SPEAKERS

(1) Jin-Chern Chiou (NCTU, Taiwan)

Professor Jin-Chern Chiou received the MS and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering science from University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, in 1986 and 1990 respectively. Before joining Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DECE), National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan, in 1992, he worked at the Center for Space Structure and Control, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado as a research associate (1991-1992). His research interests include micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), biomedical engineering, and modeling and control of multibody dynamic systems (MBD). During the period of 2009 to 2014, Dr. Chiou was the professor of Department of Medicine, China Medical University and the Vice superintendent / director of Biomedical Engineering Research and Development Center of China Medical University Hospital and actively conducted research in developing biomedical devices for unmet medical needs. Currently, Dr. Chiou is the CTO of Biomedical Technology and Device Research Lab., Industrial Technology Research Institute. He is the recipient for more than 20 prestigious prizes and awards which included 2009 Distinguished Engineering Professors Award (Chinese Institute of Engineers), 2013 ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the flagship conference of the Solid-State Circuits Society) Distinguished-Technical-Paper Award, 2014 Prospective Academic Excellence Award for Research Projects (NPIE, Ministry of Science and Technology), 2014 Distinguished Medical Devices Research Award (Clinical Trial Excellence Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare), 2015 National Innovation Award (Taiwan Institute of Biotechnology and Medicine Industry), 2016 Taiwan Healthcare and Agricultural Biotech Industries Innovation and Excellence Award. He holds 16 U.S. patents and 25 international patents that have been licensed to 5 companies. In particular, the smart pressure measurement mattress for patient bedside activity assessment had transferred to MedicusTek and received great success from clinical trials both in Taiwan (Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center and CMUH) and USA (Kaiser Permanente and Lahey Hospital and Medical Center). In 2015, He has successfully manufactured the hema-based intraocular pressure sensor for glaucoma patients and eased the contact lens-related discomfort. Currently, CooperVision has enquired this technology for their potential future contact lens design. Dr. Chiou is the co-founder of 3 startups based in Taiwan. He published 106 articles, 4 book chapters and served as general co-chair of 2012 IEEE Sensors and the program chair of 2011 Asian Control Conference.

(2) Garrick Orchard (NUS, Singapore)

Dr Garrick Orchard is a Senior Research Scientist at Temasek Laboratories and the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) at the National University of Singapore. He holds a B.Sc. degree (with honours, 2006) in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and M.S.E. (2009) and Ph.D. (2012) degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. He was named a Paul V. Renoff fellow in 2007, a Virginia and Edward M. Wysocki Sr. fellow in 2011, and a Temasek Research Fellow in 2015. He received the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab’s Hart Prize for Best Research and Development Project, and won the best live demonstration prize at the IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems conference 2012. His research focuses on developing neuromorphic vision algorithms and systems for real-time sensing on mobile platforms. His other research interests include mixed-signal very large scale integration (VLSI) design, compressive sensing, spiking neural networks, visual perception, and legged locomotion.

(3) Nidal Kamel (UTP)

Dr Nidal Kamel received the PhD degree (Hons) from the Technical University of Gdansk, Poland, in 1993. Since 1993 he has been involved in research projects related to estimation theory, noise reduction, optimal filtering, and pattern recognition. He developed SNR estimation for antenna diversity combining, single-trial subspace-based technique for ERP extraction from brain background noise, time-constraints optimization technique for speckle noise reduction in SAR images, and introduced data glove for online signature verification. His present research interest is mainly in EEG signal processing for localization of brain sources, assessment of cognitive and visual distraction, Neurofeedback, learning and memory recall, in addition to fMRI- EEG data fusion. He is the editor of EEG/ERP Analysis: Methods and Applications, CRC Press, NY, 2015. Currently, he is Associate Professor at the PETRONAS University of Technology. He is IEEE senior member.

(4) Vijanth Sagayan Asirvadam (UTP)

Dr. Vijanth S. Asirvadam is from an old mining city of Malaysia called Ipoh. He studied at University of Putra, Malaysia in Bachelor Science(Hon) majoring in Statistics and graduated in April 1997 before leaving to Queen’s University Belfast to do his Masters where he received his Master’s Science in Engineering Computation with a Distinction. He later joined the Intelligent Systems and Control Research Group at Queen’s University Belfast in November 1999 where he completed his Doctorate (Ph.D.) researching into Online and Constructive Neural Learning methods. He took previous employments as a System Engineer (1999) and later as a Lecturer at the Multimedia University Malaysia (2003-2005). He was also a Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Engineering and Computer Technology, AIMST University (2005-2006). Since November 2006, he served as a Senior Lecturer (2006-2011) and later as Associate Professor (2011 -) at the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). His research interest in theory includes linear and nonlinear system identification and model validation. On application side (mainly on Biomedical Engineering) his main research interest are on computing techniques in signal, image and video processing. Dr Vijanth is member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and also a member of Institute of Engineering Technology (IET) . He has over 100 publications in proceedings and journals in the field of computational intelligence in biomedical technology, control, signal and image processing. Dr Vijanth is currently heads the Health Informatics Modeling (HiM) group for Center of Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research (CISIR) at UTP. He is a member of IEEE for signal processing and control systems chapters for Malaysia section and currently serving as a secretary for IEEE signal processing (Malaysian Chapter). Dr Vijanth is also member of Institute of Engineering Technology (MIET).

(5) Esther Ebenezer (UniKL)

Prof. Dr. Esther Ebenezer is the Professor in Psychiatry at UniKL Royal College of Medicine Perak. She obtained her Master in Psychological medicine from University Malaya and Fellow in Old Age Psychiatry from the University of Western Australia, Perth. Prof. Dr. Esther is the Chairperson of the Dementia Society Perak since 2010 and she started up the Dementia Support Group in Ipoh since 2006. She established the Dementia Daycare Centre on 2012 in Ipoh. She is well known for her work on dementia. She is also an EXCO member of the Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia (ADFM). She had been an invited speaker for many occasions nationwide and in overseas conferences. Prof. Dr. Esther is actively involved as Principal Investigator in many researches and clinical trials with new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other psychiatric disorders.

(6) Lim Lee Wei (HKU, Hong Kong)

Dr Lim Lee Wei is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology, the University of Hong Kong. At the same time, he is also holding adjunct faculty positions at the Sunway University, Malaysia, and the Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He conducted his PhD study in neuroscience at the Maastricht University, and subsequently spent several years of research fellowship in Maastricht University, Oxford University, and Nanyang Technological University. He has extensive experience in the field of neuromodulation research using deep brain stimulation for neuropsychiatric diseases. His recent findings in the eLife and Translational Psychiatry papers have garnered more than 150 international media coverage including the UK Daily Mail, The Straits Times, Economic Times, TODAY, Channel News Asia, FinanzNachrichten, Xin Hua News, etc.

(7) Mohammed Faruque Reza (USM)

Dr Mohammed Faruque Reza was born in Chuadanga, Bangladesh. He received his MBBS degree from Rangpur Medical College, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh in 1993, and M.Sc in Microbiology from Dhaka University, Bangladesh in 1995. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hokkaido University, Japan in 2005. After completion of his PhD he joined as a Guest Researcher at Human Brain Research Center (HBRC), Kyoto University, Japan and as a Postdoc fellow at Department of Neuroscience, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (RIEM), Nagoya University, Japan in 2006 followed by an additional Postdoc fellow in 2009 at Stark neuroscience Research Institute, Indiana University Graduate School of Medicine, Indiana, US. In 2010 he joined at Department of Neurosciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia and currently he is a Senior Lecturer at the same department. His research interest is in the field of Electrophysiology, Neurophysiology and Functional Neuroimaging.

(8) Gopinath Rao Sinnah (REDtone IOT Sdn Bhd)

Dr. Gopinath Rao Sinniah is currently working as the IoT Specialist at REDtone IOT, a subsidiary of REDtone International, Malaysia. His role is to architect IoT solutions and conduct R&D in various aspects of IoT. The R&D is conducted by establishing strategic collaboration with research institutions. He is also working on big data and smart sustainable city initiatives. He is currently the Chairman of Internet of Things (IoT) Working Group under Malaysian Technical Standards Forum Berhad (MTSFB). The main role of the WG is to promote IoT, create and adopt IoT standards that can be used in Malaysia. He is also the Chairman on the IPv6 WG since 2009. He has authored several conference and journal papers, patents in the field of networking and computer science. Due to his numerous contributions, he was awarded the innovator award at his previous organisation. He was also awarded as the most active working group Chairman at MTSFB. He has also given talks on IoT and smart cities at various events.