Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1532533
FEBRUARY 2025 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 67 Considering the current trends, how do you perceive the job market and the demand for your engineering expertise? I think engineering is just starting to take off and it will continue to grow. I can see machine learning becoming a bigger thing, obviously AI and Factory 4. 0, and that requires engineer- ing skills. What growth potential do you see for your specific skill set? As far as growth potential, I'm currently enjoy- ing my quality role. I hope to go deeper into that with both customer and facility facing roles. I'm excited to see where the quality dis- cipline takes me. " I love going back to work with the feeling that I've contributed more than my day-to-day tasks. " Talk about your involvement with IPC standards committees. My involvement with the IPC committees is considerable. I co-chair and co-vice chair a cou- ple of committees. I love attending committee meetings and having influence over the stan- dards that I reference every day. I love going back to work with the feeling that I've contrib- uted more than my day-to-day tasks. PCB007 Artificially engineered biological processes, such as perception systems, remain an elusive target for organic electronics experts due to the reliance of human senses on an adaptive network of sensory neurons, which communicate by firing in response to envi- ronmental stimuli. A new collaboration be- tween Northwestern Univer- sity and Georgia Tech has unlocked new potential for the field by creating a nov- el high-performance organic electrochemical neuron that responds within the frequen- cy range of human neurons. They also built a com- plete perception system by designing other organ- ic materials and integrating their engineered neu- rons with artificial touch receptors and synapses, which enabled real-time tactile signal sensing and processing. The research, described in a paper published this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could move the nee- dle on intelligent robots and other systems current- ly stymied by sensing systems that are less powerful than those of a human. Artificial Real Biological Processes Could Enable Perceptual Capabilities in Robotics "The study highlights significant progress in or- ganic electronics and their application in bridging the gap between biology and technology," said first author Yao Yao, a Northwestern engineering profes- sor. "We created an efficient artificial neuron with reduced footprint and outstanding neuronal characteristics. Le- veraging this capability, we developed a complete tac- tile neuromorphic perception system to mimic real biologi- cal processes." According to correspond- ing author Tobin J. Marks, Northwestern's Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, existing artificial neural circuits tend to fire within a narrow frequency range. "The synthetic neuron in this study achieves un- precedented performance in firing frequency mod- ulation, offering a range 50 times broader than ex- isting organic electrochemical neural circuits," Marks said. "In contrast, our device's outstanding neuronal characteristics establish it as an advanced achieve- ment in organic electrochemical neurons." Source: Northwestern University