Digital Twinning Transformation for Microwave Engineering Education: A Case Study of Student-centered Learning in Module States of the Arts in Liquid Crystals Millimeter-wave Technology for 6G

The pervasive use of electronic design automation (EDA) suites is not solely dedicated to state-of-the-art microchips and nanosheet devices designed for Interconnect 3.0, but is also extensively deployed for more macroscopic electromagnetic analysis that profoundly influences the fifth-generation (5G) communications underway and beyond, e.g., the sixth-generation (6G) one that fuses communication and sensing in a highly integrated manner and featuring ubiquitous connectivity. High-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) is one of the most prominent EDA tools in this domain, but due to its closed-source nature, its value in engineering education and student-centered learning has largely been underexplored. To this end, this study investigates the use of EDA-assisted electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools, focusing on emerging liquid crystal (LC)-based microwave (MW) reconfigurable technologies, in the context of teaching an undergraduate module titled States of the Arts in Liquid Crystals Millimeter-wave Technology for 6G. Eleven in-project undergraduate students across diverse academic backgrounds participated in the case study, together with the lecture and a postgraduate research student. The novelty of this approach lies in its development of a self-driven framework to identify and address the limitations of these computational tools in various application scenarios. These educational innovations form a core part of the broader reform project carried out at Beijing Institute of Technology, aimed at integrating digital twinning and digital transformation strategies into higher education. Marrying EDA vulnerability studies with LC-based computational electromagnetics offers an extended educational pathway toward 6G technologies and opens new opportunities in liquid crystal microwave technology and beyond.