'We're always looking for new problems to solve'

Jia Yuan Yu’s research has taken him to many interesting places across the globe — from Tokyo to Stanford University in California, and from École Normale Supérieure in Paris to four years as a research scientist at Dublin’s IBM Lab and adjunct faculty member of the Dublin City University. He arrived at Concordia in 2015.

“I love Montreal, and I wanted to bring the lessons I learned abroad back to my hometown,” says Yu, who obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering from McGill University in 2010.

Last year, Yu was officially welcomed into the Concordia community as an associate professor where he taught his first course at the university on supply chain design — an experience he found to be enriching. 

“I really enjoyed it; when you teach something it's like learning it all over again,” says Yu, who got creative in order to facilitate that learning in his classroom.

“One thing I’m quite proud of is that I was able to introduce the notions of supply chain to my students through in-class games. On the first day of class I had them play what I call ‘Beer Game,’ in which they take on the roles of suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. Through this game my students were able to understand the types of decisions you make as a supply chain engineer.”

‘Research is the life of a professor’

Beyond the classroom, Yu’s research sees him working closely with industry representatives, something for which his seat at Concordia is well-positioned.

“One of the elements I found most attractive about a career at Concordia is that it has a great relationship with District 3, one of the biggest startup incubators in the city.”

Yu’s research interests revolve around applying data science and decision theory to smart cities and internet-connected devices. Currently, Yu is a scientific advisor for District 3 startup Mr. Stitches, and is helping them to fully automate their embroidery system.

“Research is the life of a professor. We're not happy with what we already know, we're always looking for new things to learn and new problems to solve. Concordia has a very good research environment and a strong history of fostering startups.”

This term, Yu teaches a graduate level game theory course. He will reprise his course on supply chain at the graduate level next term. As he moves forward as a young professor, Yu has already set himself objectives for the coming years.

“I want to give my students opportunities to work alongside industry to solve new problems,” he says. “In turn, I want industry to fund my students and give them opportunities to gain practical knowledge and experience, which will then translate into more opportunities. This is the kind of environment I hope to create.”

Arash Mohammadi

Assistant Professor

Arash Mohammadi only began his teaching career at Concordia just over a year ago, but he’s already created plenty of fond memories.

“Since I joined Concordia last December I’ve really savoured every moment of my stay here, from supportive and enthusiastic colleagues to helpful, accessible and friendly staff,” says Mohammadi, who teaches with CIISE at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and supervises master’s and PhD students.

“I’ve found Concordia students to be some of the most hardworking, respectful and passionate I’ve met; definitely among the best I have seen during my academic experience.”

Mohammadi completed his PhD in Signal Processing and Communications at York University, where he received the Eshrat Arjomandi Award for outstanding PhD dissertation. Before that he studied at the University of Tehran and the Amirkabir University of Technology, two of the most recognized engineering universities in Iran.

After spending two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Mohammadi made the leap to Concordia.

“The opportunity to become a member of the Concordia family, one of Canada's top emerging universities, located in one of the best cities in the world, motivated my decision to come here,” says Mohammadi.

“Moreover, the opportunity to pursue teaching excellence at Concordia University, where it’s considered a priority, is another reason why I took up a position here.”

Innovative and impactful technologies

Mohammadi’s research interests span the areas of statistical signal processing, communications, networking and their application domains.

Among other things, his current research focuses on distributed, secure and event-based information processing in cyber-physical systems (CPS), which are engineering systems with embedded computational and physical capabilities that can interact with humans through cyberspace.

Mohammadi says that in the near future CPS will transform how we interact with the physical world just like the internet has transformed how we interact with one another.

“I truly believe that developing innovative technologies with clear applications in industry is crucial if we want to further perform research with high impact and improve Concordia’s reputation as a leading research university,” he adds.

“I am inspired to be among the best teachers at Concordia and an active member of international scientific societies.”

Find out more about Concordia's Institute for Information Systems Engineering.