Current Issue

Mike Buetow

You know the labor situation is bad when even the Air Force is getting involved to find solutions.

Indeed, as was recently announced, the Air Force Research Laboratory is working with NextFlex to come up with ways to attract students to careers in technology and science.

NextFlex isn’t a random choice. It was formed under the auspices of the US Department of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program. As one of eight DoD Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, the consortium is a partnership among the DoD, industry and academia. Its specific focus is development of flexible hybrid electronics (FHE), and to develop an education and workforce development program.

To the latter, the goal is nothing less than the creation of a skilled pipeline of STEM talent ranging from R&D to manufacturing. To that end, NextFlex is working on training and recruitment programs that work hand-in-hand with existing curricula. Called FlexFactor, this model is considered far more effective than designing a program from scratch and convincing institutions to adopt it.


In these programs, students attempt to address real-world problems, create the hardware that might solve that problem, and design the business model for their solution. They are similar to capstone projects at universities such as Rochester Institute of Technology, which go a long way toward resolving the criticism that higher education teaches only theory and leaves graduates woefully short on relevant industry experience.

“Colleges adopt and run FlexFactor for local high school students in their service area as a means of engaging students with STEM pathways in higher education,” says Emily McGrath, workforce development director, NextFlex. “So, although the participants are all in high school, the teams represent their colleges (not their high schools) in the finals because we work with the colleges, not the high schools, to run the program.”

This is appealing, I think, because today’s students seem much more driven by hands-on instruction and an accelerated path to accomplishment.

One of the facets of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association is to promote printed circuit engineering as a profession and to encourage, facilitate, and promote the exchange of information and integration of new design concepts through communications, seminars, workshops, and professional certification. So central is training to our mission, we spell it out in our bylaws.

We have affiliated with PCE-EDU, a training company established by some of the leading names in printed circuit engineering and manufacturing tooling. They include Rick Hartley, Mike Creeden, Susy Webb, Steph Chavez, and Gary Ferrari. They have developed a 400-page handbook (Printed Circuit Engineering Professional) that covers more than 65 major topics ranging from design to materials and fabrication processes. (I should note several of the aforementioned experts will be presenting at our PCB East conference in Marlboro, MA, in April.)

To teach the principles set forth in the Printed Circuit Engineering Professional curriculum, PCE-EDU has set up a five-day course covering the basics of the profession, materials, manufacturing methods and processes; circuit definition and capture; board layout data and placement; circuit routing and interconnection; signal-integrity and EMI applications; flex PCBs; documentation and manufacturing preparation; and advanced electronics (energy movement in circuits, transmission lines, etc.). At the end of the workshop, registrants may take the optional certification, called the CPCD, or Certified Printed Circuit Designer. PCEA is the registrar and certifying body for the CPCD.

Again, the emphasis is on real-world engineering and design, not pie-in-the-sky theory. Students are taught facts and principles in a tool-agnostic way. One medium-term goal is to get institutions to adopt the CPCD, much in the way they are latching onto FlexFactor, so students are not just aware of careers in printed circuit engineering and manufacturing, but prepared for them.

Not so long ago, a Lockheed-Martin engineer keynoting an industry conference extolled the virtues of the F-35 joint strike fighter. And I admit, the war-fighter is a freak of advanced engineering. But after his presentation, I asked what L-M was doing to compete with the Facebooks and Googles to attract the next generation of engineers. His somewhat incredulous “what, me worry?” response: “Who wouldn’t want to work on a machine like this?”

The answer, of course, is far too many people.

Covid has highlighted the skilled labor shortage experienced at many technology companies over the past three decades. Finding the right employees is an ongoing industrywide problem. Fortunately, programs by organizations like NextFlex and PCEA are starting to fill the void.

Mike Buetow

A bevy of tech talks are available to industry engineers, regardless of their location.

As readers of this space may know, the Printed Circuit Engineering Association is acquiring the assets of UP Media Group. Once that happens, I’ll become president of PCEA. Going forward, this column will focus on the ways PCEA is addressing issues of concern to our membership and the industry at large.

For the past year-plus, this column has been written by Kelly Dack, our erstwhile communications director, and Stephen Chavez, our chairman. In the next couple months, the PCEA is transitioning from an all-volunteer organization to one with a fulltime staff, which will allow the board of directors to focus on higher-level strategy. Steph’s role, then will no longer be tied to monthly communications but rather leading the board in charting the goals and direction of the association. And filling the gaps is where I come in.

Think of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association as a “ground up” organization. We aim to advance the careers of professional engineers. We do this primarily through a peer-to-peer network where we offer training, technical knowledge, and career advice across the printed circuit engineering spectrum: design, fabrication, assembly, and test.

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The PCEA is about to be reshaped in ways none could have imagined.

What other than a dynamic organization like the PCEA could decide it wants to establish a trade show footprint one month and then muster the creative talents of its executive staff to design a trade show booth to exhibit at DesignCon the next? Oh, and then exhibit at another major trade show like PCB West only a short time after? I’ll tell you, the PCEA has a momentum the likes of which I and many others have not seen in this industry.

I do not use “momentum” lightly. Because like the shiny, spherical bob of a pendulum in a Newtonian mechanics experiment, the leadership of this organization seems to be able to swoop down from their rightward (positive) displacement, pass their zero position goal of achieved success and still have enough momentum to reach their leftward displacement, where they tend to set yet another, even loftier goal. The harmonic motion repeats but, unlike a pendulum, appears to gain energy rather than lose it to physical pseudoforces.

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Read more: A Grand Announcement!

Kelly Dack

Back in the trade show swing.

It seems the electronics trade show industry had been shrinking the past year only to swell with a sudden, extreme realization venues are opening and plans that went dormant last year are coming back to life. August provided a swell of relief in the form of DesignCon. DesignCon was held Aug. 16-18 at the San Jose Convention Center, and PCEA was happy to participate with its first-ever trade show booth (FIGURE 1). A special nod from the PCEA executive staff to Eriko Yamato, our events coordinator, on design, coordination and delivery of our booth and some very special giveaway t-shirts for show attendees. Michael Creeden, PCEA vice chairman and treasurer/coordinator of our PCEA sponsors manned the booth throughout the show, with help from PCEA media coordinator Tara Dunn (FIGURE 2). Mike reports that while the show numbers seemed down a bit, the show had the spirit of a family reunion, and quite a few attendees were interested in hearing about the value of joining PCEA.

 

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Read more: Interaction: Cure for Industry Contraction

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