Wai-Yin Ng received his BA in 1985 (specializing in control and operational research) and PhD in 1989 (specializing in computer-aided control system design), both from the University of Cambridge, U.K. Being a professed interdisciplinary researcher, he focuses not on a single area or topic but rather on a general concern of human intelligence and its enhancement. He has been interested in understanding the human visual system from a computational perspective, with a view to teaching the computer how to code, process and display visual information with good intelligence. This interest has since broadened to a fascination with natural intelligence, and mining of fundamental principles therein that are useful in engineering. His current focus is complex networks, a young vibrant science concerned with connectivity, complexity and emergent phenomena in both natural and artificial systems.

He believes good engineering should be like architecture or economics, rather than physics or mathematics. It is not technology per se - not about computers, not about networks, not any artifacts. It is about man’s environment and its improvement. He is interested in consulting and keen to realize worthwhile engineering feats, including software systems, start-up companies and online communities.