Dr. Er Meng Joo received his B. Eng and M. Eng degrees in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1985 and 1988 respectively and a Ph.D degree in Systems Engineering from the Australian National University in 1992. From 1987 to 1989, he worked as a Research and Development Engineer in Chartered Electronics Industries Pte Ltd and a Software Engineer in Telerate Research and Development Pte Ltd respectively. He is currently Director of the Intelligent Systems Centre, a University Research Centre co-funded by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Engineering Technologies and a Professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), NTU.

His research interests include control theory and applications, fuzzy logic and neural networks, computational intelligence, robotics and automation, sensor networks, cognitive systems and biomedical engineering. He has authored two books entitled “Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Networks: Architectures, Algorithms and Applications” and “Engineering Mathematics with Real-World Applications” published by McGraw Hill in 2003 and 2005 respectively, seven book chapters and more than 350 refereed journal and conference papers works in his research areas of interest.

Dr. Er was the winner the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) Prestigious Publication (Application) Award in 1996 and IES Prestigious Publication (Theory) Award in 2001. In recognition of his outstanding research work as a promising young academic staff, he was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship tenable at University of Strathclyde in 2000. Due to his excellent performance in teaching, he received the Teacher of the Year Award for the School of EEE in 1999.

Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor of four international journals : IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, the Neurocomputing, International Journal of Fuzzy Systems and International Journal of Humanoid Robots. He was also Editor of IES Journal on Electronics and Computer Engineering from 1995 to 2004.

Together with his postgraduate and undergraduate students, Professor Er has won numerous international and national awards:

• Outstanding Display Award at the EEE Technology Exhibition, held from 7 to 9 March, 2000, for the Final-Year Project entitled “Design and Development of an Automatic Control System for a Dutch Acquarium”.
• Bronze medal at the EEE Technology Exhibition held from 5 to 9 March, 2001 for the Final-Year Project entitled “Design and Development of an Intelligent Pole Balancing Robot”. This project was featured in the section on News and View/Technology of ProjectEyeball on 7 March and 19 March, 2001.
• Silver medal at the EEE Technopreneurship Competition held from 19 to 26 June, 2001, for the In-house Practical Training Project entitled “Design and Development of an Intelligent Controller for a Pole Balancing Robot”.
• IES Outstanding Publication Award (Student Category) in Electronic and Computer Engineering held from 8 June to 15 August, 2001 for the paper entitled “Intelligent Control of a Pole Balancing Robot”. This paper was selected from 20 papers submitted from local Institutions of Higher Learning. The winning project was featured in the NTU News in January, 2002.
• Top ten most outstanding exhibits in the College of Engineering Technology Exhibition held from 8 to 13 March, 2002, for the research project entitled “A New Approach Towards Designing Hybrid Fuzzy Controllers”.
• First Prize in the IEEE Region 10 Postgraduate Student Paper Contest 2002 for the paper entitled “Online Identification and Control of Nonlinear Systems Using Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Networks”. This is the first time an NTU Postgraduate Student has won the First Prize in the IEEE Region 10 Student Paper Contest. The contest is open to all postgraduate students in the Asia Pacific Region. The winning paper was featured in the NTU News in July, 2002.
• Singapore Millennium Foundation Award 2002 for the project entitled “Robust Adaptive Fuzzy Neural Modeling and Control”. This is one of the 30 projects selected from more than 500 applications. The winning project was featured in the E3 World.
• Finalist in the Asia Young Inventors Awards held on 22 October, 2002 in Hong Kong for the project entitled “Classification of Breast Masses Using Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Networks”. This project was selected from 173 entries. The winning project was featured in the NTU News in January, 2003.
• Finalist in the 4th Asian Control Conference Best Student Paper Competition 2002 for the paper entitled “Design of Mixed-Type Fuzzy Logic Controller by Computing with Words”. The winning paper was featured in the NTU News in January, 2003.
• IES Outstanding Publication Award (Student Category) in Electronic and Computer Engineering held from 8 June to 15 August, 2002 for the paper entitled “Real-time Implementation of a Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Networks Controller for a SCARA”. This paper was selected from 15 papers submitted from Institutions of Higher Learning in Singapore. The winning project was featured in the NTU News in July, 2003.
• First prize in the Inaugural MATLAB Novelty Design Competition, organized by TechSource Pte Ltd held from November, 2003 to March, 2004, for the project entitled “Intelligent Control of a Mobile Robot”. Opened to final year undergraduates, entries were submitted in late November 2003 by 21 teams from various divisions in the School of EEE, including Photonics, Control and Instrumentation, Information Engineering, and Circuits and System. Under the supervision by their respective professors, seven teams were short-listed and given about three months to prepare, submit a report on their project and present to a panel of nine judges. The teams were judged on five key criteria, namely design & approach (25%), software/hardware application (20%), practical ability/innovativeness (20%), oral presentation/demonstration (20%), and report (15%). A press release of the results was given in April 2004. Please refer to the website http://www.techsource.com.sg for more details. The winning entry was featured in the E3 World (Vol. 8 No. 2 Sept., 04 – Feb., 05 issue).
• IES Outstanding Publication Award (Student Category) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering held from 30 May, 2003 to 31 July, 2003 for the paper entitled “Adaptive Noise Cancellation Using Enhanced Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Networks”. This paper was selected from 21 papers submitted from Institutions of Higher Learning in Singapore. The winning project was featured in the NTU News in April, 2004.
• IES Outstanding Publication Award (Student Category) in Health and Safety Engineering held from 30 May, 2003 to 31 July, 2003, for the paper entitled “Design and Development of an Ultrasound Imaging Algorithm for Breast Cancer Detection”. The winning project was featured in the NTU News in April, 2004.
• IES Outstanding Publication Award (Student Category) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering held from 30 May, 2004 to 31 July, 2004. Sole Supervisor of the paper entitled “Goal Seeking of Mobile Robots Using Dynamic Fuzzy Q-Learning”. This paper was selected from 21 papers submitted from Institutions of Higher Learning in Singapore.
• Merit Award at the EEE Design and Innovation Project Competition held from 4 May, to 10 June, 2005 for the project entitled “Modelling and Control of a Humanoid Robot”.
• First prize in the Most Popular Research Project Competition at the College of Engineering Technology Week Exhibition held on 11 March, 2006 for the Research Project entitled “Self Learning and Intelligent Control of a Humanoid Robot”. This project will be featured in the E3 World.
• Third prize in the Most Popular Undergraduate Project Competition at the College of Engineering Technology Week Exhibition held on 11 March for the Final-Year Project entitled “Robust Adaptive Control of a Pole Balancing Robot”.