How building real-world applications on the blockchain helped Dr. Yan be named a top woman in tech
Dr. Ying Yan’s unassuming and friendly nature belies her expertise as a published researcher and developer of blockchain application.[1] As a leading engineer in the field, Ying is often asked by friends whether to invest in cryptocurrency.
She quickly dissuades them, saying “I think those coins are merely hyped-up bubbles.” However, she says, “the underlying technologies are valuable.”
It is her expertise in those underlying technologies that has propelled her to become leader of the Ant Technology Blockchain team. She currently serves as Senior Staff Engineer at Ant Blockchain and at the Alibaba Damo Academy, a think tank at Alibaba. Ying was named one of the top 50 women in tech by Forbes China in 2019 based on her work in the Blockchain Lab at Ant Group as well as her contribution to more than 40 blockchain patent applications and over 30 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals in the field.
Starting from Zero
Looking at her time developing the blockchain foundations at Ant Group, Ying recalls that the biggest challenge over the past two years was how the team started from “zero” with regards to Ant Blockchain.
After Ying joined the team, she quickly realized the first problem she needed to solve was that of privacy protection in the blockchain.
“We must guarantee privacy protection in an environment facilitating fast information circulation,” Ying said.
She had many discussions with her colleagues, and eventually overcame the challenge thanks to collaborations across teams and departments to resolve the issue.
This has paid off greatly.
According to IPRdaily, a leading global intellectual property media outlet, as of November 2019, Ant Group, together with Alibaba Group, topped the Global Blockchain Enterprise Patent Rankings with 1,005 related public patent applications, significantly higher than the 155 in 2018.
In these public patent applications, half were related to underlying technologies such as access control, public key decryption, block construction and data processing.
Ant Blockchain is now an industry-leading proprietary, financial-grade consortium blockchain technology that provides easy-to-use, flexible and customizable blockchain services for business applications in a variety of industries.
Asked what advice she has for other women in her field, she declared without hesitation: “Be confident and keep learning!” These are the two most important traits to succeed in the workplace, she said.
At work, Ying shows her natural leadership at work leading a team of engineers, by “speaking with my technological strength”, which is how she feels she has won their respect.
Life at Home
Outside of work, Ying stresses the importance of maintaining a balance with family and exercise. Ying quickly transitions from “blockchain leader” to “mom mode” when she sees her daughter, taking charge of homework oversight on weekdays.
On weekends, Ying tries to spend more quality time with her six-year-old daughter, accompanying her for her piano and art lessons.
Looking ahead, Ying hopes remain optimistic about the future, continuously upgrade her knowledge, and apply her learnings to the company’s blockchain business.
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Notes:
[1] Ant Group has applied blockchain technology to a variety of scenarios, including cross-border remittance, product provenance, donation tracing, supply chain finance, copyright protection, medical prescriptions and electronic invoices.
