Beck grew up in
Pasadena, and studied electrical engineering as an undergraduate at
California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, graduating in 1984. Next, she started a four-year stint with
Hewlett-Packard in
Santa Clara, California, from 1985 to 1989, at the same time earning a master's degree from
Carnegie Mellon University in 1986. She returned to Pasadena as a doctoral student at the
California Institute of Technology, and completed her Ph.D. in electrical engineering there in 1997. After postdoctoral research at the
Lund Institute of Technology and an assistant professorship at the
University of Pittsburgh, she moved to the University of Illinois in 1999, as an assistant professor of general engineering. She moved to the university's Department of Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering when it was formed from the merger of two previous departments. ==Recognition==