Millennium Magazine_2ndEd

418 MILLENNIUM-SECOND EDITION T here is never a dull moment in the life of Bennie S. Yee, who built a respectable career in engineering despite the many setbacks he faced in early adulthood. When his mother became ill with cancer, he chose to put his professional goals on hold to take care of his family. Not to be deterred by misfortune, Mr. Yee managed the family’s dry cleaning business for about four years while attending night classes at the City University of New York. He received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the Pratt Institute, with honors, in 1990, and shortly thereafter was hired by Con Edison. The energy giant quickly recognized Mr. Yee’s potential and funded further education at Columbia University. After earning a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with a focus on telecommunications in 1993, Mr. Yee remained with Con Edison for a total of two decades, eventually rising to the position of senior telecommunications engineer. He worked as a project manager with Mazet Realty and ADB Associates, and as a consulting engineer with the Chinatown Brokerage House in New York City, before accepting his latest design project management role with AG Consulting Engineering in 2016. During his time there, Mr. Yee has been working for the MTA Bus Rapid Transit System to create a master design for positive train control, the fiber optic network that controls subway train cars. He recently provided the MTA with his master design with the intention of having it duplicated. Over the years, Mr. Yee has received numerous certifications through the IEEE in the areas of critical telecommunications and data design, electric system reliability analysis, and project risk management, among others. He has contributed several engineering and science research papers to industry publications, although he considers his greatest accomplishment to be his service to his family. He ensured that all of his siblings graduated from college even after the untimely passing of their father, whom Mr. Yee credits with teaching him how to learn; as a child, he was encouraged to research anything he didn’t understand by reading about it in an encyclopedia. BENNIE S. YEE, MSEE DESIGN PROJECT MANAGER, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER Jersey City, NJ