Yong-Kheng/yaw-ng kay-ng/

Hello 👋

Yong Kheng Beh

/ yaw-ng kay-ng · beh /

Software Engineer  ·  Doctor

Software engineer at Vocare Speech, where I took a production platform from Firebase to Supabase and Vercel and rebuilt the company website. Before that: 8+ years in medicine and a Master of Computing & Innovation (GPA 6.83/7) from the University of Adelaide.

GitHub
TypeScript
React
Next.js
Supabase
Python
Drupal
Yong Kheng Beh

About Me

Medicine meets technology


My journey is anything but conventional. After completing my MBBS at the University of Malaya and spending over eight years practicing medicine — rotating through emergency and surgery, performing C-sections and ultrasounds at Penang General Hospital, then running GP clinic — I made the leap into software development.

I enrolled in the Master of Computing and Innovation at the University of Adelaide, graduating with a GPA of 6.83/7. Along the way I worked on AI/ML research in cardiac surgery, built an LLM-powered chatbot for a not-for-profit, and completed a data science internship with the UN Ocean Decade Programme in Paris.

In March 2026 I joined Vocare Speech as a full-time software engineer after interning there. Handed the new platform straight out of that internship, I finished its migration from Firebase to Supabase and Vercel, took it live, and rebuilt the company website. In my volunteer time I rebuilt SAcommunity.org in Drupal 11 on my own; the not-for-profit now wants to publish it, and Infoxchange named me Volunteer of the Year in its 2026 CEO Awards.

The analytical rigour, calm under pressure, and patient-facing communication that medicine trained into me now shapes how I build software. I'm drawn to problems where technology and human wellbeing intersect.

6.83 / 7

Masters GPA

8+ Years

Medical Career

CEO Award

Volunteer of the Year 2026

5

Projects & Talks

Work Experience

My professional journey


Software Engineer

Vocare Speech Australia

Adelaide, South Australia · Mar 2026 – Present

Sole engineer on Vocare's production pronunciation-training platform. I led the new platform (V2) through its migration from Firebase to Supabase and Vercel, launched it to users, and rebuilt the company website.

Next.js
React
TypeScript
Supabase
PostgreSQL
Vercel
MUI
Vitest
Playwright
Claude Code

Key Achievements

  • Platform Migration: Building on an initial foundation from a contract team, completed the migration of the production app from Firebase (Firestore, Cloud Functions, Hosting) to Next.js, Supabase (Postgres) and Vercel as the sole engineer. V2 is now live and the Firebase version has been retired.

  • Website Redevelopment: Designed and built the new vocare.com.au on my own, replacing a single static HTML page with a Next.js, React and TypeScript site on Vercel, backed by unit and end-to-end tests.

  • Production Ownership: Own the platform end to end — features, database schema changes, CI, error monitoring, and dependency security patches.

  • Accessibility: Remediated the marketing site against WCAG 2.2 AA across theme, navigation, motion and forms.

  • Agentic Engineering: Deliver full-stack work solo with Claude Code inside a disciplined workflow of tests, reviews and codebase audits — the subject of my talk at the Adelaide Claude Code Meetup.

Volunteer Developer – SAcommunity.org Rebuild

Connecting Up / Infoxchange

Adelaide, South Australia · Jan 2025 – Present

Rebuilding SAcommunity.org, a South Australian community directory, in Drupal 11. Started in a cross-functional volunteer team, then returned in March 2026 to finish the rebuild on my own; the not-for-profit has seen the demo and wants to publish it.

Infoxchange CEO Award – Volunteer of the Year 2026

Website Rebuild Journey
Drupal 11
PHP
MySQL
Docker
Python
ETL
Claude Code

Key Achievements

  • Solo Rebuild: Returned in March 2026 and rebuilt the site on a clean Drupal 11 codebase on my own, including a redesign of the website.

  • Streamlined Migration: Combined the data-cleansing Python scripts and Drupal Migration YAML into one streamlined, repeatable migration process.

  • Stakeholder Demo: Demoed the rebuilt site to the not-for-profit, who now want to publish it.

  • Gathered and analysed requirements in collaboration with the Directory Manager and Connecting Up leadership to guide redevelopment priorities.

  • Created detailed, step-by-step onboarding guides in GitHub and maintained a GitHub Project Kanban board to coordinate the volunteer team.

  • Leveraged LLMs (Gemini) to transform unstructured data into structured formats for database integration.

Software Engineer Intern

Vocare Speech Australia

Adelaide, South Australia · Dec 2025 – Feb 2026

Primary in-house developer for the production app (V1), and technical point of contact between the founders and the contract team building the new platform (V2).

React
TypeScript
Firebase
GitHub Copilot
Notion
QA

Key Achievements

  • Production Maintenance: Fixed a large number of critical bugs in the live app — including mobile layout issues and audio playback errors — to ensure the system ran smoothly for active users.

  • Performance Improvements: Reduced cloud costs and improved app speed by setting up caching and optimising Firebase database queries.

  • AI-Assisted Development: Leveraged GitHub Copilot to accelerate development — using it to understand undocumented legacy code and rapidly build new features such as workshop reminders and progress bars in React and TypeScript.

  • Quality Assurance: Reviewed V2 builds against the existing app so business requirements carried over cleanly to the new platform.

  • Process Improvement: Set up a structured bug-logging system on Notion, enabling the CEO and non-technical staff to report issues accurately and improving overall engineering visibility.

Research Assistant

Corcillum

Adelaide, South Australia · Oct 2025 – Feb 2026

Annotated coronary angiogram images, leveraging medical background to ensure accurate, clinically reliable data for machine learning model training.

Medical Image Annotation
Data Quality Assurance
Team Collaboration

Key Achievements

  • Annotated coronary angiogram images with high accuracy, leveraging medical training to ensure clinically reliable labels for AI model development.

  • Provided structured feedback on annotation software performance, usability, and workflow to help improve tool efficiency and user experience.

  • Developed clear annotation guidelines to support new annotators, based on best practices refined through consistent, high-quality annotation work.

Data Science Intern

IOC-UNESCO – Ocean Decade Programme

Paris, France (Remote) · Jun – Sep 2025

Selected for a competitive internship to support data management and analysis for the UN Ocean Decade programme. Cleaned data, designed a relational database, and collaborated with a global team.

Python
Data Cleaning
NLP
Relational Database Design
Data Visualisation
Remote Collaboration

Key Achievements

  • Cleaned and standardised all datasets collected by the UN Ocean Decade programme over the past five years to improve data quality and usability.

  • Designed an interactive data schema and built a relational database to support long-term data management and analysis.

  • Documented the full database structure to ensure clarity, maintainability, and smooth handover for future developers.

  • Reviewed technical requirements for an upcoming full-stack platform where the database will be integrated.

  • Coordinated updates with the broader Ocean Decade Team to validate and align newly received data with the database design.

  • Recognised for outstanding performance, strong accountability, and exceptional work ethic throughout the assignment.

Software Engineering Intern

YourAnswer International Pty Ltd

Adelaide, South Australia · Jul – Oct 2024

Developed automated evaluation software to compare semantic search performance across embedding models, chunking methods, and vector stores.

Python
Bash
Docker
OpenSearch
Embeddings
Vector Search
AI/ML

Key Achievements

  • Developed a Python-based testing framework, automated via shell scripts, to streamline semantic search evaluation — significantly reducing manual testing time.

  • Conducted extensive benchmarking with top-ranked embedding models from the MTEB leaderboard on Hugging Face.

  • Benchmarked and optimised semantic search performance across multiple vector stores, including OpenSearch.

  • Resolved a critical semantic ranking bug — identified cosine distance vs similarity scoring mismatch, significantly improving search accuracy and result relevance.

  • Produced comprehensive technical reports to ensure effective knowledge transfer.

Industry Project Intern

Connecting Up / Infoxchange

Adelaide, South Australia · Mar – Jun 2024

Led backend development for a full-stack AI-powered chatbot as part of a four-member team for SAcommunity.org, a community directory website.

Python
LangChain
Flask
Docker
Prompt Engineering
Agile

Key Achievements

  • Led backend development, integrating LangChain for LLM-based tool calls and semantic search — resulting in an Agentic RAG chatbot capable of handling vague human queries with high accuracy.

  • Optimised chatbot performance through advanced prompt engineering and retrieval strategies to improve response relevance.

  • Deployed the chatbot using Docker, resolving compatibility issues within an outdated software environment.

  • Collaborated closely with frontend developers and stakeholders to refine chatbot functionality for real-world use cases.

Research Intern – Machine Learning in Cardiac Surgery

Australian Institute of Machine Learning (AIML)

Adelaide, South Australia · Dec 2023 – Feb 2024

Awarded AIML Summer Research Project Scholarship — applying a unique blend of medical and computing knowledge to advance AI applications in cardiology.

Python
Pandas
Matplotlib
Seaborn
Scikit-Learn
Machine Learning

Key Achievements

  • Collaborated with healthcare experts and ML specialists to explore AI-driven decision-making solutions for medical applications.

  • Processed and analysed a large-scale healthcare dataset with 6,000+ patient records, developing ML models to predict patient outcomes.

  • Researched and reviewed AI-driven predictive analytics in healthcare, integrating insights into model design.

  • Presented research findings to a panel of researchers at the end of the internship.

Projects

Things I've built


Yong Kheng presenting at the Adelaide Claude Code Meetup at Stone & Chalk, microphone in hand, to a seated audience

Talk: How I Navigate Agentic Coding as a Junior Software Engineer in a Startup

My talk at the Adelaide Claude Code Meetup (Stone & Chalk, August 2026) — how far I trust AI, the workflow, audits and tools I use to keep a codebase clean, and where the human stays in the loop. The slides are rebuilt as a dependency-free HTML/CSS/JS deck.

Public Speaking
Claude Code
Agentic Coding
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
12 Week Year dashboard showing a 90% overall execution score and a weekly score trend chart above the 85% target line

12 Week Year Tracker

A privacy-first PWA for goal tracking based on The 12 Week Year — define 12-week cycles with goals and weekly tactics, score your execution on a weekly scorecard, and review progress with interactive charts. All data stays in your browser via SQLite/WASM.

React
TypeScript
MUI
SQLite
PWA
Recharts
SAcommunity directory home page with the chatbot panel open, greeting the user

SACommunity Chatbot

AI-powered chatbot using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to enhance search across a not-for-profit community directory with 14,000+ records. Integrates LangChain, Flask, and Docker.

Python
LangChain
Flask
Docker
RAG
LLM
Home page of the SAcommunity Drupal Migration Guide blog, introducing a guide for volunteers

Drupal Migration Guides Blog

Technical blog documenting the Drupal 11 migration of SAcommunity.org — covering site migration strategies, ETL processes, and lessons learned along the way.

Drupal 11
PHP
MySQL
Jekyll
Technical Writing
Completed career flower diagram with seven coloured petals, each listing ranked priorities around a centre labelled My Ideal Job

Parachute Flower

A web app for the Flower Exercise from "What Color Is Your Parachute?" — explore 7 career dimensions using pairwise comparisons, then generate a printable SVG flower diagram of your priorities. Auto-saves to localStorage.

React
JavaScript
Vite
SVG
GitHub Copilot

Education

Degrees and ongoing study


Master of Computing and Innovation

University of Adelaide, Australia

2023 – 2024
GPA: 6.83 / 7
Courses
Computer Networks & Applications
Introduction to Statistical Machine Learning
Computer Systems
Operating Systems
Algorithm and Data Structure Analysis
Software Engineering and Project
Project Management Fundamentals

Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)

University of Malaya, Malaysia

2009 – 2014

Google UX Design Professional Certificate

Google · Coursera

Jun 2026 – In progress
Completed so far · course 6 in progress
Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate
Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts
Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma

Medical Career

Eight years in medicine


Before transitioning into software development, I spent over eight years in the medical field — gaining hands-on experience in patient care, emergency response, and surgical procedures. My journey as a doctor equipped me with critical thinking, precision, and adaptability. These skills now shape how I approach engineering problems.

Transferable Skills: Medicine → Software

  • Analytical Thinking

    Diagnosing complex conditions with incomplete data

    in software:

    Root-cause debugging and system design

  • High-Stakes Decisions

    Emergency medicine under pressure

    in software:

    Prioritising critical engineering tasks

  • Stakeholder Communication

    Explaining complex diagnoses to patients

    in software:

    Translating technical detail for non-technical audiences

  • Precise Documentation

    Clinical notes and procedure records

    in software:

    Technical documentation and code clarity

  • Continuous Learning

    Staying current with medical literature

    in software:

    Keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology

  • Team Collaboration

    Multi-disciplinary ward rounds

    in software:

    Cross-functional software engineering teams

Houseman (Trainee Doctor)

Hospital Kulim, Kedah

2014 – 2016

Two-year rotational training across six core departments: Orthopaedics, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Emergency, Paediatrics, and Surgery.

  • Conducted patient history-taking, daily ward rounds, and reviewed test results with supervising doctors.

  • Performed phlebotomy, vaginal deliveries, suturing, IV line insertions, urinary catheterization, and minor surgical interventions.

  • Assisted medical officers and specialists in major surgical procedures.

Medical Officer

Penang General Hospital

2016 – 2018

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department — managed complex high-risk cases in a high-pressure hospital environment.

  • Managed high-risk pregnancies, labour, and emergency deliveries.

  • Performed over 50 C-sections and assisted in gynaecological surgeries.

  • Conducted over 1,000 transabdominal ultrasounds for obstetric and gynaecological patients.

  • Supervised and mentored house officers, ensuring smooth clinic operations.

  • Facilitated the 2017 Maternal-Fetal Medicine Conference in Malaysia.

General Practitioner

Dr. (Mdm) Ooi Clinic, Penang, Malaysia

2018 – 2022

Provided comprehensive medical care in a busy community clinic setting.

  • Diagnosed and managed a wide range of medical conditions.

  • Conducted patient consultations, examinations, and follow-up care.

  • Ordered and interpreted lab tests to guide treatment decisions.

  • Handled administrative responsibilities, ensuring efficient clinic operations.

Why I Transitioned to Tech

While working as a doctor, I developed an interest in data analysis and AI applications in healthcare. Over time, I realised that problem-solving in medicine and programming share many similarities — both require analytical thinking, continuous learning, and precision. This led me to pursue a Master's in Computing and Innovation, ultimately transitioning into software development.

I still hold a valid medical licence in Malaysia, registered with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). Verify my registration here.