ALUMNI NEWS
A Legacy of Service: Honouring Mr Seah Moon Ming
At the NUS University Awards 2026, the prestigious Outstanding Service Award was conferred on Mr Seah Moon Ming, Chairman, Board of Governors of NUS High School of Mathematics & Science and SMRT Corporation Ltd in recognition of sustained contributions in selflessly serving the University and society.
Mr Seah graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Electronics Engineering (EE) in 1981. He was awarded the NUS Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 2011 for his many leadership roles in industry and society. He has been a member of the NUS Engineering Board since 2017 and continues to serve on the NUS College of Design and Engineering (CDE) Advisory Board since CDE’s formation in 2022.
Read more here.
Giving architectural models a second life: Phoebe Tan Kit reimagines waste through design
Since her student days, Master of Architecture (M.Arch) alumna Phoebe Tan Kit (Class of 2025) has been exploring how existing waste can be adapted and reused wherever possible. This exploration extended into her thesis, Kitbash10 (2025), which critiques how waste is managed in Singapore. Building on this work, she began giving a second life to students’ models after their graduation exhibition, offering the public an opportunity to experience model-making up close — to touch, handle and engage with the parts themselves. Participating in the recent IN-BETWEEN event, held from 28 to 30 August at New Bahru’s ‘School Hall’, Phoebe presented What Happens After (2026), an interactive booth that continues her exploration from Kitbash10 (2025). Visitors of all ages were invited to take on the role of architect, building a city of “scraps” from parts salvaged from architectural models featured in this year’s M.Arch graduation exhibition.
Many visitors expressed interest and curiosity about the initiative. More than simply an interactive activity, the exhibition opens up a broader question: what if parts of buildings could themselves be salvaged and reused as building materials for whatever comes next?
Aw Wei Kang awarded SIA Medal for Master of Architecture thesis
Master of Architecture (M.Arch) graduate Aw Wei Kang (Class of 2026) has received the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) Medal in the M.Arch category at the SIA Student Awards 2026, in recognition of his outstanding thesis, "Kopi Pangalengan" Takes Command. Aw's interest in the topic began with two personal experiences. His father grew up around his grandfather's rubber plantation in Kluang, Malaysia, and childhood visits there introduced Aw to productive landscapes as places shaped by labour, infrastructure and everyday life. Later, as he grew older and began to appreciate coffee, he became curious about a deceptively simple question: where does the coffee he drinks come from? How does a fruit grown on a mountain become a cup of coffee, and who determines its value along the way?
Rather than proposing a single building, the thesis develops a collective circuit of six small infrastructures distributed along the Mt. Malabar trail: a basecamp, roastery, drying house, washing facility, resting saung and manual highline transport system. Together, they bring processing, learning, exchange and public encounters closer to where coffee is grown.