This yr the IEEE Canadian Foundation established the Dr. John William Bandler Graduate Scholarship in Engineering Design in honor of the world-renowned engineer, instructor, and innovator. Bandler, an IEEE Life Fellow, died on 28 September 2023. He was identified for pioneering space-mapping expertise, which permits optimum, high-fidelity design of units, circuits, and methods at a price of just a few high-fidelity simulations.
The scholarship—funded by a donation from Bandler’s spouse, Beth—offers an annual award of about US $3,550 (CAD $5,000) to a Ph.D. scholar or postdoctoral fellow at a Canadian college who’s conducting analysis in electromagnetic optimization in micromillimeter- or millimeter-wave engineering, micromillimeter- or millimeter-wave imaging and inverse-scattering, engineering design optimization, or house mapping. The scholarship is to be awarded for the primary time subsequent yr.
Bandler was an entrepreneur and a professor. In 1983 he based Optimization Techniques Associates in Hamilton, Ontario, to commercialize his methodology and algorithms. His award-winning analysis throughout his 50-year profession revolutionized the engineering and computer-assisted design of microwave circuitry.
His sensible software of house mapping, system modeling, and optimization theories led to vital reductions within the growth prices of all kinds of digital methods.
His analysis was printed in additional than 500 publications.
Bandler served as dean of the college of engineering at McMaster University, additionally in Hamilton, and taught electrical engineering there from 1969 till his dying.
“He was a trusted instructor, advisor, and good friend to McMaster,” says Heather Sheardown, the college’s present dean of the college of engineering. “His improvements actually remodeled engineering design optimization.”
A deal with simulation, optimization, and management
Bandler was born in Jerusalem throughout World Battle II, and his household moved to Nicosia, Cyprus, when he was a teen. As an adolescent, the household moved to England, the place he accomplished highschool and attended the Imperial College London, which on the time was a part of the University of London. He acquired three engineering levels from Imperial: a bachelor’s in 1963, a Ph.D. in 1967, and physician of science in 1976.
After incomes his Ph.D., he briefly labored at Mullard Research Laboratories, in Redhill, England, earlier than accepting a postdoctoral fellowship on the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada. He accomplished the fellowship in 1969 and joined McMaster College as an engineering professor. Throughout his nearly 55-year-long profession there, he served because the 1978–1979 chair of {the electrical} engineering division and as dean of the college of engineering from 1979 to 1981.
In 1973 he established a analysis group to deal with simulation, optimization, and management. The group later was named the Simulation Optimization Techniques Analysis Laboratory.
“Bandler was a trusted instructor, advisor, and good friend to McMaster. His improvements actually remodeled engineering design optimization.”—Heather Sheardown
It was in that lab that Bandler developed his space-mapping expertise and different optimization algorithms.
To assist commercialize his improvements, in 1983 he based Optimization Techniques Associates, which was bought in 1997 to Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The division later was spun off into Keysight Technologies of Santa Rosa, Calif.
Bandler acquired a number of awards for his work, together with the 2023 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, the 2013 IEEE Microwave Idea and Know-how Society (IEEE MTT-S) Microwave Profession Award, and the 2012 IEEE Canada McNaughton Gold Medal.
He was appointed as an Order of Canada officer in 2016 for his scientific contributions, which helped place the nation on the forefront of microwave engineering.
Elevating the subsequent era of engineers
Along with conducting analysis and educating, Bandler mentored students and young professionals. He volunteered for the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium’s Three Minute Thesis, a program that connects graduate college students in engineering with mentors to assist them higher clarify their analysis. On the finish of the occasion, individuals current their work in lower than three minutes, utilizing just one slide to a panel of judges who will not be engineers. Beginning this yr, this system has been renamed the John Bandler Memorial Three Minute Thesis Competitors.
In his acceptance speech for the IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 2023, Bandler spoke on to college students and younger professionals and stated: “Nearly every thing I’m identified for one knowledgeable or one other has discouraged me from doing. So college students and younger professionals, let naysayers say no. Particularly if they are saying ‘No, go for it.’
“It took me 30 years to find widespread sense hidden in plain sight, and electromagnetic optimization took off,” he stated. “What are you ready for? Your personal breakthrough is looking at you.”
Mixing creativity with technical experience
Bandler was a multifaceted particular person with a wealthy inventive background.
“In the future I discovered myself in my mother-in-law’s studio with a paintbrush in hand and a canvas on an easel, so I began portray,” he stated in a Toronto Globe and Mail interview. “Till then I didn’t even know I had an curiosity in artwork. I used to be strictly an engineer, an educational, and a dedicated entrepreneur.”
His love of portray become a ardour for artwork historical past, writing performs, and making movies. A number of of his performs have been carried out on the Hamilton Fringe Festival and theaters within the Canadian metropolis. A lot of his performs, movies, and writings could be considered on YouTube in addition to his website.
Bandler’s legacy is bigger than his disruptive improvements in microwave design and optimization. His life journey encompassed artwork, theater, fiction, entrepreneurial actions, and academia, leaving a long-lasting influence on those that skilled his work and hung out with him. His means to mix creativity with technical experience made him a outstanding determine in each inventive and engineering circles.
To donate to—or nominate a candidate for—the Bandler Graduate Scholarship in Engineering Design, go to the IEEE Canadian Foundation website.
