Dr. Lau Cher Han is a Data Scientist and Full-Stack Developer who had spent the last 10 years in Australia. With 15 years of experience in software development, database technologies, data mining and analytics under his belt, Dr. Lau’s background includes problem solving, apps development and research experience in some of the top-notch tech companies around the region. Dr. Lau has since return to Malaysia and continues to teach at universities as well as provide training to various industry corporations.
A graduate of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Dr. Lau holds a Doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Information Technology, a Master of Information Technology by Research, and a Bachelor of Information Technology (with a major in database). For his postgraduate studies, Dr. Lau received a full scholarship and tuition fee waiver.
Dr. Lau represented the country and emerged as the World Champion during the Microsoft Office Expert competition in 2006, where he used Microsoft Excel functions and macros to create innovative solutions for real world data problems. Dr. Lau also developed large-scale web and mobile applications using backend frameworks from Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET together with SQL Server and MongoDB.
On the academic side, Dr. Lau’s research interest mainly revolves around the area of text mining and big data analysis. While undertaking his PhD, Dr. Lau researched a machine learning model that detects news topics from Twitter, using text mining, sentiment analysis and organic metrics. Some Australian media companies have used this model to build systems that present topics to support news editor’s decision-making process.
During his stay in Australia, Dr. Lau worked as a lead research developer at the Microsoft e-Research center. He built a sensor network platform that utilizes mobile phones to record audio signals for detecting rare bird species and koalas. Dr. Lau then joined the Australian Institute of Future Environments to build a Greenhouse Gas Analysis System, which collects, analyzes and publishes data automatically. Recently, Dr. Lau co-founded and served as the CTO for JoinHappen.com, where he designed the technology blueprints and drove product development.
Upon his return to Malaysia, he now teaches software engineering and big data subjects at universities, as well as provides training to various industry corporations. Dr. Lau applies his 15 years of experience in software development, database technologies, data mining and analytics to provide consultancy on data strategy for companies in various sectors including travel, finance and technology startups.