Curious about us?

Why Nerddup?

Bill Gates once said, “Be nice to Nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

We agree. Nerds embody an obsession for knowledge and passionate for intellectual pursuit that fuels one’s rise to “expert” level.  In today’s ultra-competitive world, being a Nerd helps you stand out.

We’re here to light that Nerdy obsession for knowledge in students by giving them access to Nerd-level classes. With us, anyone can Nerddup.

Meet Our Team

Prof Leong Kaiwen

Elaine Leong

Prof Li Huailu

Prof Li Dan

Prof Xie Yiqing

Prof Huan Yuxiang

Prof Leong Kaiwen

Dr. Leong, an assistant professor of economics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and holds a PhD in economics from Princeton University. He frequently collaborates with the Singaporean government, such as by participating in the Committee for Future Economic Growth with Ministers Heng Swee Keat, S. Iswaran, Lawrence Wong and Acting Minister Ong Ye Kung. He has also consulted for the Singaporean Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) and was part of the NTU committee selected to produce recommendations for the MTI on the Singaporean economy. He has co-authored more than ten books, including books on economics (McGraw Hill) and English (World Scientific). He has also been invited to speak at many top Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiaotong University and Fudan University.

Prof Li Huailu

Dr. Li served as an assistant professor of economics at Fudan University in China before working full-time on our program. Apart from holding a PhD in economics from Boston University, Dr. Li also holds masters degrees in actuarial science and statistics, which she has applied in her academic research to build algorithms and models to pioneer work in under-developed fields of economic research, focusing on the underground economy. She has previously worked as a consultant for the World Bank and Singapore Business Federation, and also serves as a research affiliate at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. She was one of the few elite data scientists to be invited to the Price Theory Summer Camp at the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago led by Professor Steve Levitt (winner of the John Bates Clark Medal and author of Freakonomics).

Elaine Leong

Elaine Leong graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a full scholarship. Additionally, she holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also received a scholarship. She spent four years working in the finance sector at a sovereign wealth fund and later at Citibank as a relationship manager for high net worth clients. She also has experience working at Goldman Sachs’ private wealth management division for ultra high net worth Chinese clients. She has extensive experience and track record in educating children. She has co-authored 8 books, including two teaching publications – Top the TOEFL and Top the IELTS – published by World Scientific Education (the official publisher for Nobel Lectures). She also has two publications translated and published in China: International REITs (《全球REITS投资手册》China CITIC Press) and Venture Capital (《创业金融》China Renmin University Press). She was also invited to give education talks in China, including at top institutions such as the High School Affiliated to Fudan University (attended by the principal of the school as well as head of the English department). Additionally, she has also volunteered as a teacher worldwide, including in the US, Vietnam and Wales.

Prof Li Dan

Our lead consultant, Prof Li Dan, serves as a professor and Deputy Director of Fudan University’s Office of Global Partnerships after having served as Fudan’s Assistant Dean for the School of Economics from 2015 to 2019. She has extensive track record and vast experience in creating and developing successful teaching programs. She pioneered the Undergraduate International Program in Economics (UIPE), which is the inaugural English-taught undergraduate program in the social sciences at Fudan University. Under her leadership, she also more than quadrupled the Fudan International Summer School (FISS) program from fewer than 150 enrolled students in 2015 to more than 800 enrolled students hailing from over 24 countries within just four years. Furthermore, as Director of the English-taught Master’s (EMA) Programs in Economics since 2016, she transformed the EMA program into one of Fudan University’s flagship programs. Owing to the success of the EMA program, Prof Li subsequently established more than ten similar programs in partnership with international universities.

In addition, Prof Li Dan’s teaching excellence has been recognized through teaching awards not just from Fudan University, but also the Minister of Education in Shanghai. She specializes in microeconomics, macroeconomics, China’s economy and economic history. She is frequently invited to speak to audiences that include the senior management of multinational companies, government officials and MBA candidates. Prof Li is also passionate about personally fostering student growth, and has supervised more than 50 select undergraduates over the past decade. Most of her supervised students were either accepted by top graduate programs including those at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge and Columbia, or joined leading companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, McKinsey, HSBC and Morgan Stanley.

Prof Xie Yiqing

Dr. Yiqing Xie is an associate research professor at Fudan University’s Financial Research Center as well as at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, after having held positions at Fudan University’s School of Economics and the University of North Dakota’s business school. Dr. Xie holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her areas of expertise include finance, international trade and developmental economics. Among others, she specializes in financial derivatives and in analyzing the characteristics of blockchain-based Bitcoin users. She has published a book, Financial Engineering – Basic Tools and Principles, as well as numerous academic papers on big data in core social science journals both in China and abroad. In addition to teaching at Fudan University, Dr. Xie has also developed and taught both Chinese and English courses in managerial economics, international trade and luxury goods management for MBA students at top schools across the United States, Europe and China.

Prof Huan Yuxiang

Dr. Yuxiang Huan currently serves as an assistant professor at Fudan University’s School of Information Science and Technology (SIST). He earned his PhD at Fudan University, specializing in Microelectronics, where he also won a National Scholarship Award reserved only for the top-ranked PhD candidates. Dr. Huan’s expertise lies in edge AI models, domain-specific AI processing, and distributed learning systems. He has extensive research experience, including leading/participating in three National Funding Grants, two Major Project Funding Grants (Shanghai) and one International Joint Research Project. His work, spanning more than 20 science and engineering papers, have been published in top-ranked journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (TCAS) and Transaction on Very Large Scale Integrations (TVLSI) Systems journals.

Dr. Huan is passionate about teaching and sharing knowledge, and has regularly been invited to share his knowledge on AI processors at other top institutions such as Tongji University (China) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden). At Fudan University, in addition to lectures, he has personally supervised students at the doctoral, master’s and undergraduate levels. These students have gone on to work at top companies including Amazon, Huawei, Tencent and Facebook, as well as received PhD offers from top universities in the United States and Europe.

Team Highlights

A selection of previous educational programs, events and talks conducted by our team

High School Affiliated with Fudan University

Motivational & University Talk

Fudan University

TOEFL Class

Citibank

weekend enrichment camp

University of Malaya

book talk

Imperial College London

Freshers' camp

Princeton University

Nassau Literary Review talk

Shanghai Jiaotong University

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

Commonwealth Secondary School

Motivational talk

UWC Atlantic College

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

Woodlands Secondary School

Motivational talk

Singapore Institute of Management

Motivational talk

East China Uni. of Pol. Sci and Law

Motivational talk

Northbrooks Secondary School

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

The Arts House Singapore

Literary talk

Nanyang Technological University

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

SPRING Singapore

Motivational talk