I want to learn PCB design, and I am planning to build a custom FPGA board as part of my graduation project

My problem is that, as a computer engineer, my department didn't give that many electronics courses, and each time I try to do something in KiCad, i git lost until I find someone on the internet who has built something similar

Will this book actually solve my problem? It's 1200 pages and will need a lot of effort

Most people say it's not a cover-to-cover read, but I find it useful to read some chapters fully

I am not asking for help with an assignment I just need this explained to me.

Ive been trying to understand how Thevenin's theorem works, I Know how to solve the problems but I want to know "why" we are doing what were doing.

My understanding so far is that the theorem basically states that we can take a complicated linear circuit and turn it into a simple circuit with a voltage source in series with a resistor, as long as the behavior at the terminals is the same. The way I've been trying to understand it so far is that in the Thevenin circuit if we apply KVL we get the voltage at terminals a and b to be Vab = Vth - IRth.

Then our goal is to find Vth and Rth to mimic the same voltage current relationship as the original circuit. Finding Vth is simple as in if we remove the external load our equation becomes Vab = Vth, therefore to find Vth from our original circuit we remove our load and calculate the voltage at the resulting terminals.

What I do not get is why the process of finding Rth is the way it is. (I think) Rth represents the equivalent resistance that the original circuit experiences at the terminals but why do we have to turn voltage sources into short circuits and current sources into open circuits? Furthermore when we have a dependent source why do we have to keep them if we are only worried about resistance?

this was my last resort thankyou to anyone who responds.

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to pursue a Master's in the USA and am looking for universities with a strong focus on Digital VLSI, RTL Design, ASIC Design Verification, and Computer Architecture.

A little about my background:

• Bachelor's in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) from India
• CGPA: 7.93/10
• Interested in RTL design, SystemVerilog, UVM, Computer Architecture, and digital IC design

I'm specifically interested in the digital side of VLSI rather than analog or RF design. My goal is to build a career in the semiconductor industry, preferably in RTL Design or Design Verification roles.

Hi, I am a systems engineering junior and I just got an interview request at Arm. I made it past the hirevue process but couldn't find anything about the role online. I don't have a lot of ECE experience so I wanted to know if anyone else has interviewed for this role/is also giving this round. Thanks!

I'm a third-year Electrical Engineering student, and I just got offered a co-op position from an MEP consulting services company. I truly want to try out what different industries are like because I interned as a design engineer at an aerospace company last summer, and I learnt a lot about analog design and stuff. However, I kinda want to get the full experience of what it feels like when working in different industries before I graduate so I don't regret when just going all in for just one specific industry. That being said, my boss from the company I interned at last summer also offered me a spring part-time job (circuit design intern at an aerospace company). What would your advice be to me if I am just dumb for burning the bridge with the previous employer, or is it ok to try out different industries?

Hi, I'm a freshman EE undergrad student. I've never had any work experience at all, I have no experience and know nothing about engineering. The only tech related skills I have is programming with a few languages like Python. I don't know what the best way is to gain experience in engineering. I am just applying for retail jobs, nothing to do with my major. Should I start working on projects, or do I learn with a job or unpaid internship or something similar? I know I should probably just start doing something to create a portfolio, but I'm pretty confused. I don't even know if I enjoy engineering because I've never tried.

Hey everyone, I just started my freshman year of college, so forgive me if this sounds a bit too ambitious. I recently landed a Software Engineering (Application Development) internship in government. It’s an incredible opportunity, especially as a freshman, and I definitely want to take it.

However, I'm afraid this might 'lock' me into a purely software career path. I'm majoring in Electrical Engineering and want to explore hardware as well, not just software. Right now, looking at my resume, most of my high school and college coursework and my extracurriculars are software and CS-focused, which is likely how I landed this internship.

I feel a bit lost on what to do next. I’m taking my first hardware related class next semester (Digital Logic) and want to eventually become a hardware engineer. I feel like I need to start right now, pick a single path, and stick with it, but I'm not sure how to balance everything.

Hellos guys. I have started learning calculus to try and apply for an ece degree. The syllabus is roughly translated from my native language. If I aim for 4-5 hours of studying + revision every day how long do you think it should take me to cover all this on a competent level.
My book of choice is “Calculus: A Complete Course”. Is it a good one or are other better ones out there.
I learnt linear algebra and calculus in my uni but it was very basic stuff and nowhere near on the ece level of depth. So don’t assume I am a complete beginner but not an expert either.

She was in mechanical and changed universities and majors and went into control and automation.

It’s a better university and I know it’s a good department that’s not too over saturated like other programs.

recently she started her second year and she got to a few classes that freaked her out a bit bc the professor isn’t really great at getting the message across and it’s making her feel behind and panic and now she’s having trouble going to class or even studying. One of the classes is signals.

I told her it’s not an easy department and it just needs adjustment and she herself said lots of other students and even some professors have mentioned that lots of students go through this panicked state bc the classes aren’t easy.

She doesn’t know if she should stick with it or change majors or what. She tends to jump the gun and I’m telling her to slow down and gather info, make a list of options and think it through.

I asked her if the classes were easy would she be panicking and she said no. So I feel like it’s pretty simple and she’s just too in her own head about it.

What are the ways she can test herself to see if she should continue with this program or consider something else?

I told her she just needs to find a different motivation to continue and readjust her classes for the year for some breathing room so it isn’t so packed. She’s worried that if she takes a break she’ll drop out and never pick it up again which is ridiculous bc she doesn’t have to jump to that conclusion at all but for some reason she has herself convinced it’s a final decision she could come to.

Any advice? Preferably form other control and automation engineers.

Hi everyone! I have an interview coming up soon and would really appreciate some advice and guidance on how to prepare. If anyone has recently gone through a similar experience, I’d love to hear about your preparation strategy, important things to focus on, and any tips that helped you perform well.

Any suggestions or resources would be really helpful. Thanks in advance for your support!

Hi everyone,

I am simulating a power supply circuit using the LTC4417 power-path controller and LTC3111 buck-boost converter in LTspice. The output voltages appear to be correct, but I am observing a large negative input current spike when the power source switches.

Circuit details

• Power source V2: 7.4 V
• LTC4417 output (V(4417_o/p)): Approximately 7.4 V
• LTC3111 output (V(3111_o/p)): Approximately 5 V
• Output load: 1 A constant-current load
• Simulation command: .tran 10m

What I observe

When the power-path switches around 3.646 ms, the simulated input current through V2, measured as I(V2), briefly drops to approximately −10.63 A. After the transient, the current settles to a much lower value, depending on the operating conditions.

The current spike occurs over a very short interval, while the output voltage eventually settles to the expected value.

My questions

1. What could cause this large negative current spike in LTspice?
2. Are there any recommended LTspice settings or modelling techniques for accurately simulating the LTC4417 and LTC3111?

The output voltages look correct after the transition, but I want to understand the cause of the current spike before proceeding with hardware testing.

I have attached the schematic and simulation waveforms for reference. Any suggestions or explanations would be appreciated.

Thanks!

So I'm a freshman electrical engineering student, going the AA transfer pathway through community college. I'm not one of those people who knew their whole life that I wanted to be an engineer, and my transcript reflects that - I'm on track to finish the degree in four years, but I have to hustle.

I know usually freshman don't get the opportunity to get an internship because they're usually not far enough into their coursework to actually be helpful. A lot of people here are recommending to get in the door through being electrician techs or a lot of personal projects, but I live in Florida and i'm not seeing any options like that here for people with no experience. There are pretty much no college fairs at my community college either.

Even for a lot of the internships I've looked at that accept sophomores, they require knowledge that I won't yet have in a year from now either unless I get it from outside the classroom. I guess my question is how do people get started with getting practical hands-on experience? How do people learn programming and circuit boards on their own? I started a project but I'm heavily relying on the Internet and AI for help with coding and not really getting the confidence to do it on my own

I have upcoming Superday for this position. Anyone got advice on what to study or has experience with this proc?

Hello everyone I'm in my 3rd semester of Computer Engineering and honestly I'm struggling with understanding the electric circuit 2 course... We just finished the chapter about sinusoidal steady state analysis but I feel like I'm so over the place no idea how to study...

Other thing that affects it is last semester when I had my circuit 1 course which is the fundamentals I went through a rough few months I barely passed my courses which caused me to have shaky fundamentals. How should I go from here?

I'm probably overthinking it I should study bit by bit 😅 I hope your responses would be of help thank you in advance.

Background: German 3rd-year CE student studying in Germany. I work at my university in PLC Programming and web dev.

My university offers 8 students the opportunity to intern in NYC every summer (April/ May till July/ August) through a program that sponsors their J-1 visas and helps them out with an allowance (not nearly as much, but it covers about half of an NYC shoebox apartment). The only downside is that these lucky 8 students need to find an internship placement on their own.

Last week I found out I was one of those lucky 8 students. But right now I'm navigating a new system with the internship applications and so on. I fully understand that NYC is a highly competitive place, even more for international interns, and I don't expect things to be handed to me easily, but I'm not sure what more I can do except apply on LinkedIn.

I can't network my way into this because I'm an ocean away, and while the program supports us with things like visas, finding an internship placement is left to us. So are there any Germans here who have had any experience in a situation like this and can at least help?

Hello everyone! I’m a 16-year-old sophomore in high school, and I’ve recently started thinking about pursuing electrical engineering in college.
The problem is that I honestly know very little about electrical engineering or what electrical engineers actually do. The only experience I have with engineering is taking an Intro to Robotics class in middle school, so I’m basically a complete beginner.
I want to start learning more about the field, but I don’t really know where to begin. Should I start by watching YouTube videos, learning basic electronics, or buying some kind of electronics kit to learn hands-on? If there are any beginner kits you recommend, I’d love to hear about them.
I’m also wondering what skills I should start learning on my own, what classes I should take in high school, and whether there are any extracurricular activities, clubs, or projects that would help me prepare for college.
For those of you who are electrical engineers or currently studying electrical engineering, what would you recommend to someone like me who is starting with almost no knowledge? If you could go back to when you were a sophomore in high school, what would you do to prepare?
Any advice, resources, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Title ^ saw they sent out an email a week ago but wondering if anyone heard back at all.

Basicaly, if it wasn't for my interests in hardware/physical systems I would be a math+cs major. I am really interested in advanced maths, machine learning, world models etc. However I am basically equally interested in hardware. So im unsure what major I should choose and what kind of field I should be looking into, are there fields where both sides are incorporated or do i need to choose one side.

I'm currently studying this course and I don't feel like I really understand anything, even after studying some books I still feel that way. Do you know how I can get through this course, whether a specific website, book, or any other resources? I'd be grateful for any advice.

About to graduate with my MSEE this December and received an offer with one of the big defense contractors, set to start sometime around late February. I was told I will be working on radars on a board level.

I had several internships with smaller semiconductor manufacturing equipment vendors throughout university so I was hoping I could get a return offer from one of them but they told me they didn’t have the budget to keep me on.

The offer I got from the defense contractor is pretty good and I would have never imagined I would earn that type of salary, but my concern is in the event where I want to return to the semiconductor industry, will starting out in defense pigeonhole me into defense for the rest of my career?

Thanks!

Hi,
Iam a UG student studying in India in the domain of Electrical.
Something abt me:
I like physics . It’s not that I love it and could do it all day long but just that physics is more logically than math (math being more abstract).
And I used to like solving mechanics questions a bit .
But the thing I understood is interest/passion is overrated and that u will only like the things u are getting consistently good at .

So coming to my actual question :
I am confused abt which career to choose .obv it has to circuital (bc any other is risky) .

So what I think is if I get the hang of something I’ll could do it consistently .

So the options are narrowed down to sde roles or hardware roles

For sde role I could look at dsa to get started

But for hardware roles iam confused .
I want something which I could do to chk if hardware is something for I could do or not .

I also tried taking up projects but I don’t see it working out so I just wanted something basic to see if this works out

I have already done some electronics course in my clg which I feel i have done well

Hi, I'm in high school and I'm studying mechanics and electronics (not sure how it's called around the world, I translated my school address) and we're studying circuits, but so far I just managed to get the lower score on the only two tests that I had.

The tests were about simplifying circuits, and I just can't do "hard" circuits, so I was wondering if anyone had tips, channels, or sites where I could find some help.

Thanks you very much

The "R" are resistors while the "G" are generators.

Of course I am the guy on the right. I wouldn't be posting this if I wasn't.