Afficient Academy: Innovating Education for Student Excellence
Afficient Academy was founded in 2014 in Silicon Valley, California. Our main goal is to create new education programs. These programs use modern technologies to help students truly excel. Our AI-powered tools help students efficiently fill knowledge gaps from previous years, building strong foundations. Furthermore, students can learn and progress at their own pace, often advancing ahead of their school curriculum. This leads to high learning efficiency and quality. As a result, students achieve better grades in school, feel less stressed, and gain more time for other activities.
Our Story: Empowering Students with AI-Powered Learning
The journey of Afficient Academy began with Dr. Jiayuan Fang, our esteemed Founder & CEO. Prior to this venture, he served as a professor of Electrical Engineering for over 12 years at the University of California and the State University in New York. Dr. Fang also successfully built a technology company which was later acquired.
As a dedicated father of three children, he became deeply involved in their education. This experience allowed him to evaluate many after-school programs. However, he noticed significant shortcomings in many existing options. Consequently, Dr. Fang decided to launch a technology-based education company. His vision was to create superior education programs that could truly enhance learning effectiveness for all. Afficient Academy was founded in August 2014 from this very commitment.
Dr. Jiayuan Fang: Founder, CEO & Board Member
Dr. Jiayuan Fang
Board of Director
Dr. Jiayuan Fang has been the founder and CEO of Afficient Academy, Inc. since August 2014. Before that, he served for two years as the Vice President of R&D at Cadence Design Systems. In this role, he was responsible for developing signal integrity & power integrity analysis products for high-speed electronic systems. Prior to joining Cadence, Dr. Fang founded and served as President of Sigrity, Inc. This company became an industry leader, offering software products for high-speed system solutions to customers across computers, semiconductors, telecommunications, the Internet, consumer electronics, and other fields. Sigrity, Inc. was acquired by Cadence in 2012.
Dr. Fang has received many honors. These include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Region 1 Technical Excellence Award, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Investigator Award, the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur of the Year Award (by Chinese Institute of Engineers), and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award (by Tsinghua Entrepreneur and Executive Club). He also contributed as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging (1994-1999). Dr. Fang earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. His academic career also includes serving as an Assistant and then an Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton (1990-1998), and later as an Associate Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz (1999-2002).
Weijie Yun
Board of Director
Weijie Yun is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tyche Partners. As a serial entrepreneur, Weijie brings deep industry domain knowledge. This helps him identify new investment opportunities. Furthermore, his hands-on operating experience assists portfolio companies in expanding their businesses. Weijie is particularly passionate about investing in visionary entrepreneurs. He seeks those with breakthrough technologies in the hard tech space, such as IT infrastructure (big data, storage, and networking), IoT, wearable devices, 3D printing, autonomous driving, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.
Currently, he serves as a board member or observer at companies like Crossbar, Formlabs, Latticework, mCube, Motiv, Pavilion, and Qumulo. His other notable investments include Aeye, Basebit, Desktop Metal, Ripcord, Shoof, and SpinLaunch. Before founding Tyche Partners, Weijie had a proven track record as an entrepreneur. He skillfully combined his technical insights with market intuition to maximize company valuations. He founded and was CEO of Telegent Systems, AIP Networks, and SiTek. Additionally, Weijie is a respected member of the Board of Trustees at the UC Berkeley Foundation. He is also a founding board member of the M.E.T. program at UC Berkeley. He holds both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley.