Get to know the Operation Feeding Team
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Ever wondered how you get your Organic Frass for your plants and freshly baked Dried Larvae for your pets? We are following up with part two of our operations feeding team in our 'Meet The Team' series!
In today's episode, we have Chee Yuan (Moo), Aaron, Yong Shan, and Shao Ming on the feeding team. At Insect Feed Technologies, our feeding team manages and oversees the systems for processing food waste using insects and the creation of commodity products (our frass and insect protein) to ensure quality assurance.
Hello, I’m Chee Yuan! You can call me Moo.
Q: Tell us about your role in Insect Feed Technologies and what you do
Chee Yuan: I am an entomologist in Insect Feed Technologies. My job is to formulate the best recipe to feed our BSF larvae.
Q: What is the most interesting or impactful project that you have worked on so far and why?
Chee Yuan: I managed to increase our larvae size by 33% (comparable to our competitors)! Through this, the team also found out that the largest larvae may not be the most optimal for breeding, as all large larvae usually turn out to be females which can be detrimental to the BSF population. This was very insightful to me!
Q: What are your personal or professional goals for the future?
Chee Yuan: I would like to operate an insect zoo that consists of all the insect orders.
Q: If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
Chee Yuan: I would like to be an expert in craftsmanship.
Hi, I’m Aaron!
Q: Tell us about your role in Insect Feed Technologies and what you do
Aaron: I am currently helping to run operations, conduct experiments and analyse results. I help to think of ways that we can improve our production while making sure that all the procedures are done smoothly.
Q: What is the most interesting or impactful project that you have worked on so far and why?
Aaron: The most interesting project I am currently tasked with is to figure out what type of ventilation and air flow we need for operations. It is both challenging and interesting because this is new to me, especially finding out about specified requirements or industrial ventilation.
Q: What are your personal or professional goals for the future?
Aaron: I love financial mathematics. I would love to be a quant when I graduate.
Q: If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
Aaron: I would definitely want to be an expert in modeling... in quantitative finance.
Nice to meet you, I’m Yong Shan!
Q: Tell us about your role in Insect Feed Technologies and what you do
Yong Shan: I help to ensure smooth production of larvae. This is through assisting in the timely delivery of food waste, such as okara and beer grains. I also hypothesize, plan and conduct how the inclusion/change of larvae feed affects their rate of growth and survival rate. Last but not least, I summarise present and past literature on BSF such as the outlook of investment in food sustainability related to BSF.
Q: What is the most interesting or impactful project that you have worked on so far and why?
Yong Shan: The production of 2 Litres BSF larvae oil containing high levels of lauric acid! It tested our determination to generate such a volume of oil from larvae the size of just a few millimetres.
Q: What are your personal or professional goals for the future?
Yong Shan: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Make the most out of everything we do!
Q: If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
Yong Shan: Definitely in the fields of Chemistry, be it inorganic or organic! Then I do not have to study for the rest of the modules.
Hey, I’m Shao Ming!
Q: Tell us about your role in Insect Feed Technologies and what you do
Shao Ming: I am a feed nutrition intern, and primarily focus on determining how to include new waste streams into our production process. This involves testing to see if it is beneficial to our worms, and if so, how to adjust our feed formulation to include it in the production process.
Q: What is the most interesting or impactful project that you have worked on so far and why?
Shao Ming: My fellow interns and I worked on maxing out blue crate production. We were able to come up with our own experiments, execute them, and analyse the data to draw our own conclusions. It was a great opportunity to apply what I had learnt in university in a real world research and development setting, and gave us an opportunity to leave behind something that would outlast the end of our internship.
Q: What are your personal or professional goals for the future?
Shao Ming: I hope to continue working on research and development in some capacity, likely in the aquafeed industry.
Q: If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
Shao Ming: I would probably like to be an expert in programming.
If you are looking for a rewarding and meaningful role in a company that is delivering a real impact on the world this could be the opportunity for you. To join our team, check out our opening roles on our LinkedIn page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/insect-feed-technologies/ for more information.