Soaring from MUFY to PhD
Mark Ng Kok Yew, Alumni of Sunway University College
In 2001, Mark Ng Kok Yew was in the Monash University Foundation Year (MUFY), a pre-university programme at Sunway College before it became Sunway University College. He then went to do an engineering degree at the Monash University, Sunway campus.
In just eight years, he made news, when he became the first graduate from Monash University campus in Bandar Sunway to be conferred a PhD in engineering.
Mark is currently an engineering lecturer at Monash University Sunway Campus and is part of the Robotics, Automation and Manufacturing (RAM) Research Group. He is actively conducting his research in the area of Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI). He recently presented his research findings at international conferences, such as the 2007 International Conference on Control Applications (IEEE) in Singapore and the 2008 International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) in Seoul, Korea.
“I would very much like to see my theoretical work evolve and be implemented onto practical applications, with hope that it could improve the stability, safety and also the reliability of the systems,” he explained.
Describing his achievement as a fulfilment of his childhood dream in another form, he said with a chuckle. “I’ve always wanted to become a doctor. Although I am not a medical doctor now, but being addressed as Dr. Mark Ng sort of fulfils my childhood dream in a way. I feel truly blessed indeed!”
A MUFY lecturer at Sunway University College, Helen James, who taught him English, has this to say about Dr. Ng.
“Mark was a pleasure to teach. He was a teacher’s dream student – someone with an inquiring mind, hard-working and very, respectful. With such an attitude towards his studies and people in general, it really is no surprise that he has reached such heights.”
Advising younger people, Dr. Ng said: “It’s not easy to make a choice sometimes, but I guess I made a right decision when I chose the MUFY programme because it provided me with the foundation that I needed for my undergraduate degree at Monash University. The curriculum was very well organized and I did not face any major difficulties in my studies, transiting from my foundation year at Sunway to Monash.”
“Sunway University College is an institution which offers great facilities and with impressive students academic achievements. Most of all, it is the only institution which offers the MUFY programme that fits well into the undergraduate programme at Monash” he added.
