MOE-TRF Educational Fund 2019/2020 Award – Assistant Professor Cheong Kang Hao

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Cheong Kang Hao, who was awarded the MOE-TRF Educational Fund 2019/2020 Award! This is our second win from SUTD in the last 4 years.

Fully-Integrated Gamified Virtual Reality Environment for STEM Education

The proposed project entails the conceptualization and development of a gamified virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) environment for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. As a proof-of-concept, the focus will be on Mathematics education catered towards students at an undergraduate level. For a start we will be focusing on using these tools to aid in the teaching of Calculus. The environment is to fully incorporate next-generation augmented-reality aided notes, virtual laboratory and interactive problem-based learning scenarios. This will be done via the fusion and technologizing of pre-existing teaching materials (such as books and notes) using AR and be primarily cloud based and mobile device friendly to fully leverage on learning beyond classrooms and current advancements in mobile technologies. Such a method is proposed to give students access to resources anytime, anywhere without the need of a computer – placing less emphasis on environmental boundaries and requirements for expensive hardware and software.

Kang Hao joins SUTD as a faculty in the Science, Mathematics and Technology Cluster in 2019. He has broad interests in mathematical and computational approaches to understanding social dynamics, physical and biological systems. In recent years, the focus of his research work has largely been on the scientific study of the game-theoretic Parrondo’s paradox. Kang Hao also enjoys working on healthcare/medical AI projects and in applied research work with the industry. As part of his professional development, Kang Hao has attended the following courses: Postgraduate Diploma in Education and the Management & Leadership in School from NIE, as well as the Making Thinking Visible by Harvard’s Project Zero to keep abreast with the latest educational research and teaching pedagogy.