Attracted by video games and personal computers, I was motivated to continue my life as an electronic engineer and decided to attend an engineering school two days away from my home. Going down this path, I would probably become an engineer like most of my schoolmates and live a decent life. But my curiosity directed me to another path: I found that technology can’t solve problems by itself and oftentimes the scope of technological accomplishment is so limited that it can hardly push the whole society forward, let alone the potentially disastrous impacts. Meanwhile, I noticed that my peers who chose the entrepreneurial path had a hard time sustaining their family businesses and many of them went bankrupt. There is something called “management” in this process which I decided to integrate into my technological trajectory. As I prepared myself for an academic career, it was nevertheless a bumpy journey: I was struggling a lot with both the theoretical contributions and the “publish-or-perish” culture while missing a sense of practicality. After consecutively trying out in top schools in both the U.S. and Europe, I decided that it is time for me to step out of this ivory tower and get my hands on more practical issues. I therefore entered the industry and began my journey in the data world. It is not an easy transition, but I manage to make progresses and further develop myself along the way. I believe that the roles of mentor and mentee are not fixed and we can always learn from each other and that two heads are better than one. If you think I can be helpful in anyway, feel free to reach out to me. After all, “the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind” governs my life.

My Mentoring Topics

• Data analytics topics
• Making the transition from academia to the industry
• Behavioral and decision science
• Automation and causation