People

The core philosophy of Kean Business School is to equip students with the knowledge and skills to become impactful global citizens. They are committed to using their expertise to build a better future for businesses, government, and communities.Professor Hing Kai Chan has been listed for several consecutive years among the "World’s Top 2% Scientists", as well as named a "Highly Cited Chinese Researcher." He has made significant academic contributions, with over 250 research papers published and nine books (authored or edited) to his name. In recent years, he has led international, national, provincial, and municipal research projects, and has been granted several invention patents.As the new Campus Dean of the CBPM, how will he unlock the institution’s development potential and infuse innovation and momentum into the collaboration among industry, academia, and research? Recently, we had an interview with Dean Hing Kai Chan.Could you briefly introduce your educational background and academic research interests?My initial training was in electronic engineering. After working in the electronic manufacturing industry for a few years, I then moved to industrial management and industrial engineering. I also studied Economics and Management to broaden my horizons. My doctoral degree is about supply chain management, with a focus on flexibility and adaptability in supply chains.Currently, my primary research interests are digital transformation and operations, intelligent manufacturing, sustainable operations and supply chains.What brought you to Wenzhou-Kean University? What was the biggest attraction of WKU?WKU is a truly unique and transformative institution that represents the perfect fusion of Eastern and Western educational philosophies. It was an incredible opportunity for me to be part of it.The biggest attraction of WKU was the commitment to fostering innovation, critical thinking, and leadership among students. I was inspired by WKU's vision of preparing future global leaders with the skills they need to flourish in a dynamic world.Beyond academics, the vibrant campus life, dedicated faculty, and the strong sense of community here are unmatched, to enable students and educators develop and grow. It’s an honor to be part of such a unique institution that strives for excellence in both academic and personal development.What short-term and long-term development goals have you set for the CBPM?In the short term, my focus is on strengthening the already-very-good academic foundation of CBPM. This includes enhancing curriculum alignment with industry demands, fostering greater collaboration between faculty and students, and expanding experiential learning opportunities, such as internships and student consultancy projects, which could lead to valuable case studies. I also aim to build stronger partnerships with businesses and public organizations both locally and globally, ensuring our students are well-prepared for real-world challenges.Looking ahead, my vision for CBPM is to establish it as a leading institution for business education in the region and beyond. This involves cultivating a reputation for academic excellence and innovative research that addresses global challenges. We aim to produce graduates who are not only competent professionals but also ethical leaders. Building world-class facilities, advancing faculty development, and leveraging technology to stay at the forefront of educational innovation are integral to this vision, making CBPM a hub for collaboration, inspiration, and impact in the business sectors.What are your next steps to create an excellent teaching and research environment for both faculty and students?My next steps at WKU focus on fostering an environment for academic excellence, innovation, and collaboration. For both faculty and students, this means prioritizing resources and strategies that enhance teaching and research capabilities. Promoting interdisciplinary partnerships, creating opportunities for knowledge exchange, and ensuring access to advanced tools and technologies that empower both educators and learners to excel are the essentials.On the teaching side, this involves aligning our curriculum with global industry trends while incorporating local perspectives to equip students with the skills and insights needed for success in a dynamic and interconnected world. Additionally, I want to embed experiential learning opportunities—such as internships, industry projects, and case competitions—into our programs, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application.On the research side, I envision cultivating a culture of inquiry and innovation, encouraging faculty and students to explore cutting-edge topics that contribute to both academic advancement and societal impact. By emphasizing collaboration with business communities, governmental organizations, and global partners, CBPM can become a hub of transformative ideas and a catalyst for positive change.What motivates your strong perseverance and passion for scientific research? How do you stay aligned with cutting-edge industry trends and maintain innovation and forward-thinking in your research and patent applications?What motivates me in my scientific research journey is the excitement of discovery and the pursuit of solutions to real-world challenges. The opportunity to contribute to knowledge, improve lives, and make a lasting impact drives my perseverance. I also draw inspiration from collaboration—working alongside brilliant minds across disciplines fuels my passion and helps transform ideas into tangible innovations.To stay aligned with cutting-edge industry trends and maintain a forward-thinking approach, I prioritize continuous learning, actively engaging with the latest research, attending international conferences, and fostering partnerships with industry leaders. Innovation blossoms when research is not only informed by emerging developments but also anticipates the future needs of society and industry.In my view, the most valuable outcome of scientific research lies in its ability to create a positive and lasting impact on society. Research should not only advance theoretical knowledge but also provide practical solutions that address pressing challenges. For me, successfully translating research into invention patents is a way to bridge the gap between academic exploration and real-world application. These outcomes can drive innovation, support industry transformation, and improve quality of life, which is ultimately what makes scientific research so rewarding.Looking ahead, how do you plan to integrate your research expertise with the unique characteristics of Wenzhou-Kean University to bring innovation and momentum to WKU’s research development?I plan to integrate my research expertise with the unique characteristics of Wenzhou-Kean University by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging our global network, and embracing our multicultural educational philosophy. My goal is to establish a dynamic research ecosystem that empowers both faculty and students to contribute to groundbreaking discoveries and impactful solutions.This involves identifying key areas of focus that align with WKU’s strengths and strategic vision, such as digital transformation, sustainable business practices, and business innovations. By embedding research initiatives into our teaching, we can create a seamless integration of theory and practice, further enhancing WKU’s reputation as a hub for academic excellence and societal impact.Ultimately, I envision cultivating a culture of curiosity, creativity, and collaboration that drives WKU’s research development forward.What potential do you see forCBPMin advancing industry-academia-research integration in the future?The College of Business and Public Management (CBPM) is uniquely positioned to lead the way in university-industry research collaboration. With a multidisciplinary approach and access to diverse global perspectives, CBPM has the potential to become a catalyst for innovation and collaboration. Building on my research experience, I envision creating more opportunities for partnerships with businesses, government organizations, and international institutions.These collaborations can foster applied research projects, consulting initiatives, and innovation labs where students and faculty work together to tackle complex challenges. By integrating cutting-edge research into our teaching and training programs, we can prepare students to navigate and shape the future of industries. Additionally, this knowledge-transfer approach can support enterprises in achieving their innovation goals while contributing to the development of forward-thinking public policies.Ultimately, CBPM can establish itself as a hub where academic excellence meets industry relevance, producing research that not only enriches scholarly understanding but also drives tangible progress in the world.Please deliver a message of encouragement to the students at CBPM.To our fellow students at the College of Business and Public Management, I hope your study is not limited to the classroom. Please go outside the classroom and study the real-world problem. I hope you can understand that studying is not just about academics. This is a place for you to explore your development, explore your passion and develop your career. I hope the College of Business and Public Management at WKU can provide you with a platform to achieve these objectives.

This year, four students from Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) receivednational scholarships. Two of them are Xuanxuan Tu from Product Design and Rui Kang,an English major.A Grounded DesignerTu XuanxuanMajor: Product DesignWhen Xuanxuan Tuwas considering her graduation project idea, she noticed that our country still reliesheavily on coal resources. Wanting to make a difference, she took onthe challenge of doing the project on remanufacturing coal ashes. Toachieve this goal, she stepped into the fields of materials science, economics, and electronic engineering, immersing herself in the libraryandembarkingon the journey of disciplinary study. She continuouslyread dozens of English articles in the fields of biology and chemistry andlearned the deploymentand matching techniques of different electronic components. Her efforts have createdasuccessful visual representation of the products designed. Moreover, to further prove that reprocessed coal ash is economically sustainable, she went on to investigate economic analysis papers.▲ The ShellHer exchange experience atKean University in the Fall Semester of 2023 has made her realize the differences behindthe concept of design between China and the U.S. In China there is a focus on the deep meaningbehind products while Americans concentrate on the practicality and commercial valueof products. In her exchange year, she collaborated with Benebone, an American pet toy manufacturing companyto co-design a self-righting toy for pets.Back in WKU, with the hope of aligningwith people’s actual needs, she designed Period Box, which helps women track their menstruation.Additionally, Xuanxuan Tu has participated in enriching extracurricular activities. Sheclaims that her outstanding grades and her experiences instudent organizations, internships, and contests have led her so far.▲ Pet toys designed in the United States▲Period BoxThe Excellent Educator Kang RuiMajor: EnglishRui Kang, an English major,has beenawardedanational scholarship in recognition of her academic excellence and dedicationthroughoutcollege.Over the past four years, she has been consistently working hard, achieved a high GPA, andbeen admitted into the Master’s Education program at University College London (UCL).▲ Internship in primary schoolIn addition to her hard work in academics, she actively took part in extracurricular activities,including the Youth League Committee, RA,andpeer tutoring. Looking back, she says the pandemic was the most challenging time of her college years. As an active party member, she took on the responsibility of collecting nucleic acid samplesfrom students at 6 a.m. daily. It was this experience that deepened Rui Kang’s understanding of the responsibilitythat comes with being a party member. Furthermore, inJune 2023, Rui Kang was honored with the title of 'ExcellentRA' for heroutstanding performancewhen fulfilling her duty as anRA.To Rui Kang, the most impressive course is EMSE3421, an internship course where she had to teach energetic primary school students with short attention spans. To overcome this challenge and keep them engaged, she integrated games into her teaching. An approach that improved students’ participation.So far, Rui Kang has not only helped students in WKU makeprogress in their studiesbuthasalso successfully completed three research papers as the first author.In the future, she hopes to work at an international educational institutionto assist students in steppingonto the global stage.

At the forefront of China-U.S. educational integration, Wenzhou-Kean University continues to write new chapters of innovation. Professor Xie Zhiwu, a scholar with a diverse academic background and a global perspective, has journeyed from Shanghai Jiao Tong University to top institutions in Europe and the United States, before ultimately choosing to settle down at WKU. Holding multiple roles—Assistant Vice Chancrllor for Academic Affairs, Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Director of the Library—how will he drive the development of this young university? Let’s listen to his insights.Please briefly introduce your educational background and academic experience.I studied mechanical engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University from undergrad to PhD, specializing in gas turbines. I spent two years in the UK doing postsoc in computer science, and then moved to the US.In the next 20 years I have worked in different places, including los alamos national lab, johns hopkins medical school, and public broadcasting service, the TV channel that produces sesame street. I started my tenure track at virginia tech, stayed for more than a decade, got promoted to full professor and was given more administrative duties. The MBA was part of my on-the-job training while on an associate dean level position at virginia tech.In terms of research I was kind of a nomad, wandering from one area to the other, but always focusing on problem-solving using computing and information science methods and tools. My first job in the US was working on a NASA program sending a superfluidity experiment test rig to the international space station. I then worked at the los alamos national lab developing digital libraries for scientists. It amazes me how modern science and research has evolved to be so complicated and so specialized that a renaissance man becomes an endangered species.The complexity of modern science is exactly where i see how i fit in. I spend about 15 years working with researchers in various fields. For example, I work with civil engineering professors collecting and processing huge amount of sensor data to answer research questions like, where in the building are lots of people, so we should pump more cool air to that region? Or, if an emergency happens in the building, can we leverage the sensor to immediately lock down the building and direct people to the safest locations? I also work with contemporary historians to collect and process huge amount of web data, to answer questions like, how did patriotic sentiments change over time in certain regions, and with biologists and neuroscientists to process huge amount of microscopy images to answer questions like, what are the statistic features of a certain cell organelle and how does it correlate with the development of Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. More recently, I started working with business professors to unveil secrets in real-time streaming based online direct sales. WKU students interested in this topic should get in touch with me.How did you join Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU)? What is the greatest attraction of WKU for you?Several years ago, I was seriously considering coming back to China. At a professional conference, I ran into a colleague from another US state university. We talked about collaborating on research as well as our own career development. He used to work here and suggested WKU for me. That's how it started.The primary feature of WKU is that it is young and provides endless opportunities to me and everyone in it. Unlike many established universities where the culture and policies are already set in stone and rather difficult to change, here we are still developing and experimenting. Being part of its growth is indeed its greatest attraction. “Start here, go anywhere” applies to all of us as well as the university itself.03What was your first impression of the WKU campus?Awesome! You know, in many US flagship state universities, the president and the provost would be very proud if they could build a single building like ours in a decade. WKU manages to build a whole campus, beautiful and stunning. Words cannot sufficiently describe it, so I would rather rely on your videos to share our successes.You currently hold multiple roles. How do you think your past education and work experience can bring innovation to your new responsibilities?My primary appointment is at the VCAA office, assisting Dr. Yang. The library director job is an add-on to my VCAA portfolio. I help run the College of Liberal Arts while the search for a new dean is underway. However, for the time being, the dean's job takes the majority of my time.I doubt any past experience can fully prepare anyone for all these three jobs, but at least my mishmash of experience provided me with some knowledge and a glimpse into many aspects of these jobs. For example, I had never thought my two-year stint at PBS, the largest public TV network in the US, and my deep collaborations with English department and History Department professors at Virginia Tech could be useful in the future to run CLA, which includes Communications, English, Psychology, and Humanities and Social Sciences departments.What are your current key priorities and plans?At CLA, the focus is largely on maintaining a steady pace of growth while aiming at selected strategic opportunities. WKU teaches all courses in English and CLA offers a high percentage of the university's foundational courses, preparing students for their next three years and beyond. Keeping a high standard on these foundational courses is, therefore, a high priority not only for the college but also for our students’ educational experience. The Psychology department is working to build a state-of-the-art research lab. The communications department plans to add a master’s program soon. The college is expanding fast and hiring many new positions. All these are exciting opportunities.At the VCAA, we are starting to build a more holistic teaching evaluation program as well as a collaborative research seed grant program to promote cross-pollination among different WKU colleges.At the library, we are working towards broader and deeper integration into the university’s teaching and research.As I just mentioned, the VCAA office is working on a new internal seed grant program to promote collaborations between faculty and students from different WKU departments and colleges. Many such collaborations are already happening but can benefit from more administrative support. As the university grows, it becomes harder to know what is going on in a different building, on a different floor in the same building, or even across the hallway on the same floor. This program hopefully can attract researchers across the university to share their ideas and find collaborators in other departments. The program is a seed program because we imagine the collaborations start from this program but do not stop here. With the seed funding, this program can build prior work to enable researchers to seek external fundings and expand the scale of the collaborations.In the context of modern education, how do you view the integrated development of humanities disciplines with technology and interdisciplinary studies?As I mentioned before, my background and experience cuts across many different disciplines. I definitely see interdisciplinary collaboration a main driving force to grow research and scholarship. In liberal arts, it has been a major trend for humanists to leverage digital methods as well as computation and AI tools to discover patterns not seen before. The terms digital humanity and computational social sciences have been around for several decades now. We definitely want to catch up on these. Both COMM and HSS have great potentials in doing so.How can the library move beyond its traditional role as a "book repository" to become an extension of teaching and research?We certainly need to go much farther beyond a repository of knowledge. Instead, we must grow into a research and teaching hub, not only as a place to collaborate, but also technology-ready and skills-ready for doing so. We have been collaborating with various academic departments and colleges to embed digital literacy teaching in various courses, and host scholarly events in the library. We have offered workshops and teaching materials to help students see how modern research is done using computers and digital tools, not just sitting behind a stack of books. We are in the process to build up our research support capabilities, hiring staff with big data and AI skills, to be embedded in various research groups to help solve research problems. We will become a new type of library far beyond just collections and space.In terms of academics and resource acquisition, what unique platforms do you think WKU can provide to the students?We are already a unique information platform. Students at WKU have access to a wealth of physical and electronic books, journals, databases, and other resources, primarily in English, similar to many other universities in the US but very rare in China. The majority of our collections is in English. Every WKU student has a kean.edu account, allowing them to access resources in the US that is not widely available in other Chinese universities. As an example, we are in the process to purchase several hundred sets of Great Courses DVDs, each carefully selected from the best US undergraduate programs, taught by the best professors and carefully produced, to supplement our classroom teaching.How could WKU students improve their academic skills and find their career directions?WKU students are brilliant, hardworking, and ambitious. All the qualities preparing them for a bright future.Fully leverage our faculty’s experience and expertise and the wealth of campus opportunities. Do not close off your campus experience in the classroom, textbooks, exams, and presentations. Pay more attention to experiential learning and research opportunities. Try different things.What would you like to say to the students of WKU and the students who are interested in studying at WKU?To current students, I know many of you are preparing for grad school. GPA is important, but do not let GPA dominate your WKU experience. That would be the most expensive opportunity cost you pay here. WKU does not just prepare you for your grad school. Used more effectively, WKU can also prepare you for your next 20, 30 years.To future students, WKU provides you with opportunities you can rarely get elsewhere in China. Start here, you can go anywhere.