Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1245291
54 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2020 At IPC APEX EXPO in early February 2020, IPC announced our newest offering for the printed board design engineering community: IPC Design. In the months since, we have made great strides in crafting IPC Design as a platform for the global printed board design engineering in- dustry to connect and grow professionally, re- gardless of their skill level, country of origin, company, or age; all are welcome. The entirety of the IPC Design program model is well beyond the scope of what I would like to talk about here, but in a nutshell, printed board design en- gineers can affiliate with IPC Design by form- ing or joining an IPC Design Chapter or affili- ating as an individual, member of a company group, or member of a STEM-focused student group—all at no cost. We are utilizing IPC's ex- isting web infrastructure to enable a "collab- orative content model" in which designers can create and access design content—media, fo- rums, recordings, virtual meetings, etc. IPC Design is advised by the Design Commu- nity Leadership—a group of industry experts with decades of experience in printed board design engineering and related technologies. This group has been instrumental in guiding IPC as we build the structure and initiatives of IPC Design, and I am excited to continue to unveil these initiatives here as they become available. The construction of IPC Design is scaffold- ed by the 3Cs: content, career, and competi- tion. These refer to the mindset by which both the Design Community Leadership and IPC ap- proach any initiative within IPC Design. Put simply, does an initiative produce or provide content to better the industry, produce or pro- Competition as a Tool for Growth Design Circuit by Patrick Crawford, IPC–ASSOCIATION CONNECTING ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES