Finding talent at a college job fair is tough - so I'm told - and we at Marcus Engineering resolved to make that task a little easier, by devising a test. The premise was simple: if you could solve the first challenge, you'd get an interview, and if you solved the second challenge, you'd... also get an interview? (Okay, I don't really remember what was supposed to happen if you won, but it involved getting an internship with us.) ​Anyways, of about 30 students that attempted it, only two solved the first challenge, and we hired one of them, who turned out to be pretty good. So I'd call it a success.

The challenges were intended to be reasonable for a third-year EE student to complete - the first was to generate the requested voltage (in the 2-8V range) from a 10V source, given that the input had a low impedance of about 10kΩ and all the parts provided were high-value (100kΩ+) resistors and an op-amp. The second was to filter out either a low or high frequency from a signal and pass the other. The target and actual voltage or frequency were displayed by the vertical light bars; the two sets allowed for two simultaneous tests.

Project Team:
James Rowley (Electronics and firmware)
Kempton Hall (Mechanical design)
Everyone Else (Ideas, help)