Innovation and Practicality

There are only two types of electrical engineers:

US:

We started learning electronics in grade school. Parts were bought from the local Radio Shack. But many evenings were spent taking apart old radios, televisions and anything else electrical. It got to the point people would leave us their scrap rather than toss it. We built our own circuits by learning how to solder and making our own circuit boards. That's when we found out the hard way that putting the part in wrong could be pricey. Quite often the part that died was worth a week of chores! So we learned to take very good care of our stuff. Then we learned how to program computers. Lunch with our group was never boring.

We read everything available at the library on electronics and learned some neat history about vacuum tubes, slide rules, relay control systems. A lot of these things are thought of as quaint or obsolete but we find everything old is new again. We also bought all the electronics magazines that we could find at the local drugstore.

We asked engineers, technologists, electricians, computer programmers and ham radio operators for help and to round out our learning. Their advice came freely.

We learned the Morse code and got our ham radio tickets while in high school, college or university.

We also found the time to help out at home, in our town, and at school. We knew what we wanted to be and were happy when we made it into electrical engineering. There we also learned how to teach our craft to others. Our know how put us in a league of our own and we became known as the "Go To" group. People would seek us out to help with their school labs, house wiring, work applications, and vehicle electronics.

After university, we kept learning by doing. So we pulled cable in the field, used tools, and fixed electrical gear. Sometimes we were mistaken for an electrician or a technician. This is the best praise an electrical engineer can ever earn!

So now we know how to solve your problem by coming up with an answer that works the first time with few, if any, changes.

Times have changed. The Internet has almost replaced the library. Electronic scrounging has been replaced with Digi-Key. Circuit boards can be built error-free on your PC. Computer programs have replaced a lot of hand calculations. And there is more software instead of hardware fixes. But that same drive and passion exists no matter what tools we use to solve your issue.

And we still keep learning new things.

THEM:

Then there is everyone else.