American Made Advocacy: Reshoring—About Trust, Not Just Geography
Defense Speak Interpreted: It’s Time for a ‘Defense-Speak’ Update
Beyond the Board: The Future of Innovation—Why the Electronics Industry Needs You
Finding and Training the Designers of Tomorrow: Design007 Magazine, February 2025
February 10, 2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: Less than a minute
Finding and Training the Designers of Tomorrow
It’s no big secret: There’s a shortage of PCB designers and design engineers, and we don’t have enough of a pipeline to fill these seats. To top it off, the last batch of designers from the Baby Boomer generation is approaching retirement.
For the February 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine, we asked our expert contributors to address these questions: Where will we find the next generation of PCB designers and design engineers? Once we locate them, how will we train and educate them? What disciplines will the designers of the future need to understand and master to deal with tomorrow’s technology?
Share on:
Suggested Items
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2025: Insights into PCB Design and Manufacturing with Polar Instruments
04/03/2025 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOErik Bateham discusses Polar's latest book, which enhances insights for PCB designers and manufacturers. The book, "The Designer's Guide to... More Secrets of High-Speed PCBs," features a guest chapter on 2D via design modeling. Erik highlights the industry's shift towards UHDI and the challenges in measuring at micron levels.
Target Condition: Designing vs. Inventing
03/27/2025 | Kelly Dack -- Column: Target ConditionAfter hearing me rave about IPC APEX EXPO for years, my boss, Chad Orebaugh, joined me at the show for the first time last year. We met at the registration counter, got our badges, and he said, “Okay, Kelly, impress me.”
Flexible Thinking: The Key to a Successful Flex Circuit Design Transfer
03/26/2025 | Joe Fjelstad -- Column: Flexible ThinkingThis month, I will discuss the most common design errors that fabricators see, typical areas of miscommunication between design and fabrication, and what designers can do to avoid putting their jobs on hold. This is no simple task, given the many things that can go wrong in flex circuit manufacturing, but many of these issues originate in the design process.
Calling All Designers: The Latest Design Technology and AI
03/20/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineAdvanced design technology and AI were in the spotlight at the annual Design Town Hall, held March 19 during IPC APEX EXPO 2025. Speakers included IPC’s Peter Tranitz, Matt Kelly, Devan Iyer, as well as a panel on the use of AI in PCB design moderated by Susan Kayesar of Siemens.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Ensuring a Smooth Handoff From PCB Design to Fabrication
03/13/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonAt the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the U.S. men's 4x100-meter relay team had high hopes of winning a medal. The team comprised some of the fastest sprinters in the world, but something went wrong. In a relay, four runners must smoothly pass their baton to the next runner inside a zone on the track. If a runner drops the baton or it’s passed outside the zone, the team risks disqualification. The U.S. team’s pass between the second and third runner was messy, slowing them down. By the time the last runner received the baton, the team had lost too much time. They finished sixth in their heat and didn’t qualify for the final.