Bryan LaPointe: A Great Time to Be Working With Technology

Reading time ( words)

I recently interviewed Bryan LaPointe, a product engineer with Cadence Design Systems, and one of the younger people in the world of PCB design and EDA tools. I asked Bryan to discuss some of the challenges technologists are facing in PCB design and engineering, as well as some of the things that make this field so exciting right now.

Andy Shaughnessy: Hi, Bryan. Give us a quick background about yourself and your time in PCB design and the EDA world.

Bryan LaPointe: My journey into the EDA world started seven years ago after graduating college. I decided to put my forensic science degree aside and began working as an intern, designing PCBs in New Hampshire. That internship morphed into a full-time position as a PCB designer, presenter, and trainer before finding my current position at Cadence Design Systems as a product engineer. Since then, I’ve spent much of my time branching out to learn new areas of the EDA industry and even finished my M.S. degree in psychology.

Shaughnessy: What do you see as the biggest challenge right now for PCB designers and design engineers?

LaPointe: The biggest challenge I see for PCB designers right now is the growing complexity of their jobs. Engineers and designers are continually being asked to take on more roles, perform more duties, and learn more tools and technologies.

Shaughnessy: What is your favorite part of your job or this industry?

LaPointe: The best part about being a product engineer has to be the immediate feedback and impact I get from the market. When a product engineer does something well, the EDA world benefits as a whole and the product engineer sees and feels the buzz and excitement. If I had to choose one thing about the EDA industry that really excites me, the best part comes from its cultural and experiential diversity. The EDA industry has been responsible for pulling together more countries, people, and cultures than perhaps any other in the world.

To read this entire interview, which appeared in the November 2019 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.

08/28/2020 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 Magazine

This week, we have quite a potpourri for you. There's good news about the PCB market. And as this year continues to surprise us at every turn, companies are discovering the true nature of their leaders. Todd Kolmodin has a great column about bosses and leaders and why the two words are not synonymous. Not to be outdone, columnist Barry Olney found a way to explain the wavelength of electromagnetic energy by using a chocolate bar and a microwave oven. We also have great articles by Sagi Reuven and Pete Starkey.

08/13/2020 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

It has been a crazy year with lots of ups and downs. But within the clouds, we’ve seen plenty of silver linings, too. Case in point: Avishtech, a brand-new company lead by founder and CEO Keshav Amla. (You may be familiar with his father, Tarun Amla, a veteran PCB materials technologist who is now with ITEQ.) We recently caught up with Keshav and asked him to discuss his company’s simulation tools, his plans for the company, and what it’s like launching a company in this “new normal.”

06/18/2020 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

Andy Shaughnessy and Barry Matties spoke with Dana Korf, former chief PCB technologist for Huawei and currently principal consultant of Korf Consultancy, about the breakdown in communication between manufacturers and designers. Dana discusses exactly what a fabricator expects from a PCB designer, why these expectations are often not met, and the need for designers to make mistakes so that they can learn from them.