- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/dr-yupo-chan/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:39:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Chan Family Marks Professor鈥檚 Legacy with $6.75 Million Gift to Benefit 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Engineering Programs /news-archive/2022/10/17/chan-legacy/ Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:39:29 +0000 /news/?p=82408 ... Chan Family Marks Professor鈥檚 Legacy with $6.75 Million Gift to Benefit 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Engineering Programs]]> The Yupo and Susan Chan Charitable Trust made the gift to fulfill the expressed vision of Dr. Yupo Chan, the founding chair of the Department of Systems Engineering, who passed away in 2020. The transformational gift will support 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 new School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and provide scholarships for engineering students for many years to come. This gift represents the fifth largest donation in the university鈥檚 history and kicks off an important moment as 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock celebrates the public launch of its new capital campaign. The gift was announced Oct. 13 during the official launch celebration of the Centennial Campaign, which commemorates the university鈥檚 upcoming centennial anniversary in 2027. 鈥淓ducation was very important to Yupo,鈥 his wife Susan Chan said. 鈥淵upo鈥檚 vision boiled down to an interest in helping make 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock an important center for engineering and operations research. The two things he most enjoyed about working at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock were mentoring individual students to make a difference in their lives and doing engineering research. He wanted to make a significant difference to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.鈥 The gift from the Yupo and Susan Chan Charitable Trust, for which Susan Chan and her niece Alexandra Johnson serve as trustees, includes:
  • $1.5 million to establish the Yupo Chan Director of the School of Engineering Endowment
  • $2 million to create the Chan Wui and Yunyin Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship
  • $3.25 million to create the Chan Wui and Yunyin Endowed Graduate Scholarship
鈥淒r. Chan was an extraordinary leader and mentor,鈥 said Dr. Christina Drale, chancellor of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. 鈥淗is accomplishments at this university touched many lives and helped elevate our engineering school to national prominence. This gift will continue the transformational effect on students and programs that he was known for and to which he dedicated his career.鈥

Dr. Lawrence Whitman, right, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, is moved as a portrait of the late professor Yupo Chan is unveiled by his niece Alex Johnson, and wife, Susan Chan, who were honored for their family鈥檚 $6.75 million gift to benefit the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology.

The Yupo Chan Director of the School of Engineering Endowment will provide funds to benefit the university鈥檚 School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, which launched July 1 in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). “Dr. Chan served as the initial chair of systems engineering and brought engineering to our campus,鈥 said Dr. Lawrence Whitman, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM. 鈥淒r. Chan’s legacy will continue to positively impact engineering at our university by strengthening the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We are grateful to the Chans for the transformational gift that will provide for the future of engineering on our campus.” The endowment will help attract and recruit highly qualified individuals to the position of the director of the School of Engineering, which will be named for Dr. Chan, and provide the director with the resources to further their contributions to teaching, research, and public service. The fund will also supplement university support for outstanding faculty in the school. The scholarships will provide assistance to full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students studying engineering and engineering technology at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock for education related expenses, including tuition, books, fees, and room and board. Scholarship recipients will be selected based on financial need and/or merit. The scholarships are named in memory of Dr. Chan鈥檚 parents to honor their commitment to education. During the Communist takeover of China, the country seized the family鈥檚 property, and the Chan family fled to the British colony of Hong Kong in the 1950s.
Susan Chan and Alex Johnson, wife and niece of the late Professor Yupo Chan, are honored at the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Centennial Campaign Gala for their family鈥檚 $6.75 million gift to benefit the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology.

Susan Chan and Alex Johnson, wife and niece of the late Professor Yupo Chan, are honored at the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Centennial Campaign Gala for their family鈥檚 $6.75 million gift to benefit the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology. Photos by Ben Krain

鈥淵upo鈥檚 parents believed strongly in the value of education, that education was the path toward success in life,鈥 Susan Chan said. 鈥淭hey sent Yupo to a very good Hong Kong Catholic High School that prepared him to be admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.鈥 Dr. Chan received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in civil engineering, a master鈥檚 degree in transportation systems, and a Ph.D. in operations research, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His academic career included positions at the State University of New York at Stoney Brook, Penn State, the University of Washington, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. He joined 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 2000, where he spent two decades as a leading engineering educator and researcher. Dr. Chan founded the Chan Wui and Yunyin Rising Star Workshop to consider the analytical relationship between mobility and communication and established a chapter of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering students, at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. In later years at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, he worked with a team of scientists to develop a small, cost-effective way to observe atmospheric levels of greenhouse gasses using CubeSats.]]> Watching the atmosphere /news-archive/2019/12/19/watching-the-atmosphere/ Thu, 19 Dec 2019 13:31:48 +0000 /news/?p=75584 ... Watching the atmosphere]]> For several years, researchers have focused on the prevalence of greenhouse gases in the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. Currently, major satellites such as the NASA/NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Program indirectly monitor atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases like water vapor, methane, oxygen, ozone, and oxides. However, scientists are still finding ways to refine such monitoring. Dr. Yupo Chan from the Department of Systems Engineering, along with Dr. Edmond Wilson of Harding University and Dr. Po-Hao Huang at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, is leading the effort to develop a small, cost-effective way to observe atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, including in the state of Arkansas. The research team is developing the SAMSAT measuring satellite, a 6U CubeSat that will be launched into orbit by NASA to gather atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases. SAMSAT stands for 鈥渟olar and atmospheric measuring satellite.鈥 The 鈥6U鈥 part of the title means that it is six times larger than a 1U satellite, which was a cube sized at 10 centimeters, similar to the size of a peanut butter jar. CubeSats have been used by NASA and many other organizations for various research purposes in space, but this research team is designing its own unique functions for the satellite to improve its mobility and data collection mechanisms. Chan, Wilson, and Huang are part of the Arkansas Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR), a NASA program designed to provide seed funding for aerospace research in Arkansas. 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is the lead institution in this EPSCOR project. At Harding University, Wilson is responsible for measuring the gases in the atmosphere using spectrometry, a technique that shows how gases absorb light. At 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, Chan is responsible for downloading the signals from both the NOAA/NASA GOES satellite and the SAMSAT and analyzing their data. The GOES signals are downloaded to a satellite dish housed on top of the ETAS building on the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock campus. By comparing the observations from the spectrometer with the processed data from GOES, the research team can validate the functionality of the nanosatellite constellation. If the constellation can monitor greenhouse gases similar to its much more expensive counterpart, the research project is deemed fully successful. The NOAA/NASA GOES is a network of stationary satellites that monitors weather, land, environmental, and climate conditions. The National Weather Service uses this network of satellites to forecast the weather. The SAMSAT will not monitor weather conditions, only greenhouse gases. While the NOAA/NASA GOES is considered the gold standard of monitoring environmental conditions, the SAMSAT is cheaper, leaner, and more flexible in its viewing directions. 鈥淲orking with Dr. Chan is a great experience. He is an expert in computer imaging and theory. He is very organized and goal oriented and I have the greatest respect for his leadership in this exciting mission,鈥 Wilson said. Due to the size of the NOAA/NASA GOES satellite, it can only see the earth in a top-down point of view. The SAMSAT, however, can view the earth at many different angles and viewpoints. 鈥淭he first step is to show the world that we are reading the same thing as the big, expensive satellite at a much lower cost with much more flexibility,鈥 Chan said. 鈥淲e want to show the world that we鈥檙e not just saying we can do it, [but] we can validate it against the gold standard.鈥 Satellite History According to NASA, the NOAA/NASA GOES satellite project began in 1975, but its roots go back to 1966 when the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) series was launched on December 7 of that year. In 1967, the ATS-3 snapped the first color photo of the entire Earth. Future Effects The research team is now in the second year of the project. As they move forward, they plan to boost their research capabilities to gather more detailed data of the atmospheric conditions in Arkansas. By creating more cost-effective and flexible ways to monitor the state鈥檚 atmosphere, leaders and scientists in the state can continue to develop new ways to make our communities healthy and vital. This story was provided by Lydia Perry.]]>