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JULY 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 31 To be honest with you, I've been in conversations where I'd scratch my head and say, "That's not practical." list. "How do I get the design done, tested, vali- dated, and I know that it's going to work when it gets manufactured?" That's their focus. We've been out talking to universities and working on a number of different initiatives to drive improved education. Here's in lies another challenge. Back 20 years ago, you could go to a trade or two-year engineering tech school, and they would have a PCB design fundamentals class as part of their curriculum—or would be very interested in having it. This has waned through the years and is now difficult to even find. Today, the IPC manages a training pro- gram to certify PCB designers, but even that has limited reach. The focus today has shifted to the engineer- ing departments of universities. However, when you go to a university's electrical engineering department and talk to the faculty, they're not interested in teaching a PCB design class. They are more interested in enabling their students to use PCB design tools to do classwork, or to do a project. That's a challenge, as well, because we've traditionally taught full classes focused purely on PCB design. That's not really what they want to do. They want to have it inte- grated into the curriculum. We're working with a couple of the universi- ties in a couple of different ways. One is the integration of PCB design principles into an existing EE curriculum, and we're also piloting kick-starter classes. At one of the universities, we'll hold a one-hour class on weekday nights. They'll do PCB design principles, a kind of kick-starter program for engineers who want to learn a little bit more about the PCB design process. We're going to have a series of those modules with the plan to offer a full MOOC (massive open online course) and on-demand video channel on PCB design principles by the end of the year. Shaughnessy: That sounds like a good way to present the content. Plus, you're working with college kids. You almost have to go look for them, because they're not going to find us. Musto: You're right. These young engineers are not focusing on PCB EDA software and, as such, they are difficult to reach. With the shifting demographic, we've also been looking to hire new industry entrants to represent the new wave of design and engineering profes- sionals. This has been a difficult challenge. Although difficult, we have been successful in finding candidates to fill these roles. We've recently hired an engineer who fits the bill completely—one that does electronics design, PCB layout, mechanical, and software—a true multi-disciplinary engineer. The fact that he has also worked with many CAD/EDA applica- tions is also a major plus. Shaughnessy: Speaking of degree versus non- degree, I'm starting to hear about companies that won't even consider hiring a PCB designer who isn't a college grad. Some of these com- panies are full of non-degreed senior design- ers, but as they retire, they're being replaced by someone with a degree. They just have to check that box. On the other hand, if it takes a degree to be a designer, maybe this will get it into the college kids' heads a little earlier. Musto: To this point, I received an interesting email last week. Long story short, there was a gentleman in his early 50s, and he was looking for recommendations for engineering schools. His company was looking for a university degree as a requirement for their PCB design- ers. I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a rough situa- tion to be in." To be honest with you, I've been in conversations where I'd scratch my head and say, "That's not practical." At the end of the day, PCB design is an elec- tronics function, and you should have some understanding of the electrical aspects of