Welcome to the general introduction of the microwave engineering and antennas course. My name is Bart Smolders, and I'm a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. And I'm also associated with the Center for Wireless Technology Eindhoven. Now, this course is a master level course that could fit within an electrical engineering program and in our program and Eindhoven, this course is a master course. And this course is tuned towards the trend that we see in for example, 5G and 6G wireless communication systems. That electronics, microwave electronics is integrated with antennas, becoming more complex systems, and for that reason, it's necessary to provide students, another engineers with the background, both in microwave engineering would also an antenna. So in this course provides you an ideal combination of both disciplines. Therefore, the objective of this course, is first, to provide you an introduction into microwave engineering and we will focus on both on passive and active components. Then we will provide you with an introduction into antenna theory, including phased arrays. And the course will also include several hands-on designed challenges where you will learn to use state of the art design tools, to design microcircuits antennas. Now, the general structure of the courses that we have 4 modules, so the first module is mandatory, so its introduction. That includes an application overview. Some trends, but also some practical things like how to use the quizzes that we will provide the online questions. Then we will start with the first real module on passive microwave circuits. We will continue with antenna theory, and we will conclude with active microwave circuits. In principle, if you want to finish the course with an exam, then you need to follow all 4 modules. But if you want, of course, then you could decide to only follow 2 or 3 modules. Now, what do we require from you, first of all, we require you to have some backgrounds. Some background is circuits. So electronic circuits like being able to apply Ohm's Law on resistor capacitor and inductor networks, and we would like to have some bachelor level or equivalent level there. Next to that, some background in electromagnetics, so both static and dynamic fields would be appreciated. Also, on Bachelor level, or equivalent, of course. Now the theme of lectures, besides myself, we have Professor. He's a part time professor at our University, and is also fellow at NXP semiconductors, and it's really an expert in the design of active microwave circuits. Then we have and he will be responsible for the hands on activities in this course, and myself, I will focus on the passive microwave circuits antennas. Now, besides web lectures, we also have a lot of online quizzes where you can practice the theory, and we have all kinds of additional exercise, as well. Next to that, we have labs where we are going to teach you how to use state of the art simulation tools. Now, some additional study material that we will provide you, first of all, we have a book, which is available online for free. The book Modern Antennas and Microwave Circuits really covers all the material that is part of this course, as well. And, of course, we will provide you with some additional material when needed. Now, what do we expect from you? Besides the background knowledge, we expect from you that you watch the web lectures each week, we expect from you that you perform the quizzes and the lap exercises, and we also would like you to be part of the discussion forum where you can seek help first with your peers. But of course, we will also be available to provide answers to your questions. Now, so model practical requirements, you need of course to have access to a personal computer, or a laptop, and you need to be able to download some open source software that we're going to use for the design of microwave circuits and antennas. Having said that, I wish you lot of success in the course, and I hope to see you back during the first real web lecture.