Celebrating the Women of NEC Laboratories America

Yi-Wen Chen

Researcher, Media Analytics, San Jose

Dr. Yi-Wen Chen is a Researcher in the Media Analytics Department at NEC Laboratories America, where she focuses on vision-language models, multimodal learning, and video understanding. Her research explores how AI systems can better connect language and visual information, enabling more robust and interpretable machine learning models.

She works on open-vocabulary recognition, entity grounding, and temporal reasoning in video, helping bridge the gap between fine-grained visual details and natural language descriptions. Through her work, she advances safer, more reliable AI systems designed for real-world impact.

Ming-Fang “Yvonne” Huang

Senior Researcher, Optical Networking & Sensing, Princeton

Dr. Ming-Fang “Yvonne” Huang is a Senior Researcher in the Optical Networking & Sensing Department, where she leads innovation at the intersection of photonics and intelligent systems. Her work spans distributed fiber-optic sensing, high-capacity optical communications, and AI-driven signal processing technologies.

She plays an active role in advancing next-generation network infrastructure and presenting cutting-edge research at major industry conferences. By combining machine learning with optical technologies, she is helping build smarter, more resilient communication and sensing systems for the future.

Tingfeng Li

Researcher, Optical Networking & Sensing, Princeton

Dr. Tingfeng Li is a Researcher in the Optical Networking & Sensing Department, applying advanced machine learning and signal processing techniques to distributed fiber-optic sensing systems. Her research focuses on intelligent infrastructure monitoring, including AI-driven road-deformation detection and event detection in telecom networks.

She develops deep learning and reinforcement learning approaches that enhance sensing accuracy, localization, and network performance. Her work demonstrates how AI can strengthen critical infrastructure and improve operational efficiency at scale.

Bailey Yi

Research Assistant, Operations, Princeton

Bailey Yi is a research assistant for the Operations team at NEC Laboratories America, where she supports research and engineering teams through data-driven analysis, experimentation, and technical implementation. She is building on her experience as a Software Engineering Intern and contributing to projects at the intersection of applied research and operational execution.

Bailey graduated magna cum laude from New York University with combined degrees in Computer Science and Economics and was inducted into The Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Seyedehanita “Anita” Madani

Johns Hopkins University | Intern, Media Analytics, San Jose

Seyedehanita “Anita” Madani is a San Jose–based intern at NEC Laboratories America, where she supports forward-looking research projects across multidisciplinary teams. She collaborates with our Media Analytics researchers on experimentation, data analysis, and applied problem-solving, gaining hands-on experience in advanced technology development.

Anita is currently pursuing her PhD studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she is building a strong academic foundation in STEM that complements her practical research experience.

Yutong “CiCi” Cheng

Virginia Tech | Intern, Data Science and System Security, Princeton

Yutong “CiCi” Cheng is a Research Intern at NEC Laboratories America, Inc., where they contribute to advancing AI-driven security technologies at the intersection of large language models and cyber threat intelligence. A Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Virginia Tech, CiCi specializes in Agentic Security and AI for Security Operations (AISecOps), developing systems that transform unstructured threat reports into structured, evidence-grounded knowledge graphs to support real-world SOC workflows.

They contributed to CTINexus, accepted to the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P 2025), and to CTIARENA, a benchmark for evaluating LLM reasoning across heterogeneous CTI tasks.

Yuqiu Liu

Simon Fraser University | Intern, Media Analytics, San Jose

Yuqiu Liu is a Media Analytics Intern at NEC Laboratories America, Inc., where she supports research at the intersection of machine learning and large-scale media data analysis. Her work combines academic research and applied AI development to advance data-driven media intelligence systems, with a focus on scalable algorithms and real-world impact.

She is a Ph.D. student in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University, building on prior research experience at Tsinghua University and industry internships at Baidu, Inc. and RealAI.

Women Powering the Operations

Behind every breakthrough at NEC Labs America is a dedicated group of professionals working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. Women in operations, including Cathy Summer, Michele Smith, Swathi Adusumilli, Wendy Nellius, Stacey Marino, Debbie Leo, Carmen Keel, Vickie Widmann, Jill Behr, Renée Bartuska, Nicole Pizarro Amaya, and Ellen Ferguson, play an essential role in supporting the organization’s researchers, teams, and daily operations. From coordinating logistics and managing programs to supporting employees and maintaining the infrastructure that enables innovation, their work ensures that scientists and engineers can focus on advancing cutting-edge research. Their professionalism, organization, and commitment are vital to the collaborative culture that powers NEC Labs America’s mission to develop transformative technologies.

Advancing Innovation Through Inclusion

The accomplishments of these women reflect the broader impact of inclusive research environments where diverse ideas fuel discovery. From multimodal AI systems to intelligent optical networks and next-generation sensing technologies, their work pushes the boundaries of what is possible. Equally important, their presence and leadership help inspire future women scientists and engineers to pursue careers in technology and research. This Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we celebrate their achievements and reaffirm NEC Laboratories America’s commitment to advancing innovation through diversity, collaboration, and excellence.

Join Us

At NEC Laboratories America, we encourage women at every stage of their careers to explore opportunities in science, engineering, and technology with us. Visit our Careers page to see current job openings and internship opportunities and learn how you can be part of our research community.