10266 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (310)206-5781 I www.pku-jri.ucla.edu I jridirector@international.ucla.edu

Peking University – University of California, Los Angeles Joint Research Institute in Science and Engineering

Review 2009-2013

Executive Summary

PART ONE

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS AND FACULTY EXCHANGES

Collaborative Research Highlights p. 7

Faculty Visits p. 17

Major Events p. 20

Joint Publications p. 21

PART TWO

EDUCATION PROGRAMS AND STUDENTS EXCHANGES

Student Exchanges and Programs p. 24

JRI Summer Research Exchange at Peking University p. 25

PKU-UCLA Undergraduate Student Exchange p. 30

Pilot Integrated PKU BS – UCLA MS Program ‘3+2’ p. 33

PART THREE

LOOKING AHEAD: FUNDRAISING, PLANS, AND CHALLENGES

External Funding p. 34

Plans and Works in Progress p. 36

Appendix p. 37

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Executive Summary: Progress of the PKU-UCLA Joint Research Institute (JRI) in Science and Engineering (2009 – 2013)

The Joint Research Institute (JRI) in Science and Engineering between Peking University (PKU) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was established in 2009 with the goals of promoting joint collaborative research, facilitating student exchanges and the technology transfer of collaboration results. It now involves 73 faculty members from PKU and 111 faculty members from UCLA. This report highlights some of the collaborative research projects in a wide range of areas, from clean energy and environment, to information technologies, to biological and medical sciences. These projects led to 27 joint research publications in the last four years (listed on page 21) and multiple joint research proposal submissions (listed on page 23). JRI held four Annual Research Symposia with exciting programs, and facilitated many faculty exchanges between PKU and UCLA. JRI engaged multiple industrial partners such as AsiaInfo, Baidu, China Mobile, and Xilinx. Some of them provided industry-funded research projects in JRI. Last, but certainly not least, student exchanges flourished. A total of 64 PKU undergraduate and graduate students came to UCLA between 2010 and 2013 as exchange students to take courses and/or work with UCLA faculty on collaborative research. In addition, a total of 48 UCLA undergraduate and graduate students in the past four years (2010 – 2013) participated in the 10-week summer research programs at PKU, working with PKU faculty on a wide range of research projects, such as scheduling for voice over IP delivery, powered ankle prosthesis, and wireless transmission on GNU radios. A complete list starts on page 25, and their enthusiastic feedback is on page 29, and JRI’s website: www.pku-jri.ucla.edu. Finally, JRI has initiated and facilitated a pilot program for integrated BS + MS degrees between PKU and UCLA starting Fall 2013 in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments. Seven students from the School of EECS of PKU enrolled in this program in 2013. Details are described on page 33.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the campus leadership, especially Chancellor Gene Block, EVC Scott Waugh, Vice Provosts Cindy Fan and Kathryn Atchison, all JRI faculty, staff, students, advisors, and industrial partners for their great support and contributions in the past four years. Together, we look forward to bringing JRI to new levels of success in the coming years.

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Background

Under the new leadership of Chancellor Block, it was decided that in addition to maintain a broad portfolio of global collaborative programs, UCLA was going to choose a selected group of international partners to develop in-depth strategic collaborations in global research and education. Given the growing interests of faculty and students, China was chosen to be a region of priority. After careful evaluation of multiple top Chinese universities in 2008-2009, Peking University (PKU) was chosen to be the first to develop such strategic relationship for multiple reasons. First, PKU is one of the two best universities in China, often called the Harvard-equivalent in China (the other one is Tsinghua University, also in Beijing). Both US World News and Report (US) and Times Higher Education QS ranking (UK) ranked Peking University to be the top university in China (according to their 2012-1013 reports). Second, there was already a good base of research collaborations between UCLA and PKU. Some of the collaborations included areas such as computer-aided design of integrated circuits and systems (led by Jason Cong in the Computer Science Department), brainstem frequency-following response (led by Prof. Gary C. Galbraith in the Department of Psychiatry & Bio-behavioral Sciences), space science, astrophysics and cosmology (led by Prof. M. G. Kivelson in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics), environmental and genetic determinants of common diseases of children (led by John Olsen in Department of Epidemiology), Developmental Biology and Chemical Genomics (led by Prof. Shuo Lin in Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology ). An incomplete inventory compiled by PKU shows over 100 joint publications by researchers from PKU and UCLA in these areas in the 5 years between 2004 to 2009, and UCLA is the No. 1 research partner (measured in terms of the number of joint publications). For this reason, PKU was also the one that expressed strongest interest in establishing a broader and deeper partnership with UCLA. Both universities have the shared vision to further these research collaborations, and also to build a strong education component on top of the collaborative research programs to provide a unique opportunity to train students with international experience so that they are well positioned to become future leaders with global perspective.

Missions Research

• Promote joint collaborative research • Jointly seek research funding from government and private sources • Facilitate technology transfer of collaborative research results

Education • Jointly train students as future leaders with global perspective • Host exchange faculty and students • Facilitate the sharing of teaching materials

Engagement • Host and/or sponsor international workshops and conferences • Homes for UCLA alumni in Beijing, and PKU alumni in Southern California

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Faculty Members in PKU-UCLA Joint Research Institute in Science and Engineering (JRI)

Department PKU UCLA

Physical Science Chemistry and Molecular Engineering; Earth and Space Science; Mathematics; Physics; etc.

20 23

Engineering and Applied Science Computer Science; Electronics Engineering; Energy Resources Engineering; Environmental Science; Nanotechnology; etc.

33 48

Life Sciences and Medical Sciences Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology; Human Genetics; Neurobiology; Pharmacology; etc.

20 33

Social Science and Humanities Public Affairs, School of Theater and Film

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Total number of members 73 111

UCLA and PKU faculty at the 2012 JRI Symposium, UCLA

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ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

Co-directors (2) UCLA Jason Cong, Associate Vice Provost of Internationalization and Chancellor’s Professor of Computer Science Department PKU Xiaoming Li, Assistant President and Professor of Computer Science Department Collaboration Board (5) UCLA

1. Gene Block, Chancellor 2. Scott Waugh, Provost 3. Cindy Fan, Vice Provost of International Studies

PKU 4. Wang Enge, President 5. Jianhua Lin, Provost 6. Xiaoming Li, Assistant President and Vice Provost

Scientific Advisory Board (12) UCLA

1. Jason Cong, Department of Computer Science, Engineering School 2. Vassilis Angelopoulos, Department of Earth and Space Science, Division of Physical Sciences 3. Frank Chang, Electrical Engineering Department, Engineering School 4. Jane P. Chang, Chemical Engineering Department, Engineering School 5. Shuo Lin, Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Life Sciences 6. Stanley Osher, Department of Mathematics, Division of Physical Sciences 7. Paul Weiss, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Division of Physical Sciences

PKU 8. Xiaoming Li, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science 9. Wen Gao, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science 10. Ming Jiang, School of Mathematical Science 11. Zuyin Pu, School of Earth and Space Sciences 12. Zhuan Zhou, Institute of Molecular Medicine

UCLA Faculty Advisory Board (unofficial, these are the most active faculty members in JRI) (18)

1. Jason Cong, Department of Computer Science, Engineering School 2. Vassilis Angelopoulos, Department of Earth and Space Science, Physical Sciences Division 3. Chentao Lin, Life Sciences, Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 4. Eleazar Eskin, Department of Computer Science, Engineering School 5. Kung Yao, Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering School 6. Grace Xiao, Department of Integrated Biology and Physiology, Life Sciences Division 7. Diana Huffaker, Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering School 8. Yifang Zhu, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health 9. Michael Swords, Executive Director of Strategic Research Initiatives 10. Nick Brecha, Department of Neuroscience, Life Sciences Division 11. Lixia Zhang, Department of Computer Science, Engineering School 12. Paul Weiss, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Division of Physical Sciences

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13. Peipei Ping, Department of Physiology, Life Sciences Division 14. Lei He, Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering School 15. William Yang, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Life Science Division 16. Yang Yang, Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering School 17. Ya-Hong Xie, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering School 18. Yibin Wang, Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine

Industry Advisory Board (5)

1. Wei Huang, Chairman, Vice Mayor, the People's Government of Beijing Municipality 2. James Ding, Executive Vice-Chairman, Managing Director, AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc 3. Craig Ehrlich, Member, Chairman and Founder Novare Technologies, Former Chairman GSM Association 4. Robin Li , Charter member, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, Inc 5. Li Zheng Mao, Charter member, Executive VP of China Mobile Communications Corporation

Staff (2) UCLA Larissa Harrison, Program Coordinator PKU ‘Cecca’ Yunli Yang, Program Coordinator

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Collaborative Research Highlights 2009-2013

The collaborative research in JRI in the past four years can be roughly grouped into three areas: clean energy and environmental studies, information technologies, and research in biological and medical sciences. In this section, we highlight some of the ongoing research programs in these areas.

Clean Energy and Environmental Studies

POLLUTION STUDIES PKU Professor Yongyun Hu UCLA Professors Kuo-Nan Liou and Qinbin Li Tibetan Plateau and Global Climate Change

In collaboration with PKU atmospheric scientists, UCLA professors Kuo-Nan Liou and Qinbin Li of the Joint Institute for Regional Earth Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE) have developed a research plan to study the “Tibetan Plateau and Global Climate Change.” The plan is based on evidence linking black carbon to warming trends, glacier melting and climate change on the Plateau, in Asia and beyond. Under a JRI agreement, signed in March 2012, they are establishing a center for Research on the Tibetan Plateau and Global Climate Change between JIFRESSE and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at PKU. The collaboration will include undergraduate

students from PKU selected for summer research training in the UCLA Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department and at JIFRESSE. PKU Professors Mei Zheng, Xinghua Qiu, and Tong Zhu UCLA Professor Yifang Zhu Joint Air Pollution Research

In the city of Beijing, one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of over 20 million as of 2010, motor vehicle emissions presumably constitute one of the most significant sources of air pollution. To better understand the impact of traffic on air quality in Beijing, Professor Mei Zheng at the PKU's College of Environmental Science and Engineering and Professor Yifang Zhu at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health initiated a joint research project to address this problem. The partnership, forged through JRI, has particular value. “Beijing can draw lessons from the experience of Los Angeles,” says Zhu, who

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has studied air pollution in both cities. “Thirty years ago, Los Angeles was just as bad as today’s Beijing.” This project then attracted and inspired more researchers from other institutions in China, including Fudan University, Ocean University of China, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The goal is to provide guidance to policy makers as they grapple with an issue of growing concern. “The Chinese government has begun to invest significant resources in air quality research, hoping to use the science to develop regulations and other policies that will lead to improvements,” Zhu says.

The goals of the initial research were to (1) monitor the air quality in Beijing, (2) estimate pedestrians’ exposure to air pollutants near busy roadways, and (3) compare commuters’ exposure to air pollutants for different transport modes. The pollutants measured included: size distribution of ultrafine particles (particulate matters with diameter less than 0.1 micrometer), total particulate number concentrations, PM2.5 (particulate matters with diameter less than 2.5 micrometer), black carbon, CO2 and CO. Integrated aerosol samplers were also collected by utilizing quartz and Teflon filters for the analysis of chemical speciation. These filters will be analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and heavy metals. This first study was carried in December, 2011. The sampling was conducted at three sites; two stationary and one mobile. The two stationary sites included: (1) a control site situated on the PKU campus as the representative of the sites with no significant nearby emission sources, and (2) a roadside site situated at a busy intersection near the PKU main campus to monitor the near road way air pollutants. The mobile site consisted of multiple daily trips via walking, riding the bus, and taking

the subway trains while carrying mobile instruments. The trips covered morning and evening rush hour as well as light traffic hours in between, and were conducted by three students. In addition, the vertical distribution of air pollutant concentrations was also measured on a tower of 320 m. This joint research project is considered a pilot project despite being quite extensive. A more involved project is planned for the near future.

Mei Zheng hosted Yifang Zhu’s UCLA undergraduate student, Reagan Patterson, during the 2012 JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU resulting in a published paper [P19] in 2013. Zhu is hosting Zheng’s undergraduate student Zhongshu Li, studying e-cigarette emissions, Fall 2013.

Zhu and collaborators are also applying for two grants this Fall. An NSF grant [F3] would leverage the established JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU. A proposal to National Institute of Health Sciences (NIEHS) expands a study they initiated with UCLA student volunteers in the 2012 JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU [F4].

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CLEAN ENERGY UCLA Professor Lei He PKU Professor Dongxiao Zhang Clean Energy Research Center, Los Angeles

The Clean Energy Research Center - Los Angeles (CERC-LA), located at UCLA, together with partners including PKU, received a prestigious EcoPartnership designation from the U.S. Department of State. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed the five new U.S.-China EcoPartnerships during a signing ceremony which took place in the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China, on May 3, 2012. U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern and China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Vice Chairman Xie Zhenhua, co-chaired the event. Also present were Science Advisor to President Obama, Dr. John Holdren, and U.S. Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, Reta Jo Lewis. CERC-LA, catalyzed by the 2011 JRI Symposium, was created by UCLA to tackle many of the grand challenges related to the generation, transmission, storage and management of energy. As many energy challenges are global in nature, this new center will engage the participation of a multi-

disciplinary group of researchers from many different nations. The director is Professor Lei He from UCLA’s Electrical Engineering department. CERC-LA partners with China’s institutions including the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), PKU, and Fudan University. Representing UCLA at the event were Professor He and Michael Swords, Executive Director of Strategic Research Initiatives and Global Partnerships at UCLA. This EcoPartnership will enlist a consortium of clean energy and climate change leaders from American and Chinese universities, think tanks, and the private sector to conduct joint research on smart grids, intelligent vehicles, and electric vehicles. The consortium is building a joint research laboratory on smart grid technology at PKU that will serve as a hub for researchers and students, particularly from the U.S. Leadership of the EcoPartnership believe that this facility in Beijing will enable the students to better understand China’s low-carbon, energy development initiatives. A secondary goal of the initiative is to facilitate economic growth and clean tech sector job creation in the U.S. and China. The United States and China signed the Framework for EcoPartnerships under the U.S.-China Ten-Year Framework for Cooperation on Energy and Environment (EcoPartnerships Framework) in Beijing in December 2008. The EcoPartnerships Framework is aimed at developing new models of mutually beneficial voluntary arrangements between a range of state, local, and private sector organizations to spur innovation, investment, and engagement on clean energy and environmental issues, including climate change. Professors He and Zhang submitted a paper together [S2] in 2013.

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PKU Professor Dong Wang UCLA Professor Yang Yang The Understanding of CZTS Solar Cell

The collaborative work between UCLA and PKU will be focused on pursuing low cost, high efficiency next generation thin film solar cell, using earth abundant kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) as the absorber layer. Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) shows attractive properties as an absorber material for thin film solar cells, with an ideal energy band gap of 1.5 eV and a large optical absorption coefficient of around 104 cm-1 for much of the visible spectrum. Compared with the other similar type absorber materials, eg., Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGS) and CdTe, CZTS consists solely of earth abundant, non-toxic, and inexpensive elements, which opens the door for both an economic and ecological device production. Laboratory research on the CZTS system has progressed rapidly in the past few years, with the successful development of several new processing methods as well as a new record (11.1%) power conversion efficiency, but still in its infancy to achieve a similar efficiency to CIGS and CdTe-based photovoltaic devices. In order to improve the efficiency, as well as reducing fabrication cost, the safe, simple and scalable CZTS nanocrystal ink approach will be employed. This method depends on a CZTS ink solution that is

homogeneous in environmental friendly solvents, rather than relying on explosive hydrazine as the solvent, and is air-stable, which avoids the drawbacks of precursor solutions with unstable stoichiometry when depositing films. Based on current research, the goal of the collaboration is developing CZTS solar cells with efficiency beyond 12% using a copper zinc tin sulfide nanocrystal solution. With further exploration of the material properties of this emerging system and additional fundamental research on the phase and defect chemistry that governs its performance in devices, we anticipate that this collaboration will embody a game-changing breakthrough in the field of photovoltaic device design and future module application. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Professor Yang Yang’s postdoc, Dr. Huanping Zhou, visited Professor Dong Wang's group in the Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, at PKU during the summer. Wang’s student Qiao Cheng is researching in the Electrical Engineering department at UCLA this academic year through the JRI Graduate Research Exchange.

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Information Technology SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS PKU Professor XiaoDong Hu UCLA Professor Ya-Hong Xie New Semiconductor Materials

The collaborative research between the labs of UCLA Professor Ya-Hong Xie and PKU Professor XiaoDong Hu on improving the performance of GaN-based technologies began approximately four years ago. Group III nitride is a material family that includes alloys of GaN with AlN and InN, and renders direct energy bandgap ranging from 0.65 eV (infrared) to 6.2 eV (UV). This material family is the semiconductor of choice for optoelectronic applications that include solid state lighting, high efficiency solar cells, solar blind photodetectors, blue lasers, and high power microwave transistors. One of the main technological challenges is the absence of a substrate that is lattice matched to GaN, AlN or InN, leading to unavoidably high dislocation density, and thus inferior device properties. The objective of their collaboration is to demonstrate an innovative epitaxial growth technique for dislocation-free group III nitrides with a US patent issued to UCLA and

Prof. Xie, and the benefit of such a high quality crystalline film to the performance of various devices. This is a common interest shared by the two groups. If successful, this new technology could radically change the landscape of the industry. The PKU group’s main interest is to use the material for laser devices, while the UCLA group’s main interest is in the epitaxial growth of lattice mismatched systems. Working with another collaborator, Prof. ShoouJinn Chang’s group of National Cheng Kung University of Taiwan, the two groups have demonstrated superior GaN thin films with nearly zero dislocation density and excellent photoluminescence spectra. They are working on the growth of device film structures for the purpose of demonstrating an anticipated superior device performance. In parallel, they have begun working with Sino Nitride, a company in DongGuan, China, to explore the commercial feasibility of this new technology for solid state lighting application. UCLA and Sino Nitride will share the processing steps wherever equipment is available. Epitaxial growth will be carried out at Sino Nitride and characterization will be carried out at UCLA. The plan for this research is to explore the boundaries of using this new technology for several GaN-based technologies, with the hope of advancing the technology via fundamental materials science research.

Xie and Hu published one paper this year [P22], and are exploring a start-up opportunity in China.

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COMPUTER VISIONS PKU Professor Yizhou Wang UCLA Professors Alan Yuille and Song-Chun Zhu Hierarchical Space Tiling for Scene Modeling This research project aims to analyze geometric configurations of natural scenes, so that natural images can be parsed and recognized using the learned compositional scene models. Recent literature shows the semantic category of a scene can be defined according to many different properties. Some scene categories, such as “seminar room” and “dining room”, are defined by their functional property. Some scene categories, such as “glacier” and “river”, are defined by their surface or material property. Others, such as “mountain” and “street”, are defined by their spatial layout property, or scene configuration. Scene configuration is the geometric arrangement of parts or elements in a scene together with their semantic labels. Treating a scene like an individual object with a unitary shape, the scene space can be defined as a set of scene configurations. Professors Yizhou Wang of PKU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Alan Yuille and Song-Chun Zhu of UCLA statistics department, are interested in developing a representation for scene configuration, which has proven to be a strong cue for human recognition systems, by psychological evidences. Inspired by practices of the ceramic tile industry that manufactures tiles in a few shapes and sizes and composes any pattern to customers’ needs and budget, the team proposes a compositional representation, called Hierarchical Space Tiling (HST), to tile a scene by several meaningful regions. For example,

“coast” can be tiled as sky on the top and ocean underneath. The corresponding learning method provides an effective way to learn the HST model and generate combinatorial number of scene configurations through a small dictionary of shape elements. The experiment shows improvement of scene classification by using the learned categorical scene configurations as a template.

They published two papers this year, [P18] and [P20], and applied for international collaboration funding from National Science Foundation, China.

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND DESIGN PKU Professor Ru Huang UCLA Professor Jason Cong UCLA PhD student Bingjun Xiao Demonstration of new field-programmable gate-arrays (FPGAs) with RRAM-based programmable interconnects

The collaboration between UCLA Professor Jason Cong and PKU Professor Ru Huang combines the architecture-level experience from Cong’s lab and device-level experience from Huang’s lab to come up with novel circuits

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and systems with emerging device structures. The current focus is on the demonstration of new field-programmable gate-arrays (FPGAs) with RRAM-based programmable interconnects. Using RRAMs for routing switches led to significant benefits, such as much smaller areas and non-volatility compared to conventional SRAM-based routing switches. They have finished the architecture design and reported preliminary results at the NanoArch Conference in June 2011. As part of the 2011 JRI Summer Research Exchange, UCLA graduate student Bingjun Xiao collaborated with researchers at PKU. There, he completed a circuit design for a small FPGA prototype with RRAM-based interconnects at TSMC180nm technology and under the constraints of RRAM's device parameters. Now, fabrication and final demonstration are underway. PKU Professor Guojie Luo UCLA Professor Jason Cong Towards Layout-Friendly High-Level Synthesis "Towards layout-friendly high-level synthesis" was published in the 2012 International Symposium on Physical Design, one of the top symposia in the field of electronic design automation of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and systems. The VLSI router at the very back-end of design flow has to make great efforts to obtain a routing solution that satisfies the connectivity with limited routing resources. Given a high-level design of a circuit at the very frontend of the design flow, can we tell whether we can obtain a routable solution? Can we relieve the efforts by tuning the high-level design? These remain open problems. This work made one step toward the possible solution, by analyzing

the accuracy and effectiveness of different high-level routability models. The collaboration started at the end of 2011 during Jason Cong's visit at PKU, where Cong and Guojie Luo, an assistant professor of computer science at PKU, defined some key components in the analysis flow, which resulted in this publication. PKU Professor Peng Li UCLA Professor Jason Cong Memory Partitioning and Scheduling Co-optimization in Behavioral Synthesis

In November 2012, PKU computer science professor Peng Li presented "Memory Partitioning and Scheduling Co-optimization in Behavioral Synthesis" at the International Conference on Computer Aided Design, the premier conference for electronic design technology. The story behind the paper illustrates benefits of PKU-UCLA Joint Research Institute. One of the co-authors, Yuxin Wang, a Ph.D. candidate from PKU, spent 2010-2011 academic year at UCLA supported by JRI. Wang

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worked with Peng Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA, on memory partitioning in behavioral synthesis. Behavioral synthesis can automatically transform untimed algorithmic descriptions into hardware implementations, which can significantly reduce time-to-market and design costs of modern chips with acceptable performance and power penalties. The memory partitioning technique can support multiple simultaneous memory accesses on the same array effectively by partition the array onto separate disjoint banks. When Yuxin returned to PKU, her talk on the topic aroused a heated discussion. A new idea was generated by arranging memory accesses across the border of loop iterations. Compared to state-of-art memory partitioning and scheduling algorithm, this novel idea can effectively support arbitrary affine memory inputs, extending the applicability of memory partitioning algorithms. A virtual team formed including Yuxin, Zhang and Li. Through bi-weekly discussions and hard work from both sides, the ideas turned into a solid technical paper accepted by the ICCAD conference. Experimental results show that on a set of real-world medical image processing kernels, the proposed memory partitioning and scheduling algorithm can gain speed-up, area reduction and power savings of 15.8%, 36% and 32.4% respectively, compared to the state-of-art algorithm. Two other co-authors of the paper, Guojie Luo and Tao Wang, both of PKU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, are also active members of JRI and guided by Professor Jason Cong, co-director of JRI. Li, Cong, and their students and collaborators published three papers this year [P23], [P24], [P27]. The latest won Best Paper Award at the International Conference on

Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis, September 2013.

Biological and Medical Science VISION RESEARCH PKU Professor Ming Liang Pu UCLA Professor Nicholas Brecha High resolution studies of excitable cells

The laboratories of both Professor Nicholas Brecha, UCLA Department of Neurobiology, and Professor Ming Liang Pu, PKU Department of Biomedical Engineering, are interested in understanding the roles of different retinal cells in visual processing, and building on that understanding with the application of disease, injury, or aged models to address questions concerning changes in the visual health. Helen Vuong, UCLA PhD candidate, works on this collaboration and spent the summer at Pu’s lab during the 2012 JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU. At UCLA, Vuong is in Brecha’s lab piecing together a microcircuit of cells in the inner retina, in particular, the somatostatin (SRIF)- and dopamine (DA)- containing amacrine cells, as well as the melanopsin-containing amacrine cells (ipRGCs). They are examining the anatomical and physiological interactions of

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these cells. With the use of immunohistochemistry (IHC), calcium imaging, and transgenic mouse models, they are addressing the modulatory cross-talk between these cells and have pinpointed crucial proteins that play a role in the modulation. While in Pu’s lab at PKU, Vuong incorporated similar techniques, in particular IHC and high-resolution confocal imaging, to view the anatomical changes of the DA-containing amacrine cells and ipRGCs. More specifically, they were looking at changes in cell density, distribution, and cell-to-cell interactions in whole mount retinas of control mice at 2, 7, 11, 14, and 24 months, compared to age matched Thy-1-CFP-DBA 2/J (TCD) mice, which have been previously used as a mouse model for Glaucoma. The collaboration between Brecha and Pu has facilitated the substantial progression of mapping important anatomical and physiological modulations between retinal cells that influence visual processing. They published a paper this year with Vuong, [P21].

PLANT BIOLOGY PKU Professor Hongwei Guo UCLA Professor Chentao Lin Plant Development Research

The on-going collaboration between Professors Chentao Lin and Hongwei Guo is aimed at

understanding the molecular mechanism of gene regulation in plants using molecular genetics to study plant growth and development. Results are expected to help improve yield and both water and fertilizer use efficiency of rice and other crops in the world. The team was awarded funding from the Chinese Minister of Agriculture, and published a paper this year in Plant Physiology [P14]. Benjamin Lee, one of Lin’s undergraduate students at UCLA, performed research in Guo’s lab this year during the JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU.

WIRELESS HEALTH PKU Professors Tao Wang , Fang Han UCLA Professor Songwu Lu A Phone-Based e-Health System for OSAS

This project is a phone-based e-health system for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). The smart phone device monitors a patient’s health remotely, saving both patient and doctor time on testing. OSAS is a widespread sleep-disordered breathing disease which leads to repetitive hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and interruptions of normal sleep pattern. Considering its severe negative impact on human health, long-term

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monitoring of OSAS is necessary. Current OSAS monitoring systems require patients stay in hospital overnight and considerable wiring between body and system. In this work, PK computer science professors Tao Wang and Fang Han, and UCLA computer science professor Songwu Lu propose a smartphone-based, wireless e-health system enabling anytime, anywhere monitoring. Experiments and modeling show that energy efficiency is the major bottleneck for sustainable operations of this battery-driven system. On the solution side, full use can be made of the low-power mode of Bluetooth. The lifetime of the resulting OSAS system would increase by more than 50%. Ongoing work seeks a holistic approach to a more energy-efficient system. PKU Professor Anpeng Huang UCLA Professor Majid Sarrafzadeh Wireless Health

Computer Science professors Anpeng Huang and Majid Sarrafzadeh developed a novel portable electrocardiogram (ECG) system named WE-CARE. This system serves cardiovascular disease patients for real-time ECG monitoring. Compared with conventional ECG system, WE-CARE can effectively reduce monitoring costs, improve diagnostic accuracy, and enlarge monitoring coverage. WE-CARE has been tested under large-group heart failure patients and passed the standard medical certificate for health diagnosis and clinic medical evidence. It integrates information technology and medical applications and is expected to change traditional heart disease treatment. Related work was published in Body Sensor Network Conference 2011. UCLA undergraduate Tammy Chang ’12, returned to Huang’s lab for a second summer with the 2012 JRI Summer Exchange, and submitted a joint paper to IEEE International Conference on Communications. Sarrafzadeh and Huang presented at the IEEE 9th International Conference, May 2012, in London.

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Faculty Visits 2010-2013

To PKU Paul Weiss, Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Spring 2010

Rajit Gadh, Mechanical Engineering, UCLA, ‘Smart Grid’ talk at PKU, December 13, 2011

Kung Yao, Electrical Engineering, UCLA, Seminar, Spring 2011

JRI Mini-Symposium at Peking University, May 2011 Nicholas Brecha, Neurobiology Frank Chang, Electrical Engineering Jason Cong, Computer Science Eleazar Eskin, Computer Science Lei He, Electrical Engineering Chentao Lin, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Peipei Ping, Physiology Ren Sun, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology Yibin Wang, Anesthesiology Ya-Hong Xie, Materials Science and Engineering Kung Yao, Electrical Engineering

Kung Yao, Electrical Engineering, UCLA, Sabbatical at PKU, Spring 2012

Huanping Zhou (Prof. Yang Yang’s group, UCLA) visited Prof. Dong Wang's lab at PKU, Summer 2012

Chentao Lin, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, UCLA, August 2012

Cindy Fan, Interim Vice-Provost International Institute, UCLA, Summer 2012 and 2013

JRI Mini-Symposium at Peking University, July 2013 Anne Andrews, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science Nick Brecha, Neurobiology Xiangfeng Duan, Chemistry and Biochemistry Guoping Fan, Human Genetics

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Lei He, Electrical Engineering Qinbin Li, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Chentao Lin, Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology Songwu Lu, Computer Science Ying-Ying Meng, Public Health Suzanne Paulson, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Mike Swords, Office of VC for Research - Strategic Research Initiatives Wei Wang, Computer Science Paul Weiss, Chemistry and Biochemistry Jason Woo, Electrical Engineering Ya-Hong Xie, Materials Science & Engineering Kung Yao, Electrical Engineering Yifang Zhu, Public Health; Environmental Health Sciences

To UCLA JRI Mini-Symposium at UCLA, May 2010

Jianhua Lin, former Vice President, PKU Xiaoming Li, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Zhen Yang, Chemistry and Molecular Engineering Ruiping Xiao, Molecular Medicine Heping Cheng, Molecular Medicine Xiaoru Yuan, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Wen Gao, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Dongxiao Zhang, Engineering Xiaolei Wu, Engineering Henghui Zhou, Chemistry and Molecular Engineering Jitao Chen, Chemistry and Molecular Engineering Dechun Zou, Chemistry and Molecular Engineering Gang Huang, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science

Wenxin Li, Computer Science, PKU, student exchange opportunities, November 2011

Xiangqun Chen, Computer Science, PKU, student exchange opportunities, November 2011

Yifeng Chen, Computer Science, PKU, student exchange opportunities, November 2011

Anpeng Huang, Computer Science, PKU, January 2012

Wen Gao, Computer Science, PKU, February 2012

JRI Mini-Symposium at UCLA, May 2012 Hongya Gu, Life Sciences XiaoDong Hu, Physics Kai Lei, Internet Research and Engineering Xiaoming Li, Computer Science

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Dong Liu, Life Sciences Xinghua Qiu, Life Sciences Xiaoli Tian, Molecular Medicine Dong Wang, Engineering Tao Wang, Computer Science Yan Zhang, Computer Science Mei Zheng, Environmental Sciences and Engineering Tong Zhu, Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Mingliang Pu, Medical School, PKU, June 2013

Ming Zhang, Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, PKU, November 2013

Kaigui Bian, Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, PKU, November 2013

Yun Jiang, Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, PKU, November 2013

PKU faculty visit William Yang Lab, UCLA 2012

20

Major Events 2010-2013

PKU-UCLA JRI Annual Mini-Symposium (agendas, see p. 37) UCLA, May 6-7, 2010 PKU, April 25-26, 2011 UCLA, May 2-3, 2012 PKU, July 1-2, 2013 Co-Sponsored Conferences Pacific-Rim Outlook Forum on IC Technology “PROFIT Forum,” China, August, 2011 Pacific-Rim Outlook Forum on IC Technology “PROFIT Forum,” China, August, 2012 Workshop CERC-LA Inaugural Workshop, October 10, 2011 Alumni Gatherings UCLA Alumni Event, PKU, April, 2011 UCLA Alumni Event, PKU, July 1, 2013 Donor Outreach (Planned) Reception, October, 2013

UCLA and PKU faculty meeting Vice President of PKU, July 1, Beijing 2013

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Joint Publications

JRI symposia, faculty visits, and student exchanges all contribute to a growing list of joint publications. A total of 27 joint PKU-UCLA publications among JRI members represent a growth from 2 papers in 2010 to 11 in 2013. 2010

[P1]. Zhang, H., M. G. Kivelson, K. K. Khurana, R. J. Walker, V. Angelopoulos, J. M. Weygand, T. Phan, J. McFadden, D. Larson, K. H. Glassmeier, and H. U. Auster (2010), Evidence That Crater Flux Transfer Events Are Initial Stages Of Typical Flux Transfer Events, J. Geophys. Res., 115, A08229, doi:10.1029/2009JA015013.

[P2]. J. Zhang, Z. Zhang, S. Zhou, M. Tan, X. Liu, X. Cheng and J. Cong, Bit-Level Optimization for High-Level Synthesis and FPGA-Based Acceleration, Proceedings of the ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA 2010), Monterey, California, pp. 59-68, February 2010.

2011 [P3]. Zhang, H., M.G. Kivelson, V. Angelopoulos, K.K. Khurana, R. J., Walker, Y. D. Jia, J.

McFadden, and H.U. Auster (2011), Flow Vortices Associated With Flux Transfer Events Moving Along The Magnetopause: Observations And An MHD Simulation, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2011JA016500.

[P4]. Wenyao Xu, Zhinan Li, Ming-Chun Huang, Navid Amini, Majid Sarrafzadeh, eCushion: An eTextile Device for Sitting Posture Analysis, Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN'11), Dallas, TX, May 2011.

[P5]. Navid Amini, Wenyao Xu, Zhinan Li, Ming-Chun Huang, Majid Sarrafzadeh. Experimental Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 for On/Off Body Communications, Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Personal Indoor Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC'11), Toronto, Canada, September 2011.

2012 [P6]. Lei Li, Justin P. C. Liu, Lei Liu, Ding Li, Lei Wang, Chenghao Wan, Weihua Chen, Zhijian

Yang, Ya-Hong Xie, Xiaodong Hu, and Guoyi Zhang, Defect Reduction via Selective Lateral Epitaxy of GaN on an Innovative Masked Structure with Serpentine Channels, Applied Physics Express, Appl. Phys. Express 5 (2012) 051001.

[P7]. Zhang, H., M. G. Kivelson, V. Angelopoulos, K. K. Khurana, Z. Y. Pu, R. J. Walker, R. L. McPherron, T.-S. Hsu, Q. G. Zong, and T. Phan (2012), Generation And Properties Of In Vivo Flux Transfer Events, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A05224, doi:10.1029/2011JA017166.

[P8]. Y. Wang, P. Zhang, X. Cheng and J. Cong, An Integrated and Automated Memory Optimization Flow for FPGA Behavioral Synthesis, Proceedings of the 17th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASPDAC 2012), Sydney, Australia, pp. 257-262, January 2012.

[P9]. J. Zhang, X. Liu, M. Tan, X. Cheng and J. Cong, Automatic Instruction-set Extension for Bitwise Operation-Intensive Applications, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Volume 40, Issue 2, pp. 209-214, February 2012.

[P10]. J. Cong, B. Liu, G. Luo and R. Prabhakar, Towards Layout-Friendly High-Level Synthesis, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD 2012), Napa, CA, pp. 165-172, March 2012.(Invited paper)

22

[P11]. Zhinan Li, Wenyao Xu, Anpeng Huang, and Majid Sarrafzadeh, Dimensionality Reduction for Anomaly Detection in Electrocardiography: A Manifold Approach, IEEE 9th International Conference on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks, May, 2012, London, UK.

[P12]. Zhang, H., K. K. Khurana, Q-G. Zong, M. G. Kivelson, W. X. Wan, Z. Y. Pu, V. Angelopoulos, X. Cao, Y. F. Wang, Q. Q. Shi, W. L. Liu, A. M. Tian, and C. L. Tang, Outward Expansion Of The Lunar Wake: ARTEMIS Observations, Geophys.Res. Lett., August, 2012, doi: 2012GL052839.

[P13]. Ruipeng Gao, Liqiong Yang, Xinyu Wu, Tao Wang, Songwu Lu and Fang Han, A Phone-Based E-Health System for OSAS And Its Energy Issue, 2012 International Symposium on Information Technology in Medicine and Education (ITME2012, Hokkaido, Japan, Aug 3-5, 2012), pp.682-686.

[P14]. Qin Wang, Rikard Fristedt, Xuhong Yu, Zugen Chen, Hongtao Liu, Yurhee Lee, Hongwei Guo, Sabeeha S. Merchant, and Chentao Lin, The Carbonic Anhydrase Subcomplex Of Mitochondrial Complex I Is Essential For Development And Important For Photomorphogenesis Of Arabidopsis, Plant Physiology , 160: 1373-1383, September 2012.

[P15]. Peng Li, Yuxin Wang, Peng Zhang, Guojie Luo, Tao Wang and Jason Cong, Memory Partitioning and Scheduling Co-optimization in Behavioral Synthesis, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD 2012), San Jose, CA, pp. 488-495, November 2012.

[P16]. Shuo Wang, Yizhou Wang and Song-Chun Zhu, Hierarchical Space Tiling in Scene Modeling, The 11th Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), Daejeon, Korea, Dec. 5-9, 2012.

2013 [P17]. Jason Cong, Guojie Luo, Kalliopi Tsota, Bingjun Xiao, Optimizing Routability in Large-

Scale Mixed-Size Placement, accepted by ASPDAC 2013. [P18]. J. Joo, S. Wang and S.C. Zhu, Human Attribute Recognition by Rich Appearance

Dictionary, Proc. Int’l Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), 2013. [P19]. Regan F. Patterson, Qunfang Zhang, Mei Zheng, and Yifang Zhu, Particle Deposition in

Respiratory Tracts of School-Aged Children, 2013, Aerosol and Air Quality Research. [P20]. S. Wang, J. Joo, Y.Z. Wang, and S.C. Zhu, Weakly Supervised Learning for Attribute

Localization in Outdoor Scenes, Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2013.

[P21]. Zhang, Q., Vuong, H., Huang, X., Wang, Y., Brecha N.C., Pu, M., and Gao, J. (2013) Melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cell loss and behavioral analysis in the Thy1-CFP-DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma. Science China Life Sciences. 56:720-730.

[P22]. Wei Zhang, Peichi Liu, Biyun Jackson, Tianshu Sun, Shyh-Jer Huang, Hsiao-Chiu Hsu, Yan-Kuin Su, Shoou-Jinn Chang, Lei Li, Ding Li, Lei Wang, XiaoDong Hu, and Y. H. Xie, Dislocation Reduction Through Nucleation And Growth Selectivity Of Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition Gan, J. Appl. Phys, v.113, 144908, 2013.

[P23]. Wei Zuo, Yun Liang, Peng Li, Kyle Rupnow, Deming Chen and Jason Cong, Improving High Level Synthesis Optimization Opportunity through Polyhedral Transformations, Proceedings of the 21st ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA 2013), Monterey, California, pp. 9-18, February 2013.

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[P24]. Yuxin Wang, Peng Li, Peng Zhang, Chen Zhang and Jason Cong, Memory Partitioning for Multidimensional Arrays in High-level Synthesis, to appear in Proceedings of the 50th Annual Design Automation Conference (DAC 2013), Austin, TX, June 2013.

[P25]. Tammy Chang, Anpeng Huang, A Self-Adaptive Scheduling (SAS) Solution for Enhancing VoIP Service Quality in OFDM-based Mobile Networks, IEEE International Conference on Communications, June, 2013.

[P26]. Zhinan Li, Wenyao Xu, Anpeng Huang, Linzhen Xie, and Majid Sarrafzadeh, Low-Power Sensing Technology: Efficiency Optimization of Classification-based Applications in Wearable Sensor Systems, 2013 10th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensing and Communication in Wireless Networks (SECON), submitted, New Orleans, USA, June 24-27, 2013.

[P27]. Wei Zuo, Peng Li, Deming Chen, Louis-Noel Pouchet, Shunan Zhong and Jason Cong, Improving Polyhedral Code Generation for High-Level Synthesis, Proceedings of the International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis(CODES-ISSS 2013), Sep 2013, Montreal, Canada (Best Paper Award)

Papers under Submission

[S1]. Hongtao Liu, Honggui Wang, Qin Wang, Zugen Chen, Bin Liu, Chenxi Zhao, Hongwei Guo, Sheen Lu, Elaine Tobin, David Somers, and Chentao Lin, Two Arabidopsis Blue-Light Receptors Regulate The CIB1 Transcription Factor By Distinct Mechanisms In Response To Blue Light. Submitted 2013.

[S2]. Wei Wu, Xiang Li, Lei He, Dongxiao Zhang, Accelerating the Iterative Linear Solver for Reservoir Simulation on Multicore Architectures, submission to 28th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium. Submitted 2013.

[S3]. Nikolaos Karianakis, Yizhou Wang, Stefano Soatto, , Learning to Discriminate in the Wild: Representation Learning Network for Nuisance-Invariant Image Comparison Conference on Computer Vision and Patter Recognition. Submitted 2013.

Joint Funding Proposals

[F1]. Lei He, Dongxiao Zhang. U.S. Department of State, “US-China Ecopartnership.” Awarded, signed May 2, 2012.

[F2]. Yizhou Wang, Song-Chun Zhu. National Science Foundation China, a joint proposal for international collaboration. Submitted Spring 2012. Not awarded.

[F3]. Yifang Zhu, Suzanne Paulson, Songwu Lu, Matthew Kahn, Xinghua Qiu, Mei Zheng, Canfei He,. National Science Foundation, “International Research Experience for Students.” Proposal US-China Collaboraion on Air Pollution Research and Education. Submitted August, 2013.

[F4]. Yifang Zhu, Tong Zhu, Xinghua Qiu, Mei Zheng. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, proposal to expand on pilot study conducted with JRI summer exchange students in 2012. Submitted October, 2013

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Student Exchanges/Programs 2010-2013

JRI provides multiple programs for student exchanges between PKU and UCLA, which are summarized in the following table. For a list of student publications resulting from JRI exchanges, see page 34.

For UCLA Undergraduate and Graduate Students

For PKU Undergraduate Students

For PKU Graduate Students

UCLA PKU JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU PKU and UCLA JRI provides scholarships, housing, faculty advisors, and field trips for 10-13 UCLA students for ten-week summer research experience at Peking University. Tuition, lab and campus fees are waived. p.25

PKU UCLA JRI Pilot Integrated PKU BS + UCLA MS Degree Program, “3+2” Eligible PKU students may attend UCLA for their fourth year of undergraduate studies, receive their PKU Bachelor's degree, then continue on for one more year at UCLA and receive a UCLA Master's degree. p.33

PKU UCLA JRI Graduate Research Exchange at UCLA Up to five PKU graduate students come for collaborative research with UCLA faculty. Tuition and campus fees waived* for 1-3 quarters during academic year. p.32 (*students come for research only) 5 graduate students supplement the Undergraduate Student Exchange.

UCEAP programs at PKU* • International Summer School,

PKU, Summer • Peking University, Spring • Peking University, Year

(includes summer language study at Beijing Normal University)

*see appendix for figures

PKU UCLA JRI Undergraduate Student Exchange Up to ten PKU students come for 1-3 quarters* of study at UCLA during academic year. Tuition is waived. p.29 *In practice, 10 students visit UCLA for 1 quarter due to differences in academic calendars. 10 students/1 quarter = 5 students/year.

UCLA students with JRI co-directors, closing ceremony for 2012 JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU.

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JRI Summer Research Exchange at Peking University

2010 (9 students) Student Name Major PKU

Advisor Poster Title

Shirley Sui Neuroscience Albert Cheung-Hoi Yu

Functional Study of Critical Proteins, Neuroglobin and DREAM, in Primary Cultures of Mus musculus Neural Cells

Katherine Rosen Biochemistry Zeng-Yi Chang

Using Combinatorial RNA Interference to Elucidate the Genetic Interactions of Sir-2.1 in Caenorhabditis elegans

Drew Morton Neuroscience Mingliang Pu

Survival of Melanopsin Expressing ipRGCs in Thy1-CFP DBA/2j Mice, a model for Glaucoma

Allison Wong Biochemistry Shao-Qing Cai

The Isolation and Identification of Bioactive Constituents of Ephedra sinica

Robert Cunningham

Physics/Applied Math

Xiaodong Hu

An Investigation into Gallium-Nitride Type III Semiconductors

Zhanyong Wang Computer Science Li-Ping Wei Systematic Meta-analysis of Genetic Susceptibility Underlying Autism

Chunyi Peng Computer Science Xiaoming Li EPS: Find Parking on the Go Peichi (Justin) Liu Materials Science

and Engineering Xiaodong Hu

GaN Growth with Low Dislocation Density on Patterned Sapphire Substrate

Sheng Wei Computer Science Anpeng Huang

FPGA Implementation of HD Video Deblocking Filter Using C-to-Hardware Synthesis

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2011 (14 students) Student Name Major PKU Advisor Poster Title Tammy Chang Electrical Engineering Anpeng Huang Hybrid Scheduling Method for Large VoIP

Packet Delivery [P25] David Cohen Electrical Engineering Hong-Bin Zha Yasaman Demehri

Physiological Science Rui-ping Xiao Screening for Novel β2-Adrenergic Receptor Agonists

Xin (Sharon) Guan

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kai Wu Electrode position of Thermoelectric SbxTey Nanowires

Hien Huynh Electrical Engineering Gang Huang Embedding V8 Module in Nginx to Run JavaScript Applications at the Server

Niloufar Iranmanesh

Physiological Science Shao-Qing Cai Determination of Eight Compounds of Cinnamon Twig by HPLC

Brandon Lanthier

Civil Engineering Don Zhang A Study of TOUGHREACT_V1.21 and Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

Ian McRae Chemical Engineering Zhen Yang Synthesis of Micrandilactone A Skeleton Arefeh Orouji Physiological Science Shao-Qing Cai The effect of Angelica sinensis on the blood of

Rats Jamie Tran Molecular, Cellular,

Developmental Bio Gui-Qiang Wang Overexpression of miR-9 in HepG2 cells results

in reduced cell adhesion and increased cell invasion

Vincent Tse Integrative Biology and Physiology

John Wang Overexpression of miR-9 in HepG2 cells results in reduced cell adhesion and increased cell invasion

Daniel Wen Electrical Engineering Qi-Huang Gong Photovoltaic Properties of PBDTC10DBT Polymer Solar Cell

Bingjun Xiao Electrical Engineering Ru Huang mrFPGA: A Novel FPGA Architecture with Memristor-Based Reconfiguration

Defeng Xu Computer Science Xiaoming Li Opportunistic Check and Forward: Recovery from Black Hole Attacks for Location Based Routing

"Going to China with JRI was one of the greatest things I have ever done in my life.” – Niloufar Iranmanesh

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2012 (13 students) Student Name Major PKU Advisor Poster Title Tammy Chang (Mentor support only for second year)

Electrical Engineering

Anpeng Huang

Hybrid Scheduling Method for Large VoIP Packet Delivery [P25]

Jonathan Chiang Human Genetics Shao-Qing Cai Isolation of Chemical Constituents of Tufuling Ian Ferguson Aerospace

Engineering Long Wang Powered Ankle Prosthesis

Matthew Hecht Chemistry/Materials Science

Li Yan, Ms. Using DGU to Separate Carbon Nanotubes

Asael Papour MS Electrical Engineering

Qiushi Ren Optical System for Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (FMT) imaging device

Regan Patterson Chemical Engineering

Mei Zheng Comparison of Particle Deposition in the Respiratory Tracts of Children and Adults in LA and Beijing using Multiple-Path Particle Dosimetry Model (MPPD) [P19]

Jeffrey Schwartz Physics Kai Wu Hydrogen-Bonding Networks in Self Assembled Monolayers

Jean Shen Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Bio

Gui-Qiang Wang

Diminished expression of FBX4 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Michiko Suwoto Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Bio

You Yong Lu Androgen Receptor (AR) Expression in Gastric Cancer Cell Lines

Helen Vuong Physiological Science

Ming Liang Pu Morphological Interactions between Dopamine Amacrine Cells and Intrinsic Photosensitive Ganglion Cells [P21]

Steven Weiss Computer Science Tao Wang Wireless Transmission on GNU Radio Drake Williams Microbiology,

Immunology, & Molecular Genetics

Shi-Qiang Wang

Acute Angiotensin II treatment delays T-tubule remodeling

Dalia Zhang Physiological Sciences

Zhuan Zhou Stimulate DA Neurons and Record DA Release in Striatum

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2013 (12 students) Student Name Major PKU Advisor Poster Title Michelle Wong MIMG Albert Cheung-Hoi

YU The Prevalence and Risk Factors of Depression Among the Elderly in Beijing

Jessica Liu Biochemistry Mingliang Pu Potential role of MG53 in aging Taryn McLaughlin MIMG Albert Cheung-Hoi

YU Kinematic and Dynamic Simulation of Interceptive Behaviors

Scarlett Chen Biology Rui-Ping Xiao How can Representation Learning deal with the problem of nuisance variability in Computer Vision?

Karen Chaw Computer Science Xiao-Ying Zheng HUA ENHANCER2 is important for growth, development of Arabidopsis independent of post-transcriptional gene silencing

Xiaolong Jiang Computer Science Yizhou Wang LAPD Platform for Plant Systems Biology Wei Wu Electrical

Engineering Dongxiao Zhang Growth and development in children with

picky eating behavior: a cross-sectional study Nikolaos Karianakis Computer Science Yizhou Wang Characterization of Alpha Ganglion Cell

Distribution in the Cat Retina using RNA-Binding Protein with Multiple Splicing Antibody [S3]

Benjamin Lee Biophysics Hong-Wei Guo Effects of glutamate and substance P on DREAM and prodynorphin expression levels in astrocytes and neurons

Vivian Tran Psychobiology Kai-Yuan Fu The Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Normal and TMD Patients

Eva Lee Psychobiology Pei-Yu Wang Characterization of DREAM in Astrocytes and Neurons in Response to Pain Modulators, Bradykinin and Glutamate

Joonhee Kim Molecular, Cell, Developmental Bio

Hong-Wei Guo Accelerating the Reservoir Simulator using Circuit Simulation Techniques

Chancellor Block with UCLA students at the JRI Symposium, Beijing 2013.

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Feedback for 2012 and 2013 JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU

Tammy Chang (‘11, ‘12): Because of my work with Professor Anpeng Huang at PKU last summer, I was able to boost my resume with research experience as well as have his recommendation when applying to graduate school, for

which I give much credit to my acceptance into Stanford. Additionally, (this summer) we were able to submit a paper to an international communications conference...To actually live as a student in a place like Beijing not only broadens, but deepens perspective to an entirely new level.

Jonathan Chiang ‘12: The intangibles I gained through this program have broadened my understanding of the Chinese culture and will no doubt continue to impact my perspective of science at the

global scale. Definitely a summer well spent!

Ian Ferguson ‘12: I would recommend this program to anyone looking to study abroad, especially in China, and experience a new culture and lifestyle… Before the program, I was wondering if I should pursue an internship instead,

but I know now that nothing can replace what I have learned and experienced through the JRI program.

Jessica Liu ‘13: Everything was great! I loved my lab. Overall I learned so much about Chinese history and culture that I couldn't have learned by watching TV or reading a book.

Eva Lee ‘13: It helped me develop research skills and see from a global perspective. It gave me the opportunity to travel abroad for the first time

and meet and work with so many great people.

Nikos Karianakis ‘13: I'm happy for my choice to work here this summer. I improved the results of my UCLA PhD project and worked

in 2 new projects as well. It seems my research in PKU will lead to at least one publication.

Helen Vuong ‘12: I learned a lot about doing science in a different culture. The most important knowledge came from lab. The JRI program opened many doors for my graduate studies, including future

collaborations and production of papers.

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PKU-UCLA Undergraduate Student Exchange, 2009-2013

2009-2010 (2 students)

Lname Fname Department Term YUE Yao Asian Languages and Cultures 09F;10W;10S;101 ZHANG Li Art History 09F;10W;10S;101

2010-2011 (15 students) Lname Fname Department Term

DU Jingjing English 10F;11W;11S HE Runxia Economics 10F JIN Chi Physics and Astronomy 11S JU Fei English 10F;11W;11S LE Ya Statistics 11S;111 LI Rong 10F;11W;11S LIANG Tengyuan Statistics 11S;111 LU Yuchen English 10F;11W;11S NIU Yuezhen Physics and Astronomy 11S;111 PAN Chao Urban Planning 10F PANG Jiufeng Computer Science 10F;11W;11S SU Yihui 10F;11W;11S

TAI Shun Tak Saunder Economics 10F

WANG Yuxin 10F;11W;11S XIAZO Huaide Film, Television, and Digital Media 10F

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2011-2012 (10 students) Lname Fname Department Term

FENG Yao Economics 11F GUAN Zixuan Physics and Astronomy 11F LIU Tong Political Science 11F SIU KWAN Law 11F SU Cong Physics and Astronomy 11F SUN Weiling Economics 11F WANG LEI Economics 11F WANG Zihao Economics 11F YAN Yuzhen Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 11F ZHENG Cheng Economics 11F

2012-2013 (10 students)

Lname Fname Department Term FENG XINRUI History 12F GONG Haibo Economics 12F HOU Yujing Political Science 12F HUANG Xiangyi Statistics 12F JIANG XIN Geography 12F SHEN Jiaying Economics 12F SHI Yu Geography 12F WANG AONI Communication Studies 12F ZENG ZHEN Economics 12F ZHANG Qinwen Economics 12F

2013-2014 (10 students) LName Fname School Term

LI Zhongshu Environmental Sciences and Engineering 13F ZHANG Chunxiao Yuanpei College, Economics 13F WANG Hansheng Yuanpei College, Economics 13F ZHAO Rui Environmental Sciences and Engineering 13F YANG Fangyin International Studies 13F FENG Tao Environmental Sciences and Engineering 13F CHEN Lin Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences 13F LI Xuefei Chinese Langauge and Literature 13F HUANG Sihan Yuanpei College, Mathematics 13F FAN Bowei School of Economics 13F

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JRI PKU Graduate Research Exchange at UCLA, 2011-2013

2011-2012 (5 students) LAST First Major PKU Advisor UCLA Advisor Term BIAN Chaoyi Computer Science Xiaoming Li Lixia Zhang 11F;12W;12SP;12SU LONG Hao Material Science Xiaodong Hu Ya-Hong Xie 11W;12S YAO Zhonghua Earth and Space

Sciences Zuyin Pu Vassilis

Angelopoulos 11W

YU Qiang Plant Biology Hongwei Guo Chentao Lin 11F;11W;12S ZHANG Xinyi Microelectronics Zhihong Li Pei-Yu Chiou 11F;11W;12S;12SU

2012-2013 (2 students) LAST First Major PKU Advisor UCLA

Advisor Term

CHENG Qiao

Energy and Resource Engineering

Dong WANG Yang YANG 12F;13W

TIAN Zhao Computer Science Tao WANG Jason CONG

12F

2013-2014 (1 student) LAST First Major PKU Advisor UCLA Advisor Term LIU Xiaochen Computer Science Tao Wang Songwu Lu 13F

Zhao Tian, Fall ‘12: I learned a lot [about] how to do research, such as the importance of problem formulation and reduction of new problems to known ones. While I have only had three month to study, do research and live at UCLA, it is a very meaningful and unforgettable experience.

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Pilot: Integrated PKU BS – UCLA MS program ‘3+2’

To further the student exchanges between PKU and UCLA, and recruit top students from PKU to graduate programs at UCLA, with the support of campus leadership, the faculty of UCLA CS and EE departments voted to start a pilot BS+MS program between PKU and UCLA (known as the ‘3+2’ program). Under this novel pilot program, selected undergraduate students in their third year at PKU would be admitted to UCLA as non-degree seeking students to complete the fourth year of their PKU bachelor’s program at UCLA while working on eligibility for admittance to the UCLA Master’s Degree program in either Computer Science or Electrical Engineering. Students who successfully o b t a i n their bachelor’s degree from PKU, apply for admission to UCLA’s MS program and meet the conditions laid out in the Integrated Program would matriculate into the Master’s program the following year. After completing the graduate program coursework in the second year, students would receive a Master’s Degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering at UCLA. 2013 is the first pilot year for this novel program. 2013-2014 (7 students) First LAST Name Major Major ranking UCLA Advisor Guanrong HOU Computer Science 5/75 Sudhakar Pamarti ShiYu Liang Computer Science 11/145 Jens Palsberg Lunbo Xu Computer Science 5/145 Stefano Soatto Renchi Yan Electrical Engineering 10/145 Miodrag Potkonjak Chen Yu Electrical Engineering 3/35 Jason Cong Haochen Yuan Computer Science 1/75 Bahram Jalali Zhuangtian Zhao Computer Science 4/35 Wei Wang

Pilot 3+2 students with Prof. Cong and Chancellor Block at the UCLA Alumni Reception in Beijing, June 2013.

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Student Publications and Submissions

The student exchange programs have led to a number of research results and joint publications. Here is a partial list of joint publications involving exchange students. In particular, it is encouraging to see some of the co-authors are UCLA undergraduate students who participated in the summer exchange program (Tammy Chang and Regan Patterson).

[P15] Peng Li, Yuxin Wang, Peng Zhang, Guojie Luo, Tao Wang and Jason Cong, Memory Partitioning and Scheduling Co-optimization in Behavioral Synthesis, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD 2012), San Jose, CA, pp. 488-495, November 2012. [P19] Regan F. Patterson, Qunfang Zhang, Mei Zheng, and Yifang Zhu, Particle Deposition in Respiratory Tracts of School-Aged Children, 2013, Aerosol and Air Quality Research. [P21] Zhang, Q., Vuong, H., Huang, X., Wang, Y., Brecha N.C., Pu, M., and Gao, J. (2013) Melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cell loss and behavioral analysis in the Thy1-CFP-DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma. Science China Life Sciences. 56:720-730. [P25] Tammy Chang, Anpeng Huang, A Self-Adaptive Scheduling (SAS) Solution for Enhancing VoIP Service Quality in OFDM-based Mobile Networks, IEEE International Conference on Communications, June, 2013.

[S3] Nikolaos Karianakis, Yizhou Wang, Stefano Soatto, Learning to Discriminate in the Wild: Representation Learning Network for Nuisance-Invariant Image Comparison Conference on Computer Vision and Patter Recognition. Submitted 2013.

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External Funding 2009-2013

National Science Foundation • NSF International Research Experiences for Students (IRES)

o Professor Yifang Zhu, of UCLA’s School of Public Health, submitted a proposal in August 2013 to send five UCLA students, both undergraduate and graduate, to PKU to conduct cutting-edge research on air pollution for 10 weeks each summer. Proposal builds on existing JRI collaborations and Summer Research Exchange.

Xilinx, the largest programmable logic company worldwide – COMPLETE, 2012

• $15,000/year, for three years • Scholarship support for student exchanges for three years • Research development boards for both PKU and UCLA • Area of interest: programmable logic devices and their applications

AsiaInfo, the largest Internet infrastructure company in China – To be COMPLETE in 2013

• $150,000 over 3 years • Support one graduate student each in both PKU and UCLA for three years • Area of interest: energy-efficient computing and applications

Ongoing discussions • Baidu, China Mobile

Peking University support for JRI Summer Research Exchange

Year No. of students Tuition fee* Flight Dormitory Tours Stiped Total

2010 9 $ 29,520 $ 17,712 $ - $ 865 $ 10,332 $ 58,429

2011 14 $ 45,920 $ 23,616 $ - $ 1,797 $ 13,776 $ 85,109

2012 12 $ 39,360 $ - $ 24,797 $ 2,076 $ 13,776 $ 80,009 2013 12 $ 39,360 $ - $ 26,661 $ 1,943 $ 6,888 $ 74,853 Total $ 154,160 $ 41,328 $ 51,458 $ 6,681 $ 44,772 $ 298,400

*Tuition fee = campus and lab fees, $3,280 (20,000 RMB) per student

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Plans and Works in Progress

• Pilot year for 3+2 Integrated PKU BS – UCLA MS Degree Program, Fall 2013. • In perpetuity donor funding for JRI Summer Research Exchange at PKU. • Leveraging PKU’s new course offerings in English to generate student interest in studying at PKU

during academic year. • Megacity Sustainability Collaboration. This new research topic came out of the 2012 JRI

Symposium. Topics could cover air pollution, clean energy (e.g., solar), urban/transportation planning, economics/policy, and data communication (network). Research would involve UCLA/Los Angeles and PKU/Beijing. Jointly applied for NSF International Research Experience for Students (IRES) funding, August 2013.

• Continue exploring donor fund for start-up oriented research. Objective is to allow donors to fund research and provide input on potential start-ups. AsiaInfo is potential participant.

• Developing a UCLA-PKU JRI ‘incubator’ facility in China. Objective is a research facility in China. China Mobile is interested in partnering.

• Continue faculty exchanges between PKU and UCLA to seed new collaborative research programs.

• Leverage NSF International Research Experience for Students (IRES).

UCLA Profs. Guoping Fan and Nicholas Brecha prepare at the JRI Symposium, Beijing 2013

37

APPENDIX

Annual JRI Symposium Programs p.37 UCEAP opportunities at PKU for UCLA students p.41 Letter from Robert Cunningham, JRI Summer Research Exchange, 2010 p.42

Annual JRI Symposium Programs

First UCLA/PKU Joint Research Institute Mini-Symposium California NanoSystem Institute (CNSI), UCLA, May 6-8, 2010 May 6, 2010 OPENING SESSION • Welcome and introduction: Jason Cong (UCLA) and Xiaoming Li (PKU), co-directors of JRI • Opening addresses: Provost Scott Waugh (UCLA) and Provost Jianhua Lin (PKU) • International programs at UCLA, Nick Entrikin, UCLA • JRI progress update: Jason Cong (UCLA) and Xiaoming Li (PKU) PLENARY SESSION • Next Generation Biofuels, James Liao, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UCLA • The Strength of Drug Discovery at Peking University, ZhenYang, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, PKU •New Algorithms in Information Science, Stanley Osher, Department of Mathematics, UCLA THREE PARALLEL SESSIONS

1. Clean Energy (co-chairs: Jane Chang, UCLA and Dongxiao Zhang, PKU) 2. Information Technology (co-chairs: Majid Sarrafzadeh, UCLA and Wen Gao, PKU) 3. Life Sciences (co-chairs: Shuo Lin, UCLA and Zhen Yang, PKU)

May 7, 2010 • Discussions about possible collaboration topics • Overview of CNSI • Visits to UCLA research labs

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Second UCLA/PKU Joint Research Institute Mini-Symposium Ying Jie Overseas Exchange Center, Peking University, April 25 - 26, 2011 April 25, 2011 OPENING SESSION •Welcome President Zhou and Chancellor Block, Xiaoming Li •Remarks by President Zhou •Remarks by Chancellor Block •Briefing of JRI Activities, Jason Cong PLENARY SESSION •Nicholas Brecha, UCLA, “Center for Excellence in Neuroscience and Recent Advances in Vision Function.” •Dongxiao Zhang, College of Engineering, PKU, Clean Energy – research, applications and impact in China” •Frank Chang, UCLA, “Recent Advances in Electrical Engineering and Its Applications at UCLA” •Shan Wang, Renmin Hospital, PKU, “Challenges and Opportunities on Chinese e-Health” FOUR PARALLEL SESSIONS

1. Clean Energy 2. Information Technology 3. Life Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences 4. Translational Medicine

PLENARY MEETING • Opportunities and challenges for JRI • Goals for PKU and UCLA collaboration • How the universities should further support the activities April 26, 2012 Visits to PKU research labs Third UCLA/PKU Joint Research Institute Mini-Symposium California NanoSystem Institute (CNSI), UCLA, May 2-3, 2012 May 2, 2012 OPENING SESSION • UCLA’s international engagement, Cindy Fan, UCLA • Science and engineering research profile of Peking University, Xiaoming Li, PKU • JRI progress update, Jason Cong, UCLA • Remarks from Chinese Consuls from Education, Science and Technology PLENARY SESSION

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• Formation processes and health impacts of atmospheric pollution in megacity Beijing and North China plain, Tong Zhu, College of Environmental Science, PKU • Introduction to the Center for Translational Science (CTSI), Steven Dubinett, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA • A brief introduction to the School of Life Sciences at PKU (abstract), Hongya Gu, Life Sciences, PKU • Named Data Networking and the future of civic and cultural information technology, Jeff Burke, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA • Remarks from Stephen Cheung, Director, Mayor’s Office of Economic and Business Policy • Remarks from Provost Scott Waugh, UCLA FOUR PARELLEL SESSIONS

1. Innovations in Information Technology 2. Environment and Epidemiology 3. Innovations in Material Sciences 4. Biological and Medical Sciences

May 3, 2012 • Lab visits • Theme-wide discussion on possible collaborations • Tour of LA Port and air quality improvements, San Pedro

Fourth UCLA/PKU Joint Research Institute Mini-Symposium Global Village, Peking University, July 1-2, 2013

July 1, 2013 OPENING SESSION •Welcome President Wang and Chancellor Block, Xiaoming Li •Remarks by President Wang •Remarks by Chancellor Block

UCLA Prof. Anne Andrews and PKU Prof. Tong Zhu, Beijing 2013

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•Briefing of JRI Activities, Jason Cong PLENARY SESSION • Exploring and Controlling the Nanoscale World: From the World's Smallest Motors Working Cooperatively to the Brain, Paul Weiss, Director of California NanoSystems Institute, UCLA • Molecular Biology of Social Relationships, Yi Rao, Dean of Life Sciences, PKU • Factors Controlling Spatial Variations in Pollutant Levels at Street Scale; Particulate Reactive Oxygen Species and Optical Properties, Suzanne Paulson, Vice Chair of the Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Science, UCLA • Air Pollution and Health Impacts, Tong Zhu, PKU • A Glance at NSFC and Its International Cooperation, Wen Gao, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, PKU FOUR PARALLEL SESSIONS

1. Cell Communication and Biological Mechanisms 2. Climate and Environment 3. Semiconductor Materials and Devices 4. Mobile Computing and Big Data

July 2, 2013 PLENARY MEETING • Opportunities and challenges for JRI • Goals for PKU and UCLA collaboration • How the universities should further support the activities • Visits to PKU research labs

JRI staff Cecca Yang (PKU) and Larissa Harrison (UCLA) at the 4th JRI Symposium, Beijing, 2013.

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UC EAP opportunities at PKU for UCLA students, chart of participant numbers

International Summer School, Peking University Summer program is designed to promote communication and learning among international students, while enhancing global perspective. First, a UCEAP course familiarizes students with the historical and socio-cultural richness of Beijing, the students take PKU summer courses taught in English. Peking University, Spring and year-long options Students choose to enroll for either a full year or spring semester. In either case, students take classes alongside ambitious international and domestic students in a semester term. Internships are also an opportunity for students fall or spring. Year-long includes summer language study at Beijing Normal University.

Program 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Grand Total

International Summer School, Peking Univ.

9 6 2 1 18

Peking Univ, L&C BNU Summer + Year 4 1 2 1

8

Peking Univ, Spring 2

1

2 2

7

Grand Total 6 1 3 10 8 4 1 33

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Letter from Robert Cunningham

Robert was among the first group of UCLA students in the JRI Summer Research Exchange Program at PKU (2010). This letter is a good testimony of the impact the JRI summer student research program has on UCLA students in their career development. Dear Jason, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on my endeavors since leaving UCLA, as I can directly credit the UCLA-PKU JRI Student Exchange Program for much of my current activities. As a member of the first group of students to participate in the program, I feel a certain duty to the JRI to inform them of how critical and important the program was in my life, and can only hope this encourages expanding the opportunity to as many students as possible in the future. During my senior year at UCLA (I graduated June 2011), I applied and was accepted to Princeton in Asia (PiA), an international fellowship program that facilitates cross-cultural interaction between East and West. Most of the fellows are accepted directly after their undergrad (such as I was), while a few are a year or two removed from their studies. As a PiA fellow, I went to Singapore to teach physics at Raffles Institution for a year and a half. I taught 15 year old boys and coached basketball, and the experience was truly incredible. Not only did I learn about many of the cultures that intermingle in Singapore (Malay, Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Filipino, Bangladeshi, etc.), it provided ample opportunity to travel SE Asia extensively, an experience that I am grateful and lucky to have had. It is incredibly humbling to travel the world at such a young age and be enlightened by the customs, people, hardships, and friendships forged in lands so foreign to my own. The whole time, I was never concerned about travelling alone or not being able to cut it in any environment, and I credit JRI for giving me this confidence. My PiA fellowship ended in December 2012. Presently, I'm back living in China! I work for a company called Beryl Laboratory Solutions, which designs and manufactures laboratory furniture such as fume hoods, workbenches, ventilation systems, etc. We are headquartered in Pudong, Shanghai, China, right next to Lujiazui. The company has existed for only 4 years, but has tripled its revenue every year of its existence. The CEO is a family friend of my roommate from UCLA, a Chinese-American named David Yu, who is fluent in both English and Chinese; the CEO offered David a position in the company when he graduated from UCLA in June 2012. The CEO asked my friend David to assemble a team to find the first international markets in which to begin direct export of Beryl's products. So, towards the end of my teaching assignment in Singapore, David asked if I wanted to join his team in Shanghai, taking a huge risk to see if we could expand this Chinese company beyond the Middle Kingdom's borders. I jumped at the chance. The third member of our team is a South African who has a finance background. Anyways, it has been quite the experience so far: working for an entirely Chinese company, learning the language and customs of business in China, delving into international business when I was trained as a physicist! We are doing well so far. This weekend, we travel to Dubai to attend the Arab Lab Expo, and after the Expo the three of us move to Johannesburg, South Africa to establish our first offices outside of China! Once we get the South Africa office up and running, we come back to Shanghai to regroup and find the next market to open up in. Our team has a ridiculous amount of freedom to conduct business operations as we see fit (especially since we are so unproven, but David has great guanxi with the CEO), and hopefully we repay that freedom with large revenue returns. It feels a lot like running a start-up company, and if we can be successful with this task, then starting up our own company might not be too far down the road.

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This became a bit longer than I intended when I started, but I just wanted to take the time to update you on my post-JRI activities. As one of the "guinea pigs" of the JRI program, I know there was a lot of uncertainty from the administration over the value of the program and whether it would be beneficial to the students. I can attest, wholeheartedly, that the PKU-UCLA exchange was the single most important program I participated in during my time at UCLA. The reason I even applied to PiA was because of how amazing the JRI program was, how it opened my eyes to the future of our globally interconnected planet, and how I wanted to recreate the experience again. I can say that the prestige of the JRI program directly lead to my acceptance into the selective PiA fellowship as well, for which I am eternally grateful. JRI sparked a deep interest in the Asian region and beyond that made me look internationally after my undergrad, and the confidence to know I would succeed in whatever foreign land I ended up in (because, what can be harder than being plunked in the middle of Beijing with no language experience, no chaperone, only my fellow bewildered JRI companions?). When I was offered the chance to return to China and work on the business end of things, it was a no-brainer. As you know, I was already interested in pursuing such a position while in Beijing (thanks for the Baidu interview!), so Shanghai was merely another avenue to pursue this desire. Now that I am on the international business side of things, I can take my American upbringing, mix it with this Chinese business, and spread the combination out into the furthest pockets of the world. The JRI Summer Exchange program was the crucible of my international development, and I stand as a testament to the benefits it provides. Plain and simple, I would not be where I am without the JRI, and I consider myself blessed and lucky to have been a charter participant in such and incredible program. I hope this update encourages the JRI to expand the program so that more students can be enlightened in the way that I was, and the JRI can continue its mission to develop more and more globally aware citizens of this planet. It works, and we need them! Thanks again for everything, and please keep in touch. Feel free to forward this mail to the Chancellor and any other individual who played a pivotal role in establishing the PKU-UCLA Summer Exchange Program. Best Regards, Robert (JRI Summer Research Exchange, 2010)