Keynote

Current Affiliation:

Dr. Tan Seng Chee is currently an Associate Dean at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, overseeing teacher professional learning and school leadership development. He has held various leadership roles, including Assistant Director at the Ministry of Education, Acting Co-Director of the Centre for Research & Development in Education (NTU), and Co-Chair for AI@NIE. He is a pioneer in teaching and learning innovation, exploring topics such as computer-supported collaborative learning, artificial intelligence in education, and knowledge building. He has developed and taught over 20 courses, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral levels, primarily focusing on educational technologies and learning sciences. In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Tan has served on the editorial boards of journals like Instructional Science and IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies. He has also conducted workshops and delivered talks in numerous countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Biography:

Dr Seng Chee TAN is an Associate Professor with the Learning Sciences and Assessment academic group. He obtained his BSc (Hons) from the National University of Singapore in 1989 under the sponsorship of PSC Local Merit Scholarship; he completed his Master in Education from the National Institute of Education in 1997; and he obtained his Ph.D. (Instructional Systems) from the Pennsylvania State University in 2000 under the NTU Overseas Graduate Scholarship. 

As an active researcher in the field of educational technology for schools, he has won more than S$6million competitive research grants in various roles and helped to secure a ring-fenced grant of 5millionSGD for a research centre. He has published more than 55 refereed journal articles, more than 50 papers in conference proceedings, co-authored 2 academic books and co-edited another 2 books, and delivered more than 20 keynote addresses and invited presentations. He also contributed as an editorial board member for 5 international refereed academic journals including Instructional Science and Journal of Computers in Education. He also acted as a regular reviewer for journals such as Computers and Education, The Internet and Higher Education, and International Journal of Science Education. 

He has graduated 10 graduate students and is currently supervising 6 graduate students. He has held various leadership positions in the past, including an assistant director at the Ministry of Education, Head of Learning Sciences and Technologies, Associate Dean of the Foundation Programme Office, Associate Dean of the Office of Graduate Studies and Professional Learning, Associate Dean of the Director’s Office and Acting co-director of Centre for Research and Development in Learning.

Research Interests:

Educational Technology for schools

Current Grants:

• Enhancing students self-regulated learning with generative AI-powered chatbots

• EmoSense: An Artificial Intelligence-powered tool for swift and accurate recognitionof student epistemic emotions during learning

• Sustained Creative Discourse for Deep Learning: Synchronous, asynchronous andblended environment.

• Leveraging Generative AI for 21st Century Teaching and Learning

• Facilitate StudentsKnowledge Building and Supportive Emotions through Emotion Analytics and Socially Shared Emotion Regulation

• An Investigation of Learning and Teaching Supported by Personal Learning Devices (PLDs) in Secondary Schools

• A Multimodal Learning Analytics Approach Towards Learner Dashboard Designs for Better Engagement and Metacognitive Regulation (LADDER) 

• CoSIC: Developing a Pedagogical Co-Skilling Framework and Recommender System for School-Industry-Community (SIC) Partnerships

• Uncovering the Process and Outcome of Computer-Supported-Collaborative-Learning (CSCL) using Multimodal LearningAnalytics: New Environments and Assessment for CSCL in the learning continuum

• Solving ill-structured problems: Role of scaffolding and feedback

• Creating a collaborative healthcare workforce: Designing and evaluating a virtual hospital for collaborative practices across higher education institutions in Singapore

• Mobile Education Networked Tutoring on Request (MENTOR)

• De-identified student data platform for longitudinal learning research

• Mentor - A peer tutoring apps for NTU students

• Evaluating students perceptions of learning environments and ways of learning

• Utilization of informal learning spaces in NTU

• Teaching brain literacy in teachers

• "APPLETREE": Assessing Processes and Products for Learning (APPLE) by Tracking and Reporting Efficacy and Effectiveness (TREE) of Collaborative Idea Improvement

• Spreading Ideas: Creating Point-at-able Models of 21st Century Education

Awards & Recognition:

• 2022 National Day Award Public Administrative Medal (Bronze) from the President's Office of Singapore.

• 2022 Outstanding Reviewer Award Educational Technology Research and Development

• 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award Educational Technology Research and Development

• 2021 Research Nexus Award NIE

• 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Award Educational Technology Research and Development

• 2019 Excellence in Research Award NIE

• 2018 Outstanding Reviewer Award Educational Technology Research and Development

• 2017 Outstanding Reviewer Award Educational Technology Research and Development

• 2005 Education Award Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI)

Education & Professional Experience:

After graduating from the School of Dentistry at Showa University, Dr. Masanobu Saito completed clinical training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at The University of Tokyo Hospital. He subsequently served as Head of the Department of Dentistry at the Cancer Institute Hospital, where he was engaged in oral healthcare management for cancer patients. Following his tenure as the chairman of a medical corporation, he was appointed Director of the Center for Dysphagia Support at a long-term care hospital in Hachioji City, where he focused on the prevention and treatment of aspiration pneumonia. In 2018, he established the Japan Aspiration Pneumonia Prevention Association. In October 2022, he founded go-en. Dental Clinic Jiyugaoka, a home-visit dental clinic providing care for elderly individuals and persons with disabilities who have eating and swallowing disorders. In January 2024, he further expanded these services by opening go-en. Dental Clinic Yokohama, where he continues to serve patients today. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Saito has been actively involved in supporting individuals with disabilities. In March 2007, he established a Community Activity Support Center.

Current Affiliation:

He currently serves as Representative Director of the Seira-kai, operating one day-care facility for persons with disabilities, as well as two group homes and two day-care support facilities through a nonprofit organization. Within these disability support facilities, he remains deeply committed to addressing feeding and swallowing disorders among persons with disabilities. As part of his future vision, he is currently planning a specialized facility that will provide care and support for individuals with disabilities who require ongoing medical care.

Qualifications and Academic Appointments:

• Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

• Certified Social Worker

• Specially Appointed Professor of Clinical Psychology, St. Paul International University

Biography:

Prior to her joining the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus as an assistant professor, Wan Yong pursued her PhD studies in University Putra Malaysia, where she also received her first degree in Biotechnology. She worked on the discovery of cytotoxic effect of herbal extract against breast cancer cells for her PhD and has initiated the study of herb-drug interaction against 3D spheroid cultures of breast cancer therefrom. At UNMC, apart from continuing the exploration of antineoplastic potential of various natural products, she extended her research focus in understanding the regulation of genes and microRNAs in breast cancer stem cells.

Teaching Summary:

Wan Yong is an enthusiastic teacher who loves to share her knowledge and experience with students. She is teaching topics in the areas of cancer and molecular biology where her research is focused in. As a research academic, she hopes to inspire students to develop their skills to become lifelong learners and scientist by creating an engaging and challenging environment for science learning. 

Wan Yong is currently the module convener for Structure, Function & Analysis of Proteins and Cancer Biology.

She also contributes to the teaching of other modules including Structure, Function & Analysis of Genes; Core Skills in Biomedical Sciences; Human Physiology; Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics; Approaches to Biomedical Research; Concepts of Pharmacogenetics as well as research supervision under the Biomedical Sciences Final Year Research Project module.

Current Research:

Wan Yong's primary research interest resides in cancer stem cell (CSC) regulation in breast cancer cell lines. At present, Wan Yong is studying the role of mRNAs and microRNAs in the modulation of breast CSCs via a few models including monolayer culture, multicellular tumour spheroids and drug resistant breast cancer cells.

Her current research involves cellular characterisation as well as the use of sequencing technology and bionformatics analyses for identification of novel biomarkers.

Wan Yong is also passionate in exploring anti-cancer properties of various natural products and their derivatives. Apart from screening the crude plant extracts for their anti-neoplastic activities, she also hopes to identify the important and non-toxic bio-active components that could be potentially developed into cancer cure in the future.

Her other interests include studying of herbal, food and agricultural products for their phytochemical content and exploring their potent activities such as antioxidant, immunomodulation, anti-inflammation, liver protection activities, whitening effects etc

Selected Publications:

• HO WY, YEAP SK, HO CL, RAHIM RA and ALITHEEN NB, 2012. Development of multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) culture from breast cancer cell and a high throughput screening method using the MTT assay. PloS one. 7(9), e44640 

• BOO, LILY, HO, WAN YONG, ALIT, NORLAILY MOHD, YEAP, SWEE KEONG, KY, HUYNH, CHAN, KOK GAN, YIN, WAI FONG, SATHARASINGHE, DILAN AMILA, LIEW, WOAN CHARN, TAN, SHEAU WEI, CHEONG, SOON KENG and ONG, HAN KIAT, 2017. Phenotypic and microRNA transcriptomic profiling of the MDA-MB-231 spheroid-enriched CSCs with comparison of MCF-7 microRNA profiling dataset PEERJ. 5,

• HO WY, YEAP SK, HO CL, ABDUL RAHIM R and ALITHEEN NB, 2012. Hepatoprotective Activity of Elephantopus scaber on Alcohol-Induced Liver Damage in Mice. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM. 2012, 417953

• BOO, LILY, HO, WAN YONG, ALI, NORLAILY MOHD, YEAP, SWEE KEONG, HUYNH KY, CHAN, KOK GAN, YIN, WAI FONG, SATHARASINGHE, DILAN AMILA, LIEW, WOAN CHARN, TAN, SHEAU WEI, ONG, HAN KIAT and CHEONG, SOON KENG, 2016. MiRNA Transcriptome Profiling of Spheroid-Enriched Cells with Cancer Stem Cell Properties in Human Breast MCF-7 Cell Line INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 12(4), 427-445