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Pieces of a Puzzle: PCB Designer John Watson Sees the Big Picture of Life and Work
February 13, 2025 | Michelle Te, IPC CommunityEstimated reading time: 1 minute

John Watson started his career in military intelligence and as an electronics repair technician but moved over to printed circuit board design at a time when the whole electronics industry was experiencing a paradigm shift.
“I wanted to be involved in electronics,” he says of those younger days. “As a technician, you used to go down to a component level on fixing things. But in the late 1990s, they began just swapping boards out. They didn't care if you went down to the component level. So, the whole area of electronics technician work changed. That's when I changed my career and went into PCB design.”
There’s a common belief, he says, “that you need a set path to get into PCB design or that maybe you have to be an engineer, but I’ve been doing this career for about 24 years now, and it’s really exciting.”
Since shifting to PCB design, John has supported the industry through his roles as a PCB designer, an instructor at Palomar College in southern California for the past three years, and as a member of a design leadership initiative through IPC.
John was introduced to IPC standards in 2000 as a student of PCB design by instructor Bill Brooks. “As we walked through the door of the classroom, he handed us IPC-2221 and 2222, and said, ‘These are your textbooks.’ That was my introduction to IPC,” John says. “I really held true to IPC as the standard of how it should be done.”
In the summer of 2023, John was invited to serve as a representative on the Design Leadership Council, led by Peter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions, IPC Electronics Europe GmbH. “It’s a fantastic group, and I'm really glad to see this happening with IPC,” John says. “This is a very active and talented group of individuals and includes some of the greatest leaders in our industry. It’s very exciting to see.”
Continue reading this article in the Winter 2025 issue of IPC Community.
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Building Electronics Excellence in India
09/08/2025 | Nolan Johnson, SMT007 MagazineOver two decades, Dave Bergman has helped steer the Global Electronics Association’s work in India, from a single training course to a thriving regional operation with deep government and industry ties. In this interview, Dave explains how the group went from partnering with IPCA to opening its own office in 2010, creating India’s first domestic electronics manufacturing standard, and securing funding for dozens of Indian companies to attend U.S. trade shows.
New Podcast Episode Drop: MKS’ Atotech’s Role in Optimize the Interconnect
09/08/2025 | I-Connect007In this episode of On the Line With…, host Nolan Johnson sits down with Patrick Brooks, MKS' Atotech's Global Product Director, EL Systems, to discuss the critical role that wet processes play alongside laser systems in advancing the Optimize the InterconnectSM initiative. Brooks points to Bondfilm as a key example—a specialized coating that enables CO₂ lasers to ablate more effectively than ever before.
The Global Electronics Association Hosts Successful WorksAsia-AI and Factory of the Future Technical Seminar
09/03/2025 | Global Electronics AssociationOn August 22, 2025, the Global Electronics Association hosted the successful WorksAsia-AI and Factory of the Future Technical Seminar during the exhibition Automation Taipei 2025. The seminar brought together 81 representatives from 58 companies, focusing on the latest applications of AI in smart factories and unveiling four key directions that will drive the electronics industry’s transition toward intelligence and sustainability.
TRI's AI-Powered Inspection Solutions at SMTAI 2025
09/02/2025 | TRITest Research, Inc. (TRI), the leading provider of test and inspection systems, will be joining the SMTA International Exposition & Conference. The event will be held from October 21 – 23, 2025, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, USA.
More Than a Competition: Instilling a Champion's Skill in IPC Masters China 2025
09/01/2025 | Evelyn Cui, Global Electronics Association—East AsiaNearly 500 elite professionals from the electronics industry, representing 18 provinces and municipalities across China, competed in the 2025 IPC Masters Competition China, March 26–28, in Pudong, Shanghai. A total of 114 contestants advanced to the practical competition after passing the IPC Standards Knowledge Competition. Sixty people competed in the Hand Soldering and Rework Competition (HSRC), 30 in the Cable and Wire Harness Assembly Competition (CWAC), and 24 in the Ball Grid Array/Bottom Termination Components (BGA/BTC) Rework Competition.