Rising Star Award Winner: Radu Diaconescu

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Last year’s IPC APEX EXPO, which took place in sunny San Diego, seems to have taken place in a different world. This was a world where talks were held in front of a large crowd, not a monitor, and travelling to the other side of the world wasn’t considered a reckless risk.

By February 2020, however, we were starting to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Back then, there were a lot of things that we didn’t know, and more importantly, there were a lot of things that we had no clue that we didn’t know. The concept of “knowing what you don’t know” or figuring out the areas where one lacks knowledge is probably as important as acquiring the knowledge itself.

Coming “back to the future” and attending the IPC APEX EXPO 2021 virtually, it seems that we as an industry start to finally understand and discover the things that we don’t know. From the integrity and resilience of our supply chain to the failed digital transformations of the past, it seems that the electronics manufacturing industry starts to realize that change is difficult, but also inevitable.

Changes, Revolutions, Evolutions
Ever since the term “Industry 4.0” was coined back in 2015-16, there were several technologies that seemed to lead the way to the “promised land” of transformation. We believed that big data, IoT, IIoT, AI, ML, autonomous vehicles and so many other technological advances would radically change our operations and deliver the holy grail of billions of dollars of savings. While being a firm believer in the benefits of all these technologies, the reality, as we were brutally reminded in the past 12 months, is much more complex. At the end of the day, to paraphrase Travis Hessman’s keynote speech, digital transformation was never supposed to be a revolution, but rather an evolution.

There’s no silver bullet that will magically solve all of our problems and I think the 56% of manufacturing companies that are still waiting for the right use case for digital transformation or the 60% of digitization projects stuck in the “proof of concept” stage are a testament to that. Revolutions are tough, but evolution is a continuous process. Instead of focusing on Industry 4.0, 5.0, or whatever might come next, we should adapt our mindset to one of a continuous evolution and treat digital transformation the same way we treat quality.

To read this entire article, which appeared in the 2021 edition of Show & Tell Magazine, click here.

03/16/2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

PCB designer Adam Thorvaldson of Innovex was a finalist in this year’s IPC Design Competition at IPC APEX EXPO. He came in second place in this final heat, which is quite a feat, considering that the contest started last fall with 49 contestants from around the globe. We asked Adam to share his thoughts on the competition, what it means to be one of the winners, and any ideas about improving the contest for 2024 in Anaheim.

03/09/2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

What happens when die sizes shrink? As IPC design instructor Kris Moyer explains, quite a bit. Shrinking silicon can mean rising signal speed and rise times, and traditional PCB designers may find themselves dealing with problems formerly only seen by RF engineers. We asked Kris to discuss the pros and cons of silicon shrinkage and some of the techniques and trade-offs that PCB designers and design engineers need to understand as they find themselves entering the RF arena.

03/05/2023 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007

Barry Matties sits down with Henry Crandall, the newly minted Student Board Member on the IPC Board of Directors, to talk about how Henry became the first PhD student in electrical engineering in his family, as well as how his role on the IPC Board will allow him to represent the voices of students and young professionals interested in shaping the future of both IPC and the industry.