Re:Software Is Easy, Hardware Is Of Medium Difficulty
by beambot on Monday November 11, 2013 @09:55PM
(#6715566)
I'm talking about how to get real hands-on experience during college... not with the difficulties of hardware. The grandparent mentioned how his curriculum offered poor training -- not all schools are so inept.
Incidentally... I'm a hardware engineer. I built large mobile manipulating robots during gradschool, and I routinely build electronics projects at home. I'm well aware of "hardware problems" (and software bugs that cause real physical damage).
To address your comment: learning how to do the fabrication and hardware debugging yourself is a key part of engineering physical goods. Digital fabrication is nice, but it's not the end-all be-all. For robot fabrication, you can't beat cardboard prototyping, 3D printers, laser cutters, drill press, and table saws. For circuit boards, I routinely use a hot-air rework, exacto knifes (to cut traces), and header breakouts for debugging. Nothing ever works the first time. That's why you learn how to design in a way that facilitates debugging. (All of this is so much more approachable with neighborhood hackerspaces / TechShops.)
EDIT: I have no idea how students of "big" engineering go about getting hands-on experience. Building a bridge is a bit different from robotics and electronics. I presume it has many sub-specialties. I suppose this makes coops and internships even more important.
Incidentally... I'm a hardware engineer. I built large mobile manipulating robots during gradschool, and I routinely build electronics projects at home. I'm well aware of "hardware problems" (and software bugs that cause real physical damage).
To address your comment: learning how to do the fabrication and hardware debugging yourself is a key part of engineering physical goods. Digital fabrication is nice, but it's not the end-all be-all. For robot fabrication, you can't beat cardboard prototyping, 3D printers, laser cutters, drill press, and table saws. For circuit boards, I routinely use a hot-air rework, exacto knifes (to cut traces), and header breakouts for debugging. Nothing ever works the first time. That's why you learn how to design in a way that facilitates debugging. (All of this is so much more approachable with neighborhood hackerspaces / TechShops.)
EDIT: I have no idea how students of "big" engineering go about getting hands-on experience. Building a bridge is a bit different from robotics and electronics. I presume it has many sub-specialties. I suppose this makes coops and internships even more important.