After KeDa, I went to the University of Southern California
and spent five
years in Los Angeles. Most of the significant milestones in my
life were
accomplished there: got married, had a child, and finished a degree.
With
that degree certificate, I landed on a job as assistant professor at
Wayne
State University here in Detroit and started teaching advanced control
courses as well as basic circuit theory. Four years later, an opportunity
came which allowed me to take leave of absence from the university
to try
out at industry. I started to work at Ford Research Lab one week before
1993 Christmas, and stayed here thereafter. I am now working on powertrain
(engine/transmission) control related problems (for those who drive
a Ford
car, don't panic, my algorithms haven't been made to production yet),
and
it is a lot more practical than the academic problems that I used to
work
on. I can't say for sure that I made a wise decision to switch from
academic to industry, but so far everything works out just fine and
it has
been a very worthwhile learning experience from both personal and
professional perspectives.
Now to the home front, my husband and I went to the same school in Los
Angeles
and he majored in physics. He abandoned physics at about the same time
I left
the teaching job. He is now also working at Ford in the technical planning
and
standardization area. We have two boys, Alex and Alan (with the last
name Xu,
we wanted them to be at the beginning of the end in the alphabetic
order
system), at age 8years and 8months respectively. As you can image,
we have a
lot of homework to do.
Other braggable achievements probably should include that I have learned
to enjoying cooking (and eating as well, although the later comes with
genes and doesn't require much hard work), survived winter in Detroit
(with only a couple of accidents), and won $60 on a casino slot machine
during a cruise trip to Bahamas.
If you ever come to Michigan or nearby area, please contact us. We will
be
delighted to show you the great stuff around (Michigan is called the
great
lake state).