Jeffrey T.K.V. Koh
Profile
Biography
Jeffrey, a transdisciplinary experiential designer, has spent most of his life in Toronto, Canada but has had the opportunity to live, work, and study in numerous global cities such as Sydney, Zurich, London, Rotterdam, Berlin, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo.
With his diverse background and expertise, Jeffrey has worked on a range of projects including catwalk and fashion show designs for PRADA, advertising and gallery curation for KesselsKramer, and architecture and exhibition design for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture / Rem Koolhaas.
As a practising artist, Jeffrey has showcased his work in prestigious venues such as the Barbican and Southbank Centre in London, the Singapore Design Festival, and in galleries located in Munster, Berlin, Vienna, Crete, Tokyo, among other world-class venues.
Jeffrey has studied Semiotics and Fashion Photography and obtained his BFA in Monumental Kunst from the Aki Academy of Art and Design (ArtEZ) in Enschede, the Netherlands, as well as an MA in Creative Practice for Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, United Kingdom. He also earned a d.MBA in business design in 2021.
Moreover, Jeffrey's research interests have focused on various topics related to HCI, HRI, interactivity, and transdisciplinary experimental creative practice. He obtained his PhD from the National University of Singapore and was a visiting research scholar at Keio University in Japan.
Previously, Jeffrey served as the UX Lead at the National Gallery Singapore, a Peer of the Australia Council for the Arts, a faculty Lecturer at UNSW, Vice President of Transmedia at Villains, and a Partner at Chemistry. He currently serves as an Advisory Board Member at Chemistry, as well as Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Design, is a founding member of the World Economic Forum Singapore Chapter, and is an Associate Professor at SIT, focusing on regenerative design and the circular economy.
SIT Appointments
- Head, Design Factory @ Singapore Institute of Technology (DF@SIT)– Present
Education
- d.MBAd.MBA , Germany
- PhD Integrative Sciences & EngineeringNational University of Singapore , Singapore
- MA Narrative EnvironmentsUniversity of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins , United Kingdom
- BFA Monumental KunstArtEZ: The Aki , Netherlands
Achievements
- Grant: NYC Play it Forward, 2024 - $50,000 SGD
- Grant: MOE-TRF Cultivating Entrepreneurial Readiness with a Conversational AI bot in an Interdisciplinary Design Innovation University-wide Module, 2024 - $194,000 SGD
- Grant: European Union MIT Grant for Circular Economy on the Blockchain, 2020 - €210,000 EUR–
- Grant: IMDA Blockchain Challenge for Circular Economy on the Blockchain, 2019 - $50,000 SGD–
- Patent: Kitchen Media | JP 5890976 | Japan Application No. 2011-156175 | Japan Patent No. 5890976
- Grant: Transmedia Storytelling and Design MOOC, UNSW Strategic Education Funding initiative, 2015 - $300,000 AUD–
- Grant: Tormach PCNC 1100 CNC Mill for Prototyping and Short Run Production of Robot Components and Metal Objects, MREII Scheme, RG134861, 2014 - $30,000 AUD–
- Award: 4th NGS Symposium Best Presenter–
- Award: James Cook University My Research in 3 Minutes Competition Silver Prize–
- Award: Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE2010) Creative Showcase Golden Award–
- Patent: US Provisional Patent Application No. 61/382,374 | Liquid Interfaces - A Malleable Interface Using Direct Interaction for 3D Representation–
- Scholarship: NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering Scholarship (NGS)–
Professional Certification
- Advanced Certificate in Learning & Performance (ACLP)Institute for Adult Learning
- Certificate in Foundations of University Learning & Teaching (FULT)University of New South Wales
Corporate Experience
- Certified Facilitator (White Belt), Climate FreskPresent
- Advisory Board Member, Chemistry Team Pte. Ltd.Present
- Founding Member, New Champions Singapore Chapter, World Economic ForumPresent
- Trainer, CIRCOPresent
- Advisory Committee Member, School of Design & Environment, Ngee Ann PolytechnicPresent
- Partner & Director of Transformation, Chemistry Team Pte. Ltd.–
- Assistant Director, National Gallery Singapore–
- Peer of the Australia Council for the Arts–
- Faculty Lecturer, UNSW–
- Creative Office Manager & Curator, KesselsKramer–
- Exhibition Designer, Office for Metropolitan Architecture–
Research
Research Interests
-
Experimental Creative Practice
Experimental creative practice is an approach that involves exploring new techniques, materials, or methods to generate innovative and original works. It is characterized by a willingness to take risks, challenge established norms, and push the boundaries of what is considered "traditional" or "conventional" in a particular field.
-
Design Thinking
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving and innovation that emphasizes empathy, creativity, and collaboration. It is a methodology that can be applied to a wide range of challenges, from product design to organizational change.
-
Circular Economy
A circular economy is an economic system that aims to eliminate waste and promote sustainability by keeping resources in use for as long as possible. In a circular economy, resources are reused, repaired, refurbished, and recycled, rather than being discarded after a single use.
-
Regenerative Design
Regenerative design is an approach to designing and creating built environments, products, services and experiences that seek to create sustainable and resilient systems that actively contribute to the health and well-being of people and the planet. Regenerative design goes beyond just minimizing harm to the environment but aims to actually improve it by creating designs that regenerate natural systems, support biodiversity, and reduce waste and emissions.
-
Cultural Robotics
Cultural robotics is a field of robotics that explores the interaction between robots and culture. It seeks to design robots that can not only perform tasks and interact with humans but also understand and respect cultural norms, values, and practices.
Current Projects
- Portfolio– Present
For a list of Jeffrey's projects, please visit www.ChemistryTeam.com.
Publication
Journal Papers
Kening Zhu, Hideaki Nii, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Karin Aue, Adrian David Cheok, Designing Interactive Paper-Craft Systems with Selective Inductive Power Transmission, Interacting with Computers, Volume 25, Issue 2, March 2013, Pages 143–153, https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iws019
Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Mili John Tharakan, Owen Noel Newton Fernando, Adrian David Cheok, AmbiKraf Byobu: Merging Technology with Traditional Craft, Interacting with Computers, Volume 25, Issue 2, March 2013, Pages 173–182, https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iws013
Valino Koh, J. T. K., Zhu, K., Karunanayaka, K., Polydorou, D., Peiris, R. L., & Nakatsu, R. (2013). Characterizing the analog-like and digital-like attributes of interactive systems. Communication Design Quarterly, 1(2), 8–36. https://doi.org/10.1145/2448926.2448928
Roland Aigner, Daniel Wigdor, Hrvoje Benko, Michael Haller, David Lindbauer, Alexandra Ion, Shengdong Zhao, and JTKV Koh. 2012. Understanding mid-air hand gestures: A study of human preferences in usage of gesture types for hci. Technical Report TechReport MSR-TR2012--111. Microsoft Research.
Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Kasun Karunanayaka, Jose Sepulveda, Mili John Tharakan, Manoj Krishnan, and Adrian David Cheok. 2011. Liquid interface: a malleable, transient, direct-touch interface. Comput. Entertain. 9, 2, Article 7 (July 2011), 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/1998376.1998378
Conferences
Sng, C., Teo, K., Chan, J., Jabry, B., Aue, K., Koh, J. (2021). #HBLTable: A Cost-Effective Study-From-Home Furniture Solution for Low-Income Families Impacted by COVID-19. In: Shin, C.S., Di Bucchianico, G., Fukuda, S., Ghim , YG., Montagna, G., Carvalho, C. (eds) Advances in Industrial Design. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 260. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80829-7_50
Teo, K., Koh, J.T.K.V., Wong, K., Aue, K., Chan, J., Jabry, B. (2021). BossUP! Assessing Potential Hiring Candidates During the Interview Process via an Innovation Diagnostics Card Game. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R.S., Ho, A.G., Luximon, Y. (eds) Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 276. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80094-9_43
Jabry, B., Aue, K., Chan, J., Koh, J.T.K.V. (2019). Developing a User Interface for an Ultrasound Device Designed for Midwives and General Health Practitioners Situated in Low Resource Nations and Communities. In: Lamas, D., Loizides, F., Nacke, L., Petrie, H., Winckler, M., Zaphiris, P. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2019. INTERACT 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11749. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29390-1_44
Rosenberg, E., Haeusler, H., & Koh, J. (2015). From Bob the Builder to Baxter the Builder. CAADRIA Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2015.085
Koh, J.T.K.V., Zhu, K., Peiris, R.L., Tharakan, M.J., Nakatsu, R. (2013). A Hierarchy of Needs for Developing Interactive Artworks, Systems and Products. In: Stephanidis, C. (eds) HCI International 2013 - Posters’ Extended Abstracts. HCI 2013. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 374. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39476-8_55
Koh, J.T.K.V., Karunanayaka, K., Nakatsu, R. (2013). Linetic: Technical, Usability and Aesthetic Implications of a Ferrofluid-Based Organic User Interface. In: Kotzé, P., Marsden, G., Lindgaard, G., Wesson, J., Winckler, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2013. INTERACT 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8119. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40477-1_11
Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Kening Zhu, Doros Polydorou, and Ryohei Nakatsu. 2012. Uncovering analogness and digitalness in interactive media. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM international conference on Design of communication (SIGDOC '12). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 233–242. https://doi.org/10.1145/2379057.2379103
Koh, J. T. K. V., Peiris, R. L., Zhu, K., Polydorou, D., & Nakatsu, R. (2012). Uncovering analogness and digitalness in interactive media. Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1145/2379057.2379103
Teh, J. K. S., Tsai, Z., Koh, J. T. K. V., & Cheok, A. D. (2012). Mobile implementation and user evaluation of the Huggy Pajama system. 2012 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS). https://doi.org/10.1109/haptic.2012.6183833
Samani, H.A., Koh, J.T.K.V., Saadatian, E., Polydorou, D. (2012). Towards Robotics Leadership: An Analysis of Leadership Characteristics and the Roles Robots Will Inherit in Future Human Society. In: Pan, JS., Chen, SM., Nguyen, N.T. (eds) Intelligent Information and Database Systems. ACIIDS 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7197. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28490-8_17
Jun Wei, Adrian David Cheok, Xavier Roman Martinez, Remi Tache, Yongsoon Choi, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Xuan Wang, and Qing Zhu. 2011. FoodGenie: play with your food edible interface for communication and entertainment. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Emerging Technologies (SA '11). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 23, 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/2073370.2073392
Karunanayaka, K., Koh, J.T.K.V., Naik, E.B., Cheok, A.D. (2011). Hall Effect Sensing Input and Like Polarity Haptic Feedback in the Liquid Interface System. In: , et al. Ambient Intelligence. AmI 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7040. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25167-2_16
Jun Wei, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Xuan Wang, Yongsoon Choi, Xavier Roman Martinez, Remi Tache, Veronica Halupka, and Adrian David Cheok. 2011. Food Media: exploring interactive entertainment over telepresent dinner. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE '11). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 26, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/2071423.2071455
Jun Wei, Xuan Wang, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Yongsoon Choi, Xavier Roman Martinez, Remi Tache, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Veronica Halupka, and Adrian David Cheok. 2011. CoDine: an interactive multi-sensory system for remote dining. In Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Ubiquitous computing (UbiComp '11). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/2030112.2030116
Adrian David Cheok, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, and Owen Noel Newton Fernando. 2011. Mixed reality lab Singapore: a genealogy of lab projects employing the blue sky innovation research methodology. In Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '11). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/1958824.1958828
Aghaebrahimi Samani, H., Cheok, A.D., Tharakan, M.J., Koh, J., Fernando, N. (2011). A Design Process for Lovotics. In: Lamers, M.H., Verbeek, F.J. (eds) Human-Robot Personal Relationships. HRPR 2010. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 59. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19385-9_15
Choi, Y., Cheok, A. D., Halupka, V., Sepulveda, J., Peris, R., Koh, J., Xuan, W., Jun, W., Dilrukshi, A., Tomoharu, Y., Kamata, M., Kato, D., & Yamada, K. (2010). Flavor visualization: Taste guidance in co-cooking system for coexistence. 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality - Arts, Media, and Humanities. https://doi.org/10.1109/ismar-amh.2010.5643293
Books
KOH, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino. Experience Designers and Their Roles as Researchers and Practitioners in the Academic and Commercial Fields. International SERIES on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia (CreMedia), [S.l.], n. 2017/1, p. 135-174, dec. 2017. ISSN 2341-5576.
Koh, J. T. K. V., Dunstan, B. J., Silvera-Tawil, D., & Velonaki, M. (Eds.). (2016). Cultural Robotics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42945-8
Davies, A., & Koh, J. (2015). Häusliches Glück: A Case Study on Deception in a Mixed Reality Environment. Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-52-8_18-1
Koh, J.T.K.V. (2023). The Future of Non-fungible Tokens: PNFTs as a Medium for Programmatic Art Enabling a Fully Realized AI-Driven Art Ecosystem. In: Dunstan, B.J., Koh, J.T.K.V., Turnbull Tillman, D., Brown, S.A. (eds) Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_6
Koh, J.T.K.V., Dunstan, B.J. (2023). Emergent Cultural Ecologies in Social Robotics. In: Dunstan, B.J., Koh, J.T.K.V., Turnbull Tillman, D., Brown, S.A. (eds) Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9_1
Dunstan, B. J., Koh, J. T. K. V., Tillman, D. T., Brown, S. A., (2023). Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28138-9
Teaching
Teaching Modules
University Modules
- UDE1001 - Introduction to Design Innovation
- UDE2001 - Interdisciplinary Design Innovation
Past
- DCIM1022 - Introduction to Interactive Media
- DCIM2022 - Innovative Interactive Media