Elnaz Ansari earns Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement

Elnaz Ansari, PhD candidate in EE, has received the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement. Elnaz is a member of the Wireless Integrated Circuits and Systems (WICS) group, directed by Prof. David Wentzloff.

Her research interests include analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs. In particular, she focuses on very large-scale analog (VLSA) design, a design methodology conceived of by U-M researchers. Elnaz implements large-scale analog circuits using automatic design techniques that are mostly used in digital system designs. Using these techniques, she has fabricated a high-speed, high-resolution digital to analog converter (DAC) in 65nm CMOS technology.

“I feel integrated circuit desgin is a very practical area in electrical engineering,” said Elnaz. “We are doing research that is very close to what’s done in companies. And our research impacts electronic devices we use every day, like your phone and your laptop. I find it very rewarding.”

In the past, Elnaz interned with Qualcomm Inc., working on the design of wireless transceivers for 4G/LTE applications. After graduation in a year, she intends to return to industry.

Elnaz has co-authored several research papers that were presented at both the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). She is a member of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) and Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS). In her free time, she takes cooking courses and tries to master a variety of different cuisines – with some Chinese, Japanese, and several different approaches to seafood already under her belt.