On October 24, 2025, Professor Ng How Yong from Beijing Normal University delivered an academic report titled “The Development and Application of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in Water Treatment” for the teachers and students of our institute. The report was held in the E202 meeting room of the School of Environment and was presided over by Vice Dean Zuo Xiaojun of the school. More than 40 teachers and students attended the report.

Ng How Yong (Huang Haoyong), Professor/Academician, Doctoral Supervisor, Academician of the Singapore Academy of Engineering, Cheung Kong Scholar Chair Professor, Professor at Beijing Normal University, recipient of the Special Government Allowance from the State Council, and concurrently Honorary Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is an internationally renowned scholar in the field of water security and water reuse. He serves as an editor for the top international journal in the water environment field, Water Research, and as an editorial board member for several SCI journals. He is also the Chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Membrane Technology Expert Committee, an IWA Fellow, a member of the IWA Publishing Committee, and a Distinguished Member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He has previously served as the Director of the Environmental Research Institute at the National University of Singapore and the Director of the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Laboratory. He has received international awards such as the IWA Asia-Pacific Project Innovation Award, the Singapore Academy of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Achievement Award, and the NUS Engineering Leadership Award. He has long been engaged in theoretical research and technological transformation in the field of wastewater treatment and reuse. In recent years, he has led nearly 40 scientific research projects at various levels, with a total funding of over 400 million RMB. He has published more than 220 high-level SCI journal papers, contributed to more than 10 academic monographs, and holds 8 authorized international PCT patents. He has been selected as one of the world's top 2% scientists.

Professor Ng How Yong first focused on the development of innovative digital water plant models. He conducted an in-depth analysis of the key issues that water plants urgently need to address. He elaborated on the significant challenges faced by wastewater treatment plants—high energy consumption and low operational efficiency—and cited the current status and trends of wastewater treatment both domestically and internationally. Professor Ng proposed that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can break through the bottleneck of these challenges. He explained the development and application of AI in the digitalization of wastewater treatment plants. By combining mechanistic models with machine learning models, he established a hybrid model-based prediction model for wastewater pollutants and introduced its application in Singapore's wastewater treatment plants. In addition, Professor Ng developed relevant models to predict the fouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, further demonstrating the great potential of hybrid models in optimizing energy and chemical usage in wastewater treatment plants. Professor Ng pointed out that the future direction of environmental digitalization will focus on the application of large language models (LLMs) and elaborated on their potential in the environmental field. He emphasized that multimodal models will play an important role and provided new ideas and directions for the future development of environmental digitalization.

After the report, the teachers and students of our institute had an in-depth exchange and discussion with Professor Ng How Yong on issues such as the combination of hybrid models and reverse osmosis membrane processes, the application of hybrid models in emerging pollutants, and the technical requirements of the models. The academic atmosphere at the report was very strong. It enhanced the students' understanding and awareness of the application of artificial intelligence and large language models in addressing environmental issues.