TECH EXPERTS

Dr Heng Kiang Soon has 15 years of experience in the industry as a nutritionist and in the academia as researcher and lecturer. Currently, he is a lecturer at the School of Applied Science, Republic Polytechnic. His research interests are in nutraceutical and functional food development with emphasis on translating laboratory-based discoveries into novel products with effective health promoting and therapeutic effects. He has been collaborating with various companies in the research and development of food products. He is also experienced in diet and nutritional clinical studies, extraction and analysis of plant bioactive compounds, as well as shelf life studies of food products. He has published and presented more than 15 research papers and participated in book publication around human nutrition and health. As a nutrition educator, he is also passionate in promoting healthy diet and nutrition to the community.   Dr Heng holds a PhD in Nutritional Science and MSc in Community Nutrition from Universiti Putra Malaysia. 

Dr Leong Wen Shing is currently a lecturer in Republic Polytechnic, School of Applied Science. She has more than 10 years of academia and industrial R&D experience in materials characterization and development for tissue engineering and natural fiber composites. With a specialization in biomaterials and naturally derived materials, Dr Leong has manipulated stem cell behavior via controlling biophysical cues from scaffold material, including but not limited to scaffold topology, rigidity, dimensionality, and surface chemistry. Scaffold fabrication techniques, such as electrospinning, additive manufacturing, and porogen leaching, are her areas of expertise. Another area of expertise of Dr Leong is in developing high strength natural fiber composites, in particularly bamboo composites. She has more than 5 years of experience in improving strength, fire retardancy, sustainability, and water resistivity of natural fiber composites. She is dedicated to promoting awareness of sustainable materials adoption. A project under her lead has received the JEC Innovation Award in 2016, while student projects under her supervision and mentorship has received Polytechnic Student Research Programme (PSRP) awards in 2015, 2016 and 2018; and 2nd Prize in Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2020 (Post-secondary level).

Dr Lily Ganda is currently a lecturer supporting various environmental science and management diploma programmes at Republic Polytechnic (RP) while she continues to be active in applied research for wastewater treatment and waste management. In a latest project, Lily led a sustainability project funded by Mandai Research Fund to search on a closed loop sustainable approach to manage wildlife waste. The project aimed to set up a feasible waste management solution to manage wildlife waste using black soldier fly, which is a first of its kind in the world. Her research findings were featured in various national media, such as The Strait Times, Today, Lianhe Zaobao, Channel NewsAsia, Berita Mediacorp, Channel 8 and CNA938. This project also clinched RP’s Most Innovative Project and Gold Award at the Ministry of Education (MOE) Innergy Award in 2020. Apart from the Mandai Research Fund, her research work is also supported by MOE Translational R&D and Innovation Fund for another eco-project on biofuel production. In addition, Lily has been actively collaborating with various industrial partners through consultancy projects. Lily attained her PhD in Environmental Engineering from Nanyang Technological University. She was a recipient of the National Research Foundation (Environmental and Water Technology) PhD Scholarship in 2009.

Dr Moshood Olawale Fadeyi is an Associate Professor of Building Services Engineering at the Singapore Institute of Technology. Dr Fadeyi holds four university degrees, including a PhD in Indoor Environment and Energy from the National University of Singapore and Technical University of Denmark. He is an architect, indoor air quality expert, chartered engineer (UK) – building services, chartered construction manager (UK), cartoonist, and specialist adult educator. Dr Fadeyi is a member of the Chartered Iinstitution of Building Services Engineers (UK), Chartered Institute of Building (UK), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers, and the International Facility Management Association. His professional expertise and research interests focus on creating healthy and energy-efficient indoor environments and process enhancement for a sustainable built environment. He has engaged with more than 60 companies in Singapore to solve their problems through consultation, applied research, innovation and lean transformation projects, continuous education and training (CET) programmes, as well as case study development activities. He has also developed Indoor Air Cartoon Journal (IACJ), an innovative applied learning journal with global readership that provides CET contributions to students, industry, community, and academics. Before joining SIT, Dr Fadeyi was an assistant professor at the British University in Dubai, UAE. He was concurrently an honorary lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK. He also had research work experience at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, and Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS).

Dr Malcolm H. Smith has more than 27 years of post-PhD industrial experience in a wide range of areas, including more than 3 years at Matsushita (renamed Panasonic) in Japan designing analogue circuits for sensors, more than 22 years in cellular and other radio experience in the US at Bell Labs, Intel, Amalfi Semiconductor and RFMD, and more than 6 years as an independent consultant working worldwide for clients including MediaTek, HiSilicon (Huawei) and Google. Malcolm has over 40 patents issued for circuit, system and architecture inventions. At AnalogueSmith, Malcolm also consults in following fields of RFIC, analogue, mix-signal circuit design, system and architectural design of mixed-signal RFICs, CMOS PA, transceiver system, architecture, and circuit design, and modelling (device, circuit, system, and architecture).

Tushar has over 38 years of professional experience in offshore / onshore oil, gas, LNG and energy industries, encompassing production, processing, transportation and storage for Fixed Platforms, Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU), Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant and terminals and other projects. His experience focuses on Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation and Commissioning (EPCIC) project management, business development, as well as operation and maintenance support. Tushar has worked in various capacities, as the Process Head, Engineering Manager, Project Manager, Safety Leader and others for various companies including Bechtel, IHI E&C, Shell, Sembcorp Marine and BW Offshore. He currently focuses on consulting and providing training services to companies, in technology and risk assessment, HSE and sustainability and project and engineering management. He was involved in the development of TR 56 Standard for LNG Bunkering in Singapore. He is also teaching various courses in NTU, including the Advanced Process Engineering and Process Engineering for Gas/LNG and Pharmaceutical Industries. Tushar is a Senior Member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and is also the Chair of AIChE - Singapore Local Section. He obtained his Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Dr Wong Choon Yue is a Senior Research Fellow in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses mainly on interface design and human-robot interaction (HRI), which led to the development of the EDGAR series of humanoid robots that is best known for being the robotic co-host at the 2017 National Day Parade in Singapore. He is also the CEO and Founder of MAJU Robotics, a start-up spun off from NTU. Dr Wong continues to deploy humanoid robots, while at the same time also developing new robotics solutions such as disinfection robots for use in public spaces, as well as robotic grippers for applications such as in logistics. Prior to joining NTU, he was with TECH Semiconductor (now Micron Semiconductor Asia), managing the Dry Etch operations of semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to robot development, Dr Wong also speaks at public events to share his robot-building experience and to inspire budding young scientists.

Dr Sun Xiaolong is the Founder and Managing Director of Zerowaste Asia (ZA). He has more than 20 years of research and industrial experience in waste, wastewater, and materials science. He is proficient in waste and wastewater treatment, waste-to-resource management, environmental impact assessment, green construction materials, and materials science. Together with his team in ZA, he has completed numerous industrial, research and development, and consultancy projects in waste and wastewater treatment as well as waste-to-resource management. His team collaborated with NEA to conduct Singapore's first comprehensive study on incineration bottom ash (IBA) utilisation in 2012 and was contracted by NEA to treat IBA into NEWSand. Dr Sun has provided solutions to challenging waste and wastewater treatment for various industries with pollutants including heavy metals, organic pollutants, fluoride, cyanide, phenolic compounds, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), colour, ammonia nitrogen, etc. Dr Sun obtained his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from NTU. He is the inventor of 14 patents and author of numerous research publications on environmental technologies. He is familiar with toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), as well as environmental standards in Singapore, China and the European Union.

Dr Ng Kian Ann has 20 years of experience in integrated circuits (IC) design and applications. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore. He is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and an office-bearer in the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (Singapore Chapter). He also participates in the IEC TC 47 - Semiconductor Devices standards committee. Before joining DigiPen, he held senior technical positions with STMicroelectronics, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (now GlobalFoundries), and Oxford Semiconductor (now part of Broadcom) from 2000 to 2009. During this time, he designed many of the integrated circuits (IC) inside microchips we use every day, such as contactless smartcards, USB1.1 to USB 3.0, Firewire, CMOS image sensors, and ESD/IO circuits. He also briefly consulted for the IC design community from 2009 to 2010. After that, he held various research positions in National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2010 to 2020. During his time at NUS spent in Electronic and Biomedical research, he and his team developed wearable, IoT-based EEG/Neurological front-ends that are currently used by the National University Hospital and NUS' research laboratories. He holds 5 U.S. patents and has authored/co-authored more than 30 technical journals and conference proceedings.