Are any of you like me? 4

[huda79]

I have been out of school for 7 years. I graduated with a BSEE from a "top ten" engineering school with a good gpa. I have never worked in design or R&D. I work in compliance engineering. My question is how many of you can understand how a circuit works just by looking at the schematic of a product? In my role, I see many products and have a hard time understanding what is going on. I can "read" a schematic but cannot explain how it works and why certain components are where they are. Is this because I never worked in design or do I just suck at engineering?

 

[ctopher]

I can design parts and tooling, but can't tell you exactly how a watch keeps time.
It doesn't mean you suck at engineering, it just means you don't have the experience or maybe complete training in electronics.

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Henneshoe]

De-cyphering why an engineer designed something they way they did can be difficult. There are many reasons components may be placed in a design. For example, to help with EMC issues or improve stability.
If you have a good GPA from a good university, I have a hard time believing you are a "bad" engineer. (assuming you didn't cheat)
If I was you, I would ask more questions of the design engineers. Everyone is busy, but they should be able to take 5 minutes to explain their circuit.

 

[IRstuff]

Ditto BSEE, but remember how difficult it was to analyze apparently trivial circuits in EE101? Amp that by a factor of 10 or so, and that's what you get with the circuits you might find at work. Don't forget, what you got in school was probably less than 5% of all the possible "simple" circuits, and none of the really complicated circuits.

Moreover, rarely do we talk about technical compromises in school, but the real world is all about compromises, balancing demands from opposing requirements, speed vs. lower power, etc. These compromises lead to additional circuit complexities, to eke out every last bit of performance.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[huda79]

Do you guys know of any books that can help in this area? Thanks for the responses.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I found this book helpful:

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL4123855M...c_mountains_of_money_or_an_engineering_degree

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[IRstuff]

I think that you'll probably still have problems, even with a good book. Unless you're actively doing designs, reference schematics are just so much background scenery, at least for me.

Anyways, another possible choice is Horowitz' "The Art of Electronics"

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...witz+art+of+electronics&sprefix=horowitz+art+

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[FACS]

The people that suck at Engineering are the ones that don't understand their short comings; The one's that march on blindly regardless of what they don't understand.

A good Engineer understands his/her limitations, and gets help.

Charlie

http://www.facsco.com

 

[rosarod]

I'm agree with FACS, I'm a mechanical engineer working with electrical installations with no idea of aircraft harnesses installation and the worst thing is that I have zero knowledges of harnesses manufacturing but here we are trying to do the best.
I think that a good engineer is that one that can found the information that he need by his own, maybe asking others workmates or reading a good book.

RMRM

 

[micalbrch]

huda79: I think you made a mistake 7 years ago when you got your first schematic that you did not understand. I can beleive that it is much harder now to start with asking questions. Other engineers will be suprised as they think that you know everything. I think that is the reason why you asked for a book now. But this situation cannot be changed anymore. You have still plenty of time to correct your initial mistake. When I started my career I asked questions from the beginning as I wanted to understand what I was told. I'm 100 % sure that some of my questions were stupid for others but that is something nobody remembers today.

Cheer up! It is definitely not too late to ask others. And to answer your question: No, you do not suck at enginnering when there are things that you do not understand. That is daily business, even after 20 years in engineering.

 

[huda79]

micalbrch: I have been asking questions for years. Sometimes the answers made sense, sometimes I was told this is how we do things.

MikeHalloran and IRStuff: I'll check out the books. I have seen the Art of Electronics book online before. I look into my college textbooks sometimes but they just cover the basic building blocks and I don't use 90% of the math at work.

FACS and rosarod: Thanks. I guess there is no end to the questions in engineering.

This brings me to another discussion. How many people use all that math at work?

 

[msquared48]

Negative pressure sucks. Positive pressure pushes.

Exert some positive pressure and ask questions. Your interest in learning should not go unnoticed.

Don't be negative...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[desnov74]

I think modern electronics education is mush, no matter where you go to school. The demotion of analog has done real pedagogical damage to electronics globally. All the analog stuff comes in to play when you look at digital circuits in a physical level.

Read the EDN books by Williams, Pease,etc. about analog stuff.

The Navy and other branches produce great fundamentals of electronics and engineering resources. They show things in a very intuitive way. I have a couple of old ones: they illustrate through very good graphics current paths and operations. You can see some of them on scribd.

If you said you knew everything, then you'd suck. The fact you have an open mind & are self critical shows you're on the right path.

 

[GregLocock]

"How many people use all that math at work? "

FFTs every day.
Algebra most days
Calculus by hand rarely
Calculus by Mathcad or equivalent quite often
Calculus by numerical integration every day

double integrals by hand once in 30 years
pdes by hand twice in 30 years
pdes by spreadsheet quite often
ODEs very often.



Cheers

Greg Locock


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[KirbyWan]

I use math every day. I got this calander that has a different math problem for each day. Other then that not much more then basic calculations for stress and strain. I've always felt that all the math we go through in college is so we can understand the derivation of the equations during class. As an engineer we use those equations without much need to manipulate them. If I knew what equation to use I could do my job with the math I learned in middle school. The key is we need to know the background of those equations to be good engineers lest we misapply an equation or not understand the limits under which it's valid.

As a mechanical engineer I like the MIT lectures on circuts to dust the ol' cobwebs out of the mind.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrica...Science/6-002Spring-2007/CourseHome/index.htm

Probably to basic for an EE, but browse around MIT's OCW web site and see if there is anything you like.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Numerical integration every day.
FFTs every day.
Complex numbers every day (see FFTs).
Matrix algebra every week.
Calculus by hand most weeks, depending on the project.
PDEs numerically, every day.
ODEs most days.
Greene's theorem occasionally.
Vectors, most weeks.
Random numbers, regularly.
Binary arithmetic, regularly.
Logs, powers, etc, every day.
Spreadsheets - NEVER.

- Steve

 

[KENAT]

Ok, but anyone every used GRAD DIV or CURL in anger, or Z transforms for that matter?

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[huda79]

I guess using all the math depends in your job. I haver touched calculus or anything since graduation.

Kirby, I'll check out the site. Thanks

desnov, can u post a link to the books from amazon?

 

[SomptingGuy]

I forgot...

Z transforms, every few months.
Laplace transforms, less often.

- Steve

 

[SomptingGuy]

Actually, I lied about the Z transform. Got it a bit mixed up with discrete representations of continuous systems. Like how to implement filters and things in time-based simulations. Shame on me.

- Steve