Dan D. Yang () is the founder of VINCI Education, founding principal of VINCI Schools, and the Creator of VINCI Blended Learning Curriculum, a new category of learning tools and education services based on brain science, blended pedagogy and technology integration, focusing on early and primary education.

Early life

Born Dan Dan meaning very red in Chinese by her father who was classified as a black sheep during the Culture Revolution in China, Yang was the first grand child of an entrepreneurial family of 6 sons and 2 daughters; her grandfather owned a boat factory and operated a transport business on the imperial canal which connects north and south China, but were forced to relocate to rural China during the Culture Revolution. Her father tested airplane motors initially but self-taught and grew to lead the operations of a joint venture between his factory and Japanese motorcycle maker Suzuki. Her mother was a technician at a state-owned factory which produced electronic tubes for China's first satellite launch. Yang took a bachelor's degree in physics at

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...

in 1982.Nanjing University
Retrieved 18 January 2011 She continued her post-graduate education in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

winning one of the top state sponsored scholarships, at the

Paris-Sud 11 University Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

and earned her master's and doctor degrees. In 2000, she made a $1 million donation to

for the construction of a student center. She named the activity center after her late father and has also established a scholarship in his name.

Career

In 1991, Yang began her career teaching Optics and Photonics at the

École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, a historic school built by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

that was mainly used for adult education programs. She immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, in 1993, and worked at MPB Technology on long distance

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

networking. In 1996, she started her first company, AFC Technologies, in Hull which is now part of the

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

municipality in

National Capital Region (Canada) The National Capital Region (NCR) (, ), also known as Canada's Capital Region and Ottawa–Gatineau, is an official federal designation encompassing the Canada, Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the adjacent city of Gatineau, Quebec, and su ...

. During her time with AFC Technologies, she received five patents on the subject. Yang is credited with inventing a L-band amplifier and bringing it to market ahead of others between 1997 and 1999 and "crowned" by the industry insiders as the Queen of EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier)."Dan Yang's Next Big POP"
/ref> Ultimately, one of her inventions a broadband source (BBS) became the standard equipment for component manufacturers"Bragg Grating Fabrication"
/ref> as well as for optical sensor""
and medical tomography research."In vivo video rate optical coherence tomography"
/ref>Optical Coherence Tomography: Principles and Applications by Mark E. Brezinski In addition,

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

employed another one of her inventions, which allowed doubling the signal traffic in a fiber—a technology still used for long distance or wide area telephony and data transport. AFC Technologies was acquired by

JDSU JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU) was an American company that designed and manufactured products for optical communications networks, communications test and measurement equipment, lasers, optical solutions for authentication and decorative applica ...

in 1999. Yang then earned graduate certificates in a 3-month

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

's business administration program in 2000, while starting up her second venture, Dowslake Microsystems.

Entrepreneurial and investment experience

Yang has founded 2 startups in optical networking prior to founding VINCI Education. She also had experience acquiring a German public company Pandatel, and made other international acquisitions in Asia. As a limited partner of Storm Ventures and eGarden Ventures, she made investment in other technology startups covering wireless, biotech, computing and other technology areas. In 2011, Forbes enlisted Yang as one of the Top 10 Female Entrepreneurs/Mompreneurs to Watc

She has written articles on mobile revolution and telecom investing and been the subject of other industry articles."Mobile Revolution and Telecom Investing" North America, 2008.

Patents and inventions

Yang is an author or co-author of over 20 patents granted or filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Her inventions include following categories over the years: 2010 to present: Educational and instructional tools, curriculum, and software 1996-2009: Networking hardware and softwarehttp://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm""

Litigation

In 2015, Yang fought a residential developer for the loss of sea view from her investment property in

Discovery Bay Discovery Bay is a picturesque residential community located on Lantau Island. The 2021 census recorded a population of 19,336 residents in DB, with 55% of them being non-Chinese. DB is home to a significant community compared of expatriates ...

. She was sold the property with a promise of ocean view which was subsequently blocked by the developer's new block adjacent to hers. The judge dismissed her case for the lack of sound evidence. The regulation however has since changed forbidding property developers to lure buyers using inflated statements.

Awards

*1998: Photonics Circle of Excellence 1998"Circle of Excellence"
/ref> *1999: Mecuriades 1999 Young Entrepreneur of the year"Mecuriades 1999"
*2013: EDDIE Award by CompuED Magazine as Best Early Learning Solution
/ref> *2013: Consumer Electronics Show 2013 Innovation Award Honoree for VINCI Curriculum the learning programs for toddler, preschool and kindergarten"VINCI CES2013 Award"
*2014: American Business Award Gold as New Product Development Executive of the Year"ABA Winners"
/ref> *2014: American Software and Information Industry Association CODIE Award for Best Game-based Learning Curriculum"CODIE Winners"

Personal life

Yang was married from 1990 to 2016, mother of 2 daughters born in 1995 and 2009 respectively. She divorced in 2016 after 26 years of marriage to Zibin Lu, whom she met while studying in Paris, France.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Dan D. Living people Chinese optical physicists Nanjing University alumni 1965 births 21st-century women inventors 21st-century Chinese physicists 21st-century inventors