Electronic Design Magazine: DIY Electronics Kits Turn Hobbyists Into Engineers

[Phil]

Dear André

There you go again, living in the past. Didn't you know that nowadays, it's everybody's right to be want they want to be, just by wanting it ? Wanna be an engineer? Build a kit, call yourself an engineer! Who needs qualifications, especially those difficult ones that need maths? Wanna be an astronaut? Everyone can! - except that, if you understand probability, you'll see that the odds are against you about twenty million to one. Never mind, just win the lottery instead - you're bound to, one day!

[I hope you can read between my lines of sarcasm. I'm with you 100%. Maybe even 110%.]

Phil M1GWZ



On 2 Mar 2012, at 01:14, Andre Kesteloot wrote:

> Phil,
> 
> What motivated my posting was the rather simplistic tone of the tile of the article.  
> Kit building may attract youngsters in the right direction, but does not an engineer make . 
> 
> One may or may not learn to think like an engineer by attending college. 
> And I also know of many "engineers" who got their diplomas by writing code and / or using simulation software, and could not draw a circuit diagram.  
> I used to interview engineers who had attended college here, and had a EE  diploma. One of the questions I woud ask them was, " having access to any electric or electronic part you may want, please draw now on the white-board how you would design  a ground-fault interrupter. Just think, then show me how you would go about solving this problem". 
> 
> The majority of candidates not only did not know how  to go about designing one, but also could not come up with a  general solution.
> The next day, I would ask them again, and maybe one in ten had bothered to go visit the local hardware store, buy of of these devices and open it up.
> Although they had a diploma, I would not call these people engineers either.
> IMO, it takes much more than either kit-building or attending college to make an engineer.
> 
> 73
> André