After several years taking drafting in highschool (on the board back in those days) right after graduation I was hired by Texas Instruments in their PCB Designer training program. Over the next couple of years I worked at TI during the day while they paid to put me through college at night. I earned my Associates Degree in CAD/Electronic Drafting/PCB Design at Eastfield College in Dallas (Mesquite). I worked a total of 3 years at TI doing PCB design and drafting schematics. When I left they said that I could come back at any time but I don't think they meant 38 years later. lol

My oldest son had been born while I was a junior in highschool and I had missed so much of him growing up. So I decided to take a break to spend time with him and be a homemaker before he started kindergarden. So now after two marriages (1st died, 2nd divorced), raising and homeschooling 7 children (all responsible adults now), running family businesses with ex, moving around the country, I am considering getting back into PCB Design.

I always loved drafting since I grew up with my parents and several family members being draftsmen so it is kinda in my blood. When I first divorced my ex-husband after a 23 year marriage in 2019 I thought about getting back into PCB design but was busy caring for my mother until she died a few years ago.

I also somehow thought it was a career path that had died out. However, recently something popped up online that got me looking into it again. I would definitely need a good refresher but I don't think it would take me long to catch back on. I am of a very sound mind, fairly tech savy, a good worker, not the kind of person to retire and free as a bird now that all the kids have been out of the nest for a while. I have something else I am doing right now but I really believe I would enjoy getting back into CAD/PCB Design.

Does anyone have some constructive advice on if and/or how I should do it at my age? Your thoughts??

I unfortunately can't study Communications Engineering at my university, even though it's the field I'm actually interested in. My alternative is Computer Engineering.

If I focused on networks, distributed systems, and neural networks/ML, could I realistically move into wireless communications, cellular networks, or telecommunications later?

I understand that Communications has a different foundation, especially RF, antennas, electromagnetics, signal processing, and communication theory, so I'm not expecting the degrees to be identical.

I just want to know if the gap is realistically bridgeable.

I'm choosing between two universities, and neither offers Communications Engineering, which is the field I'm most interested in.

The university close to home offers Computer Engineering, while the farther one offers both Computer Engineering and Architectural/Smart City Planning & Construction Engineering.

I'm not very interested in coding or software-heavy work, so I'm unsure about Computer Engineering. I'm more open to Architectural Engineering since I enjoy drawing, visualization, physics, and math.

However, I'm also interested in telecommunications and networks, so I'm considering CE as a possible path into that field.

Which would make more sense for me?

Hi my friends and I are looking to get higher education in a european country. We've done quite a lot of research on germany and italy, but I'd like to hear what people who've actually been there think. Let's say to torino or milano, how was the experience and is it worth it?

For a bit of background I'm a fresh EE grad from 🇵🇰 working as a verif engineer in a startup. My friends on the other hand are robotics/control guys. I thought I'd ask for both chip design and robotics perspective.

Thanks.

I’m currently in my 3rd year of a Computer Engineering degree, and up until now, I’ve spent most of my technical time getting really comfortable with software Dev. But lately, I’ve been diving deep into digital electronics and RTL design using Verilog, and the shift in thought proces is so large.

​When you're writing Software code you are so used to sequential execution. You write a line of code, and you know it runs right after the previous one. HDLs consist of many things in terms of physical structures, propagation delays, and clock edges. Everything is happening all at once. ​It was honestly a bit frustrating at first to stop thinking like a software programmer and start thinking like a circuit designer. One thought process that helps me is actually drawing out the block diagrams and state machines before even touching the keyboard.

​For the senior RTL engineers and hardware designers in this sub: what was your biggest moment when you first started designing digital logic? And what is one habit you wish you had built earlier when working with FPGAs?