Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1522071
38 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2024 Feature Interview by Barry Matties I-CONNECT007 John Watson, CID, is a professor at Palomar College near San Diego. John teaches a basic PCB design class and an advanced class, and graduates from these classes are ready for their first PCB design job. ese appear to be the only classes of their kind in the U.S., and as more designers retire, the demand for classes like this will continue to rise. I recently spoke with John and one of his students, Mehdi Kacem, a junior embedded systems engineer intern at Avempace in Tuni- A Great Recipe: Collaboration, Motivation, and Design Classes sia. In this interview, Mehdi explains how his desire to collaborate and his motivation to succeed helped him get the most out of John's courses. Barry Matties: Mehdi, tell us how you discov- ered John Watson's class and why this course was important to you. Mehdi Kacem: I was involved with embed- ded soware and wanted to extend myself to the hardware side of embedded systems. I