Instructor Biographies
Dr. Gerald A. Cory, Ph.D.
Academic/Executive Vice President
Dr. Cory is a retired Lt. Colonel, USAF. Having his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Political Science, Dr. Cory was a Founding Vice President of the University of Phoenix (in charge of Curriculum Development and Faculty Operations), now the largest university in the world. Dr. Cory was also a principle owner and Executive Vice President of the Unuson Corporation, where along with Steve Wozniak, Founder of Apple Computer, he produced The largest musical concerts in world history at that time. Following these two “firsts”, Dr. Cory went to Japan as the CEO of Tandem Computers in 1985, where he produced the largest turn-around for American hi-tech industry in all of Asia, during the decade of the 1980s. In 2005, Dr. Cory was designated a “Legend in Computing, Turnarounds & Behavior” by the prestigious Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE). His publish works are praised in published reviews and authorized endorsements as “path-breaking” by leading scholars in neuroscience, psychiatry, economics, and the social sciences. In the past seven years, he has authored four books, several articles and many scholarly papers. His most recent books include The Consilient Brain: The Bioneurological Basis of Economics, Society, and Politics, Kluwer Academic (2004), and The Evolutionary Neuroethology of Paul MacLean: Convergences and Frontiers (co-edited with R. Gardner, Jr.) Greenwood Praeger (2003). He was president (2003-2004) of ASCAP (The Across Species Comparisons and Psychopathology Society), an international society comprising evolutionary psychiatrists and psychologists. He is a member of numerous academic scientific societies.
Yau-Gene Chan, MFA
Executive Vice President
Mr. Chan received his MFA in acting from UCLA in 1994. While in Southern California, Mr. Chan was on the founding team of USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), producing the interactive program introducing USC’s principle investigators, their projects and fields of expertise in applying for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) $88 million grant to become an Engineering Research Center (ERC) of which, when the grant was received, there were less than five nationally at the time. Mr. Chan taught multimedia, and movement & alignment classes at USC and UCLA. Mr. Chan has Hollywood film and television acting credits in the following projects: Absolute Power (Clint Eastwood, Actor/Director), The Pest (John Leguizamo, Actor), Replacement Killers (Chow Yun Fat & Mira Sorvino, Lead Actors), Baywatch, NYPD Blue and X-Files. Mr. Chan’s first conference paper, on Dual Motive Theory and its application to Chinese rule in the Warlord era of the 1920s-30s, was delivered in an ITU panel presented in the Western Economic Association International’s Pacific Rim Economic Conference in Jan/2007 in Beijing, China.
Dr. Liz Li
Dean of faculty
Dr. Liz Li is Dean of Faculty at ITU. She previously worked as Director and Principal Architect of software engineering at Motorola, Senior Manager and Division Chief Software Architect at Sony Electronics Inc, and Distinguished Technical Staff at Sony Japan and Belgium. She has served as a Professor and Vice President of Education at Wuhan University’s Software School. Dr. Li received two BRAVO! Awards from Motorola for distinguished performance, two granted patents and a Patent Contribution Award from Sony. She received Sony’s CTO award funding for her proposal of a dynamic evolutionary asymmetric key cryptographic algorithm. Dr. Li has chaired the program committee of the IEEE International Conferences of Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems (TOOLS USA) twice.
She received doctorate degrees in computer science from a joint program of China’s Wuhan University and Japan’s Keio University. She received masters and bachelors degrees in computer science from Wuhan University. She has also taken MBA courses from Sony Corporation and leadership and project management courses from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dr. Li’s research expertise is in artificial intelligence, software engineering and management and mobile software. She is fluent in English, Chinese and Japanese.
Dr. May Huang
Head of dept., Electrical Engineering
Dr. May Huang is a professor and chair of the electrical engineering department at ITU. She also serves as a professor at China’s Peking University (PKU) School of Software and Microelectronics. She leads a joint research team with members from ITU and PKU. Dr. Huang brings more than 20 years of Silicon Valley IC design and software design experience to her work. She is a former Principal Design Engineer and Project Manager for Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc. and Hitachi Semiconductor America. She has also worked for VLSI Technology, Inc.
Dr. Huang holds a bachelors degree from South China University of Technology, a masters from Santa Clara University and a doctorate from ITU, all in electrical engineering. She was the first student to complete a doctorate degree at ITU, which she completed under the guidance of ITU founder Dr. Shu-park Chan. Her research expertise is in IC design and methodology and artificial intelligence. Dr. Huang is a member of IEEE working group and was on the balloting committees of VITAL, Verilog and VHDL Analog Extension.
Dr. Amal Mougharbel
Head of dept., Business Administration
Dr. Amal Mougharbel is a professor and head of ITU’s business administration department. She previously worked as a Banking Accounting Trainer for Sharjah Islamic Bank Emirates and as an Accountant Manager for Cyantek Corporation and Palais D’or Corporation in California. She taught business courses at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Sharajah, Emirates, the American University College of Technology, Lebanese University and University Center of Technology in Tripoli, Lebanon. Dr. Mougharbel served as the System-Wide Accounting Curriculum Leader for 12 campuses of the Higher Colleges of Technology and Director of American University of Technology’s tutorial and on line programs. She wrote a book entitled “Current Accounting and Business Articles and Cases” and an Arabic-English Accounting Dictionary. She has also written banking accounting training materials. Professor Mougharbel has presented on various aspects of business administration at several conferences throughout the Middle East, France and the U.S.
She received her bachelors degree in French language and literature from Lebanese University and her M.B.A. in accounting from San Francisco State University School of Business. Dr. Mougharbel received her doctorate degree in accounting and human resources from Université de Corse Pascal Paoli in Corté, France. Her dissertation covered the costs and benefits of implementing intranet usage in enterprises and universities.
Professor Cedrick Chan
Head of dept., Digital Arts
A media and entertainment professional for over 15 years, Cedrick Chan is a professor and head of ITU’s digital arts department. He was Technical Director at George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Producer and Director for Haschel Toys commercials and Visual Effects Supervisor for Disney China. Professor Chan founded and served as Creative Director of MediaBubble in San Francisco and Hong Kong. He did comic book work for Marvel, DC, Image, Now and Tekno Comics. His film credits include the Star Wars prequels, The Mummy Returns and Hero. Professor Chan served as a Production Consultant in video games like Disney’s High School Musical. He was Vice President for New Media for Big Entertainment (now Hollywood Media). He also served as Visiting Lecturer, Creative Consultant and Art Director for Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design.
Professor Chan received his bachelors in computer science with a minor in graphical communications from Lehigh University. He taught screenwriting, figure drawing, and digital design classes at ILM, ITU and Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Design.
Dr. Cornel Pokorny
Head of Dept., Software Engineering
Cornel Pokorny, Ph.D., is the head of the Software Engineering department at ITU. He is also Professor Emeritus of computer science at California Polytechnic State University, where he has spent 26 years teaching in the computer science department. Dr. Pokorny invented several patents concerning the redundancy reduction of an electronic character generator for a Chinese Word Processing Machine. He has experience designing and developing a typography quality font generator for Chinese characters and its GUI, using the X Window System and Motif on a UNIX platform. He has also consulted for ANRAY, Inc. Computerized Color Pre Press Systems.
Dr. Pokorny’s research expertise is in objected oriented analysis and design, computer graphics and UNIX operating systems. His research has been presented at conferences in Beijing and the U.S., including the International Conference on Chinese Computing, and in several textbooks. Dr. Pokorny has been honored as Lecturer of the Year at ITU and for Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise from Cal Poly. He received his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees in computer science from the Technical University in Vienna Austria.
Dr. Barbara Hecker
Head of Dept., Engineering Management
Dr. Barbara Hecker is a professor and head of the Engineering Management department at ITU. She also teaches computer science courses at California State University. With over 17 years of experience in technical support, IT and customer service, Dr. Hecker has worked as Director of Information Systems for Wingspan Investment Partners, LLC and Flat Rate Communications. She also worked as a Technical Engineer for PartPlace-Digitalk, Inc. and Brown Bag Software, Inc.
Dr. Hecker received her bachelors degree in business administration from San Jose State University. She holds masters degrees in information systems and telecommunications from Golden Gate University and a doctorate in computer science from Nova Southeastern University. Her dissertation covered the use of post-processing algorithms to improve the quality of handwritten text recognition. Dr. Hecker’s research expertise is in algorithm development and software engineering systems design and analysis.
Professor Barbara Arnoldussen
Professor Barbara Arnoldussen is a healthcare management professor at ITU. She has experience serving as Clinic Director for Catholic Charities of Santa Clara, Associate Director for Quality Improvement at Stanford University, Outpatient Clinic Coordinator for Stanford Hospital and Clinics and a Consultant for NASA Patient Safety Reporting Program. Arnoldussen has written three books to educate nurses and received top scores in 8 accreditation efforts by JCAHO, AAAHC and AAHRPP.
Professor Arnoldussen graduated magna cum laude with a bachelors degree in nursing from Marquette University and an MBA from San Jose State University, where she focused on program management. Her professional certifications include CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality) and MHRS (Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist). She is also ANCC board certified in psychiatric and mental health nursing.
Dr. Ahmad Chekeni
Dr. Ahmad Chekeni is a business administration professor at ITU. He founded Whole-Human Foundation, an educational organization that attempts to articulate what it means to be human. As Co-Director of Thumbling Child Care Center, he does curriculum design, evaluation and assessment work. Dr. Chekeni helped found Iran’s Free University and served as Director of Iran’s Pooyesh Educational Institution. His research on teaching, education and poetry (including research methodology, the inquiry process, creativity and analytical perspective) has been featured in the International Journal of Lifelong Education and Foundation University Islamabad’s publications. He published textbooks titled “Models of Teaching” and “Philosophical Foundations of Education,” and (three books of poetry).
Dr. Chekeni studied business administration at Abadan Institute of Technology in Iran. He holds degrees in curriculum design from Stanford University and in educational counseling from University of San Francisco. He received his doctorate in language, literacy and culture, with a minor in anthropology from Stanford.
Dr. Frank Aguilera
Dr. Frank Aguilera is a business administration professor at ITU. He previously served as a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Dr. Aguilera was a NASA Aeronautical Engineer for over 20 years. As Special Assistant in the Flight Vehicle Research and Technology Division, he coordinated Joint Planning and Department Office (JPDO) partner departments and agencies to develop a new Safety Management System (SMS) for the U.S. air transportation system. He develops SMS guidance for the implementation of systematic procedures, practices and policies for aviation safety management. Dr. Aguilera also manages NASA Aeronautics aeromechanics, autonomous flight systems, systems analysis and integration research.
Dr. Aguilera received his bachelors degree in aeronautics from San Jose State University, his masters in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and a doctorate in public policy from Golden Gate University. Dr Aguilera is chair of the Airworthiness and Flight Safety Review Board for NASA’s Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight activities.
Dr. Min Wu
Dr. Min Wu is a software engineering professor at ITU. He previously served as a Research Assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he designed and implemented effective defenses against internet phishing attacks by proposing a set of unique user interface design principles. Dr. Wu also designed a novel interface called Web Wallet that uses the design principles he proposed to prevent phishing attacks. His research interests include human-computer interaction, user interface design, usability and security, computer and internet security and web browsing and automation. His research has been published in several publications and was nominated for an award by the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Dr. Wu received his bachelors of science in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He received masters of science and doctor of philosophy degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Seema Vaid
Dr. Seema Vaid is a business administration professor at ITU. She has over 14 years of experience teaching direct, distance and online undergraduate and graduate business courses across the U.S., India and Australia. Dr. Vaid has taught at National University in San Jose, California, San Jose City College, Colorado Technical University Online, Sydney Business Academy, University of Western Sydney, Punjab University and Regional Institute of Management and Administration in India. She also served as U.S. Sales and Marketing Manager of Rishi Publications USA (a company that specialized in creating academic and research-oriented publications). Her research on mutual funds has been featured in publications across India.
Dr. Vaid received her bachelors degree in commerce from Lady Shree Ram College in New Delhi, India. She received her masters and doctorate degrees in management studies from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India.
Dr. Venkatesh Gopal
Dr. Venkatesh Gopal is a business administration professor at ITU. He has previously served as a Technical Expert, Salesperson, Marketer and a Business Development Professional for Applied Biosystems, General Electric (GE) Healthcare, Becton and Dickenson and Co. He developed mouse models for pulmonary diseases and conducted collaborative drug research with Pfizer at Vanderbilt University. As a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Gopal focused on cancer biology. He developed a diagnostic aid for the detection of “egg-drop syndrome disease” (a viral infection in poultry) with Alved Biologicals in India. He also established systematic studies to demonstrate the efficacy of P. amarus plant extract on Hepatitis B patients at India’s ICMR Regional Center for Hepatitis Research. Dr. Gopal has presented his research at various national and international conferences and is published in several scientific journals.
He received his masters in chemistry from Madras University and his doctorate degree in biotechnology from Anna University in Chennai, India.
Dr. Xiaoshu Qian
Dr. Xiaoshu Qian is an electrical and software engineering professor at ITU. He has taught two dozen digital communications, DSP, hardware/software design and applied mathematics courses to engineers and graduate students at ITU and other institutes. He has also developed training courses for Intel University. Dr. Qian works as Modem/DSP Group Manager in the Broadband Wireless Division for Intel Corporation. He previously worked as Senior Staff Design Engineer at Intel. Before joining Intel, he worked for different Silicon Valley start-up companies and Dallas-based Texas Instrument Corporation. Dr. Qian has worked on algorithm design and their hardware, software and firmware implementations in digital signal processing and communications for over 19 years. He has authored or co-authored five journal papers, five conference papers and was awarded five patents.
Dr. Qian received a bachelor degree in physics from Zhejiang University in China. He received his masters in computer science and mathematics and a doctorate in electrical engineering from University of Rhode Island.
Dr. Dominik Schmidt
Dr. Dominik Schmidt is an electrical engineering professor at ITU. He also serves as Senior Director of Wireless Engineering in Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, where he created the first mobile cellular product with Intel CPU, the design of which won many prestigious industry awards. Previously, Dr. Schmidt co-founded Airfly Communications Corporation, a wireless protocol semiconductor company that was acquired by Intel. Dr. Schmidt has more than 80 patents granted or pending, published several technical publications.
He received a bachelors degree from University of California at Berkeley with a double major in electrical engineering and materials science. He received double masters degrees from Stanford University in electrical engineering and technology management. Dr. Schmidt also earned a doctorate in electrical engineering (focusing on ultra fast mixed-signal circuits) with a. minor in aeronautical engineering (with a focus on space-based communications) from Stanford. He is a senior member of IEEE, ARRL, NSPE, AAAS, SPIE, MRS and the Naval Institute.
Dr. Eric Chen
Dr. Eric Chen is an electrical engineering professor at ITU. He is a leading professional in cutting edge commercial algorithm development. He previously worked as a reconstruction developer for GE Healthcare. Dr. Chen has taught computer science courses at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include computational geometry, robotics and parallel computing.
Dr. Chen received his bachelors degree in computer science from the University of Sasketchwan. He received a masters degree in math and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Waterloo, where his dissertation covered solving geometric problems in space-conscious models. His research expertise is in computational geometry, primarily designing algorithms and data structures for geometric problems with massive data sets.
Dr. Jeong Hee Kim
Dr. Jeong Hee Kim is an electrical engineering professor at ITU. He previously worked as an Adjunct Faculty at San Jose State University, a Senior Software Verification and Testing Engineer for Broadcom, a District Manager for Panasonic and a Consultant for Electronics, Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Sybersay Communications, and Bell Labs in Lucent Tech. His research experience is in noise reduction algorithm development, optimization and performance analysis, as well as adaptive filtering process.
Dr. Kim received his bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas and his masters degree in electrical engineering from West Coast University. He received his doctorate degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University, where his thesis covered stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation.