Developing Student's Innovation Skills for Globalized Electronic Industry

One of the very dynamic and demanding industries is, with no question, the electronic industry. It is also one of industries strongly shaped by globalization and therefore requires that it's engineers to carry multi-faceted training. To be hired and capable to keep the job the today and future engineer must demonstrate innovative skills or, in more general terms, to be resourceful. This 10 years long study presents the results of training of two groups of electrical engineering students selected each academic year to develop design projects. The requirement of each two semester long project is to develop novel circuitry (amplifiers, switches, etc.) or novel component (transistor, photodetector, etc.). Both groups were provided with commercial design packages. The difference however is that students of one group were supported by internships and worked at the sites of electronic companies and the other group was supported by university research assistantships. Every year based on scholastic achievements 10-15 students were selected for the project oriented course. Students were given the freedom to select a project topic. In current presentation we discuss the development of specific skills which undergraduate and graduate students of UMass do acquire in development of RF technology working closely with engineering teams of companies such as MACOM Technology Solutions, RF Microdevices, Raytheon and others.