Sophia Yu

Sophia Xiaojing Yu, our loving mother, daughter, and sister passed away suddenly on September 14, 2018 at Martin Memorial Hospital in FL, at the age of only 56. Born in Haian, Jiangsu, China on May 10, 1962, her youthful beauty, intelligence, and life of selfless devotion to others will be forever engraved into the hero monuments of time. She was a hero to all of us, dedicating most of her life to taking care of her loved ones, putting them over her own life and career, most notably her mother Ming Jing with cancer, her love Joe to whom she was committed to over 23 years, her son as a single mother, and many others. She always felt she was given the mission by God to help the world.

Sophia's genius was well-known early on: She began talking at 5 months old, calling out "mama" in Chinese. She entered university at only 16, earning a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology at Nanjing University, China and began publishing research at national-level meteorological research journals at 19. She left China and trained at Canada's McMaster University, the University of Maryland College Park, American University, learned negotiation at Harvard Law School and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds a Masters in Computer Science.

Sophia was multi-talented and enjoyed a vibrant career cross a spectrum of industries. After publishing meteorological, earth science, and climate research in the 1980s, she moved into the pioneering field of artificial intelligence and neural networks, helping many around her get their start in the emerging A.I. and technology fields. In the early 1990s, Sophia co-founded an imaging software company, Quatex (later renamed to ECompex), where she designed and engineered intelligent imaging software. Her computer science background took her to Bell Atlantic and government contractors associated with projects such as national security. She later joined payroll-processing firm PayAmerica (Business Computer Services Inc) where she was the lead architect and engineer of the Payroll engine considered to have the most precise and accurate payroll calculation algorithms. PayAmerica was a nationally-renowned payroll company that was highly ranked on the IRS list. After PayAmerica was sold, Sophia took her Payroll engine to Employer Services Online (ESO). She was an innovative entrepreneur and computer scientist who operated multiple businesses and projects in parallel, including one of the first MS .net digital education learning platforms with a sales model that was integrated with PayPal during the late 1990s, an AI-driven ecommerce engine, a medical communications technology start up for doctors and patients, cyber security services for application-layer defense, and several start ups that were in-development including an intelligent online Payroll platform. More recently, Sophia was the architect and executive producer of several private-funded 3D-action feature films and AAA video games that were soon to be published until her untimely passing.

Sophia was also authoring several books prior to her death. Among them were Payroll Engine Architecture, Payroll Principles, and Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks. Some books may be published posthumously in honor of Sophia, in the hope that others can learn from and be inspired by her gifted mind.

Sophia leaves behind her loving son and only child (Rui), her father (Shumo Yu), her uncle (Chen Jing), her brother (Sean Xiaoying), her cousin (Jing Jing), a nephew, a niece, and many more cousins from China. She was preceded in death by her loving mother (Ming Jing) and the love of her life for over 20 years (Joseph Mario Speroni), a US Air Force Colonel of Sailfish Point, FL and founder of PayAmerica.

Sophia is interred at Lakemont Memorial Gardens in Davidsonville, MD.

www.sophiayujingming.com