Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1163814
SEPTEMBER 2019 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 29 both IPC and IEC have done this. The smaller groups focus on a given standard and drive it forward whilst still allowing the wider audi- ence to have a say. Shaughnessy: Yesterday, a new committee member said, "I cannot believe we spent all that time talking about one page." But that's how it is. Hudson: Right. But to some people in that room, that was an important part of that stan- dard. Terms and definitions have been brought up this week a lot, such as "lead" vs. "lead." When you read it, you see it is the same four letters. If you are English native-speak- ing, you may be able to dif- ferentiate between them given the context of the sentence. Shaughnessy: And if it is in Kanji, is it the same character? Hudson: Exactly. People from the outside world may question why we're spending so much time looking at this, but when you get down to it, these items can be critical. But we need to find a way to accelerate standards and drive them forward to keep up with new technolo- gy. One of the classic things I hear with stan- dardization work is that they never keep up with technology, which is a difficulty. We need to find ways by using modern technology. For both IPC and IEC, there is a form you fill out, which can take time. I understand that JEDEC has an online approach to doing this. Shaughnessy: IPC has been talking about try- ing to make everything digital for a while. Hudson: Yes. We have been talking at commit- tee meetings this week about the use of digital rights management, even on draft standards now, because IPC has found a lot of its content out on the internet. We want to make it digital, but we have to make sure that we are protect- ing the intellectual property of that standard. Each standards organization will want to sell those standards. Ideally, we need to start mak- ing the whole process more user-friendly and IT-based. As younger engineers come through, that is a natural way of doing things for them. Shaughnessy: I spoke with a few first-time com- mittee attendees, and they said, "Wow." They had no idea how much went into standards. Hudson: The first IPC stan- dard I used was 610 because I was in automotive electronics assembly. We were building something new and looking through IPC-A-610, and when I attended a meeting on it, I said, "Wow," too! Then, you really appreciate the decisions being made in those meetings. Today, a man from Lockheed said that he didn't necessar- ily understand where "25% of components over the pad" had come from. Suddenly, he was in the meet- ing and said, "That's why we have standards." Shaughnessy: And I have to say, there are a lot of women here at the IPC Summer Meetings. Hudson: It's great to see the number of women attending grow each year, but there are still not enough. However, that has nothing to do with IPC or IEC; it has to do with the fact that we need to get more women into engineering and STEM positions in general. We need to make girls understand that these are great careers; it's not all "oil under the fingernails." Engi- neering has given me a great career. I travel around the world and love it. I've met some wonderful people. Shaughnessy: It is a great industry. Hudson: Really, this industry is a family. You look forward to going to these meetings to meet people and talk about what is going on and the new technology.