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Here, in our series on the latest EW BrightSparks of 2023, we profile Raymond Liu, an Applications Engineer at EDA Solutions.
Achievements
His supervisor summarised Raymond as “one of the best interns we have had over the years” and “a highly skilled, experienced, and motivated engineer with a strong commitment to excellence”.
He become proficient in a variety of technical skills during his placement, including programming, virtualisation, and networking. He told us:
“For example, I rebuilt the VM setup for our company to include 3 main VM environments, attached iSCSi storage, a WireGuard VPN, and license servers. This new setup saved space by sharing the same data across all environments and uses a script to set up firewalls to allow traffic from specific ports and IPs, and it is well documented on our company wiki. This setup is very important to replicate customers’ setups, and I optimised the flow on these machines to create an example design using a command.”
And Raymond’s other contributions during his internship were many and varied, we learned. He also participated, for example, in the circuit design of a transducer IC using a 350nm technology process.
He was involved in the development of a software QA and test setup emulating typical user behavior and reporting errors (Using TCL and Batch scripts).
The development of various scripts and programs, both general and tool-specific. Foe example, he developed a Command Line Interface (CLI) for using revision control on RedHat Linux SVN, the interface for which was developed from scratch using Bash scripting. And he contribution to enhancing the company’s IT infrastructure.
He also provided technical support to the European users of the Siemens EDA Custom IC Design Flow and the Galaxy Semiconductor test analysis software tools.
Additionally, he represented EDA Solutions at the Siemens EDA User2User 2023 event in Munich, talking to experienced engineers about its software tools and services.
Raymond also undertaken training in Python programming, digital design, and digital implementation, demonstrating that he can quickly learn new technologies and apply them to his work.
During his time with EDA Solutions, he successfully acquired professional certification for many Siemens EDA products used for IC design and verification, and used many tools in the Custom IC design flow: TannerTools, ModelSim/Questa, Calibre, Examinator, and AFS.
His supervisor summarised Raymond’s impact as follows:
“During his internship with us, Mr. Liu has demonstrated a deep understanding of electronics and software. He has proven to be a highly motivated and results-oriented individual. He was always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done and has continuously looked for ways to improve our team’s processes and procedures that enhanced our productivity.”
Community
Raymond has made efforts to inspire others and has actively promoted electronic engineering.
For example, he has spoken at events to students about his experiences to help inspire them to go into electronic engineering. The events included an ECS (Electronics & Computer Science) Taster Course, an Industry Exhibition at the University of Southampton, and a Q&A session about engineering and university studies at Latymer Secondary School.
On another occasion, Raymond visited Tudor Grange Academy for a careers fair, on behalf of UKESF, to discuss electronics and what a career in the industry could involve. He talked to many students from different years, and brought along an electrical debug box that he built at university in the Warwick Racing formula student team, to demonstrate a project that he had worked on.
During his time in Warwick Racing, he worked as an electrical systems engineer and CAD manager. This meant he was able to help design and manufacture parts of the car and draw attention to the value of electric vehicles in Formula racing. For instance, he represented Warwick Racing at a COP26 Electric Roadshow to discuss our car and the impact we have in electric racing.
Raymond has also been creating videos in his spare time, covering personal projects. For example, one was about the rise of mechanical keyboards in recent years, where he covered the history of computer keyboards and mechanisms, the components of constructing a keyboard and his process of building one. He hopes this will engage viewers and encourage them to learn more about electronics and how they are used in our daily lives.
Additionally, he is a STEM ambassador and volunteers in his local area.
Finally, Raymond is also a contributor to the open source community, and has helped to maintain EDA Solutions’ GitHub page.
See also: Elektra Awards 2023 – The Winners
