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Presenter: Dr. Natalia K. Nikolova, P.Eng. - McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Supervisor:

Date: Thu, November 13, 2003
Time: 14:00:00 - 14:45:00
Place: EOW 430

ABSTRACT

Abstract

We consider an adjoint-variable approach to design sensitivity analysis with time-domain methods based on structured grids. Unlike conventional adjoint-based methods, our approximate technique does not require analytical derivatives of the system matrices. It is simple to implement with existing computational algorithms such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. The resulting FDTD algorithm produces the response and its gradient in the design parameter space with at most two simulations regardless of the number of design parameters. The proposed method is illustrated by the adjoint-based FDTD analysis of waveguide structures with metallic boundaries.

Biography

Natalia K. Nikolova - received the Dipl. Eng. degree from the Technical University of Varna, Bulgaria, in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan, in 1997. From 1998 to 1999, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), during which time she was initially with the Microwave and Electromagnetics Laboratory, DalTech, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, and, later, for a year, with the Simulation Optimization Systems Research Laboratory, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. In July 1999, she joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests include theoretical and computational electromagnetism, high-frequency analysis techniques, as well as CAD methods for high-frequency structures and antennas. She has published over 50 technical papers. She is a member of the Canadian National Committee of URSI (Chair, Commission D) and a member of URSI - Commission B. She is an IEEE Member since 1993, the Microwave and Antenna Societies. Dr. Nikolova currently holds a University Faculty Award of NSERC, which she received in 2000.