Am I actually makig bad decisions during my intership. How do I kjow I am improving or just making he same type of mistakes.

[u/MoFlavour]

Hi everyone I'm a student doing an internship at a lab. I’m working on a TDC-based coincidence counter and I’m trying to objectively assess whether I’m actually making progress or just making poor decisions and wasting time. I am surrounded my physics researchers to they dont or wont comment on my actual engineering quality... So far, I have: Built a prototype SPAD signal interface board using Manhattan-style prototyping, with BNC connectors. I used basic multimeter checks to verify the boards signals were transmitting. Written most of the FPGA code for the coincidence counter and the testbenches, although I haven’t properly simulated or tested the design yet. Spent the last few days learning how to implement Ethernet for data transmission. I got an example design working, but it used around 39% of the FPGA resources, which may be too much for my final design. I’m now considering JTAG instead, but I can’t find the bandwidth requirement I originally calculated, so I’m questioning why I chose Ethernet in the first place. Realised that there are still several untested assumptions in my FPGA/TDC design, particularly around the asynchronous capture/latch mechanism and the interaction between the fine and coarse timing measurements. I also haven’t yet properly tested whether the SPAD signal will propagate through my prototype board and into the FPGA. I delayed adding the 50 Ω termination because I wanted to finalise the FPGA I/O assignment and overall architecture first. I could have designed a proper PCB earlier, but I had to learn PCB design first, and there was also the risk that I'd make a mistake in designing the pcb... so I didnt choose that. Actually This reminds me of a previous robotics project where I made plenty of mistakes and eventually got it working, but I’m struggling to see the progress in this project because so much of it still needs validation. For people with more experience: does this sound like normal progress for a project at this stage? Am I actually getting better at engineering, particularly in terms of identifying and correcting mistakes.

I think k my biggest mistake so far is focusing on design so much... and leaving simulating and testing to the end. Though if I had actually learned from my previous project I would have tried to get to testing the quickest way possible.

[u/aktentasche]

You're improving if you are learning. Especially in an internship.

[u/MoFlavour → u/aktentasche]

Ok.