L to R: MASc student Fang Shi, Dr. Zheng Liu, and PhD student Dalin Zhang.
Dr. Liu recently joined the School of Engineering as Associate Professor. His research interested include intelligent sensing, measurement, and instrumentation, diagnostics, prognostics, and Health Management, condition-based maintenance, and computational intelligence and data/information fusion.
Read the interview below to learn a little more about Dr. Liu’s passion for research and improving lives!
Q: What is your educational background – schools, degrees, theses of note (etc.)?
I was educated in China, Japan, and Canada with double Ph.D. degrees from Kyoto University and University of Ottawa.
Q: Why did you become an engineer – who or what inspired you?
I like to build things and like to see how my efforts can improve people’s lives.
Q: What student experiences of your own do you count as the most challenging?
Becoming an independent researcher is the biggest challenge when I was a graduate student.
Q: Why did you choose to work at UBC’s Okanagan campus – what brought you here?
Working environment is important. I like the weather as well as the people here.
Q: What are your research interests and current projects?
Acquiring information and processing information are my interests. In my current projects, we are developing and applying machine learning techniques to solve different engineering problems.
Q: What is the significance of your research — what are the implications?
There is no disciplinary border in my research. Innovations are being achieved by bringing anything useful to research.
Q: What engineering compound, materials, or equipment do you find most fascinating, and why?
One of my favourite tools is R, a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. You will become addicted to R as you can always find something new from it.
Q: Tell me about your laboratory facilities – the kind of research you do there, the students, the equipment and their capabilities.
There are interesting and exciting things that we are building in our lab, e.g. GPU machines for deep learning, Internet of Things, cloud computing, and sensors. I am proud of my students. They are smart, diligent, and willing to help each other. It is my great pleasure to see their achievements in their study, research and future.
Q: What most excites you about the future of applied sciences? About the School of Engineering?
We are facing the challenges and opportunities coming with the fourth industrial revolution. We need to change ourselves as well.
Q: What do you like about living in the Okanagan (special hobbies or interests outside of work)?
Okanagan is a nice place to stay. There are a lot of fun things to enjoy when I have time outside of work.