Academe’s Guide for Industry’s Real-World Application
By: Jellenie Rodriguez, Product Applications Engineer, Precision Converters
We believe that by means of innovation, creativity, and a wealth of knowledge, engineering graduates are making an impact to the world unlike any other. It is important for companies such as Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) to continue to promote opportunities within the field of engineering, to inspire more engineering students, and to ensure that the industry has the talent it needs for the future.
In our group, IPT Applications Engineering, these future engineers will help us fulfill the roles of defining products, providing design and development resources, as well as giving technical support with focus on precision measurement and sensors for any type of signal chain solution, from analog front end, to back end, that go into real-world customer applications.
Yet, the world is changing and engineering graduates are entering a job market that changes significantly. For that reason, engineering students must be well-equipped and be ready to handle the world’s biggest technical issues.
Applications Engineering Workshop (Apps to School) is a curriculum enhancement program that aims to fill-in the gap between the academe and industry. It aims to expand the academe course material that will allow students to level with the industry’s emerging technologies. Since most of the academe research focus mainly on the innovation and functionality of a system, Applications Engineering Workshop (Apps to School) aims to emphasize the importance of design specifications and to promote the ADI branding. This strong academic-industry collaboration is set up from the start as a win-win situation for all sides. By ensuring industrial relevance and aligning curriculum with the academe, engineering students will be able to further build their interest in electronics industry -- putting them in a better position and making them well-equipped for the line of work. Collaboration with the academe will help the industry and universities in terms of improvement and innovation. It is also a venue for applications engineers to develop our expertise by sharing our technical knowledge and its also positive thing for ADI to ensure that the students understand our business and products.
Together with our HR partners, Applications Engineering Workshop (Apps to School) was officially launched at Don Bosco Technical College-Mandaluyong (DBTC) last October 2018. A set of learning sessions/modules discussing the basic blocks and fundamentals of a typical signal chain solution was conducted by ADI’s very own applications engineers throughout the semester. We leveraged our training programs by providing hands-on/laboratory activities and review sessions wherein each student had a chance to experiment and discuss what they’ve learned from each module. It was indeed a success for our applications team with the participants’ common feedback that all the presenters are very inspiring, technical, and that they know the topics very well. The use of analogies and hands-on activities helped the students understand the topics better even though those were technically challenging from the students’ point of view. Hence, the program really did help the students get a picture of ADI products and the work environment awaiting them. And as for the apps engineers, we were able to refine our expertise, and it truly was a great experience to teach and help students who were also eager to learn. A graduation ceremony was held at our ADGT site and students who excelled during the training sessions were recognized during the ceremony.
For the next school year, the sessions will be conducted by professors as part of the sustainability strategy for DBTC and hopefully, Applications Engineering Workshop (Apps to School) will be integrated into their future curriculum. Through this, the students are expected to use the knowledge they gained and use ADI products in their thesis /design projects. Once the program is more stable, plans for introducing the Apps to School program to other universities is another option definitely worth to explore.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the people behind Applications Engineering Workshop (Apps to School) and ADI’s management for their continuous support on this initiative. This team put a lot of their time, ideas, and hard work, ensuring the development and success of this program throughout the 12 weeks of learning sessions.
Apps to School Committee: Jellenie Rodriguez, Emmanuel Adrados, Christopher Gozon, Mark Recio Previous Committee: Alexander Ilustrisimo, Ivan Santos, Daryl Cruzada, Jino Loquinario