Dr Max Ong
Research Fellow

Address:
Dr Max Ong BEng Hons, PhD, MIET, MIEEE
Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S1 3JD
Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 5687
Fax: (+44) (0)114 222 5683
Email: M.Ong @ sheffield.ac.uk
Room: B20, Amy Johnson Building

Biopic

Dr Max Ong is a Research Fellow at the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Control & Systems Engineering. He first received a BEng Hons in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 2001 and was later awarded a PhD in advanced decision support systems. He was previously awarded the Sir Harold West Award by the University and is an active member of the IEEE and IET engineering institutions.

Max works in close collaboration with Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Network Rail, McLaren and other strategic industrial partners in key areas of Aerospace, Marine and transport infrastructure systems. He is a Systems Expert and often consulted regarding development and integration of new technology solutions to address complex engineering applications. He conducts research and development of novel and emerging technologies at various TRL levels, focusing on the advancement of academic Research Excellence as well as Knowledge-Transfer of expertise to industry to enhance business innovation and competitiveness.

Research Interests

Wireless Networks, Embedded Systems, Energy Harvesting, Sensors and instrumentation, Fault Detection and Diagnosis, Intelligent Control, Autonomous systems, Distributed Systems, Grid Computing, Decision Support, Knowledge-Based systems, Service-Oriented Architectures, Multi-Criteria Optimisation.

Research Activities

• Novel methods for Embedded Wireless Sensing and Energy Harvesting in condition monitoring and health management of complex systems such as Rolls-Royce aero engines and Marine Azimuth Thrusters. Ultimately, these enabling technologies will enhance EHM capability, optimise performance, reduce whole life function costs and reduce unscheduled maintenance.
   
• Intelligent Agent-Based Power Management for Uninhabited Air Vehicle (UAV) systems. Intelligent agents provide the opportunity for instantaneous, automatic decision-making capability that is advantageous in challenging, mission-critical environments. Activities included real-time systems integration of a More-Electric UAV and a proof-of-concept demonstration of bespoke, Intelligent Mission Planning and novel UAV Platform Power Management system within a defence programme led by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL, formerly DERA).
   
• EPSRC research programmes ‘Scalable Wirelessly Interconnected Flow-Control Technologies’ (SWIFT) and ‘Wireless Interconnectivity for Control of Active Systems’ (WICAS). In collaboration with aircraft manufacturer AIRBUS, the research increased aerodynamic efficacy and reduced the carbon footprint of future aircraft designs through novel approaches for Active Flow Control of innovative ‘Smart Skin’ systems that significantly reduce skin-friction drag. The programme saw successful completion from system modelling, simulation and design to a proof-of-concept demonstration in a wind tunnel facility.
   
• Previous research activities include the £4.6M UK DTI-funded BROADEN project, working in the areas of advanced decision support, condition monitoring and large-scale distributed Grid Computing technologies. Prior to this, the £3.2M e-Science Grid pilot project, ‘Distributed Aircraft Maintenance Environment’ (DAME) was a highly successful programme that leveraged early-days Cloud Computing to address very Large-Data, Supercomputing to achieve advanced Aerospace Health Monitoring. Extensive research and development of intelligent systems delivered a proof-of-concept demonstrator that enabled a first-of-its-kind, remote, scalable, online Grid ‘service’ for distributed monitoring of worldwide aerospace assets.

Selected Publications

1. M. Ong, F.J. Bryan, M.K. Hook, J.C. Bossard, R. Todd, A.J. Forsyth,  H. Thompson, "Intelligent Agent Based Power Management for UAV Systems", Proc. IET Power Electronics, Machines and Drives, March 2012.
    
2. M. Ong and H.A. Thompson, "Challenges for Wireless Sensing in Complex Engineering Applications", Proc. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) 37th Annual Conference,  pp. 2106-2111 , November 2011.
    
3. M. Ong, H.A. Thompson,  N. Israr, W.G. Scanlon and G.W. Irwin, “Skin-Friction Control for Drag Reduction on an Active Aircraft using Fault-Tolerant Wireless Connectivity”, Int’l Symposium on Air Breathing Engines (ISABE), American Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), 2009.
    
4. Ong M, Ren X, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Decision Support System on The Grid, Int'l Journal of Knowledge-Based & Intelligent Engineering Systems, Vol. 9, pp 315-326, IOS Press, 2005.
    
5. Ren X, Ong M, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Service-Oriented Architecture on the Grid for Integrated Fault Diagnostics, Journal Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Vol. 19, No. 2, ISSN 1532-0626, John Wiley & Sons, February 2007.
    
6. Ong M, Alkarouri M, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Proxim-CBR: A Scaleable Grid Service Network for Mobile Decision Support, Proc UK e-Science All Hands Meeting AHM2006, Nottingham, UK, September 2006.
    
7. Ong M, Alkarouri M, Ren X, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Grid-Based Decision Support with Pro-Active Mobile Computing, Proc IEEE Int'l Conference on Services Computing, SCC 2005, Vol. 2, pp 59-66, IEEE Computer Society, Florida, USA, July 2005.
    
8. Jackson T et al, Ong M et al: Distributed Health Monitoring for Aero-Engines on the GRID: DAME, Proc IEEE Aerospace Conference, Montana, USA, March 2005.
    
9. Shenfield A, Ong M, Allan G, Ren X, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Modelling, Optimisation and Decision Support Using the Grid, Proc UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, AHM 2005, Nottingham, UK, September 2005.
    
10. Allan G, Ong M, Ren X, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming P J: UK e-Science Pilot Project DAME: Context Lessons Learned & Future, Keynote Address at the Australasian Workshop on Grid Computing and e-Research, AusGrid 2005, Newcastle, Australia, February 2005.
     
11. Ong M, Ren X, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Decision Support System on the Grid, In Intelligent and Knowledge-Based Solutions for Mobile and Ad-hoc Networks, Proc 8th Int'l Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems, KES 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 3213 Pt. 1, pp 699, Springer-Verlag, Wellington, NZ, September 2004.
     
12. Ren X, Ong M, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Service Oriented Architecture for Integration of Fault Diagnostics, Scientific Applications of Grid Computing: First International Workshop, SAG 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 3458, pp 146,Springer-Verlag, Beijing, China, September 2004.
     
13. Ong M, Ren X, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Workflow Advisor on The Grid, Proc UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, AHM 2004, pp 864-869, Nottingham, UK, September 2004.
     
14. Ren X, Ong M, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Service-Oriented Architecture on the Grid for FDI Integration, Proc UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, AHM 2004, pp 824-831, Nottingham, UK, September 2004.
     
15. Ong M, Ren X, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Case-Based Reasoning Approach to Decision Support within a Virtual Environment on The Grid, Proc Int’l Conference on Scientific & Engineering Computation, ICSEC 2004, pp 699-710, Singapore, July 2004.
     
16. Ren X, Ong M, Allan G, Kadirkamanathan V, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Integrated Fault Diagnostics on The Grid, Proc IEEE Int'l Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems, IEEE-ICECCS 2004, pp 59-65, Florence, Italy, April 2004.
     
17. Ong M, Ren X, Allan G, Thompson HA and Fleming PJ: Future Trends in Aircraft Engine Monitoring, Proc IEE Professional Network on Aerospace Seminar on “Aircraft Airborne Condition Monitoring”, pp 8/1-8/7, British Energy, UK, May 2003.