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
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