The only thing that’s more important to engineers than the project on their table is the next project to come down the line—at least, it should be.
The electronic industry is constantly being reinvented as new technologies keep Moore’s Law perpetually valid and thriving. After all, today’s high-end transistors, semiconductors, and other components are tomorrow’s landfill. Two key elements in keeping the electronics stone from gathering moss are education and research and development.
Keeping current is extremely important to an engineer—globalization and capitalism are driving technology. If you can’t keep up, then you’ll be left behind. Also, the Baby Boomer generation is starting to get a little long in the teeth, and somebody has to fill the empty seats when older EEs begin to trade their soldering irons and oscilloscopes for retirement packages and part-time consulting gigs. Equally important to the field is R&D—if nobody spends the time building the staircase, you’re never going to get to the second floor.
Some EEs work for companies that don’t have the budget for R&D, settling for older designs, while others enjoy R&D during downtime or work at it full-time. Some people believe engineering students are well educated, while others disagree (vehemently in some cases). Some work for companies that throw money at continuing education for employees, while other companies leave it out of the budget or outsource instead. Our 2007 Reader Survey we yielded a flurry of perspectives on both matters.
Whippersnappers Versus Geezers
So you went to school, got yourself a diploma, and landed a job in the industry. But whether you graduated last year or 20 years ago, the fact is that whatever you studied will invariably become outdated sooner or later. Sometimes, what you learn is yesterday’s news before you even get your diploma framed.
“It has been my belief that since the 1940s the level of preparedness as well as the breadth and depth of subject matter effectively covered in terms of requirements of the industry have been in constant decline and will continue possibly at an increasing rate well into the future,” said Jarret “doc” Ewanek, a senior design engineer. “This is simply due to the constraints of a four- to five-year degree program coupled with the ever-expanding technological knowledge base inherent with our profession.”
According to the survey, over 47% believe that their education equally prepared them for the industry’s challenges compared to the young bloods, while less than 40% believe they were better schooled.
One respondent said, “When I graduated I had a lot of good theory. I continued to read textbooks to sharpen my edge. A student graduating now is not as prepared as I am because I have 40+ years of experience. Compared to where I was in 1964, there is a whole lot more to know now. My experience with new engineers has been mixed.”
The remaining 14% feel that today’s students are better prepared than they were heading out of school. Plus, 78% of the populace (including young and old EEs) claim that their education adequately prepared them for their jobs.
Some believe, however, that outdated knowledge isn’t the problem. Instead, the focus and subject matter of professors and universities are missing the mark. Largely, universities focus on theory of application rather than real-time production. This leads to unforeseen hiccups when students transition to the workforce.
“Universities focus ever more on theory and analysis and less on intuitive understanding, synthesis, and real-world components,” said Bruce Carsten, president of Bruce Carsten Associates. “About 10 years ago, I had a recent graduate ask me if I could tell him where he could find all the formulas needed to design a power supply.”
There also seems to be a contingent of readers who believe college produces nothing more than beer-bellies. “Maybe it's just the age perspective, but young engineers seem to have, for the most part, majored in partying [while] in university,” said one respondent. Overall, it’s fair to assume that whether you bump into a whiz kid or sidestep a dunce at the snack machine depends on the company. Only time can weed out the true EEs of the future.
On the other hand, some believe that a shift from traditional coursework and design solutions is necessary to prepare young EEs for a change in an industry necessitating more Hardware Description Language (HDL), ASIC, and FPGA knowledge. “I believe that colleges and universities are now catering more to the demands of the industry,” said Michael Fogle, Fairchild Semiconductor principal strategist. “I find that new graduates are more ‘tool savvy’ [in] VHDL, Cadence, and MS Visual Studio.NET, for example.”