National Parks Board (NParks) built two therapeutic gardens at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Tiong Bahru Park after adopting suggestions made by Prof Kua Ee Heok from the Dept of Psychological Medicine at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. The project came about from a study last year by NUHS and NParks led by Prof Kua on the health benefits of therapeutic gardens for the elderly.

Prof Zheng Yongnian, Director of the East Asian Institute at NUS noted that the world is now paying keen attention to personnel changes within China's senior political leadership in the lead-up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Dr Chen Gang, Asst Director (Policy Research) and Senior Research Fellow from the East Asian Institute at NUS opined that the US might one day return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if the accord can still stand with the support of the other 11 members.

A survey jointly conducted by the Securities Investors Association Singapore and the Centre for Governance, Institutions & Organisations at NUS Business School has found that only 3.1 percent of companies put up the minutes of their AGMs on their websites. The survey analysed the annual reporting of more than 200 companies for fiscal year 2017.

The Lembaga Biasiswa Kenangan Maulud (LBKM) has gifted $45,000 to the NUS School of Computing to award Future Economy Scholarships to deserving Singaporean Malay students over a period of three years. Each year, up to three students will receive scholarships valued at $5,000 each. Mr Khairul Rizqi Mohd Shariff, Mr Adil Azmoon and Mr Ismahfaris Ismail were awarded the scholarships this year.

Assoc Prof Chia Sin Eng from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS noted that Singapore must adopt a wider perspective beyond meeting zero accident targets or preventing occupational diseases, one which recognises that the prevention and management of diseases are equally important.

Mr Mark Wee, who has an interest in coding, decided to enrol in the Graduate Diploma Systems Analysis Programme at NUS’ Institute of Systems Science. Mr Wee graduated after a year of studies and is now a consultant at a homegrown IT consulting firm. He attributes his success to the programme’s curriculum, which includes technical skills, soft skills, projects and an industry-immersive internship.

Assoc Prof Keith Carter from NUS School of Computing noted that great customer service is what all businesses should aspire to, and this means being able to meet customer needs intuitively. He opined that Big Data plays an important role in contemporary marketing, and understanding the real value of Big Data means looking beyond simple quantity to actually deliver actionable business intelligence.

The Tembusu Forum titled “ASEAN at 50: Success or a disappointment?”, organised by Tembusu College at NUS on 12 September 2017, touched on various ASEAN hits and misses, such as differences in administration capabilities and style, resolution of territorial disputes and humanitarian issues. It was moderated by Prof Tommy Koh, Rector of Tembusu College and also Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large, who noted that one of the big successes achieved by ASEAN is its role as the region’s pillar of peace well over the last 50 years.

Assoc Prof Robert Kimmel, Head of the Dept of Finance at NUS Business School, explained what cryptocurrency is and why it is important.