Dr. Yao-Chon (John) Chen

While an engineering professor by trade, John Chen is, on many levels, an architect. He doesn’t design buildings, though. Instead, the control systems and robotics expert designs a learning experience that is engaging, practical and continually evolving, twice earning Chen the Dean’s Pedagogical Innovation Fund for teaching excellence. “While I’m developing labs, I learn the new technology and design it from scratch myself,” he says. “So, when a student runs into a problem, I know right away what went wrong.”

A builder by nature, it’s no wonder Chen found his way to robotics. He initially became interested in engineering through the influence of his father, a mechanical engineer. And while Chen followed his love of math to the field of electrical, those mechanical roots are evident in his research today. In control systems, it’s the combination of the theoretical and practical that keeps Chen excited about his work. “I chose control systems because I’m attracted to the mathematical aspect,” he says. “And so it’s very nice to see the theory being transformed into working hardware and software.”