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Speaker:        Dr. Ya-Qin Zhang
                Managing Director
                Microsoft Research Asia

Topic:          "Digital Entertainment Technologies"

Date:           Monday, 6 May 2002

Time:           4:00pm - 5:00pm

Venue:          Lecture Theater F
                (Leung Yat Sing Lecture Theater, near lift nos. 25/26)
                HKUST

ABSTRACT:

The confluence of digital video, computer graphics/vision, and networking
enables a profound transformation in digital entertainment technologies,
from content creation to distribution to manipulations. The rich media
promises an unprecedented new level of photo-realism, interactivity, and
connectivity. As Microsoft's basic research arm in Asia-Pacific region,
Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) has been making great stride in advancing
the state-of-the-art in multimedia, user interface, networking, and
entertainment. This talk will discuss the recent technological advances
that MSRA embarks on digital entertainment.



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Biography:

Ya-Qin Zhang currently serves as the Managing Director of Microsoft
Research Asia (MSRA). He was previously the Director of Multimedia
Technology Laboratory at Sarnoff Corporation in Princeton, NJ. He was with
GTE Laboratories Inc. in Waltham, MA from 1989 to 1994. He has authored
and co-authored over 200 refereed papers and 50 US patents in digital
video, Internet, multimedia, wireless and satellite communications. Many
of the technologies he and his team developed have become the basis for
start-up ventures, commercial products, and international standards.

Dr. Zhang served as the Editor-In-Chief for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY from July 1997 to July 1999. He
serves on the Editorial boards of seven other professional journals and
over a dozen conference committees. He has been an active contributor to
the ISO/MPEG and ITU standardization efforts in digital video and
multimedia.

Dr. Zhang has been a Fellow of IEEE since 1997. He was born in Taiyuan,
China in 1966. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering
from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1983 and
1985. He received his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from George
Washington University, Washington D.C. in 1989. He completed Executive
Business Program at Harvard University.


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