Dr. Hwa-Jen YAP is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. He obtained a tertiary academic qualification from the Universiti Malaya for B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Engineering Science and PhD in Engineering. Prior to joining UM, he worked in the Air-Conditioning R&D industry from 2000 to 2002. He has to date published more than 100 papers in respectable journals and conference proceedings both locally and internationally. He has supervised more than 15 PhD and Master's students. His area of interest in research includes Extended Reality (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality), Virtual Manufacturing (VM), Product Design, Artificial Intelligence, Sports Engineering, Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0), Robotics (Industrial Robots & Collaborative Robots, Cobot) and Automation. He is also actively involved in consultancy projects, in which he has more than 15 research & technology projects related to the Aerospace Manufacturing industry. He was the advisor of an undergraduate robotics team (R.E.D – Robotics.Engineering.Design) which has won more than 30 prizes/awards in inter-varsity competitions.

Ir. Dr. Yap was the head of the Centre of Product Design & Manufacturing (CPDM) from 2013 to 2015. He was the Deputy Dean (Development) of the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya from Jul 2017 to Jul 2018. Currently, he is the Director of Universiti Malaya's Consultancy Centre (Pusat Perundingan Universiti Malaya, UMConsult), Director of the UPUM Resources Sdn Bhd and Managing Director of the UPUM Sdn Bhd. On professional qualifications, he is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng) in the Mechanical Engineering discipline registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). He is also a member of The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) of the Engineering Council, UK.