Professor Andri Andriyana is a Professor of Applied Mechanics. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as a Field Engineer at Halliburton, where he was involved in several oil and gas well cementing and stimulation projects. He obtained Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d’Aérotechnique (ENSMA) - Université de Poitiers, France, in 2003. In 2006, he was awarded Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics with Distinction from École Centrale de Nantes, France. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he served as an Assistant Professor at École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), Bordeaux, and subsequently spent two years as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux (CEMEF), École des Mines de Paris, Sophia Antipolis. Professor Andriyana joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaya, in 2009 as a Senior Lecturer. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016 and to Full Professor in 2023. To date, he has secured approximately USD 5 Million in funding, including grants for research, European mobility, and capacity-building initiatives in higher education from both public and private sectors. Since 2013, he has been a registered Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), United Kingdom. His awards and recognitions include the Bourse du Gouvernement Français Scholarship (2002-2003), the Allocation de Recherche Scholarship (2003-2006), the Mahar Schützenberger Prize (2005), the European Interweave Erasmus Mundus Fellowship (2014), UM Sijil Perkhidmatan Cemerlang Award (2011, 2016 and 2020), the Indonesia World Class Professor Fellowship (2017) and UM Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang Award 2022. Professor Andriyana has held several academic leadership roles, including Head of the Master of Materials Engineering Program (2013–2019), Deputy Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Engineering (2019–2021), and Director of the International Relations Centre, Universiti Malaya (2023–2025). His research interests focus on mechanical testing, constitutive modeling, and finite element simulation of deformation, degradation, fracture, fatigue and failure in materials including solid polymers, elastomers, metal alloys, composites and soft biological tissues.

Mohd Razip Bajuri received his PhD from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Mathematics Education. He is now Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, University of Malaya (UM). His research area is in Mathematics education, focusing on mathematical modelling, creativity, innovation and metacognition using quantitative and qualitative research methodology.

Started his research career in the think tank sector, Dr. Lee Chee Leong (Karl) is attracted to the rise of non-traditional diplomacy in the international order today. Such appeal has taken Dr. Lee into new research horizons that started with his Monash University's doctoral research on the Chinese sub-state diplomacy in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. With constructive supervision by Professor Helen Nesadurai and Associate Professor Kuik Cheng Chwee, Dr. Lee completed his doctoral thesis that unravels how a faraway and least developed sub-state of Guangxi managed to overcome its own hurdles, navigate the complexities within the Chinese state and become the frontline actor in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. Following his doctoral completion, Dr. Lee's research on non-traditional diplomacy has expanded into Taiwan’s quasi-state diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Such quest has led him spending at great length in comprehending the concept of soft power, a concept that finds its relevance to Taiwan, which has no official diplomatic with Southeast Asia but is heavily connected to the region and has to rely on soft power in its engagements with these Southeast Asian nations. Taking Malaysia as the first case study of Taiwan's soft power in the region, Dr. Lee is developing the third intervening variable correlating both Taiwanese soft power resources and outcomes, in his course of providing a dynamical explanation for such phenomenon. For the coming years, his research focus and publications will be on the different areas featuring Taiwan-Malaysia and Taiwan-Southeast Asia cooperation such as digital social innovation (DSI) for climate change, industry-based education/training programmes, smart cities, tourism, digital democracy, agriculture, public health and medicine, ornamental aquaculture and aquascape. To date, Dr. Lee was the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships in Malaysia and overseas: University of Malaya’s Graduate Fellowship (2010-2011); Monash University’s Merit Scholarship (2016-2019); Chinese Government Scholarship (2018-2019); and Taiwan Fellowship (2020). Prior to his appointment as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of China Studies (ICS), he was the Visiting Scholar at Guangxi University for Nationalities (GXUN) (2018-10992019), Taiwan Fellow at National Chengchi University (NCCU) (2020) and Associate Fellow at ICS UM (2016-2019).He welcomes any potential PhD candidate who would like to work on Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, Taiwan's soft power in Southeast Asia and Taiwan-Malaysia DSI cooperation for climate change. He is also willing to discuss with potential doctoral candidates on proposals related to the Chinese sub-state (provincial) diplomacy toward ASEAN, China's soft power in ASEAN, Southeast Asian sub-state diplomacy, comparative cases of sub-state diplomacy around the world and conceptual innovation of sub-state diplomacy as well as soft power.