Adrian David Cheok

Adrian David Cheok is an Australian electrical engineer and academic. He is a professor at in Tokyo, Japan. In the 2019 federal election, he ran to represent the Division of Boothby as a member of the far-right Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party.

Early life and education Cheok was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. He obtained a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) in 1992, and PhD in Engineering in 1998 from the University of Adelaide.

Career

Academic In 2004, Cheok developed Human Pacman, an early augmented reality game. In 2005, he created the Poultry Internet project which used a customised haptic jacket to allow him to remotely hug a chicken.

In 2015, Cheok and his students created Scentee, a device which allowed individuals to transmit fragrances via smartphones with the installed device and aroma cartridges. He has also performed research on taste simulation. In 2016, Cheok and student Emma Yang Zhang co-created Kissenger, a device which allows people to remotely transmit the physical sensation of kissing.

Cheok is a professor at

Conferences Cheok was a general co-chair of David Levy's Love and Sex with Robots conference. Its 2015 conference in Malaysia was cancelled by police who declared it illegal and inappropriate for the country's culture, and in 2016 the conference was hosted by Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2020, Cheok and most of the Committee resigned en masse.

In 2017, Cheok provided a keynote speech for the Foundation of Digital Games conference. After the conference the organisers issued a formal statement censuring Cheok for his behaviour after he personally attacked an academic on Twitter when she criticised aspects of his presentation.

Cheok served as chairman of the academic conference Advances in Computer Entertainment, and contributed to its demise in 2018 when members of the conference's committee objected to Cheok appointing David Levy, who has been criticised for his views on the use of child sex robots, to the conference's steering committee without consultation, and adding a "Love and Sex with Robots" strand to the conference. sharing his strong anti-immigration stance. At the 2019 Australian federal election, he ran as a candidate for Anning's Conservative National Party in the Adelaide division of Boothby, receiving 0.79% of the vote. He was a member of Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, but stood down from the right-wing party after being asked by Palmer to "dumb down" his policies.

Awards and honours

In 2003, Cheok received a Young Scientist Award from the Singapore National Academy of Science. He is a member of the World Technology Network, and was a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He is a Fellow, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. In 2016, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Awards by University of Adelaide, in recognition of his achievements and contribution in the field of Computing, Engineering and Multisensory communication. Cheok was recognized with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for his work in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence. In response Anning wrote to the governor-general and Queen Elizabeth II, in defense of Cheok. The Order of Australia has not been rescinded, and Cheok remains a Member of the Order of Australia.