TECH EXPERTS

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.

Dr Shubha Vij who is also an adjunct Associate Professor with James Cook University Singapore, is a geneticist with over 20 years of experience in genomics, evolution, developmental biology, barcoding, transgenics and functional characterization of gene expression. Some of her key achievements include being involved in producing the gold standard version of the rice genome and chromosomal level assembly of Asian seabass. Over the last ten years, Shubha has been actively involved in improving key food fish species such as Asian seabass and Red Snapper through applied breeding programs and focus on key aquaculture traits. Recently, Dr Shubha has also been involved in developing immune boosting and sustainable aquafeeds.

Dr. Yeo Boon Sain obtained his Bachelors of Engineering and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Glasgow and Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, respectively. Some research interests are in technologies relating to wireless systems and network, and operational approaches to optimize telecommunication systems. He is an expert in high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) Radio-frequency identification (RFID) system. He is trained by NXP and Texas Instruments for their respective high-power HF RFID reader design. Prior to founding Trilogy Technologies, Boon Sain spent 10 years with the Institute for Infocomm Research, an institute under Agency for Science, Technology and Research. He was previously appointed as the laboratory head of Wireless Sensor Networks Laboratory and was the Technology and Development Director of Wavex Technologies and Wavex Innovations. He was also seconded as the R&D director of SensiMesh Pte Ltd and focused on mesh technologies, wireless and wired sensor networks, Real-Time Locating System, as well as monitoring and control systems. He was also an adjunct Assistant Professor in NUS. In 2010, he started Trilogy Technologies Pte Ltd, a one-stop turnkey engineering solutions provider, and certified for ISO 13485, 9001 and 14001 Quality Management Systems. With his skillful and knowledgeable R&D background and production knowledge acquired over the years, he provides ingenious designs that are highly producible and conform to various industry standards such as MIL-STD 461, 810 and 1275, as well as IPC-600, 610, 620, J-STD-001 and 7711/7721, for which he is a certified trainer.

Hong Ling Tim is currently a Principal Lecturer under Industry track at Republic Polytechnic. He has held various positions within Republic Polytechnic such as the Senior Conexus Manager for the SMART Engineering Technology Centre and also Manager for the industry joint laboratory with Texas Instruments specialising in low power wireless applications. Ling Tim was also involved in numerous grants or funding for research and development in the areas of biomedical electronics and has engaged in consultancies project with the industry. Some of his recent projects include Gamified Fine Motor Skill Rehabilitation Device for Children with Developmental Disorders, Wireless Monitoring of the Muscle Blood Flow in Low Back Pain Population, and Smart Sanitizer System for Hand Infection Prevention.   Prior to joining Republic Polytechnic, he held a senior position as a project manager at Willowglen Services Pte Ltd, and was project engineer at Defence Science and Technology Agency. He graduated with a Master of Science in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the National University of Singapore, a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University and a Diploma from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. He was recently awarded the Crescendas Medal and Prize for Outstanding Applied Physics Researcher (Polytechnics) 2019.

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 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).

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.