Electronics Technologist - Queens University

This position encompasses duties in three distinct areas of the department: the classroom area, the undergraduate teaching laboratories, and the upper year project area.

The incumbent acquires, maintains and ensures the functionality of all of the equipment, some of which is complex, used in demonstrations during Physics labs. This includes making repairs and calibrating equipment for experiments and ensuring that the equipment is distributed to the appropriate lab.

The incumbent also sets up, maintains, repairs and calibrates all of the equipment used for Physics lab demonstrations. When required, the incumbent designs and fabricates new equipment for demonstrations and/or experiments and provides instruction on how to use the new equipment.

Incumbent maintains computers used in the laboratory and makes hardware repairs/replacements and software upgrades as required.

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In collaboration with the teaching staff, the incumbent will modify and construct equipment as necessary, particularly as it relates to the undergraduate Engineering labs. For example, building special apparatus to demonstrate a physics concept, such as using a domino setup to trigger various mechanical arms that in turn initiate various actions. This could also include designing a special rigging system to accommodate weights and counter weight, building unique enclosures for the use and testing of lasers, modifying computer circuit boards to allow the use of ancillary instruments, etc.

The incumbent assists students in the 2nd and 3rd year engineering courses with design projects when requested. For example, the incumbent works on CAD diagrams to design a piece of equipment for use in a project, reviews design layouts, and makes suggestions for how to implement a conceptual idea into a functional/working model. The incumbent also advises students on how to model and build instrumentation that illustrates Physics principles, such as building a circuit board to produce musical tones for string instruments based on the signal strength, using a lawnmower engine to build a hovercraft, building a guidance system for self-driven robot, etc.

The incumbent develops and maintains a detailed equipment inventory of all demonstration and experimental equipment, ensuring that all equipment, supplies and procedures meet the required safety standards. The physics equipment is extremely varied and involves every aspect of physics (e.g. electronic, optical, mechanical, radioactive, and magnetic) and includes the associated counters, amplifiers, power supplies, oscilloscopes and computerized equipment.

The incumbent creates timetables to indicate what is occurring in each laboratory and lecture space every period throughout the week.

Knowledge, skills and specialized techniques required:

• minimum of a 3- year Electrical Engineering program from community college, with a high level of electronics and computer knowledge, or the equivalent training plus experience.
• minimum of three years' experience to be proficient. The knowledge and skills required for this position can only remain current (especially in the computing area) by taking additional courses or self-study.

The following skills and abilities are required:

• Build and trouble-shoot general-purpose analogue and digital circuits.
• Remain current in Physics instrumentation in a challenging environment where demonstrations change on a regular basis. Under the direction of faculty, the incumbent may need to acquire apparatus in a short time frame to meet expectations.
• Stay abreast of current developments in computing hardware and software
• Familiarity with Arduinos (open-source electronics platform)
• Trouble-shoot unusual problems.
• Design new lab experiments and lecture demonstrations.
• Demonstrate appropriate techniques to fabricate and repair demonstration and experimental equipment.
• Strong organizational skills so that several undergraduate lab experiments and lecture demonstrations can proceed effectively and simultaneously.
• Excellent communication skills so that the competing needs of instructors can be accommodated smoothly.
• A high level of energy and focus to carry out greatly varied tasks in widely different parts of the building and in a challenging environment.

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