STORY: Julia Ying P’28: “A responsibility and a joy”
When Jonathan Sun ’28 and his father, William, returned home to Washington from their first Olin visit, Julia Ying P’28 knew something about the college was different. “I have never seen you guys so excited!” Julia recalls telling them.
The family’s excitement about Olin only grew once Jonathan enrolled. Julia recalls receiving a “welcome to Olin” phone call from a current parent, and she caught the Olin bug. Now a sophomore, Julia says he has embraced Olin fully— exercising daily, working late into the night on personal projects, competing in maker competitions and designing a car for Formula. “He works diligently, and he’s grown in many positive ways,” Julia says.
For Julia, Olin’s approach to engineering education was emphasized during Family Weekend, when she had the opportunity to attend several Olin courses herself. “They were so vivid, so inspiring,” she remembers. “Not just a professor giving a lecture—these classes make people think and do.”
“We are doing something right: supporting our son’s school, creating an experience for students and contributing to solving problems that have existed in our industry for years.”
Pictured Julia and William Ying P’28.
Julia and William see supporting Olin as both a responsibility and a joy. “Olin is very generous, and I just want to pay it back,” she explains. “Everything the school is doing inspires us to do more.”
That commitment now extends to SCOPE, with Julia and William’s company-supported NGO, Robot Kits, becoming a sponsor for the 2025-2026 academic year.
For more than 25 years, Julia has worked in the Alaskan fish processing industry, focusing on sustainability and delivering high-quality fish to U.S. consumers. The industry faces longstanding challenges around efficiency, accuracy and labor when considering moving processing operations to the U.S.
Julia sees artificial intelligence as a possible path forward to finding solutions. “Nobody can stop [AI]. We need to learn more about it and manage human cooperation with AI,” Julia says. “It inspires me to think about the future of my industry.”
Through this SCOPE project, Julia hopes Olin students can explore solutions to these challenges while gaining meaningful industry experience.
“For me, Olin is a very unique school that inspires students to explore technology and the world on their own,” she reflects. “The students are so passionate. If our SCOPE project is successful, it will be an amazing achievement. But even if it isn’t, it will still be a meaningful experience for everyone.
“We are doing something right: supporting our son’s school, creating an experience for students and contributing to solving problems that have existed in our industry for years.”