Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Kwok-Bun Yue, College of Science and Engineering

It's 12:55 p.m. and he's already in Delta Building 204 deep into preparations for a 1 o'clock class, CSCI 4333 Section 1 Design of Database Systems, hooking up his laptop and going through his bag to get out what he needs.

It's 12:57. He puts on his glasses and begins scrolling through his files. You can hear one student talking to another about a shared class as the professor flips through his notes; otherwise, everything else is quiet. All you hear are the click-click-clicks of students typing on their computer keyboards. While the class takes place in a computer lab, most students have their own computers set up on the desk in front of the computers in the computer lab, and they are typing.

At 1 p.m. sharp, he begins: "Welcome class and welcome to our visitor."

This is one of the last classes that Dr. Kwok-Bun Yue, professor of computer science, will teach as a full-time faculty member at the University of Houston Clear Lake. When this semester ends, so will his storied 38-year career at UHCL. Sure, he might return to teach classes from time-to-time as an adjunct faculty member, and yes, he might work with individual researchers and research groups on projects, and maybe, he will offer the odd piece of advice now and again to current students, former students and colleagues, but other than that, Yue isn't sure what retirement will bring.

"I'm starting to talk with my friends who have already retired to give me some tips about what I should do," he said. "Some of them do volunteer work, but you need to find the right place."

That right place and right fit was something that Yue found at UHCL years ago, right out of graduate school.

"The thing I enjoy most is that we are really a small university, so you have time to mingle with students and faculty members," Yue said. "You know in education, the things that you can change are very, very small. But you know, you work with whoever that you may influence a little bit, and in a small setting, you have a chance to do that. If you are working in a big university, there's so many students, it's very difficult to interact with them."

You see the interaction in Yue's classes and in his student Hall of Fame that you can find online at https://dcm.uhcl.edu/yue/d163.html. It's a list of students who he honors from his classes—students who have outstanding academic performance and have helped others. You hear about the interaction from current students, former students and colleagues.

Hall of Famer Ingrid Sanchez, senior computer science major, only took one class with Yue, but she recognized his desire to be engaged with students in class and outside of class.

"He doesn't like just lecturing," she said. "He loves involvement from the students as well, and he always mentioned how he wanted people to come to his office hours if they needed help. He was just very easy to work with, a professor that I just understood the content through him."

Through the years, the teaching and service awards have told the tale as well: UHCL Distinguished Professorship in Computer Science and Engineering in 2021, UHCL Alumni Association Outstanding Professor Award and Faculty Fellowship in 2011, UHCL University Faculty Fellowship in 2002, UHCL nominee for Texas State Piper Professor Teaching Award in 1994 and a finalist for UHCL's Piper nominee in 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2005—so many times that he finally declined to be a finalist—UHCL President's Distinguished Teaching Award/Enron Teaching Excellence Award in 1993. But awards alone don't tell the tale.

For Jennifer Travis, a member of Yue's Hall of Fame from Spring 2023 and master's student in data science and computer engineering, it was the encouragement Yue provided that brought her to UHCL and made her believe she could finish her master's degrees and thrive.

"He's always been a huge cheerleader and encourager to me in his emails," Travis said. "He would say, ‘You're the sort of student that UHCL should have.' When someone sings your praises in the emails, at some point, even if they're a little over the top, they're trying to see you in the most positive light, not necessarily the most accurate light. It kind of makes you want to live up to that and to become the person that they think you are."

Former graduate student and UHCL alumna Srutha Keerthy Dasoju took only one course from Yue as a master's student in data science, the first semester course in data science.

"First semesters are usually quite overwhelming," Dasoju said. "Suddenly transitioning into college with those long three-hour lectures, but Dr. Yue made it feel easy because he was so approachable. During his office hours, his room would be completely full of students. He even kept chocolates on his desk to encourage us to come in and ask questions. I probably had quite a few of those myself. He truly goes above and beyond. Not only did he give me career advice when I was job hunting, but he also recommended me to one of his contacts. I ended up getting a job even before I graduated, which gave me a lot of confidence in myself."

Not only did Dasoju land the job, she also landed on Yue's Hall of Fame in addition to being named the Outstanding Student of the Year.

"Receiving that award from him was one of my proudest moments," Dasoju said. "He saw potential in me that I hadn't recognized in myself yet, and that gave me a lot of confidence."

Yue's colleagues see that approachable and encouraging professor when they see him engaging with students.

"I see someone who's passionate, who really wants his students to succeed, so he pushes students for really good reason," said Krishani Abeysekera, senior lecturer and systems administrator of computer science and computer information systems. "And I see someone who's very encouraging, not only to students, to everyone. He's very forward thinking. He doesn't think about just today. He's thinking about what's going to happen in five years, 10 years."

Thirty-two or 33 years ago, Abeysekera was also one of Yue's students. She began working in industry and returned to UHCL after having her first child. She has been Yue's colleague in the College of Science and Engineering for 27 years.

"He kind of took me under his wing when I started teaching," Abeysekera said. "He was ready to help me any time, a great mentor, a great friend. We're going to miss him so much."

Xinying Liu, assistant professor and program director of computer information systems, met Yue before joining UHCL. He was on the search committee that hired Liu, so she was familiar with him.

"I was already inspired and quite impressed by his research and his attitude towards the research," Liu said. "He is one of the reasons that I actually accepted the offer of UHCL. I wanted to join a team and collaborate with him."

Liu was able to collaborate on research projects, including a project on blockchain funded by NASA. In total, Yue has received 21 external grants throughout his career at UHCL and has served as principal investigator on 17 of the 21, paving the way for his students and other faculty members to begin and enhance their research endeavors.

It is this willingness to collaborate and build programs that has extended throughout Yue's 38 years at UHCL. In that time, he has not only built classes, he has built programs, including the bachelor of science degree in information technology, the bachelor of applied science in IT. He developed a certificate program as well, and he originated the data science program.

But one thing Yue may not be good at is retiring. As he approaches the end of the semester and retirement, he has questions—lots of questions, typical for the scientist and inquiring mind of a researcher. What is he going to do now?

"It is a very good question that I need to find a good answer," Yue said. "There are a lot of things that I like."

And there are lots of colleagues and faculty who hope Yue answers that question with some continuing work with them on research and teaching at UHCL, just at a different pace. For now, only time will tell.