Contest Information and Results
The Fall 1999 PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame Contest was held at PCB Design Conference East, October 11-15. Three contestants competed in three areas--a board design, which accounted for 50% of the score; a written test, which counted for 35% of the score; and a personal interview, which counted for 15% of the score. The technical coordinators for the contest were Jean Cortgjens, Colographic Communications Corp., and Steve Granger, TGA Technologies Inc., Norcross, GA. They were responsible for the development, of the board design, putting together the bill of materials, creating the netlist, helping to evaluate the board criteria and developing the written test.
Objective: One of Printed Circuit Designs core precepts is to take every opportunity to promote PCB engineers and designers as the salt of the earth. Since we cannot directly influence their salary or other compensation, we have elected to direct a spotlight on these people whenever possible. The PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame is one event that helps us do this.
PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame Coordinators:
Jean Cortjens, Colorgraphic Communications Corp., Atlanta, GA
Steve Granger, TGA Technologies Inc., Norcross, GA
Board Design: Each participant was given a code name to use for all data turned in and anywhere in the design, so that those people evaluating the board did not know what board belonged to what person or what software was used for the design. No board design information was given out prior to being on-site for the contest.
To view the design guidelines, click here.
To view the list of deliverables, click here.
To view the board evaluation criteria, click here.
The plots of the board design from each participant are available by clicking on the participant's name below.
Wally Aponowich
Terry Lovell
Wayne Pulliam
Written Test: The written test consisted of multiple choice and fill in the blank questions and covered areas such as the engineering side of PCB design, schematics, high-speed design and industry acronyms.
Personal Interviews: Each participant was interviewed by a panel of three judges from the design industry. The judges were:
Glenn Wells, Intelect Network Technologies Inc., Richardson, TX,
who is also a member of the PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame.
Rick Hartley, Applied Innovations, Dublin, OH
Mike Wilson, Dell Computer Corp., Round Rock, TX
The panel asked questions about design industry experience, philosophy of design, etc. Each judge gave the contestant a score on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest. Each participant was scored immediately after the interview with no discussion between the judges about what and how to score.
Final Results: All scores for each part of the contest were given to one person. After everything was turned in, final scores were compiled based on the percentages for each part.
Individual scores are only released to the contest participants.
For additional information on future PCB Top Gun Hall of Fame contests, contact Teresa Gentry at tgentry@up-mediagroup.com, or click here to fill out a PCB Top Gun entry form.