Hello, I am a student at Allan Hancock College, and I am taking a class title Personal Development- 100. I have a midterm due in 3 days and I need to interview a computer hardware engineer as soon as possible please. I would greatly thank anyone who takes their time to answer the following question:
What is your background (both academic and experience)?
How did your background lead you to this position?
How did you become interested in this type of work, and how did you get your present job?
How long have you been working in this field?
What is the most challenging/rewarding aspect of your work/career?
These other questions are optional (would greatly appreciate if some were answer).
What kind of decisions do you have to make?
Describe some the toughest situations you've faced in this job.
What part of this job do you personally find most satisfying? Most challenging? Least satisfying?
Thank you for taking your time to answer or look at the questions. Hopefully someone answers this before Sunday (7/5/2015) because I need to write a one-page summary on this before my class on Monday. Thank you for your time.
Need to interview a Computer Hardware Engineer; ASAP
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
-
HowardE
- Posts: 496
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:35 pm
- Occupation: Science Buddies content developer
- Project Question: N/A
- Project Due Date: N/A
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Need to interview a Computer Hardware Engineer; ASAP
What is your background (both academic and experience)?
I have an S.B. from MIT (their term for a Bachelor's) and have been working in electronic product development for 30+ years. Banking machines (automatic tellers), electronic toys, home computers, etc.
How did your background lead you to this position?
Making devices that somehow improve some specific task are a lot of fun to design. I prefer to design things that people interact with every day rather than computer-based things that live in the back room of some company. So big computers that run financial data and industrial robots don't interest me as much as thing you can mass produce, put in a box and sell on store shelves. I specifically sought out an educational opportunity that would help in that pursuit.
How did you become interested in this type of work, and how did you get your present job?
It's a chance to create something new and then see how people react to using it.
How long have you been working in this field?
30 years
What is the most challenging/rewarding aspect of your work/career?
There's always a tradeoff between putting a function in hardware and writing software to do that same function. Sometimes a complicated task is best done in hardware because the microprocessor in the device would have to be excessively powerful and expensive. Sometimes it's better to write a program to do something because the hardware to do the same function would be expensive. When you're designing something that will be replicated 100s of thousands of times, you look to see where you can eliminate a part or two that might only cost a few pennies. You balance that with the few days or weeks it might take to write fimware to do the same thing and make a decision that can cost or save a company a really big pot of money. You also have to make sure you never compromise safety (no one can get hurt using your device) and it has to be easy to use.
What kind of decisions do you have to make?
I usually work with small companies so I have to make decisions starting with basic product functionality and user interface all the way through the hardware design, implementaion and testing.
Describe some the toughest situations you've faced in this job.
There was one case where the company was adding a new device to their home computer. To save costs, the purchasing department bought a truckload of raw parts that had been discarded by a competitor as being too unreliable to use. I had to figure out why they failed and then design a system around them to make them work reliably. It was both fun to get it working and then to see the reaction to people when they saw what parts we had used.
What part of this job do you personally find most satisfying? Most challenging? Least satisfying?
At times in my career I was in the position that I had to invent something new just about every day. That was pretty cool. The best part though has to be that I have a lot of 'maker' experience and my relationship with Science Buddies allows me to share that with y'all. The worst might be how long things can take in the current engineering climate where money is so tight and people have to be super careful about trying something new.
I have an S.B. from MIT (their term for a Bachelor's) and have been working in electronic product development for 30+ years. Banking machines (automatic tellers), electronic toys, home computers, etc.
How did your background lead you to this position?
Making devices that somehow improve some specific task are a lot of fun to design. I prefer to design things that people interact with every day rather than computer-based things that live in the back room of some company. So big computers that run financial data and industrial robots don't interest me as much as thing you can mass produce, put in a box and sell on store shelves. I specifically sought out an educational opportunity that would help in that pursuit.
How did you become interested in this type of work, and how did you get your present job?
It's a chance to create something new and then see how people react to using it.
How long have you been working in this field?
30 years
What is the most challenging/rewarding aspect of your work/career?
There's always a tradeoff between putting a function in hardware and writing software to do that same function. Sometimes a complicated task is best done in hardware because the microprocessor in the device would have to be excessively powerful and expensive. Sometimes it's better to write a program to do something because the hardware to do the same function would be expensive. When you're designing something that will be replicated 100s of thousands of times, you look to see where you can eliminate a part or two that might only cost a few pennies. You balance that with the few days or weeks it might take to write fimware to do the same thing and make a decision that can cost or save a company a really big pot of money. You also have to make sure you never compromise safety (no one can get hurt using your device) and it has to be easy to use.
What kind of decisions do you have to make?
I usually work with small companies so I have to make decisions starting with basic product functionality and user interface all the way through the hardware design, implementaion and testing.
Describe some the toughest situations you've faced in this job.
There was one case where the company was adding a new device to their home computer. To save costs, the purchasing department bought a truckload of raw parts that had been discarded by a competitor as being too unreliable to use. I had to figure out why they failed and then design a system around them to make them work reliably. It was both fun to get it working and then to see the reaction to people when they saw what parts we had used.
What part of this job do you personally find most satisfying? Most challenging? Least satisfying?
At times in my career I was in the position that I had to invent something new just about every day. That was pretty cool. The best part though has to be that I have a lot of 'maker' experience and my relationship with Science Buddies allows me to share that with y'all. The worst might be how long things can take in the current engineering climate where money is so tight and people have to be super careful about trying something new.