Liz Wai-Ping Ng
“It takes a village to raise a child,” the old saying goes. In the world of academic research, the same principle holds true. At the Penn Research in Embedded Computing and Integrated Systems Engineering (PRECISE) Center, that village includes tech giants like Google — working hand-in-hand with academia to foster innovation and impact.
“Through our mentorship collaboration with Google, we are redefining how to shape future innovators,” says Insup Lee, Cecilia Fitler Moore Professor in Computer and Information Science (CIS) and Director of the PRECISE Center.
Case in point: two years ago, PRECISE invited Dr. Yun Liu, a senior research scientist at Google, to deliver a talk: “Lessons on the Path from Code to Clinic.” Afterward, doctoral student Shuo Li (co-advised by Lee and Osbert Bastani, Assistant Professor in CIS) followed up with a one-on-one conversation. That brief exchange uncovered a strong alignment in personality, mindset and research interests, sparking a mentorship that ultimately redefined Li’s academic path and future career goals.
Bridging the Gap, Building the Future
Mentorship at the PRECISE Center is not just transactional, but transformational. The partnership between Li and Liu demonstrates how academic talent and industry expertise can come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
This kind of sustained mentorship isn’t common. Grounded in trust, shaped by real-world relevance and driven by a shared belief in what’s possible by working across boundaries, the PRECISE-Google mentorship represents a broader shift in how academia and industry can collaborate, not only through sponsored projects or formal partnerships, but meaningful, human connections. “Mentorship like this empowers students to create their own pathways into industry,” says Lee.
What follows is a joint conversation with Li — who will start at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI Lab after graduation in May — and Liu, on what makes this kind of mentorship meaningful, and why initiatives like the PRECISE-Google mentorship matter more than ever.