Don Millard
Don Lewis Millard (Born: November 28, 1955)
Dr. Millard currently directs the Academy of Electronic Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), specializing in the development and use of engaging interactive electronic media and educational technology. During his many years at RPI (since 1983), he served as a faculty member of the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department; held several administrative roles. He has been a member of Rensselaer's Center for Integrated Electronics (including five years as the director); served as assistant director of the Design and Manufacturing Institute, and was a senior project manager for the Center for Manufacturing Productivity and Technology Transfer. He currently teaches courses involving Circuits, Electronics, Engineering Design and Multimedia Development.
He has been voted Professor of the Year on two occasions, was selected as Rensselaer Residence Hall Association's Professor of the Month and was chosen by his students as the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Professor. The author of numerous technical papers, presentations, and book contributions, he has received such distinguished awards as the 2003 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware, and the Best Paper Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT) International Electronic Manufacturing Technology Symposium.
He has served as a reviewer for such publications as IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology and the Digital Technical Journal of Digital Equipment Corporation. Millard also has served as an editor for the Metals Subpanel Symposium of the Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Center for Advanced Interconnect Science and Technology (CAIST).
Life
Born in Chicago, Illinois to Harold and Shirley Millard, Don grew up in Skokie, Illinois and began playing guitar at age 10. He traveled with the musical group Up With People in 1973-1974, after which he attended college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He obtained a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from WPI and attended graduate school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy, NY. He did his doctoral work in the areas of plasma physics and electrical testing; generating a patent for the development of a laser-induced, plasma-based "Non-Contact Electrical Pathway," which is used to functionally test ultra fine-pitch electrical components.
He first joined RPI as an Instructor in 1983 (while a graduate student) and began teaching courses and performing manufacturing related research within the school of engineering. Prior to joining the university, he spent two years as a biomedical engineer at Veteran's Administration Hospital in Albany, NY; two years involved with cardiac monitor design at Electronics for Medicine, in Sudbury, MA.
He married Dana Lewis in 1989, although the marriage ended in 2000. The marriage produced two children; Zachary Millard (named after his grandfather, Harold Millard) and Leah Sara Millard (named after her great-grandmother, Sally Bachmann). Don then met Louise Lowe in 2000 and was married to her in October 2003. Louise died unexpectedly from an Arteriovenous malformation on July 5, 2005. He and his two children currently live in the community of Niskayuna, New York, a Schenectady, NY suburb.
Music
He has continued his involvement in music, often playing in various bands (e.g. Carriage House, Deuce) and serving as a studio guitarist for other artists. He has written a number of songs and has compiled them in an album that is titled "Alternatives." A number of his songs have been available via the internet since the mid-90's and have been used in a variety of his multimedia performances.