At 2013’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS), the staff of Microwaves & RF began a new tradition: the “Best of Microwaves” awards. With engineers increasingly searching for data, product information, and resources online, it is critical that the microwave industry learns to present information—geared toward engineers of varied knowledge levels—in such a way that it can easily be found. The award categories thus recognized websites, social-media efforts, and a range of educational tools (see the full list of winners). We also presented an award to an individual, dubbed a “Living Legend.”
To pick our winners, we surveyed a large group of readers, asking for their input on what sites and resources they use daily. Some of the answers surprised us. For example, we found that engineers love sites with a lot of easy-to-access information, which means that they often preferred simple, straightforward sites versus ones we think of as more “whiz-bang.” Having good content that could only be accessed by registering and/or providing personal information also earned negative marks from some of our audience.
Our favorite part was hearing from customers of firms about customer service and their own daily experiences learning and navigating the industry, their jobs, and the web. In addition, we had the honor of sitting down with former Agilent employee Blake Peterson, Microwaves & RF Living Legend. Blake spent most of his career providing technical resources that are still in use today, which made him a perfect choice for our first award. As Blake put it, “the ABCs of technology are needed to form the basis for understanding more advanced technology, and I did my best to provide that basis.” I would love to hear your input on our award winners—as well as ideas for next year’s winners!