Linjia Chang

1/23/2018 Joseph Park, ECE ILLINOIS

ECE ILLINOIS alums are some of the most interesting people we know. Linjia Chang (BSEE '14, MSEE '14) answered some of our questions, both serious and fun.

Written by Joseph Park, ECE ILLINOIS

ECE ILLINOIS alums are some of the most interesting people we know. To celebrate them, we’ve decided to ask them questions, both serious and fun. Here, you’ll find their Ten Answers.
 
Linjia Chang (BSEE '14, MSEE '16)
Linjia Chang (BSEE '14, MSEE '16)
Linjia Chang (BSEE ’14, MSEE ’16) joined Intel’s Wireless Connectivity Solutions group in Portland in 2017 as a firmware engineer. She is now developing Bluetooth 5.0+ features. Linjia grew up in Xi’an and Shanghai in China before coming to Illinois in 2011. She is passionate about wireless communication, cooking, and ballroom dancing. She also proudly hangs ECE ILLINOIS pennants at her office!
 
What was your favorite ECE class?
ECE 556 – Coding Theory with Olgica Milenkovic. It’s the most relevant course to my master thesis and I learned so much from it, but more importantly, Professor Milenkovic presented everything with clarity and so much passion, and that’s contagious.
 
When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you spend it?
15 minutes to glance through the news, 5 minutes to send interesting articles and cute pictures to my parents and friends, and 10 minutes to complete the small action items in my emails. This happens on my morning commute pretty much every day!
 
If you could only work on one project for the next year, what would it be?
Continue my half-way done project left from graduate school – use data, math, and science to discover the underlying rules and new methods of cooking food.
 
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
If you want something, let others know. People around you are usually kind enough to help you if they can, or at least get you closer. My manager during my second internship told me this, and I did exactly that to get my internships in Norway and Spain, thanks to the wonderful people who’ve connected me to those opportunities and life experiences.
 
What makes you feel energized?
Going on a hike or a run! I live in Portland now and there’s so much green! Being surrounded by nature really clears my mind, and a good conditioning hike or jog soothes the stiffness in my muscles accumulated by working in front of the computer for too long.
 
How do you tackle a challenge?
Similar to the recursion algorithm in computer science: divide and conquer.
 
If you could choose a super power, what would it be?
Not having to sleep. I could use the 1/3 of my life in bed to do something fun or productive instead!
 
What are you passionate about?
Helping people. It could be as "big" as using my engineering skill and technology to improve everyone’s life in general, or something small like helping a friend proof read his/her graduate school application essay.
 
What’s your favorite technological advance so far?
Electric Vehicles. I care a lot about the environment and think the adaptation of electric vehicles is going to slow down the nearing of energy crisis and climate change.
 
What upcoming technology excites you? Why?
Short time transoceanic travel, possibly in a rocket.
 
I visit my family in China and travel to everywhere often, but long flights are extremely exhausting. If it’d take merely an hour to go from Chicago to Shanghai in the future, I can make better use of my time and vacation days. And who doesn’t want to travel in a rocket?! 

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This story was published January 23, 2018.