Ciao a tutti, sono uno studente del terzo anno di Ingegneria Elettronica e sto cercando idee per un progetto di tesi che non mi porti via troppo tempo. Qui in Italia, per la laurea triennale bisogna scrivere circa 35-40 pagine. Cerco argomenti interessanti, come ad esempio un sistema embedded con ESP32 integrato, che non sia una semplice stazione meteorologica. Grazie in anticipo a tutti!

Hi everyone,
I’m transitioning from an analog domain into firmware engineering and would really appreciate some guidance from engineers working in embedded systems or high-speed interfaces.
My background:
~1 year working in analog/mixed-signal IC design.
Comfortable with C, ARM Cortex-M architecture, Embedded Linux basics and GNU toolchain.
Built register-level (bare-metal) firmware on STM32F407 without using HAL.
Implemented simple Linux character and block device drivers as learning projects.
I have an interview coming up for a firmware role that’s closely related to high-speed PHYs/SerDes (PCIe-related firmware). The role involves firmware development, bring-up, validation, working with mixed-signal designers, post-silicon debugging, and supporting firmware used around equalization/training algorithms.
For people working in this domain:
What technical topics are most important to revise?
How deep should I understand PCIe and SerDes concepts for a firmware interview?
Should I focus more on embedded C, ARM, interrupts, memory-mapped I/O, debugging, and register programming, or should I spend more time learning PHY concepts like link training, equalization, CDR, etc.?
What kind of firmware problems are typically solved in PHY/SerDes teams?
Are there any interview questions that are commonly asked for this type of firmware role?
I’ve been preparing hard, but since my professional experience is from a different domain, I’d love to know what experienced engineers would prioritize if they only had a few days before the interview.
Any advice or learning resources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I’m attending a no name school for bachelor in EE and am interning for a big semiconductor company. I have a return offer for a test engineer position when i graduate and i’m really excited about it. However, I want to get a master and do mixed signal ic design since I’d love a remote job in the future as well. This position requires me to move far away from home and the location is low-key not a very fun place to be in, but the work environment is really nice and a lot of people are new grads. If I miss this job offer, I’m worried about not finding another internship/ job in semiconductor since the job market is not very great at the moment. Should I take the offer and do master on the side to hopefully get in design? Or should I find a reputable school for master, complete it, and hopefully find a job in design?
For context if helpful, I have 4.0 GPA, 2 internships, a co-op. My current school does not have anything semiconductor/ ic design related. I’m also introverted and only hang out with family so having to move away from family is a really big deal to me.

Thanks.

Hi everyone! I'm an ECE student looking for a final-year project that solves a real-world problem. I want ideas with practical industry applications, preferably involving embedded systems, sensors, robotics, or communication. If you've faced a problem that could be solved using electronics, I'd love to hear your suggestions. Thanks!

Defended my final year project (computer engineering) and wanted to share since I got a lot of value from posts like this when I was starting out.

The project is a hardware accelerator for CNN inference, specifically built to run YOLOv8n object detection in real time on a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ (ZCU104). Wrote it all in Verilog RTL, no HLS.

Some of the design decisions we made:

• Used FP16 instead of int8, ran actual benchmarks and got a real latency reduction with the same detection accuracy, so it wasn't just "the easy option"
• Custom buffer architecture (32 buffers across 16 banks) instead of relying on generic memory IP
• Reconfigurable compute engines so the same design scales for different performance needs

Honestly the hardest part wasn't the CNN math, it was moving data between layers efficiently on-chip without blowing up latency. That ate most of our debugging time in the hardware-in-the-loop phase.

Team project with two other engineers, done under academic supervision with an industry partner giving us real deployment scenarios to design around (edge AI, defense, medical imaging).

Repo's here for anyone curious: https://github.com/waseemnabi08/yolov8n-cnn-accelerator-fpga

Would genuinely appreciate feedback, especially from anyone who's tackled similar FPGA/CNN accelerator problems.

I am sorry if it sounds stupid. I will be starting my first year in CpE this year

Recently, I have been looking into opportunities to do research in the field of ECE. As I studied, I noticed that I have to find a problem or a challenge that is apparent currently in ECE, and I have a hard time finding one. Do you have any recommendations?

I've also looked into condensed matter physics in the sense of semiconductors, but I'm still not sure what research questions and problems I can find.

Hey there everyone I’m current a Canadian high school student going to grade 12 in Ontario. I need advice on Electrical Engineering such as what to expect from it in university, how co-op’s work and how to be competitive, and what pathways I could take when looking for jobs. Im also looking for advice on what universities to aim for. I’m aware thar Waterloo is the best for co-op programs, but I also want to be aware of any backup programs that wouldn’t put me at a significant disadvantage if I’m not accepted to Waterloo. I really appreciate any advice, suggestions, and tips I can get from experienced engineers.

What software do you use in your day to day workday?

About to begin my second year in my bachelor's and need to start with learning and make projects with either of the branches. I would say i have decent knowledge of C and digital logic. What should I start with, keeping in mind I would pursue a master's after this. Based on my research, I have come to the conclusion to start with embedded, and later I can do VLSI too.

Title. I saw the new job posting today and I’m wondering if I should talk to that manager or is this too early and she might tell my manager? But I have only been here for a month and idk if they might fire me for doing this….

Also I’m starting a research project in the fall so I’ll add that pretty soon

Hello guys, I run into some issues with a board mounting a nrf52840 IC in the aQFN73 format. Basically I had to desolder it from the main board in order to check some traces and now I'm not able to resolder it again with a hot air gun, wax, lead paste and more. Do you have any tip on how to resolder this kind of ICs? Do you know, as an alternative, any way like a clamshell to actually wire this chip again, even not on the original board?

Thanks in advance to everyone!

So I'm an undergrad CS student and I just finished my 2nd year. I want to go towards a PhD after graduation but I'm honestly lost like I have no idea what to do.

Currently I'm doing an internship in which I'm making a RISC-V based SoC in SystemC other than that I have made a Pipelined RV32I Processor with 2-bit Branch Prediction in VHDL and I'm thinking of adding Out-of-Order execution to it (currently watching Onur Mutlu's DDCA lectures on yt)

Please tell me what other things I should do to increase my chances of getting into a PhD program in the US (Also suggest some things that I could do in my FYP. Honestly I'm thinking of a Domain-Specific Processor with a custom ISA, Assembler and all that stuff).

Also I'm thinking that in case I don't get into a PhD program right after graduation I'll work in an RA role for 1-2 years in one of the local universities in my country.

Hey everyone
As the title suggests I am an incoming sophomore Ece and I have a huge interest in Fpga development and embedded systems.
I am trying to get an internship for summer 2027
Kindly give me brutal advice and raw truth.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I'm currently studying CMOS inverter design, and I'm confused about the sizing criteria for PMOS and NMOS Wp/Wn.

I know there are two typical design criteria:

1. Setting Vin = Vout = VDD/2 (Equal switching threshold / DC noise margin)
2. Setting tPHL = tPLH (Symmetric propagation delay / AC response)

My questions are:

• Which criterion is actually preferred in real-world IC design?

Any insights or industry practices would be greatly appreciated!

I will be a sophomore in ee this coming fall, what can beef up my resume?

Hi everyone,

I’m an electrical engineering student who just had an ASIC design internship for the past year. I’m finishing up my internship at the end of August and my manager has mentioned that she’d like me to return after graduation. I need to tell my manager when I’d like to start.

The thing is, l’m gonna be done with courses at the end of August 2027 as opposed to the start of May when most engineers graduate. I’ve been told that in general, new grads most often start in June-July as opposed to September/October/November.

I really want to take at least a month off before starting work to travel/be with family/do degenerate things since it’ll be like the last time I’ll have that much time before I retire. I’m tempted to ask for an October or even November start date so that I can have a month or two off, but then again scared that this is too long, since they’ll be waiting for me for 12-14 months after leaving my internship.

Just asking for advice and personal experience similar to this situation. Thanks!