Rate My Professor Sharon Yee

Dr. Sharon Yee Jia Huey is a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at Curtin University Malaysia. She completed her PhD at Curtin University in 2016 from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Her doctoral thesis, titled 'Consolidation of peat and organic soil using electro-osmosis treatment,' investigated the use of electro-osmosis to enhance the consolidation of peat and organic soils. Electro-osmosis, an electrokinetic process where water moves through soil under an electrical field, was shown to reduce moisture content and increase undrained shear strength in these challenging soil types. The research highlighted its potential as a ground improvement technique, particularly for areas with soft soils like those in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Prior to her PhD completion, Sharon Yee contributed to the field as a PhD student, co-authoring the 2012 paper 'Electro-Osmotic Consolidation Experiments for Improvement of Soft Soils of Sarawak.' The study utilized laboratory experiments on organic soil from North Sarawak, employing prefabricated electric vertical drains as electrodes with incremental voltage gradients. After eight days of treatment, significant decreases in water content and increases in shear strength were observed, demonstrating the method's viability for accelerating soil stabilization in peat-covered coastal regions essential for road infrastructure development. Supervisors for her PhD included Muthuramalingam Jayakumar, Kwong Soon Wong, and Muhammad Ekhlasur Rahman. In her teaching role, Dr. Yee has organized educational site visits for engineering students to key civil projects, including the Kuching Barrage and Shiplock and the Kuching Centralised Sewerage Treatment Plant. She noted that these visits 'greatly enrich the students’ learning experience as they give them a real-world perspective of civil engineering projects.' Additionally, she has been involved in industrial collaborations, BIM proficiency training with CIDB, and the first Borneo BIM Symposium in 2019, supervising student projects. She holds a BEng (Hons).