On fields and gates: change in the landscape of electronic engineering

The teaching at university level of electromagnetic field theory and wave propagation has continued, without much significant change, from a pattern which was completed in the late 19th century. Of all the subjects taught in the university curriculum of electronic and electrical engineering, electromagnetic field theory is by far the most rigorous and intellectually challenging. The geometrical aspect, and the mechanism-dynamism split, are central to an understanding of the difficulty that students may have in the early stages of electromagnetic education, and also provide the key explanation for the current worrying decline in appreciation of the subject, as is discussed in the paper