Bytes

Distinguished Speaker Seminar with Prof Robert Tarjan: “Is Dijkstra's Algorithm Optimal?”

NUS Computing is pleased to host Prof Robert Tarjan, one of the world’s most influential computer scientists and a foundational figure in algorithms research, as part of our CS50 anniversary.

Prof Tarjan is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and a Turing Award laureate recognised for seminal contributions that shaped modern data structures and graph theory. His work continues to influence generations of researchers and practitioners in computing and beyond.

Seminar Details

Topic: Is Dijkstra’s Algorithm Optimal?
Date: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Venue: LT15, Block AS6

Chair: Prof Seth Gilbert (Head, Computer Science)

RSVP: Please register by 25 November, 11:59 PM at https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Xu-lWwkxd06Fvc_rDTR-gm5x1Sp8M6RGscGRMyuul5JUQkRJQ1lTTlRJTzhGOFNHN0gwT1FWM09KQS4u&route=shorturl 

(Only for NUS Faculty,Staff & Students)

About the Seminar 

Dijkstra’s algorithm is one of the most enduring and widely taught algorithms in computer science. Beyond identifying shortest paths, it produces them in increasing order of length—a feature that has shaped decades of research in route planning and optimisation.

In this seminar, Prof Tarjan will discuss recent work he and his collaborators have undertaken that revisits a long-standing question: Is Dijkstra’s algorithm best possible? He will present findings that argue “yes”, alongside a brief look at alternative perspectives that suggest otherwise. The talk offers a rare window into the evolving landscape of algorithmic theory, guided by one of its most influential pioneers.

About the Speaker

Prof Robert Tarjan has held academic appointments at Cornell, Berkeley, Stanford, and NYU, and research roles at Bell Labs, NEC, HP, Microsoft, and Intertrust Technologies. He is known for pioneering many of the most efficient data structures and graph algorithms used today.

His accolades include:

• Nevanlinna Prize (1982)
• Turing Award (1986)
• Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award (1999)
  He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

This seminar is part of NUS Computing’s 50th anniversary celebrations, marking five decades of academic excellence, research leadership, and contributions to Singapore’s digital future.

More Information here

NUS FinTech Society clinches four prizes at ETHRome 25

Five members of the NUS Computing’s FinTech Society made an impressive showing at ETHRome 25, bringing home four prizes from one of Europe’s leading blockchain hackathons.

Held from 17–19 October 2025 at Talent Garden Roma, the hackathon drew more than 250 developers from across the world to tackle real-world challenges in AI, DeFi, and privacy.

Representing NUS were: 

• Chu Wei Rong – Year 4, Computer Science
• Poh Say Kong – Year 4, Computer Science
• Jeriel Chan Zhi Yang – Year 4, Computer Science
• Jefferson Lee Chun Yin – Year 4, Business Analytics
• Lim Teng Hong (Kevin) – Year 3, Information Security 

Also competing as solo developers, each member submitted individual projects and collectively earned:

• 1st Place (Civic) — Smart Nexus by Jefferson Lee
•  2nd Place (Civic) — Munus by Jeriel Chan
•  3rd Place (iExec) — ExecSwap by Poh Say Keong
• ENS Pool Prize — Trick or TrETH by Chu Wei Rong

“The final night was a true test of endurance — we barely slept, but seeing our projects come together was incredibly rewarding,” shared Wei Rong, Blockchain Co-Director of NUS FinTech Society.

ETHRome 25 featured a prize pool exceeding US$60,000, sponsored by blockchain companies including Civic, iExec, ENS, and Base. The NUS team’s wins highlight not just their technical expertise, but also NUS Computing’s growing strength in blockchain innovation and Web3 development.

Congratulations to the NUS FinTech Society for flying the NUS flag high in Rome!

Stay tuned for the full feature story.

Two NUS Computing Professors Among the World’s Most Highly Cited Researchers 2025 

We are proud to share that two faculty members from the NUS School of Computing — Distinguished Professor Yan Shuicheng and Professor Zhang Yang — have been named among the world’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025  by data analytics firm Clarivate. 

Among the fewer than one in 1,000 researchers globally recognised by Clarivate,  37 are from NUS this year — a reflection of our research community’s excellence and impact. The annual list identifies scientists whose work ranks among the top 1% of most cited globally, marking their strong influence in shaping their fields.

At NUS Computing, this recognition highlights our continued leadership in computer science and interdisciplinary research. The pioneering work of Distinguished Professor Yan and Professor Zhang continues to push boundaries across areas in artificial intelligence and computational biology.

NUS proudly ranks 1st in Singapore, 3rd in Asia and 17th globally in the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings! 🌏💡

At NUS Computing, we continue to push boundaries in research, innovation, and education, shaping the future of technology and society.

See the full rankings here

We are proud to share that Lin Xinyu and Zhao Wangbo, PhD students from NUS Computing, have been awarded the 2025 Google PhD Fellowship.

Google has announced the recipients of the 2025 Global Google PhD Fellowships. These fellowships recognise outstanding graduate students who are conducting exceptional and innovative research in computer science and related fields, specifically focusing on candidates who seek to influence the future of technology. 

The program provides vital direct financial support for their PhD pursuits and connects each Fellow with a dedicated Google Research Mentor, reinforcing our commitment to nurturing the academic community. We are excited to welcome this global cohort and look forward to partnering with them as they continue to become leaders in their respective areas..

👏 Join us in congratulating Xinyu and Wangbo on this remarkable achievement!

NUS Computing Students Win Gold at SPLASH 2025 ACM Student Research Competition

Two NUS School of Computing (SoC) students have emerged victorious at the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) held during SPLASH 2025. The SRC provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to present their research to a panel of expert judges and conference attendees, gaining feedback, recognition, and exposure to the global computing research community.

Emily Ong (Fifth Year, Double Degree in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics) secured the gold medal in the undergraduate category for her project Siloso: Finding Logic Bugs in RDBMS via Dialect-Adaptable Reference Engine Construction. Junwen An (Second Year, PhD in Computer Science)  won the gold medal in the graduate category for his research LLM-assisted Dialect-Agnostic SQL Query Parsing.

The ACM Student Research Competition recognises students who demonstrate excellence in both research and communication. Participants submit a two-page description of their original research, which is peer-reviewed before selection for the competition. Winners are invited to present their work at SPLASH and may advance to the ACM SRC Grand Finals, further showcasing their achievements on an international stage.

SoC congratulates Emily Ong and Junwen An on their outstanding accomplishments. Their success reflects the high standard of research and innovation cultivated at NUS Computing, and highlights the School’s commitment to supporting students in pushing the boundaries of computing knowledge and technology.

Assistant Professor Yi-Chieh Lee Awarded Google Academic Research Funding for Trust and Safety in AI

Assistant Professor Yi-Chieh Lee from NUS School of Computing has been awarded the Google Academic Research Award (GARA) in Trust, Safety, Security & Privacy Research.

The award supports his project — “Developing a User-Centered Framework for Socio-Emotional AI Harm Assessment” — in collaboration with a social scientist at NTU.

The Trust, Safety, Security, & Privacy Research Award focuses on work that improves digital trust, safety, privacy, and security across the online ecosystem.

This recognition reflects NUS Computing’s continued strength in advancing research that shapes ethical and responsible technology for society.

🔗 Learn more about the Google Academic Research Awards here: https://research.google/programs-and-events/google-academic-research-awards/google-academic-research-award-program-recipients/ 

PhD Student Tianqi Song Receives Methods Recognitions at CSCW 2025

NUS Computing PhD student Tianqi Song has been awarded Methods Recognitions at the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2025) for her paper, “Multi-Agents are Social Groups: Investigating Social Influence of Multiple Agents in Human-Agent Interactions.”

Supervised by Prof Yi-Chieh Lee, Tianqi’s research examines how groups of artificial agents influence human decision-making and behaviour — contributing to a deeper understanding of human-agent collaboration in digital spaces.

This recognition follows her earlier success at the 75th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, where she received the Top Paper Award in the Human-Machine Communication division. 

Together, these achievements highlight the growing impact of interdisciplinary computing research at NUS School of Computing.

Read the research feature here

IBM and NUS launch IBM-NUS Research Innovation Center to advance sustainable AI and quantum technologies

NUS and IBM launched the IBM-NUS Research and Innovation Center, on 23 October 2025, marking a new chapter in research collaboration focused on advancing AI, quantum computing, and sustainable computing systems. 

The launch event, held at the NUS School of Computing and officiated by Minister for Digital Development and Information, and Minister of Cybersecurity and Smart Nation, Josephine Teo, brought together senior leaders from both institutions, including Professor Liu Bin, Deputy President, Research and Technology, NUS, and Ms Priya Nagpurkar, Vice President, Hybrid Cloud and AI Platform, Research, IBM. 

Professor Liu Bin highlighted that the Center represents a "strategic commitment to cutting-edge research and development with responsible engineering and real-world applications." She outlined three key pillars of collaboration: 

• Sustainable AI Infrastructure (AIU): a full-stack AI unit built to optimise energy efficiency and computing performance, to be installed at NUS School of Computing by 2026.
• Quantum Computing Integration: building on NUS' existing collaboration with IBM through the IBM Quantum Innovation Center (established in 2020), to accelerate talent development and explore integration between AI and quantum systems
• Accelerating AI Systems from Silicon to Applications: combining NUS' expertise in computer architecture and compiler design with IBM's hardware-software co-design for next generation, self-optimising AI systems. 

Ms Napurkar reaffirmed IBM's shared commitment to "sustainable and trustworthy AI", emphasising that open innovation is essential to solving the world's most complex technology challenges. "We cannot achieve sustainable AI behind closed doors. The IBM-NUS partnership is an extraordinary opportunity to build such an open community here in Singapore," she said. 

A live demo by Dr Campbell Watson, Senior Research Manager and Master Inventor at IBM Research, showcased the power of IBM's AIU chip through geospatial AI models co-developed with NASA and the European Space Agency. The demo illustrated how foundation models can process satellite and radar imagery to identify patterns such as floods, land use, or maritime activity - applications that can support climate resilience, agriculture, and sustainability. 

The ceremony concluded with a ribbon-cutting led by Minister Teo and representatives from NUS and IBM, symbolising a deepened partnership between academia and industry to advance responsible and impactful technology for society.  

The UBM-NUS Research and Innovation Center will serve as a bridge between research excellence and enterprise innovation, nurturing talent and co-creating technologies that are sustainable, scalable, and beneficial to Singapore and the wider region. 

Read more about the partnership here. 

Team Bumblebee Holds Appreciation Night and Celebrates a Great 2025

Team Bumblebee hosted their Appreciation Night to thank sponsors and partners who have supported the team throughout their journey. The event celebrated the team’s milestones and accomplishments, made possible through strong partnerships and support.

The NUS School of Computing (SoC) has been a steadfast supporter, providing funding to support the development of autonomous vehicles and international competitions. Many members of Team Bumblebee come from SoC programmes — including Computer Engineering and Computer Science — applying their computing, software, and systems expertise to power the autonomy and intelligence behind the team’s vehicles.

Team Bumblebee’s first-place win at RoboSub 2025, is also a testament to student-led innovation and technical excellence in autonomous maritime systems. Their achievement highlights the impact of computing and engineering expertise in solving real-world challenges and advancing autonomous system technologies.

Through ongoing collaboration between students, faculty, and sponsors, Team Bumblebee continues to push the boundaries of innovation, computing, and autonomous systems excellence, setting the stage for another exciting year ahead.

Today, Professor Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS Computing, delivered a presentation on open ecosystem for energy-efficient AI accelerators at the IBM Research Day with NUS — an event organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in collaboration with IBM Research and the National University of Singapore (NUS). She was among the distinguished speakers who shared their perspectives at the event.

As part of the event, experts from IBM and NUS explored emerging technologies shaping the future of digital infrastructure, including AI models and use cases, AI trustworthiness and sustainability, AI platforms, infrastructure and accelerators, semiconductors, quantum computing, and quantum-safe security.

This session is part of IMDA’s Technical Sharing Session, which provides a regular platform for leading researchers to share insights on emerging tech topics. Attendees had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge, engage with fellow professionals, and explore new opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

When asked about the importance of such sharing sessions, Professor Mitra said, 

“Singapore already has a very thriving digital ecosystem, what we want to do is to provide leadership in AI, particularly from Asia. And this partnership between IMDA, universities as well as leading research labs like IBM, is going to bring all of us together, to really accelerate this progress, where we can get the insights from both the public agencies as well as the private companies and we can use that in order to accelerate our research and contribute to ideas that will create a future that is far more exciting.”

A Decade of Impact: Professor Prateek Saxena Honoured with ACM CCS Test-of-Time Award for Pioneering Research in Blockchain Consensus:

Professor Prateek Saxena from the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing has been awarded the ACM CCS 2025 Test-of-Time Award for the paper “Demystifying Incentives in the Consensus Computer”, authored with Loi Luu, Jason Teutsch, and Raghav Kulkarni. This prestigious award recognises research that has had a profound and enduring influence on the field of blockchain and decentralised systems.

Published in 2015, the paper challenged a foundational assumption in Satoshi Nakamoto’s design: that “a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes.” Instead, the authors argued that nodes are rational rather than inherently honest, and that without proper incentives, full nodes have little reason to verify blocks they did not mine—a phenomenon they called the verifier’s dilemma.

The work proposed several “naive but elegant” solutions, including a probabilistic verification model, which sparked a decade of research into scalable, incentive-aligned blockchain verification. The paper, which started as a theoretical critique, has now become a core pillar of blockchain scalability.

The ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) is one of the most prestigious venues for cybersecurity research. Its Test-of-Time Award celebrates landmark contributions whose impact continues to shape the field a decade after publication.

This year, NUS researchers won two out of the three Test-of-Time Awards — a remarkable recognition of the university’s sustained leadership in producing research that drives real-world innovation and stands the test of time.

👉 Read more about Professor Reza Shokri’s award-winning work here.
👉 Learn more about the ACM CCS Test-of-Time Awards here.

A Decade of Impact: Professor Reza Shokri Honoured with ACM CCS Test-of-Time Award for Pioneering Privacy-Preserving Modern AI

Professor Reza Shokri from the NUS School of Computing and Google Research has been awarded the ACM CCS 2025 Test-of-Time Award for his work on “Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning,” co-authored with Professor Vitaly Shmatikov. This prestigious award recognises research that has had a profound and enduring influence on the field of privacy in AI.

Published in 2015, the paper introduced one of the earliest and most influential solutions for collaborative AI without exposing sensitive raw data—a concept Professor Shokri calls “sharing without sharing.” The framework demonstrated how multiple parties could train powerful models together by exchanging only privacy-preserving (and norm-bounded model updates, aka clipped gradients, with differentially private randomisation), rather than entire datasets.

Ten years on, this work has become a cornerstone for privacy-preserving machine learning, inspiring advances in federated learning, secure AI infrastructure, and privacy standards across healthcare, finance, and mobile applications.

“This work was about reimagining how we build AI systems by unlocking the power of deep learning without forcing people to give up their sensitive data,” said Professor Shokri. “A decade later, it’s rewarding to see those principles drive innovation around the world.”

The ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) is one of the most prestigious venues for cybersecurity research. Its Test-of-Time Award celebrates landmark contributions whose impact continues to shape the field a decade after publication.

This year, NUS researchers clinched two out of the three Test-of-Time Awards —  a remarkable recognition of the university’s sustained leadership in producing research that shapes the field and stands the test of time, and a testament to its excellence, as the award typically honours only one or two winners each year.

👉 Read more about the other award winner, Professor Prateek Saxena, here.
👉 Read more about the ACM CCS Test-of-Time Awards here.

A team of NUS School of Computing (SoC) students, assembled by the Centre for Computing for Social Good and Philanthropy (CCSGP), competed in the 3rd annual Dell InnovateFest Hackathon on 29 August. The team — comprising Lin Ziyu, Tan Khang Hou, Wen Fanyu, Lai Yiwen, Li Zekuan, and Zoe Ang — impressed the judges and clinched 2nd place, winning a prize of $6,000.

This year’s hackathon, held in partnership with the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) and the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH), tasked students with creating innovative, technology-driven solutions to support mental health for teenagers and caregivers of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PWIDs).

The event was graced by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Education and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration, as Guest-of-Honour.

Congratulations once again to our NUS SoC team on this outstanding achievement!

NUS Computing was honoured to host delegates from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) — India’s largest and oldest apex business organisation — during their visit to Singapore.

The delegation visited to learn about Singapore’s AI ecosystem, digital transformation, and innovation-driven initiatives.

Prof Mohan Kankanhalli, Director of the NUS Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII) and Deputy Executive Chairman of AI Singapore, shared insights on how NUS contributes to national efforts in AI research, innovation, and talent development.

They also heard from Senior Lecturer Lek Hsiang Hui , Assistant Dean of Industry Relations, and Nan Sze, Director and Head of Executive Education, on NUS Computing’s approach to education and industry engagement.

The visit concluded with a Makers@SoC showcase led by Prof Colin Tan, Director of Makers@SoC, where participants saw how creativity, experimentation, and hands-on innovation come together.