Robert Greene told me that understanding mathematics is lost on his students today because computers will do the calculations for you and thus no one derives anything anymore. Maybe same with semiconductors -- dont need to understand the physics of devices... with sim software and all.
But even in pcb layout with high speed digital... you need to know some things from analog.... like the higher harmonics travel on the outer edge of the trace and affect impedances for waveform fidelity etal. yet, even that has been characrterized in software.
Its a Plug-n-Play world (?)
Just like general relativity, statistical mechanics seems to attract mathematicians who suffer from 'physics-envy'. They write papers which only their immediate peers can understand. I remember attending a postgrad course (in my physics department) which claimed to be about statistical mechanics but seemed to be mainly about the properties of fibre bundles.
Regarding plug'n'play, an EE prof once told me that most of his postgrad students, when 'designing' a microwave antenna with an EM simulator, do not know what to do to the design in order to change some property so randomly change things until the plot looks about right. He had noticed that I, originally educated nearly 40 years ago and also a radio amateur, knew roughly what to do to alter resonance frequency or feed impedance.
Regarding plug'n'play, an EE prof once told me that most of his postgrad students, when 'designing' a microwave antenna with an EM simulator, do not know what to do to the design in order to change some property so randomly change things until the plot looks about right. He had noticed that I, originally educated nearly 40 years ago and also a radio amateur, knew roughly what to do to alter resonance frequency or feed impedance.
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SMART: OK, Chief, there's just one part I didn't understand.
CHIEF: What was that, Max?
SMART: The part after, "Now, Max, listen carefully."
Richard, we discrete designers do NOT need to know all the physics of semiconductors. We just use what is already made. There are general rules about semiconductor behavior, and that is really all we need. We can HIRE consultants to give us the theory, IF we need it, but it more or less just gets in the way.
John, you certainly say some funny things. Seriously, I just found this funny no criticism implied.
Kind of amazing - no scarce transistors used in this AFAIK. BC182 is listed as end of life though on Mouser.
My soldering iron is trembling with anticipation
I have to finish hot-rodding a Fender Vibro-King first. THANKS FOR THE TIP!
Like we had a course called "Theoretical foundations of electronics design". I could not understand what was there about design, because actually if was Theory of Graphs.
The course was mondatory, it looked more like that math professor had good connections in education high ranks to get his position.
Well, but we discrete designers benefit from understanding what goes on under the hood. At least, knowing the difference between Kirk effect and Kink on a tetrode graph is a good thing.
An academic I know told me that the rot set in when they inflicted MBA's upon them, and they decided that the worth of an academic was the number of words they published per annum.
What then happened was that people started to adopt what he called the ."salami" method of publishing.
In this you slice what you would have normally published in a year into suitable pieces, you then put each piece on a large bun, and surround it with all manner of salads and dressings etc.
This impresses the MBA no end and they utter all sorts of things to do with reaching bench marks and win win scenarios, go away chanting their mantra and leave you alone.
The trouble is that now everybody spends a lot of time digging through and discarding all the padding to get to the salami, and of course you can't let the MBA's know what you are doing so it must be very plausible seeming obscure stuff and impossible to decipher unless you know the field intimately, apparently some of it is quite hilarious.
rcw
What then happened was that people started to adopt what he called the ."salami" method of publishing.
In this you slice what you would have normally published in a year into suitable pieces, you then put each piece on a large bun, and surround it with all manner of salads and dressings etc.
This impresses the MBA no end and they utter all sorts of things to do with reaching bench marks and win win scenarios, go away chanting their mantra and leave you alone.
The trouble is that now everybody spends a lot of time digging through and discarding all the padding to get to the salami, and of course you can't let the MBA's know what you are doing so it must be very plausible seeming obscure stuff and impossible to decipher unless you know the field intimately, apparently some of it is quite hilarious.
rcw
A few years ago I was looking for potential employers in the university sector. I noticed that the head of department in one institution seemed to publish at lots of conferences, but rarely in proper journals (where rejection rates are typically much higher than conferences). I looked at a few of his papers and found that each one contained about 80% of the previous one. I concluded that his actual publishing rate was about 20% of his apparent rate, and the quality was not great. I decided that this was not the sort of boss I wanted to serve.
It was in USSR where everything including academic education was "Scientifically Planned".
Of course, "Humanitarian Science" commanded what Physics, Math, and so on must work on. Quite crazy...
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