Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1212069
76 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2020 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I have been teaching IPC professional de- velopment courses for eight years now. I've taught in many other IPC conferences, includ- ing in Europe, and have given keynote speech- es at the IPC Asia Aerospace Summits. IPC has been very respectful. They've asked me and appreciated the knowledge and perspective I offer, and I've been honored to present my unique perspective on the electronics indus- try, as we as that of my employer's, at all of these events. Goldman: That's a lot of committee and teach- ing involvement. Sood: I'm not one of the 40-year veterans of the industry. All of my time is compressed in terms of my involvement. I have so much more to learn, but I'm thankful for what I have learned in my 20 years of involvement with industry. Goldman: Since you work for NASA, that makes you a rocket scientist (laughs). Sood: Well, an aerospace engineer, but yes (laughs). Goldman: I'm kidding. Of course. You have taught a lot of classes, but it is with volun- teers, so you put in a lot of your own time. What drives you and inspires you to do that? Sood: What I have valued the most is the op- portunities for learning and interaction. Those are unparalleled. Even when I'm teaching a professional development course, I do not claim to be a know-it-all. I'm there to share what I've learned. I start with, "I'm going to provide my perspective, and I'm willing to dig as deep as you'd like me to go. If you'd like to go to the molecular interaction level, then that's what we will discuss, but I'm also here to learn from your experiences." It's an honor to share what I know and make a good case for whatever I'm sharing. Over time, you develop a certain philosophy, and one of the things which I flag is rules of thumb. When I hear somebody say, "Well, as a rule of thumb...," I'll challenge where they got that. In reality, most generalized rules of thumb might hold true within a certain con- strained set of circumstances, such as a 10°C or 20°C range of temperature, but does not hold beyond that specific range. My sugges- tion is rather than looking at rules of thumb, we need to look at it from a fundamental phys- ics perspective. Attending a standards meeting with peers around the table and listening to their expe- riences is invaluable. For any organization to invest in this activity and send engineers to those types of meetings is important for them to learn how to do things differently and more efficiently and to get that high reliability and quality that we're all trying to achieve. Goldman: What do you see happening with IPC and the industry down the road? What do you see coming up that's exciting or interesting?