Workshops & Events
The IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) Lambda Omega Chapter of the NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department recently conducted their induction ceremony on 12th October 2023. The induction involved 24 new members, and were set in a hybrid online/physical setting. The 24 inductees were recognised for their distinguished scholarship, activities, leadership and exemplary character, and have proven their caliber to be worthy of induction into our chapter.
The ceremony was attended by Dr. Chua Dingjuan, faculty advisor for IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (HKN). After opening words by Dr. Chua, the formal induction ritual commenced, culminating in an oath taken by the new inductees to uphold the qualities of Scholarship, Character, and Attitude. The ceremony was led by Chapter President Pang Kai Lin and Chapter Vice President Steven Zhu Shaohan, following which the Chapter President conducted the inductees in signing the membership book, presented the inductees with their membership certificates and gave a closing speech.
The new inductees are anticipated to actively contribute towards fostering both professional and technical excellence, aligning with a commitment to serve the community, organization, and society at large. Congratulations to all new members and welcome to IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (HKN)!
IEEE NUS Student Branch held an ESP32 Workshop for 48 participants at NUS Engineering on the 15th of April 2023. This three-hour workshop was proudly conducted by Professor Zhang Jianwen, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of NUS, utilizing ESP32 microcontrollers sponsored by Espressif Systems.
Through this workshop, students were taught the basics of the Internet of Things (IoT), the hardware on ESP32-C3-DevkitM-1 developing board, setting up of the ESP-IDF: Espressif IoT Development Framework which is the development environment, cloning sample codes from GitHub as well as developing examples via Visual Studio. They were introduced to how IoT devices are connected to a network and how to read values from sensors. The participants then received an opportunity to apply their knowledge with a Hello World and LED control projects.
IEEE NUS Student Branch would firstly like to thank Professor Zhang Jianwen for conducting the workshop, Espressif for sponsoring the ESP32 kits, and most importantly the passionate participants who took the time to attend the workshop.
NUS ECE and Espressif Systems have jointly organized a workshop on 22 Feb 2023 to introduce our students to the exciting world of Internet of Things (IoT) product development and production. The workshop was conducted by a team of experts from Espressif. ECE students currently registered under our Specialisation in IoT were invited for this workshop. The students got a taste of some hands-on experience working on Espressif’s ESP32-C3 with ESP-IDF.
Special thanks to Mr Tang Chun Yap for his meticulous planning and Mr Jeroen Domburg who was the Lead Instructor for this fun and insightful workshop.
IEEE NUS Student Branch held an AWS DeepRacer Workshop for 40 participants at NUS Digital Electronics Lab on the 28th January 2023. This workshop is proudly sponsored by Micron Foundation and supported by T-systems.
The five-hour session was conducted by one of T-Systems’ very own – Mr. Sam Au, an AI Sales Director and a data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing aficionado. As one of the few Singaporeans, Sam was among the top ten fastest racers in the ASEAN Qualifier Race of the AWS DeepRacer Summit Circuit, held in May 2022, and has been working on moving his way up the rankings since.
Through this workshop, students were introduced to what AI, Machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning is. They were exposed to how they could apply their Python and Machine Learning knowledge by designing simple Reinforcement Learning models and testing these models on the AWS DeepRacer virtual car and race. As part of the workshop, an IEEE-NUS Community Race was conducted and the students grouped into 8 teams and had a chance to compete in a friendly competition with the other participants through the AWS DeepRacer's virtual autonomous community race. The winning teams walked away with wireless mouse and speakers as prizes and all participants received a certificate of participation.
IEEE NUS Student Branch would like to thank Micron for sponsoring us, T-Systems for this collaboration, and the participants who took the time to attend the workshop.
In January 2023, the IEEE-HKN (Lambda Omega) NUS Chapter warmly welcomed and hosted 50 students and staff members from IEEE AUS Student Branch from the United Arab Emirates. This study trip visit to NUS was a first and a joint initiative between IEEE-HKN NUS Chapter and IEEE AUS Student Branch.
During their visit to NUS, visiting students and staff were guided by local NUS ECE students from IEEE-HKN to visit different departments, educational resources, historical monuments, and the digital electronics labs. The visit to NUS ended with a fruitful lab visit hosted by NUS Bumblebee Team. In addition to the NUS campus tour, the visitors were also hosted by GlobalFoundries Singapore for an insightful industrial visit. The students were introduced to the world of semiconductor and got to experience different facilities of GlobalFoundries Singapore.
The event was a meaningful and successful collaboration between IEEE-HKN and IEEE AUS Student Branch, from which the students from both societies could learn more about their peers across the globe as well as discover academic and professional opportunities overseas.
The IEEE-HKN NUS Chapter places its thanks to the NUS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the NUS Bumblebee Team and Lab and GlobalFoundries Singapore.
NUS IEEE-HKN student society held its annual Alumni Sharing session on 5th Dec 2022 for current members. IEEE-HKN invited 3 IEEE-HKN Lambda Omega alumni to share their experiences in post-graduate studies and working in the industry. Participants listened to the sharing from Su Haotian, who is currently pursuing his PhD studies in Stanford University, Nathania Santoso who is pursuing her Master studies in University of California, Berkeley, and Rohan Arya Varma who shared his experience working in Goldman Sachs. Participants got to hear and learn about post-graduate studies application processes, research topics, daily life as a postgraduate students and also working experiences in investment banking.
We appreciate the time that the speakers have taken out of their busy schedule to engage with the participants. We would also like to thank the participants who have joined the session online. Hope the participants find the sharing session informative and meaningful for their future studies and careers!
IEEE-HKN student society held its annual Postgraduate Sharing session on 19th November 2022 for ECE students. IEEE-HKN invited 3 NUS ECE alumni who have been pursuing postgraduate studies in different fields in both Singapore and overseas to share about their academic journey with aspiring undergraduates. The talk started with the sharing of two NUS PhD students Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Thao and My Duy Hoang Long, researching on neuromorphic computing and quantum physics respectively, on their experience pursuing PhD candidature in NUS as well as advice on what students should do to prepare for postgraduate education during their undergraduate years. After their talk, Dr. Chua Dingjuan, ECE senior lecturer and IEEE-HKN staff advisor, conducted a mini-information session on different postgraduate programs in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition to the experience and opportunities pursuing postgraduate studies in Singapore, we invited an ECE alumnus Xintong Tong, a Master student at ETH Zurich, to share about her experience studying and researching overseas. This event provided great insights into the unique journeys of PhD and Master students.
Leveraging VMware’s Multi-Cloud Technology workshop is a joint initiative between VMware and IEEE-HKN NUS. The workshop was held on 18th November 2022, consisting of a technology demonstration as well as a sharing on the career opportunities at VMware for over 20 aspiring ECE undergraduate students. The whiteboard demo was conducted by Mr. Clement Wong, the Director of Solutions Architecture, Cloud Management and Cloud Health at VMware, which provided attendees with a comprehensive overview of the latest Multi-Cloud architecture and the various applications of such technology for enterprises. Attendees also got a chance to talk to VMware talent acquisition representatives on the availability of internship and graduate programs at VMware, as well as advice on how to kick-start a career in the rising field of cloud computing. The event was an informative and great networking session for ECE students with VMWare.
IEEE NUS Student branch held a Natural Language Processing introductory workshop in conjunction with the NUS Statistics & Data Science Club at NUS E3-06-15 on 19 Oct 2022. The hour-long session was conducted by Bharath Shankar, the Workshop Director of the NUS Statistics & Data Science Club for 30 students. Through the workshop, the students learned how NLP works and how it can be applied. The event was seen as informative and eye-opening to the students who wished to learn more about the topic of NLP.
IEEE NUS Student Branch would like to thank NUS Statistics & Data Science Club for this collaboration and the participants who took the time out of their schedules to attend the event.
The NUS.AI student group held its inaugural session to welcome its new student members on the evening of 22nd August 2022. The three hour session comprised of a welcome session and a workshop for its 60 attendees. The event started with introducing the motivations behind the formation of NUS.AI as a student group and the exciting events to expect in coming weeks! This was followed by a workshop conducted by Mr. Tan Yan Quan which provided attendees with a gentle introduction to Artificial Intelligence, enabling them to complete Level 1 of the AISG Student Outreach Programme and attain the AI4I “Literacy in AI” e-certification and badge. While completing their certification, attendees were also treated to donuts and beancurd to facilitate interaction and discussion within the student members and the student committee.
The IEEE-NUS Aquaponics Hackathon 2022, organized by IEEE NUS Student Branch and the ECE Department was held at NUS LT7A from 23rd to 24th July. Prior to the weekend hack, participants visited V+ Agritech Aquaponics farm at Kranji on the 16th of July, where Dr. Nelson Wei Tan, Chief Product Farmer, explained about how he grew vegetables and bred fish using aquaponics as well as the problems he encountered daily. The farm trip was crucial to setting the context of the problem statements that the participants would work on at the hackathon, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor activity.
In the subsequent week and over the two days of the hackathon, the contestants used their hardware and software expertise to come up with innovative and sustainable solutions that could in the long run help improve V+ Agritech farm’s ability to be a local food source. The event also featured insightful company talks from GlobalFoundries and IEEE Singapore Section, and delicious eateries from Arise and Shine. The top three winning teams, which also included students from NTU, were given cash prizes ranging from $200 to $50 in addition to certificates for their achievement. The novel solutions by the various groups was exciting and impressed the judges and we hope the students’ ideas will turn into reality someday, thus enhancing Singapore’s food security! IEEE-NUS student chapter would also like to place its thanks to the sponsors, V+ Agritech Pte Ltd, GlobalFoundries, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and IEEE Singapore Section, without which the event would not have been possible.
We performed a 3 day FPGA workshop with practical exercises in conjunction with NUS hackers. Attendees were educated about the basics of digital design and verilog syntax. The workshop was divided into 3 days with a palatable series of lessons. In this workshop, the attendees learned how to program a FPGA board using verilog. The attendees were informed of various techniques used to model circuits in verilog. The final workshop was dedicated to handling peripherals such as microphone and OLED display.
On the 22nd of February 2022, the ECE Undergraduate Student Council (USC) together with the ECE Department Management successfully conducted the first physical semesterly Staff-Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) meeting since the start of the pandemic. The goal of the SSLC is to bridge and connect the voices of ECE students with those of the faculty regarding both academic as well as administrative issues - in an effort to enrich both the educational facilities and student life here at ECE.
Who is the ECE USC? The ECE Undergraduate Student Council is made up of representatives from the ECE student community from each course and stage of study and varying pre-university. These student representatives from Y1 CEG JC to Y4 EE Poly cohorts, conduct semesterly surveys to students regarding any academic-related issues as well as their mental wellbeing throughout the first half of Semester 1. This survey was circulated to students through email and social media, where students were encouraged to express their concerns freely and anonymously. The feedback and concern were heard by representatives from the ECE Department, ECE year coordinators, faculty members, module lecturers who participated in the discourse.
Through careful and harmonious discussion between cohort representatives and the various staff and faculty, many of the feedback pertinent to modules presented by the students were shared with the key stakeholders and issues were resolved - with plans drawn to solve the rest of the long term administrative challenges that students experience.