Dr. Jizhong Xiao is a professor in Electrical Engineering at the CUNY City College and professor in Computer Science at CUNY Graduate Center, the City University of New York (CUNY). His is the founding director of CCNY Robotics Lab. Dr. Xiao is passionate about creating an educational pipeline to attract high-school students to STEM disciplines, mentor undergraduates with robotics projects, and supervise graduate students pursuing Master or Ph.D. degrees.

Dr. Xiao served as a judge for the NYC FIRST robotics competition (FRC) in 2003~ 2013, and as a coach/mentor for the Titanium Knights FRC Team of Bergen County Academy (2016~2018), and as faculty mentor for CCNY Robotics Club and CCNY Autonomous Vehicle Design Club. Dr. Xiao is a recipient of NSF CAREER award in 2007, the CCNY Outstanding Mentoring Award in 2011, and Dean’s Award for Excellence in research, teaching and service at CCNY in 2019. He received the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, 2013~2015.

Dr. Yuying Q. Gosser graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China with a BS in Polymer Physics. After obtaining a Master’s of Chemical Engineering in China she came to the U.S. and earned a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry and NMR from Brown University. She did postdoctoral research on multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy at Yale University and on NMR structural biology at Rockefeller University. Before joining the CUNY City College, she worked at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) to study protein and RNA structures and their interaction with potential drug molecules. Her research finding was published in prestigious journals Nature, and Nature Structural Biology.

At the CUNY City College, in the Science Division, supported by NSF and HHMI Science education fund, Dr. Yuying Q. Gosser established the Pathways Bioinformatics Center and the Gateway Laboratory and directed undergraduate research training in Structural Biology and Bioinformatics.

She joined the National Genomics Education Partnership and developed a research-based Bioinformatics course and students completed over 150 gene annotation projects in her thirteen-semester teaching.

In the School of Engineering, in close collaboration with faculty, she developed a research-oriented engineering scholarship program. She successfully directed many aspiring engineering students to nationwide research institutions, such as NIST, IBM, JPL, etc. She also served as the Executive Editor of the Journal of Student Research (JSR) since its inception in 2008.

The 2015 City College President’s S.T.A.R. Award recognized her dedication to undergraduate research, and she was invited to serve on the Biochemistry and Structural Biology Review Panel for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program from 2014 to 2016.

Dr. Yaoqing Liu is an Associate Professor in Gildart Haase School of Computer Sciences and Engineering and the program coordinator of the M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance program (MSCSIA) at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU). He has supervised dozens of undergraduate and graduate students for their theses and projects. His publications appeared in highly reputed conference proceedings and journals, such as IEEE INFOCOM, and ACM SIGCOMM CCR.

His research work has been selected as one of the 2018 TechConnect Defense Innovation Awards. Dr. Liu is passionate about providing K-12 students with strong educational opportunities in Computer Science and Cybersecurity. He was a judge and organizer for several college-level international programming competitions, and currently serves as an advisor and instructor for American Computer Science League (ACSL) contests.

Dr. Weitian Wang’s research focuses on collaborative robotics, smart systems, and their CRoSS-disciplinary applications. His advisees including high school interns, undergraduates, and graduate students have received multiple best paper/best presentation/competition awards in the fields of robotics and AI at academic conferences and STEM events.

He is the recipient of Montclair State University Advising Excellence Faculty Advisor Award. Dr. Wang is enthusiastic about STEM education and develops numerous education and outreach programs for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students. He is the Founder Advisor of Montclair Robotics Club. Dr. Wang is the recipient of the IEEE STEM Champion Award.

Dr. Jianwen Que is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University. His research is focused on biotech, stem cells and tissue repairs following injury. His well cited research has been published in top journals including Nature, Cell Stem Cell etc..

Dr. Que has been training students and postdoctoral fellows at different career stages, and his students were from high schools, colleges and universities. He was a founding member of Columbia University Asian Faculty Association (CUAFA) and served as Member-at-Large for three years (2020-2023).

Dr. Hong Zhao is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Dr. Zhao serves as the Chair of the IEEE North Jersey Section. She had been a judge/organizer for the IEEE Student Presentation Competition for the past ten years (2009-2019).

She has organized student poster competition for the IEEE North Jersey Advanced Communications Symposium (2015-2022). Dr. Zhao has been involved in student activities/internships initiated by both academia and government agencies. She is a faculty advisor of FDU IEEE Student Branch. Dr. Zhao received the IEEE Region 1 award for Outstanding Support for the Mission of the IEEE, MGA, REGION 1 and Section.