EDNE October 2012 - (Page 7)

edn.comment ,, By patrick mannion Next-gen “Edisons” doing just fine he notion that engineering’s best and brightest are falling back on iPhone and Android apps instead of doing “real” engineering was put to rest in Austin, Texas a few weeks ago, at National Instruments’ NI Week Graphical Systems Design Achievement Awards. I saw this fallacy for what it was as I prepared to announce that Peritec Inc’s Naoki Hoshino had won the Editor’s Choice honor for his work on a desktop EMI evaluation system. We’ve seen the footage from revered colleges, showing the next generation of engineers seemingly focused more on smartphone apps than on the next tech breakthrough. We’ve heard OEMs complain that engineers are coming out of college ill prepared for the engineering world. It’s easy to despair over what those signs might mean for the future of the tech industry. But when I attend an event like the NIWeek GSDA awards (which EDN parent UBM Electronics co-sponsored), I emerge reinvigorated and brimming with optimism. I meet young innovators who are wrestling with real-world problems, from clinical assessment of conditions such as osteoporosis using ultrasound and lasers to off-grid energy solutions and earthquake monitoring. The event’s engaging master of ceremonies, Dave Wilson, director of academic and training and certification marketing for National Instruments, kept the proceedings moving as he deftly described every paper. What resonated with me most, however, were his closing remarks on technical audacity and sheer ingenuity. For some in the EDN community, a design based on LabView combined with a modular PXI or CompactDAQ box may not epitomize “true” design. But I really liked what James Truchard, NI’s cofounder, president, and CEO, had to say during his keynote address the day before the GSDA event: “Our goal is to make all these Edisons make progress.” I wonder what Thomas Edison himself would have done with LabView, NI hardware, and some Xilinx FPGAs. The possibilities boggle the mind. For his part, Editor’s Choice honoree Hoshino’s paper was on “Developing an EMI desktop evaluation system using a new measurement technique” (http:// bit.ly/P4xOoK). I chose it as the winner because the problem was technically challenging; because the work has longterm implications; and, in the spirit of the awards, because the achievement itself democratizes innovation by greatly reducing the cost of evaluating a design for EMI by eliminating the need to buy or rent space at an anechoic chamber. Of course, the work of stellar performers such as Hoshino and the GSDA winners won’t quell the calls for “better” education or “more qualified” engineers, but what do such terms even mean anymore? Engineering has changed on many levels, and the emerging generation of engineers reflects those changes. Sometimes, as in Hoshino’s case, the innovators themselves change the way engineering is done. The one constant: The work is about solving problems. EDN T Author’s biogrAphY Patrick Mannion is Brand Director of EDN North America; contact him at patrick.mannion@ubm.com www.edn-europe.com OCTOBER 2012 | EDN EuropE 7 http://www.microchip.com/EUEDNEMEMORY http://www.bit.ly/P4xOoK http://www.bit.ly/P4xOoK http://www.edn-europe.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of EDNE October 2012

Cover
Contents
International Rectifier
Microchip
RS Components
Masthead
Microchip
EDN Comment
Pulse
Analog Devices
Farnell
Baker's best
Omicron
Test & Measurement World
Agilent Technologies
Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products
Digi-Key
Mixed-signal SOC verification using analog behavioral models
Messe München
Bergquist
The future of connected-device security
Silicon Laboratories
Digi-Key
Coilcraft
Messe München
Image sensors evolve to meet emerging embedded vision needs
Digi-Key
Chip Expo
National Instruments
Supply chain
Introducing software-designed instrumentation to test-and-measurement
Digi-Key
Mechatronics in design
Design ideas
Product Roundup
Tales from the cube

EDNE October 2012