CV

Education

• Ph.D, City University of Hong Kong, 2017
  • Thesis Title: Surrogate-based Approximation of Blocking Probability in Non-hierarchical Overflow Loss Systems
  • Supervisor: Dr. Eric W. M. Wong
  • Co-supervisor: Prof. Moshe Zukerman
• M.Sc. in Multimedia Information Technology, City University of Hong Kong, 2011
• B.Math., University of Waterloo, 2010

Work experience

Research Associate (Dec. 2021-present)

• Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
• Supervisor: Prof. Ajith Parlikad
• Developed discrete-event simulation models and web dashboards for predicting hospital bed occupancy of COVID-19 patients, for capacity planning and to support recovery of selected non-Covid services.
• Current activities:
  • Develop discrete-event simulation models and web dashboards for process modelling in a histopathology lab, for KPI prediction, resource planning, and process optimisation.
  • Set the foundation for developing hospital digital twins, deepening understanding of hospital operations, asset management, and patient outcomes.

Research Associate (2020-2021), Research Fellow (2018-2020), Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2018)

• City University of Hong Kong
• Supervisor: Dr. Eric W. M. Wong
• Assisted in the writing of grant applications and project reports, especially in the area of healthcare operations management.
• Developed analytical and simulation models for the evaluation, and optimization of intensive care networks in Hong Kong and other metropolitan cities.
• Developed stochastic models for infectious disease.
• Developed simulation and analytical approximation methods for blocking probability in overflow loss system models, including machine learning-based methods, with applications in various telecommunications and service systems.
• Mentored undergraduate students on the completion of their final year projects.
• Instructed final-year undergraduate students on writing simulation programs for stochastic system models.

Co-lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (Jul-Sep 2021)

• Co-lecturer of the capstone course “Design Project” on engineering design for students in Electrical and Information Engineering.
• I was invited to co-lecture this course thanks to my previous collaboration with Prof. Anton van Wyk on epidemiological modelling for COVID-19.
• Students choosing our selected topic would need to design a simple epidemiological model for COVID-19, analyze possible tipping points leading to an out-of-control local epidemic, and design an early-warning system to avoid hitting these tipping points.

Skills

• Extensive experience with discrete-event simulation in Python (using the SimPy and salabim libraries) and Arena
• Markov-chain simulation
• Web app development using Flask and Python Dash
• Some experience in R, MATLAB, Julia, Java, C++, and SQL.
• Some experience with Docker and Docker Compose
• Document preparation with LaTeX and R bookdown

Publications

Integrating teletraffic theory with neural networks for quality-of-service evaluation in mobile networks

Y.-C. Chan, J. Wu, E.W.M. Wong, and C.S. Leung, “Integrating teletraffic theory with neural networks for quality-of-service evaluation in mobile networks”, Applied Soft Computing, Dec. 2023

A Simulation Model and Dashboard for Predicting Covid-19 Bed Requirements

Y.-C. Chan, K. Dreesbeimdiek, A. K. Parlikad, N. Matheson, B. Warne, and D. Franks, “A simulation model and dashboard for predicting Covid-19 bed requirements,” in 2023 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), (San Antonio), pp. 1232–1243, INFORMS, Dec. 2023.

Low-cost digitalisation opportunities in healthcare: a histopathology department case study

N. Moretti, A. Mukherjee, Y.-C. Chan, G. Yilmaz, J. Merino, M. Sasidharan, Z. Rosun, C. Carr, D. McFarlane, and A. K. Parlikad, “Low-cost digitalisation opportunities in healthcare: a histopathology department case study,” in Low-Cost Digital Solutions for Industrial Automation (LoDiSA 2023), (Cambridge, UK), pp. 62–68, Sept. 2023.

Healthcare process and variable mapping for identifying digitalisation opportunities and building a hospital digital twin

A. Mukherjee, N. Moretti, Y.-C. Chan, G. Yilmaz, M. Sasidharan, J. Merino, Z. Rosun, C. Carr, D. McFarlane, and A. K. Parlikad, “Healthcare process and variable mapping for identifying digitalisation opportunities and building a hospital digital twin,” in 2023 European Conference on Computing in Construction (EC3) and the 40th International CIB W78 Conference, EC3 2023, (Heraklion, Greece), European Council for Computing in Construction, July 2023.

A Century-Long Challenge in Teletraffic Theory: Blocking Probability Evaluation for Overflow Loss Systems With Mutual Overflow

E. W. M. Wong and Y.-C. Chan, “A century-long challenge in teletraffic theory: Blocking probability evaluation for overflow loss systems with mutual overflow,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 61274–61288, 2023.

Modeling the Impact of Vaccination on COVID-19 and Its Delta and Omicron Variants

J. Wang, Y.-C. Chan, R. Niu, E. W. M. Wong, and M. A. van Wyk, “Modeling the impact of vaccination on COVID-19 and its Delta and Omicron variants,” Viruses, vol. 14, p. 1482, July 2022.

A stochastic SEIHR model for COVID-19 data fluctuations

R. Niu, Y.-C. Chan, E. W. M. Wong, M. A. van Wyk, and G. Chen, “A stochastic SEIHR model for COVID-19 data fluctuations,” Nonlinear Dynamics, vol. 106, pp. 1311–1323, July 2021.

Evaluating Non-Hierarchical Overflow Loss Systems Using Teletraffic Theory and Neural Networks

Y.-C. Chan, E. W. M. Wong, and C. S. Leung, “Evaluating non-hierarchical overflow loss systems using teletraffic theory and neural networks,” IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 25, pp. 1486–1490, May 2021.

Modeling the COVID-19 Pandemic Using an SEIHR Model With Human Migration

R. Niu, E. W. M. Wong, Y.-C. Chan, M. A. Van Wyk, and G. Chen, “Modeling the COVID-19 pandemic using an SEIHR model with human migration,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 195503–195514, 2020.

Power Consumption and GoS Tradeoff in Cellular Mobile Networks With Base Station Sleeping and Related Performance Studies

J. Wu, E. W. M. Wong, Y.-C. Chan, and M. Zukerman, “Power consumption and GoS tradeoff in cellular mobile networks with base station sleeping and related performance studies,” IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, vol. 4, pp. 1024–1036, Dec. 2020.

Performance Evaluation of 5G mmWave Networks with Physical-Layer and Capacity-Limited Blocking

J. Wu, M. Wang, Y.-C. Chan, E. W. M. Wong, and T. Kim, “Performance evaluation of 5G mmWave networks with physical-layer and capacity-limited blocking,” in 2020 IEEE 21st International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR), IEEE, May 2020.

Blocking probability evaluation for non-hierarchical overflow loss systems

Y.-C. Chan and E. W. M. Wong, “Blocking probability evaluation for non-hierarchical overflow loss systems,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 66, pp. 2022–2036, May 2018.

Energy efficiency-QoS tradeoff in cellular networks with base-station sleeping

J. Wu, E. W. M. Wong, Y.-C. Chan, and M. Zukerman, “Energy efficiency-QoS tradeoff in cellular networks with base-station sleeping,” in GLOBECOM 2017 – 2017 IEEE Global Communications Conference, IEEE, Dec. 2017.

Overflow models for the admission of intensive care patients

Y.-C. Chan, E. W. M. Wong, G. Joynt, P. Lai, and M. Zukerman, “Overflow models for the admission of intensive care patients,” Health Care Management Science, vol. 21, pp. 554–572, Dec. 2018.

Surrogate models for performance evaluation of multi-skill multi-layer overflow loss systems

Y.-C. Chan, J. Guo, E. W. M. Wong, and M. Zukerman, “Surrogate models for performance evaluation of multi-skill multi-layer overflow loss systems,” Performance Evaluation, vol. 104, pp. 1–22, Oct. 2016.

Performance analysis for overflow loss systems of processor-sharing queues

Y.-C. Chan, J. Guo, E. W. M. Wong, and M. Zukerman, “Performance analysis for overflow loss systems of processor-sharing queues,” in 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), (Hong Kong), IEEE, Apr. 2015.

Preprints

Building-Information-Modelling to Discrete-Event-Simulation Integration: Towards the Development of a Space-Process Digital Twin

N. Moretti, Y.-C. Chan, M. Nakaoka, A. Mukherjee, J. Merino, and A. K. Parlikad, “Building Information Modelling to Discrete Event Simulation Integration Towards the Development of a Space-Process Digital Twin”. SSRN preprint, May 2024.

Stability analysis of an epidemic model with two competing variants and cross-infections

R. Niu, Y.-C. Chan, S. Liu, E. W. M. Wong, and M. A. van Wyk, “Stability analysis of an epidemic model with two competing variants and cross-infections,” Research Square preprint, Aug. 2023.

Improved Performance and Stability in Overflow Loss Systems via Exchange of Congestion Information

E. W. M. Wong and Y. C. Chan, “Improved performance and stability in overflow loss systems via exchange of congestion information,” TechRxiv preprint, Jan. 2023.

Talks

A Simulation Model and Dashboard for Predicting Covid-19 Bed Requirements

December 13, 2023

2023 Winter Simulation Conference, San Antonio, TX, USA

Performance analysis for overflow loss systems of processor-sharing queues

April 26, 2015

2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), Hong Kong

Patent

1. W. M. E. Wong, J. T. Wu, Y. C. Chan, and M. Zukerman, “Base station sleep mode based on power consumption and/or quality of service,” US patent US10568047B2, City University of Hong Kong, 18 Feb. 2020. (Filed 12 Jan. 2018) PDF

Continuing education

Data Science (HarvardX)

• Course provider: edX
• Nine courses on data science using the R tidyverse packages, including plotting, inference and modelling, data wrangling, and string processing.
• Program record

Epidemics – Origins, Spread, Control and Communication (HKUx)

• Course provider: edX
• Four courses on the origins, spread and control of infectious disease epidemics and effective communication about infectious diseases
• Program record