Biography

I am currently an Associate Professor in Control and Engineering Biology, in the School of Engineering, University of Warwick, UK.

I obtained my PhD degree in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from the Department of Electrical and Electronics EngineeringLink opens in a new window, The University of MelbourneLink opens in a new window, Australia, Melbourne, Australia in 2012, under the supervision of Prof. Erik Weyer, where I worked on modelling and control design of river systems (click hereLink opens in a new window for access to my PhD thesis).

Prior joining University of Warwick, I was an Assistant Professor in Control Engineering at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Automotive EngineeringLink opens in a new window, Coventry UniversityLink opens in a new window, UK from 2018-2021, I was a Research Fellow in Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre (WISB)Link opens in a new window, School of Engineering, University of WarwickLink opens in a new window, UK, in the research group of Prof. Declan Bates. from 2015-2018. I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP)Link opens in a new window in Pohang, South Korea from 2012-2015, in the research group of Dr. Pan-Jun Kim. I was a tutor/lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia UniversityLink opens in a new window, Malaysia from 2002-2007.

Research Interests

My primary research interests are dynamical systems modelling and control of biological system. I have mostly studied on plant gene regulatory network and my research mainly focuses on application of engineering design principles for synthetic biology application to improve crop productivity.

News

• Sep 2024: Welcoming Tea Clark, as a PhD student to the team, which will be co-supervised with Dr. Alexander Darlington. Tea will be working on new control theoretic framework for gene expression networks.
• Jun 2024: Congratulation to my undergraduate dissertation student, Andrew that his paper has been accepted for publication in in Silico Plants. Andrew investigated the effect of different combination of light qualities (colours) on plant development and growth. This paper took 1 year to get accepted and published, but it's better late than never. Well done!
• May 2024: Congratulations to my PhD student Miao Lin Pay who successfully defended her PhD thesis on "Development of Optimal Lighting System to Improve Crop Productivity" with minor correction. Well done Dr. Pay! Many thanks to the excellent supervisory team: Hafiz Ahmed, Fei He, Laura Roden and Jesper Christensen.

Teaching

Postgraduate Level

• ES4A3 Automobile Systems, Dynamics and Control

• ES97J Computational Synthetic and Systems Biology
• ES4F0 Advanced Control Systems

Undergraduate Level

• ES3C8 Systems Modelling and Control
• ES3J1 Advanced Systems and Software Engineering

• ES2C6 Electromechanical System Design

• ES2C1 Introduction to Biomedical and Clinical Engineering

Selected Publications (latest 3 years)

Full publication list can be found here (Google ScholarLink opens in a new window).

Submitted

• M. Spurgeon, A.P.S. Darlington, X. Tang, M. Foo, "Designing biological network motif-based controllers by reverse engineering Hill function-type models from linear models" submitted.
• T. Spartalis, M. Foo, X. Tang, "Feed forward loop improves the transient dynamics of an antithetic biological controller" submitted.

Published

1. A.M.H. Chan, M.L. Pay, J. Christensen, F. He, L.C. Roden, H. Ahmed, M. Foo (2024), "Red, blue or mix: choice of optimal light qualities for enhanced plant growth and development through in silico analysis" in Silico Plants, 6, diae008.
2. J. Tan, M. Foo (2024), "An extended design framework of antithetic integral feedback controller for restoring disrupted circadian gene profiles" Proceedings of Irish Signal and Systems Conference, 13-14 June, Belfast, UK, pp. 1-6.
3. C. McGirk, H Ahmed, D.S. Laila, A. Pike, M. Foo, R. Osborne, Q. Lu (2024), "Practical guide for noise characterisation of back pressure sensors: towards digital twin for an industrial high horse power engine test cell" IEEE Sensors Letter, 8, pp.1-4.
4. M.L. Pay, J. Christensen, F. He, L. Roden, M. Rasel, L. Tyler, H. Ahmed, M. Foo (2024), "A review of LED driver topologies and control methods for energy efficient smart farming application", In: Peng, Z. (eds) Trends and Technological Challenges in Green Energy. Green Energy and Technology. Springer.
5. M.L. Pay, J. Christensen, F. He, L.C. Roden, H. Ahmed, M. Foo (2023), "PLL-based enhanced control of Boost PFC converter for smart farming lighting application" Renewable Energy Focus, 47, pp 100502.
6. H. Mistry, D.S. Laila, M. Foo (2023), "Teaching embedded control system design of electromechanical devices using a lab-scale smart farming system", International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, doi:10.1177/03064190231190052
7. M.L. Pay, J. Christensen, F. He, L.C. Roden, H. Ahmed, M. Foo (2023), "A comparative study of FLL and PLL in boost PFC converter control for smart greenhouse farming application" Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Agrosystem Engineering, Technology & Applications, 9 Sep, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 62-67.
   
8. N.M.G. Paulino, M. Foo, T.F.A. de Greef, J. Kim, D.G. Bates (2023), "A theoretical framework for implementable nucleic acids feedback systems" Bioengineering, 10, 466.
9. I. Enebuse, B. Ibrahim, M. Foo, R.S. Matharu, H. Ahmed (2023), "An accuracy assessment of hand-eye calibration techniques in uncertain environment for vision guided robots", Proceedings of International Conference on Mechatronics, 13-15 Mar, Loughborough, UK, pp.1-6.
10. A.H. Tan, D.S. Ong, M. Foo (2022), "Estimation of battery internal resistance using built-in self-scaling method" Journal of Energy Storage, 59, 106481.
11. C. McGirk, H. Ahmed, M. Foo, A. Pike, Q. Lu, D.S. Laila (2022), "A comparative analysis of moving average filter and Kalman filter for large diesel engine test cell back-pressure control", International Journal of Engine Research, 24, pp. 3186-3196.

12. M.L Pay, J. Christensen, F. He, L. Roden, H. Ahmed, M. Foo (2022), "An extended plant circadian clock model for characterising flowering time under different light quality conditions", Proceedings of International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, 27 Nov - 1 Dec, Busan, South Korea, pp. 1848-1853.

13. I. Enebuse, B. Ibrahim, M. Foo, R.S Matharu, H. Ahmed (2022), "Accuracy evaluation of hand-eye calibration techniques for vision-guided robots", PLoS One, 17, No. 10, e0273261.

14. J. Ryan, S. Hong, M. Foo, J. Kim, X. Tang (2022), " Model-based investigation of the relationship between regulation level and pulse property of I1-FFL gene circuits", ACS Synthetic Biology, 11, 2417-2428.

15. M. Foo, L. Dony, F. He (2022), "Data-driven dynamical modelling of a pathogen-infected plant gene regulatory network: a comparative analysis" BioSystems, 219, 104732.

16. I. Kioutsoukis, M. Foo, A.H. Tan (2022), "Application of multi-input uncorrelated periodic signals for identification of active suspension system" Proceedings of Advances in Control and Optimization of Dynamical Systems, 22-25 Feb, Assam, India, pp. 229-234.
17. M.L. Pay, D.W. Kim, D.E. Somers, J.K. Kim, M. Foo (2022), "Modeling of plant circadian clock for characterizing hypocotyl growth under different light quality conditions" in Silico Plants, 4, diac001.
18. M. Foo, O.E. Akman, D.G. Bates (2022), "Restoring circadian gene profiles in clock networks using synthetic feedback control" NPJ Systems Biology and Applications, 8, 7.

Projects (on-going)

• Control theoretic framework for gene expression network.

  • Collaborators: Tea Clark (PhD Student, Warwick), Dr. Alexander Darlington (Warwick).

• Modelling and control design of aquaponic system
  • Collaborators: Keng Han Lee (PhD Student, Warwick), Prof. Declan Bates (Warwick), Prof. Dina Laila (LTU)

• Design and evaluation of synthetic RNA-based Incoherent Feed-forward Loop circuit

  • Collaborators: Prof. Jongmin Kim (POSTECH), Seongho Hong (POSTECH), Dohyun Jung (POSTECH), Prof. Xun Tang (LSU), Syead Shoaib (LSU).

• Modelling and control of diesel engine test cell exhaust pipe pressure

  • Collaborators: Colin McGurk (PhD Student, Coventry), Dr. Hafiz Ahmed (NMARC), Prof. Dina Laila (LTU), Dr. Qian Lu (Coventry), Dr. Andrew Pike (Coventry).

Grants

• £15,5k, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), [Co-I] "Improving consistency in state-of-health estimation of Lithium-Ion batteries for electric vehicle" (with Dr. Ai Hui Tan (PI), Prof. Duu Sheng Ong and Dr. Chin Leei Cham, Multimedia University), 2024-2026.
• £5.9k, Gulf University of Science Technology Seed Grant, [Co-I] "AI-Driven IoT monitoring system for combating obesity" (with Dr. Babul Ibrahim (PI), GUST, Dr. Abedalmuhdi Almoman, GUST, Dr. Muhammed Sutcu, GUST, Dr. Maram Khatib, Coventry Uni, Dr. Hisyam A. Rahman, UTHO) 2024 to 2025.
• £300k, Korea-UK Biohealth International Collaborative Research Grant, [Co-I] "Controlling pathogenic bacteria with engineered minicells carrying the toxin secretion system" (with Prof. Jinki Yeom (PI), SNU, Prof. Juhyun Kim, KNU, Prof. Jongmin Kim, POSTECH and Dr. Alexander Darlington, University of Warwick), 2024 to 2026.

• £10k, British Council UK-Brunei Higher Education Teaching and Learning Partnership Grant, [PI] "Development of shared virtual teaching and learning tools for improved quality hands-on education in system engineering" (with Dr. Dina Shona Laila, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Prof. Peter Mitchell, University of Bradford), 2022-2023.

• £14.5k, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), [Co-I] "Real-time input design method with machine learning for cyber-physical system identification" (with Dr. Ai Hui Tan (PI), Prof. Duu Sheng Ong and Dr. Chin Leei Cham, Multimedia University), 2021-2023.

• £1.05M, MRC Future Leaders Fellowship, [Co-I] "Developing a synthetic signalling system capable of the precise spatial and temporal control of protein function in living cells" (with Dr. Byron Carpenter (PI), SLS, University of Warwick), 2020-2022.

• £9.7k, MRC-KHIDI UK Korea Partnering Award [PI], "A framework for robust design of ribocomputing systems in probiotic strains for treating gastrointestinal disease" (with Dr. Jongmin Kim, POSTECH), 2019-2022.

• £12.2k, Royal Society Research Grant [PI], "Designing optimal light regulation of plant circadian systems for better crop productivity", 2018-2019.

• £27.3k, Ministry of Science and Technology Innovation of Malaysia, Science Fund [Co-I], "Multivariable identification for thermal systems" (with Dr. Ai Hui Tan (PI), Dr. Timothy Yap, Dr. Wee Ong Siew and Dr. Wooi Haw Tan, Multimedia University), 2005-2007.

• £29.3k, Ministry of Science and Technology Innovation of Malaysia, IRPA Fund [Co-I], "Identification of direction-dependent process" (with Dr. Ai Hui Tan (PI), Dr. Timothy Yap, Dr. Wee Ong Siew and Dr. Wooi Haw Tan, Multimedia University), 2002-2005.

Student Supervision

Current

• Tea Clark, PhD at University of Warwick (2024-present)
• Keng Han Lee, PhD at University of Warwick (2022-present)

• Colin McGirk, PhD at Coventry University (2020-present)

Alumni

• Miao Lin Pay, PhD, Coventry University
• Ikenna Enebuse, PhD, Coventry University

• Nuno Paulino, PhD, University of Warwick

• Aleksandra Oswiecinska, PhD, Coventry University

• Iulia Gherman, PhD, University of Warwick

• Rucha Sawlekar, PhD, University of Warwick

• Seunghyeon Kim, PhD, POSTECH