Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1256432
78 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2020 power measurement device that could be used for measuring microampere or even lower cur- rents. There are no good solutions available in the market if you want to measure the pow- er consumption of your low-power embedded/ IoT device. India is a market where personal relation- ships are more powerful, and face-to-face meet- ings are preferred, but COVID-19 has changed this fundamentally. People are more digital now, so digital meetings and online demos are more acceptable now in India. Post-COVID, businesses will be more acceptable to remote work than before. Shaughnessy: What advice would you give to someone just starting out designing PCBs or embedded systems? Aggarwal: My first advice is to do what you love. If you love football, don't bother about hardware, but if you love electronics, go all out and think long term. Young engineers are look- ing for quick results, quick money, and quick fame. There are no shortcuts. Be ready for many days, weeks, and months of debugging and reworking. Believe me, the happiness of working on what you love is 100 times more satisfying than any money or any fame. It's also easier to perform well if you're doing what you love. Work hard every single day and have patience. It takes time to build knowledge and experi- ence, and sometimes we lose patience and start thinking that we are less intelligent or this career is not for us. Don't get into that mode. You have to tell yourself that you can do it. Don't worry about failures, either. Review what you have achieved in a year, not in an hour. Improve your knowledge every day. When I first started, I didn't have a computer or internet at home, and Google and YouTube were not yet born. Today, your educational possibilities are huge. Remember that PCBs are central to electron- ics. Start with the basics. Learn how PCBs are manufactured and become familiar with differ- ent terminologies. Always ask, "Why is it this way, and not that way?" This curiosity will help you gain in-depth knowledge of the subject. For engineers exploring embedded systems, I have the same advice. Please understand that embedded systems encompass hardware and firmware—not just firmware, as many might think. Hardware knowledge helps in a big way if you want to be a truly embedded design en- gineer. Shaughnessy: Is there anything else you'd like to add? Aggarwal: Around 2016–2017, while heading an engineering team in India for a Swiss-based system-on-module manufacturing company, I had the opportunity to travel and meet hun- dreds of customers. I discovered that many Figure 2: Pallav works on embedded systems designs as a hobby.