En-Hui Yang
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Contents |
Introduction
Dr. En-Hui Yang is a Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a co-founder of SlipStream Data Inc., a Waterloo-based company that develops and markets software that accelerates data transmission over digital communications channels (purchased by Research in Motion in 2006). Dr. Yang co-developed the technology behind the company, which has had a tremendous impact on the data acceleration market. In just over 10 years, SlipStream has gone from a concept to a company that dominates its sector worldwide and employs over 60 people in the high-tech sector.
In 1998, Professor Yang founded the Leitch-University Multimedia Communications Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. This lab, one of the largest, leading laboratories of its kind in multimedia communications in Canada, is sponsored by the business partner of this project, Leitch Technology Corporation. Research in the lab has been focused on information theory, multimedia data compression, source and channel coding, digital communications, digital watermarking and information hiding, quantum information theory, and efficient and robust data transmission protocols.
Areas of Research
Dr. Yang's areas of research include multimedia data compression, information theory and digital communications. He has worked as a research associate in the Department of Electrical and computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St Paul, a visiting scientist at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California.
Dr. En-hui Yang is co-developer of the Yang-Kieffer algorithm, a numerical set of rules employing grammar-based coding to achieve lossless compression of text and image files. The process outperforms all other existing methods by several orders of magnitude. Dr. Yang has developed 7 codec software packages which are being used in information technology industries, delivered 37 invited lectures and seminars worldwide, and held or filed 5 patents.
Dr. Yang's contribution to the field of data compression and information theory is recognized by his appointment to a Canada Research Chair in Multimedia Compression and Information Theory and he is the winner of the Premier's Research Excellence Award. The next phase of Dr.Yang's research is, in part, aimed at developing ways to compress very large multimedia files with the maximum degree of efficiency possible.
Dr. Yang has received numerous awards and accolades as a researcher and innovator, including General Co-Chair, 2008 IEEE Conference on Information Theory, Premier's Research Excellence Award (2000), and the Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award (2002). SlipStream won an Ontario Global Traders Award for market expansion in 2006.
Awards and accolades
- 2008 General co-chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
- 2007 Manning Award of Distinction
- 2006 Technical program vice-chair of the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME)
- 2006 Team leader of the Program Committee of the 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
- 2006 Member of the Program Committee of the International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications
- 2004 Consultant for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
- 2004 Chair of the award committee for the Canadian Award in Telecommunications.
- 2004 Member of the Program Committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
- 2003 Co-chair of the Canadian Workshop on Information Theory
- 2003 Co-chair of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) workshop
- 2002 Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award
- 2002 Co-founder and Executive Vice President Research, SlipStream Data Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
- 2001 Appointed as a Canada Research Chair in the discipline of electrical and electronic engineering
- 2000 Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award
- 2000 Co-founder, President, and CEO, 3C Infotech Inc.
External Links
- Dr. Yang's website - http://www.multicom.uwaterloo.ca/yang.html
- Canada Research Chair: Dr. Yang - http://www.chairs.gc.ca/web/chairholders/viewprofile_e.asp?id=754
- Video interview with Dr. Yang - http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/ontario_innovates/prem_gala_yang.asp
