Dear students and colleagues
It was great to start the new semester with two events involving our CDE alums.
Alums Mr Tan Szue Hann, Head of Sustainability, Keppel Land (Architecture alum) and Mr Tan Chee Yong, Associate Director of Sustainability, Incendium Consulting (Environmental Engineering alum), joined Ms Heng Li Lang, Senior Director of Temasek Foundation, as panellists for the forum “How can we build a sustainable future?” held on 11th January. They swapped stories of how their experiences as students inspired them to embark on careers in sustainability. Even as they acknowledged the challenges they faced bringing together professionals from diverse fields towards a common goal, their passion for their chosen work was evident. Seeing alums making their mark inspired many in the audience. Davis Roy, a 4th year ME student, Co-Founder of Student Energy NUS, shared that he had “learned about the vast opportunities students have to change the world”.
On CDE Day, held on the second Wednesday of the semester (18th January), alums joined guests for the sustainability-themed carnival organised by the Student Life Office and the CDE student clubs. They also toured the award-winning SDE4 building and enthusiastically snapped photos of the exhibits of ‘CDE’s Awesome Projects’. It was heartening to see them, a few with their families, queuing for popcorn, trying their hand at the game stalls, and questioning students about their exhibits.
It is through such interactions that we strengthen our ties as a community. I hope that we all continue to reach out and make connections that matter.
Cheers!
Aaron
Dean, College of Design and Engineering
HIGHLIGHTS
EVENTS
EVENTS & OTHER HAPPENINGS
CDE YEAR-END LUNCH 2022
It had been a fulfilling journey after coming together as CDE in 2022. The CDE Family celebrated our first Year End Lunch on 13 Dec 2022. More than 500 staff attended the event with delicious food, carnival games and holographic photos for keepsakes! Let’s continue the great work and celebrations in the coming years!
Check out some of the fun stuff that happened on CDE Day (18 Jan)!
And don’t forget about the mural competition that was launched on CDE Day! Still time to put your entries in for the big prize!!
Alums inspiring students in sustainability
Mr Tan Szue Hann, Head of Sustainability & Deputy General Manager Sustainable Urban Renewal (Keppel Land) and Mr Tan Chee Yong, Associate Director of Sustainability, Incendium Consulting, joined Ms Heng Li Lang, Senior Director of Temasek Foundation as panellists for the forum “How can we build a sustainable future?” held on 11th January 2023.
Moderated by Professor Heng Chye Kiang, CDE’s Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation), the forum garnered an enthusiastic audience of mainly CDE students. The students peppered CDE alums Szue Hann (Architecture) and Chee Yong (Environmental Engineering) with questions such as how students can make an impact in addressing sustainability concerns and how they can make decisions in such an uncertain environment.
Swapping stories of how their experiences as students had inspired them, both alums acknowledged the challenges they faced bringing together professionals from diverse fields towards a common goal. As Chee Yong remarked, “While architects and engineers have different perspectives traditionally, there has been a shift to an integrated approach in designing sustainable buildings.” Szue Hann highlighted the need for engineering and architecture to work together seamlessly, in the pursuit of a more sustainable future in urban development and in the built environment. Still, increasingly such silos are being broken down as more realise that solutions to complex sustainability concerns can only come from an integrated approach.
Ms Heng (also an NUS alum) shared that Temasek Foundation’s contributions to supporting sustainability innovations and solutions are as ‘grant maker, facilitator and connector’. Specifically, the Foundation supports game-changing translational research to overcome the ‘valley of death’ at the stages of innovation and scale-up. This message resonated with a few students who shared their experiences forming start-up teams with a focus on sustainable solutions. When asked how a student start-up could get further along the start-up path in an already crowded field, the panellists advised that making the right connections, tapping networks, and getting your voice heard were vital. Professor Heng added any solution proposed should consider the behaviour of consumers and users and that such behaviours are conditioned by education and policies. The last word went to Szue Hann, stating that the solution was ‘ultimately about people’.
Seeing alums making their mark inspired many in the audience. Davis Roy, a 4th year ME student, Co-Founder of Student Energy NUS, shared that he had “learned about the vast opportunities students have to change the world”. Just hearing that our students feel that they too can make an impact, shows the success of this forum in bringing together CDE stakeholders, alums, and students in building the connections we need as a community to address the sustainability challenge.
