Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1400005
64 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2021 Warner: It's so true. It's interesting to engage with universities that are trying to prepare stu- dents for industry, but there's a gap between industry and the theoretical and principle- driven kind of electrical engineering courses. Hands-on time in the labs or involvement in engineering student competitions go a long way to help prepare students for industry. Oen they do a capstone project for college that involves PCB layout. ey design a simple two-sided board, turn a tassel, and they get thrown into a big OEM job where they're told, "You're going to lay out circuit boards now." ey're thinking, "Well, I laid out a 2-inch by 3-inch board for a robot I made in college and now I'm being asked to do HDI and stacked microvias." ey're like a deer in the head- lights. We want to be part of preparing stu- dents for industry in a meaningful way that's recognized by industry. As an industry, we're always trying to backfill the loss of expertise as our old friends are retir- ing and we're losing this amazing expertise, wisdom, and tribal knowledge that's retiring with them. Altium has tried to capture some of their knowledge and wisdom, then make that accessible to the entire industry. One of my favorite things to facilitate at AltiumLive is connecting the Rick Hartleys, Happy Holdens, and Eric Bogatins of the world with students, and they sometimes end up doing design reviews or mentoring teams. e same goes for younger professional engineers; it's a magical thing to watch the sparks fly in what we like to call the AltiumLive 'magic'. ere's enough room for everybody. I'm a huge fan of PCEA. I think these education platforms, whether it's PCEA, IPC, Altium, Cadence, Mentor (Siemens), or wherever peo- ple can get training. We can't get enough good educational content to these folks fast enough. Shaughnessy: I know you guys do a lot of work at the college level. You have a student version of Altium Designer, right? Warner: It's not a student version; it's a time- based license of the full Altium Designer tool. But yes, we do have an academic website and we give away soware to engineering teams at universities or to individual students for free on a limited-time basis until their graduation. We've seen a huge uptick in the use of those tools. ey may have been using free or open- source tools before, but that just doesn't give enough weight on their resume when they're going to work for SpaceX, Tesla, or Apple. ese companies want to see that they've used a professional tool and so it really helps them get jobs. Shaughnessy: It may be their first real EDA tool. Warner: Right. Another fun channel we have on YouTube is called Altium Stories. One story shows the kids from Del University who made an exoskeleton and entered it in a commercial competition against commercially funded companies—and they won. ese kids just rock the world, and these are the kids who are getting pulled right out of college and get- ting the best jobs. Shaughnessy: It's funny that we keep hearing about how the kids of tomorrow are slackers, but the kids that we meet in this industry are really dynamic, hard-working people. An example of AltiumLive 'magic' is the robot team challenge.