Research and development

We welcome prospective research students, scientists, and industrial practitioners to partner with us for the future of science and technology.

Research focus

Future energy

Future energy engineering focuses on sustainable, low-carbon power systems that integrate renewable sources, advanced storage, smart grids, and electrification. Engineers develop efficient technologies, optimize energy use, and design resilient infrastructures, leveraging data, AI, and materials innovation to decarbonize industries, reduce emissions, and ensure reliable, affordable energy for growing global demand.

Bioprocessing

Bioprocessing engineering focuses on using living cells and biological systems to produce valuable products such as pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and sustainable materials. It integrates biotechnology, process design, and automation to develop efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly production methods that support healthcare, industry, and the transition toward a bio-based, circular economy.

Intelligent and sustainable technologies

Intelligent and sustainable technologies integrate AI, data analytics, and advanced engineering to create efficient, adaptive, and environmentally responsible systems. These solutions optimize resource use, reduce waste and emissions, and enhance performance across industries, supporting smart cities, renewable energy, and sustainable development for a resilient, low-impact future.

Key researchers

Level 1 supervisors are experienced researchers qualified to act as main supervisors, leading the supervision of both PhD and MPhil students. Level 2 supervisors may serve as co-supervisors for PhD and main supervisor for MPhil students, contributing specialist knowledge and collaborative support to enrich the candidate’s research journey.

Chemical and energy engineering

Prof Stephanie Chan Yen San
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Nanomaterial synthesis, bioenergy, biotechnology, chemical engineering

Assoc Prof Chua Han Bing
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Development of compartmented fluidized Bed Gasifier (CFBG) for syngas production from biomass, Syngas cleaning technology, anaerobic digester for biogas production from POME and Palm wastes, Fungal and bacterial consortium for composting of EFB from oil palm and technologies in chemical micromachining of advanced ceramics

Assoc Prof Edwin Jong
Research area: Particulates reinforced titanium matrix composites

Assoc Prof Perumal Kumar
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Carbon capture, chemical engineering, fluid structure interaction, fluids and thermal engineering, hydrodynamic cavitation, process intensification, supercritical heat transfer, transport phenomena

Assoc Prof Jobrun Nandong
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Process modelling, Optimization and control, extraction of natural plants, dividing-wall column design and control, renewable energy – hydrogen energy and biofuels, thermochemical cycle plant design and simulation, membrane reactor – water gas shift reaction, integrated wastewater-greenhouse gas capture, formulation of plant extracts, adsorption, control of physiology in fruit ripening process

Prof John Lau Sie Yon
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Biocatalysis and separation process, enzyme technology in various applications, separation using membrane technology, chiral separations using enzymatic membrance reactor, biomass conversion for industry applications, aptamer mediated biosensor for pathogen detection, nano-vehicles for targeted drug delivery

Assoc Prof Lau Shiew Wei
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Coagulation and floccation (bioflocculation), wastewater and sludge treatment, biomass utilisation, sustainable development

Assoc Prof Henry Foo Chee yew
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Nanoparticles and nanostructures, material characterization, mathematical modeling, computational fluid dynamics, molecular dynamics, first principles calculation, chemical reaction engineering

Assoc Prof Dr Tan Inn Shi
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Life cycle assessment modeling, fermentation and optimization, bioprocess engineering, process dynamics and control, hydrodynamic stability, chemical reaction engineering

Prof Bridgid Chin Lai Fui
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Gasification, pyrolysis, syngas cleaning technologies, green technology, biofuel production, kinetic modeling

Assoc Prof Wee Siaw Khur
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), hydrodynamics of multiphase flow, gas-solid fluidized bed gasification of biomass, renewable energy applications, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), microwave heating, enzymatic hydrogen production

Dr Jibrail Kansedo
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Renewable energy, biofuel, biodiesel productions (edible and non-edible sources), catalytic reactions (heterogeneous catalysts), reaction kinetics modeling; extraction and characterisation (plant oils, fatty acids profile, bioactive compounds)

Dr Angnes Tiong Ngieng Tze
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Circular economy, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), process heat transfer, process integration, waste valorization, hydrogen

Dr Evelyn Chiong Tung
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Water treatment, wastewater treatment, enzyme, nanomaterials, waste valorisation, separation and reaction

Dr Tan Yin Ling
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Resource conservation, process optimisation, process synthesis and design, carbon management, batch process modelling & optimisation, process synthesis & design

Dr Adrian Tiong Chiong Yuh
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Cellulosic nanomaterials, enhanced oil recovery, graphitic materials, renewable energy and biomass valorization, electrocatalyst

Dr Ili Khairunnisa Binti Shamsudin
Research areas: Pressure swing adsorption (PSA), gas separation technologies, hydrogen purification, CO₂ capture and separation, adsorbent material development, process optimization in gas purification

Dr Mustakimah binti Mohamed
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS), gas separation, biomass to biofuel and biochemical conversion

Mr Henry Elochukwu Okafor
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Flow assurrance: asphaltene, paraffin wax, emulsion, scales, well intervention and stimulation, drilling fluid/cement, CO₂sequestration, enhanced oil recovery

Ms Jenney Ngu Lim Song
Research areas: Wastewater treatment, polymer composite

Dr Ramanan Chidambaram Jayaraj
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Renewable energy, modelling and simulation, computational fluid dynamics, microcontrollers

Civil and construction engineering

Prof Dr Tuong-Thuy Vu
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Geospatial data science, disaster monitoring, urban remote sensing

Assoc Prof Wong Kwong Soon
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Ground treatment, constitutive modelling of soils, soil structure interactions, teaching and learning in geotechnical engineering

Prof Tang Fu Ee
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Constructed wetlands for septage treatment, environmental engineering, teaching and learning in engineering, student engagement, publications

Prof Tony Hadibarata
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Environmental engineering, bioremediation of toxic pollutants (POPs, PAHs, etc.), environmental chemistry, microbiology, water and wastewater treatment, industrial microbiology, enzyme

Dr Tina Ting Chui Huon
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Civil engineering, cold-formed steel, screw connection

Dr Lee Yeong Huei
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Structures (cold-formed steel design, connection design, structural analysis, finite element method, container house design, fire engineering, application development), concrete materials (lightweight concrete, machine learning algorithm), building engineering (outdoor thermal comfort evaluation, urban design based on thermal comfort, sustainable design with passive energy, indoor air quality), engineering education (MOOC development, engineering education on heutagogy learning)

Dr Tan Yee Yong
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Constructed wetland for septage treatment, reactive transport in porous medium, biological nitrogen removal of wastewater treatment, wastewater treatment process modelling, faecal sludge management

Dr Muhammad Noor Hazwan Bin Jusoh
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Water treatment, wastewater engineering, solid waste management, environmental management and sustainability, air and noise pollution

Dr Paran Anak Gani
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Environmental engineering, civil engineering (sustainable materials), phycoremediation and wastewater treatment, green technology and renewable energy, biomass and microalgae

Dr Haider Hamad Ghayeb
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Structures (structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, precast concrete systems, steel system, sustainable structural design, composite and hybrid structures, performance-based design and retrofitting), materials (innovative materials for construction, sustainable concrete and low carbon concrete, engineered cementitious composite (ECC), supersulfated cement), building engineering (construction engineering and project management, building information modeling (BIM)), deep learning and simulation (artificial intelligence (AI), finite element analysis (FEA))

Dr Yong Leong Kong
Research areas: Erosion and sediment yield control, hydrology and water resources

Dr Timothy Ting Zhi Hong
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Sustainable construction materials (self-compacting concrete, lightweight concrete, geopolymer), structural engineering (concrete, composite, connection), modelling and simulation (FEA, BIM, AI)

Dr Hamzh Alarifi
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Geotechnical risk mitigation in climate change, infrastructure resilience under climate change, numerical modeling of soil-structure interaction, fiber optic sensing in civil engineering applications, landslide early warning systems, sustainable geotechnical solutions, structural health monitoring

Dr Lai Wai Yan
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Machine learning, climate and hydrological studies, missing data statistics

Carrie Ho Lee Ing
Research areas: Urban stormwater runoff quality monitoring and modelling, regionalisation for low flow prediction in ungauged catchments

Ir Meheron Selowara Joo
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Road safety, highway and transportation engineering, pavement management system, geometric design, engineering education sustainable development

Electrical and computer engineering

Prof Garenth Lim King Hann
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Computer vision on various applications, intelligent transportation system, artificial intelligent neural network

Dr Wong Kiing Ing
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Wearable body sensor design, HV insulation materials and measurements, design and development of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive

Assoc Prof Wong Wei Kitt
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Programming/algorithms

Prof Dr Raymond Chiong Choo Wee
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: MIMO channel estimation, blind source separation, communication engineering, MIMO wireless networks, signal processing

Dr Han Yi Chiew
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Gait analysis using inertial sensors, trading bot using artificial intelligence

Dr Chew Ing Ming
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: PID, 3-element/ mimo control, artificial intelligent and embedded system

Dr Saveethya Sivakumar
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Machine learning, signal processing, computer vision, instrumentation biomechanics

Dr Sivaraman Eswaran
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Cyber security, 5G networks, cloud computing

Dr Mohammed Sultan Ahmed Mohammed
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Artificial intelligence, parallel and distributed computing, computer systems, 3D-stacked memory architecture, many-core system-on-chip (MCSoC), network-on-chip (NoC)

Dr Siaw Teck Ung
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Food safety and quality assurance by applying hyperspectral imaging to evaluate the quality of sago starch, wearable sensor design and signal processing for human ambulation and motion analysis, SCADA systems, power system protection, and electrical transformer diagnostics, power electronics and compensation systems, including STATCOM-based solutions

Dr Ahlam Khaled Mohammed Al-Dhamari
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, image and video processing, motion analysis, crowd analysis and management, natural language processing, computer security, expert in MATLAB, PYTHON, C/C++ and JAVA programming languages

Tiong Teck Chai
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Wireless communications and signal processing

Dr. Veeramani Shanmugam
Research areas: Distributed computer networks and cloud computing

Foad Motalebi
Research areas: Simulation technology, effect of ICT on T&L of programming and mathematics, databases, ordinary differential equations, statistics

Pang Po Ken
Research areas: Image processing and intelligence systems, embedded systems

Mechanical engineering

Prof Sujan Debnath
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Elastomer and polymer recycling, green composite materials using bio-waste, nano polymer composite, advanced/sustainable/nano-enhanced machining, thermal management in electronic packaging, origami-inspired folding technique and folding design

Assoc Prof Moola Mohan Reddy
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Advanced ceramics, advanced machining process, materials manufacturing, mechanical engineering

Assoc Prof Law Ming Chiat
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Multiphysics modelling, microwave heating/drying, CFD

Assoc Prof Lim Chye Ing
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Industry design, eco-design, sustainability assessment, sustainable engineering, cleaner production, engineering management

Abdul Hamid Bin Abdullah
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Polymers, composites, materials characterization, biomaterials, green materials, rubber, recycled materials, bio-waste

Assoc Prof Jundika Candra Kurnia
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Computational fluid dynamics, thermal fluids engineering, energy systems, energy storage

Dr Fethma M Nor
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational solid mechanics, material science (natural fiber composites and biomaterials), human-centered biomechanics (bone tissue engineering, dental implants, skin biomechanics), product design and development (biomechanical devices, military safety equipment, agriculture, kids development toys, partition building, etc.)

Dr Kyaw Myo Aung
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Mechanical engineering, automotive engineering, renewable energy / green technology, solar panel, battery & supercapacitor, python for random forest machine learning and data validation

Dr Wahyu Caesarendra
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Smart manufacturing, vibration condition monitoring, mechatronics, robotic manufacturing, product design engineering, artificial intelligence

Dr Nurul Amira Mohd Ramli
Research areas: Electromagnetic theory, wireless communication, radio communication networks and systems, smart sensor, sensor networks, internet of things (IoT), image processing (tomography)

Dr Mouaz Al Kouzbary
Research areas: Robotic prostheses, advanced control system, AI-based control, gait analysis, IMU-based gait measurement and analysis

Applied sciences

Prof Prasanna Mohan Viswanathan
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Hydrogeochemistry, geochemical modelling, isotope geochemistry, enviromental geochemistry for soils and sediments, geoelectrical method for water resources, cave water geochemistry, climate change, radiation measurements, microplastics, submarine groundwater discharge, sustainable water resource management

Prof Dr Ramasamy Nagarajan
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Geochemistry (sediments and sedimentary rocks), source to sink relationship of sediments, source rock evaluation, environmental geochemistry (heavy metal pollution in sediments and water), ecotoxicology, biogeochemistry, environmental health monitoring and assessment, urban geochemistry, regional geochemical mapping (rare earths and critical minerals/metals)

Assoc Prof Dominique Dodge-Wan
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Sedimentary geology, limestone rocks (deposition, facies, micropalaeontology), karst and cave systems (mapping, morphology and genesis, geomicrobiology), coastal erosion processes, soil erosion, GIS mapping, hydrogeology (groundwater resources, abstraction, protection)

Dr Vijay Anand Sundarrajan
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Mineralogy and geochemistry, petrology, global gold deposits, geofluids, research on ore minerals, spectroscopic study of mineral deposits

Dr Syed Bilawal Ali Shah
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Petroleum geology, structure and tectonics, seismic structural interpretation, basin modelling, geochemistry (source rock characterization)

Fiona Bassy William
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Geochemistry of water, sedimentary geology

Prof Ravi Fotedar
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Use of feed add to improve immunocompetence of aquatic species, production biology of various aquatic species, inland saline water aquaculture, larval nutrition, improving shelf life of seafood products, research theme involving the use of biotechnological innovations to improve the productivity of aquaculture through sustainable and environmentally friendly means, research into the conversion of inland saline water into an important aquaculture resource, evaluation of alternative to fish meal ingredients in aqua-diets, culture of macrophytes and their value addition, culture of sea cucumbers

Prof Euan Harvey
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Ecological impacts of climate change, conservation and biodiversity, aquatic ecosystem studies and stock assessment, fisheries management

Prof S M Nurul Amin
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Circular aquaculture, assessment of fisheries stock status

Prof Monique Gagnon
Research areas: Effects of accidental oil spills and of petroleum exploration and production on fish health, endocrine disruptors, sewage treatment plants and urban runoffs, toxicity of drilling muds used in the petroleum exploration industry, effects of anti-fouling chemicals on vertebrates and invertebrate populations

Dr Ben Saunders
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Spatial distribution and habitat associations of fishes, behavioural ecology, community ecology, influence of anthropogenic structures, environmental changes on fishes

Assoc Prof Janet Howieson
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Seafood, supply chain monitoring, new product development, value chain analysis

Dr Lee Yih Nin
Supervisor Level 1
Research areas: Fungal infection (lower fungi), immunology, gene cloning, fish diseases

Dr Lirong Yu Abit
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Aquaculture systems, aquaculture nutrition, fish and crustacean reproduction, fish and crustacean biodiversity

Dr Mohammed Sofi Abu Hassan
Supervisor Level 2
Research areas: Fish diseases, green nanotechnology, immunology, antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Postgraduate research opportunities

A higher degree by research (HDR) at Curtin Malaysia, including the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), allow you to deepen expertise in your field, generate new knowledge, and develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges through advanced research and critical inquiry.

Find out more

A diverse group of college students engaging in a lively study session indoors.

Contact us

Prof Dr Raymond Chiong Choo Wee

Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Science

t: +60 85 630100 ext:2494
e: raymond.ccw@curtin.edu.my

Prof Dr Bridgid Chin Lai Fui

Associate Dean of Research and Development

t: +60 85 630100 ext:2420
e: bridgidchin@curtin.edu.my