Joint Women in Microwaves and Young Professionals Panel at IMS2023

Jasmin Grosinger, Shirin Montazeri, Johana Yan

This year, at the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in San Diego, we held the first joint event of the Women in Microwaves (WiM) and Young Professionals (YPs) groups. The event was a panel session at which female industry representatives from both large companies and start-ups discussed what YPs need to succeed in the industry. The panelists gave examples of various career paths and answered audience questions. The panel was moderated by Michelle Kopier (Microwaves & RF).

The panelists (Figure 1) were Shirin Montazeri (Quantum AI Team, Google); Maddie Frank (account manager, Formlabs); Wendy Shu (CEO, Eravant); Sathya Padmanabhan (general manager, Maury Microwaves); and Anouk Hubrechsen (CEO, ANTENNEX). These women provided an overview of their career paths and presented their individual mottos to be successful in the industry. Their biographies can be found in “Panelists and Mottos.” The audience was particularly interested in getting advice on how to start a successful career. In addition, questions were asked about why our panelists decided to work in a large company or in a startup. Another question was: What can men in microwaves do to support women in microwaves better? Similarly, the audience asked what mid-to-late-career engineers can do to support early-career professionals.

Figure 1. The joint WiM and YPs Panel at IMS2023. Five female industry representatives gave YPs advice on championing the industry.

Panelists and Mottos

Shirin Montazeri

“Passionate, Fearless, Committed”

Shirin Montazeri received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2018. During her Ph.D., she was a research assistant working on low-power LNAs, RF transceivers, device modeling, and monolithic microwave integrated circuit designs for radio astronomy and quantum computers. She was a recipient of the 2016 Microwave Theory and Techniques Graduate Fellowship Award and the 2019 Best Ph.D. Dissertation Award. In 2018, she joined Qualcomm Technologies, where she worked on the next generation of 4G/5G transceiver chips. Currently, she is a research scientist at the Google Quantum AI team working on RF/microwave integrated circuits and systems for the control and readout of quantum computers. Shirin is also serving as the 2023–2025 vice chair of the MTT-S Low Noise Techniques Technical Committee and the cochair of the WiM Engineering Committee at IMS2023.

Maddie Frank

“Progress is perfection.”

Maddie graduated with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and is currently an MBA candidate with a focus on finance at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Deviating from more traditional electrical engineering applications, Maddie has concentrated her studies, extracurricular activities, and employment in metal and polymer additive manufacturing since 2015. In 2019, Maddie took first place in the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Advanced Finishing Technical Competition, and in 2018, she took third place in AMUG’s Advanced Concept Technical Competition. She was also awarded her first patent in 2023 for a dust collection device for cutting machines. Maddie is passionate about blending her additive manufacturing and electrical engineering disciplines and demonstrating the wonders of technology to underrepresented groups and students.

Wendy Shu

“Have courage to do hard things.”

Wendy Shu is the CEO at Eravant (formerly known as SAGE Millimeter), an engineering firm that designs and manufactures hardware for millimeter-wave and sub-THz applications. In this capacity, Wendy oversees the organization’s business development and operational excellence. She is passionate about the owner-operator experience and has seen how technology can be a powerful equalizer.

Wendy received her B.A. degree in international relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and her J.D. from the USC Gould School of Law. She is a member of the State Bar of California and serves as the board president of the Torrance Cultural Arts Foundation.

Sathya Padmanabhan

“To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” (Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach)

“Know your goals, know your strengths and weaknesses, be aware of your competition, and now find what’s unique that you bring to the table—That’s your way to success.”

“Be persistent and patient—like a Chinese bamboo tree.”

Sathya Padmanabhan is theh general manager at Maury Microwave Corporation and is responsible for all operational aspects of the business, from strategy to execution. She joined the company in December 2006 as a microwave engineer responsible for product development and has since held various technical, management, and leadership positions within the company. Sathya received her B.E. degree in 2001 in India and her M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA, in 2004, emphasizing RF and microwave engineering. Her research work and thesis were on calibration and measurement accuracy. She has been instrumental in working with her teams at Maury Microwave to innovate and create a paradigm shift in S parameter and load-pull measurements.

Anouk Hubrechsen

“You always have a no, but you can get a yes.”

“Your best quality is having a good boss.”

Anouk Hubrechsen received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 2017 and 2019, respectively, where she is finishing a Ph.D. degree. She was a guest researcher with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA, in 2018 and 2019. There, she was involved in reverberation-chamber metrology for Internet of Things applications. She is the cofounder and CEO of AntenneX B.V., a company that develops over-the-air measurement instrumentation for 5G-and-beyond applications. Anouk received the Regional and District Zonta Women in Technology Awards in 2019. From 2020 to 2021, she was the vice chair of IEEE Benelux Women in Engineering. She is a Graduate Student Member of IEEE.

After a 60-min panel, the panelists mingled and answered additional questions from YPs. As organizers, we are very happy with the outcome of the panel and look forward to more of these joint events between WiM and YPs in the future. The next joint event is the joint WiM and YP event at European Microwave Week 2023 in Berlin. Find more information here: https://www.eumweek.com/conferences/Joint-WiM-YP-Event.html.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3303666