HIGHLIGHTS
EVENTS & OTHER HAPPENINGS
The EDIC Project Showcase
Year 3 students from the NUS Innovation and Design Programme (iDP) were joined by the first batch of students in the MSc in Engineering Design & Innovation (EDI) programme, in presenting their year-long innovation projects on 17 November 2023.
The projects varied in complexity and stages of development. Successive teams had worked on some projects over several years. Others presented proof of concept and highlighted potential for development. Additionally, a few projects engaged external partners who were eager for fresh ideas.
One of the most impressive displays was The Moving Farm, a container farming system that is easy to operate and can be integrated into any standard 20ft recycled shipping container. The project required a team of seven undergraduates from different disciplines, including Engineering Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Business. They had split into smaller groups, each focused on different aspects of the project, coordinating and cooperating closely.
Another new project was the Multiplayer VR for collaborative training in Code Blue. This immersive reality project provides nursing students a platform to practice skills needed in emergencies through VR simulation. Students from the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering trialled and tested their solution with nursing students from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. The VR simulation allows nurses to hone communication and coordination skills even when in different locations.
The EV Futures project presented by MSc students with diverse backgrounds in industrial design, data science, and design engineering proposed a simple and elegant cable management solution for EV stations. The team is eagerly looking forward to pitching to the founder of Etron EV Solutions, the industry partner they consulted when defining their problem statement.
Congratulations to all teams! To find out more about the Showcase and the programmes go to: EDIC
MOU Signed with Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the University of Delft, Netherlands (Tu Delft)
Students enrolled in the Master of Science programmes offered by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) can look forward to overseas exchange opportunities, a first for the programmes. This is thanks to a new partnership between CEE and the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the University of Delft, Netherlands (Tu Delft).
Overseas exchange opportunities will be availed to students of the MSc (Civil Engineering) and MSc (Environmental Engineering) coursework programmes, starting with the August 2024 semester. Besides enriching students’ learning experience, the international partnership between CEE and Tu Delft will also benefit the NUS community. There will be opportunities for the transfer of knowledge, ideas, and cultural insights between the institutions.
Inking the Memorandum of Understanding were Professor Richard Liew, Head of CEE and Prof Jan Dirk Jansen, Dean of the Tu Delft Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, and Professor of Reservoir Systems and Control. The partnership between CEE and Tu Delft was sealed on 24 November 2023.
Engaging Hwa Chong Institution’s Parents Support Group
On 30 September 2023, CDE hosted close to 100 parents and students from Hwa Chong Institution for a learning journey at CDE campus to provide a better insight into the exciting opportunities offered at CDE.
Kickstarting the learning journey was a series of sharing sessions conducted by our CDE professors and current undergraduate students. The parents and students were introduced to an overview of CDE by Assistant Dean of Outreach, Associate Professor James Kah, highlighting the new interdisciplinary curriculum at CDE.
This was followed by a sharing on the Engineering Scholars Programme by Director Dr Alberto Corrias where they learned the attractive features of the scholarship and heard the university student life experiences shared by CDE students who were also HCI alumni. The parents and students were then invited to take part in a guided tour around the CDE campus to explore the learning facilities and resources available to CDE students.
Recognising the importance and influential role parents play in guiding students to make informed decisions regarding their university education, CDE Outreach will continue to strengthen efforts to engage parents from various local pre-tertiary schools in the coming years through future networking and learning journey opportunities.
Interested in CDE's undergraduate offerings? Contact: cde_outreach@nus.edu.sg
CDE at the World Engineers Summit 2023
The CDE team from the Office of Research and Industry, and the Office of Masters Programmes & Lifelong Learning, represented the College at the exhibition held in conjunction with the sixth World Engineers Summit (WES) organised by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore, held from 8-10 November 2023.
The biennial World Engineering Summit (WES) was launched in 2013. It serves as a premier platform for engineering-centric discussions that aim to advance the world towards a more resilient and sustainable future. As the world reevaluates its growth strategies in the wake of the pandemic, engineering innovations will be more crucial than ever in creating new economic frontiers and seizing growth opportunities from sustainability. In recognition of this, IES had chosen “Engineering for a Sustainable Future” as the theme for the sixth WES.
CDE's sustainability-focussed projects featured at the exhibition included:
- Sustainable Concrete Recycling EV Battery Wastes (PI: Dr Du Hongjian, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Electrochemical Purification of Industrial Wastewater (PI: Associate Professor Olivier Lefebvre, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Integrated BIM* Inspection System (PI: Dr Justin Yeoh, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Sustainable Na-ion Battery Technology (PI: Associate Professor Palani Balaya, Mechanical Engineering)
- Sustainable Air Conditioning Technologies (PI: Associate Professor Ernest Chua, Mechanical Engineering)
- Next Generation 3D Printing (PI: Assistant Professor Sing Swee Leong, Mechanical Engineering)
- Cityscape Farms - Revolutionising Urban Landscaping Through Agriculture (Project Lead: Davian Chan Sze Peng, Electrical Engineering student, Class 2023)
Attendees were also intrigued by the many opportunities for lifelong learning that was shared by the CDE team. The programmes which generated the most interest were:
- Building Defects - Inspection, Diagnosis and Repair (Short Course)
- Energy Storage for Green Technologies (Short Course)
- Sustainability for the Built Environment (Professional Certificate)
The CDE booth attracted attention not just for the content, but also for the presence of BIM, the dog!
Groundbreakers Lecture: Unlocking the Secrets of the Quantum World
In his recent talk at CDE, “Shedding Nano Light on Quantum Materials”, Professor Dmitri Basov, Higgins Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at Columbia University, took attendees to his Groundbreakers lecture through his research into the capabilities of nano light and the exciting possibilities this opens up.
“The big problem is that we can’t really investigate anything small with light of long wavelengths,” he told a large audience of students, faculty and alumni, gathered to hear his talk, part of the CDE Groundbreakers Series. Rather than photons or even electrons, nano light relies on polaritons as the “imaging agent”, Prof Basov said.
Polaritons are quantum particles known as ‘quasiparticles’ that are a hybrid of light and matter with a very small mass. The unique properties of polaritons give them a relevant wavelength much smaller by many orders of magnitude than that of light, opening the door for us to see into the quantum world. By inventing advanced scanning instruments, Prof Basov said his team has been able to use nano light to visualise materials at the single-digit nanoscale – effectively creating a quantum microscope.
Why does this matter? In the quantum world, the action happens at ultra-tiny levels – measured in billionths of a meter. Moreover, the sub-diffractional capabilities of nano light open up the possibilities not just of seeing into this world, but of understanding and even being able to programme the properties of new materials, in turn paving the way to game-changing technologies and devices.
Associate Professor Qiu Cheng-Wei (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), who hosted Prof Basov and introduced the talk, said: "Prof Basov's work is reshaping the way we 'see' the nano-world. By overcoming the limitations of traditional optical imaging, his team has introduced an innovative and revolutionary approach that not only breaks the diffraction limit but offers us a new lens into electronic phenomena and topological effects in solids, opening the potential for low-loss and long-range information transport on new generations of chips. His visit to NUS and his expert insights will benefit CDE’s core excellence in material science, 2D materials and nanophotonics research.”
Global Engineers Leadership Programme 2023
A leader’s conduct can influence teamwork and organisational performance, as shared at the Global Engineers Leadership Programme (GELP 2023), a five-day training session for senior management personnel. GELP is jointly organised by NUS, The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES), and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
Of CDE’s involvement, Associate Professor Kah-Hin Chai shared: “As the programme lead, I guided participants’ project work and taught them creative problem-solving.” The Associate Provost (Masters’ Programmes & Lifelong Learning) was part of the CDE-expert team, comprising lecturers Associate Professor Mehul Motani and Professor Seeram Ramakrishna. While the former taught participants AI, the latter moderated a panel discussion with Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary, explained Assoc Prof Chai.
Apart from the daily lessons and panel discussion, participants also learnt through fireside chat with former United Nations Under-Secretary-General (Internal Oversight Service) Mr Dileep Nair and panel discussion featuring Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Professor-in-Practice Yaacob Ibrahim.
Overall, 22 professionals from the public and private sectors who joined the programme gained a deeper understanding of future technological and geopolitical trends and better decision-making skills.
The GELP 2023 programme, in its third edition, ran from 30 October to 3 November 2023. It marks the second time CDE collaborated with IES in contributing expertise to run the programme, said Assoc Prof Chai. Other NUS entities involved in the success of GELP 2023 were the NUS Business School and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, NUS.