Evaluation Engineering - 4

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MHOCKETT@EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

Following up on "brain drain"
in test engineering
In the April print issue of Evaluation
Engineering, my editorial column focused
on the topic of "brain drain" in electronic test
engineering-as in, the challenge vendors and
institutions are facing to find quality test
engineers in a time when many very experienced, baby-boomer aged engineers are retiring and taking an immense wealth of experience with them.
The more I see new test instruments
launched, it's very apparent that ease-of-use
is one of the top factors that go into their design. So many new test solutions offer large,
touch-screen displays that make it easy for
new test engineers to get up-to-speed quick,
or allow design and/or software engineers to
run testing without needing a testing background to begin with. Such test equipment
vendors may not be specifically catering to
testing newcomers, but they're certainly making their solutions friendly to them.
I ended that April column asking readers
to send me their thoughts on this topic for a
follow-up editorial, so that's what I've done
here. Below, find a handful of responses readers sent in.
Brian Nelson, North American sales manager at CheckSum: "We make ICT equipment
and have a big challenge to find electrical engineers. The interesting part is not the lack
of electrical engineer candidates, but more
the quality gap. We have established close
relationships with several local universities to directly recruit engineers. Although
many graduate, the percentage that have
enough talent to meet our criteria is a small
percentage.
The gap is in the disconnect between realworld applications from book-learned concepts,
particularly in understanding of analog circuitry and coding skills typically learned via
object-oriented coding versus ground-up coding. Although our world is increasingly digital,
the circuits that drive the digital still must work
and that requires analog knowledge. Many of
the universities seem bent on churning out coding engineers vs. electrical engineers.

We are looking for engineers with a passion. They are few and far between."
Rebecca Bassett, product marketing manager, services and proficiency, at National
Instruments: "I read your article and found it
VERY interesting. As new engineers are flocking to software and design-I think we are
at a unique advantage with software at the
very core of our platform. It makes test and
measurement a little more sexy, in my opinion. Also, it helps with the user-friendliness
aspect. From a customer education view,
we try to tackle the talent challenge in a few
ways: We sell our products and training to
university, to build up a pipeline of engineers
who are knowledgeable about our products.
This helps give students a taste of what to expect in industry. We sell and deliver training
to grow the proficiency of our customers-in
ways that are interactive and engaging. We
invest in programs like badging and certification, where customers take assessments
and earn a credential. It helps those that are
motivated by mastery or competitiveness.
Certification can also help T&M companies
find engineers with the skill level they are
looking for in our products."
Craig Byrd, president of Automated
Integrated Solutions: "I read your article
with great interest. I have been working in
the test engineering field for many decades.
I have never considered test engineering
development "non-sexy." I have always considered the challenges of producing scalable
production-worthy ATE with minimal test
times, and characterization applications a
great challenge."
Dan Orlando, President of Solution Sources
Programming: "This was a great article a friend
sent to me, as he knows I've been preaching
this for almost five years with very little interest. Now that it's starting to show up in print,
it might take hold."

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

1.91 BILLION
Semiconductor manufacturer
billings in April 2019

29%
Decrease year-over-year
during April
Source: SEMI

6.6%
Year-over-year North
American PCB shipment
increase in April 2019

23.1%
Decrease in April's North
American PCB shipments
from March 2019
Source: IPC

2%
Semiconductor sensors and
actuators growth in Q1 2019

15 BILLION
Expected 2019 sales for
semiconductor sensors
and actuators
Source: IC Insights

EVALUATION ENGINEERING JULY 2019

http://www.TWITTER.COM/EEEDITORMIKE

Evaluation Engineering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineering