Overall, young engineers who responded to the EE Times College Survey have a pretty upbeat view of American innovation. Roughly two thirds said the U.S. technology industry is progressing, compared with 29 percent who said it's flat. A mere 6 percent said it's declining.

Most students, fractionally over half, hope that their work will combine both hardware and software. The majority of those who want to focus on just one area, 37 percent of the total, want to work on hardware. Only 12 percent want to work only with software, not a surprising response given the hardware bent of EE Times.

While a pure-software job is low on the priority list, software is a big part of nearly everyone's college schedule. C/C++ is the technology that tops the list of things students have studied, with 85 percent spending time learning about the programming language.

Circuit design was second on the list, with 80 percent learning some skills in this field. Digital design and logic design followed, at 70 and 59 percent, respectively. Those in industry who decry the shortage of analog engineers may be happy to know that nearly half of the respondents, 46 percent, said they have studied analog design.

That's substantially above the number who have studied digital signal processing, which has been one of the hottest technologies in the market in recent years. Just 27 percent said they have studied DSP, the same percentage who have learned about Java. While these percentages might seem low, it's wise to note that most engineers work with a fairly limited number of technologies. Those who work with a given technology often have very bullish views on its future.

"Since I work in compilers and computer architecture, I think the field will still be thriving, especially if Java takes off like it is expected to," one student wrote.

Another popular software environment, Linux, has an attractive feature for college students and professors-it's free. But only 21 percent of our sample took courses that discussed this open-source software.

DVD rules
It could be because it's already in plenty of dorm rooms and apartments, or maybe because it's expected to be as ubiquitous as a CD-ROM. But whatever the reason, students picked DVD technology was as the most important technology of the next three years.

ASICs came in second, with 9 percent believing these semicustom chips will be a mainstay of their designs. The next three picks underscored the widespread fields of study being undertaken by students. Fuzzy logic got the nod from 7 percent, the same level as an IC packaging technology, chip-on-board mounting. Microsoft's Windows got a thumbs up from the same percentage.

Formal verification, one of the key tools in the EDA chest, was chosen by 3 percent. One of those who picked it said verification will be key for the future development of semiconductors.

"Emphasis will mostly be on verification of a product (it already is at that point) rather the design of the product itself. Testability of a design is of most importance as IC densities increase," she said.

These technologies are expected to be key over the next few years. But we also asked an open-ended question, letting students look out a bit further into the future. Ten years is a long time in the fast-paced technical world, and it's quite a bit of time for students whose mean age is 24 years.

Some offered a view that calls to mind George Orwell's "Big Brother." Among the predictions was a comment decrying the stifling nature of ever-larger corporations.

"I believe there will be a stronger emergence of 'corporate cults,' and engineers will either leave corporations to become entrepreneurs or a majority will lose their desire to invent/design creatively," said one student.

A couple of other students expressed concern about a takeover where technical equipment isolates people and makes some workers unnecessary.

"It will be all computer and online. We will not interact much with others. Looking at the new translating devices, they are awesome, but I guess those who are able to speak more than one language soon will not be much in demand," said a woman who expressed great dissatisfaction over the latter point.

"I think it will become less people-oriented and more machine-oriented. People will be communicating mostly over the Internet, instead of the phone, and sending ideas, finished products, etc. . . . using e-mail or posting to company-protected Websites. I think computers will play a larger role in deciding what is feasible for design and will help increase the accuracy of finished products," one student predicted.

Taking amore upbeat tack, one student hoped that the underpinning of the technical world would be shored up significantly.

"There will be a redesign of the infrastructure that supports the technology industry. No more shaky designs built on shaky designs," one wrote.

There's also a feeling that optical devices will gain acceptance in a decade or so.

"I will probably be working with light-based chips instead of power-based chips to overcome the limitations of IC's below 0.18 micron," said a hardware designer.

"Faster equipment, more-automated products and test equipment, entirely new generation of protocols, more emphasis on optical technology," one student predicted.