About

Let’s get thinking

Coolest guy on earthAllen was born in Illinois, but soon moved with his family to Fairbanks Alaska, where he lived for 9-10 years. Then, he moved to Fremont, California for junior and high school. He attended the University of California, San Diego in the fall of 2006. Then, he attended King’s College London late 2010.

Allen enjoys telling about his moving experiences, because people are often intrigued by the fact that he lived in Alaska, which is a pretty unique place for Chinese people to live in.

This guy takes the most pride in his ability to entertain his friends. He hopes that he will one day be able to compile enough material together to create a stand-up comedy routine.

As an ambitious fellow, Allen has had many self-created projects, though none of them have really been of any success. In the summer after 8th grade, Allen attempted to write a novel. After typing 30-ish pages about strange people on Mars, he scratched the project and ended it abruptly. Throughout his high school years, Mr. Jiang has tried to create music, mostly through digital means. However, none of the pieces sounded very good.

Nonetheless, his failures did not thwart him. Today, Allen is actively compiling various “lists” for a book that he is thinking of publishing. One of them would be a extremely long list of pet peeves, titled “Things That Annoy Me.” The second is called “You Know What Would Suck?” Allen has also aided many people such as Dennis Lin and the Forby Stoolers Band in re-mastering their audio recordings. He also re-mastered the 2005 MSJHS graduation song, sung by Jenn Chiu and Laura Doan.

Video History

Allen’s first memorable film debuted in his 7th grade history class. It was entitled “Urashimataro,” and was made along with Jared Fong and George Xu. The paper puppet show was complete with self-invented special effect techniques, such as a humidifier for smoke. No digital editing or effects were used.

In spring 2004, Allen again amazed a classroom full of students with a Spanish News Video. The 15 minute show, involving Richard Zhang, Bob Lian, and Stephen Tsay, featured motion backgrounds and humorous commercials.

Between late-2004 and early-2005, Allen filmed and edited numerous videos, trying his had at various techniques.

From 2005 on, Allen’s name has become well known at his local school. Not only did he edit Homecoming videos (not DVD), but the Multicultural Assembly as well. He also created the 2005 Mock Convention News Broadcasts. Late 2006, he post-produced a DVD for Irvington High’s Charity Fashion Show.

In 2009, Allen joined UCSD Triton Robotix, a group dedicated to building a competitive BattleBot. Since then, he has edited a few promotional videos for the team.

You can find a list of many of Allen’s videos here.

Hiveports and Online Experience

In 2002, Mitty Chang and a group of other friends offered Allen a chance to start a web community for the school. The first team initially wanted to name the website “Era7” or “Epoch7,” but after a long while of arguing, the team ultimately decided on “Hiveports,” a personal website Mitty had made a few years earlier.

Since, then, Allen has stayed on the Hiveports Team, working as a reporter, photographer, moderator, advisor, administrator, and now media division head. Allen also helped Mitty manage Webpier.com, a web hosting provider.

From his experience at Hiveports and Webpier, Allen also started his own website, which is.. this one. Although his Cipher Sight never caught much attention, the wiki quickly gained popularity among the class of ’06. AllenJiang.com is partnered with MightyMitty.com, a design firm headed by long time friend Mitty Chang. Together, they provide web hosting and consulting for various clients.

College

Starting from 2006, Allen began attending the University of California, San Diego for his undergraduate college career. Despite majoring in aerospace engineering, he continued his activeness in social networking and extracurricular involvement. There, he joined the Sixth College Television club, became treasurer of the Society of Women Engineers, and appointed co-team lead for UCSD Triton Robotix. In addition, Allen Jiang has worked for the Air Force Research Laboratory as a temporary engineer and EarthKAM as a student manager.

Graduate School

After graduating with a bachelors of science degree, Allen started pursuing a Ph.D at King’s College London in the fall of 2010. He is currently working on a surgical robots project designed to increase a doctor’s mobility in minimally invasive surgery.