Dear Dennis...
EN-Genius Network's Dennis Feucht answers your design
queries in his new Circuit Design Clinic!
January, 2008
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EN-Genius Network presents a new, interactive
analog design service to readers! Send us your design questions (with
relevant data; schematics in JPEG or GIF, please) for some free
engineering advice from EN-Genius Network's circuit
consultant, Dennis Feucht, on how you might solve a design problem or
improve circuit performance. Submissions may be edited for clarity or
brevity, and submitters and their email addresses will remain anonymous
(unless otherwise indicated). Please send your questions to Dennis here.
Design Techniques For New Engineers
by Dennis L Feucht
One of the general goals of engineering is to make the overall performance of a system better than its components. This at first might seem like an unachievable goal but it is possible by applying various design principles that are rarely highlighted in college engineering textbooks. The emphasis of academic engineering education is on analysis rather than design because an engineer needs that skill first. Creativity is harder to teach formally. It is best conveyed to others by tradition, whereby the apprentice acquires skills by emulating the master in his presence.
What we know is more than we can express in textbooks or articles. Most of us know how to ride a bicycle, yet to describe how we do it to others so that they can then do it is impractical. Good engineering also has an informal aspect conveyed by tradition. This kind of inarticulate knowledge is best conveyed by working in a creative engineering environment.
...download complete article here (125 KB PDF)
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