Dr. Milena Vujosevic holds a resume spanning 25 years in the semiconductor industry that’s the envy of every engineer, ranging from tours at Motorola, Intel and now TDK InvenSense where she manages a global team as senior director and head of MEMS sensors packaging technology development.
Recently, she was honored as Sensors Converge Woman of the Year, giving her another platform to discuss her passion for coaching and mentoring of technical women. She has also held leadership roles in women’s networks at ASME and IEEE.
Her current position gives her responsibility for packaging and manufacturing of multiple technologies including motion, pressure, and ultrasonic sensors for mobile, automotive and drone applications. Japan-based TDK employs 129,000 workers globally across its broad spectrum of technologies. The impact of technical solutions she has developed over her career has been valued at $500 million.
After accepting the Woman of the Year Award, she thanked Sensors Converge for the recognition and TDK for nominating her. In emails to Fierce Electronics, she also discussed her upbringing in the former Yugoslavia in southeastern Europe (now Montenegro) where there was a strong emphasis on science and math education for women and where engineering was considered a prestigious profession.
The following interview is lightly edited:
FE: Congratulations on being named Woman of the Year! What does it mean to you?
MV: I was very honored and humbled for being recognized. It’s important for future generations to see visible role models in STEM, and I’m glad to play a part in continuing to raise awareness about the critical role that women in technology play.
I accepted the award with the hope that I can inspire up-and-coming women engineers to pursue careers in our field. I strongly believe that by being inclusive of the creativity and talents of all the human population, we will create better technologies that improve people lives. I am looking forward to that day when technical women will be proportionally present at all technical and leadership levels across high tech.
A big problem for women in engineering is a lack of role models. It is difficult to become what you cannot see. Without role models you do not necessarily know how to exist in a profession where vast majority of people around you do not look like you, do not have similar life challenges as you, or similar motivations as you.
This is one of the reasons why there are well documented issues with retention of women in technology. It is, I believe, also a part of the reason behind the limited number of women pursuing engineering education. Awards like these provide the much-needed visibility that can hopefully inspire other women.
FE: How would you describe challenges you have faced as a woman engineer and professional?
MV: The challenges I have faced are not that different from experiences of other women in engineering. Being often the only women in the team, you are not a part of informal interactions where camaraderie, information sharing, and trust are formed. Yet, it is exactly these informal interactions that often determine future opportunities and growth. Another challenge was lack of role models – for years there were no senior women in my environment and certainly not in my management chain.
My challenges have also been related to, what I would call, my violation of commonly held expectations on how a women should behave: if I behaved in a way that was rewarding for my male colleagues, that was considered “aggressive”; if I behaved in a way that was more measured, that was considered “too soft”. I made some adjustments, but ultimately decided to be true to myself and do what is right for the project, for the team, for the organization. Execution and results do matter!
FE: What’s your advice for women engineers facing such challenges?
MV: My advice for women facing similar challenges is to be technically competent, make sure you work on projects that are of strategic importance for your group, understand what spoken and unspoken values are in your environment, work well with others, and execute.
FE: Can you talk about your work and outstanding achievements?
MV: I have been privileged to contribute to some of the most advanced technologies in the world that have revolutionized the way we live and work. Technologies I have helped develop range from the most advanced IC chips that power today’s computers, datacenters, phones to a large number of advanced MEMS sensor technologies in consumer, automotive, medical, and industrial applications.
I am most proud of the innovative methodologies I have developed with my teams for design and risk assessment of electronic packages. These methodologies are based on the first principles approaches. They are multi-physics in nature and are leveraging the most advanced computational and experimental tools of contemporary engineering. I am also proud for the influence my work has had on challenging established ways of thinking in the reliability of microelectronics.
FE: Who are your personal heroes?
MV: I grew up in family in the former Yugoslavia where there was never a limit on what I could do, and in a place where there was nothing unusual about women pursuing science and engineering degrees. This, I believe, gave me confidence in my early years to pursue higher education and later to overcome some roadblocks I have faced along the way. Also, at some important milestones during my education and in my career, there were people who have advised me, advocated for me, and opened new opportunities. Today, I am trying to pay it back by being that type of mentor and advocating for others around me.
FE: Can you talk about growing up where there was nothing unusual, as you say, about women pursuing science and engineering degrees? That is markedly different than in the U.S., even today.
MV: Yes, I grew up in former Yugoslavia. Over there, the engineering student body was very proportional, so I never thought about gender issues. This is probably the reason why, after coming to the U.S., it took me three years before I realized that I was the only woman in my Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering at Arizona State in the 1990s.
MV: Why were things so different there?
MV: I am not a social scientist, but I believe that the reason why in my home country girls were going into science and engineering on par with boys can be traced to several things.
Social upheavals before and during the Second World War in former Yugoslavia resulted in many changes in society in the middle of the 20th century. First of all, the destroyed country needed to be rebuilt so, contributions of all were required.
Also, the social changes for which many women fought emphasized equality. That meant creating equal educational opportunities for ALL which resulted in a system of free education from pre-school through college.
So, the prior tendencies of families to finance education of sons and not of daughters was eliminated. Also, once in school, from a very early age you could explore whatever you wanted without any financial implications for your family.
Educational programs from pre-school through high school were centrally created with a very high standard for what is considered a minimum education. So, both boys and girls faced the same high-level expectations for math and sciences. I believe this is crucial, because in school like in life people will rise to meet the expectations we put in front of them.
Science and engineering were also considered prestigious professions, so it was a matter of pride being admitted to an engineering college. [Vujosevic holds a degree in structural engineering from the University of Montenegro].
FE: Do you ever get home to visit?
MV: I was there last month, in Montenegro on the Adriatic Coast.
FE: Any final thoughts?
MV: One more thing. To have adequate representation of women in technology, it Is not enough just to educate enough women scientists and engineers. We need also to retain them, since that has been a long-standing industry problem. See for example Stopping the Exodus of Women in Science (hbr.org) This is why focused efforts of many high-tech companies in recent years, I believe, could create a positive change.
FE: Thank you Milena Vujosevic, Woman of the Year!
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