Topic: Computer Science—From Classical Computing to Quantum Computing

Time: August 16, 2024, 2:00 PM

Speaker: Wei Zhao

Location: China Telecom Museum, 4th Floor Auditorium

Bio: Professor Wei Zhao currently serves as the Chair Professor and Director of the Academic Committee at Shenzhen University of Technology. He has held several prestigious positions, including President of the University of Macau, Vice President of the American University of Sharjah, Dean of the College of Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Division Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Senior Vice President at Texas A&M University.

Professor Wei Zhao has been dedicated to teaching, research, and management in higher education for many years, and is recognized worldwide as a leader and promoter in the fields of higher education and scientific research. Among scholars from mainland China studying in the U.S., Professor Zhao was the first to hold a department-level leadership role in the U.S. government and the first to serve in an administrative position at a top-50 university in the United States. He was also the first mainland Chinese individual to be globally recruited as a university president in the Hong Kong and Macau regions.

A world-renowned computer scientist, Professor Zhao has focused his research on real-time computer systems, real-time networks, and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). His groundbreaking achievements in these areas have been widely recognized by international peers. He and his team have published over 400 academic papers, which have been cited more than 17,000 times. He has received numerous awards, including the "Best Paper Award" at the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, the "Best Paper Award" at the IEEE National Space and Electronics Conference, the "Technology Transfer Award" from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the "Best Paper Award" at the IEEE International Communication Conference. During his tenure at the U.S. National Science Foundation, as the Director of the Computer and Networking Division, he founded and led the research field of CPS, establishing the world’s first CPS funding program. CPS was listed as a top priority research direction in the "U.S. Competitiveness Program."

Professor Wei Zhao has made significant contributions to advancing higher education and scientific research in China. In 2002, he initiated and chaired the "Dragon Star Program," which annually selects outstanding overseas Chinese professors in the U.S. to return to China and teach graduate-level computer science courses. This program has greatly promoted academic exchange between China and the U.S. and has been featured in numerous mainstream media outlets, including CCTV. In 2011, he was appointed Chief Scientist for the Internet of Things 973 Program by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. The "WInternet" system developed under this project made breakthroughs in "Sensing-Transmission-Decision-Control" and received widespread praise from both domestic and international academic communities. In 2019, as a co-executive chair, he helped organize the Xiangshan Science Conference on "Data Science and Computational Intelligence," which had a positive impact on national scientific and technological policy-making. In recognition of his outstanding achievements in science and education, Professor Zhao Wei has received numerous honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the China Association for Science and Technology in the U.S., the Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award from the China Computer Federation, and the "Outstanding Achievement Award" and "Excellence in Leadership Award" from various IEEE technical committees. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from more than ten global universities and elected as an academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, an IEEE Fellow, and a CCF Fellow.