Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1153097
12 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2019 ed inspired me to find some way to give back to the designer community and made me find the IPC Designers Council booth at the show. I joined the IPC Designers Council and later became acquainted with Gary Ferrari, Andy Kowalewski, Glenn Wells, Dieter Bergman, Susy Webb, Cherie Litson, Paul Fleming, Jack Olson, Bill Gebhardt, Leslie Gomez, Professor Rainer Thüringer, Happy Holden, Tom Haus- herr, Doug Brooks, Jeff Condit, Ben Jordon, Jean Stout, and a large community of profes- sional PCB designers. I accepted an invitation to join the Designers Council Education Com- mittee and Executive Committee as a volunteer to help lead the design community and repre- sent them to IPC. I became certified to teach the Designers Council CID workshops and had many dis- cussions with the designers and profession- als along the way before I took on the idea of teaching a class in the California Community College System. I joined the leadership in the local IPC chapter in San Diego and was elect- ed to office there to help grow the chapter. I later was introduced to Ann Reese, the depart- ment chair at Palomar College who was run- ning her own PCB design classes. I spoke with her about adding curriculum based on the De- signers Council, and she wanted to have me teach the class as she was planning to retire. They put me through the process of getting approved as an adjunct professor/instructor based on my 40+ years of design experience since I didn't have a teaching degree. Once I had the approval, they hired me as the instructor for the beginning and advanced PCB design courses. I taught semester-based classes for about 10 years at Palomar College. The most important thing is that I found a way over some hurdles to bring quality education to the stu - dents in the local college system, which aligned with my desire to help more designers get into this industry. This occupation was otherwise devoid of any real channels through which de - signers could get a decent introduction. Matties: Tell me about the students. Were they newbies or people who had already had some design experience? Brooks: We had a diverse cross-section of peo- ple. There were newer students that were com- ing up out of the high school system, some mid-level students that already had some me- chanical CAD classes, and a few that qualified as my peers who were only really interested in the CAD tool that was available in the class- room. I had to split my time between teaching the tool to veteran designers and helping new- er students that were challenged with the ba- sic concepts. Shaughnessy: When you got into Palomar, you said that they already had a class going there, but it was mainly AutoCAD and PADS and that you came in and made some changes. Did IPC help you with this or did you have anybody giving you pointers on how to set this up? Brooks: Yes, and no. I did get some pointers from Glenn Wells and help from some others. We brought up the question of how to set it up in the Designers Council Executive Committee. Glenn had been working on the same thing in Texas. He wrote a guide based on his experi- ences with the university system. I used that guide to give me some ideas for the Commu- nity College System. Gary Ferrari negotiated a Bill began sculpting in 2011, and he's a painter and photographer as well.