The results are in for the 2020 “Mind of the Engineer” survey, conducted by sister publications EE Times and EDN every two years. Nearly 1,500 engineers — across a wide range of engineering disciplines, markets, and regions — participated in this survey. The survey reveals new information about job satisfaction, the profession, and new technologies that you’ve adopted.
Not surprisingly, when asked which new technologies you’ve already adopted and are interested in adopting over the next two years, sensors led by a big margin. Analog/linear and digital signal processing followed in the category of already adopted, and artificial intelligence took the lead for the technology most interested in adopting over the next two years.
Other big areas of adoption include design tools, internet of things, and power management. See chart below.
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In addition, between one-fifth and one-quarter of all electrical engineers are looking for more information about emerging and “hot” technologies and new products. The survey also finds that newer engineers are much more likely to want more information across the board, particularly for industry news and “hot” technologies.
How do you spend your time? In the Americas, the majority of engineers (43%) spend their time creating new products, while 28% focus on improving an existing product. Similarly, your counterparts in EMEA (47%) and China (42%) spend most of their time designing new products.
Interestingly, designers in China (15%) and the rest of Asia (12%) spend a significant amount of time reverse-engineering a competitor’s products. This is in comparison with 5% of engineers in the Americas and 6% in EMEA.
But are you outsourcing your design activities? Yes. The survey finds that 18% of all design activity is outsourced. The most common reason for doing so is when local engineering resources become constrained or limited (69%), followed by when there are new complex projects (37%) and quick-turn projects (35%).
Most engineers seek help from design houses or engineering consultancies, and the leading drivers for outsourcing include software development, test certification, and the need for specialized engineering skill sets.
On the component front, product and service selection varies across the different stages of a typical design project. For example, engineers are more likely to select microprocessors/microcontrollers and IP cores at the conceptional stage, while holding off on selecting analog components as well as interconnect, passive, and electromechanical devices until the detailed design stage.
Want to know more?
The “Mind of the Engineer” survey results
Now streaming on demand.
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