My name is Fan Yang and I also go by the name Luke (If you are curious, Yang Fan (杨帆) in Chinese has the same pronunciation as “to sail” ⛵️). I grew up in a seaside city in northern China named Qingdao🍺. I came to Vancouver, Canada for high school education and also completed my undergraduate degree here.

Academic Journey

I entered university in the program of combined honours in chemistry🧪 and mathematics🟰. As part of the fulfillment of my mathematics degree, I was required to take up to second-year level computer science courses, where I was introduced to and immediately drawn to this field of study. The acquired knowledge in computer science has not only helped me excel in my chemistry and mathematics studies but also motivated me to develop personal projects like group chatbots🤖️ and gaming information retrievers. With my growing interest in computer science and math, I started to pursue a degree in the Master of Data Science at the University of British Columbia recently.

In my undergraduate studies, I was reaching out to various research opportunities, ranging from organic chemical synthesis to automation and cybersecurity. Especially, my research in the Hein Lab focuses on building intelligent robotic platforms that contribute to education, autonomous screening, and material discovery. During my Master’s degree, I worked on specific projects in the field of machine learning involving supervised learning in classifications and regression of instrumental signals.

My research interest lies in the field of artificial intelligence; in particular, I would like to combine machine intelligence with my previous experience in experimental chemistry to accelerate the process of scientific discovery.

Personal Hobbies

In my spare time, I also enjoy playing different musical instruments🎵 like piano, guitar, and drums. Though I hated to learn piano as a child, it has become a blessing in my university time as leisure. I used to be the lead electric guitarist🎸 in the band of a local church; now I am the lead vocal for contemporary Christian music in my church!