Computer Hardware Engineers
There's hardly a home or a company today without a computer. People use computers for so many things - they let us save and store information and files, and without them we wouldn't have video and photo editing software, document writing tools, or analysis and statistics programs. We also wouldn't be able to use the internet or browse websites without computers and smartphones, which also run on computer technology. But have you ever thought about how computers are actually made? And who's responsible for building and developing them? A computer hardware engineer is the one who handles manufacturing and maintaining all the parts that make up computers, whether desktops or laptops. They're also responsible for designing the software and operating systems found in products like computers, smartphones, cars, airplanes, rockets, and other products that rely on computer technology.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Update knowledge and skills to keep up with rapid advancements in computer technology.
- Provide technical support to designers, marketing and sales departments, suppliers, engineers and other team members throughout the product development and implementation process.
- Test and verify hardware and support peripherals to ensure that they meet specifications and requirements, by recording and analyzing test data.
- Monitor functioning of equipment and make necessary modifications to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
- Build, test, and modify product prototypes, using working models or theoretical models constructed with computer simulation.
- Analyze user needs and recommend appropriate hardware.
- Direct technicians, engineering designers or other technical support personnel as needed.
- Confer with engineering staff and consult specifications to evaluate interface between hardware and software and operational and performance requirements of overall system.
- Select hardware and material, assuring compliance with specifications and product requirements.
- Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
- Write detailed functional specifications that document the hardware development process and support hardware introduction.
- Specify power supply requirements and configuration, drawing on system performance expectations and design specifications.
- Provide training and support to system designers and users.
- Evaluate factors such as reporting formats required, cost constraints, and need for security restrictions to determine hardware configuration.
- Design and develop computer hardware and support peripherals, including central processing units (CPUs), support logic, microprocessors, custom integrated circuits, and printers and disk drives.