21
March
2019
|
16:41
Asia/Singapore

Minister Grace Fu visits The Hangar

Ms Fu (centre) and Mr Tan (far right) speaking to one of the start-ups at The Hangar

The Hangar by NUS Enterprise hosted Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu and a delegation from the Municipal Services Office (MSO) under the Ministry of National Development for a visit on 19 March. MSO, which Ms Fu oversees, is seeking to expand its technological offerings under its OneService platform, and hoped to find out about the innovative start-ups and technologies that are being nurtured at NUS.

NUS Enterprise Director Mr Kelvin Tan gave an overview of the many programmes on offer, including the NUS Overseas Colleges and BLOCK71. He also described NUS Enterprise’s corporate innovation programme that has partnerships with more than 30 companies from a diverse range of industries and provides opportunities for start-ups to learn how to develop solutions to problems faced by these companies.

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Ms Fu plays a 3D game of tic-tac-toe on Helloholo’s Microsoft Hololens

Three start-ups currently housed at The Hangar had the opportunity to present their technologies to the delegation. Map Visuals showcased their visual analytics platform that can transform spatial temporal data such as the availability of taxis or carpark lots into visual stories. Subnero showed off their Subnero Water Assessment Network (SWAN), a fleet of low-cost, autonomous, robotic swans that can collect and analyse water samples in the field and upload the results to a central server. Finally, Ms Fu heard from Helloholo, a start-up that makes Microsoft’s Hololens available to organisations that want to use its Mixed Reality (MR) technology, which enables users to visualise three-dimensional (3D) objects within a real spatial context, for instance allowing an architect to overlay 3D drawings or models on an actual space.

At the end of the visit, Ms Fu took quick tour around The Hangar, speaking to some of the founders of the 30 start-ups currently hosted there.