Bench Talk

(Source: Author)

Are you eager to compete with fellow engineers or friends and show off your technical knowledge and engineering know-how? Mouser Electronics has an app for that. 

Tech Quotient is a Mouser-branded app that tests your tech acumen with entertaining tasks and quizzes. The free app can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play, and players can immediately compare their skills and knowledge. Challenges range from word scrambles and crosswords to multiple-choice quizzes and ranking questions.

The app generates thousands of questions from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math categories. For fun, the occasional zany general knowledge question is thrown in. Players receive merit badges for different technical achievements, and a global leaderboard highlights the game's top players. Mouser considers the app, categorized as educational, a way to engage with engineers and tech enthusiasts. It is engaging, and here's one user's experience. 

The opening screen gets you in the game right away. You can register, or simply try out the game. Before you start, you should tap on the Game Tutorial (enjoy the relaxing music) and choose from tutorials for Multiple Choice (Figure 1), Word Scramble, Word Order, Match the Pair, and Crossword.

Figure 1: In addition to other challenges, Tech Quotient serves up multiple-choice questions. (Source: Author)

When you're done with the tutorial, it's game time. Tap Try Game! You’ll start each game with three lives. After a countdown, the game loads and serves up a question in which you have one full minute to answer (no fair Googling). You get five questions, and they can vary from easy to difficult. For every question answered correctly, you accumulate points and can keep working your way up the leaderboard. Three wrong answers are like three strikes–you're out.

At least the rules sound easy enough. So this user tried a sample run. The first challenge in Round 1 was unscrambling the words on the scientific study of inanimate matter. The second challenge was a multiple choice on determining which number is not a rational number. The third question was to match the following Greek mathematicians and their contributions to civilization. It was like Jeopardy meets Brain Bowl with a tech twist.

The best this user could do was 105 points. The global leader from the U.K. had amassed 1,141 points. But the app is young, and the leaderboard will no doubt change.

Engaging apps are not new for Mouser. Its Pick Pack Ship game, also available on the Apple Store and Google Play, challenges your reaction skills. Tech Quotient is challenging, but in a different way (Figure 2). Just by playing, you're learning while sharpening your tech knowledge. For example, did you know that Routh–Hurwitz criteria gives roots in the right half of an s-plane? If so, you will be ranked above me on the Tech Quotient leaderboard.

Figure 2: Tech Quotient app tests your technical acumen by quizzing your knowledge from a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines. Compete with other players to earn a spot at the top of the global leaderboard. (Source: Mouser Electronics)