Electronics technologist

Queen's University; Kingston; On-site; CAD 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading academic institution is seeking a Laboratory Technician in the Physics department. The role involves maintaining lab equipment, assisting students with engineering projects, and ensuring the safety and functionality of laboratory demonstrations. Candidates should have a background in electronic engineering technology and several years of relevant experience.

Qualifications

• Community college training in electronic engineering technology needed.
• Minimum of three years' experience required for proficiency.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and repair equipment used in Physics labs.
• Assist students with design projects in engineering courses.
• Create timetables for lab schedules.

Skills

Troubleshooting

Circuit Design

Communication

Problem Solving

Education

3-year Electrical Engineering program

Job description

Summary

1. Give a short summary of the duties and responsibilities of your job.

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

• 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.

2. To fulfil your duties what knowledge, skills and specialized techniques are required? How would each be normally acquired? How long would it take to become proficient in each of the areas of your work?

Community college training in electronic engineering technology, complemented with a high degree of mechanical and instrumentation aptitude, is essential. This position requires a 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.

This position requires a 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.

3. Is it necessary in this position to oversee the work, or to instruct other staff? If so, what does this involve?

The incumbent instructs lab demonstrators, students, external users, and faculty in the proper use of all of equipment, focusing on safety and using the equipment effectively. The incumbent oversees the initial operation of all equipment used by external individuals at conferences and some demonstrators.

4. What other people must you deal with in this job and why? (i.e. is there direct contact with students, teaching staff, other departments, and people outside the university community).

The incumbent deals with course instructors and the students who utilize the classrooms, labs, lecture theatres, and equipment within the department. Faculty, staff, lab demonstrators, visiting speakers, other technicians, and undergraduate/graduate students all make demands of the incumbent's time for reasons of direction and/or use of tools, equipment, and audio-visual facilities. The incumbent also consults with and advises second-year and third-year Engineering undergraduate students in design and/or instrumentation course work as needed. Provides backup to the upper-year technician in the event of his absence.

5. How is your work assigned to you and how closely is your work checked by someone else?

Requests for laboratory experiments and demonstrations, audio-visual setups, and other equipment come directly from the faculty or teaching staff individually. The incumbent takes responsibility and initiative for the operation and monitoring of the laboratories, teaching areas, and the equipment assigned, with little day-to-day supervision required. The successful operation of these areas is the primary check of completed work.

The incumbent reports to the Department Manager on matters of attendance, workload, and review of performance. The Department Manager may occasionally assign duties to the incumbent that are not related to the demonstration core or teaching laboratories.

6. a) Are the sorts of problems encountered in this job usually covered by established procedures or do you frequently have to develop or invent solutions to problems yourself.

Most problems are due to an equipment breakdown resulting from heavy use and/or misuse. Quick solutions are required by either repairing or replacing the equipment. While some problems are routine, unexpected ones require ingenuity in the type of repair and resourcefulness in finding substitutions and solutions. Consultation with the Department Manager may also be required in the event of difficult issues.

b) Are you involved in establishing standard procedures? (Give examples)

The incumbent develops and maintains standard procedures for identifying, storing and distributing equipment, particularly as it relates to the undergraduate Engineering labs. Some of this equipment is shared among several laboratories (for example within Arts and Science) and may be switched from one location to the next. In some instances, the incumbent must coordinate with the instructors and revise the lab schedule accordingly.

7. a) What is the size of your department (i.e. #of classes for which you are involved with labs,# of students,# of staff you might come in contact with,# of technicians in department).

The Physics department size is as follows:

Faculty 40

Adjunct professors 3

Graduate students 113

Admin staff 7

Technicians 6

Department Manager 1

Research staff 25

Associates 2

Emeritus Professors 12

First-year students 1,600

Second-year students 400

Third-year students 250

Fourth-year students 110

Laboratories 17

Classrooms 11

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