Professor Ong received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Specializing in Computing) from Nanyang Technological University and subsequently his PhD (Thesis Title: Artificial Intelligence in Complex Engineering Design) from the School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, under the British Aerospace Engineering-Rolls Royce University Technology Partnership from 1999-2002. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of The Academy of Engineering Singapore, Area Chair of several top AI conferences, and founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, Senior Associate Editor or Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Neural Network & Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, and chief co-editor of Book Series on Studies in Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization. His current research interests is in artificial and computational intelligence, learning and evolution, transfer & multi-task optimization, surrogate modelling and machine learning. His research grants comprise of external funding from both national and international partners that include Boeing Research & Development (USA), Rolls-Royce (UK) and Honda Research Institute Europe (Germany), the National Research Foundation of Singapore, National Grid Office, A*STAR, Singapore Technologies Dynamics and MDA-GAMBIT. His research on Memetic Computation was first featured by Thomson Scientific's Essential Science Indicators as one of the most cited emerging area of research in August 2007.

Professor Ong has been listed among the Stanford Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists yearly from 2020-2024 and also a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in 2015 and 2016, and among the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds. He has received 5 IEEE top publication awards, including the 2025, 2023, 2019, 2013 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation Outstanding Paper Awards and the 2019 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation Outstanding Paper Awards for his works in Transfer and Multitask Optimization, and the 2015 IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine Outstanding Paper Award. He has been a Professorial fellow of the University of New South Wales (Australia), Visiting Professor of Imperial College London (UK), Visiting professor of MIT (US), Visiting professor of Honda Research Institute Europe (GM) and a Yonsei Distinguished Scholar (Korea).

Several of his technologies in Artificial & Computational Intelligence research have been commercialized and licensed to companies and institutions, where he received the Research Commercialization award in 2015. An overview of his research & technological showcase is available 'Here'. His crowd intelligence research has led to the AI-enabled IOS 'Dark-Dots Game'. It was the top action game in 48 countries including USA, China and Singapore; downloaded by well over 448,000 players worldwide when launched, with 27% of its players from China and 17% from the USA. The success of the AI research-enabled IOS DarkDot Game has led to the Inzen Studio Pte. Ltd. Startup which subsequently gave rise to the newly commercialized DarkDots'. Other successful translations of technologies in AI include the: "Algorithm Development Environment for Problem Solving", a Patented AI training AI systems and the "Large-Scale Engineering Simulation for Complex Adaptive Systems (LesCaS)", a decision support system designed for large scale modelling, simulation and optimization of complex systems, which was also transferred through licensing to the industry.

In teaching, he has also received a number of awards including the 2023 Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance Awards (GMAA) co-organized by UNESCO, Prestigious Nanyang Education Award (University) in 2016, Nanyang Education Award (College of Engineering) in 2015, Nanyang Excellence Award (School of Computer Science & Engineering) in 2008, Most Popular Lecturer Award 2009. He was featured in the 2014 Nanyang Chronicle for introducing new waves of pedagogical and innovative use of technology to improve teaching, while featured in the Bright Minds Magazine as a qualified faculty that transforms students into promising gems in 2009. He is as Fellow of Renaissance Engineering Programme and committee member of the Teaching Council at Nanyang Technological University.

Springer-Verlag Book Series: 'STUDIES IN ADAPTATION, LEARNING, AND OPTIMIZATION', Chief co-editor, Yew-Soon Ong.