About Me

Contact:

Name: Ming Jack Po
Location: New York, NY
Email: mail at jackpo.org
Phone: 718-233-3135

Education:

PhD - Biomedical Engineering - Columbia University (2006 - TBD)
M.A. - Mathematics, Johns Hopkins University (2004 - 2005)
B.S. - Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2005)
Stuyvesant High School (1997 - 2001)

About Me

I am a typical multi-tasker, and wear several different hats in my day to day routine. I am currently a PhD student at Columbia University, an active member of the New York Entrepreneurial scene, and am involved with several efforts related to education and non-profit reforms.

I am a very strong believer in the principle of Social Responsibility. I’ve had the fortune of benefiting from many different mentors and organizations throughout my life, and I feel that it is my responsibility to make sure others will have access to similar if not better opportunities after me.

I am always open to meeting new people. If you would like to have coffee, or I can assist you in anyway, feel free to contact me by email or phone using the information above.

Research

My research adviser is Professor Andrew Laine in the department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. I am currently working on three different research projects.

  • Crystal Recognition (NESG) - An automated algorithm designed to recognize the formation of crystals in high-throughput images.
  • Retinal Imaging (Stephen Doro, MD, PhD) - Studying and quantifying the anatomical structure of the retina.

Entrepreneurship

I’ve had the opportunity of experiencing the first dot com bust with a front row seat at my first startup experience with TeamSphere Interactive when I was 14. Ever since then, I’ve been very interested in entrepreneurship and starting companies. My particular interests are in media advertising, internet technology and finance. I am quite active in the New York startup community, and often consult for various startups in Northeast US.

Unlike some in business, I believe it is crucial to have both strong technical skills and strong soft skills to be a successful executive. As such, I have taken great pains to have a strong business as well as technical background. I’d like to think I’m just as capable hacking through Rails code as I am hacking through a financial projection in Excel.

I co-founded PeerDecision and served as its CEO before we shut down the company in 2008. The company created a web based platform to facilitate the college admissions process for high school seniors.

I am now involved in two different startups, one with fellow student Mr. X at Columbia and one with long time associate Kamaldeep Gandhi. More details will be revealed about these two ventures as they become less tentative.

I am also structuring an Entrepreneurship course that is tentatively schedule for Fall of 2008 at AAST. The course will teach high school students Business School 101 through the use of Harvard Business School Case studies, and then teams of students will be asked to setup a business idea of their choosing inside the Facebook Application framework. More information about the course will be posted as details get finalized.

Education / Non-profit Reform

I believe very strongly in the value of education, much to the amazement of friends and families who’ve interacted with me when I was younger. I am an adjunct faculty in the School of Education at City College of New York, and an instructor with the Center of Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University.

I spend some of my free time helping coach and advise local math teams. I serve as an assistant coach to the New York City Math Team, an adviser to the Baltimore County Math Team / League, and an adviser to the Florida State Math Team.

I also serve as an organizing member of the New York State Mathematics League (NYSML), a member of the advisory panel of the American Math Competitions, and a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Math Circle.

Starting in the academic year 2007-2008, I will also be helping to transition the New York City Interscholastic Mathematics League (NYCIML) from a faculty run organization into a student run 501-c3 non-profit. I believe strongly that non-profits should be as transparent as possible, and that kids can make a big difference when taught how to run an organization early on in their careers. I will be structuring the organization with those two goals in mind, and will be blogging about the actual transition on my blog.

Professional Societies

Political Organizations I Support