TECH EXPERT
Dr Alexander Ong

Dr Alexander Ong

Principal Lecturer

Republic Polytechnic

EXPERTISE:
Healthcare - Product Design & Development, Prototype Build
Life Sciences - Product Design & Development, Prototype Build
LOCATION:
Singapore

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Alex Ong has been engaged in the education sector for more than 25 years. He is presently the principal lecturer in the School of Sports, Health and Leisure at Republic Polytechnic (Singapore).

His research interest is in sports and health related to data science, computer vision, pattern recognition, and education technology in physical activities. He mentors principal investigators and oversees applied industry projects that have been successfully commissioned and are competitively funded by national agencies such as the National Research Foundation, Ministry of Education, Tote Board and National Additive Manufacturing – Innovation Cluster.

His projects include:

  • Markerless-tracking for gait analysis & multidisciplinary learning in physical activities
  • 3D printed evidence-based orthopedic seat
  • Algorithms for wearables for non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose, wrist-based SPO2/blood pressure continuous monitoring

Dr Ong obtained his PhD in Education (Physical Education) from Deakins University (Australia) and has a Masters in Education from Durham University (UK) as well as a Masters of Science (Biomechanics) from the Faculty of Medicine at National University of Singapore.

PORTFOLIO

Blood Oxygen Saturation (SPO2) Level Estimation in Functional Wearables

Dr. Alex and his team has innovated a proof-of-concept (POC) algorithm to estimate the SPO2 levels for wrist-worn wearables; leveraging on data science approaches contextualized to exercise physiology. This technology was licensed to a company where Dr. Alex provided technology transfer support and rendered assistance during the company's product implementation.

The aim of the original project was to estimate SPO2 levels using photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals for wrist-worn wearables during the COVID 19 pandemic. The traditional oximeter (to measure SPO2 levels) is arguably not suitable for this purpose. Wrist-worn wearables is potentially preferred but the ecological validation of the formula to estimate the SPO2 levels is not well documented. With the POC algorithm the company licensing the technology was able to accelerate their product development and prototype build timeline.


Expertise Provided
  • Infocomm - Prototype Build
  • Healthcare - Prototype Build
Evidenced-based School Back-pack for Lower Primary School Students

Dr. Alex played one of the leading roles in the creation of a school back-pack design and intellectual property (IP) to ensure the wellbeing of school students. He worked with a company in the ergonomic back-pack manufacturing space, to incorporate this developed and evaluated design IP for commercialization. The completed product was targeted at the primary school students market.

The uniqueness of the design is that it is empirically validated in human trials according to international scientific standards in exercise science.


Expertise Provided
  • Healthcare - Product Design & Development, Prototype Build
  • Life Sciences - Product Design & Development, Prototype Build
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