Dr. Ning Yu holds the position of chief natural language processing scientist at Leidos. She is an accomplished technologist with a remarkable body of work, including a diverse range of internal and external research and development programs.
One of her notable achievements is leading a project to enhance the processing of Veterans benefit applications.
This project developed a triage model that achieved an accuracy level of over 95 percent, and it received the prestigious Leidos 2022 Information Technology Innovation Award.
Dr. Yu is also a prolific author with over 30 peer-reviewed publications in information retrieval and natural language processing.
She was the recipient of the Women of Color Outstanding Technical Contribution Award for her exceptional contribution to the field of technology, which set an unprecedented benchmark for others to follow.
During the Women of Color in STEM gala in October, Dr. Yu delivered an acceptance speech, where she shared her journey and experiences.
She mentioned that as a little girl, she always enjoyed math and fixing things, and her parents encouraged her pursuit of STEM.
She recalled her parents taking the risk of giving a watch to a seven-year-old to fix, knowing that they might never see it again.
She also spoke about spending weekends at the back of her dad's bicycle traveling almost an hour back and forth to attend advanced math classes for about three years in elementary school.
Dr. Yu mentioned that in her years of working in academia and industry, she found herself happiest, most productive, and most creative when she worked with a diverse and inclusive group of people.
She acknowledged that Leidos provides such an environment, which enables other women at Leidos, and in the audience, to make a real-world impact.
Dr. Yu concluded her speech by thanking her family, friends, and colleagues for their love and support, emphasizing that no one can succeed alone. You can listen to the full speech (approx. 2:03:32 mark).
