So, how has the year 2013 been for me? I would say that it has been an interesting but overall successful year. Since the move from research in Nokia Research Center (which closed in Beijing in August 2012) to the Xpress Internet Services team, part of Mobile Phones, it has been a great year for me. Even though I don't do much work in pure research as before in Nokia Research Center, but I am spending more time on applied research and using the research of the data from Nokia's Xpress Browser to improve the product and improve the recommendations in Nokia Xpress Now. I am now also a Product Owner and I have learned the agile development process, so now it has made become closer and more engaged with the product, and I can use that to drive the research which in turn can help to improve the product. So, I see it as a lifecycle where the output from the analysis of the big data can fuel the input into the product. Therefore, I find it exciting and challenging. I thought that I would not be able to spend much time with research and innovation, but it seems that I am still continued with that as you can see with the many committees and academic activities that I am responsible for. Therefore, it's great to see that I can still continue connecting with the academic community.
Now, let's see my accomplishments for this year. I've co-authored 2 journal publications, 3 conference publications, 1 works-in-progress paper, 1 workshop paper, and 1 book chapter. I am especially proud to finally have edited a book called Mobile Social Networking: An Innovative Approach, a special vision of mine to promote mobile social networking, so I am glad that it is now available in print to buy from Springer or from Amazon. Please consider purchasing this book for your research lab and for your course if you are teaching mobile social networking. You can also follow the book on Facebook and Twitter. I welcome your comments for the book.
As for service to the academic community, finally the Special Issue on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing in the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia journal will see the light of day as a publication in 2014 so that's great. Also, the Ubiquitous Social Media Analysis book which is the Proceedings from the 2012 Workshops on Modeling Social Media and Mining Ubiquitous and Social Environments, of which I am a co-editor is now available for purchase.
I gave 2 invited talks at universities, I was an invited panelist, and I was a co-chair of 3 workshops (MSM 2013, PhoneCom 2013 and BigMUD 2013). I am especially proud and privileged to have been the General Chair for the IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing conference (CPSCom 2013) in Beijing in August this year, and it was an amazing experience for me.
For work, I finally was able to meet my US colleagues and had our release planning for our product in Chicago. I am so happy that Nokia Xpress Now was launched on Nokia Asha devices now in 5 countries, which is a service for mobile phones that creates a better web experience where content is personalized to your liking and recommendations come from the latest trends. And the recommendation algorithms come from our team here in Beijing! I am proud that I was part of the team to make this happen.
Despite working on the product, I've been able to create innovation as well with numerous patents this year. Even though I didn't win the Nokia Switch Pitch competition, which was a campaign for telling mobile users to switch from iOS and Android to Nokia Windows Phone, still I had fun to make this video.
And now, with the announcement in September that Microsoft acquired Nokia, I enter into the next transition in my career to move to Microsoft.
Personally, I am very proud to now be the alumni representative in Beijing for the University of Toronto Great China alumni community. This is a way for me to give back to the University of Toronto, my alma mater, where I did my PhD. If you are a University of Toronto alumnus and are in Beijing, please join the LinkedIn group and join our events in 2014.
Spiritually, I am proud to lead a group of ushers/greeters in the Nantang Catholic Church (South Cathedral) as well as be a Bible Study group leader and lector. If you're looking for a nice Christian church with masses in English, Nantang is a great church and we have a great church community of Chinese and foreigners.
I am proud to have such a loving and supporting wife who supports me and loves me for who I am. Through the good times and bad times, she is always there for me. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. It was also very memorable and emotional to have finally met my father's family for the first time during the Chinese New Year in Henan, and to have seen the place where my father grew up. Even though my father is not here with me, I know he is with me in my heart. He is the one who has helped to shape me who I am today.
Finally, thanks God for providing me the many blessings that I have in my life and for making 2013 a great year. I am especially very grateful for what He has done for me and my family.
What will 2014 bring for me? Well, certainly new change and challenge as I will be with Microsoft. But with great challenge, comes great opportunity.
I wish you all a happy, peaceful and successful 2014!
