Ernest received his B.Eng. (Honours) and M.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1994 and 1997, respectively. In 2001, after 3.5 years, he was conferred his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering also from the National University of Singapore. Following this, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher (2002-2006) in Mechanical Engineering, NUS. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore in August 2009 as an Assistant Professor, and then was promoted to an Associate Professor in January 2016.
