Date: Monday, January 9, 2023

Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.

Location: Virtual

Speaker: Janet Davidson

Speaker’s Title: Retired

Speaker’s Affiliation: Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Alcatel, ST Microelectronics, AES

Seminar Title: How global politics and the pandemic turned the semiconductor industry upside down!

Abstract: 
Prior to the US/China trade war and the pandemic, the semiconductor industry had a stable structure. After the start of the trade war, combined with the pandemic, the semiconductor world is dramatically different. This talk will provide some insight into the cause and effect of these major changes. The learnings for engineers in this industry are (1) it isn’t only about technology, (2) politics/regulation matter, (3) try to see the unseen, and (4) flexibility and resilience are key.

Biographical Sketch of the Speaker:
Janet Davidson has a BA in Physics from Lehigh University and a MS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. She began her career at Bell Labs where she designed algorithms for digital transmission systems and wrote software for network management systems. She was promoted into management and ran many businesses throughout her career including optical networking, broadband access, data networking, switching, operations support systems. She remained at Bell Labs as it became Lucent Technologies and after the merger with Alcatel. Some of her less traditional roles include assignments in a medical venture, leading HR for a large business, program management of an outside plant construction contract, leading strategy for Lucent, leading the compliance team for Alcatel-Lucent, and leading the quality and customer care program for Alcatel-Lucent. She retired in 2011 and currently serves on the board of directors for ST Microelectronics and AES.