Fundamentals

As anyone who reads Alison’s blog already knows, I took the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam on Saturday. Many universities require a passing score on the exam in order for students to graduate (mainly in the mechanical, civil or industrial engineering disciplines). The only time that an electrical engineer (like me) would ever take the exam is if they ever wanted to become a principal engineer and be able to stamp and sign drawings. I estimate that less than 5% of all EEs work in this field. If I had taken virtually any other job as an electrical engineer, then I would not have needed to take it. The test was held in a big room at the Salt Palace and I was surprised by how many people were there taking the test. There had to be around 350 people. I was assigned to sit in the front row, seat #7. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t in seat #6 (my lucky number), but I tried not to let it distract me from the matter at hand.

I was pretty stressed about having to take the exam, but not stressed enough to start studying for the test really early. I purchased some study material a couple of months ago (with the best intentions) but I really didn’t start hitting the books hard until about the week before the exam. What made studying difficult was that my boss was out of town all week and all questions and e-mails on his projects were coming to me. In addition, we had a huge addendum due Friday on the Utah Museum of Natural History project. I came to work each day around 7:00 AM and left between 10:30 and 11:00 PM. I tried to start studying each evening at around 6:00 PM. It was difficult to only see Ada I bed for a few minutes each day but, I feel lucky that the test was scheduled during the Utes bye week. Another testament as to the divinity of the Utes…

The test is split into two sections. The morning section is 4 hours long and is a general test for all examinees. The morning test consists of 120 questions taken from the following topics:

• Mathematics (including calculus, differential equations, vector analysis, etc.)
• Engineering Probability and Statistics
• Chemistry
• Computers
• Ethics and Business Practices
• Engineering Economics
• Engineering Mechanics (Statics and Dynamics)
• Strength of Materials
• Material Properties
• Fluid Mechanics
• Electricity and Magnetism
• Thermodynamics

I needed the full four-hours to get through the morning questions. While I couldn’t answer all of the questions, the majority of them were easier than I expected. There were a couple of questions that I just started laughing at after I had read them. I couldn’t believe that they would ask something so simple. By the time I was done with the morning exam, I was looking forward to the afternoon section because everything had gone so well. They are pretty strict about what you could take into the exam. There is a list of 6 calculators and aside from that you can only bring drinks or snacks. They wouldn’t let you in with anything other than a zip-lock bag and they took away any unauthorized writing utensils as well.

The afternoon session was 4 hours long as well but only had 60 questions. Examinees could choose from General, Electrical, Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Environmental or Industrial tests. I took the electrical section and found it to be more difficult that the morning section, but not too bad as well. The topics on the afternoon exam were:

• Circuits
• Power
• Electromagnetics
• Control Systems
• Communications
• Signal Processing
• Electronics
• Digital Systems
• Computer Systems

The afternoon exam was slated to go to 5:35 but I finished my part by 4:00. It was nice to leave early and to be free of the stresses that these tests cause. There were still plenty of questions that I didn’t know the answer to, but I guessed on them and knew that any additional time spent trying to figure them out wouldn’t benefit me. Alison met me downtown and we used a coupon for a free meal at Tucano’s Brazilian Grill in the Gateway. Is there a better ending to a day full of testing than a gut full of meat?

I think not.

She would be proud

A couple of things that would make my High School English teacher proud (I never really cared much for English):

• I just posted my 50th book review on my book review blog. I never liked having to do book reports in school, but I usually enjoyed reading most of the books. I started my book review blog as a place to keep my thoughts on books I read. I have a real hard time remembering movies or books after I've watched or read them. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep it up when I started, but I'm proud of my reviews.
• Last week when I was on campus picking up my MUSS tickets I also picked up a book in which I was published. It's a journal of abstracts (titled University of Utah Undergraduate Research Abstracts) that will be archived at the Marriott Library. Maybe I'll post the full text of my abstract sometime...
• Tomorrow I'm being interviewed by a consulting magazine. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.
  

Changes (2)

Probably the second biggest change that we're experiencing is that I've recently started working full-time for my new employer Spectrum Engineers. I signed an employment contract with them about a month ago and I got my first salary paycheck this last weekend. I think that we're going to be able to get used to this.

Can I just tell you how much I love my job? Every day I get to do something different. Just this week I've been down to UVSC for some punchlisting on an almost completed Student Life Center (dedicated by Governor Huntsman yesterday), my boss then took me to lunch to Braza Grill (a lot like Rodizio Grill) and I finished up the day working on a Salt Lake County Solar Study.

Yesterday I got a quick job from an engineer in Texas. He needed a licensed Utah engineer (my boss, not me) to run the calculations and sign off on them. I ran the short circuit analysis and prepared a quick report and collected the whole fee (I won't tell you how much I made on that job, but let me just say that I was paid about 1 1/2 weeks of an intern's wages for 3 hours of work).

Today I spent the morning running some more calculations for the County report before riding up to one of the former Iomega buildings in Roy with another engineer (who also bought me lunch). Our client is going to remodel the building and turn it into a big call center. I field-checked the building and we attempted to determine the existing electrical service and equipment in order to begin our design.

The biggest downside to the job is definitely the hours. I've been working from 7:30-8:00 to 5:30-6:30 every day. I knew this job would require more hours than most other engineering jobs. There is so much for me to learn to get up to speed and I want to learn it all as quickly as possible. I really, really do love my job.

done.

Done. Finished. Complete. Doesn't that sound nice?

I just finished my last final. It's a great feeling. Finals week this semester hasn't been nearly as stressful or difficult as semesters past. It helps that I've got a job all lined up, that I've only got three classes and that I'm fairly certain that I'll easily pass them all. For posterity's sake, here's a rundown of my last three classes.

CVEEN 5730 - Survey of Nuclear Power
This class was especially easy because of the nuclear engineering class that I took last semester. There wasn't much homework and the tests weren't too difficult. The final exam was scheduled for this Thursday but the teacher was nice enough to move it to the last day of class. This shortened the final exam's possible length from 2 hours to 50 minutes. The most tedious part of the class was that we had to gather and review a couple of news articles each week. Regardless, going into the final I had 98.6% in the class (without any extra credit).

ECE 3510 - Feedback Control Systems
This was my last undergraduate class. I put it off until this semester to force me to stick around and get my masters degree and because I knew that I would really like the class. While the class wasn't as bad as I expected, it was still time consuming. The class met 4 days/week and we had a three hour lab (which usually took quite a bit longer than that) each week. I have a hard time believing that this class is crucial for EEs when I'm about to graduate (with a masters no less) and have done just fine without it. There was quite a bit of homework in this class but it usually wasn't too difficult. The 2 hour final exam was last Friday at 10:30 AM. The first person left at 1:00 PM and I didn't leave until 2:00 PM (and 70% of the class was still there). Half of the final consisted of things that I (and apparently the rest of the class) was seeing for the first time right then. After about 2 1/2 hours had passed the teacher stood up and said "okay, I'm going to come around the room and give everybody one big hint on a problem of their choice." Who does that? And more importantly, what kind of teacher writes a final like that? Loser.

ECE 6730 - Antenna Theory and Design
This class wasn't too bad but it was a bit of a pain. We had homework due every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and there was a bit too much theory and not enough design for my liking. I just finished the final exam this morning and while it was harder than expected, I'll have no problem scoring above average on the test. It was a filler class.

e-Announcement

I've still got one final Tuesday morning, but that doesn't mean I'm not looking ahead to Graduation. Here's a sneak peek of my graduation announcements.
(click on the following one to make it bigger)

Real Life Nears

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I quit my job at Rocky Mountain Power and decided not to accept the offer that they had extended to me for a job in field engineering. Instead, I took a job with Spectrum Engineers in downtown Salt Lake City. I had planned on trying this job out for the next couple of months, but I knew that this was the job for me after being there just a couple of hours on my first day.

Our offices are located in the Walker Center on 2nd South and Main. Spectrum leases 4 floors of the building, and I am located on the 10th floor. When I got there my first day, I expected to work in one of the cubicles on the floor, but instead I get this big office overlooking Main Street (a nice perk). By my estimations the office is almost 200 square feet - about the size of our family/living room.

I really like what I am doing. Spectrum is a consulting engineering firm that specializes in the electrical/mechanical/acoustical/lighting/etc. design of large building projects. They have done everything from the airport redesign, to the capitol building, to the new Intermountain Medical Center. A few of the projects that I have been working on are the new district courthouse in St. George, the Farmington commuter rail station and mall and an office building near the University of Utah. Maybe someday we'll land a contract for buildings like these in Dubai.

I never expected the decision of where to work to be so difficult. I guess that I always envisioned it to be cut and dry and that I would "know" when I had found the right place. Calling Rocky Mountain Power and turning down their offer was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. It's not easy to turn down a guaranteed salary that more than triples what we currently make.

Most of the things that I loved about Rocky Mountain Power were duplicated at Spectrum Engineers. Both companies have great benefits plans (Spectrum's is better). Both companies have plenty of room for advancement. Spectrum offers the possibility of making more money in the long run, but working for the power utility is obviously a more stable job. I would have gotten an office and a car at Rocky Mountain Power but the office would have been on the first floor overlooking the parking lot and Spectrum has told me that they will "more than compensate" for having to use my own car... Most importantly, the Walker Center has a see-through mail chute. How cool is that?

So far I have loved going to work, I am enjoying what I'm doing and I'm looking forward to doing this every day. One of the biggest things that turned me on to Spectrum Engineers was that there is so much to learn. I can literally envision myself learning new things every day for the rest of my life in this job - and that excites me to no end. Right now everything that I'm having to learn is a bit overwhelming, but I expect to get my feet under myself before too long.

Here are a couple pictures of my new digs (the photos don't do the place justice):

Job Status

This last week has been a wild one for me. Along with the two tests that I had I got a job offer from my current job. I guess I should rewind even a bit farther to explain myself. A couple of weeks ago I interviewed with Spectrum Engineers. They are an engineering firm here in downtown Salt Lake City that specializes in the electrical system design for large building projects. They are set up a lot like a law firm and once you get your PE (professional engineering license - which you can't get before being in industry for 5-7 years) then you can become a partner in the business. They pay extremely well (they've told me numerous times that nobody has ever left over money - they've even got engineers making up into the $300,000s, but of course they are workaholics). I think that their average salaries for PEs are in the low to upper 100s. In short, the way that I see it right now I have 4 options with where to work.

1. The first option is with Rocky Mountain Power. Like I mentioned, they gave me an incredibly generous offer earlier this week. The offer is for a field engineering position in the Salt Lake City Metro - the job that I would probably most enjoy doing there. They have an incentive (i.e. bonus) plan that pays up to 12% a year, I would get a car and work in an office with guys whom I get along with extremely well. The problem is, power engineering is nothing like the other three types of jobs I am considering (If you want to know what my offer was, just ask. I've got no shame and don't really care if others know what I'm making - as long as that information isn't used directly as a bargaining chip. Just know that if you ask me what I'm making, then I'll probably ask you!).

2. The next option is with Spectrum Engineering. As I mentioned above, I interviewed with them a couple of weeks ago - and I was actually offered an internship - that I ultimately accepted. This internship only lasts through the end of the school year - but obviously I'll have the opportunity to sign on with them once school ends if I so desire. I don't see accepting this internship as turning down the power company in any way. It's a chance to try something else and see if I like it. Working for the power company or Spectrum Engineering mainly requires on the job training - none of this stuff is taught at the U (they don't have a power engineering program (or even a class); the closest ones are Idaho State University or New Mexico State University). The stuff that Spectrum Engineering does as well is also quite unique for EEs. Very few EEs go onto being professional engineers because it is required in so few jobs.

3. The next type of job that I have been pursuing (although not as actively as I could be) is with defense contractors. These companies (such as L3, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc.) have stable, interesting jobs and pay very well. They would give me the opportunity to easily work all throughout the United States because they are all located in the majority of the 50 states and some have divisions in all 50. I've also had a couple of interviews with Hill Air Force Base. This wouldn't be my dream job, but they do a lot of really cool stuff up there. I would not sign on making nearly as much at the other jobs but the opportunity for speedy advancement is available. They would offer me a 25% signing bonus and write off up to $20,000 of student loans (I don't have nearly that much, so I would have them pay off my credit card - and then go buy a $10,000 plasma tv...).

4. The last type of job that I am most seriously considering (I once again haven't been too actively seeking) is with semiconductor design and/or manufacturing companies. These are jobs that I am most qualified for because of my schoolwork. I have designed numerous chips, had a couple of semesters of lab in the University's microfab cleanroom and feel very comfortable with this type of work. My adviser has been trying to recruit me for a couple of these companies. This is the type of work that I feel most passionate about - but I haven't had the chance to do any of the jobs mentioned above.

As you can tell, I've got a lot going through my head. All throughout the day I'll decide to seriously commit to any one of the mentioned areas but I'm all over the place throughout the day (and Rocky Mountain Power wants to know by the end of the week - they may have to wait). I feel a little bit of extra pressure with these decisions because they are difficult industries to move between. Moving from the power company to a fab engineer at IMFlash (flash RAM semiconductor company) would be very difficult because there are almost no similarities between the two types of work - and the same goes for Spectrum Engineering and the defense contractors. Anyone that made it through this long post deserves to be commended - but instead why don't you just share with me your thoughts?

Round 2

I interviewed again last Friday with my current company. It was a really interesting interview. It was set up by my bosses boss and there were 6 guys in the room from all different parts of the company. Between them all, they interviewed me and another intern for 8 or 9 different openings. After the interviews, they asked us to rank the jobs in our order of preference. While I haven't received an official offer yet, I was told today that I would be getting an offer for the job that I ranked the highest.

This intensifies my search for a job. I've applied a handful of other places and interviewed with a few (none recently). I'd like to have a few offers from which to choose - but that requires work (and a bit of luck). Now I appeal to you, gentle readers, if anybody knows of anyone hiring entry level (or Master's level) electrical engineers and could give me a referral, then I would be much obliged.

The Last Hurrah

Anybody who is anyone already knows that I'm in my last semester here at school (because I certainly mention here enough). School started this last Monday and I've already made it through one week. I thought that I could get by only taking 2 classes, but I found out that my plans for taking a few credits of faculty consultation (for a research project) weren't going to work out. My schedule doesn't look too bad. Here's a quick preview:

ECE 3510 - Introduction to Feedback Systems - This is my last undergraduate class. I put it off for 2 years and now I've got to pay my dues. I'm not all that excited for this class (otherwise I would have taken it 2 years ago), but I don't expect it to be too hard. It unfortunately meets 4 times a week, it has a lab :( and homework due a few times a week.

ECE 6324 - Antenna Theory & Design - This class is taught by an old guy that has a knack for confusing classrooms of students. It also has homework due three times a week. The material will be somewhat tough, but I'm looking forward to getting into this stuff (this is the class that I added on Monday).

CVEEN 5730 - Survey of Nuclear Power - This class shouldn't be difficult at all, but I'm looking forward to talking a bit about the different nuclear power plants and uses of nuclear energy throughout the United States and the world.

This semester should still be my easiest yet. I'm looking forward to getting a consistent 20 hours a week in at work and hopefully having the evenings free to spend with Alison and Ada. I can't wait for spring break!

Good Grades

I just finished my second to last semester and I got the best grades of my college career. I finished the semester with a 3.85 GPA. I had more credits than I've ever taken, money was tighter than ever (so I felt like I needed to work more than ever), but that must have been a recipe for success. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) my easiest semester yet. Only 10 credits, 2 classes.
Class key:
CVEEN 5700 - Nuclear Engineering I
ECE 6710 - Digital VLSI Design
ECE 6900 - Graduate Seminar (CR means credit)
ECE 6960 - History of Computer & Engineering Logic
PHYS 6610 - Physics of Electronics
UGS 4800 - Undergraduate Research

To Do:

Fall semester ends next week. As always, the stress is increased until all finals, projects and papers have been turned in. Once this semester is over, I will only have 1 left! During the last few weeks of class, I always make a list of everything that I've got to do before the end of the semester (it's coming whether I'm ready or not).

1. Graduate Physics Lab Project
2. Nuclear Engineering HW (1 assignment)
3. Physics Test
4. Nuclear Engineering Final Exam
5. Physics Final Exam
6. Digital VLSI Project
7. Digital VLSI Final Project Report
8. History of Logic Paper

Not a bad list - but I've also got to put time in at work (pay for Christmas) and working on my research (if there's any time left).

School Days

As I lie in my bed each night I think about how everybody must be wondering about my semester. Now for all of my imaginary wonderers, I am ready to divulge a bit of information.

This semester has been going fairly well. As you may recall, I've been taking 17 credit hours (along with trying to work 20 hours and fit some research in). The big difference in my classes this semester is that a couple of them are night classes. This has turned out to be very good for me. In the past, most of my wasted time came in the evenings when I would be at home. This semester, I have been forced to give most of that time up and instead spend it in lectures and labs. This has allowed me to work in the mornings, go to class in the early afternoons and then do my homework and research in the afternoons before my night classes. Here's a bit of the nitty-gritty:

ECE 6960 - History of Computer and Engineering Logic

This class has turned out to be just as boring as expected - which I'm more than ok with. The teacher is a former professor (who retired from teaching more than 25 years ago) who wrote his own book. He has a passion for logic and is teaching the class without a salary. The information has been somewhat interesting, but I'm afraid I don't hold the same passion for the material as the teacher does. There have been 5 homework assignments (all extremely easy) and 2 tests (which you could do just fine on with a couple of hours of study). This class will probably take the cake as the easiest graduate course that I will take :).

ECE 6710 - Digital VLSI Design

I'm not a huge fan of the digital world. I'm much more in tune with my analog side. Luckily for me, I've been able to get through this class without too much difficulty so far. Now that we are doing all of our assignments in teams, I conider myself lucky to have teamed up with a few teammates that are much more savvy, experienced and interested in having to program in Verilog. We are just starting our final project - which is a CR16 microprocessor. I'll post more on that later.

PHYS 6610 - Electronics I

You would think that a class titled Electronics I would be a breeze for an Electrical Engineering graduate student. While this is mostly true (I only go to class on exam days), the class (at least the tests) have turned out to be more difficult than expected. I haven't been studying much for the exams and that becomes a slight problem when the teacher writes the test to check your knowledge of the few unusual cases. Aside from the tests, the homework and labs have been pretty easy and I've had no problem finishing them in half the time that it takes most of the students.

CH EN 5756 - Nuclear Engineering I

This has been my most diificult class so far. The homework has been extremely difficult and time-consuming and the labs and lab reports have been really tough as well. I've done pretty good on both tests so far though. The class has really been quite interesting and enjoyable though.

I think that things are going along pretty well. The hardest part of the semester remaining is my class project from my VLSI class. All of my other classes should continue humming along just like they have been, with or without me.

Nuclear Reactor

Yesterday (Halloween) I had a lab for my Nuclear Engineering class. This lab was especially interesting because we were finally able to go in and see the reactor. It's an interesting experience because you can stand right at the edge of the reactor and look down through a deep pool (probably around 20 feet) of water to see the reactors core. The reactor at the University of Utah is a TRIGA reactor, which is a very common installation for research facilities. While the reactor is licensed to run at 100kW, it has no way of actually producing any power and all of the energy is transferred directly into the water as heat. For this lab we were only verifying the effects of control rods in the core, but for the next lab the reactor will be powered up to a level that the core will actually begin to glow with radioactivity (like in the picture above). That will be interesting.

As a side note, students that have recently visited Moab or other areas in Southern Utah are often not allowed in the reactor because they emit too much radioactivity. Just by walking around on the red rock in Southern Utah can cause the Geiger counters to not function properly - and, there are piles of "yellowcake" just sitting around near the old mines as well. The Geiger counters can even detect if you ate bananas for breakfast. Apparently some bananas are a shade radioactive...

Let the Race Begin

Although I won't graduate until the beginning of May, there was a career fair last week and, as it turned out, there were a few companies that were willing to bet that I may actually graduate. I turned in resumes to a handful of companies and even scored a couple of interviews last Friday (if anybody with whom I've interviewed has googled my name and wound up here, then I offer you the warmest welcome ;>).

The first company that I interviewed with is located in Austin, TX and they have a very prestigious Engineering Leadership Program that is very hard to get into. During the interview they asked 1 hardware based question, 1 software based question (imagine using a pen and paper to "program" a given function), and 2 personality questions. While I needed a bit of help on the technical questions I think that the interview went pretty well overall.

In fact, I just got an e-mail from them inviting me and Alison to Austin for an on-site interview. I'm thrilled to have made the first cut - but I'm obviously a little nervous having to spend a whole day being interviewed.

The other company that I interviewed with is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, but the people that came to the career fair were from a design center in Boise. I didn't know too much about this company before the career fair, but the more I learn about them, the more interested I become in the products that they design. The interview with them went very well (in my opinion, there's no telling what the interviewer thought). The beginning of the interview was spent with the interviewer telling me about their company and during the rest of the interview, I just talked about the research that I worked on over the summer. Hopefully I'll be able to share more of my skills with them as well.

Good News

Every Week I am required to attend a "Graduate Seminar" as part of my degree program. Two weeks ago the professor in charge of the program told us that they had added 2 credit hours to the graduation requirements (increasing the total from 30 to 32). While this isn't a large number, most of us have had our programs of study mapped out for quite some time already and making room for this change would be difficult. I asked if this change applied to students in the combined degree program as well. I was told that it did and I left the seminar a little disappointed (and glad that I was taking 17 credit hours this semester, because I'll need more than I planned on in the spring as well).

Yesterday we all received an e-mail from the same professor stating that he had misinformed us and that because we had signed up for the program last year, we would only be held to the standards that were in place last year. Needless to say, I was extremely pleased. I will only need 10 credit hours in the spring. 4 of them are undergraduate credits and I'll only need 6 graduate credits in order to graduate. Woohoo!

Research

***Forgive me for being a little technical (but I don't think I'm giving away any secrets...).

I mentioned a little while back that I would try and post a little bit about the research that I was doing all summer. As I've mentioned previously, I spent much of the summer doing research with a professor here in my department. Me and another fellow designed, simulated and laid out a PLL. I'm not going to go into detail much about what a PLL is, but I will try and explain some of the photos in the slide show below.

The first picture is the schematic of the buffered charge pump. It is made up of 3 op-amps and then maybe 15 other transistors. The second picture is of the layout of the buffered charge pump. The layout is a file that we send off to a fabrication company and they use it to make the chip according to our specifications. We have designed our chip in a 0.5 micron, 3-metal AMI process. The colorful layout file designates where all of the different poly-silicon layers, metal layers, diffusion layers, etc. are to be located. The big green areas in the buffered-charge pump picture above are capacitors.

The next picture is the schematic for a divider circuit. This circuit takes a high frequency wave (designed for 900 MHz) and divides it by 180, effectively taking the frequency down to a much slower 5 MHz. The circuit is pretty simply in that it is made up of a D-latch, a bunch of J/K flip-flops and a few inverters. The picture after the schematic is once again the layout for the divider circuit.

The next schematic is for the op-amp that we used throughout the design. The layout for the op-amp is also shown. The yellow squares that you can see speckling the layout are contacts between metal layers and the substrate. Every other circuit also has a ton of these contacts (placed mainly by hand) but the photos are zoomed too far out to be able to see them.

The next two circuits are of phase-frequency detectors (PFD). There are two different ones. The first one is a regular PFD and the second one is part of the original design of this PLL. We are having three chips manufactured. The first one has our unique design that we are testing, the second one has a basic PLL that we can use to compare against and the third chip is made up of individual components that we will be able to test individually once the chips are manufactured.

The next layout is of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). This circuit also has a large inductor that is not shown. The layout of the VCO buffer is also shown. The area on the left of this picture is a 20 k-ohm resistor. The schematic following the the buffer is of the full chip. As a nod to the peaceful co-habitation of world religions, the different circuit symbols are religious symbols (i.e. the VCO is the yin yang, the divider is an ankh, the charge pump is a star and crescent and the PFD is a cross).

The final three pictures are photos of the full chips that were sent away for fabrication.. The big yellow and green spiral is a 9 nH inductor for the VCO (the yellow layer is the uppermost metal layer). The pad-ring which circles around the outside of the chip is also shown. This is where microscopic gold wires will connect to the circuit. Just for measurement purposes, the full chip shown is only 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm. You might be able to pick out some of the other circuit components that were shown earlier - most of the full circuits are less than 100 microns squared.

We sent the chips off for fabrication (we'll be getting 5 copies of each chip for a total worth of more than $15,000) and we should be getting them back in mid-November. Then we will test them and see whether or not our design successfully does what our simulations showed us it would.

School is in Session

I actually started school on the 20th of August (early, I know). I didn't have time to post anything about it last week because I was quite busy... I've posted my fall class schedule above for all to see. This semester I am taking 17 credit hours (more than I've ever taken before), but this will make my last semester (next spring) a bit easier.

Last week I worked more than 50 hours as well as attending all of my classes. I only worked 15 hours at my regular job, and I put in the rest of the hours on my research project. Now I'm playing catch-up with all of the homework that I had to put off. For the project a partner and I designed and implemented a PLL and our chip layout was turned in 2 days ago. It feels great to have that done. I'll post more on this research project later.

The classes that I'm taking are:

CH EN 5657 - Nuclear Engineering I - This class is both a Civil Engineering course and a Chemical Engineering course. There are actually no civil engineers taking the class and only 2 electrical engineers (I'm one of them). The rest (~25 people) are chemical engineers. This is probably because the class is essentially a chemistry class. All Nuclear Engineering is is the study of nuclear reactions (which coincidentally are chemical reactions). It's been a few years since I've tken chemistry but it should be an interesting class at least.

ECE 6900 - Graduate Seminar - This class actually only meets once a week. Each week a guest speaker from academia or industry lectures on emerging technology or projects that they are affiliated with.

PHYS 6610 - Electronics I - This class should be pretty easy for me... It's a broad overview of the first 4 or 5 electrical engineering courses for physics students. We won't be going nearly as in depth as in EE classes but maybe this time I'll actually learn something.

ECE 6710 - Digital VLSI Design - This class will easily take most of my time. It was a tough decision for me because of the time committment but very few schools teach such an in depth class of VLSI design. After taking this class, students are virtually gauranteed that companies such as HP, TI and Intel will look at their resumes because these skills are in high demand. The chip-making (simulation and layout) will be easy for me but I've never been very good at digital design or Verilog. I just need to team up with a good CS major...

ECE 6960 - History of Computer and Engineering Logic - This class is being taught by an adjunct professor that retired more than 20 years ago from the U. It's actually turning out to be a much more interesting class than I originally expected it to be. We already had guest lecturers from the philosophy (I guess logic is actually a huge part of philosophy) and computer science departments.

It's nice to have my mornings free for work and homework. It's unfortunate that I've got to be in class almost every evening though. Last week there were 2 days that I didn't see Ada at all (it was sad) and one day where I only saw her for less than an hour. That's probably going to be the theme this semester.

Summer Research

Well lucky me, I was approved for a grant to do some research with a professor over the summer (and probably next fall as well). I'm excited to get to know the professor a little better and once we have finished, we expect to be published as well. This will more than make up for me getting a Master's of Engineering rather than a Master's of Science (with a thesis).

The research has to do with a new way to implement a PLL (phased-locked loop). A PLL is a closed-loop feedback system where the output is dependent on the phase and frequency of the input. They are used in anything wireless as well as computers and other analog and digital circuitry. See the wikipedia article here for more info.

My professor has rough designs of a new (and hopefully better) way to implement a charge-pump PLL. My job will be to simulate the circuit, optimize it and then lay the circuit out for fabrication. For the layout, each transistor, resistor, capacitor and inductor is designed in silicon, silicon dioxide, poly-silicon, and different metal layers. Once the circuit has been laid out, we will have it fabricated in either a .5 micron or a .13 micron process. Next fall we will test the circuits and document the results.

I can't say anything about the specifics of the circuit because of a non-disclosure statement that I had to sign. I'll be making a cool $10/hr and will hopefully work between 10-20 hours a week on this and then 30-40 hours a week at my regular job. The nice part is I get my own desk/lab space at school where I can work and new computer that dual-boots Linux (CentOS 5) and Windows Vista. Hopefully everything works out!

**Update - It turns out that I did better this semester than I expected. My GPA was 3.66 - which also brought my cumulative GPA up a bit.

The End of a Mediocre Semester

The end of another semester has come. Hip-hip hooray - although it is a little depressing seeing most of the people that I've gone to school with for the last 11 semesters graduate. It just feels like I should be there (and I will be, in two semesters!). This semester was a tough one. The overall difficulty of my classes was pretty much average. The difficulty mostly stemmed from one class (and working 20 hours/week, working on a senior project, wanting to be home with Alison and Ada, being tired all semester, my church calling...). Here is a quick rundown of my classes and how I think they turned out.

Soviet Literature - This was the last class that I needed for my Russian minor. I really enjoyed this class but it turned out to be extremely time-consuming. During the class we read 7 books, as well as many other readings. Before every class we had readings and questions to answer. In total, we read more than 2365 pages. This took up a lot of my time that is usually reserved for studying for my engineering courses. This course also had four essays as well as a midterm and a final. The positive side of all this was that when the final came I felt very well prepared and I'm pretty sure that I did well. If only I had spent an equal amount of time on my other classes...

Wireless Communications - This course had incredible potential but turned out to be a real drag. The professor didn't speak very good English and used PowerPoint for all of his lectures. For me it was simply impossible to follow the math and learn all the equations when he just cruised through them slide by slide (with 5-10 equations per slide...). By the middle of the semester, I stopped going because it was simply a waste of my time. The tests and project in this class were all really tough for me. Let's just say I know I'm not getting an A...

Observational Astronomy - This class was great. Unfortunately, we only got to go up on the roof and observe and take pictures of the sky a handful of times. It was a cloudy semester. Either way, I learned a lot about something that I otherwise would not have learned - and I enjoyed it. The final was very difficult (which surprised us all) but everything should be a-OK with this class.

Senior Thesis II - This class consisted of working on my senior project, writing a paper and presenting my project. Although the class itself required very little time, I spent a great deal of time working on the project itself. There were very few weeks during which I did not spend my fair share of time out at EFI Electronics in west Salt Lake. It is sure nice to have this one over with.

RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit) Design - I enjoyed this class but it was very difficult. It is a class that draws upon what I was supposed to have learned in about 10 other classes. I have a tough time remembering what I've learned this semester, much less other semesters. This course also had a big course project which was tough, but not quite as time-consuming as I expected. If this professor doesn't grade on the curve, I'd say all of us that took the class are in deep water.

It's a nice feeling to be done, but I'm certain that it won't compare to the warm fuzzies that I'll be feeling next year, right?

Week in Review

This last week was a busy one. Aside from school trying to overwork me to death and having to work today in order to get a decent number of hours, there were still a couple of highlights. The first was obviously that gorgeous photo that I posted Monday. The second highlight had to be this news story from Thursday. Watch closely. You may enjoy it more than you expect (and not just because of Nadine Wimmer)...

Video: News

Always Quotable, Always Fresh, That's Me!