One of the activities in MiCE exhibition is curriculum review by the Industry people. All the subjects being offered from the 1st year to the final year were reviewed: the arrangement or sequence, theoritical content, practical, and related issues. In a way, the faculty open itself to be criticized by other people. By listening to their feedbacks, we are able to tailor the courses for specific industry. Consequently, the subjects offered are relevent and up to date to the industry needs. As a result, those who seriously learn the subjects for the sake of knowledge can easily find jobs in the market. I can say that those who attend the courses managed by my department can easily find a job in the market.
Before I forgot, these are the link of the MiCE competition results:
http://fke.utm.my/mice/Project_Lists_Winner.htm
For me, all the participants are winners.
And this is the link for opening cermony by TNCP of UTM:
http://fke.utm.my/mice/Gam_Day1_TNCP.htm
Last year, I trained 8 final years students. Before the end of the final exams, 6 out of 8 already get official job offer. While most of the students who were involved in my trainings (including supervised by other lecturers) in the lab already get their respective job. My department handle three courses:
1. Electrical engineering (Electronic), SEL
2. Electrical engineering (Computer ), SEC
3. Electrical engineering (Microelectronic ), SEW <--- specifically tailored for semiconductor IC design industry
Some people get confuse why Computer engineering is managed by Electrical Engineering Faculty? Why does not the Computer Science Faculty managed them? Well, actually they did. And they had done a horrible job. This does not mean the computer science faculty is bad. There are two main aspect which the faculty failed to perform:
1. They are not engineers. So, they train the potential computer engineers as programmers instead of as engineers.
2. They failed to follow the industry direction and demand or needs. This is one of the reason why the MiCE Exhibition is very useful.
Well, I don't mean computer engineers do not do any programming. In fact, we do a lot of programming in MiCE department. Some of the programming are very complicated either for system programming such as Gate Allocation System, web design application such as Putrajaya VMS GUI, or technology development or implementation such as writing a compression engine on C++. Instead, we see programming as an additional tool for system perfection, improvement or integration. As engineers, we must be able to know both the hardware and software. By knowing only the hardware is good such as knowing to design an Integrated Circuit. But, by knowing to write programs, we are able to test the design using software, provide train data or simulated data, comparision, and much more. Hence, one can become a better designer by knowing more than just to design a hardware. In fact, in many design applications today would require engineers to know both the hardware and the software (also known as firmware).
I got a funny critic from Freescale Semiconductor. They need a lot of programmers. Well, I said there many unemployed programers in Malaysia. Unfortunately, they cannot hire these people! They want the programmer to know both the software and also the hardware. Why? In order to write a test program, the programmer must understand the problem. In case if any of you do not know, Freescale produce a lot of IC design such as Motorola microprocessor families. Programmers must understand system architecture; not board level but logic level!! You will also be surprised that a lot of test engineers in Intel must also know programming.
Yesterday, 10 April 2007, I watched news at 8pm. I was stumbled with a news from Ministry of Education statement where starting this year, all universities in Malaysia must get feedback from the industry. This is to ensure that the courses offered are relevent to the industry. Hell...lo, does this mean that all this while most universities in Malaysia are "syok sendiri"?! Well of course, they may be.... except my faculty.
Adios.
p/s: congratulation to all faculties and universities which manage to stay in touch with the realities.
No comments:
Post a Comment