About Me

I am a Principal Scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), A*STAR, Singapore.  Primary aim of my R&D is to lead use-inspired research and innovate in AI and Data Science, and translate the research outcomes into niche commercializable technologies. Many of the R&D projects I have led or was involved in have resulted in technologies that have been commercialized and/or led to successful spinoffs.  I have published in top peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and served in the Programme Committees of many international conferences. And also chaired several international events on AI, Data Science and Analytics. 

Current research interests: Generative AI, Deep Learning, Explainable AI, Causal AI, NLP, and Semantic Computing.. 

I am always interested in collaborations with Universities/R&D Institutions, and also end-users with problem statements that cannot be addressed by off-the-shelf solutions. Prospective students with strong inclination towards applied R&D are welcome.   

Grants & Fundings 

• Co-PI, Intramural funding (~$1m). 2021-2024.  R&D Theme: Neuro-Symbolic Natural Language Reasoning 

• PI, NRF Trans Grant (~$1.2m). 2018-19.  R&D Theme: Financial Audit Risk Prediction   

• Co-PI, SERC Industry Alignment Funding (~$1.4m) . 2015-2018. R&D Theme: Technology Development for Collaborative Commerce  

• PI, GAP Funding (~$535K). 2015.   R&D Theme: Advanced Analytics for Procurement Optimization and Risk Management  

• PI, Intramural funding (~$1.2m). 2011-2014.  R&D Theme: Semantic analytics for Service Ecosystem   

Awards

• AAAI / IAAI  'Deployed Application  Award' 2021.

• A*Star Innovation Award 2019, Singapore. (co-recipient)

• Ministry of Trade & Industry Borderless Award 2017, Singapore. (co-recipient)

• Ministry of Trade & Industry Innovation Award 2013, Singapore. (co-recipient)

• IEEE Cloud Cup 2013, USA. (The only awardee from Asia.) 

• IEEE Services Cup 2012, USA. (Only awardee from Asia.) 

• Others: Tan Kah Kee Young Inventor’s award (2006 & 1998), TEC Innovation award 2000.

Wins in Benchmarking Challenges 

• Legal Violation Identification - NLI Task, EMNLP 2024 Workshops. (2nd place)

• Multimodal Hate Speech Detection & Mitigation Task, AAAI 2024 Workshops. (1st place)

• Explainable Fact Checking Task, AAAI 2024 Workshops. (2nd place)

• Multimodal Stance Classification Task, EMNLP 2023 Workshops. (2nd place)

• Social Media Adverse Event Detection & Normalization Task, SMM4H 2023. (2nd place)

• Tweet Sentiment Classification Task, SMM4H 2023. (2nd place)