Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The Shaughnessy Report: Resistance is Futile. Or Is It?

Resistance is Futile. Or Is It?

Admit it. You thought that there was a chance that IPC APEX EXPO would be cancelled at the last minute, or held virtually, didn’t you? A lot of people did. After all, we're still not out of the pandemic and California has been hit harder than most states by COVID. And California has been known to change their COVID regulations faster than Stevie Nicks changes outfits on stage. I figured the state might pull some kind of shenanigans at the last minute:

Each trade show attendee must be accompanied by a registered nurse supplied by the state of California at a cost of $10,000 per attendee. Now, have a great show! –Governor Gavin Newsom

But I was wrong, and so were the other Negative Nellies in the industry. The show went better than anyone expected. The technical conference and Professional Development classes and committee meetings were full of attendees. Even on the final day of the expo, there was still decent traffic in the aisles. International attendance was down overall, but Technical Editor Pete Starkey, Ventec’s Alun Morgan, and Elmatica’s Jan Pedersen and Didrik Bech were able to make it from Europe to San Diego with no problem.

Best of all, we were all able to get together in person, and the whole show had the vibe of a homecoming. For many in this industry, IPC APEX EXPO 2020 was our last live trade show before the pandemic, and we hadn’t seen each other in two years.

It was especially heartening for us middle-aged folks to see so many young people at the show. I saw a lot of attendees who were in their 20s and 30s. And the IPC’s STEM students from a local high school were all over the show floor, asking about the technology and talking to technology icons.

IPC did quite a bit to highlight PCB designers at the show. The PCB design competition got started months ago, with seven designers competing in different heats, and the three finalists battled it out at IPC APEX EXPO, albeit over Zoom from their homes in the US, the UK, and Poland. The three finalists had just a few hours to design a board using Altium Designer, which none of them were familiar with, but they all managed to get up to speed quickly and do well enough to complete the design.

Let’s hear it for first-place winner Rafal Przestawski, as well as runners-up Nick Wallis and Elliot Wakefield. Elliot isn’t even a designer—he's a tinkerer and a maker who has designed his own remote-controlled lawnmower, but he’d never designed a board before. These young people will surprise you every time.

Speaking of surprises, it seems like there’s never a dull moment in the design segment. There’s a lot of change going on in PCB design—some positive, some negative. In this issue of Design007 Magazine we focus on some of the changes coming in PCB design, and how to react when you’re thrust into a new, confusing situation, such as moving to a new company, switching to a new EDA tool, or dealing with new, cutting-edge technology.

In the February 2022 issue of Design007 Magazine, our contributors discuss some of the changes they see happening in the industry, especially those changes that seem to be happening to them, not with them. As Stephen Chavez says in his article, when you’re undergoing an unwelcome change in your department or company, it’s easy to imagine the voice of the Star Trek entity the Borg saying, “Resistance is futile.” Do you resist or become assimilated and join the hive mind?

Download your copy of 'Change: Resistance is Futile."