Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1487920
DECEMBER 2022 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 17 looking at 47. I'm including that context because I think it's important to emphasize how flexible this activity is. If someone wants to compete next year but they aren't sure if they can commit yet, they can still sign up—there's zero obligation to participate. is is a fun activity intended to bring designers together in friendly competition. We won't hold any- body's feet to the fire. ese competitors come from a wide area and represent diverse skillsets and experience. Geographically, we have folks from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Ger- many, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Nor- way, Romania, ailand, Turkey, the U.K., and 10 U.S. states competing now. As far as experience is concerned, their aver- age time in industry is about seven years; we do have some folks with as little as one year in industry, and some as much as 30. We judge the designs blind, so the judges don't know any- thing about the demographics of the competi- tors. At first glance, it might seem like those competitors with 30 years' experience under their belts would have the advantage over someone with five years, but last year proved that wasn't the case. In fact, we had a few vet- eran designers turn in incomplete, ungradable designs. I can't name names, of course, but the diver- sity of companies represented is awesome. We have defense contractors, commercial avia- tion, a toy company—a big one, that's all I'll say—EMS companies, a few ECAD compa- nies, a few automotive giants, medical device manufacturers—the list goes on. However, in my opinion, the coolest group represented here are the hobbyists, who gener- ally don't have a formal education in electron- ics, physics, or engineering, or any training in PCB design. But they have made themselves knowledgeable for their own projects. e big- gest difference between those individuals and someone who is employed as a design engineer is the understanding of specifications and how requirements impact design. When you're try- ing to automate your home lighting setup, you don't really care about producibility, right? Unless you're into high-altitude balloons, I doubt you care about elevation impacts. You don't need to design for wave soldering, unless you're sending it off to have boards built. Again, if last year is any evidence, prepare to be sur- prised, because these folks are cray, and they get up to speed on specs pretty fast. Shaughnessy: Is there anything else you'd like to add? Crawford: Sure. I briefly alluded to this earlier, but we do allow for any tool to be used for the preliminary heat because you're just export- ing engineering files, and the Altium Designer licenses are provided free of charge to install and use on whatever machine you would like to use for the finals. (Huge thanks to Altium, by the way.) We also provide complimentary tool training for Altium if you aren't already versed in it, and we're careful not to include anything in the finals heat that gives an Altium power user a huge advantage. So, don't let a lack of Altium experience stop you from signing up. Finally, I want to address something that we've seen in our registrant demographics that is unfortunately indicative of a larger issue in the electronics manufacturing industry: ere are currently no women registered. I know that there are many women working in our industry, and many of them are PCB design- ers—I would love to see them get involved in the design competition. at's all I have. I'm looking forward to a fun event. e finalists will be announced in mid- December. I can't believe IPC APEX EXPO 2023 is just around the corner. Shaughnessy: Well, thanks for your time, Pat- rick. I know you've put a lot of effort into the design competition. Crawford: ank you, Andy. DESIGN007