Global Speakers

Dr. Peter Looker is currently Head of the Teaching, Learning and Pedagogy Division at NTU and has been working in learning and teaching development since 2002, after being a lecturer and Associate Professor in English Literature for 16 years.  He has worked at the Australian National University, UNSW (Canberra and Sydney), UNSW Asia, University of Newcastle, and as a learning and teaching consultant at City University, Hong Kong. He has several awards related to learning and teaching development from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, and has been an active member of the Carnegie Association for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the US. His areas of expertise are in designing and running professional academic development programmes, development of learning and teaching policy, evaluation of teaching, and development of new learning spaces.

Dr. Abigail Barzilai serves as the Head of the Center for the Promotion of Learning and Teaching (CPLT) at Technion since 2005, and formerly as a lecturer at Technion’s Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. Throughout her career, Dr. Barzilai has been deeply involved in both local and national efforts to improve teaching and learning. Dr. Barzilai has wide experience in designing and conducting evidence-based professional academic development programs, in the evaluation and implementation of new educational technologies and in the assessment and evaluation of teaching and learning. Dr. Barzilai studied exclusively at Technion, where she was granted her M.Sc. degree from the Faculty of Medicine and her Ph.D  from the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology.

Following her vision, Dr. Barzilai led the way towards redesigning and reshaping the way the CPLT supports and promotes the Technion commitment, as a national leader, to excellence in teaching and learning. She has encouraged and supported pedagogical and technological innovations that foster student-centered interactive learning, and promoted the use of state-of-the-art instructional technologies, serving as a role model to other universities. She has promoted digital learning and Technion’s policy to make courses accessible and available to all. She is currently actively engaged in numerous teaching and learning projects throughout the campus, including the implementation of flipped classroom, the design of MOOCs  and the implementation of multimedia in education.

Rachel leads HP’s Talent Acquisition for APAC as well as 3D Print globally. In her role, she is responsible for leading a large geographically diverse team focused on finding top talent for HP. Rachel, in addition, drives many key strategic talent acquisition initiatives both across the region as well as globally. Rachel is a regular conference speaker and is recognized as a thought leader in Asia on talent acquisition.

Rachel is based in Singapore, she joined HP in late 2015 from Deloitte Consulting.  Prior to living in Singapore, she has previously lived and worked in Japan, Hong Kong, China and the US. Rachel has a degree in Law and spent a year in China studying Mandarin at Fudan University.

Sanjeev is an experienced general management professional, with 18+ years of experience in Sales, Entrepreneurship, Operations, Product management, Relationship management and a wide gamut of people practices ( Talent acquisition, Business HR, HR Shared services, Tools & Technology, Employment branding etc) – with exposure at multicultural, global organizations, across India, Europe and Asia.

He has been with Google for the last 7.5 years wherein initially he set up their APAC Staffing services, then went on to work on an external product as a Product/Program Manager & for the last 2.5 years is leading their campus hiring across APAC along with driving many strategic recruitment initiatives.

Rahmah Ahmad Osman is a Professor of Arabic Literature. She is a RABSQA- SIRIM Certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001: 2008, SIRIM Certified Internal Auditor for the Syari’ah-Based QMS MS 1900:2014 and MS2300:2009 and was the Deputy Director at the Office of Institutional Academic Quality Management from 1st February until 31st July 2016.  Later she was appointed as the Dean of the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Human Sciences from 1st August 2016 until 31st July 2017. On 1st August 2017 Rahmah Ahmad Osman was made the Deputy Rector (Research & Innovation), IIUM.  She is also a member of IIUM Islamisation and Integration Think-Tank.

Rahmah Ahmad is the author and editor of nine books in the areas of Comparative Literature, Arabic Poetry and Islamic Literature and has numerous articles and book chapters to her credit. Rahmah’s articles have been reviewed in leading refereed journals around the world, including American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal (U.S.A.), Journal of Al-Ustadz (Iraq), Journal of Al-Quds Open University for Research and Studies (Palestine), Journal of Faculty of Dar Al Uloom (Egypt), Journal of Al Lisan Al ‘Arabi (Morocco), Journal of Dirasat Daawiya (Sudan), Journal of Al-Shajarah (Malaysia), Journal of UNISSA (Brunei) and Journal of Islamic Studies (Indonesia).

Rahmah Ahmad has received many awards and recognitions over the years, such as Outstanding Academic Scholar Award from Madrasah Al Attas, Johor Bahru (2011), Outstanding Researcher Award- Islamic Knowledge, IIUM Quality Day (2012), Gold Medal for her Research entitled, “A New Method for Teaching Classical Arabic Poetry to Non-Native Speakers”, in the International Conference and Exhibition on Research in Islamic and Arabic Language Education (ICERIALE2011) and the Premier Literature Award 2000/ 2001, by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (2002).

Rahmah Ahmad has been a reviewer for a number of refereed journals around the world, including Athens Journal of Philology, American Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Al-Idah, Peshwar University, Pakistan, International Journal of The Humanities, KEMANUSIAAN, GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies and Journal of Malay Literature.

Mr. Brajesh Panth is the Chief of Education Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He provides technical leadership to the education sector group (ESG) in ADB, leads the preparation of the ESG work plan and facilitates collaboration across sector and technical groups in ADB and with external partners. He has over 25 years of experience in the education sector including sector assessment, project processing, implementation, evaluation, and policy dialogue, covering all levels—primary, secondary, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and higher education. He holds a doctorate in education administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University and a Master in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire, USA. Besides coordinating and contributing to several publications, Mr. Panth has made several presentations in different fora and contributed to policy analysis, policy dialogue and analytical work pertaining to different aspects of education reform.

Mr. Sunkad began his career in 1996 at Clarus AB Gothenburg, Sweden as project co-coordinator for developing the Asian markets. He was responsible for the development and coordination of channel partners in Asia. The responsibility led to developing an innovative & flexible out-sourcing product development model with software companies based in Bangalore India, also known as Indian Silicon valley.

In 1999, Mr. Sunkad joined EON Reality as a founding team member in Irvine, California. From 2003 till 2007, was based in Chicago, USA driving the Midwest accounts along with managing the channels growth for Asian markets.

Since 2008, Mr. Sunkad is based in Singapore managing the subsidiary operations. Over the last 9 years, EON has been recognised as a key stake holder in developing the Interactive Digital Media IDM ecosystem in Singapore and the region. Regional growth includes India, China, Japan and South Korean markets. Mr. Sunkad is currently heading EON Reality’s Asian expansion and is responsible for overseeing EON’s APAC markets along with R & D charter from EON Singapore regional HQ Office.

In 2017, Mr. Sunkad led the EON Singapore operations to the TOP 10 Best Tech Companies to work for, who uphold exemplary qualities of enviable corporate culture, robust talent development framework and innovation excellence. This effort was also featured in Forbes magazine under the title “Tech Leaders Run Their Companies Differently, And Their Teams Are 40% More Productive As A Result – Forbes”. During August 2017, EON REALITY was recognised as a company with outstanding contributions to Education & Training segment.

Mr. Sunkad obtained his Masters at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg Sweden. He also has a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from BMS College, India.

Jiin Joo co-founded Garuda Robotics in 2014, a leading cloud robotics startup aimed at developing end-to-end drone data solutions for businesses in South East Asia.

Jiin Joo comes from a diverse background consisting of 16 years of software development, technology scouting, business development, government service and telecommunications. In his current role, he leads the software engineering, field computing, cloud operations, GIS and data analytics teams, and is responsible for private cloud implementations of their flagship software suite, Garuda Plex, to help large enterprises build a drone operations team, and extend the IT department’s capabilities to handle the demands of managing and analyzing drone data.

Ridwan is currently the Senior Director of AVR Solutions at EON Reality Pte Ltd, a 20-year market leader in the design, development and implementation of end-to-end Augmented and Virtual (AVR) solutions in the world. His key role is to articulate the affordances of EON Reality’s solution and help enhance any institution and organisation goals, especially in the areas of transformative capability development and educational approaches. Ridwan also works with organisations to design strategies that will help these organisations and institutions respond to the 4th Industrial Revolution by equipping both students and knowledge workers, the ability to acquire the Digital Skills via the integrated use of AVR, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IOT. Just recently, Ridwan garnered a prestigious award from the World HRD Congress as one of ‘Asia’s Top Training and Development Leaders’ in the areas of Digital Learning, Learning Design and Training and Development.

With more than 20 years in the education, training and the learning technology industry, Ridwan is both an educator and learning/educational technologist at heart. Recently, Ridwan was the Vice President of the Advanced Global Institute of Learning Excellence (AGILE) at the Taylors Education Group (TEG) which comprises of more than 13 different educational institutions (K12 to University) in Malaysia and Singapore. Before that, Ridwan was Deputy Director and Head of the Learning Solutions and Applications Division at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, one of the top global universities.

In AGILE, besides heading the Institute and its slew of more than 80 professional development programmes annually for educators and professionals Malaysia and Asia, Ridwan also spearheaded various strategic initiatives in areas of pedagogy, teaching competencies and learning technology innovations. These innovations focused on disruptive learning and training technologies such as learning analytics, augmented reality, online and blended learning, collaborative and wireless next-generation learning spaces. In NTU, he led the design and development of more than a 100 different online and blended learning courses, totalling more than 1000 hours of learning content, that included leveraging on immersive technologies such as virtual reality. In addition, he led a number of different strategic learning technology/innovation initiatives to enhance learning and teaching in the University. These initiatives were both sustainable and scalable, resulting in effective and campus-wide adoption of various technologies such as the learner response systems in NTU.

Ridwan has been invited to share in many International Conferences and events that focuses on educational and learning transformations, especially in the areas of Learning Design and Technology, Analytics and Learning Space design. He has also shared in many technology transformation round tables and panel sessions to elucidate on future trends in the industry. He has also taught for more than 11 years at the tertiary and secondary level, in addition to more than 10 years of delivering and designing effective professional development and training programmes for professionals. He appreciates and understand the pedagogical, technological and logistical challenges to engage and motivate the learners and knowledge workers of today. His balanced experience as both a client and also as a technology vendor, allow him to design strategies and approaches that are coherent and practical, but also ensuring maximum outcomes for his clients.

Dr. Nachamma is the founding (Assistant) Director of Learning Sciences Lab at SUTD. She is a passionate educator and believes in technology-enhanced, active learning teaching methods that empower learners to achieve their true potential. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Erasmus University, The Netherlands and Masters in Microbiology from National University of Singapore. She has over 17 years of working experience with 5 higher education institutions, including SUTD, SMU, UniSIM, Republic Polytechnic and NUS in Singapore, and USP in Brazil. She has been an international consultant with UNESCO Bangkok  and USP Brazil on project-based learning and an expert with NMC- Horizon report on Technology for Higher Education. She is in the Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and learning, and is a co-Lead of the Special Interest group “Publishing SOTL” with the Asia SOTL community.  She is actively engaged in various teaching and learning projects at SUTD and has won 4 international awards for her contributions to Higher Education.

Dr. Marius Erdt is Deputy Director of Fraunhofer Singapore / Fraunhofer IDM@NTU where he is also Head of Visual and Medical Computing. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. From 2012-2013, he was Head of Medical Computing at Fraunhofer IDM@NTU. From 2007-2012, he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Germany in the cognitive computing and medical imaging department as a post-doc and research associate. In 2007, he was affiliated with Siemens Medical Solutions as part of his studies. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the Technische Universität Darmstadt with summa cum laude and graduated with distinction from University of Koblenz-Landau with the German degree of Diplom-Informatiker (eq. MSc Computer Science).

His research interests include Visual and Medical Computing, in particular, statistical shape modeling and machine learning based approaches, as well as Virtual and Augmented Reality. He has led various research projects in the field of Visual and Medical computing and has strong experience in managing R&D projects together with the industry to apply latest research results in real-world applications.

Dr. Marks teaches two courses at The University of Sydney in Environmental Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering. To support innovative teaching, he was influential in using the latest Virtual Reality technologies and helped start the Immersive Learning Laboratory.

Dr. Marks conducts research into geotechnical engineering, bulk material handling and powder technologies. He is involved in developing new X-ray based techniques for investigating the interior of landslides, and creating new mathematical and computational tools for understanding their behaviour.

Mr. Paul Gagnon is the Founding Director of E-Learning & IT Systems and Services at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. He is a pioneer in the design, development, and deployment of integrated E-Learning Systems to support both a fully online and blended learning pedagogy.

Dr. Michael leads the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning and Teaching portfolio that is focused on driving curriculum transformation, learning, teaching and assessment at Taylor’s University. He also leads the Integrated Teaching and Life-long Learning Centre at Taylor’s (INTELLECT) that is focused on the provision holistic teaching and learning experiences for staff and students. INTELLECT has four departments: Teaching and Educational Development (TED), Student Development (SD), Student Success Centre (SSC) and eLearning Academy (eLA).

INTELLECT is committed to supporting the University, Faculties, Schools, and individual academic staff in transforming teaching and learning. It undertakes curriculum transformation, transformational learning and teaching through blended learning and learning-oriented assessment. Student development focuses on providing a holistic and broad-based student curriculum through its SHINE and Life Skills Program.

Before commencing at Taylor’s University, Michael was Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning Transformations at Swinburne University; Executive Director, Australian Digital Futures Institute at University of Southern Queensland and Professor of Higher Education and Director, The Flexible Learning Institute at Charles Sturt University. Prior to this, he has a long professional history in higher education in Australia, Canada and Hong Kong and has worked at seven different universities. His expertise centers on curriculum design, innovative learning design of blended and online learning environments, educational technology, global partnerships and authentic assessment for large-scale transformations. His research and practice focuses on personalised learning, learning design, digital futures, learning spaces, blended learning, authentic assessment and leadership using design-based research. He was the first Australian to be elected to the Board of the Open Education Consortium and is a Life Member of ASCILITE.

Dr. Yan Ding is Associate Professor of the Research Institute for Higher Education and serves as the Vice Director of the Center for Faculty Development (CFD), Fudan University. Her research interests include Teaching & Learning, Internationalization, Assessment and Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Recently,  she has worked with Quality Matters, a US online education assurance organization, to develop a China-based Higher Education Online Course Quality Standards. She has authored and translated four books, and published more than thirty papers in various referred journals.

As the core member of the CFD, she is committed to improving teaching quality through promoting scholarship of teaching and learning at Fudan University. Under her efforts, the CFD has received various rewards at municipal, national, and even international levels for its excellence in the faculty development field. In 2017, it won the Shanghai Municipal Teaching Achievement Prize and the US Distance Learning Association’s Global Impact Award. The CFD has become one of the most influential units in the area of faculty development in China.

Dr. Chip Kimball serves as superintendent of Singapore American School, the largest single-campus international school in the world serving nearly 4,000 students. Singapore American School (SAS) has a worldwide reputation for excellence, high student achievement, and innovation. Since his arrival, Dr. Kimball has led SAS through a process of continuous improvement of the already high-performing school. This “R&D” process is resulting in more project-based learning, interdisciplinary courses, curriculum supporting 21st century learning outcomes, personalized learning, language immersion programs, advisory, and new advanced topics course offerings. Under Dr. Kimball’s leadership, professional learning communities have become central to the school’s work, resulting in recognition as one of the only model PLC schools outside of the US.

Dr. Kimball joined SAS after 16 years in the Lake Washington school district (WA) where he served as chief technology officer, assistant superintendent, and deputy superintendent before becoming superintendent in 2007. His work in Lake Washington resulted in multiple awards and recognition as one of the most innovative school districts in the United States. In 2010, Dr. Kimball was awarded a national award for technology leadership and was also awarded Superintendent of the Year by the Washington Library Media Association. Prior to Lake Washington, he worked for the California Center for School Restructuring, providing leadership to 144 schools in 101 districts implementing education reform.

Dr. Kimball holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Whitworth University, a master’s degree in science education from Eastern Washington University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from University of Southern California.

Dr. Allan H.K. Yuen is Associate Professor in Information and Technology Studies, Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, where he served as Division Head of Information and Technology Studies, Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching), and Director of the Centre for Information Technology in Education. His research has dealt with education and technology in an interdisciplinary approach at different levels from early childhood to tertiary, focusing on the following areas: evaluation of educational technology, educational innovation and change, technology acceptance and integration, and digital equity in education. He has led more than 50 research and development projects in such areas, which have been funded by the University Grants Committee (Hong Kong), Research Grants Council, Quality Education Fund, UNESCO, government agencies, NGOs, and business organizations. Dr. Yuen is the editor of the Journal of Communication and Education, co-editor of the Springer-AECT book series Educational Communications and Technologies: Issues and Innovations, and section editor of Open Information Science. He has published more than 120 journal articles, book chapters, and books including the recent co-authored book Educational Technology Program and Project Evaluation (2016; Routledge). He has served as vice chairman of the Hong Kong Educational Research Association (HKERA), and president of the Hong Kong Association for Educational Communications and Technology (HKAECT).

A futuristic storyteller, techno-philosopher and life explorer, Ender has always been exploring how to create unique storytelling experiences via cutting-edge technologies. During his career in the creative industry in the past 10 years, Ender has made numerous short films about urban lifestyle, social challenges, and concepts of future cities.

Ender has also been exposed to various technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Holographic, mapping projection, and the likes. Along the way, he has developed his philosophy behind each technical solution, so as to create meaningful interactions through his professional work and personal experimental projects.

Since 2014, Ender has been working on Hiverlab, a local start-up founded by himself which focuses on virtual reality storytelling experiences. As a pioneer VR content production team in Southeast Asia, Hiverlab has produced a series of VR stories, firmed up partnerships with Letv and Samsung, and is now aiming at continuously upgrading their technologies to create better futuristic storytelling experiences.

Professor Thalmann joined NTU in August 2009 as the Director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Media Innovation. She has authored dozens of books, published more than 600 papers on virtual humans/virtual worlds and social robots (jointly with her PhD students), organised major conferences as CGI, CASA, and delivered more than 300 keynote addresses, some of them at global events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In NTU, Singapore, she revolutionized social robotics by unveiling the first social robot –  Nadine that can have mood and emotions as well as remember people and actions. She also has been working since the early nineties to simulate interactive Virtual Reality worlds with several applications in cultural heritage and in gaming.

Besides having Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in disciplines such as psychology, biology, chemistry and computer science, Professor Thalmann completed her PhD in quantum physics at the University of Geneva. She has received honorary doctorates from Leibniz University of Hannover and the University of Ottawa in Canada and several other prestigious awards such as the Humboldt Research Award in Germany.

May Lit is the Associate Director of Integrated IT Services Department in Singapore Management University. She takes care of the Learning Systems and Technologies Division that aims to supply relevant IT solutions and services to Teaching and Learning areas. In the last 13 years, she has managed 3 generations of Learning Management Systems in the university and completed many customized solutions on multiple platforms. She has developed and managed IT projects for Government Offices, Healthcare and Educational Institutions. Her latest implementation include learning analytics & adaptive learning solutions, interactive video platform and security solutions for learning systems.

Mary George Cheriyan graduated from the National University of Singapore with Bachelor of Arts (Honours) on a teaching scholarship from the Public Service Commission. She acquired a Diploma-in-Education from the National Institute of Education and later, acquired Master in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on a scholarship from Raffles Girls’ Secondary School (RGS).

Mary was a teacher and Head of Department of the Gifted Education (GE) Programme in RGS. When she was later appointed Director of Academic Studies, she harnessed her experience to facilitate school-wide implementation of the GE curriculum. She spearheaded innovations such as Curriculum Mapping, Performance Task and use of the Understanding by Design framework.

Currently, Mary is a Deputy Principal, leading the RGS Pedagogical Research and Learning Centre and Community Engagement portfolios. She aims to engender informed practice through a school-based research ecosystem that strengthens theory-practice nexus. She steers Professional Development through a job-embedded, collaborative culture of learning.

Mary actively participates in the educational fraternity, locally and overseas. By setting up platforms like the annual Open Classroom, biannual Reflective Practitioner Symposium and Good Practice Day, she engenders professional sharing within the fraternity. She presents and publishes papers and offers Consultancy in areas related to curriculum, research and learning. Mary also steers partnerships with external stakeholders, cultivating and sustaining vital alliances.

Mary received the National Day Efficiency Medal (2006), Long Service Award (2012) and Commendation Award (2015). In 2017, she received the Education Leadership Award from the World Education Congress. She is a certified trainer in Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe; Clayton), Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction (Erickson) and Developing Performance Assessment (Alberta Assessment Consortium). She is also trained in Critical Thinking and Differentiated Curriculum for the Gifted.

Believing that it was her calling, Bee Ngah joined Metta School as a teacher in 2004 and is an integral member of the school’s steering committee today. Metta School offers special education for students aged from 7 to 21, with mild intellectual disability (IQ levels ranging from 50 – 70) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After spending a substantial amount of time working with students with ASD, she led a project in 2016 focusing on using virtual reality (VR) to equip students with ASD with the essential skills to travel independently.

Currently a Head of Department for Employment Pathway Programme and Transition Planning, Bee Ngah continues to believe that the benefits of using VR as an engagement tool does indeed complement teaching and learning for her students. She is currently exploring how VR can accentuate exposure for her students in healthcare services.

Bee Ngah graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Management) with First Class Honours in 1998 from Singapore Institute of Management, and was the proud recipient of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) Gold Award for her cohorts University of London full-time Bachelor of Science (Management) programme.

Prior to teaching, Bee Ngah spent 5 years with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) where she honed her skills in Staff Training, Corporate Services and Risk Management, all before finding her niche in helping children with special needs.

Mdm So Kah Lay is currently the Principal of Metta School. Metta School offers special education for students aged 7 and 21, with mild intellectual disability (IQ level: 70 – 50) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Mdm So was the HOD for ICT from 1999 – 2006 at River Valley High School and its Vice Principal from 2007 – 2010. She has led teams in a number of ICT initiatives, including using Virtual Reality for the learning of Science in the School in the year 2007.

Mdm So graduated with Bachelor of Science from NUS in 1993 and obtained Postgraduate Diploma in Education in 1994. She pursued Master of Arts – Instructional Design & Technology from NTU, NIE in 2005.

Dr. Lui Yoshida is an educational developer and a Project Assistant Professor of the Division for Active Learning and Teaching at Komaba Organization for Educational Excellence (KOMEX) at The University of Tokyo (UTokyo). Before joining KOMEX, he researched in Biomedical engineering and got his PhD in Science at UTokyo. He has previously worked on a graduate student professional development program called “UTokyo Future Faculty Program” at the Center for Research and Development for Higher Education at UTokyo. Currently, he is engaged in promoting effective active learning on the campus and holds educational development workshops and class consultation service at UTokyo. In addition to the work at UTokyo, as part of his research, he has developed an online collaborative learning system called “LearnWiz” to provide wide opportunities for faculty members to improve their teaching skills.

Dr. Kayoko Kurita is an Associate Professor at Center of Research and Development in Higher Education, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo). She is a board member of the Japan Association of Educational Development (JAED), a delegate of Japan Association for College and University Education. She has devoted much of her professional career to research in the quality assurance of higher education and to engage in developing and implementing a variety of programs for Educational Development and Graduate Students for Professional Development (GSPD) such as workshops for creating Teaching Portfolios. She has been in charge of “UTokyo Future Faculty Program” for graduate students and faculty, which has earned good reputation as a GSPD program in Japan. Additionally, she provided a MOOC titled “Interactive Teaching” for all educators. Currently, she is pursuing a sustainable learning community for online or face to face course settings.

Dr. Supavadee Aramvith received the B.Sc. (first class honors) degree in Computer Science from Mahidol University in 1993. She received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, in 1996 and 2001, respectively. She joined Chulalongkorn University in June 2001.

Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Head of Digital Signal Processing Laboratory at the Department of Electrical Engineering. Her specialization is in Video Technology research. She has successfully advised 6 Ph.D., 26 Master’s, and 32 Bachelor’s Graduates. She published over 120 papers in International Conference Proceedings and Journals with 4 International Book Chapters. She has rich project management experiences as the project leader and former technical committee chair to the NBTC and the formerly MICT of Thailand. In addition, she is very active in the international arena with leadership positions in the international network such as JICA Project for AUN/SEED-Net, and professional organizations such as IEEE, IEICE, APSIPA, and ITU.

She is currently a member in the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) and Chair of the IEEE EAB Pre-University Education Coordination Committee. She formerly led Educational Activities and Women in Engineering for IEEE Asia Pacific (Region 10) from 2011-2016. She is also an expert on the impact study for ITU ICT4SDG and is one of the authors of the ITU book, “ICT-centric economic growth, innovation, and job creation.”  She has won several awards including the most recent 2017 Sak Intania Award from the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University in June 2017.

Dr Zahiruddin Fitri Abu Hassan is a lecturer in Building Surveying at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. His expertise and research is in building pathology, concrete durability and construction technology. An avid eLearning advocate, he loves tinkering with computers and exploring new software and Web 2.0 tools for education. His passion has led the University to appoint him as the Head of e-Learning at the Academic Enhancement & Leadership Development Centre (ADeC).

Hock Soon’s professional background crosses both the education and engineering disciplines. He has a Doctorate in Education from Durham University, a Masters in Engineering in Computer Integrated Manufacturing from Nanyang Technological University and a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Electronics & Manufacturing from Loughborough University. He is currently Head of the Interactive Digital Centre ASIA in Temasek Polytechnic (TP). He is also an associate at the Learning Academy in TP, contributing to the professional development of academic staff in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). He was conferred the Education Innovation Award twice in TP, once for introducing simulation-based learning and more recently a mentorship program for developing staff competence and confidence in using ICT for teaching and learning. Hock Soon has served in the Ministry of Education’s EduLAB Evaluation Committee and was a member of the IDMPO’s Interactive Jump-Start and Mentor (iJAM) Programme’s Expert Panel. He was also a past Chair of the Education Working Group in the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Consortium.

Hock Soon has successfully completed industry and research projects in the areas of computer games, process visualisation, computer simulations, AR/VR and education. In addition, he has provided consultancy services to DSTA, Singapore Police Force’s CSSP and SIA Engineering Company. He has also received research grants from APEC TEL, NRF, MOE, IDA, MDA, Singapore Toteboard and the NSTB in the past. Hock Soon’s current interest is in AR/VR and learning.

During his 14 years working with Microsoft, Lawrence has engaged with government, startups, and enterprises to leverage the transformational opportunities presented by emerging technologies, with a particular emphasis on how they are changing the way people work, play & interact. Currently, Lawrence is the Microsoft Mixed Reality Solutions and Partner Lead for Asia and has given talks globally on what Mixed Reality is, why it is different from AR and VR, and the developing operational use cases being driven by this next wave of computing.

Anshul is responsible for managing Intel’s education & innovation programs for democratizing innovations & tech skills among next generation in partnership with governments, academia, developmental agencies, media, think tanks & global opinion leaders. He also oversees Intel Foundation’s STEM programs across Asia. He has 23 years of worldwide business leadership experience in education technology & innovation for sustainable inclusive development. He travels globally for speaking & advising on topics like reinventing learning, education & STEM transformation models, youth empowerment & employability, skills & jobs for future, future of work, inclusion & open innovation ecosystem development, and corporate citizenships.

He is a regular speaker in global forums like the UNDP Youth Summit, ADB International Skills Forum, Korea Science & Creativity Festival, Maker Faire, etc. He has been a key driver of leading global innovation & education platforms like Asia Ministerial Forum for ICT in Education (AMFIE) with UNESCO and the Global Symposium for ICT in Education with Korea Government & World Bank. He is an observer member of “Innovation & Competitiveness” taskforce for United Nation’s ESCAP (Economic & Social Commission for Asia Pacific) and a regular contributor in multilateral journals like Sang Saeng by UNESCO APCEIU. In 2016, he was selected to be in the grand jury of the World Summit Award WSA Social Innovation Congress, Singapore. In 2015, he was a key UNESCO committee member for Kuala Lumpur declaration for Skills & Employability. He sits in various education innovation committees and task forces of governments in Asian countries.

He holds a certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management on “Artificial Intelligence – Implications for Business Strategy” and he is a Post Graduate in Management from IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand) in India. He is currently based in Singapore.

Arun Pereira is Professor of Practice at the Asia School of Business and an International Faculty Fellow at MIT-Sloan. Previously he was External Faculty at McKinsey & Co, as well as Clinical Faculty at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, India and Executive Director of ISB’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Case Development. He is also Emeritus Faculty, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, where he spent 18 years in various faculty positions. Further, he is AACSB’s Global Facilitator for Assurance of Learning since 2012, and teaches in the International Teachers Programme (at London Business School, forthcoming in 2019 and 2020; and previously in IAE-Aix Marseille, France in 2017 and 2018, and in CEIBS, Shanghai and Beijing in 2015 and 2016).

Professor Pereira has over 30 years teaching and consulting experience in the US, Europe, and Asia. He has won multiple teaching awards in Executive MBA, and MBA programs including being voted the Outstanding Professor (twice) by executives of the Executive MBA program at the Boeing Institute of International Business, St. Louis University, USA and voted ISB’s Professor of the Year (twice) by the MBA students at ISB, India. His research in the area of marketing has appeared in various journals including Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Management Science (OMEGA), International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Industrial Marketing Management, and Journal of Business Ethics; his research in teaching and learning has appeared in various journals including the Learning Organization and International Journal of Training and Development.