Alumni Spotlight

Click to find out more about each of the alumni below!​​

Mr. Chia Weng Boon

Chartered Engineer (CEng MICE), working predominantly in underground MRT projects

After graduating in 2009 from NTU with the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and a few other awards, Dr. Boon pursued his doctorate at the University of Oxford, and completed his thesis in 2013. Boon was awarded the Rocha Medal in 2016 by the International Society of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) for his doctoral thesis and was inducted as a Future Leader Member of the American Rock Mechanics Association in 2017 at San Francisco. Boon’s algorithms have been widely adopted, for example in the following codes maintained by various research groups in Europe and the United States:

He is a member of Technical Committee (TC 103) for Numerical Methods in Geomechanics in the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).

He is presently working with Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd, and seconded to the design-and-build contractor, a joint venture, MMC-Gamuda KVMRT (T) Sdn Bhd, at which he contributes to the construction of underground tunnels and stations in the 1st and 2nd Line of the underground mass rapid transit project in Kuala Lumpur. He is a committee member of the Geotechnical Engineering Technical Division and Tunnelling Underground Space Technical Division of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). He was awarded the Tan Sri Zainal Prize from the Institution of Engineers Malaysia in 2019 for his paper on building impact assessments due to underground tunnelling.

Outside of work, he is a keen educator, and developed a cloud-based educational program for Building Assessment using Tensile Strains (B.A.T.S.) due to tunnelling.

http://basicbuildingimpact.ap-southeast-1.elasticbeanstalk.com/

He had given invited talks in Bangkok (Thailand), Barcelona (Spain), Cappadocia (Turkey), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Seoul (Korea), and Singapore.

Dr. Chian Siau Chen, Darren

Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore

Dr. Darren Chian is a proud alumnus of NTU CEE, where he developed his immense passion in Civil Engineering. NTU was the springboard where he was able to pursue his dreams in contributing to underprivileged communities affected by natural disasters and urban sustainable recovery of resources.

After completing his B.Eng. (1st Class) with a Singapore Contractors Association Gold Medal and few years of working in the industry, Dr. Chian did a Ph.D. at Cambridge University and thereafter worked on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami aftermath at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is now an Associate Professor at NUS, specializing in the field of earthquake engineering and resource recovery in construction.

Dr. Chian is also the Operations Manager of the Centre for Protective Technology at NUS, an IRDR Young Scientist under the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and Secretary of the ISSMGE Technical Committee on Land Reclamation. He was named Asia’s Top 10 Innovators under 35 years (TR35) by the MIT Technology Review in 2016. In Singapore, Dr. Chian was presented the Promising Young Geotechnical Engineer Award by GeoSS in 2018.

Continuing to uphold the spirit of nurturing future civil engineers as he had received during his undergraduate years in NTU, he has promoted best learning practices and pedagogies in his classes at NUS and received the Annual Teaching Excellence Award at university level in the past consecutive three years and named in the Honours Roll this year.​​​​​​​

Ms. Michelle Lew

Director of Kiso-Jiban Singapore

Michelle Lew is a director of Kiso-Jiban Singapore. She graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2002 and has been involved in major underground infrastructure projects. She is a registered PE in Civil engineering and a specialized PE in Geotechnical engineering. She is the Professional Engineer (Geotechnical) for the Marina Bay Station along the Thomson East-Coast Line where underpinning and ground freezing is employed to construct this third inter-charge station.

She is also involved in the construction of CCL, DTL, MCE, and many deep basement excavations for building works. She has been very active in serving the engineering societies such as ACES & GeoSS and sharing her experience in the form of technical journals. She is also a part-time tutor in NUS in the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and a guest speaker in SIT.

Besides work, she believes in the importance of good health and wellbeing and enjoys doing various sports.

 

Er. Vince Goh Chee Siong

Managing Director, SE-Asia at COWI

Inspired by his father since young, Vince Goh pursued Civil Engineering in NTU. Now, he is a professional engineer and the CEO/MD of COWI Singapore where he is responsible for the business in the region. He led a team of professionals to deliver engineering projects around Asia.

He has vast experiences in management and supervision of major projects such as Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, Singapore Island Country Club New Island clubhouse and various MRT projects. He has extensive knowledge in the design of civil and structural works, notably MRT stations, underground structures and buildings including value engineering, alternative design and sustainability. He was also involved as the lead engineer based in UK, London doing feasibility study of Cross Rail and designing Delhi metro which was the first metro system in New Delhi.

Vince is the Chairman for Chartered Engineer (EPM) and Project Management Monitoring Committee (PMMC) in IES. He is recognized as one of the key personnel in implementing an industry-based registry for registration of Project Engineers and Project Managers. Besides being a founding member, he had conducted lecture in Temasek Polytechnic as an industry player to share his experiences.

Outside of work, Vince is an outdoor person who love basketball, bowling and motor sport.​

 

Mr. James Lam Pei Wei

Senior Director (Coastal Engineering)

Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd

James graduated in the class of 1998 and had been involved in various infrastructure projects with a focus on coastal and reclamation projects. He is currently working in Surbana Jurong and is responsible for the Coastal Engineering Business Unit.

Amongst other coastal development projects, he is managing the ongoing large-scale port development projects at Tuas and many other significant coastal projects in Singapore and the region.

He believes the future of civil engineering lies in creating climate resilient and environmentally sustainable development with smart technologies. He hopes a new generation of technically savvy and environmentally conscience Engineers will join the industry and inspire new ideas and solutions.​​​​​​​​​

Mr. Benedict Andrew Lim

Adjunct Professor, SUSS, SMU
M&A Advisor

Mr Benedict Lim is a grateful alumnus of CEE who has achieved recognitions in a plethora of diverse industries. Referring to the key highlights of his career, Mr Lim is thankful to NTU and the School for preparing and providing him with the necessary toolkit and attitude to map a path of professional journey filled with many challenges and successes. His incredible journey demonstrates clearly that the width and depth of the school’s curriculum do not just empower someone to be a good engineering professional but also to take leadership roles across industries even in the face of competition from professionals trained directly in those fields.

Mr Benedict Lim is currently an independent M&A advisor with international senior management and board level work exposure in US, Japanese, European multinational/global/sovereign companies, fund management and SGX listed real estate investment trust. He has been advising companies/family offices on their investment strategies. He is also currently an adjunct professor with SUSS for almost 15 years and in SMU for 2 years and has been receiving very good feedback from students.

​​​​​​​​​Mr Lim holds an MBA degree as well as a Masters of Science in Real Estate, and he has previously helmed many top positions in leading organisations – such as Partner & Managing Director of EY Corporate Finance Pte Ltd (ASEAN Real Estate M&A Leader), Independent Board Director and Chairman of Risk & Audit Committees of Soilbuild Business Space REIT, Technical Advisor to EY Solutions LLP, Head of Investments (Director) of Global Capital & Development and Fund Director and Head of Asset Management for ING Real Estate.

​​​​​​​​Beyond his career achievements, Mr Lim is keen to contribute back to society and he led the logistics planning and execution for a mission of over 200 volunteers to Cambodia to provide support, resources and education to under-privileged children and families in 5 villages.​

​​​​​​​​​Benedict has successfully practiced as a civil and structural engineer before becoming a management consultant, followed by successful stints in asset management and investment management, fund management, corporate real estate, sovereign fund investment management and leading a regional practice in M&A activities before now focusing on providing insightful advisory guidance and adjunct professorship in a range of subject matter expertise. This demonstrates that CEE prepares one not just for a professional pursuit of excellence in engineering but across diverse fields as well.