Yann-Hang Lee is the new associate chair for CSE

Coordinating the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) undergraduate program is high on the priority list of Yann-Hang Lee, School of Computing and Informatics (SCI) professor, as he takes on his new role as associate chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

“Computer Systems (CS) and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) are dynamic and exciting fields,” Lee said. “To maintain our status, we need to look for continuous improvement and bring emerging technologies and applications into our curriculum."

Lee plans to work with other SCI professors in the capstone courses and provide an active learning environment to students enrolled in both the undergraduate and graduate program.

“One of my foci is about recruitment and retention,” he said. “Given that we have a strong CS and CSE curricula, I think we should pay special attention to improve student success and their progress to degree.”

Lee, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan, came to ASU in 2000 after working as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Before that, he worked as a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center immediately after his graduation from his graduate program.

One of his recent research projects is a joint project with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) located in South Korea. The aim of the project is to build ontology for the construction of the generic sequence and control flow of the required service in digital home environment. This project utilizes knowledge representation to generate functions and services in smart home environment for dissimilar houses and distinct residents.

In addition to performing his duties as associate chair, Lee plans to continue his research on embedded systems and software. His current research involves various software and system issues of mission and safety critical real-time embedded systems. This research includes the designing, testing and verification of embedded software and runtime environment for embedded systems.

Lee demonstrates his focus for his new position when he said, “By engaging students and faculty members, we will be able to work out effective strategies that can increase enrollment as well as graduation rates.”