How are electronics developers trained at MEPhI? What is being taught? How do students' knowledge meet the challenges of the industry? This was told to us by Nikolai Alexandrovich Usachev, Associate Professor of the Department of Electronics (No. 3) at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, who, by the way, is also a graduate of this department.
Project work
One of the key features of the Department of Electronics (part of INTEL) is that it not only provides students with a theoretical basis, but connects them to real projects in which they can be realized by completing a feasible part of the work as a thesis project or research work. It is by participating in real-world projects that students can acquire the competencies necessary for future work in the radio electronics industry so that their knowledge is relevant and in demand by the time they graduate and will remain so for a long time.
What an "electronics engineer" should know
Today, an electronics developer cannot work the way he did 50 years ago, when it was enough to limit himself to a certain set of knowledge and conditionally draw electrical circuits from dozens of components (transistors, resistors, etc.) on tracing paper. The procedure (route) for the development of modern semiconductor electronics implies knowledge of specialized mathematics, design automation (CAD), control and measuring equipment, as well as programming, and especially all the features of the development (circuitry, topology) of a specific product being developed. Modern electronic devices are very complex products and it is often necessary to conduct large-scale testing using both software and hardware in order to verify their performance. It should be noted that often the calculation of a single chip can take up to several months! Naturally, human time is very expensive, so automation is very important here. Another important competence of our specialists is the ability to work with technical literature in order to update their knowledge. And of course, you need the ability to work with people.
What we study
At the MEPhI Department of Electronics, there are many specialized subjects specifically on electronics. Here you are given the basics of knowledge about what a semiconductor device (transistor, diode) is and what their principles of operation are. A base on solid state physics is also given.
Students study circuit engineering issues, learning how to design analog-digital electronics products, which comprise the simplest devices, amplifiers, frequency converters, generators, etc. A lot of attention is paid to so–called microcontrollers and microprocessor systems, both from the point of view of their programming in computer-aided design systems and from the point of view of working in real layouts.
Has specialized subjects dedicated to radio frequency electronics. This is very important, because wireless data transmission systems, communications, and 5G are currently developing. Accordingly, competencies in this area are also in high demand by the industry.
Should an electronics engineer be a programmer
The department has several laboratory classes where students work with real products of both foreign and, most importantly, domestic production. Students will have to write their own firmware designed to be loaded into microcontrollers (sometimes called "firmware" in technical slang), and launch their first device!
The developer's task is to write special firmware that will force the microcontroller to perform specific functions we need, such as controlling sensors and actuators, processing data, etc.
In electronics, IT knowledge is needed no less than in the development of standard applications, but here you have to work with specialized software code. And the programmer must understand how the device works, and at the same time not forget that the device has finite memory, which means you need to know optimization methods.
Developers who know how to write such programs are highly regarded in the market. Artificial intelligence can write programs based on templates, which any student can do today. But in order to do serious things that will be used in automation systems in production, in an urban environment or in everyday life, you need the participation of specialists.
Among the practitioners, the uniqueness of the Electronics Department lies in the fact that almost all teachers are simultaneously practitioners and supervisors who deal with smart devices, analog-digital chips, microprocessor systems, digital processing systems, and many other topics.
At our department, you immerse yourself in a team of practitioners working on real projects, and you will be offered a task that you can handle and provided with a supervisor - a person who will advise you on the progress of your research, help you write a diploma, and criticize your work – he is the first one The queue is responsible for which specialist you graduate from. You will work in a real team, but in this team there will be students just like you, because we try to train personnel for ourselves and for enterprises, and at the same time rejuvenate the staff of the department. You will have a real environment in which you can "soak up" electronics and realize your project.
Choose your own path
The department has many very strong and well-known research teams in Russia. In them, the student will have to complete his research internship and write a diploma in the future. It's very important to understand what you want. To do this, you can try yourself at the initial stage in various directions, and choose the most interesting. This is not just a formality: this choice will determine your scientific and practical activities for the next few years, both at MEPhI and after graduation.
For example, the department has an educational design center for the development of heterogeneous integrated circuits. There is a scientific group that develops specialized analog-digital integrated circuits. Both seem to have the same developers, and both have the same software tools and CAD systems, but there are a lot of differences, and they are significant. There is a research team involved in the development of computing systems. And this is really just the tip of the iceberg.
The department is equipped with the latest technology – we have a huge fleet of state-of-the-art control and measuring equipment. Automation of equipment is an important task, which is necessary to reduce human time when working on a project. Many students defend their graduation projects in this direction.
If someone is interested in designing an electronic device from standard microchips that can be bought in a store, we also have such a direction related to robotics and automation systems.
A youth laboratory operates on the basis of the department and INTEL, which has implemented a project for a UHF band receiver and transmitter for industrial Internet of Things systems manufactured using domestic 180 nm CMOS technology. The laboratory team of 10 people, including students, worked on its creation, and parts of this transceiver became the basis of our students' graduation papers. In general, design is one of the most interesting areas in which diplomas are defended.
Interacting with the real sector Of
The task of the department is also to "check the clock" with industrial enterprises and other researchers, for which conferences, seminars, round tables are organized, including the well-known forum "Microelectronics", held on the federal territory of Sirius. Often, after communicating with enterprises, we make changes to student training programs in accordance with the wishes of the industry.
In addition, we have anchor projects when an enterprise comes to the department as an industrial partner and invests in the development of MEPhI, and MEPhI employees and students solve the tasks of this enterprise within the framework of some kind of contract or order. An example of such a partnership is cooperation, for example, with JSC ENPO SPELS, NIISI and a number of other enterprises.
Companies in the real sector are constantly posting announcements about their willingness to hire students for internships, so the problem is rather to find the necessary number of students. In recent years, there has not been a single case in which a fourth-year student has not participated in project work either in one of the MEPhI teams or in an enterprise.
Summarizing: what future applicants need to know
The educational program of the MEPhI Department of Electronics is based on fundamental knowledge – from solid state physics to circuit engineering and the practice of designing and developing electronic systems, building hardware and software complexes using modern equipment.
In addition to lectures, practical and laboratory classes, the educational process pays great attention to scientific and production activities and research work, during which students implement their first projects with their own hands. This lays the foundation for their subsequent employment.
The Department of Electronics interacts with a huge number of enterprises in the real sector of the economy, including semiconductor factories, leading design centers for electronic devices and equipment, the Rosatom State Corporation, and others.
The Department builds a "lively" cycle of educational programs tailored to the needs of the industry, which are constantly being adjusted following technology development.
Electronics are in demand now, electronics specialists are getting good salaries, and employers are snapping up "electronics workers" like hot cakes.
