On September 25, 2019, BYU hosted the 7th annual Utah Radio Frequency and Wireless Day, under the direction of Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Karl Warnick. The event rotates annually between BYU, University of Utah, and Utah State University.
This year’s event included speakers from Weber State and local companies. The keynote speaker, David Arnold, was a faculty member in the BYU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was Dr. Warnick’s PhD advisor nearly 25 years ago and now runs a local radar company, Wavetronix.
The event this year was the largest one thus far. Typically, 60-80 people attend, but this year, there were around 115 attendees.
Dr. Warnick discussed some of the reasons why the attendees choose to come to the event yearly. He said, “In the technical world, it’s very common to get together for meetings in your area because when you’re working at a company, you need a broader community. These meetings are common in all the subareas of what we do because they provide a forum that cuts across companies. Engineers come for the sense of community and to see what’s happening at companies and universities around Utah.”
That sense of community is what inspired Dr. Warnick and his colleague to start the program seven years ago. Attendees typically come from or are interested in the wireless communications and radio frequency fields.
Of its beginnings, Dr. Warnick said, “I thought it would be a nice service to the community because a lot of people that work at companies in this area are graduates from my group, the U, and Utah State, so it’s a reunion for graduates of these programs. People in companies like to see what’s happening in the universities, so it gives them a day to come and see what we’re doing here.” The meeting ended with a tour of BYU’s beautiful new Engineering Building.