Rate My Professor Yong Pei

Yong Pei is Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Kennesaw State University, holding the chair position from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2026. Prior to his appointment at KSU in 2022, he served at Wright State University as the LexisNexis Ohio Eminent Scholar, Professor, and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as well as Director of the Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering Program. He joined Wright State University as an assistant professor in 2003. From 2002 to 2003, Pei was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2002, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999, a B.S. in Electrical Power Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1996, and a Certificate of Technology Commercialization from The Ohio State University and The Ohio Department of Higher Education through the I-Corps@Ohio program in 2017. Throughout his career, Pei has taught and conducted research in computer science, data science, and systems engineering.

Pei's research interests focus on both basic and applied areas in computing, including Human-AI Teaming, distributed collaborations, AIOps, AI/ML/NLP/CV, AR/VR/XR, HCI, IUX, serious games, mobile and sensory technologies. His interdisciplinary research has been supported by over 30 grants from federal and state agencies as well as industry partners, receiving coverage in outlets such as American Inno, NPR, The New York Times, RAND Corporation, and U.S. News & World Report. Notable honors include leading a Wright State University team to the Ohio Collegiate Venture Showcase in 2017 and receiving the top prize in the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge, a worldwide competition for innovative technologies to combat the opioid crisis, in 2018. Key publications encompass early work on wireless networks such as "On the capacity improvement of ad hoc wireless networks using directional antennas" (Yi, Pei, Kalyanaraman, 2003; 685 citations), "How is the capacity of ad hoc networks improved with directional antennas?" (Yi, Pei, Kalyanaraman, Azimi-Sadjadi, 2007; 66 citations), and more recent contributions like "Large language models performance comparison of emotion and sentiment classification" (Stigall, Al Hafiz Khan, Attota, Nweke, Pei, 2024; 33 citations), "Advancing motivational interviewing training with artificial intelligence: ReadMI" (Hershberger, Pei, Bricker, Crawford, Shivakumar et al., 2021; 27 citations), and "An interactive game with virtual reality immersion to improve cultural sensitivity in health care" (Hershberger, Pei, Crawford, Neeley, Wischgoll, Patel et al., 2022; 20 citations).