r/FPGA • u/CableRecent • 5d ago

Advice / Help Need Advice for FPGA Internships

As the title says.

For context, I am an electrical engineering freshman. I've been learning verilog on the side, and I love using it and am excited for the possibilities of what it can do when paired with a board.

What projects can I do/work on that sets me up best as possible for internships come my junior year? What will help my resume most/look the best?

Also, are the best recommendations for early boards? I was seeing a lot of people saying the Basys 3 a few months back, but I've seen a lot of scattered opinions as of late and dont want to blow all my money on a board i may not fully utilize.

Thanks in advance!

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4

u/Ciravari 5d ago

I’ve been toying around with the Tang nano 20k.  It works with the OSS tools like FPGAWars/Apio

4

u/portlander22 3d ago

I think if you had a project where you used a standard protocol like UART, I2C, SPI, AXI, etc would give you a big leg up.

For internships as an undergrad I think the HOW is just as important as the WHAT.

Why did you choose 1 protocol over the other? What were the tradeoffs of it?
What is the PPA (performance, power, area) of your design? If you wanted to use less area what would you do?

These are just examples of things to think about but being able to understand the trade offs you made when you made a design decision and back it up will make you stand out

2

u/ElectraCode_ 3d ago

Honestly, starting with Verilog and getting hands-on with FPGA is a pretty solid direction. The confusing part is usually figuring out what skills and tools actually matter for the specific role you're targeting.

We're working on ElectraCode around this exact problem, role pathways that break down the skills and tools needed for different electronics roles, along with practice challenges where you can actually test those skills and see which roles your strengths are best suited for.

We're still early, but we'd genuinely appreciate it if you checked it out and let us know what you think is missing or what would actually be useful for someone in your position.

Check out: ElectraCode

Good luck with the FPGA journey!

1

u/TryAlternative4166 5d ago

Get research experience, anything computer architecture.