Zeyu “Jerry” Gao is a professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at San Jose State University. He received his M.S. (1989) and Ph.D. (1995) degrees in computer science and engineering from UT Arlington after his completion of B.S. Computer Science Program in Nanjing University, regarded as one of the best and most selective universities in China.
“I came to UT Arlington because the College of Engineering had solid engineering programs and a great faculty,” said Dr. Gao. “UTA is a comprehensive university with a long and rich education history and a beautiful campus with western building styles and colours.”
Before and after receiving his degrees, Dr. Gao gained industry development and management experience in software engineering, software development, testing and Internet applications before joining San Jose State University in 1998. His current research interests include component-based software engineering, testing and quality assurance for component-based software, test automation, wireless computing and mobile commerce.
“My current research projects focus on two major areas,” he said. “One of them is to develop the next generation of software regression test automation solutions for emerging software engineering technologies such as service-oriented components and applications as well as multimedia software features to facilitate regression test automation from planning, test design and generation, to test adequacy evaluation.”
In addition, Dr. Gao and his students are working on innovative tag-based (barcode-based) computing systems and services for mobile devices. The outcomes will be useful in all phases of the supply chain in mobile commerce – from marketing, purchasing and payment to delivery and validation. Like RFID technology, tag-based technology and touch-based mobile solutions will bring a big impact to people’s daily life.
While at UT Arlington, Dr. Gao developed a working relationship with Professors Dave Kung and Pei Hsia. “I am very grateful to get solid training through the Ph.D. program in the Computer Science & Engineering Department. I would especially like to thank Drs. Kung and Hsia for their supervision and valuable guidance.”
Together, they co-authored “Object-Oriented Software Testing,” which was published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. Following the success of this book, Dr. Gao later wrote “Testing and Quality Assurance of Component-based Software,” published by Artech House Publishing in 2003, and “Engineering of Wireless-Based Software Systems,” published by Artech House Publishing in 2006.
In addition to books, he has published numerous book chapters, edited a number of special issues for archived journals, and served as editorial board members for several journals. Dr. Gao’s referreed technical papers have been widely published in IEEE/ACM journals, proceedings of international conferences and magazines. He also takes very active leadership roles in a variety of academic conferences and workshops.
“As a non-native English speaker, I went through a rough journey to learn how to write technical papers during my studies in UTA. Although I never had problems writing good essays and articles during my earlier K-12 education, I ran into many difficulties while trying to write research papers during my master’s and Ph.D. programs. To me, writing my first research paper was very similar to my wife’s delivery of our son, because both were filled with mental and physical pain.”
With strong support from Drs. Hsia and Kung, Dr. Gao gradually learned how to write strong research papers. Today, Dr. Gao believes writing a technical paper or a book is similar to cooking: It needs a sizzling topic, solid research results and materials, a well-structured organization, good compilation skills, and clear presentation and style.
Dr. Gao is a frequent industry consultant here and abroad, which has allowed him to develop funding opportunities resulting in more than $700,000 for his academic projects. It has also allowed him to have a peek into software tools and communications devices in their early stages of development.
“Mobile computing and wireless networking has entered the new arena due to recent advances in networking, mobile multimedia, cloud computing, and emerging rich client technologies such as JavaFX,” he stated. “I expect to see more innovative mobile commerce solutions and systems to provide rich and fast mobile experiences for end users tomorrow.”
