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10 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2025 Our industry is facing a two-fold challenge: finding the next generation of PCB designers and training these young technologists. Most high school career counselors don't know any- thing about this career, and electrical engineer- ing grads leave college with little or no PCB design knowledge. Where do we start? We asked two PCB design instructors, IPC's Kris Moyer and Palomar College's John Wat- son, to weigh in on the best methods for find- ing and training the designers of tomorrow. Andy Shaughnessy: Gentlemen, as PCB design instructors, you have front-row seats to what's going on, so, how can we find and train the next generation of PCB designers? John Watson: We have a weeklong program at Palomar College that takes place in the high schools where the kids get to work on an actual PCB design. Next week we are visiting two high schools in the San Diego area. It definitely is something I hope to expand on, depending on who wants to pick up that sort of program. e first step is to get them to notice when they are young. ere are a lot of intelligent kids in high school who are very intuitive, and they pick this up very quickly. Kris Moyer: Yes, I agree. We also need them to see that PCB design is an actual engineer- ing discipline. When I was in high school, I was looking for my path to engineering, but part Here's Looking at You, Kid Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team