Linda Milor concentrates on yield, reliability, and manufacturing of analog and digital circuits. Her most recent work has been in the development of design tools to estimate the lifetime of circuits.
Milor majored in engineering physics for her undergraduate degree because she found it to be more challenging and interesting than pure math. After taking courses in many different engineering areas, she liked electrical engineering the most and made that her focus in graduate school.
As an undergraduate, Milor held several summer jobs related to engineering and found the work to be menial. Part of the reason why Milor decided to pursue a career in academia was to be able to control her work assignments. “I find the work that we do to be creative,” she said. “It is exciting to write proposals about new ideas, and then attempt to validate these ideas through working with my Ph.D. students.”
Milor feels that one misperception about engineering is that it is all about working with your hands. “Engineering is about building mathematical models of physical phenomena, and using these models to analyze and design new products,” she said. “Engineering cannot be done without a strong background in mathematics.”