‘Be Brave and Adventurous, Seize Life’s Every Moment’: Professor Ying-Dar Lin Named IEEE Fellow
Determination toward a research career
Professor Lin was born and raised in Xiluo Township of Yunlin, Taiwan. Despite his grandmother’s expectation that he become a doctor, Lin, a senior-high school student then, had already decided on a future career in engineering, believing that an engineer who researches and develops state-of-the-art technologies can do things beyond his grandparents’ wildest dreams. However, after a two-month summer internship at IBM Taiwan between his junior and senior years in college, he found that working as an engineer was not what he had imagined. Later on during his study in the Unitied States, he further realized the difference between research and development, and that research seemed to interest him more. All these experiences prompted his decision to pursue a career as a researcher.
Research achievements
One of Professor Lin’s various achievements and contributions that won him the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) fellowship is the world’s first research project to put forth a framework and analysis of multi-hop cellular networking. While a typical cellular mobile system directly connects the end-user devices to base stations, a multi-hop network can transmit signals via intermediate nodes. According to Professor Lin, if a device is too far from the base station, it can stay connected through relay nodes. The multi-hop mechanism is a breakthrough that, among other things, solves the problem of overly high base station densities, especially for base stations that transmit ultra-high frequency signals as the coverage radius to decreases with increased frequency. Given its importance in remedying poor signal coverage while enhancing the overall network effectiveness, this particular finding of Professor Lin has been cited more than 600 times, included in multiple textbooks, and in four wireless communications standards (WLAN Mesh, Bluetooth, WiMAX and 3GPP LTE-Advanced). Another important research topic of Professor Lin explores the Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology. Although not the first researcher in this area, Professor Lin said he had conducted many DPI-relevant algorithm and hardware designs, including the software-hardware integration for SoC. DPI, he noted, not only helps to identify harmful content in each data package but also provides information about contents of the actual data traffic.
Professor Lin led the effort to establish two important laboratories in National Chiao Tung University (NCTU): the Network Benchmarking Lab (NBL) and Embedded Benchmarking Lab (EBL). Inaugurated in 2002, the NBL provides testing services and tools for networking and communication products, helping partner firms improve product quality and expand into the market of corporate users. Most Taiwanese IT products have been designed for the consumer market instead of the corporate market. However, high quality and stability are extremely important for corporate users. For this reason, the launch of NBL has laid the necessary foundation for bringing Taiwan’s communication industry to the next level. In 2011, the growing popularity of handheld devices prompted Professor Lin to found EBL, a lab dedicated to the quality inspection of devices such as cell phones and tablet computers. In addition to providing testing sesrvices, both laboratories are developing automated testing tools which, through technology transfer to the industry, can help the companies integrate their resources to optimize the testing process.
Contributions to education
In his nearly 20-year-long stint on the NCTU faculty, Professor Lin has made tremendous contributions both as a researcher and as a teacher. His “Computer Networks: an Open Source Approach,” a textbook with a comic-strip-like cover that illustrates the router’s internal networking, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2011. Packed with examples of open-source codes, this textbook gives students a sense of how a computer network system functions. Secondly, Professor Lin, as a experienced teacher, has created the “D before R,” or “Development before Research” process of training graduate students. “Although the priorities of graduate students should be research and writing theses, the first year should be spent on front-line development efforts at the laboratories. In my opinion, such a process not only helps them identify and delve into non-trivial research topics, but also gives them insights into the industry as a whole,” he explained. Placing equal emphasis on theory and practice, his “D before R” training approach ensures that all of his students are exceptionally competitive in either research settings or industries.
Learning from failures
The path to a successful research project is rife with uncertainties. When asked about his way of coping with failures or disappointments, a beaming Professor Lin said, “Failures are part of the job!” He went on to share his view on failures, which proved his unwavering passion, even in troubled times: “Try your best and keep pushing toward your goal, and you’ll get there eventually. Minor failures or disappointments actually prompt me to think with greater clarity, to plan more cautiously and to execute tasks with greater discretion.” He joked that he had gradually developed an “owl personality” required of any good researcher, best described as being concentrated, cautious and meticulous.
Be brave and adventurous, seize life’s every moment
Professor Lin adheres to two principles both as a researcher and as a teacher, the first being “One unknown project is better than 1,000 known ones” because the former, regardless of the outcome, is sure to generate a greater value than repeating something already known 1,000 times. This is a mindset Professor Lin expects every researcher and technology developer to maintain. The second principle is “Life begins at 50.” Comparing the life to a soccer game, he said that a person under 50 is still in the first half. Even if the first-half score is zero, he said, the person still has the opportunity to win the game, as long as they learn the ropes by grappling with difficulties during the first half, drawing lessons from failures, and putting in their best effort in the second half. Even though Professor Lin won the prestigious IEEE fellowship after two decades of research efforts, he vowed to approach upcoming challenges as a humble beginner and a serious player in “the game’s second half,” to stay a dedicated, hard-working researcher even when he reaches 70.
Making work a part of life
When he is not doing research, Professor Lin spends quality time with his family and enjoys sports, trying to stay in top physical condition through activities such as swimming or jogging. With proper scheduling, he manages to maintain a balance between the already-inseparable work and life, making it a point to set aside some work time during leisure times, and continuing research even after work.
