Gary Tan Soon Huat

Gary Tan Soon Huat serves as Associate Professor (Educator Track) and Vice-Dean of Student Life at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing, Department of Computer Science. With over three decades of continuous service since 1990, he has established himself as a leading educator and researcher in parallel and distributed systems.

His educational background includes a B.Sc (1st class Honours) from NUS, followed by M.Sc and Ph.D degrees from the University of Manchester, UK. As a pioneer in NUS's Direct Honours Programme, his academic journey reflects deep institutional commitment.

Tan's research focuses on parallel and distributed computing, symbiotic simulation, and traffic and crisis management simulation. His work bridges theoretical computer science with practical applications in disaster response systems, where he develops frameworks that analyze real-life video feeds to model human movement during emergencies. This research has evolved from foundational work on High Level Architecture and Data Distribution Management to current innovations like the Conscious Movement Model (CMM) that extracts behavioral patterns from CCTV footage.

His publication record spans nearly three decades, showing a clear evolution from neighborhood-based multiprocessor scheduling to sophisticated GPU-accelerated traffic simulations and crisis management frameworks. The research demonstrates consistent focus on distributed systems while adapting to emerging technologies like deep learning and GPU computing.

• ASIASIM FELLOW 2016
• NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Awards (03/04, 04/05, 06/07)
• School Teaching Excellence Awards (1999, 2002, 2016)
• Faculty of Science Teaching Awards (1992, 1998)
• ATEA Honour Roll 2008

As an educator, Tan has supervised PhD candidates Wang Chengxin and Muhammad Shalihin bin Othman, focusing on pedestrian movement analysis during crises. His leadership extends beyond research to academic service, including roles as Program Chair of DSRT 2016, Conference Co-chair of SIMUTOOLS 2016, and President of both the Society of Simulation and Gaming of Singapore and the ASIASIM federation. His administrative contributions include serving as Master of Sheares Hall (2003-2013) and current Vice-Dean of Student Life.

Tan leads the Modelling and Simulation Group within NUS's Computer Systems Lab, collaborating internationally with KTH (Sweden), FOI (Swedish Defence Research Agency), SMART, and Beihang University. His team's work bridges academic research with practical applications in transportation systems and emergency response planning.