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The Department of Computer Science serves a core teaching unit for DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore’s Bachelor of Science programs. The department offers a breadth of courses that focus on a wide range of both foundational topics, such as introductory computer programming in core languages, as well as advanced computer science applications including artificial intelligence and graphics development. Department faculty bring years of professional and academic experience to the classroom, with cross-disciplinary backgrounds that include work in the games industry, software engineering, research and development, and electrical engineering.

Department Faculty

Swavek Wlodkowski

Department Chair
Senior Lecturer, Program Manager (Continuing Education)

Swavek Wlodkowski graduated from Opole University of Technology, Poland, with a Master of Science in Computer Engineering degree in 2008. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Capital Management from Singapore Human Resource Institute, and a WSQ Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment from the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore, both obtained in 2017.

Based in Singapore, Swavek performed duties as a senior software engineer by developing and maintaining software products. He also assisted in delivering integrated solutions to several major companies—primarily from the petroleum and the mining industries—for many years, prior to joining DigiPen (Singapore) in late 2017.

At DigiPen (Singapore), Swavek is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and is responsible for managing programs for the Continuing Education courses.

Dr. Xin Li

Dean of Faculty
Professor

Dr. Xin Li serves as the Dean of Faculty at DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore. Aside from his academic and administrative duties, he has also taught animation, modeling, and real-time rendering techniques.

Prior to his faculty position at DigiPen, Li had seven years of experience with Lockheed Martin and three years of experience at Nintendo Software Technology, developing real-time simulation software and video games.

Over the years, Li has published 35 technical papers in research journals and conference proceedings, including at SIGGRAPH and in Transactions, the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) academic journal. He is also the co-author of eight registered U.S. patents.

Elie Hosry

Principal Lecturer

Elie Hosry graduated from Lebanese University of Beirut with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2000. Following graduation, he joined DigiPen to begin working on the development of in-house game engines and tools.

Elie has served as a senior software engineer in the Research and Development department. He is also part of DigiPen’s curriculum development and the director of the Academic Support Center, which helps freshmen students with issues related to any given course.

Elie is a principal lecturer and teaches computer science courses and video game development classes.

Dr. Prabhu Natarajan

Assistant Professor

Dr. Prabhu Natarajan received his Ph.D. in computer science from National University of Singapore in 2013. He has a master’s degree in computer science and bachelor’s degree in information technology from Anna University in India. Before joining DigiPen, he was a research fellow at SeSaMe Research Centre, National University of Singapore (NUS). During his doctorate studies, he was a teaching assistant for various undergraduate modules in the School of Computing, NUS.

Prabhu’s research interests lie in multi-camera surveillance, multimedia systems, and image processing. He has published his research findings in top conferences and journals, and he was the winner of the Best Ph.D. Forum Paper Award at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC 2012) in Hong Kong. He also won the Research Achievement Award from the School of Computing, NUS. He was a university topper and gold medalist in his master’s degree program.

Prabhu is passionate about teaching and interacting with students. During his free time, he enjoys fishkeeping and DIY projects.

Dr. William Zheng Shou Kang

Assistant Professor

Dr. William Zheng received his M.Eng and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from National University of Singapore (NUS), and his B.Eng in information and controlling engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Before joining DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore in 2016, he was a scientist at A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research and held various positions in the industrial companies as an R&D engineer and product design engineer.

William’s research interests lie in the field of computer and communication networks, especially in wireless networks. He has actively participated in the standardization of IEEE 802.11ah. He also has a strong interest in applying his research findings toward real-world problems and has developed more than 14 international patents in the U.S. and Singapore.

William has won the Best Paper Award for his research in IEEE at VTC2011-Spring and the Best Research Paper Award from the Institute for Infocomm Research in 2012.

William currently teaches in the areas of low-level programming and computer networks. He enjoys talking with students about real-world systems and network applications.

Dr. Vadim Surov

Associate Professor

Dr. Vadim Surov received his Ph.D. in computer science and master’s degree in applied mathematics from Far-East State University, Russia. Before joining DigiPen (Singapore) in 2009, he held various positions within the industry and academia, including R&D work in South Korea under a government program. Since 2009, he has held a senior lecturer position in an educational partner program with DigiPen Institute of Technology and Keimyung University in South Korea.

Vadim currently teaches computer graphics and programming courses while researching the application of modern computing environments in education.

Dr. Xiao Pengdong

Associate Professor

Dr. Xiao Pengdong holds two Ph.D. degrees: one in information engineering (major in computer vision and robotics) from The Australian National University, Australia; and the other in mechanical engineering from the State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission (SKLMT) at Chongqing University, China. He also has two master’s degrees, the first in computer science and the second in robotics. Prior to his faculty position at DigiPen (Singapore), he was a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, focusing on research in computer vision and deep learning for smart digital towers in air traffic management (ATM). Previously, he had many years of experience in both academia and the software industries in the U.S., Australia, and Singapore, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Data61, A*Star I2R, Sybase, and Motorola.

Pengdong’s research interests include computer vision, machine learning, medical image analysis, computer graphics and robotics. He is actively exploring the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and computing in 1) biology, medicine, and dentistry: cell tracking, human brain (hippocampus) and craniofacial shape analysis, and feature tracking in cardiovascular diagnosis; 2) finance, banking, and gaming; and 3) the mechanical, automotive, and aerospace engineering fields: robotics, autonomous driving, and ATM. At the same time, he is also actively investigating the intersection and interplay of AI (vision and learning), video games, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Beyond these, his other strong interests include vision-based perception in mobile robots/autonomous driving/unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and ATM with deep learning: object detection and tracking (2D computer vision) and visual SLAM (3D computer vision). Some of his research has been published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (TIP), IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (JTEHM), and Nature Methods.

Pengdong enjoys interacting with students and sharing his knowledge and experience acquired during his research career while working in academic institutions and industry. Currently, he teaches courses in computer vision and machine learning.

Dr. Liu Fang

Associate Professor

Dr. Liu Fang received her Ph.D. in computer science and master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Before joining DigiPen (Singapore) in 2017, she was an associate professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Her research interests lie in machine learning and pattern recognition. She enjoys talking with students about any topics related to artificial intelligence.

Fang currently teaches algorithm analysis, database, and programming courses while researching machine learning in games.

Howard Sin Yee Howe

Lecturer

Howard Sin graduated from DigiPen (Singapore) with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation in 2013.

After graduating, Howard joined the local games industry as a software engineer at Lambdamu Games where he worked on Pixel People and Dice Soccer League (now Dice Soccer City) and rose to the position of senior engineer. He left in 2015 to form his own game company, 4EVA Studios, where he developed I Wanna be a Hero and worked on various commercial projects. While running his own studio, he made forays into the education sector as a programming lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Interactive & Digital Media. While there, he taught programming, computer graphics, game development techniques, and artificial intelligence. He also served as a technical lead at Jules Ventures, an education technology company championing computational thinking, before returning to his alma mater in 2018.

Howard currently teaches programming modules for the undergraduate courses, where he hopes to inspire the next generation of developers, and also works on DigiPen (Singapore)’s Continuing Education courses.

Angeline Tan Siok Hoon

Lecturer

After graduating out of Charles Sturt University, Australia in 2008 with a BSc in Computer Science in Games Technology (Honours), Angeline Tan Siok Hoon’s first project was working on Diva Dancers, part of the Diva Girls Nintendo DS game series for Europe.

In 2011, she completed her WSQ Diploma in Digital Visual Effects & Animation and was hired by One Animation as its Pipeline Technical Director, working on the International Emmy-Nominated Oddbods and Insectibles.

While furthering her studies in Germany’s Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (Faculty of Technology and Bionics), she was offered the opportunity to help improve the teaching of programming modules by the faculty’s professors while earning her second BSc in Electronics Engineering. She joined the faculty at DigiPen (Singapore) in 2020.

Priyanka Hriday Bhoyar

Lecturer

Priyanka Bhoyar received her master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering with distinction and bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Nagpur University, India. She also holds a postgraduate diploma in Data Science and Engineering from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Bangalore. Before joining DigiPen (Singapore), she worked in the IT industry as a data scientist in sectors such as healthcare and e-commerce. Prior to that, she also worked as an assistant professor in India.

Priyanka’s research interests lie in Networking, Image Processing, and Machine Learning. She has published research papers in top international journals and conferences. She also received a best faculty award during her academic experience.

Priyanka is passionate about teaching. At DigiPen (Singapore), she teaches Python, Data Structure, Databases, and Machine Learning.

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