(SCTP) Advanced Professional Certificate in Sustainable Urban Environments

Alvin Ng Chief Operating Officer, Smart Cities, Asia Pacific, Aboitiz Data Innovation Adjunct Associate Professor, Nanyang Business School, NTU Alvin Ng is the Chief Operating Officer for Smart Cities of Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI). He plays a key role in continuing the advancement of ADI’s mission to drive the adoption of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence tools and solutions around smart cities. Prior to this, as the Vice President of Digital Solutions, APAC, Johnson Controls, Alvin was responsible for driving the digital and sustainability growth strategy for Asia Pacific region, which includes driving and executing initiatives that increase market penetration, providing relevant digital solutions in the building sector, with focus on digital business revenue growth, partner offerings, sales cycle support and ecosystem representation. Alvin has over 24 years of experience in global sales and product management and has held a series of senior global leadership roles with multinational companies like Wincor Nixdorf AG, Cisco Systems and Rosenbluth International. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, he worked for General Electric as the General Manager for GE Digital, Asia. In addition to his role as the Industry-Faculty lead for ‘Business Consulting’ and ‘Leader as a Coach’ programs for the MBA School, he teaches Digital Transformation, AI for business, Internet of Things and Sustainability leadership programs. He also plays the role of Senior Career Fellow as an executive coach to the Global Executive MBA students.

Adam Switzer holds concurrent positions as Professor of Coastal Science at the Asian School of the Environment; Assistant Dean (Development) at the College of Science; Director of CIFAL Singapore and Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS). He is a broadly trained coastal geoscientist and the overarching driver of his research is to apply interdisciplinary geoscience to solve contemporary coastal problems at local, regional and international scales. His main research areas investigate catastrophic marine inundation events (tsunami or large storms), sea level changes, the evolution of coral reefs and tropical coastal systems. After obtaining a BSc and PhD in Geosciences from the University of Wollongong, Australia he accepted an Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong fellowship to study at The University of Hong Kong where he held positions as Post-Doctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor. Adam is an internationally recognised expert in coastal science. In the field of coastal hazards Adam has pioneered the study of storm and tsunami deposits with studies in Australia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. Here, he focuses on the use of geophysical techniques like Ground Penetrating Radar and the sedimentary study of sand and boulders deposited by extreme events. His Quaternary geology work focuses on the coastal evolution of tropical coastal systems in Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and China where he uses geological techniques to reconstruct past environmental change and investigate the role of sea level change, climate variability and human influence on the evolution of tropical and sub-tropical coastal systems. His work on coral reefs and tropical coasts focuses on coral records of environmental change including the study of past ocean changes, pollutants, storm and tsunami events and heavy metal sedimentation. His research program at the Earth Observatory of Singapore aims to facilitate the development of safer and more sustainable communities in Asia. His research currently involves collaborations with people from ten Asian nations. In 2022 he was awarded the Wing Ip medal by the Asia Oceania Geoscience Society for unselfish co-operation and leadership in Geoscience in the Asia Oceania region. Adam he has been PI or Co-I on 20 grants in Singapore (worth >$18M) and he has authorship on >120 peer-review publications. He was a founding editorial board member of the journal Communications Earth and Environment from Nature. Adam is also passionate about science communication and has appeared in documentaries for Mediacorp (Singapore), Curiosity Channel (Discovery) and BBC (UK) and delivered invited talks a numerous international venues including the World Economic Forum.

Perrine is an Assistant Professor at NTU’s Asian School of the Environment. Her research group examines how green infrastructure can contribute to creating resilient and inclusive cities in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining NTU, Perrine was a senior scientist at Stanford University with the Natural Capital Project, a global partnership aiming to integrate the benefits provided by nature into major societal decisions. There, she led the Livable Cities program, an initiative aiming to understand and elevate the role of nature in urban environments. Prior to her research on natural capital, Perrine has worked as an environmental engineer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and conducted her PhD research in the field of integrated urban water management. She holds a PhD from Monash University, Australia, and a Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering from Ecole Centrale Nantes, France.

Grzegorz Lisak obtained his M.Sc. (Chem. Eng.) in physical chemistry in 2007 from Poznań University of Technology, Poland. He obtained his D.Sc. (Tech.) in analytical chemistry in 2012 from Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Between 2013 and 2015 he has been a research fellow at University of Wollongong, Australia and Malmö University, Sweden. Since 2016 he is Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Between 2017 and 2018 he was appointed as deputy director of Residues and Resources Reclamation Center at Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Singapore. Since 2018 he is a director of Residues and Resources Reclamation Center at Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Singapore. Since 2018 he is principle investigator and manager of the Waste to Energy Research Facility at NTU, near full scale high temperature gasification technology established to conduct R&D work in waste to energy and waste to resources. Since 2019 he is an associated editor of Chemosphere (IF= 7.086), Elsevier.

Bio-data of Assoc Prof Robert L K Tiong, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, NTU Dr Robert Tiong is an Associate Professor in School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, as well as Deputy Director of Centre for Infrastructure Systems at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the Program Director of the MSc Programme in International Construction Management since its inception in 1991. Dr Tiong graduated in 1981 from University of Glasgow with First Class Honours in Civil Engineering, with specialisation in management. He obtained his M.Eng on Construction Engineering & Management, from University of California, Berkeley in 1987 and his PhD in 1994 from NTU. His research and consulting interests focus on integrated risk analysis and economics, financing, management, and project procurement for infrastructure projects. More recently, he has focussed on catastrophe risk management, alternative risk transfer and financing for natural hazards and catastrophes such as floods and earthquakes. He has published extensively including a monograph on “The Structuring of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Projects”, a research report on “Evaluation of risks in BOT projects”, and a book chapter on “Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Projects: An Asian Dimension”. He was also a reviewer for the UNIDO Guidelines for the Development, Negotiation, and Contracting of BOT Projects. He has worked with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank on risk analysis and management of infrastructure projects. Recently, he has been involved in the study of Clean Energy Development and Carbon Credit Finance for hydro-power projects in developing countries such as Vietnam.

David Lallemant’s research focuses on understanding and quantifying the evolution of extreme risk in today’s growing cities. He uses hazard modeling, engineering analysis, predictive modeling and spatial statistics for application in large-scale natural disaster risk analysis. The transdisciplinary and policy-oriented nature of his work has led him to build collaborations with the World Bank, Google, the Red Cross, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the Natural Capitals Project and others. David holds a PhD from Stanford University, a master’s degree from UC Berkeley (2010) and bachelor’s degree from MIT (2007). David co-founded the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative and the Co-Risk Labs consultancy group. David is also active in post-disaster response and recovery, which forms the basis for his research on post-disaster assessment and community resilience. He worked for two years in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and has been involved with the response and recovery following the Christchurch earthquake and recent earthquake in Nepal.

Kia Hong is actively involved in curriculum and pedagogical development in accounting, sustainability, risk management, assurance and analytics courses where he teaches in the bachelor degree, master degree and executive courses. He is also the academic director of the MBA Strategy Projects at Nanyang (SPAN) where he oversees a capstone module involving collaborations between sponsor organisations and NBS in which MBA participants work in teams to apply innovative thinking to address opportunities and challenges on real-life industry issues. Kia Hong holds a Master of Science (Marketing) from NTU where he was awarded the Dean's Honours List. His teaching accolades include 2022 Nanyang Education Award (College), 2021 and 2018 NBS Master of Science (Accountancy) Teacher of the Year Awards, 2019 Nanyang Education Award (School), 2015 NBS Accountancy Teacher of the Year and 2015 NBS Teaching Excellence Award for Accounting Division. Kia Hong was previously an audit partner of a public accounting firm and had worked as chief executives of companies in Singapore and South Korea. His roles included formulating strategies to meet business objectives, enterprise risk management and leading the teams to ensure seamless operations of the businesses. During the same period, he taught in various public and private institutions in accounting, marketing and entrepreneurship on adjunct arrangements and proactively led the design and development of courses. Kia Hong is an avid researcher who has published in professional journals and contributed articles to local print media. Kia Hong’s services extend beyond NTU. Notably, he is a regular speaker in the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) major conferences and a trainer with ISCA’s and ACCA’s continuing professional educations. He also provides regular training, consultancy and research work to accounting firms and corporate organisations. Kia Hong is a co-examiner for Singapore Chartered Accountants Qualification Programme for the Business Value, Governance and Risk and Capstone - Integrative Business modules. He is a member of ISCA’s Membership Growth and Engagement Committee, ISCA’s Investigation and disciplinary panel and the legal profession Inquiry Panel appointed by the Honourable the Chief Justice. Kia Hong was previously a member of ISCA’s Auditing and Assurance Standards Committee, ISCA’s data analytics sub-committee, ISCA’s judging panel for the prestigious Annual Report Award under the Singapore Corporate Awards and had worked with ISCA on ACRA’s Practice Monitoring Programme. Kia Hong is currently the Chairman of Bukit Merah Secondary School Advisory Committee and the Chairman of Nan Hua Primary School Parent Support Group. He was awarded the Service to Education Awards by the Ministry of Education in 2021, 2011 and 2006. He is also a member of Mensa Singapore.

Mr Niels de Boer Chief Operating Officer and Senior Programme Director Future Mobility Solutions (AVs & CETRAN) Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) Niels de Boer joined NTU as a Senior Scientist in the Energy Research Institute (ERI@N). He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of ERI@N, and also the Senior Programme Director of the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of Autonomous Vehicles – NTU (CETRAN). Prior to joining NTU, Niels has a long track record of delivering R&D projects in Industry. His experience includes work on automotive powertrain development in Delphi Singapore where he was responsible for software development and was also part of the global core team which developed processes to ensure software quality. Subsequently, he was responsible for automotive infotainment platform development and research in automotive infotainment systems in Siemens-VDO/Continental. After working in the automotive field, Niels moved to a more research-based environment where he was responsible as R&D Director for the development of electrical drivetrains for Vestas and later, for research on electrical systems such as the wind turbine drivetrain and the wind farm and grid connectivity. Prior to his current role, Niels was Technology Quality Manager at Lloyd’s Register where he was responsible for ensuring that the outputs of all research globally relating to Energy Technology meet business objectives. This included the development of certification requirements and certification assessment methodologies. Research Interests Niels’ current research interests are autonomous systems with a focus on autonomous vehicles, automotive electric drivetrains, high power converters and hardware-in-the-loop systems.