NUS and ST Engineering are collaborating on a S$9 million, multi-year advanced digital technologies research programme to further their common goals of building a people-centric, smart future for Singapore and beyond.

Research efforts of this new programme will focus on technologies related to Smart City as well as Smart Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul (MRO), covering five areas: resource optimisation and scheduling; prescriptive analytics; decision and sense-making; reasoning engine and machine learning; as well as digital twin. These research areas support ST Engineering’s focus on developing differentiated and people-centric, smart city solutions that meet the present and future needs of cities around the world. The interdisciplinary research areas are also aligned with NUS’ endeavours as a driving force behind smart city innovations, leveraging its deep expertise that spans multiple domains and faculties.

Professor Chen Tsuhan, NUS Deputy President (Research & Technology), said, “As Singapore advances its position as a Smart Nation, having the right enterprise architecture to support those goals will determine if true digital transformation can be achieved. Over the years, NUS and ST Engineering have enjoyed a close and productive relationship. This new collaboration will combine NUS’ expertise in the science of cities with ST Engineering's industry knowledge to co-create people-centric Smart City solutions that will form the foundational systems to bring about not just impactful, but radical, change to the lives of people in Singapore and the world.”

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Just two months ago, Mr Na Yi Rong had little to no knowledge of Financial Technology (FinTech). The Engineering Science graduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS) is now working full time as a product management lead at a local FinTech start-up, after receiving the job offer when he was participating in the NUS-FinTechSG Programme.

Jointly developed by the NUS FinTech Lab and Strategic Technology Management Institute (STMI), the programme was launched on 6 July 2020 to nurture Singapore’s next generation of FinTech talents and full stack developers. The pioneer batch of 25 students graduated on 10 September in a virtual ceremony after undergoing a structured two-month intensive full-time course on the fundamentals of financial services technology and business.

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NUS students proved they have the chops when they took part in the region’s largest online coding challenge that saw more than 21,000 participants. Among the top 100 student teams taking part in the Shopee Code League which spread over two months from June to August, 21 teams had one or more NUS participants.

Team UET comprising NUS Computing students Long Vuong Hoang, Quang Minh Nguyen, Minh Phan and Quang Tuan Le, emerged second runner-up. They were among the 10 top teams to win a cash prize and career opportunities with Shopee, an e-commerce platform led by CEO Mr Chris Feng, an alumnus of the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme.

The challenge consisted of a series of big data competitions that included data analytics, data science and algorithm questions designed by Shopee teams. Participants also took part in workshops facilitated by their training partners from Shopee offices located in Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, China and Vietnam.

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In 2019, Singapore generated around 744 million kg of food waste — that’s equivalent to two bowls of rice per person a day, or around 51,000 double decker buses.

Food wastage is a real problem — it does not only cause environmental problems, but also affects our food security and puts pressure on our resources.

When Preston Wong, 31, saw his family members clearing out excess expiring food items from the refrigerator one day, he wondered if a platform could be built to facilitate a redistribution of surplus food. He pitched the idea to his National University of Singapore (NUS) schoolmate, Kenneth Ham, 30.

The duo didn’t even share the same classes — Preston majored in law and accountancy, while Kenneth majored in computer science — but they knew each other from church.

In their final year at NUS, they decided to take the leap to develop an app to tackle food wastage in Singapore by reducing the amount of buffet food that’s thrown away at the end of the day.

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A group of security researchers from the department of computer science at the National University of Singapore has created an attack model they call SpiKey to determine the key shape that will open any tumbler lock.

Soundarya Ramesh, Harini Ramprasad and Jun Han are the talented hackers behind SpiKey, which they say "significantly lowers the bar for an attacker," when compared to a more traditional lock-picking attack. The theoretical methodology is deceptively simple, listening for the sound of the key as it moves past tumbler pins in turn when the key is inserted in the lock.

The Singapore hackers use a simple smartphone to record the sound of the key being inserted, and withdrawn, with a smartphone and then observe the time between each tumbler pin click using their custom key reverse-engineering application. This forms the secret of the key, the fine-grained bitting depths which, the researchers report, can differ by as little as 15 milli-inches, or 0.381 millimeters.

"As SpiKey infers the shape of the key, it is inherently robust against anti-picking features in modern locks," the research paper states, "and grants multiple entries without leaving any traces."

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He was only 11 when he learnt how to code and design his first computer game, a 2D car racing game, with a $25 software called Game Maker 8.1. Now 19, Mr Victor Loh will be joining the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) once he completes his studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he is reading a double degree in computer science and statistics. The national serviceman is one of 15 Smart Nation scholarship awardees this year - selected from a pool of 723 applicants, an increase from 614 applicants last year.

Another Smart Nation scholar joining GovTech is Mr Kevin Foong, 21, a Year 1 computer science student at NUS. He became interested in artificial intelligence and cloud computing during his eight-month internship at a private software engineering company last year. Mr Foong believes technology can solve problems and cited GovTech's SafeEntry digital check-in system, which aids in contact tracing efforts against Covid-19, as an example.

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A new research institute will be set up by the end of the year to drive education, research and entrepreneurship in digital finance in the region. The institute, called the Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF), is jointly developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), the three organisations announced on Tuesday (Aug 4).

It will be hosted at NUS and offer a master's programme, as well as award scholarships to students to pursue further research at the doctoral level. It will also train post-doctoral fellows in the areas of digital finance and fintech. Through its education programme, the AIDF will build the FinTech leadership pipeline for Singapore and the wider region. The institute will be based at the Kent Ridge campus of NUS.

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Using Intel’s neuromorphic chip, Loihi, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) developed an artificial skin that allows robots to detect touch 1,000 times faster than the human sensory nervous system. The system can also identify the shape, texture and hardness of objects 10 times faster than the blink of an eye. The researchers believe this work could improve human-robot interaction, making things like caregiving robots and automated robotic surgery more feasible.

NUS said enabling a human-like sense of touch in robotics could significantly improve current functionality, offering the example of robotic arms fitted with artificial skin that could easily adapt to changes in goods manufactured in a factory, using tactile sensing to identify and grip unfamiliar objects with the right amount of pressure to prevent slipping.

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NUS Computing announced the launch of a new NUS-FinTechSG Programme on 6 July 2020. Offered by the NUS FinTech Lab and Strategic Technology Management Institute (STMI), this new programme aims to nurture Singapore’s next generation of Financial Technology (FinTech) talents and full stack developers.

On top of gaining knowledge in FinTech, students will also have the option to access SGUnited traineeships and employment opportunities with partner enterprises.

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2 July 2020 – In one second, the human eye can only scan through a few photographs. Computers, on the other hand, are capable of performing billions of calculations in the same amount of time. With the explosion of social media...

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New research by a team of NUS Computing professors is promising to restore privacy to individuals by making their online images unrecognisable to even the most advanced facial recognition technologies.

Led by Professor Mohan Kankanhalli, Dean of NUS Computing, the research team from NUS Computer Science has developed a technique that safeguards sensitive information in photos by making subtle changes that are almost imperceptible to humans, but render selected features undetectable by known algorithms.

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Full-time National Servicemen (NSF) who are cyber specialists can now take modules from NUS Computing’s Information Security programme, after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for a new Work-Learn Programme by Dean Mohan Kankanhalli and Defence Cyber Chief Brigadier-General Mark Tan.

The academic credits earned in the programme can be counted towards a full degree.

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According to a recent Fitch Solutions report, the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to lower levels of funding for fintech startups in the months ahead. This may start a trend of fintech startups being acquired by large corporate and tech companies.

Associate Professor Keith Carter discussed how these acquisitions can benefit both parties.

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To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Singapore government released the contact tracing app, TraceTogether, which has been downloaded by approximately 20 per cent of the population. However, this is still far below from the recommended 75 percent adoption rate.

Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli discussed how wearable dongles can be used to supplement contact tracing efforts.

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Data privacy issues are especially hazardous for startups, as many use data to the same extent, or more, as large corporations. Professor Mohan Kankanhalli, Dean of NUS Computing and director of the NUS Centre for Research in Privacy Technologies (N-CRiPT), shared reasons why data privacy may not be high on startups’ list of priorities. NUS Computing Associate Professor Terence Sim, who is a principal investigator at N-CRiPT, added that ensuring good security of data is the first line of defence to preserving privacy.

Assistant Professor Reza Shokri, who does research on data privacy at N-CRiPT, shared insights from a paper that he worked on with NUS Faculty of Law Associate Professor Daniel Seng, which looked at whether different types of machine learning algorithms complied with privacy regulations.

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A team of NUS researchers has come up with the pH Watch, an ‘add on’ to a wearable health monitoring gadget that allows users to assess their health condition from their sweat pH. NUS Computing Professor Peh Li Shiuan and her PhD student, Mr Ananta Narayanan Balaji from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, were part of the research team.

The other team members include NUS Computing research fellow Dr Wang Bo, as well as PhD student Ms Chen Yuan and Assistant Professor Shao Huilin from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology.

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Data protection rules governing Singapore's public sector, known as Instruction Manual 8 (IM8), will be updated in 2020 to be in line with existing rules for the private sector. The updated IM8 follows recommendations aimed to make data protection measures clearer and plug gaps.

The proposals that were announced on 27 Nov 2019 were made by the Public Sector Data Security Review Committee. NUS Computing Professor Atreyi Kankanhalli praised the steps the review committee had proposed to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors.

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Since July 2014, NUS Computing alumnus and software developer Abraham Yeo has been giving food, drinks and companionship to the homeless in Singapore. Abraham co-founded an informal volunteer group, the Homeless Hearts of Singapore, to rally like-minded people together to conduct night walks and checks on the homeless.

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NUS announced the launch of a new research centre for legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and data analytics on 5 December. The new Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Law (Trail) will be led by law faculty's Prof Daniel Seng, as well as deputy directors Prof David Tan from the Faculty of Law and Prof Chang Ee-Chien from NUS Computing.

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Final year Information Systems student Victor Yeo was one of 145 students selected to join the Schwarzman Scholars Programme held at Tsinghua University's Schwarzman College in Beijing, China. Schwarzman Scholars will pursue a Master's degree in Global Affairs that is focused on global affairs, China, and leadership.

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