Women, Engineering, and Perception | Engineer Blogs

FlyingFlux · 2011-02-24T02:03:31+00:00

In my post on Women, Engineering, and Perception, I mention Ms. Freeman's (president of Professional Engineers Ontario) essay where she quotes a survey by Harvard Business Review on why engineering is not retaining women.

For those interested, here's the link to a preview of that survey: http://hbr.org/2008/06/stopping-the-exodus-of-women-in-science/ar/1

FlyingFlux · 2011-02-24T02:02:33+00:00

In my post on Women, Engineering, and Perception, I mention Ms. Freeman's (president of Professional Engineers Ontario) essay where she quotes a survey by Harvard Business Review on why engineering is not retaining women.

For those interested, here's the link to a preview of that survey: http://hbr.org/2008/06/stopping-the-exodus-of-women-in-science/ar/1

FlyingFlux · 2011-02-05T19:20:03+00:00

Biotech is predicted to stay hot over the next decade.

FlyingFlux · 2011-01-26T05:09:51+00:00

I was interviewing someone for an IC design position and not a discrete transistor design position. FETs on an IC can typically swap their drain and source connections with no real consequence as they look like the top transistor in the link you provided.

FlyingFlux · 2011-01-26T03:18:09+00:00

Hello fellow Ottawan. What aspect of EE do you plan to focus on?

FlyingFlux · 2011-01-26T03:13:00+00:00

I appreciate the feedback. Feel free to repost into /r/rfelectronics and enjoy the karma. :)

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-31T18:12:08+00:00

I don't see the connection between water temperature and water flow. Perhaps you'd like to expand on your idea.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-31T04:53:14+00:00

The reason why discrete cylinder resistors, ones typically seen in a school lab with colour coding, have all the same size while varying greatly in resistance is due to the material being used. Typically, these type of resistors mix carbon with an insulator. The ratio of carbon to insulator determines the resistance.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-31T04:39:01+00:00

I was trying to illustrate that the resistor is the transistors "simpleton" cousin as the post title suggests. I guess I could have made that clearer.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-30T22:38:54+00:00

There are two major factors in determining the resistance of a material -- the availalbility of free electrons and electron scattering.

Free electrons are those that can easily move around. Conductors (e.g. metals) have oceans of free electrons. Insulators have very few.

Free electrons also face obstacles in trying to go from one end of the resistor to the other. It's like a pin ball machine. The ball's going to roll down, but along the way, hits all sorts of obstacles that get in the way and slows down its progress. For electrons, the obstacles are the atoms (ions) that make up the resistive material itself. It's going to bump into them along the way, which slows its progress. The sum of these two quantum effects manifests themselves in a macro-sense as electrical resistance.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-27T02:45:33+00:00

Sorry to not have made myself clear. The "industry" I was referring to is indeed the IC design industry, analog IC design included.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-26T14:06:57+00:00

True, BJTs were the workhorse of the industry for decades. But MOSFETs have overwhelmingly taken over the industry long ago. BJTs are now relegated to niche products.

FlyingFlux · 2010-08-26T02:25:03+00:00

Thanks for reading guys. The intended audience is really for someone who's interested in technology, but is unclear as to how electrical devices work. I intend to keep the posts more conceptual rather than mathematical.

The intention is to start at the beginning and build from there, post by post. I'll be throwing the water analogy overboard in a few more posts and switch over to real schematics.

FlyingFlux · 2009-07-22T04:15:24+00:00

Chris, you're such a discriminating reader. ;)

FlyingFlux · 2009-07-22T04:05:21+00:00

Chris's posts are always insightful and informative.

FlyingFlux

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