CYBERJAYA, 23 March 2022
Printed circuit boards (PCB) are a central element of nearly all electronics, connecting and supporting all electrical components. In a desktop computer, the motherboard is the largest circuit board that all other boards and devices connect to and communicate with each other. Since circuit boards are in virtually everything, whether a student pursues industrial work, computer design, robotics or anything in between, learning circuit board design can provide students with a variety of essential engineering skills and knowledge.
Realising that designing a PCB provides a variety of practical lessons that students will need to learn before they tackle more complicated fields of study, a Printed Circuit Board Training Workshop was organised by UNIMY-MyRAS Robotics & Automation Centre of Excellence (UNIMYRACE) in collaboration with IEEE Robotics & Automations Society (IEEERAS). The programme provided participants with hands-on opportunity to deep dive into the world of circuit boards and try their hands at designing one.
Knowledge in designing circuit boards provide participants with the ability to grasp the importance of the details, with the aim to make them more at ease at solving larger problems. Circuit board design also teaches participants to pay attention to the overlooked parts of their work. From understanding how different components work together to the importance of proper planning, circuit board design can teach valuable engineering skills. The compact yet simultaneously complex nature of PCBs teaches future engineers to think small to solve complex issues.
Just as PCB design involves skills that students will use later on; it requires common engineering tools as well. Engineers use a variety of equipment that students will need to be familiar with as they advance through their studies. Circuit board design can provide a space for students to learn how to use these tools.
With the competition to produce the latest computer hardware technology that is the most complex, fast, and influential of all others on the market, computer engineers must be on top of things to evaluate, design, and maintain computer hardware and software systems. Computer engineering includes work in both hardware and software. Those working in hardware, research, design, develop, and test computer systems and components such as processors, circuit boards, memory devices, networks, and routers.
In addition to developing, testing, and designing, computer processors, circuit boards, and network systems, computer engineers also resolve problems or address any concerns that occur with the hardware or software and aid in the advancement of computer technology. Thus, computer engineering programs usually include math, science, and computer science coursework. Seeing that computer engineering consists of both hardware and software, therefore depending on what specialty you choose coursework can also include software, circuit boards, computer programming, or hardware.
UNIMY’s Bachelor of Computer Engineering with Honours programme offers students the opportunity to prepare for careers in developing new technology for people to use daily by integrating knowledge from both computer science and electronics engineering. Students will acquire an in-depth understanding of diverse subject areas such as electrical theory, digital circuits, computer architecture and organisation, engineering mathematics, microprocessor-based systems design, embedded systems, programming techniques, data structures, algorithms, operating systems, software engineering, computer networks and parallel computing.
If pursuing a computer engineering career is what you are looking at, then schedule an appointment with our UNIMY team to learn more about UNIMY’s Foundation in Computing and Engineering as well as our computer engineering degree programme or read more about the programmes’ curricula here.
Check out the video on the Printed Circuit Board training program here.
References:
- https://www.computerscience.org/resources/3d-printing/
- https://www.robotlab.com/blog/how-learning-circuit-board-design-can-impact-future-engineers
- https://www.yourfreecareertest.com/computer-engineer/