Soon Lay Ki

Soon Lay Ki is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Technology, Monash University Malaysia, where she also serves as Associate Head (Graduate Research) since November 2018. Her academic journey began with roles at Multimedia University (MMU), where she was a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) from 2016 to 2018.

• PhD in Web Engineering, Soongsil University, Korea
• Master of Science in Database, Universiti Putra Malaysia
• Bachelor of Computer Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Her research centers on applied natural language processing and data management, with a focus on analyzing domain-specific and social media content. Her work spans aspect-based sentiment analysis, cyberbullying detection, misinformation detection, and relation extraction from conversational texts. Recently, her research has expanded into digital health, particularly emotion-aware mental health chatbots and emotion detection via video data.

The most recent articles highlight a strong trend in AI for social good, including legal reasoning, mental health, accessibility, and public health. Her publications appear in high-impact journals and conferences such as Artificial Intelligence and Law, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, and ACL-affiliated workshops.

She has received notable scientific awards, including:

• ITEX'24 Silver Award for 'MOBOT' mental health chatbot (2024)
• Silver Medal at Malaysia Technology Expo 2023 for the same innovation
• The Incubator Grant: Bolster Category (2023)

Dr. Soon has graduated seven PhD and three Master’s students, one of whom received the MMU Best Master Thesis Award in 2015. She leads multiple research grants, including FRGS-funded projects and industry collaborations with Telekom Malaysia and Intel. She is currently a Chief Investigator or Primary Chief Investigator on six active projects, including WHinc, WAge, and Epsilon, often in collaboration with Monash Australia and SEACO.

She is part of key research teams such as the Action Lab at Monash University Australia and the South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO), contributing to inclusive research infrastructure and public health data access initiatives.