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Associate Professor

Alfred TAN

Associate Professor
Programme Leader, SIT-UofG BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
PhD Mechanical Engineering, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Cluster:
Engineering
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Biography

My research background can be broadly categorized into the field of electro-mechanical tap water hydraulic systems, active control of sound and vibration, and parametric array loudspeaker (PAL). But it was at MIT that this accumulated experience allowed me to design and construct a novel ultrasonic micropropulsive underwater robot, and also inspired a mosquito vector control collaborative project. Having a multidisciplinary interest in mechanical and electronics systems, I have also very recently ventured into building several circuit designs for energy harvesting technologies.
Having now built up a solid background in my field of multidisciplinary sensor technology for mechanical systems, I feel the time is right to assume a more central role in the academia by being a faculty member.

Specialties: Acoustics (Ultrasound), active control of noise, building acoustics, assistive healthcare devices.

SIT Appointments

  • Programme Leader, SIT-UofG BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
    – Present
  • Associate Professor
    – Present
  • Programme Director, SIT-UofG BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
    –
  • Programme Director, UofG BEng (Hons) Mechanical Design Engineering
    –
  • Programme Director, UofG BEng (Hons) Mechatronics
    –
  • Deputy Programme Director, UofG BEng (Hons) Mechatronics
    –
  • Deputy Programme Director, UofG BEng (Hons) Mechanical Design Engineering
    –
  • Assistant Professor
    –

Education

  • PhD Mechanical Engineering
    University of Southampton , United Kingdom
  • MEng Mechanical Engineering (By Research)
    Nanyang Technological University , Singapore
  • BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
    Nanyang Technological University , Singapore

Achievements

  • Ultrasonic research featured in The Straits Times, “Mosquitoes vanish with zapping wand,” 18th September 2010, p. D9.
  • FY2004 Foreign Postdoctoral Fellowship (Standard) recipient Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Research Scholarship recipient, 2000 - 2003 Supported by University of Southampton, EPSRC and QinetiQ, United Kingdom
    –

Professional Memberships

  • Society of Acoustics (Singapore), Member
    – Present
  • Institute of Engineers Singapore, Associate Member
    – Present

Current Projects

  • Novel electro-mechanical underwater propulsion robot, Huygens
    – Present

    In his previous work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr Tan investigated a cool, bizarre technology - a novel electro-mechanical underwater propulsion robot, called Huygens, installed with ultrasonic thrusters (UST) in place of conventional blade propellers. Unlike rotary propulsors, UST produces an acousto-fluidic jet of water from specialised transducers which its resultant “backthrust” is exploited for underwater propulsion or maneuvering purposes.

  • Acoustical Artifacts (AA)
    – Present

    Dr Tan’s research expertise can be summed up as Acoustical Artifacts (AA). It is in the broadest sense all things about acoustics research activities; acoustics generation, piezoelectricity in gaming and mobile technology, renewable energy harvesting using vibration, bio-acoustics for mosquito larvae control, active noise control using directional sound, and more recently ultrasonic propulsion.

Past Projects

  • Co-Investigator of Parametric Array Loudspeaker project
    –

    Tokubetsu Kenkyuin Shorei-hi (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan

    ¥2,400,000 for two years, Grant P04344

  • Lead principal-investigator of Bioacoustics trauma project
    –

    Ignition grant (ING09011), SMART Center, Innovation Center, Singapore

    S$50,000 for 1 year

  • Lead principal-investigator of Bioacoustics trauma project
    –

    Ennos Grant, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Singapore 

    S$250,000 approved for 1.5 years

  • Centre for Enterprise and Innovation (CEI)
    –

    Research Grant winner CEI, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

    £3,000 awarded for three months

Journal Papers

  • ACH Tan, D Halim, and N Tanaka, “Phased array steering of structure-borne sound radiated from a flexible beam by active modal control,” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 120, no. 5, p. 3131, 2006.

  • ACH Tan, T Meurers, SM Veres, G Aglietti, and E Rogers, “Robust control of microvibrations with experimental verification,” Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, vol. 219, no. 5, pp. 453–460, May 2005.

  • YB He, PSK Chua, GH Lim, and ACH Tan, “Fault diagnosis of loaded water hydraulic actuators by online testing with LabVIEW®,” Journal of Testing and Evaluation, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 378–387, Sept. 2003.

  • ACH Tan, Frequency segmented estimation in real-time active noise control, PhD Thesis, University of Southampton, 2003.

  • ACH Tan, PSK Chua, and GH Lim, “Fault diagnosis of water hydraulic actuators under some simulated faults,” Journal of Materials Processing Technology (IMCC 2000 Special Edition), vol. 138, no. 1–3, pp. 123–130, Jul. 2003.

  • T Meurers, SM Veres, and ACH Tan, “Model-free frequency domain iterative active sound and vibration control,” IFAC Control Engineering Practice (Special Section on Algorithms and Applications of Iterative Feedback Tuning), vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 1049–1059, Sept. 2003.

  • YB He, GH Lim, PSK Chua, and ACH Tan, Monitoring the condition of loaded modern water hydraulic axial piston motor and cylinder,” Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Hangzhou, pp.447–451, Apr. 2001.

  • T Meurers, SM Veres, and ACH Tan, “MIMO model free frequency domain controller for active sound control,” IEE Interactive Web-Workshop Interactive 2001 - Active Control of Sound and Vibration, London, pp. 1–13, 20

  • ACH Tan, PSK Chua, and GH Lim, “Condition monitoring of a water hydraulic cylinder by vibration analysis,” Journal of Testing and Evaluation, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 507–512, 2000.

  • ACH Tan, GH Lim, and PSK Chua, “Software interfacing for condition monitoring of a water hydraulic cylinder system,” Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Singapore, pp.531–542, Mar. 2000.

Conferences

  • NM Patrikalakis, FS Hover, BH Ooi, H Zheng, W Cho, T Bandyopadhyay, H Kurniawati, T Taher, RR Khan, ACH Tan, “Infrastructure for mobile sensor network in the Singapore Coastal Zone,” 20th International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers, Beijing, China, Jun 2010.

  • ACH Tan, and FS Hover, “On the influence of transducer heating in underwater ultrasonic thrusters,” 20th International Congress on Acoustics, Sydney, Aug. 2010.

  • ACH Tan, and FS Hover, “Thrust and wake characterization in small, robust ultrasonic thrusters,”
    OCEANS 2010 MTS/IEEE, Seattle, Washington, Sept. 2010.

  • ACH Tan and FS Hover, “Correlating the ultrasonic thrust force with acoustic streaming velocity,” IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, Rome, Sept. 2009.

  • ACH Tan, and N Tanaka, “The safety issues of intense airborne ultrasound: Parametric array loudspeaker,” Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Vienna, Jul. 2006.

  • ACH Tan, and N Tanaka, “Implementing active noise control using parametric array loudspeaker as a system controller,” ACTIVE’2006, Adelaide, Sept. 2006.

  • ACH Tan, and N Tanaka, “Identifying the attributes of a parametric array loudspeaker,” Proceedings of the 11th Asia-Pacific Vibration Conference, vol. 1, pp. 253–259, 2005.

  • T Meurers, ACH Tan, and SM Veres, “Multi-tonal feedback control with improved plant and frequency estimation,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, vol. 6, pp. 4937–4942, 2003

  • ACH Tan, T Meurers, SM Veres, G Aglietti, and E Rogers, “Satellite vibration control using frequency selective feedback,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Hawaii, pp. 1693–1698, Dec. 2003.

  • ACH Tan, A Choudhury, YS Ong, and SM Veres, “Ultra low frequency estimation: A neglected apportion,” Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, Singapore, vol. 5, pp. 2195–2199, 2002.

  • ACH Tan, PSK. Chua, and GH Lim, “Water hydraulics in modern perspective – A 21st century clairvoyance,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Production Research, Thailand, Aug. 2000.

  • ACH Tan, PSK Chua, and GH Lim, “Fault Diagnosis of Water Hydraulic Actuators under Some Simulated Faults,” Proceedings of the International Manufacturing Conference in China, Hong Kong, Aug. 2000.

Books

  • ACH Tan, and FS Hover, “Ultrasonic thrusters,” Ultrasonic Waves, InTech Open Access Publisher, ISBN-13: 978-953-307-955-4, March 2012.