Dr Tang recognised as world-leading engineer by Institution of Engineering and Technology Achievement Awards

Associate Professor Dr Tang Tong Boon from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) Malaysia has been awarded the Mountbatten Medal, one of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Achievement Awards.

The IET Achievement Awards, which recognise some of the world’s top engineering talent, acknowledge individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the advancement of science, engineering and technology in any sector, either through research and development in their respective technical field or through their leadership of an enterprise.

The Mountbatten Medal was established by the National Electronics Council in 1992. The Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application.

Dr Tang received a BEng (Hons) and PhD in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, in 1999 and 2006, respectively. He was with Lucent Technologies (Singapore) and The University of Edinburgh between 1999 and 2012.

He then joined UTP in 2012 as an Associate Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. His research centre, the Centre for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research UTP, has been conferred the status of Malaysia Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), one of the 20 centres across all the disciplines.

He received the Lab on Chip Award in 2006 and the IET Nanobiotechnology Premium Award in 2008. He was a Governing Board Member of International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) and a Visiting Professor to the National Taiwan Normal University.

Presently, he serves as the Secretary of the HICoE Council, and the Chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Malaysia Chapter.

Dr Tang received the Mountbatten Medal for his contribution to the advancement and promotion of neurotechnology and its applications in mental healthcare. He is recognised for his pioneering work on functional near- infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Malaysia.

With the funding from Hitachi Japan, he setup the OT-HUB, an international collaboration platform to promote fNIRS related research. He led the development of EEG-fNIRS bimodal systems and their application to mental stress studies. The work has recently been translated into a fatigue management system.

He is also instrumental in creating the analytical tool to identify cognitive function deficits due to traumatic brain injury, to help nursing school to analyse the mental states of nursing students to better understand the drop-out issue and to develop a new cognitive training system for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and prevention.

He has also produced over 120 publications and supervised 10 postgraduate theses.

Dr Tang said: “It is with great honour that I accept the Mountbatten Medal from the IET as a mark of my accomplishments in the advancement of neurotechnology and its applications across the Asian region. I have been extremely fortunate to work with many brilliant collaborators and graduate students. I would also like to thank UTP management for the support. Congratulations to all the other engineers and technologists recognised for their pioneering work.”

Professor Danielle George MBE, IET President, said: “We are honoured to present these talented individuals with our Achievement Awards. They have each excelled in their professions and have made a vast contribution as pioneers of important areas in the engineering and technology industries. They should all be very proud of their achievements – they are amazing difference makers.”

The winners, who were nominated by their peers, and selected by a panel of IET judges, are leading engineers and technologists across the globe.

For more information about the IET’s Achievement Awards, visit: www.theiet.org/techawards