September 2026 Newsletter - New Department Chair Feature - Bill Yang

September 2026

New Department Chair Feature

Q. Tell us abbout yourself and your background

My name is Weiguo Yang and I go by Bill for colleagues or Dr. Yang for my students, it is just easier, isn’t it? 😊

I grow up in China and before came to US for my Ph. D., I studied laser physics and quantum optics, in particular the collective quantum optical phenomena induced by RF and/or acoustic waves. My Ph.D. work advised by Dr. Warren S. Warren then at Princeton is focused on the ultrafast pulse shaping and its applications in highspeed optical communications. After my Ph.D. I joined Bell Labs doing forward-looking R&D in integrated photonic circuits and devices and their applications in optical networks. I had patents in optical channel monitoring as well as mode-locked semiconductor lasers. I also studied polarization mode dispersion in long-haul optical fiber transmissions. After joining Western Carolina University, my research expanded to include metamaterials and plasmonic materials and more recently in quantum computing and quantum information. I’m a life-long learner and have recently completed multiple training and courses in ML/AI, LLM, and LLM harness design using LangChain/LangGraph.  

I have taught at WCU for almost 20 years and have taught almost every course in the BSEE curriculum. With strong support from NC legislators, engineering programs at WCU are expanding and we also got state funding to build a new engineering building. The College of Engineering now comprises of three departments with a new ECE department. We have two ABET accredited programs, BSEE and BS-Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) with total of 15 faculty members and more than 250 students and growing. I was appointed to be the Interim Department Head of the new ECE department.

Q. What inspired you to take on the role of department chair?

I’d like to help setting up the new ECE department to be a place where students, faculty, and staff can all successfully pursue their own professional passion, for example, through more collaborations with industry partners and other institutions.  

Since stepping into this role, what has been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of the position?

The very stochastic nature with surprisingly large shot noise like behavior of the routine workload that needs Department Head’s attention. For example, the arrivals in email inbox in an hour can vary easily from single digit to several dozen. 

Q. What are your immediate priorities and goals for your department?

My immediate priority and goal is always supporting the faculty and staff to do their best job and enjoy their work.

In your view, what is the most essential quality for a department chair to possess—and how do you cultivate that in your work?

Timeliness and transparency. I have a self-imposed timeline of 24 hours to respond to any requests that need my action and I’m sharing any sharable documents, encouraging shared decision making and entrust the faculty shared governance.

Q. What are you most looking forward to as a member of the ECEDHA Community?

The connection with all other ECE departments as well as ECEDHA’s corporate member networks.

Q. Tell us a fun or interesting fact about yourself! 

I am also a certified Tier 1 HVAC technician.