2021Convention Speakers

Keynote Speaker: David Lu

Vice President, Network Systems, AT&T Technology Service - CTO

Biography

David Lu currently leads a global team of more than 2,500 people responsible for the architecture, development, and engineering of AT&T’s next-generation SDN (Software Defined Network) automation platform and open source (Linux Foundation ONAP) enabling AT&T’s network virtualization and target network systems transformation including PaaS & SaaS, policy control & orchestration, hyper-automation and AI/ML-driven data analytics. 

 

David is a well-respected leader in large-scale, real-time software architecture and development, network performance and traffic management, workflow and policy-controlled automation, large databases and big data implementation/mining/analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, software reliability, and quality, and network operations process engineering. He has led major software platform transformation initiatives from sales to the network, service delivery/assurance, and billing platforms. Examples of his achievements include large-scale platforms he has led and engineered that process annually: 4,050 Trillion network performance events and 365 Billion alarms with 99.99%+ automation; 75 Million fiber orders, and 500M Broadband Transactions with 14.4 Billion automated manual steps; and over 90 Billion API transactions.

 

Since joining AT&T Bell Labs in 1987, David has served in various leadership positions at AT&T. He has led numerous automation initiatives in AT&T that resulted in multibillion-dollar savings over the past 20 years and won AT&Ts CIO 100 Award in 2010. David holds 55 patents and frequently appears as a guest speaker at technical and leadership seminars and conferences throughout the world. He has received numerous industry awards including the 2015 Chairman’s Award from IEEE Communication Society for Network and Systems Quality and Reliability and the 2017 CIE AAEOY (Asian America Engineer of Year) Award. David is very active in community organizations and activities including AT&T InspirAsian, AT&T OASIS, AT&T Women of Technology, DFW-CIE, and DFW Asian American Chamber of Commerce. He was recognized by AT&T InspirAsian with the 2015 Corporate Leadership Award. David is an acclaimed cellist, passionate about technology and mentoring, and a very proud husband and father. 

Lia Yeh

University of Oxford, UK IEEE Quantum Education Committee on Quantum Computing Education Efforts

Biography

Lia Yeh is a Ph.D. student in the Quantum Group at the University of Oxford on a Clarendon scholarship. As a steering committee member and quantum education lead of the IEEE Quantum Initiative, she coordinates open discussions and summary reports on how to support teaching and mentoring students in learning quantum information science at the high school level. She is the lead on a grant from the Unitary Fund nonprofit for the Quantum Universal Education online community, which creates free events and community-driven, open-access learning resources at https://fullstackquantumcomputation.tech/ across all areas of the quantum computing stack.  She works part-time at IBM Quantum developing quantum computing educational curriculum using diagrams, for high school students and software developers.  She is one of Major League Hacking’s 2020 Top 50 Hackers for co-founding WomxnHacks (renamed to OceanaHacks) and taught quantum computing to high school students as a TA for Qubit by Qubit’s yearlong free online course.  Lia graduated BS Computing and BS Physics from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, during which she taught/led the Full-Stack Quantum Computation undergraduate seminar course.

Dr. Vikram Kapila

Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Director for Ph.D. Student Development, and Faculty Partner of NYU K12 STEM Education Program

Biography

Vikram Kapila is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He directs a Mechatronics, Controls, and Robotics Laboratory and has held visiting positions with the Air Force Research Laboratories in Dayton, OH. His current research is focused on the convergence of frontier technologies (e.g., robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented/virtual reality, and blockchain) with applications to natural and intuitive human-robot interaction, digital health, and STEM education. Under the Research Experience for Teachers Site, GK-12 Fellows, DR K-12, and ITEST projects, all funded by NSF, and the Central Brooklyn STEM Initiative, funded by six philanthropic foundations, he has conducted significant K-12 education, training, mentoring, and outreach activities to integrate engineering concepts in science classrooms and labs of dozens of New York City public schools. His STEM education research, conducted as a collaborative partnership involving engineering and education faculty, postgraduate and graduate researchers, and K-12 educators, has: (1) created, implemented, and examined over 100 standards-aligned robotics-based science and math lessons and (2) developed, practiced, and examined research-guided pedagogical approaches for science and math learning using robotics. He received NYU Tandon’s 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2014 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award, 2002 Jacobs Innovation Grant, 2003 Distinguished Teacher Award, and 2012 Inaugural Distinguished Award for Excellence in the category Inspiration through Leadership. Moreover, he is a recipient of the 2014-2015 University Distinguished Teaching Award at NYU. His scholarly activities have included 3 edited books, 10 chapters in edited books, 1 book review, 67 journal articles, and 170 conference papers. He has mentored 6 research associates; 1 B.S., 45 M.S., and 10 Ph.D. thesis students; 66 undergraduate research students and 11 undergraduate senior design project teams; over 500 K-12 teachers and 130 high school student researchers; and 18 undergraduate GK-12 Fellows and 59 graduate GK-12 Fellows. 

Dr. Yu Lu

Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Beijing Normal University and Director of Artificial Intelligence Lab, Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education, Beijing City

Biography

LU Yu received the Ph.D. degree from National University of Singapore in computer engineering, and B.S./M.S. degrees from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang University). He is currently an Associate Professor with the School of Educational Technology, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University (BNU), where he also serves as the director of the artificial intelligence lab at the advanced innovation center for future education (AICFE).

Dr. Lu has published more than 60 academic papers in the prestigious journals and conferences (e.g., IEEE TKDE, TMC, ICDM, AIED, AAAI, CIKM, EDBT, IJCAI, ICDE), and currently serves as the PC member for multiple international conferences (e.g., AAAI, AIED, EMNLP, CIKM). Before joining BNU, he was a research scientist and principle investigator at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), A*STAR, Singapore.

Josie Zhou

8+ years with McKinsey Leader of Biotech services in China PhD in Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Biography

Josie Zhou has extensive experience serving global and local biopharmaceutical clients across a broad range of topics in China, with a focus on R&D,launch, growth strategy, commercial model innovation, and organization

Josie has authored articles on China healthcare innovation and most recently the COVID-19 impact on the China biopharma, and she has been one of the co-authors on the yearly McKinsey China healthcare insights in partnership with Biocentury on the “Bridge to innovation” series since 2017

 

Xiaoxue Du

Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab

Biography

Xiaoxue Du is a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab. Her current research focuses on K-12 Artificial
Intelligence literacy at inclusive classrooms.

She received Ed.D in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College, Columbia University, following years of experience as a researcher and practitioner in the field of inclusive education, assessment, and assistive technology. Previously, her research utilized assistive technology to design pedagogical innovation and foster inquiry-based learning environments in diverse schools to meet the needs of students with special needs, especially the individuals across culturally linguistically diverse groups.

She graduated with an Ed.M in Instructional Technology and Media, M.A. in Technology Specialist from Teachers College, Columbia University, and M.A. in Politics at New York University.

Qiang Zhang

Professor of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, on Quantum Communication Technology Research

Biography

Dr. Qiang Zhang, Professor of Physics of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), OSA (Optical
Society of America) Fellow, Chair of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Focus Group on Quantum
Information Technology for Network, Chair of International Conference on Quantum Cryptography. Dr. Zhang received his bachelor’s degree and Ph. D. degree from USTC in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He spent one year in University of Heidelberg as a visiting scholar from 2005 to 2006. After five years of Postdoctoral research in Stanford University, in 2011, he came back to USTC as a Professor of Physics.

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on experimental quantum physics and quantum information. He has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including 1 in Review of Modern Physics, 6 in Nature, 10 in Nature Physics/Photonics, and 35 in PRL(X). (http://quantum.ustc.edu.cn/web/node/142)

Keynote Speaker: Joan Shen

CEO, I-Mab Biopharma

Biography

Joan obtained PhD in life science and is a licensed physician and certified by American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She had postdoctoral trainings in endocrinology, psychopharmacology and clinical pharmacology. Being responsible for global clinical development programs of CNS compounds cross phase 1-4, she worked in Eli Lilly & Co, Wyeth and Pfizer in US, and gained extensive experiences of working with FDA, EMEA, CFDA, PMDA, KFDA and etc. 

Joan was sent by Pfizer in 2011 as the China Clinical Head. She later joined Hengrui Pharmaceutical as the CMO. In Hengrui, she built the largest clinical team among China domestic pharmas and led the successful conduction of clinical trials in China, USA and Australia. Joan joined Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson as the China Development Head in 2015, where she led multiple successful NDA approvals by then CFDA. During this time, she served as the co-chair of the RDPAC R&D core team. Joan joined I-Mab Biopharma as the Head of R&D in 2017 and was promoted to CEO in October 2019.

Joan was newly selected by Endpoint Views as the top 20 women leaders in Biopharma R&D 2021. She was also on the list of  Forbes 50 Women in Tech 2021. Joan is the executive committee member of China New Drug Research Evaluation Committee. She holds academic positions as the guest professor of Beijing University Clinical Research Institute and was the adjunctive professor of Indiana University School of Medicine.

Vu L. Truong

CEO & CSO, Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc. USA

Biography

Dr. Truong is currently CEO and CSO of Aridis Pharmaceuticals. He has over 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical drug development, focusing on the discovery and development of human monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. His academic work and early pharmaceutical development experience centered on nanoparticle drug delivery systems and biopharmaceutical formulations. His product development experience includes FluMist™, Synagis™ mAb, and a number of other monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics.

Dr. Truong is the principal architect of the Aridis technologies, which includes a range of anti-infective products, APEXTM human mAb discovery and production platform technology, and pharmaceutical processing technologies. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Xin-Yuan Fu

Senior Chair Professor & Dean, Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, West China Hospital

Biography

In 1982, as a graduate student of CC Tan 谈家桢 from Fudan University, Xin-Yuan Fu went to USA for a PhD study with the CUSBEA (China–United States Biochemistry Examination and Application) Program. He received his PhD in molecular biology at Columbia University in 1988 (Mentor: James Manley); postdoctoral training in Rockefeller University with James Darnell (1988-1991).  Dr. Fu was an Assistant Professor in Mt Sinai School of Medicine NY (1992-1994); an Associate Professor at Yale University (1994-2003), a Full Professor at Indiana University (2004-2015).  Prof. Fu was the founding director of Tsinghua Institute of Genome Research of Tsinghua University, China (2000-2006) and the Head of Department of Biochemistry of National University of Singapore (2008-2011), Principle scientist and Professor, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (2008-2018). Now he holds a position as Senior Chair Professor,West China Hospital  Sichuan University.

Dr. Fu and his colleagues discovered the STAT gene family and the JAK-STAT Signaling Pathway (Fu and Darnell et al, PNAS 89:7840-7843, 1992; Fu, Cell, 70:323-335, 1992). He has made a number of seminal discoveries in molecular mechanisms of mammalian development, immunity and diseases through his career. Particularly, in the past 30 years since Dr Fu’s original discovery of the JAK-STAT pathway, there are over 50,000 publications on the JAK-STAT pathway, and over eight FDA approved drugs based on the JAK-STAT   mechanism.

In addition, Dr. Fu was one of Founding Directors of SAPA (Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association)in 1993-1994 (New Jersey USA), and worked with a number of none-profit organizations in China, such as Friend of Nature (自然之友) Beijing China,New York Academy Of Sciences in the past.

Michael Zou

Staff Software Engineer in Alphabet, specialized in Machine Learning and Vision Recognition

Biography

Micheal Zou holds a Phd degree in Applied Mathematics from NYU. His research topics are among Combinatorics and Operation Research.

Dr. Zou is currently a Staff Software Engineer in Alphabet, specialized in Machine Learning and Vision Recognition.

Dr. Zou also had several years of research on block-chain technologies. And he was a key founding developer of the crypto mining community MetaMine

Robert Liu

Founder and Chairman of Balance Law Firm

Biography

Robert is the Founder and Chairman of Balance Law Firm, overseeing the firm’s strategic planning and client matters. His legal practice spans a broad spectrum from banking law, financial regulation, corporate governance to civil and business litigation, international trade, employment and labor law, and bankruptcy law.

Prior to founding Balance Law Firm, Robert spent eight years working for IBM Watson in New York City and Promontory Financial Group in Washington, DC, focusing on developing artificial intelligence-based solutions for the financial services industry to meet stringent legal and regulatory requirements, as well as advising large U.S. and international financial institutions on how to comply with US Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, the OCC and the SEC laws and regulations. While at IBM and Promontory, Robert’s clients include five out of the top ten largest banks in the world.

Robert holds a JD from Georgetown University, MBA from Yale University, BS in Finance from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and is a licensed attorney in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington DC and several other jurisdictions.