LONDON, Mar 29 – Ir. Dr. Tan Lian See from Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) successfully completed a Global Faculty Fellowship Mini Visit to Imperial College London (ICL) from February to March 2026, becoming the first among six selected UTM academics to participate in this prestigious programme.

The one-month mini visit was supported by the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Global Faculty Fellowship through Schmidt Sciences, focusing on capacity building in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for scientific research. During the visit, Dr. Tan was attached to ICL’s Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering for her research activities and hosted by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Antonio del Rio Chanona, who leads the Optimisation and Machine Learning for Process Systems Engineering Group (OptiML PSE). The visit provided Dr. Tan with an invaluable learning opportunity to understand the application of Gaussian Process and Bayesian Optimisation techniques for her electrocoagulation process research.

During the visit, Dr. Tan had the opportunity to engage with the OptiML PSE research team and learn from their expertise in advanced optimization methodologies. She also visited ICL’s Department of Chemical Engineering undergraduate teaching laboratories, where Dr. Umang Vinubhai Shah, Principal Teaching Fellow, shared insights on good laboratory practices and how experimental processes are designed to relate to real-life application contexts.

The mini visit programme is designed to build research capacity with partner institutions and create a wider network of AI in Science-engaged faculty from partner countries. The programme offers 12 short visits of 2-6 weeks annually to visit the I-X Centre for AI in Science.

UTM is one of six partner institutions participating in the Global Faculty Fellowship programme, alongside the Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences (India), University of Ghana, University of São Paulo, and Universitas Gadjah Mada. The programme aims to strengthen international research networks and provide academics with opportunities to engage with world-class research groups.

This successful completion of the mini visit demonstrates UTM’s commitment to expanding international research collaborations and building capacity in artificial intelligence applications for scientific research. The knowledge and techniques in AI-driven optimization methods gained during this visit are expected to contribute to advancing research at UTM, particularly in the application of machine learning and AI for wastewater treatment processes.