Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1518649
APRIL 2024 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 37 I'm doing these two courses at IPC APEX EXPO, but I'm teaching other classes for IPC. I did two last year and I'll do two again this year, improv- ing on them and adding more material to each one. ey're all through IPC, and I think the course dates have been released. IPC has many courses on how to design a board and work with schematics. In working with IPC, I told them, "Instead of just showing everyone how to do design, why don't we show them how to engineer their design?" ey asked me about the difference, and I said, "A lot of folks don't think that PCB designers are engineers. ey just look at us as draers." ese aren't your mom and dad's boards nowadays. Everybody has to worry about the material to stack up. You have questions like: How much metal is on each layer? Are we using a foil? Do we have to worry about the size of the vias or whether we're stacking them? ere are so many more constraints now that designers need to focus on engineer- ing as well as design. Anybody can design a board, but to take that design and engineer it, you need a nice skill set. I recently interviewed some 18-year-old freshmen, and they weren't sure what they wanted to do, but they knew they needed to know how to design a circuit board for whatever career they picked. They already knew how to code at 18. So, there's hope for the future. ose kids are the future for board designers. I think everything will change in the next 10 years. We are seeing change. For years, it was just not hip for young people to be PCB designers, but now it's coming back. So, maybe it's finally hip to be square? As Huey Lewis once said. What are the big takeaways from these classes? What do you hope the students leave with? I want them to take away the knowledge, first and foremost, that we're doing engineering work. I want them to walk away knowing that this is a design community; we all work for different companies but we can still talk to each other and ask, "Hey, how do you manage this or that?" Try to keep in touch with folks. You should take what you learn at IPC back to your company and ask your manager, "Can I do a presentation, and instruct others on what I learned? I want to put my education to good use." If you have three or four people in your design center, aer a while, everybody knows what you've learned. Everybody can be that much better. at's one of the biggest takeaways you can have. Final thoughts? I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at IPC APEX EXPO. If you happen to see me walking around, stop and talk to me. I'm available. You don't have to buy me a cof- fee, but that would help. We'll try to do some podcasts later in the year that will focus on engineering. Thanks for your time, Fil. ank you, Andy. DESIGN007