Of Chartered and more on internship

Yay, it's weekend again! The 2nd week of internship past by real fast. Cos monday is public holiday, tuesday i did half day cos got interview with Chartered, Friday also half day cos DSI got some dinner and dance thingy, so we were released early.

The interview with Chartered was quite horrible. It was largely due to the fact that i did not understand how Chartered fit in in terms of designing role. As Chartered is well known for being a fabrication foundry and only does manufacturing of wafer from the designs of their customers , i was being questioned as to how can i contribute as an ic designer. I mentioned a few things like verification, testing and stuff, but each answer was backfired as those weren't exactly what they are dealing with; obviously i didn't do my homework.

Technical question were alright, was asked to design an inverter using CMOS process, that one i did ok, with the circuit as well as the explanation. Then, the next one was how to simulate and measure the RC time constant. This one i blanked out, damn it's only after the interview i realized how easy it was. The remaining of the interview was the most jialat one, the interviewer kept reiterating: So you really wana be an ic designer? for like 10 times or Tell me why should we give you the scholarship and not the rest of your peers? Do you think Chartered is really the right choice for you? You sure you wun regret?


Ok back to my internship. I have been given more tasks after completing the first one. I also implemented what i have learnt in EE3208 (timer interrupt) into my project, in order to make my timing more accurate. Now thinking back, even though EE3208 might be my worse module this sem, i actually learn alot from the module and applied the most in my work here in DSI. This is the reason why you should take design module, you get to do hands on project and not just theory only. And of course you get to tell people you did something impressive in the module like:"Hey i did a talking cash register in my module.", rather than:"Erm, well, I learnt how to do fast fourier transform." (Erm, i have nothing against the signals and comms folks ah, this is just an example..lol)

Also, other than doing my microcontroller programming, I am also writing a simple game using visual C++ just for fun after I have finished my task. It's just a simple text based game where you get to fight monsters based on dungeons and dragons rule but a more simplified version to ease the complexity of my program..

Oh yeah, by the way, even though i am working in a research institute, I am doing pretty much industry work rather than research. I am part of the team that is going to produce something that is going to be sell for industry use. Which kinda answer my question on why everyone else is like studying... while i am doing actual work...

Alright, that's all for now.