Dan's Biography
Serial entrepreneur and author of over 20 patent applications in communication systems, software, data analytical tools and digital curriculum, Dr. Yang has spent the last 2 decades founding a number of start-ups in technology. Her latest venture includes creating an early learning system enabled by data tools and personalized curriculum. She was on Forbs Magazine’s list for the Top Ten Women Entrepreneurs to Watch, awarded the Oscar of the industry – a CODIE Award by the American Software and Information Industry’s Association, and was the recipient of the Stevie Gold Trophy for the American Business Award in 2014. She obtained her PhD in Optoelectronics in University Paris XI, France.
I am working as a scientist in the R&D group of Cyclica where I develop new tools to integrate biological Big Data into the Ligand Express™ pipelines, in order to facilitate the scientific interpretation of our proteome docking solutions.
Founder & CEO of VINCI Education Inc., Founding Principal of VINCI School, Ottawa
My day job is acting as the principal of a growing chain of schools in Ottawa, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Beijing, and Shanghai that use the blended curriculum that I created. My night job is to produce internet movies and shows on parenting. My hobby job is to make my family happy.
Using technology, my company created the very first blended learning curriculum for early childhood education. Not only does it utilize internet technology, for cloud based content, data collection, and analysis, but it also incorporates 3D computer game design for education, which is a first in the industry.
Working with innocent kids.
1) With my co-workers I’ve participated in projects that wired the world with fiber-optic networks, notably including submarine networks that connected China directly with the USA, and Africa with Europe.
2) I’ve made children excited to learn by creating close to 100 3D computer games covering all aspects of early childhood education, from math to languages.
3) I’ve produced a micro-movie about parenting in which I wrote the theme song. It had 2 million viewers within 7 days after its’ release.
4) I’ve raised 2 children of my own who are extremely talented girls, and fostered relative’s children who appear to have a brighter future thanks to my involvement.
On the networking side, thanks to my involvement and inventions in communications, people today can use their phones or computers for exchanging their ideas or messages. On the education side, children simply are happier because of their increased self-confidence.
In 25 years, I hope women holding roles in IT will no longer be a big deal. Girls in IT should be an everyday occurrence rather than something special.
Never let anybody stand in front of you on your path to pursue your dreams.
I think I solved a problem regarding the evaluation and assessment of young children. Since they are not yet verbal, it’s very hard/expensive to assess a young child. But with some playful games, we can collect data and thus, guide teachers to deliver curriculum. My current problem is how to correlate data, as teachers have little sense of IT and people in IT are unfamiliar with education.
Build as many schools as possible to help children to put their future under control.
Teamwork means getting things done. We have a diverse team of tech people, artists, programmers, teachers and operations people. When the team works well together, we can deliver our solutions a lot faster.
Children and their future.
