James Koh

Data Science Instructor & AI Practicum Manager

Principal Apr 2025 - present

Senior Jul 2021 - Mar 2025

School of Computing and Information Systems, SMU

• Instructor for Master of IT in Business (MITB) programme.
• COR1305 Spreadsheet Modeling
• CS603 Multi-agent Systems
• CS604 Deep Learning for Visual Recognition
• CS609 Introduction to Reinforcement Learning (course creator)
• CS610 Applied Machine Learning
• IS622 Python Programming and Data Analysis
• IS628 Computational Thinking with Python
• Manage relationships with external companies for collaborations and internship opportunities.
• Supervise capstone projects - provide directions and assess students.
• Cloud computing solutions for ML applications
• Reinforcement learning for entry checks
• Data classification through NLP and Generative AI

• SMU Staff Excellence Award 2024
• SCIS Outstanding Instructor Award AY2022/23

AI Scientist

Manager Grade 9 Oct 2020 - Jun 2021

Manager Grade 8 Sep 2019 - Sep 2020

AI Program Office (formerly, Digital Services Lab), IMDA

• Implement YOLOv4 in PyTorch with tailored image processing for assessment of workplace compliance.
• Implement EfficientDet with auxiliary liveness detection head for COVID-19 enforcement robot.
• Develop end-to-end Flask applications in Docker container for in-house and external end-users.
• Project Management. Sourced for collaborators, wrote proposal, secured funding of over $200,000 from Assistant Chief Executive, drafted contract and oversaw execution.
• Use Confluence and JIRA with Agile methodology.

ResearcherAug 2014 - Jun 2018

Nanyang Technological University

• Carry out research in theoretical Biophysics; published 6 articles (5 within top quartile international journals).
• Write codes in MATLAB to run numerical simulations, perform statistical analysis and machine learning in R.
• Conduct tutorial sessions and mentor senior undergraduates on final year project.
• Assist professor in applying for research grants.

• Best Teaching Assistant 2016