix algebra. I specialize in electromagnetic (EM) simulation and field theory, that – surprise, surprise uses extensively mathematical subject of field theory and vector calculus. Essentially, all what you see – the light – just like radio waves are governed by a set of beautifully concise Maxwell’s equations – a set of differential (or integral if you prefer) equations. Nowadays, most of the heavy calculational heavy lifting is done by computers, however insight often comes from a mathematical formulation of the problem. I run highly specialized software to solve those equations to see how EM fields are moving in the circuits – some of the pictures are really beatiful. This video shows an example of hot topic of antenna arrays that are used in your WIFI router, mobile phone basestations etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuz5zwbruTQ