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) |