Is electronic engineering dead?

"Is electronic engineering dead?" is a lament not unlike "everything has already been invented."  Truth be told I've been guilty of the later, especially back when I was young and was trying to prove myself.  If you study something technical some of what you learned is already out of date by the time you've graduated, and that can be jarring.  In my case when I started working I initially had feelings of regret and I wished I had worked in a different era that was more representative of my schooling.  Eventually though you adapt and find meaningful and rewarding experiences in your work.

And no, I don't believe electronic engineering is dead.  If you someone is interested in a hardware focused career, they should go for it.

I had some of the opposite experience initially. The place I started at had an IBM1620 (designed around 1959) that used core memory. I also got to work on some ships that had computers designed in the early 1960's - they used drum memory for everything including the system clock, which was just one track on the drum.. On the other hand the pace of innovation has been accelerating since then. A lot of what we take for granted today was considered impossible when I graduated and a lot more would have simply not been conceived of yet.

Very interesting.  I wonder if that's a reflection of the cost of technology.  At one time it was quite an investment to put a system together, so yeah you'd want to get 20 plus years out of those early 60s computers.  As time went by things got cheaper, so you start to see more and more upgrades and overhauls.  So when I started we were in an 'out with the old, in with the new' era.

Hello, My job for the last 38years is repairing electronics. when dealing with domestic equipment which can sometimes get circuits. But when i am doing industrial modules i have never got circuits. so using data sheets and my own test points works. one thing that gets me is when designed they put small caps running 24/7 in a standby power supply that should be away from heat. Where i have found bigger caps of the same value last longer.

then a motor driver ic with multiple legs would die because it has high voltage then dust then moisture.

When you plan power supply or Driver circuits do you think of the life of caps in the machine  

running 24/7 there is 8760 hours in the first year of warrantee 

how many caps used are better than 2,000 hours.

acdc90 said:

When you plan power supply or Driver circuits do you think of the life of caps in the machine  

Actually, yes.

The board in the picture will have an easy life - it's planned existence is that, after development and testing, it's powered up life time will be << 1000 hours.

But that is unusual.

You can make your caps last longer by running them cool and de-rating by large factors for voltage and ripple. 1000 hour rated cheap caps often last a very long time in low stress applications.

The realities of power design often result in large stress on capacitors but when the cost of a big 10000 hour 450V cap can exceed £100 you can see why they don't end up in washing machines.

Another thing to watch out for is that the capacitance of ceramic capacitors (especially Y5U and X5R types) can be as little as 20% of nominal value at the full rated voltage and less than 50% of nominal at 50% of rated voltage.

Good point about the dust !

Just been working on a design with 80V supply and lots of tracks -  0.15mm track and gap rules definitely not suitable !

MK

I suspect the need for EE will increase once the AI begins to crank out solutions.

You still need someone with intuition to get the final circuits to work.

Theory only gets you to about an 80% solution.

Knowledge and experience takes you the last 20%.

I believe the border between electronic engineering and software engineering is becoming fuzzy.  Future engineers will not be able to separate the two and specialize in one or the other.  Chips can't cover all of electronic engineering especially human interfacing and not-so-smart sensors.  Reference designs are nice to have, but don't always cover all feature requirements of a project.

I tell all our new students to learn as much as you can in hardware/software/machining/prototyping/etc. because the available positions require people that have multiple skill sets.  Hiring managers would rather hire a person they don't have to train as much before they become productive.

I agree.

I started with a computer engineering degree which was a split between software and hardware.

Knowing both worlds made me very useful on many projects.

The expansion of SOC's to include digital and analog hardware with integrated radio capability keeps bringing these areas together.

They hire computer engineering students for co-op terms where I used to work and I was pretty impressed with their effectiveness right out of the gate.

Yes, when I was in school during the 1970's I was already gainfully employed full time integrating a microprocessor into a laser guided bomb guidance unit.