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My Comment on California’s Reopening Plan

I rarely comment on social news or politics, but I just heard California is reopening its economy—people start gathering and dining in restaurants—while it keeps popping up 3K more COVID patients each day. I’m deeply concerned about the situation in the coming cold weather.

Maybe for economic reasons, people have to work to make a living. But if we do it in the same way as we did pre-COVID, we spent 6 months fighting the virus in vain.

People tend to forecast the trend of COVID transmission based on the stat chart. When the daily new case gets to a lower level, they cheer and vow for reopening.

But I hold a strong opinion that the visual trend on the chart is MEANINGLESS for forecast—for a virus-based pandemic, each day is DAY ONE. Whenever there is one active carrier on the street, the exponential growth could spark again.

Attached two screenshots from JHU’s stat site. Data from European countries have proven my opinion. Take the Netherlands as an example, in June, the Netherlands government believed the virus was in control and thus lifted bans allowing bars and restaurant to reopen. Then from the second half of June, we can see a surge in the infection (COVID has a latency period of 7–14 days). And it went way beyond the first wave.

Covid statistics chart of Netherlands, to September, 2020 — Credit: JHU Coronavirus Resource Center, 09/2020

Covid statistics chart of California, to September, 2020 — Credit: JHU Coronavirus Resource Center, 09/2020

So why California is so confident it’s the time to reopen? If they don’t care about the China experience, does it bother to take a look at Europe? Do Californians want to lock down again when the daily new case jumped to 25K?

A friend of mine’s parents who live in California were just diagnosed with COVID. I feel truly sad about it. And I genuinely hope the politician can prioritize people’s life and death beyond economic interest. Money only matters when people are living well!

Uncle Sam, please be consistent, please be resilient, please make prudent decisions for the sake of human life.

Postscript 01/07/2021

California COVID Chart Jan 7th, 2021 — Credit: JHU Coronavirus Resource Center, 01/07/2021

Almost four months after the original post, California now books 40k new cases per day. 10x the level when they loosened the control.

Road Trip Around West Washington and Oregon

In the past holiday season (Dec. 2018), my friend and I had a road trip around West WA & OR.

We spent 4 days touring around the Cascade Range, experienced heavy snow on the Stevens Pass Highway, mist in the Yakama Indian Reservation, gale in the Columbia River Valley, breeze along the Pacific Ocean Coast, thundershower in the very south end of the Olympic Peninsula.

I’m here to share pictures I took during the trip. At the end of this post, there’s a video I made with clips from the camera, the dash cam, and my phone. I hope you find it enjoyable.

What I Have Learned in This 15-Month Intensive Master of Science in Technology Innovation Program at University of Washington GIX

Why I Write This?

December 14th, 2018 was my last day on enrollment at the University of Washington’s Global Innovation eXchange Institute (GIX). I graduated from there with a Master of Science in Technology Innovation degree.

There have been some requests from grad school applicants asking me for first-hand information on the study experience at GIX. To make the information accessible for more people, I am writing this post to share my observation and reflections on the journey.

Who Am I?

To better understand my perspective, you need to know more about my background. Before coming to GIX, I had spent five years in the industry—two years at a Beijing-based startup as Product Manager and experience designer, three years as a User Experience Designer at consultancies. I have a B.Eng. in Industrial Design degree. I learned how to code in Python and develop web layout with HTML/CSS by myself before coming to GIX. To know more about me, please check my LinkedIn.

Things You Need to Know

There are two tracks at GIX so far, MSTI and Dual-Degree. Dual-Degree has components from both UW (MSTI) and Tsinghua University (MEDSIT). Dual-Degree students share the MSTI track with MSTI-only students; in addition, they need to spend half a year at Tsinghua in Beijing for further study and research. Although the MSTI part is shared, Dual-Degree students need to do some research work even while on the MSTI track. So the experience of the Dual-Degree student could be slightly different from MSTI-only students. I was an MSTI-only student, so what I share here solely applies to the MSTI-only track.

Please be advised that what I write here are subjective, other cohort students might agree or disagree with my comments. I encourage you to reach out to past graduates who have a similar background with you for feedback which would align with your track. The program is evolving, we the first cohorts have given significant feedbacks to GIX for iterations. For instance, the sequence of the course for Cohort 2 is different from ours. It is a living program, everything is going better and better.

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Project Diversita: When Machine Learning Meets User Experience

In this two-quarter grad school project, I explored how to unleash the power of Machine Learning to fulfill requirements that were tricky for the previous generation of technologies, with the consideration of Human-Centered Design and Engineering.

Background

Project Diversita was a Microsoft sponsored “Launch Project” at the University of Washington GIX in 2018 under the AI for Earth initiative. It aimed to empower biodiversity research by utilizing Machine Learning (ML) on Edge technology. The ML model had been trained by Microsoft Research based on the iNaturalist dataset.

I received training in Machine Learning and sensors, however for this project my role was mainly on product design. The challenge was to explore the potential market space and find a niche that fits our technology backbone best.

Time Span

Jun. 27, 2018–Dec. 07, 2018

About the Team

A ten-people team consists of UW GIX students (Phelps Xia, Hal Zhang, Ben Keller, and I) and Microsoft researchers (Dan Morris, Lucas Joppa)/engineers (Wee-Hyong Tok, Siyu Yang, Erika Menezes, Xiaoyong Zhu)

Role in the Project

Product Designer (UX, ID), Product Manager, User Researcher

General Objectives

Study the market to identify a niche camera trap scenario to disrupt with Microsoft’s ability in AI.
Ideate concepts that are desirable for the customers, viable for the business and feasible for engineering.
Develop working prototypes to prove the concept.

Keywords

Machine Learning, Edge Computing, Raspberry Pi, IoT, computer vision

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Niu Listed on Nasdaq

Niu Technologies listed on Nasdaq — Image credit: Niu Technologies

EDT 9:30am today in New York City, former colleagues of my previous company—Niu Technologies—started the IPO at Nasdaq.

This is another milestone my fellows have achieved. As once a part of the team for a long ride, I do know how hard they have worked to make it happen. Congratulations to all Niu fellows and early investors.

Some friends have asked if I regret to give up my stakes at Niu to come to study in the US. My answer was, “a thirst for knowledge is the desire among all desires.”

Recently, I started job searching. I’m especially good at cold-starting a new product. I can do a full set of product creation works—from business strategy analysis, product positioning, user research, ideation, concept design to detailed product experience design (both SW & HW), product development management and product launch with marketing fellows. Thanks to the education I received at the University of Washington, I have also touched the US IP and corporate laws. I’m an ideal candidate for a product designer or product manager for a new product line. Please feel free to leave me a message if you are interested to have a talk.