2015 aaeoy technical Symposium Speakers Biography Session 1b dankai Liu (jpl/nasa)

Before OCO’s appointment, Dr. Dankai Liu was the Chief Engineer for SAC-D/Aquarius project which was launched on June 10, 2011, for the first global Ocean salinity measurements.

Dankai has served numerous critical positions for JPL Flight

Currently, Dr. Liu is working and has participated in Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s prestigious and successful space exploration projects which including that of Deputy Flight System Manager and Deputy Chief engineer for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Flight System Manager for Mars Telecom Orbiter, Assistant Division Manager for Flight Projects of the Avionic Systems and Technology Division, Flight System Manager for the GALEX Project, Avionics Manager for Deep Space One Mission, and the Attitude Control System Lead for the Mars Pathfinder Mission.

Among the numerous distinguished recognitions and awards presented to Dankai are The Engineer’s Council Outstanding Engineering Achievement Merit Award, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, JPL Leadership Excellence award, and Technical Excellence award, Distinguished Alumni Awards from Tatung University and Texas Tech University and Distinguished Immigrant Building America award from American Institute in Taiwan.

Jonathan Jiang

Dr. Jonathan Jiang is a Principal Research Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He is the Editor of American Geophysical Union's journal of Earth and Space Science. He is also the President of Chinese-American Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, Southern California Chapter. Dr. Jonathan Jiang earned a B.Sc. of Astrophysics in 1985 from Beijing Normal University; a M.Sc. of Astrophysics in 1991 and a Ph.D. of Atmospheric Physics in 1996, both from York University in Canada. Prior to coming to JPL in 1999, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at McGill University and a Research Associate at University of Quebec at Montreal. Dr. Jiang has twice received NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals in 2010 and in 2013 for his leadership and innovation in Earth science research using NASA satellite observations.

Peng is a Lead & Principal Reliability Analyst at Pratt & Whitney AeroPower. He is responsible for aftermarket reliability tracking, reporting, and analysis. He also provides extensive reliability engineering analyses to support commercial APU programs, such as APS5000 APU for Boeing 787, PW980 APU for Air Bus A380, APS2600 APU for ARJ21 & MRJ. He has been recognized as a reliability expert and industrial statistician within the company.

In her career, Jinghua has been involved in many high-profile transportation projects. The projects she’s worked on encompass a wide range of regions in the country, including Southern California, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Columbus, Honolulu, Kansas, Salt Lake, St. Louis, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, North and South Carolina, Florida, etc. She also presents and publishes papers based on her research/work on TRB conferences, ITE annual meeting, etc.

Group Co. (CREEC), one of the largest engineering firms in China. He is responsible for the

operation and business development of CREEC in North America market. With over six decades’ history, CREEC has successfully forged and developed itself into a comprehensive and international corporation. CREEC plays a significant role in high-speed railway development of China and accumulated rich experience in the design of passenger dedicated railways, as well as passenger and freight mixed railways. CREEC has solely or jointly completed survey and design service for high-speed railways of nearly 10,000 km (6,220miles) with the speed from 125 mph, 155 mph to 220 mph. Mr. Hou joined CREEC since 2004 and held various positions including Director of South Africa Branch, Director of Project Financing Department as well as various technical positions. Mr. Hou has a Bachelor of Apply Science degree from the University of Toronto, Canada and conferred Professional Civil Engineer Title in China since 2009.

Session 3B

Jiawen Li

Jiawen Li received her bachelor's degree in optical engineering from Zhejiang University, China, in 2010. She is currently a PhD candidate at University of California Irvine and going to receive her PhD in June. She has pioneered in developing novel miniature minimally-invasive imaging technology, which provides superior capability in identifying high-risk plaques in patients and preventing heart attacks (significantly better than commercially available products). She has published more than 8 high-profile journal papers (such as in JACC, a best journal in cardiology field) and given more than 15 talks in prestigious international conferences in the past four years. She is the only Chinese graduate student that is elected as an honor student and reported on UC Irvine websites.

Debiao Li, PhD, is the Director, Biomedical Imaging Research Institute

Dr. Li is a MRI physicist. Received Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1992. He taught at the Washington University, St. Louis as an assistant professor, and at the Northwestern University, Chicago as a professor. Currently, he is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Director of MRI image research institute at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. He published about 200 academic papers.

Chun-I P. Chen, Ph.D. (陳君儀) President, IT & Management Services, Adjunct Professor, California State University, Fullerton.

Dr. Philip Chen has over 30 years of IT experience. Previously, he held various IT management and technical support positions in Fortune 500 companies. Currently, Dr. Chen is an independent IT consultant and an Adjunct Professor teaching in the department of computer science at California State University, Fullerton.

Peter Zhang (章华)
Dr. Peter Zhang (章华) is a technology-savvy professional with over twenty year experiences and demonstrated success in IT Industry. He has served as senior consultant, IT director, project manager, principle software engineer, web architect, senior program analyst, and web developer. He is recognized as an expert in Cloud Computing and Big Data in our local Chinese community. He has been involved in the Cloud-based web development, database design-mining-modelling, and business intelligence projects for US government, Fortune 100 company (SAIC) and small/median enterprises. Dr.

Zhang graduated from the University of Minnesota and Capella University. Since 2012, he has become an entrepreneur and founded ZHTECH Corporation in California, USA. The company is mainly engaged in the Internet business, ERP, CRM, as well as cloud computing and big data-related projects. Dr.

Zhang is also serving as Adjunct Professor, California State University at Fullerton, Distinguished expert of China International Talent Exchange Foundation, Amazon and Microsoft's strategic partner in Cloud Computing and Big data, and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) judge.

Session 2C

Yiping Cao (曹轶平)
Dr. Yiping Cao is a senior microbiologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Molecular Microbiology, and a M.A. in Applied Statistics, both from the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. She also holds a B.S. in Environmental Chemistry from Nanjing University, China.
Her current research areas center in the development and evaluation of microbial source tracking and rapid indicator methods for assessing microbial contamination in waters and the associated public health risks. She has conducted extensive research related to implementation of qPCR and digital PCR technology in environmental applications. She also specializes in applying microbial ecological tools, including sophisticated next generation sequencing and statistical tools, in water quality research. She authored 25 peer-reviewed research journal articles and one book chapter on subjects ranging from bioremediation, microbial community responses to environmental stress, microbial source tracking, and advanced molecular technology. She has eight years of experience in applying and developing statistical tools in environmental research, particularly on the topics of experimental design, statistical analysis, and modeling.

Wang Xi (奚 望)

Wang Xi is Project Manager in Gouvis Engineering Consulting Group at Newport Beach. He obtained his PhD degree of structural engineering from UCLA and started his engineering practice in early 2014. His current work includes concrete, steel and wood structure design for multi-family residential housing and commercial facilities. Dr. Xi has also been being active in academic society of Civil Engineering. His research interests focus on earthquake hazard mitigation for civil structures utilizing advanced structural control technology. He has developed a numerical hybrid simulation platform for passive, semi-active and active structural control

devices. Dr. Xi serves in several professional societies as well. He was the former President of EERI/UCLA chapter and the Event Committee chair of OCCSEA. EERI/UCLA team won the 1st place in the national seismic competition with Mr.Xi's contribution.

Tachen Lee, a California licensed architect, has over 20+ years of experience in architectural design and project management and construction administration. His experience consists of various healthcare, retirement housing and community projects. As a project director, he is responsible for supervision for a few project managers, the development of projects from schematics and the construction document phases through the completion of construction administration. In addition, Mr. Lee also obtained the LEED AP certification from USGBC in 2003.

Mr. Wong is from Hong Kong originally, and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. He has a BS in biology, a MS in Chemistry, and a doctorate in education from USC. During his career with IBM where he spent 23 years in Southern CA, he worked with many large information technology or engineering organizations where he came across many competent Asian-American technicians, but very few rise to the higher ranks of management. So as a giveback to the Asian-American community, he joined AAPA over 10 years ago to become a mentor.

From our research and experience at AAPA, we know how to help Asian-Americans assess career development needs and tailor a career development plan to maximize leadership potential and get through the "Ceiling."

Chuching Wang (王竹青)

Chuching received his Ph.D. degree from UCLA. He has been a professional Civil Engineer for 26 years, specialized in water resources planning and system modeling and analysis. He is currently a Senior Engineer and project manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Chuching have been very active in the Chinese American communities. He has served at the leadership post for many prominent nonprofit organizations. He was the 2003-04 President of NTUAASC, 2004 Chairman of JCUAA, 2008-09 President and Chairman of the Chinese American Professional Society (CAPS), and 2010-12 President of the LA 80-20 Political Action Committee. He is currently serving as CAPS Science & Technology Chair, and LA80-20 PAC Endorsement Committee Chair.

Robert Liu is an Associate Professor at Modern Languages Department, East Los Angeles College. He got his Master’s Degree at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, China. He is the president of Chinese American Education Association, vice president of Chinese Teachers Association, secretary of Chinese American Professionals Society.