When Dr. Wei Chen received the 2010 IBM Faculty Award, the Tennessee State University (TSU) computer science professor was puzzled over all the fuss about the honor.
“I’m very behind the scenes,” Chen says.
Still, it is the work in which Chen, her students and colleagues are engaged that helps historically Black TSU advance its efforts to emerge as an academic standout in computer science and engineering education and innovation. Her IBM award, for example, was for her work at TSU on “cloud computing,” a new way of gathering large amounts of data without first downloading and installing large files.
“She has a lot to offer the students and the school,” says Dionne Bennett, the IMB client representative who works with Tennessee State.
Adds Dr. Amir Gamshad, head of the computer science department at Tennessee State and the veteran academician who recruited Chen: “She’s priceless. An excellent researcher and an excellent teacher.”
Gamshad, who has taught at TSU for some 30 years, says Chen is one of the best computer scientists he has encountered.
Chen’s arrival at Tennessee State eight years ago was the byproduct of much luck and much work.
