Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/798021
10 The PCB Design Magazine • March 2017 Andy Shaughnessy is managing editor of The PCB Design Magazine. He has been covering PCB design for 18 years. He can be reached by clicking here. facturing? How can we get kids excited about a career in electronics, period? It shouldn't be this tough, really. Kids have iPhones in fourth grade, and play video games in kindergarten. They've been exposed to cool electronics their whole lives. Why don't more of them want to join our industry? I'd really like to know. It's a problem that's been ongoing for de- cades. Here we are, working with great people in an industry that provides the backbone for electronic products, and most young people don't know it exists as a career choice. IPC has been working for decades to get the PCB curriculum into colleges. But a few design- ers at the Design Forum shared their opinions that IPC and the Designers Council are just not doing enough to market the DC and attract more people, especially young students, to a PCB design career. That's IPC's responsibility, right? But wait. Isn't it our responsibility? It's our industry; shouldn't we see to it that our indus- try gets the respect it deserves, and that the next generation can't resist joining us and working on some of the coolest technology around? What if everyone who attended IPC APEX EXPO went home and visited the schools in their neighborhood, spreading the word about our industry? What if everyone who attended DesignCon, DAC, IMS and PCB West did the same? I bet the locals who attend CPCA are al- ready doing this. Why are we waiting for someone else to take care of this problem? Why don't we all just visit our local schools and talk with the guid- ance counselors and students? Do a presenta- tion. Organize a field trip to a board shop; you know that kids would love that nasty smell. Show them this magazine. Hell, show them all of the PCB design and manufacturing websites and magazines, print and online. Let the kids know that this industry is full of people who make a decent dollar doing what they love. Many of these people will be retiring in the next 10 years, and their positions will be open- ing up. Actually, they're already opening up; at APEX, I spoke with a half-dozen company own- ers who were having trouble finding qualified employees. Some have had vacant positions for months. So, why don't we spread the word about cir- cuit boards? We know all about this industry and the many careers it supports, careers that put food on our tables and put our kids through college. As the old saying goes, "We're all in mar- keting." Why don't we all start marketing our industry? Make an appointment for Career Day. Tell the kids stories about circuitry. Tell a few stories about the road—well, not those stories from the road. Talk about Bell Labs, and the demise of the captive shops. Tell them a Dieter Bergman story, or a Martin Cotton story. Sure, the technology is fantastic, but it's the people that make this industry what it is. And it's time for we, the people, to start focusing on attracting new blood to this industry. Flexy Time Flex and rigid-flex used to be specialty prod- ucts, but that's not the case anymore. This month, we focus on designing flex and rigid- flex circuits. In our cover story, Craig Armenti of Mentor Graphics offers a variety of rigid-flex design tips and best practices. Tom "Flexdude" Woznicki of Flexible Circuit Design Company discusses the changes he's seen in flex design during his company's first 25 years in operation. Anaya Vardya and David Lackey of Ameri- can Standard Circuits celebrate the release of their new I-Connect007 micro eBook, The Print- ed Circuit Designers' Guide to…Flex and Rigid-Flex Fundamentals, which we published this week. We also have columns by our contributors Bar- ry Olney of In-Circuit Design, Bert Simonovich of Lamsim Enterprises, Tim Haag of Intercept Technology, and Alistair Little of Electrolube. There's a bit of a lull between trade shows now, but I'll be at SMTA Atlanta and the Design- ers Roundtable in April. Hope to see you there! PCBDESIGN WE HAVE TO BE MARKETERS FOR OUR INDUSTRY