Steven HALIM
Associate Professor (Educator Track)Deputy Director, Centre of Nurturing Computing Excellence (CeNCE)
Fellow, NUS Teaching Academy
Member, Faculty Teaching Excellence Committee (FTEC)
- Ph.D. (Computer Science, National University of Singapore)
- B.Sc. (Computer Science, National University of Singapore)
Steven Halim is an Associate Professor (Educator Track) in the Department of Computer Science (CS), School of Computing. He has been teaching a diverse range of CS courses full-time since 2007. He, along with his team of students, created and maintains an online teaching tool called VisuAlgo. This visualization tool digitizes almost everything that he teaches in his algorithm courses and can be accessed by his students and CS students worldwide, 24/7. Many other universities with CS courses utilize VisuAlgo in their classroom teachings. Additionally, he, along with his two co-authors, wrote a book titled “Competitive Programming”. This book on programming competition techniques has been translated into Spanish, Korean, Bulgarian, and is used by his students and many other universities/national teams worldwide, beyond NUS and Singapore. He has served as the Deputy Director of two successful back-to-back online International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) competitions in 2020 and 2021, both hosted by Singapore. He has also served as the Regional Contest Director for two International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia Singapore Regionals in 2015 and 2018. Currently, he serves as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Nurturing Computing Excellence (CeNCE), where he manages various programming competition-related activities for the Singapore National Team and NUS programming teams. Having served as a Resident Fellow of NUS Sheares Hall for 9 years, he is familiar with student life in NUS.
RESEARCH AREAS
Algorithms & Theory
- Combinatorial Algorithms
- Graph Theory & Algorithms
- Optimisation
Media
- Visualisation
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Algorithm
Competitive Programming
Visualization
Optimization
Local Search
RESEARCH PROJECTS
RESEARCH GROUPS
TEACHING INNOVATIONS
VisuAlgo - visualising data structures and algorithms through animation
Initially conceived in 2011 by Associate Professor Steven Halim, VisuAlgo aimed to facilitate a deeper understanding of data structures and algorithms for his students by providing a self-paced, interactive learning platform.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Halim, S. 2020 "Competitive Programming 4: The New Lower Bound of Programming Contests in the 2020s", Olympiad in Informatics, IOI journal, 2020, Singapore Online, https://ioinformatics.org/journal/v14_2020_177_180.pdf.
- Halim, S, Halim. F, Effendy. S. 2020 "Competitive Programming 4: The New Lower Bound of Programming Contests in the 2020s.",lulu.com,https://cpbook.net/.
- Halim, S. 2015 "VisuAlgo- Visualising Data Structures and Algorithms Through Animation", Olympiad in Informatics, IOI conference, 26 July-2 August 2015, Kazakhstan. https://ioinformatics.org/journal/v9_2015_243_245.pdf.
- Halim, S, and Halim. F. 2013 "Competitive Programming 3: The New Lower Bound of Programming Contests.", lulu.com, https://cpbook.net/.
- Halim, S. 2013 "Expecting the Unexpected", Olympiad in Informatics, IOI conference, 6-13 July 2013, https://ioinformatics.org/journal/INFOL113.pdf.
- Halim, S. 2012 "Learning Algorithms with Unified and Interactive Visualization", Olympiad in Informatics, IOI conference, 23-30 September 2012, Italy. https://ioinformatics.org/journal/INFOL099.pdf.
AWARDS & HONOURS
National Day Awards 2018 (Commendation Medal)
NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) 2014/15; 2017/18, 2018/19 (with Honour Roll)
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (FTEA) 2011/12; 2012/13; 2014/15 (with Honour Roll)
Best Teaching Assistant Award 2007/08
MODULES TAUGHT
CS2040S
Data Structures and Algorithms
CS3230
Design and Analysis of Algorithms
CS3233
Competitive Programming
CS4234
Optimisation Algorithms
IT5003
Data Structures and Algorithms