Acknowledgements

The following professors' cares for me are unconditional and their comments on me are objective:

• Prof. Geoffrey Ye Li (Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, IEEE Fellow, my postdoctoral advisor)
  • This is a kind, responsible, considerate, flexible, helpful, respectful, and knowledgeable professor. I can find him whenever I want to have an academic discussion. He helped me a lot in developing my research career, including long-term research direction and meaningful research style.
• Prof. Vincent Tan (My postdoctoral advisor)
  • This is a kind, responsible, passionate, considerate, flexible, helpful, respectful, and knowledgeable professor. I can find every virtue that a professor is supposed to have. It is my fortune to work with him. His cares for students and postdoctoral members are unconditional. He taught me how to write proper mathematics such as how to structure a paper, how to normalize the notation system, how to deliver a satisfactory presentation, and how to strictly follow academic ethics (e.g., when to or not to coauthor a paper).
• Prof. Xiaobo Li (My Ph.D. thesis advisory committee member)
  • Xiaobo is also a kind, responsible, considerate, helpful, respectful, unselfish, and knowledgeable professor. He helped me a lot in structuring, formalizing, and clarifying my Ph.D. thesis; The presentation and scientific qualities of my thesis were improved a lot under his advice. I feel extremely warm and respected everytime when I talk with him: He is trying to encourage and bring hopes to me (and, I believe, all his students) in his every word.
• Prof. Jianhua He (My master’s thesis advisor)
  • Prof. He is also very nice and respectful. He cares about students to his best. He encouraged me to do a Ph.D.: Without his encouragement, I am certainly not a Ph.D. now.

What kind of people I am trying to be?

I believe it is important to be:

• Responsible.
  • I should take care of any of my duties and play well every role that I need to be. I never complain of and escape from what I should do. As a student, I know that I should work hard on every course. As a Ph.D., I know that I should read existing literature and do creative researches. As a son, I know that I need to respect any expectations for me from my parents, although I do not always follow all of them because parents also make mistakes. As a friend, I know that I should help others to the best of my ability and be reliable for everything that my friend asked me to do. As a reviewer, I know that I should review every subission qucikly without delays and provide detailed and well-justified comments.
  • If you asked me to do something and I agreed, then you can go back to bed and sleep because I am reliable. (But please allow me to refuse your request if it is extremely inconvenient for me.)
  • I reply to every message (WeChat, Email, etc.) soon after I see it. I do everything as quickly as I can if I am supposed to be.
• Sincere.
  • I understand that it might be “clever” and “emotionally intelligent” to close mouth, to hedge, to wait and see, and/or to play tricks. But this is not my perference. I prefer to tell everyone what I am really thinking because this would be helpful for others to take their optimal actions. I seldom hedge; I would tell people what are my expectations and concerns, and why I can/cannot do something this time.
• Kind.
  • As a human, I know that I should respect everyone no matter who he/she is. Humans are not machines: we have emotions. I respect every personal style and personal opinion as long as it is in the line of laws, rules, and policies. I never intentionally embarrass, trouble, and/or do harm to others.
  • Please feel free to refuse me if you think what I am asking for is not convenient for you: I never mind this because everyone has his/her personal concerns.
• Helpful.
  • It is a virtue to help others without asking for bonuses. Bring hopes to others is also beneficence.
• Clever.
  • It is always important to quickly understand what happened and other people’s concerns, styles, opinions, cultures, etc. This is because only when we have good understandings about what happened in the past can we take optimal actions (or say best words) for the future; Only when we have good understandings about others can we appropriately respect and get along well with them.
  • Do not try to play tricks with me because I can quickly find it, although I do not always let you know. But this may let me have some (bad) labels on you in my mind, although you may never know them. The more such labels you have, the farther we are.
  • I am not an opinionated and stubborn person and I am open to hear critiques, comments, and suggestions. I am happy to change myself everyday. But I change myself only when I can realize that I am wrong: I do not directly follow other people’s instructions even though he/she is a renowned person. In my understanding, “you are right and I have a different opinion from you” does not necessarily imply that “I am wrong”.
    • Therefore, please explain your opinions and concerns to me before I get your points.

How do other people think of me?

• Prof. Andrew Lim (My Ph.D. advisor)
  • “You are a very independent and productive student.”
    • On WeChat Chatting
• Prof. Vincent Tan (My PostDoc advisor)
  • “You have an abundance of natural talent in research. Make good of it and be receptive to feedback from all.”
    • On the Christmas card that he gifted me on Dec 2022
• Prof. Tan Kok Choon (The instructor of a course that I served as a Teaching Assistant)
  • “You have been one of the best TA that I ever had in the past 12 years. Thanks very much for your teaching assistance.”
    • On 28 Dec 2021 6:48PM
• Prof. Tang Loon Ching (The instructor of a course that I served as a Teaching Assistant)
  • “Very good! You are the best TA so far.”
    • On 11 Sep 2020 11:26AM
  • “you are an excellent TA; among the best I ever had so far.”
    • On 19 Nov 2020 11:15AM
• Dr. Huangjie Zhao (My friend and coauthor)
  • “You are a really proactive person. I’m glad to be one of your friends. You are always the one who push me out of the comfort zone during my PhD life. I really appreciate your help. Thank you Shixiong!”
    • On 28 Nov 2022 8:35PM
    • Shixiong Replied: Thanks!