Nice to meet you!
I am Yao-Jung Wen
Hi! My name is Yao-Jung Wen (pronounced as yào-róng wen). Most friends like to call me Yao since Yao-Jung is quite hard to pronounce correctly. I sometimes like to go by the name Rio as well. There is no specific reason why I choose Rio, and I just like the way it looks and sounds. That is actually what the logo above is about. My lovely wife designed that logo for me, and I really like it!
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Philips Research North America in Briarcliff Manor, New York. I am physically stationed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California under the Philips-LBNL partnership agreement to research new energy-efficient solutions for buildings. This research focuses on developing new technologies for the control of multiple building sub-systems as well as new building simulation tools for developing and evaluating effective energy control strategies.
I received my Ph.D. degree in Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. I completed my dissertation research at the Berkeley Expert System Technology/ Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Laboratory under the advice of Prof. Alice Agogino. I was a member of the Smart Lighting research group in the lab.
My dissertation research focused on lighting control technologies in office buildings utilizing wireless sensor and actuator networks for maximal energy efficiency and user satisfaction. The objective was to leverage wireless technologies to circumvent exorbitant retrofitting cost on advanced lighting systems, and apply techniques, such as sensor fusion, optimization, prediction, etc., to deliver workstation-specific lighting to each user in the most energy-efficient fashion. The abstract of my dissertation can be found here.
I like music, and I play bass guitar. I just love the sound of bass. I am not a professional musician at all and just have enough techniques and knowledge to enjoy playing the bass. I love to play in a band, but I haven't got a chance to play in any band since Sun Age, the last band I had in undergrads. I also like kayaking. I like my water to be a bit rough since it's more exciting. Recently paddling has become my year-round weekend activity, and I've made several good friends from paddling. I like ski too. I started just a few years ago, and still have a lot to learn to master it.