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Is electronic engineering dead?

cstanton

I saw this question on Reddit, and I figured it was a good one to ask the element14 Community as a thought provoking query that may be on new engineering students minds:

"If we consider only circuit design for PCBs, almost all the complexity is moving toward integrated circuits (chip and modules) and/or in code for FPGA or microcontrollers/microprocessors. The role of hardware engineers is still important, because of PCB layout and BOMs, but from the hardware design point of view is almost all already done, just pick a component, read the datasheet and copy the reference design. I’m simplifying, I know, finding the right component is not easy at all, but it seems the hardware engineer role is just reduced to searching and connecting modules. Only IC designers delve into the complexity of hardware design. Do you agree with me or can you explain why I’m wrong, please?

My question arises because I’m considering whether or not to move to hardware design from firmware. Currently, I’ve a master's in Electronic Engineering but I’m working as a firmware designer for microcontrollers."

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  • If you can't have a better product if everyone is implementing the same thing from datasheets, then it's a little hard for firms to innovate. Apple would cease to exist, and we would be buying phones from Alba or Amstrad.

    Each time more performance/features are required, then you need to insert engineers.

    You can tell that some student or person completely removed from the world of engineering work has asked this question.

    It reminds me of one of my first jobs and my desk was piled high with ring binders full of ITU and ANSI docs, and a non-tech friend asked what it was all about. I mentioned that they explained how the phone system worked, so that I could design bits of it. The response I got was, why is all that needed to explain that you just need to lift the phone and dial?


    There are whole TV comedy series' dedicated to this type of thing : )

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  • If you can't have a better product if everyone is implementing the same thing from datasheets, then it's a little hard for firms to innovate. Apple would cease to exist, and we would be buying phones from Alba or Amstrad.

    Each time more performance/features are required, then you need to insert engineers.

    You can tell that some student or person completely removed from the world of engineering work has asked this question.

    It reminds me of one of my first jobs and my desk was piled high with ring binders full of ITU and ANSI docs, and a non-tech friend asked what it was all about. I mentioned that they explained how the phone system worked, so that I could design bits of it. The response I got was, why is all that needed to explain that you just need to lift the phone and dial?


    There are whole TV comedy series' dedicated to this type of thing : )

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