Research Management Centre congratulates Dr. Ng Kim Hoong from School of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Kelvin Ooi Jian Aun from School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Dr. Teoh Hong Wooi from China-ASEAN College of Marine Sciences on receiving the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) 2019, awarded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia. They are the second batch of successful FRGS applications submitted by Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM) with a total allocated amount of RM 350,789.00. FRGS supports fundamental researches in areas supporting the country’s strategic agenda - including Pure and Applied Sciences, Technology and Engineering, Clinical and Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Applied Art, Natural and Cultural Heritage, Information and Communication Technology - which can produce theories, concepts, and ideas for the advancement of knowledge that would contribute to the enhancement of intellectual level and the creation of new technologies. 

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Dr. Ng Kim Hoong proposes a research on using a catalytic reduction method for the eradication of highly-polluting SO2, producing the inert SO solid which provides better storing convenience and more dynamic mobility. Material derived from waste eggshells will be used to catalyse the SO2 reduction process, hence promoting the concept of “waste-treating-waste” in current project. The research outcome offers a simple but effective approach to control the emission of SO2, from the burning of S-containing fuels to the environment, meanwhile converting it into a more marketable SO solid at the end of the treatment process.
Dr. Ng received his PhD Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universiti Malaysia Pahang in 2017. After the completion of his degree, he was appointed as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Universiti Malaysia Pahang and subsequently joined School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, XMUM as a Lecturer in April 2018. His research focuses on the treatment and valorisation of waste. To date, he has published 15 SCI journal papers in the field of industrial wastewater treatment and valorisation of waste into renewable energy.

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Dr. Kelvin Ooi Jian Aun proposes a research on the aspirations of intelligent cities that would require the component of robust and intelligent transportation planning. The objective of this research is to identify and understand the fundamental physical theories associated with urban transport systems, in order to create a simple and deterministic transportation forecasting model. It is expected that the research will reveal unprecedented insights into urban transport networks in Malaysia and solve the paradoxes of urban transport design. The results of this research will bring a huge paradigm shift to the way urban transport planning carried out at the policy level.

Dr. Kelvin Ooi received his BEng and PhD degrees from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2010 and 2014, respectively. He was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the SUTD-MIT International Design Center and the Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities, at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), from 2014 to 2017. He joined XMUM as an assistant professor in 2018. His current research interests span various disciplines, including integrated optics design for optical computing and data transmission, daylighting technologies for sustainable architecture, bio-electromagnetism in nerve conduction, and circuital modelling for urban network science and engineering. He has authored over 50 international journal and conference papers, which includes top-tier journals like Nature Communications and ACS Photonics, with a citation count of over 400 and a h-index of 13.

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Dr. Teoh Hong Wooi proposes a research on the mud-inhabiting blood cockles (locally known as ‘sea ham’) as one of the most important semi-cultured shelled mollusk in Malaysia. This is mainly due to the extensive mangrove-fringed mudflat along the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. However, harvest of this once abundant bivalves has been dwindling over the years. As an example, the state of Selangor, which is one of the major cockles producing state, experienced a 95% drop in cockle production in 2017 compared to the peak production in 2013. Hypoxic condition and ammonia toxicity, rendered by the large fluctuation in nutrients and primary production, have been implicated in debilitating the survivability and growth of the cultured blood cockles. Such notions form the basis of the current study to address the role of organic matter and nutrients enrichment on the changes in the basal sources of the food web, with impacts that reverberate up the food chain, affecting the blood cockles.

Dr. Teoh received his BSc in Marine Science from the Universiti Malaysia Sabah in 2008, followed by a PhD from the University of Malaya (UM) in 2014. Trained as a marine biologist and ecologist, his expertise and research interests include macrobenthos ecology, coastal fisheries, trophodynamics (tracing energy flow through the food web) and coastal pollution which focus on the economically and ecologically important (yet deteriorating) coastal habitats such as mangroves, mudflats, estuary and other intertidal shores. He worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the Institute of Biological Sciences, UM in 2014, and then continued his research with the funding of Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) in 2015. Dr. Teoh is currently an Assistant Professor at the China-ASEAN College of Marine Sciences, XMUM.