Meet the Expert: Lisa Leinbaugh, Electrical Engineer
As a kid, I loved collecting rocks. I still go rockhounding when I can. Rocks are made of minerals. Minerals have amazing crystal structures. I decided to study electrical engineering in college because semiconductors are made from crystals that conduct electricity.
After over six years of college, I earned my masters degree and went to work for a company that makes CPUs, computer brains. At the time, the size of individual circuit lines were 1/100 the width of a human hair. One tiny particle could make the whole CPU fail. My job was to find those particles before they caused problems. I used laser scattering, pattern matching, and high-power microscopes to find particles. I analyzed the data from experiments I designed searching for which equipment caused the particles.
Nowadays, I write books for kids. I always put interesting science in my stories. I live with my husband and three kids in the heart of Silicon Valley in California most of the year. During the summer, we live in a rustic cabin with an outhouse. Her website is lisaleinbaugh.com
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Challenge:
Grown your own crystals, so you can understand how silicon crystals are grown. Here is a great resource: https://sciencenotes.org/how-to-grow-crystals/.
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Recommended Reading:
Code This!: Puzzles, Games, Challenges, and Computer Coding Concepts for the Problem Solver in You by Jennifer Szymanski
Booklist:
Help Your Kids with Computer Science by DK (Author)
Kids Can Code!: Fun Ways to Learn Computer Programming by Ian Garland
Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code by Laurie Wallmark (Author), Katy Wu (Illustrator)
