Over 1300 competitors from 63 countries recently met for the 45th WorldSkills Design Challenge in Kazan, Russia. Considered to be the best among their peers these young competitors stepped up to a wide spectrum of challenges including engineering solutions, computer science, 3D printing, and electronics. Competitions like this propel learning in order to close the skills gap in an ever changing future of work. Autodesk is proud to be a 2nd time sponsor of the mind merging event.

Autodesk EAGLE was selected as the PCB design tool of choice for the electronics design challenge. Global Support Team Specialist Jorge Garcia took on the task of creating a reference board, conceiving a concept that would incorporate multiple facets of electronics and combined medical functionality. Jorge selected the Pulse Oximeter, a device that uses waveform to diagnose cardiac abnormalities. The device measures and then displays the percentage of oxygen in the blood. It uses a specialized sensor to determine the ratio of oxygenated vs deoxygenated blood. As a bonus the sensor also provides an way easy to calculate heart rate.

Developing, prototyping, testing and programming took place over the course of one year. A successful build of a non-medical grade design and a base schematic for the PCB Layout challenge portion were delivered to WorldSkills challenge organizers. Before the competition day, Autodesk Global Support Specialist Richard Hammerl was on site addressing competitors questions and concerns on the familiarization day. 

WorldSkill Competitor – Electronics Skill #16

Out of 24 competitors, 5 selected to use the reference circuit board provided by Autodesk during the electronics challenge.  The other remaining 19 competitors created their own PCB designs in EAGLE using integrated SPICE simulation to prove them.

We at the Autodesk EAGLE team are honored to support WorldSkills! Congrats to all the amazing winners! See them here.