5 Minutes with Prof. Gary Yen

IEEE CIS Student Activities Subcommittee invites you to get to know the pioneers and experts in the Computational Intelligence. This month "5 minutes with..." focuses on pioneer Prof. Gary Yen.

1. What is your title, full name, and place of work?
   Hi, my name is Gary Yen and I am currently a Regents Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA.
2. What grade of member in CIS are you?
   I am an IEEE Fellow, class of 2009 with the citation of "For the contribution in the Intelligent Systems and Control."
3. How long have you been a member of CIS?
   Well, from its very beginning. I was sent as a representative in Neural Network Council AdCom, first from Robotics and Automation Society from 1995-1998 and then Control Systems Society from 1999-2000. In 2001, when Neural Networks Council was transformed into Neural Networks Society, I have been a loyal member since then.
4. One reason why you are a member of CIS:
   It is my belief from the very beginning knowing our field of interest would change the world. Mixed with a sense of pride and hope for a better future, I have continued been a member of CIS.
5. What was your service pathway in the Computational Intelligence Society?
   From early time as AdCom Representatives and a key player in assisting Herbert Rauch to lay solid foundation for TNN, my services span into Publication Activities (initiated NNC Newsletter in 2000 and printed newsletter, IEEE coNNectionS, in 2003 to serve as founding editor-in-chief for IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, 2006-2009; Associate Editor for TNN, TEVC, and TETCI), Membership Activities (initiated Tour de China in 2006; developed new chapters in China, India, Brazil and Southeast Asia), Conferences Activities (chaired 2006 WCCI and 2016 WCCI, both in Vancouver; served as Invited Sessions Chair for WCCI 2008 in Hong Kong, Finance Chair for WCCI 2012 in Brisbane, Plenary Sessions Chair for WCCI 2014 in Beijing, and now Conference Chair for CEC 2018 under WCCI 2018 in Rio, member of ConfCom and chair of TCS Subcommittee), Technical Activities (chaired NNTC, 2000-2002 and VP Technical Activities, 2004-2005), Education Activities (initiated Youtube video clip competition to outreach younger generations) and Administrative Activities (served as President, 2009-2010, chaired awards committee, 2008-2009, 2014-2015, chaired fellows committee, 2016-2017, chaired strategic planning committee in 2010). A healthy professional society called for numerous talents and diversity experiences and background to extend its service to its membership. I have been a beneficiary of my beloved society.
6. What is your typical working day?
   Well, from as early as 9am to as late as 9pm, I suppose, Monday to Friday and more often than not, Saturday and Sunday as well. You probably need to ask my wife to get an accurate answer.
7. What is your ideal weekend?
   My dream weekend will be a breakfast in bed, a relaxing morning exercise, an afternoon in baseball park, and a nice dinner with my family. In between many hours of uninterrupted readings.
8. Give one interesting fact about yourself:
   I think "a strong commitment to everything I want to accomplish..."
9. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment:
   I like Bruno Mars music for exercising and I enjoy in reading Dan Brown’s novels. I am reading “Origin” lately. If time permits, I am watching “Supernatural” and it has been thirteen seasons running now.
10. Favorite place:
    New Zealand would top the list for me, if you ask. I think anywhere will be a favorite place for me if I am accompanied by someone I love or someone I care.
11. Person you would most like to meet – past or present, real or fictional:
    With the flurry of Marvel’s Heroes movies, it would be really cool to have a unique power myself (how about means to communicate with mind power) and meet my fellow super heroes.
12. What items would you take on a deserted island and why:
    A couple nice journal papers to keep me entertaining… heck, I had brought some journal papers into delivery room when my wife delivered our first baby. Sean is now 26 years old.
13. Can you share with us one success story that will motivate young members and provide useful guidelines for their careers?
    It is the personal touches I believe that would make the true differences in someone’s life. To our younger professionals who are in their early career, they need to believe that they are in an technical area that would make the differences of our every day’s life and Computational Intelligence is the darling of our generation, a match in heaven with the real-world problems at hand and computing/data resources at our disposal.