20102024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Dr. Ho Yong Kuen, or more commonly known as Joseph obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Malaya. His Ph.D. thesis on interlinking population balances and cybernetic models was examined by Prof. Doraiswami Ramkrishna from Purdue University and was awarded a distinction. He worked as a tutor in the University of Malaya for 3 years before pursuing his PhD under the Bright Sparks Scholarship scheme. He also taught in the School of Engineering of Taylor’s University for a short stint before joining Monash University Malaysia as a lecturer. From 2017 - 2019, he was the course director for chemical engineering discipline at Monash University Malaysia. In 2020, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer position in Monash University.

Research interests

Dr. Joseph's research is all about solving the most pressing issues which prevent the potential of biomass from being harnessed for various applications, e.g. for the generation of renewable energy. He believes that the bottleneck to the advancement of this field can be resolved by deeper understanding of the process fundamentals. Among some of his focus is to study biomass from a distributed point of view and its impact on the digestibility by various enzymes with highly specific actions. Primarily, his team prescribes discrete/continuum number flux balances, i.e. population balances to these complicated systems that hitherto have not been well understood. Fermentation of cellulose systems by various microbial populations is also rigorously studied via computational approaches. He is also interested in the physics of droplet breakup/aggregation of cellulose derived particles. In short, the Computational Biomass & Biopolymer Engineering (CBBE) research group, led by Dr. Joseph, establishes cutting edge computational tools/techniques/approaches based chiefly on continuum approaches to facilitate high quality abstraction and interpretation of sophisticated systems which otherwise cannot be easily gleaned from direct experimental inferences.

Monash teaching commitment

  • ENG1060 - Computing for Engineers
  • CHE3167 - Transport Phenomena & Numerical Methods
  • CHE3162 - Process Control
  • CHE4162 - Particle Technology
  • CHE2166 - Introduction to Process Simulation

Supervision interests

If you are looking to pursue a postgraduate degree in computational research, wait no more. Feel free to approach Dr. Joseph for more information. His team is always looking for candidates who are passionate in mathematics and computing, with a desire to crack some of the toughest problems revolving biomass utilization and processing.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action

Education/Academic qualification

Bioprocess Engineering, Ph.D., Modelling Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation of Natural Polymers: Population Balances Interlinked With Cybernetic Models, Universiti Malaya (University of Malaya)

Award Date: 1 Jan 2015

Process Control, M.Eng.Sc., Adaptive-Model Based Self-Tuning Generalized Predictive Control of A Biodiesel Reactor, Universiti Malaya (University of Malaya)

Award Date: 1 Jan 2012

Chemical Engineering, B.Eng., Top Student of the Batch 2004/2005

Award Date: 8 Oct 2008

External positions

External Examiner for Final Year Research Project, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak

Jan 2022Dec 2022

External Examiner for Process Control, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak

Mar 2020Dec 2020

Research area keywords

  • Population Balances
  • Cybernetic Modelling
  • Metabolic Modelling
  • Cellulose
  • Biomass

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or