Visteon's electrical team at the technology center in Sofia, Bulgaria, have teamed up with the city's Technical University to embark on a new educational initiative taught by Visteon engineers. The new Visteon Electronics Academy is designed to support the company’s fastest-growing team, where employees are actively addressing a fundamental challenge that newly-graduated engineers often face – how to get sufficient hands-on experience, including design and development, for today’s electronics trends.
Kicking off on Oct. 16, the program welcomed 35 students to the Visteon-mentored lectures taking place at the Technical University of Sofia over two semesters, providing 80 hours of hands-on teaching in total. During the course students will have the opportunity to design and develop their own instrument cluster - following a design process similar to the one used at Visteon.
Starting by examining the modern electrical constraints within automotive electronics, the group will develop block and electrical diagrams, select the main components and perform worst case scenario analysis and simulations. HSIS and a PCB-based layout will also be created for the recommendation of EMC and ESD testing, with expert mentoring and input from Visteon’s mechanical team - who will advise on test plan creation, hardware bring-up tests, bench testing and design reviews.
While many companies operating in Bulgaria provide trainee or intern positions for graduates, Visteon will be the first organization to team up with an educational institute to directly influence how the integration of theory and practice on a product design level is taught in academia.
Over the course of the next year, the 35 students – currently in their third and fourth years at the university – will navigate the obstacles and challenges presented in product design; applying the skills they will learn from their Visteon mentors along the way to produce a real entry-level instrument cluster at the program’s conclusion.