Embracing Opportunities and Loving What I Do

It is through pure serendipity that my career is in the field of 3D graphics. While in high school, I enjoyed physics and applied mathematics courses. I applied to medical schools and textile universities, which were supposed to be good fits for girls at that time. However, I stumbled into studying electrical engineering in college and later accepted an opportunity to learn in the United States. Through various circumstances, I changed my focus from signal processing to image processing and then, computer vision. After finishing graduate school, my first job as a staff scientist at Wavetracer was to develop a parallel image processing library on Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) machines, and my next job at Kendall Square Research was to develop OpenGL on Multiple Instruction Multiple Data (MIMD) machines. Since then, I have been developing 3D graphics technologies for over 25 years, mainly at AMD, because I thoroughly enjoy what I do and the journey of learning and contributing to 3D graphics technologies.

I have been fortunate throughout my career to have had some great managers, and supportive colleagues and mentors, who valued my expertise and hard work, and helped develop my career. I learned to share my ideas openly, have confidence, and embrace vulnerability—the opposite of what unconscious gender and racial biases could bring. Sharing my ideas helps others to know me. Confidence comes from constantly learning to gain knowledge and expertise, and from the recognition of my contributions; challenges and obstacles are expected while working in cutting-edge technologies. Embracing vulnerability reduces work stress and allows me to let go of concerns in order to focus my energies on solving the problems at hand. These are three key ingredients that enable me to embrace the opportunities I have encountered, love what I do for more than 25 years, and still passionately want to do better.

I feel lucky to have spent most of my career at AMD, having wonderful mentors and sponsors and learning and contributing to creating cutting-edge graphics products. As a woman and a leader in engineering, I benefit greatly from AMD’s culture of diversity, collaboration, and meritocracy. My goal is to give back and help others grow their careers and enjoy what they do by sharing my experience and building their confidence.