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News Release
For immediate release
PCB Designers Rodriguez, Woytek Inducted into PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame
Winners recognized at PCB Design Conference West
ATLANTA, GA-April 4, 2002- UP Media Group, Inc. presented the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame award to printed circuit board (PCB) designers Ozzy Rodriguez of RockSolid Design Inc., and Tim Woytek of Plexus Corporation during the fourth annual Top Gun Awards ceremony at PCB Design Conference West, March 20, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Eleven PCB designers and engineers battled it out for the honor of top designer over an intensive two-day contest, sponsored by Printed Circuit Design magazine in cooperation with Valor Computerized Systems. Participants were subjected to a stringent battery of tests, including a written exam, personal interviews and an actual board design. The boards were graded with each section being weighted as follows: board design, 50%; interview, 15%; and written test, 35%.
"It was a wonderful experience for me," said 22-year-old Rodriguez, the youngest person ever to win the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame award. Both Rodriguez and Woytek used Cadence Design Systems software to complete their design. Both were inducted into the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame and awarded a plaque and a coveted Top Gun-style, leather flight jacket.
The design, which changes each time, usually consists of about 175 components with more than a thousand connections. The written test is an extremely difficult 100-question, multiple-choice exam. The interviews and grading were conducted by three judges: past Top Gun recipients Tom Stout with Optimum Design Associates and Glenn Wells with Integrated Device Technology Inc., and Jean Stout with Colorgraphic Communications.
"The Top Gun Contest is an exciting opportunity and a personal test of the designer's achievements in PCB design," said judge Jean Stout. "It is a chance to showcase his or her skills as a designer along side others who also consider themselves the best of the best. Competing is a lot of self-imposed pressure and the designers often comment that it is more stressful than being at work. It is a very elite crowd of designers that have been inducted into the Top Gun Hall of Fame and each one is to be commended on their accomplishment."
This year's participants included: Mike Bertel, Elantec Semiconductor; Charles Capers, Plexus Technology Division Inc.; Jason Dunlap, CALY Networks; Tom Ferguson, Transition Networks; Patrick Jabbaz, Inkra Networks; Kris Nelson (consultant); David Perkins, NAVSYS Corp.; Ozzy Rodriguez, RockSolid Design Inc.; Weldon Tadlock, Cadence; Jeff Tams, Agilent; and Tim Woytek, Plexus Corp.
"The winners gave us everything we asked for in all the design criteria," judge Glenn Wells said. "The design challenge is to provide a well-designed, 'pretty' board with all the necessary information to build and assemble a PCB, giving consideration to all aspects of assembly, cost and test. The winning designs answered all this criteria, were beautifully placed and well balanced. Their layout designs were nearly flawless and their PCB design knowledge was definitely 'Top Gun' class."
For more information about the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame contest, visit www.pcbshows.com/topgun/.
About the PCB Design Conferences
The PCB Design Conferences are annual showcases for emerging technologies used in the design and manufacture of PCBs, programmables, MCMs, microvias, flex and related technologies. They are also the premier conferences dedicated exclusively to the educational needs of PCB design professionals, featuring approximately 40 technical courses taught by the industry's leading experts. For additional conference information and updates or to register online, visit the web site at www.pcbshows.com.
About UP Media Group Inc.
UP Media Group is a privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with offices in San Francisco, San Diego, Tulsa and the Boston area. UPMG publishes Printed Circuit Design, Circuits Assembly and PC FAB magazines and produces two PCB Design Conferences a year-PCB Design Conference West in Santa Clara, CA, and PCB Design Conference East in the Boston area. For more information, visit the web site at www.up-mediagroup.com.