On December 1, 2023, Professor James M. Tien from the University of Miami and Bruce McConnell, President and CEO of the EastWest Institute, were invited by Professor Shi Yong, Director of the Research Center on Virtual Economy and Data Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to visit the center. They delivered academic reports to the faculty and students of the center with the themes “Fourth Industrial Revolution: Internet of Things, Real-Time Decision Making, Artificial Intelligence” and “China-US Relations and Implications for the Future” respectively. The reports were hosted by Professor Shi Yong, Director of the center.
Professor James M. Tien’s Report
President Bruce McConnell’s Report
Based on the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, Professor Tien introduced related concepts such as real-time decision-making models and the Fourth Industrial Revolution through comparisons with the Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution, and the Third Information Revolution. McConnell discussed the importance of China-US cooperation in addressing climate issues. The lectures lasted for about an hour and a half, with a lively atmosphere throughout. The event concluded successfully amid enthusiastic discussions among the faculty and students. Professors Tien and McConnell provided detailed answers to the students’ questions, achieving a good academic exchange.
Professor Tien is the Emeritus Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. He holds a BEE degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and SM, EE, and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has held leadership positions at Bell Telephone Laboratories, the Rand Corporation, and Structured Decisions Corporation, which he co-founded in 1974. He joined Rensselaer’s Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering in 1977, served as its Acting Department Head, and later became the Founding Chair of the Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. He has also served twice as the Acting Dean of RPI’s School of Engineering. Professor Tien has received multiple teaching and research awards, including being elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), INFORMS, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of the IEEE Joseph G. Wohl Outstanding Career Award, the IEEE Major Educational Innovation Award, the IEEE Norbert Wiener Award, and the IBM Faculty Award. In 2001, Professor Tien was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
McConnell has been a leader at the intersection of government, business, and civil society on global peace and security issues. He is the former President and CEO of the EastWest Institute, where he transferred the Institute’s projects aimed at reducing and mitigating interstate security conflicts to other nonprofit organizations, including the Stimson Center. Prior to serving as President, McConnell led the EastWest Institute’s Global Cooperation in Cyberspace program, working with governments and companies to enhance the safety, security, and stability of cyberspace. He also co-led the Secretariat of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. McConnell holds a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy at the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation America and a member of the Advisory Board of the Fuxi Institution in China.