Throughout my PhD research journey, I have focused on applying structural engineering concepts to design and fabricate robotic devices and sensors for biomedical applications. Specifically, I focused on the design of miniature foldable mechanisms and integrating them with untethered magnetic actuation and stretchable electronics. Prior to my doctoral studies, I gained valuable research experience in various biomedical engineering domains, including bio-packaging and testing of biomedical electronic devices, analysis of EEG and fMRI data, and programming for cardiac simulations.  

Aug 2019 – Pres Ph.D (Biomedical Engineering) National University of Singapore (NUS)

Aug 2015 – Jun 2019 B.Eng (Biomedical Engineering)   National University of Singapore (NUS)
B.A (Economics) National University of Singapore

June 2023 – Oct 2023
Medical Mechatronics Lab, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Research Assistant, Supervised by Prof. Ren Hongliang 

• Design of bistable reconfigurable foldable mechanisms that possesses energy-dependent degrees-of-freedom

• Integration of magnetic actuation with developed foldable mechanisms to enable untethered shape-morphing, reconfiguration and active locomotion capabilities 

• Application of developed untethered miniature devices in confined spaces like the gastrointestinal tract for mucosal interfacing applications like microneedles insertion and delivery

Aug 2019 – June 2023
Medical Mechatronics Lab, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
PhD, Co-Supervised by Prof. Ren Hongliang and Dr Huang Hui

• Design and fabrication of compliance reconfigurable mechanisms based on origami and folding concepts

• Integration of developed mechanisms with magnetic actuation for active locomotion and reconfiguration

• Synthesis of silver nanowire electrodes as a conductive element with intended applications for strain sensors

• Implemented various structural engineering techniques such as kirigami and buckling for fabrication of flexible and stretchable sensors

• Employing embroidery techniques of conductive threads to design heating elements for potential use in thermal actuation

May 2018 – Jul 2018
Institute of Microelectronics, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
Research Internship, Supervised by Maria Damalerio

• Fabrication, integration and testing of dry EEG electrodes

• Bio-packaging of devices such as the extravasation skin patch sensor and neural probe arrays

• Benchtop testing of the silicon platform that is used for 3D assembly of neural probe arrays, flexible PI cable of the neural devices, and extravasation skin patch sensor

May 2017 – Aug 2017
Multimodal Neuroimaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory, Duke-NUS, Singapore
Research Internship, Supervised by Prof. Helen Zhou Juan

• Carried out inter- and intra-subject comparisons and group analysis of five EEG data sets and performing EEG filtering, epoching, and EEG source localization on brain sources from fMRI for dot spatial tasks

  • Data analysis was performed with Brainstorm (Tadel et al. 2011), which is documented and freely available for download online under the GNU general public license

• Wrote MATLAB scripts for subject tasks (e.g. recognition tasks) using Psychophysics Toolbox package (Brainard, 1997) to perform under neuroimaging

• Documented a protocol for the lab to turn the electrode-space data into source-space signals and extract useful summary for subsequent task-based analysis

• Performed quality checks on eyescoring to monitor spontaneous eye-closures when subjects are undergoing fMRI

Nov 2016 – Jan 2017
Computational Bioengineering Lab, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Research Internship, Supervised by Dr. Alberto Corrias

• Ran bidomain simulations of cardiac action potential using Chaste (Cooper et al., 2020)

• Examine the effects of extra-stimuli on a healthy ventricular tissue in establishing cardiac arrhythmias

• Summarized findings on how extra-stimuli can lead to early afterdepolarizations (EAD) and functional re-entry, which are mechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias 

• Cai, C. J., Kalairaj, M. S., Huang, H., Chen, P. Y., & Ren, H. Transfer‐Free Creation of Hierarchical Wrinkle Patterns for Stretchable and Compliant Strain and Contact Sensing. Advanced Materials Technologies, 2301017. 

• Cai, C. J., Yeow, B. S., Huang, H., Laschi, C., & Ren, H. (2023). Magnetically Actuated Lamina Emergent Mechanism for Bimodal Crawling and Flipping Locomotion. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. 

• Yeow, B. S., Cai, C. J., Kalairaj, M. S., Hoo, F. W., Lee, Z. X., Tan, J. C. S., ... & Ren, H. (2021, May). Origami-inspired snap-through bistability in parallel and curved mechanisms through the inflection of degree four vertexes. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 10863-10869). IEEE.

• Huang, H., Cai, C. J., Yeow, B. S., Ouyang, J., & Ren, H. (2021). Highly Stretchable and Kirigami-Structured Strain Sensors with Long Silver Nanowires of High Aspect Ratio. Machines, 9(9), 186.

• Cai, C. J., Xiao, X., Kalairaj, M. S., Lee, I. J. J., Mugilvannan, A. K., Yeow, B. S., ... & Ren, H. (2020). Diversified and Untethered Motion Generation Via Crease Patterning from Magnetically Actuated Caterpillar-Inspired Origami Robot. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

• 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS, held in Macau, China)

  • Gave a poster [PDF] and workshop oral presentation [PDF]

Reviewer

• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2023)

• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2022)

• Advanced Intelligent Systems (Adv. Intell. Syst. 2022)

• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2021)

• Composites Science and Technology (2021)

Teaching

• Teaching Assistant – National University of Singapore (Aug 2020 – Nov 2020)
    Course module BN4103: Assistive Technology for Persons with Disability
    Lecturer: Prof James Kah

• A*STAR Graduate Scholarship (AGS) – Agency for Science, Technology and Research (2019)

• FoE 32nd INNOVATION & RESEARCH AWARD – National University of Singapore (2018)

• Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize (Group) – National University of Singapore (2017)

• A*STAR Undergraduate Scholarship (AUS) – Agency for Science, Technology and Research (2016)

Mar 2016 – May 2019
Volunteer Experience Engineering Good Student Chapter (EGSC), Singapore

• Engage in collaborations with non-profit organizations as well as the general tertiary education student body with the goal of developing affordable, appropriate and sustainable technology for our beneficiaries

• Served in the order as the secretary, public relations, vice-president and president of the organization

Languages

• Fluent in English and Mandarin (both spoken and written)

Technical Skills

• Computer-Aided Drawings (CAD): SolidWorks, Autodesk Fusion360, Autodesk Inventor

• Programming: MATLAB (data analysis), C and C++ (e.g. microcontrollers)

• Fabrication techniques: Laser cutting, 3D Additive Manufacturing (FDM), embroidery

• Miscellaneous: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)