Peking University, March 18, 2018: On March 2, the public elective course "Dialogue with Global Innovative Master” in Peking University opened up this year's first lecture, delivered by Dr. Wu Jun, an expert on natural language processing, and also a Silicon Valley venture investor.
The lecture was held at PKU's Global Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an enterprise incubator for students on campus. Since 2011, this "Dialogue" course, prioritizing a cross-cultural innovative education of intensive theoretical and practical instructions, has gained accruing popularity among students. The course, now supported by joint efforts from College of Engineering (COE) PKU, DeTao Master, CITIC Publishing Group, and Context Lab, has exerted an extensive influence and inspired many who seek an early venture in the business world.
Before the lecture, Wang Jianxiang, vice dean of COE, introduced the background of the course, followed by a speech by Dr. Wu, who shared his experience as a pioneering researcher in the field as well as his view about technological progress from a historical perspective.
Wu was witty and highly interactive with the audience. His case analyses won rounds of applause and the auditorium teemed with laughter. Wu’s viewpoint on the collaborative relationship between incorporations and employers was acclaimed for its thoughtfulness.
Low social mobility has been a topic of heated discussion in recent years. Dr. Wu remarked rather jokingly that, though the “window” for class “upgrading” seems to be closing, the way downward is always wide and clear. He argued that it is relatively easy to join the middle class, but to become an elite is much more demanding. Expertise in a particular area is a prerequisite but never a guarantee; insights and ideas, as he stated, would play a much more important role. Wu commented on the current general education curriculum, urging students to engage in a variety of disciplines.
As a former PKUer, he also made some personal suggestions. "Fall in love with someone, keep some close friends around and develop a hobby, for love makes a full-blooded man, friendship a good heart, and a hobby an interesting soul". Finally, Wu demonstrated the importance of pushing our limits further by comparing academic diligence to the hard work of an Olympics champion.
The "Dialogue with Global Innovative Masters" course is made available by COE and DeTao Masters. In near future, this course will invite more preeminent experts from home and abroad.
The second lecture this semester will take place on March 16. Max Howard, the former president of Warner Bros. Feature Animation and also producer of a number of classic Disney movies, will share his reflections on the animation industry.
Introduction of Dr. Wu Jun
Dr. Wu Jun is an expert on natural language processing and also a Silicon Valley venture investor. His research focuses on the design and implementation of algorithms for information retrieval and natural language processing.
As a scholar, his unique views of computation and network have gained international commendation, and relevant publications have won multiple awards and honors.
During the years at Google, Dr. Wu designed the Chinese, Japanese and Korean searching algorithms as well as Google's natural language analyzer. During 2010-2012, he was the vice president of Tencent's searching advisement program. After that, he returned to Google again, working on computer automatic responses.
Dr. Wu started his career in venture investment from 2008 as the co-founder of Amino Capital in Silicon Valley. He is also a visiting professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University and a board member of the College of Engineering at John Hopkins University.
Written by: Feng Shasha
Edited by: Ma Xiao
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
Reference:
Dialogue with Global Innovation Master course:
http://dean.pku.edu.cn/englishcourses/cs_detail.php?kcid=00333400&kclx=2
Amino Capital: http://www.aminocapital.com/cn
Max Howard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Howard
Wu Jun's homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/junwu02/
