In case you have not already recognized this, virtually every electronic product made today is just one or more embedded controllers surrounded by the I/O and peripherals that make the product what it is. Think about it. Name one product that does not fit this model. A student of mine suggested a vacuum tube guitar amplifier and he is right. No embedded micro in there for sure. But consider any other product you use. Cell phone, automobile, iPod, TV set, CD player, and so on. Even our test equipment (like a digital oscilloscope) is computer based these days with software doing the measurement and analysis.
What I am trying to point up is that electronics centers around embedded controllers and their design and the software. Product design is more software and less hardware every day. Yet most colleges only devote one course to this topic. I keep feeling that we need to do more.
In my work as a technology editor for Electronic Design magazine, I talk to lots of engineers and travel around interviewing engineers, executives and others who design products. The core of all this work is centered on the embedded micros and all the interfaces and, of course, the software. It truly what engineers are doing.
It occurred to me a while back that many AAS degree grads could actually be good embedded designers. I have taught the embedded course in a community college many times and many students get interested and do a great job of creating embedded projects. You need to like software most of all but you do need some knowledge about all the interfaces that are used. Both are something in reach of any AAS degree student.
What I am advocating here is an AAS degree in embedded design. Take the existing curriculum and add more software and micro courses with plenty of project work making interfaces, controlling and monitoring other things, working with development systems and so on. Such a grad could really hit the ground running in an engineering setting where embedded work must be done. I am convinced that with the extra courses and plenty of real projects, any AAS grad could do what many BS degree engineers.
The big question is, would anyone hire one of these grads as an embedded designer? How would we make that happen?
Just a thought. Respond if you are interested and let me know your thoughts. Or am I just nuts and dreaming?
LF
Friday, June 12, 2009
An Update on Electronic Technology Education
Over the past year I have been busy with my job as a magazine editor but I have been active in the ET field with my work for the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC) in Phoenix. This is an NSF funded project and I am working on the Esyst grant where we are putting together a new AAS degree program that is a better fit with industry and the technology in general. We are into the 3rd year of a 3 year project so progress has been made.
The declining enrollment problem seems to have mitigated a bit and in fact during this down turn I bet we will see some increase in community college active in electronics. The alternative energy programs are bringing in some new students as is biomed and electric power. We did lose a few AAS programs over the past few years but those who have survived have made some curriculum changes and updated here and there and some even added new programs. While enrollments are much less than they ever were in the past, there are still ET jobs out there if we can just get the students interested. Maybe this downturn will help.
The Esyst program I mentioned has taken the existing core courses most schools offer and enhanced them with a more systems view of electronics. Less analysis and design, less emphasis on components and circuits and more about systems and equipment. More test and measurement and troubleshooting. That's what employers seem to want these days. You don't need to know how to bias a BJT, you don't ever have to do a mesh analysis with determinants. Who does that at all these days anyway, including engineers?
If you are looking for a way to update your curriculum, the Esyst approach is worth considering. Go to the website at www.esyst.org and take a look. And for a first hand look, go to the HI-TEC conference in Scottsdale July 19-22. We are having a workshop on the Esyst project. Check out the MATEC website at www.matec.org for details. And I will be talking about my experience with Esyst deployment at the ASEE conference in Austin, June 15th.
Hope you have a great summer.
LF
The declining enrollment problem seems to have mitigated a bit and in fact during this down turn I bet we will see some increase in community college active in electronics. The alternative energy programs are bringing in some new students as is biomed and electric power. We did lose a few AAS programs over the past few years but those who have survived have made some curriculum changes and updated here and there and some even added new programs. While enrollments are much less than they ever were in the past, there are still ET jobs out there if we can just get the students interested. Maybe this downturn will help.
The Esyst program I mentioned has taken the existing core courses most schools offer and enhanced them with a more systems view of electronics. Less analysis and design, less emphasis on components and circuits and more about systems and equipment. More test and measurement and troubleshooting. That's what employers seem to want these days. You don't need to know how to bias a BJT, you don't ever have to do a mesh analysis with determinants. Who does that at all these days anyway, including engineers?
If you are looking for a way to update your curriculum, the Esyst approach is worth considering. Go to the website at www.esyst.org and take a look. And for a first hand look, go to the HI-TEC conference in Scottsdale July 19-22. We are having a workshop on the Esyst project. Check out the MATEC website at www.matec.org for details. And I will be talking about my experience with Esyst deployment at the ASEE conference in Austin, June 15th.
Hope you have a great summer.
LF
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