Speaking at the awards ceremony held at the University Cultural Centre on 4 September 2026, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye celebrated the award winners as living proof of the excellence woven into the NUS identity.

He also spoke of how the University is embedding AI deeply into both education and research to unlock new frontiers of discovery. "AI has reshaped scientific research and discovery in unprecedented and unexpected ways…Even as we embrace AI, we must celebrate human excellence. We do so this evening at the University Awards. Determination, endeavour, excellence – these are the very human traits that define the NUS spirit, qualities that will anchor the next AI-powered chapter of NUS."

Top accolade - Outstanding Service Award

This year, the prestigious Outstanding Service Award was conferred on Mr Seah Moon Ming, Chairman, Board of Governors of NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, and Professor Bernard Tan Cheng Yian, NUS Senior Vice Provost (Undergraduate Education), in recognition of their inspiring leadership and dedicated service. Both are accomplished individuals who have made sustained contributions in selflessly serving the University and society.

Mr Seah Moon Ming

Mr Seah is a veteran leader who has devoted over four decades to strengthening Singapore's public institutions and continues to invest in the next generation through education and philanthropy. As Chairman of the Board of Governors of NUS High School of Mathematics and Science since 2021, he spearheaded the school's Strategic Plan 2025–2029 and forged partnerships with industry and social service organisations to enrich student learning. He is also Chairman of SMRT Corporation and SMRT Trains Ltd, where he led a cultural transformation anchored in the Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement. He established the Seah Moon Ming Foundation, which contributes annually to bursaries and scholarships across NUS, NUS High School, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), polytechnics, Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs), and charity organisations, championing access to education for the next generation of engineers and underprivileged families.

Delivering the citation, Professor Aaron Thean, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, said, “[Mr Seah’s] contributions have been recognised nationally, including the Meritorious Service Medal in 2022 and the Public Service Star in 2014. Behind all these obvious contributions and achievements is a man with a heart for Engineering at NUS. He has gifted much of his time to the faculty as an advisory board member, fostering its growth. We are privileged to have Mr Seah as part of our community.”

Reflecting on his investment in education, Mr Seah said, “I believe an education should build character, shape values, and inspire students to serve society…With the right values, sense of purpose and gratitude, an NUS education can become a powerful force for a better future.”

Professor Bernard Tan Cheng Yian

Behind many of NUS' most significant curriculum reforms over the past 17 years is Professor Bernard Tan Cheng Yian, a champion of interdisciplinary and future-ready education. As Senior Vice Provost (Undergraduate Education), Prof Tan has been instrumental in driving curriculum reforms across virtually every college, faculty and school in the University, advancing interdisciplinary programmes, common admissions, experiential learning, student financial aid and AI integration in education. He chairs the University Committee on Educational Policy and multiple university-wide steering committees covering student information systems and graduate employment. A former President of the Association for Information Systems, he received the organisation's LEO Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2024.

In his citation, Prof Thean paid tribute to Prof Tan’s work in undergraduate education and his leadership in advancing NUS’ AI efforts. “As Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Professor Tan has steered the University’s educational directions, policies and programmes, always demonstrating a deep commitment to the learning experience of our students. He exemplifies collegiality, institutional commitment and a lifelong dedication to the University.”

Sharing his hopes about the future, Prof Tan said, “Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Don’t be afraid of disruptions. All these disruptions, in fact, make us stronger. Take heart. Keep innovating, and I’m confident that future generations of NUS students and educators will do better than those who come before them.”

The honour roll

The NUS University Awards 2026 also recognised the accomplishments of seven outstanding educators and researchers.

University Research Recognition Award

Professor Abhik Roychoudhury from the Department of Computer Science, School of Computing, was lauded for extending his research from academic breakthroughs to enterprise-grade tools used by companies worldwide.

Professor Ashok Venkitaraman from the Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; and Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, was honoured for his landmark discoveries on the BRCA2 gene, which have laid the scientific foundations for targeted cancer therapies used globally.

Young Researcher Award

Associate Professor Chen Huijun Cynthia from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health was commended for her research on ageing and healthcare financing, which has directly shaped government policy in Singapore and on global platforms.

Assistant Professor Liu Boxiang from the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, recently won the 2026 Young Scientist Award at this year’s President’s Science & Technology Awards (PSTA). He was recognised for his work on genetic variation and RNA splicing which is advancing the understanding of complex and autoimmune diseases across Asian populations.

Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award

Professor Liu Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, was honoured for his excellent and committed mentorship in nurturing the next generation of scholars and thought leaders. He is a dedicated mentor to over 130 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to publish in the world's leading scientific journals.

Outstanding Educator Award

Two faculty members were acknowledged for being exemplary educators who have excelled in engaging and inspiring students in their quest for knowledge:

1) Associate Professor Robin Loon Seong Yun from the Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who has transformed how students engage with community and identity through experiential, arts-based learning.

2) Associate Professor Tay En Rong Stephen from the Department of the Built Environment, College of Design and Engineering, who has developed the Contextualised Learning via Enquiring, Answering, and Reflecting (CLEAR) pedagogical framework. This has reshaped how curiosity and critical thinking are taught across Singapore and six other countries.

Read more about the NUS University Awards recipients here and the NUS press release here.

To ensure all incoming NUS students achieve AI literacy before they start their courses, foundational AI competencies are embedded directly into their first-year university experience through the Transition to Higher Education (T.H.E.) Programme. Starting from Academic Year 2026/27, this commitment takes shape through a new AI foundational course: THE1008 Applied Generative AI: From Prompting to Evaluation.

Developed by Associate Professor Ooi Wei Tsang and Dr Lek Hsiang Hui from the NUS School of Computing, together with Dr Kate Sangwon Lee from the Engineering Design and Innovation Centre under the College of Design and Engineering at NUS, THE1008 is compulsory for all first-year undergraduates. Students learn how to effectively use large language models (LLMs) and multimodal AI effectively to assist them across academic and professional contexts. The course establishes a common foundation in AI literacy that students can scaffold across subsequent mandatory AI courses in the common curriculum and their majors, as they progressively develop the discipline-specific AI fluency needed for their fields.

Assoc Prof Ooi said, “THE1008 teaches students to use generative AI (GenAI) effectively by helping them to understand how it works, communicate with it clearly, and incorporate it into human-led workflows for complex tasks. Upon completing the course, we hope students will understand that while GenAI is a powerful and useful tool, it is still a tool. Humans have an essential role to play in providing direction, exercising judgment, evaluating output, and taking responsibility for the resulting work.”

THE1008 is a blended-learning course, comprising three hours of online lecture videos and a two-hour in-person workshop. Students are required to complete the lecture videos, which include embedded quizzes, before attending the workshop. Both components of the course need to be completed within the first two weeks of the first semester. The course ensures every NUS undergraduate is equipped to use GenAI tools effectively for learning, assignments, internships and their careers.

First-year student Manasvini Mendu from the NUS Faculty of Science enjoyed the interactive components of the workshop. “I enjoyed working with other students to present our work to the class,” she said. “I also learnt to use GenAI to explain harder concepts, summarise notes and create flash cards, rather than using it to submit assignments, so that I’m still doing the intellectual work.”

During the workshop, she also found AI useful in other practical areas, having learnt to use AI to create a travel itinerary. “I discovered that I could utilise its planning ability to plan my ideal school timetable, and to coordinate my various activities and assignment deadlines.”

THE1008 is part of NUS’ broader effort to equip all students with AI fluency. By integrating AI competencies at every stage of study, through the common curriculum and majors, NUS students will develop the confidence to deploy AI tools strategically, critically interpret AI-generated results and apply AI thoughtfully within their disciplines. The goal is to nurture graduates who can harness AI for analysis, problem-solving and creative work, complemented by human-centred skills such as critical thinking, judgement and sense-making that employers value the most.
 

• Berita Minggu, 30 August 2026, p14 & p15

Yet, this rich heritage has remained largely obscured by the familiar colonial narrative of Singapore’s founding.

From August 2026, about 140 undergraduates at NUS will embark on a journey into Singapore’s deeper history through “700 Years of Visual Arts: Singapore in the World”, a new General Education course that goes beyond just an art or history course, using visual and material culture to uncover connections between people, ideas and cultures that shaped Singapore centuries before Raffles’ arrival.

Developed by the Art History Minor Programme at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' (FASS) Department of History, the course fills a gap in Singapore’s art history education. While broad introductory courses on the art and cultural histories of places such as India, China and Rome have long been available, Singapore has lacked a comparable introduction.

“There has not been a Singaporean version of courses like ‘Arts of India’, ‘Introduction to the Italian Renaissance’ or ‘Arts of China’,” said Dr Priya Jaradi, Convenor of the Art History Minor Programme and Principal Educator of “700 Years”.

“This course gives us an opportunity to tell a much longer story that recognises Singapore’s cultural connections across the region and the world, and the centuries of history that came before 1819.”

Piecing together Singapore’s longer history

Rather than tracing Singapore’s past only through dates and events, “700 years” invites learners to look closely at an expansive range of objects and images that have survived and recognise them as valuable clues to Singapore’s past — a key feature of the course.

For instance, a 9th-century Chinese ceramic, a piece of textile woven in Gujarat for Southeast Asian clients, or a portrait produced in Bombay, Singapore or Canton can reveal stories about the movement of people, ideas and tastes across the region.

The course draws on more than 700 forms of material culture from Singapore’s institutional collections, including the Asian Civilisations Museum, NUS Museum and NUS Libraries, as well as collections from institutions overseas. It also looks beyond objects made on the island itself, presenting Singapore as a crossroads shaped by long-standing regional and global connections.

Mr Dylan Chng, Co-educator of “700 years” said this approach encourages learners to ask questions that can open up new ways of understanding the past.

“By looking closely at objects and the stories behind them, students will learn to make connections between people, places, ideas and cultures, and develop new ways of seeing and understanding the world around them. They learn to ask: ‘What can this object tell me?’, ‘Where did it come from?’ and ‘Why was it made?’ These questions can open up new ways of understanding not just Singapore’s past, but the world around us.”

The course’s blended learning format is designed to deepen this experience, combining online video lectures with in-person tutorial sessions and independent museum research. Students can work through the online material at their own pace before coming together with faculty and peers to discuss ideas and explore key concepts and case studies in greater depth.

From the NUS classroom to learners everywhere

Given its broad relevance to anyone interested in Singapore’s history, art and cultural heritage, the new course will also be made available to the public, including beyond Singapore, through the FASS’ Continuing Education and Training (CET) offerings from January 2027.

Public learners can choose between the blended learning format or take the course entirely online, with access to video lectures, readings, resources and quizzes from anywhere in the world.

Ultimately, the new course allows students and adult learners alike to see the island’s history in a new light, reflecting NUS’ commitment to enhancing the learning experience to make education more engaging, interdisciplinary and relevant to students and adult learners today.

“That is what makes this a valuable General Education course. Students from different disciplines can come together to explore something they may not have studied before, while learning to look closely, ask questions and make connections between things that might not seem connected at first. I hope they leave not just knowing more about Singapore’s history, but seeing it a little differently,” said Dr Jaradi.

Beyond advancing state-of-the-art AI infrastructure, NUS and OpenAI will jointly champion initiatives to nurture AI talent and drive innovation that enables the University to effectively harness AI as a force multiplier across education, research and administration.

"This collaboration with OpenAI is a pivotal step in our human-centric AI strategy, further enriching the robust suite of tools we provide," said Professor Aaron Thean, Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost of NUS. "We aim to leverage these advanced AI technologies not as replacements, but as powerful amplifiers of human intellect, creativity and judgement. By providing direct, hands-on access, we empower our students, faculty and staff to develop the critical thinking and ethical discernment essential to innovate and lead in an AI-driven world, ensuring human capabilities remain at the forefront."

Expanding the repertoire of advanced AI tools

From 31 August 2026, all NUS students, faculty and staff will have access to ChatGPT Edu by OpenAI, further strengthening NUS’ growing portfolio of AI platforms and services. Unlike the free ChatGPT, it provides NUS with broader access to core capabilities within a secure, university-managed environment with stronger privacy, security and administrative controls. Conversations and data within the NUS workspace are not used to train OpenAI’s models.

During the initial phase, advanced tools from OpenAI’s enterprise-grade platform – ChatGPT Edu – will be strategically piloted in some selected courses. These powerful resources are designed to empower students, faculty and staff, fostering innovation, accelerating research and addressing complex challenges with greater depth and efficiency. Following this pilot, these advanced tools will be progressively made available for undergraduate courses where AI adds educational value and augment learning objectives.

This expansion builds on the earlier collaboration with NUS School of Computing which began in March 2026, providing Computing students access to OpenAI’s software development tools.

The collaboration now enters its next phase, scaling access and enablement across the University.

To further develop practical AI skills, students will have opportunities to participate in hackathons and build days focused on AI-enabled solutions. These activities will give students across disciplines opportunities to develop ideas, work on real-world problems and connect with OpenAI’s global networks and communities.

“As AI becomes increasingly embedded in how NUS operates, it is critical that we adopt it in a secure, scalable and sustainable way. This collaboration with OpenAI provides NUS staff and students the access to advanced AI capabilities in a governed and responsible manner. Complementing NUS' in-house built AI-Know platform, OpenAI's tools will strengthen our operational capabilities, drive smarter digital services and more efficient administration that benefit our entire community,” said Ms Tan Shui-Min, NUS Chief Information Technology Officer and Vice President.

“Singapore has an extraordinary opportunity to shape how AI contributes to education, research and innovation, and NUS has an important role to play in that future. Building on our earlier collaboration with the NUS School of Computing, we’ve seen users engage more deeply with ChatGPT and adopt Codex at higher rates than users at similarly sized universities. This reflects a growing appetite not only to find answers with AI, but to experiment, prototype and build with it. We look forward to deepening our work with NUS to help develop the next generation of AI-native talent and prepare Singapore’s workforce for an AI-enabled future. By bringing together NUS’ leadership in education and research with OpenAI’s technology and global community, we aim to strengthen Singapore’s AI ecosystem and support innovation across the wider region,” said Mr Oliver Jay, Managing Director, International at OpenAI.

New foundational AI competency course for all NUS freshmen

This strategic collaboration aligns with NUS’ broader educational philosophy, which integrates AI competencies directly into the curriculum.

To ensure all incoming NUS students achieve AI literacy before they start their courses, foundational AI competencies are built directly into their freshman university experience through the Transition to Higher Education (T.H.E.) Programme.

Starting from Academic Year 2026/27, THE1008 Applied Generative AI: From Prompting to Evaluation will be a compulsory module for all first-year undergraduates, ensuring every student gains practical skills in effectively interacting with large language models (LLMs) and multimodal AI before they begin their coursework.

Following the completion of this requirement, NUS will ensure all students achieve AI fluency when they graduate through the deliberate integration of AI competencies at every stage of their studies in their common curriculum and major. They will have the confidence to deploy AI tools strategically, critically interpret AI-generated results and apply AI thoughtfully within their disciplines. This proactive approach equips all NUS graduates with the latest AI expertise and its application across interdisciplinary subject domains while amplifying their adaptable human-centred skills such as critical thinking, judgement and sense-making valued by employers. Students will be ready to harness AI for analysis, problem-solving and creative work, preparing them to thrive as agile and innovative professionals in an AI-driven world.

Innovating research discovery

In a first for Southeast Asia, NUS Libraries and NUS IT have jointly developed AI Sense Maker, a proprietary web-based conversational AI platform powered by OpenAI’s LLM. To be officially launched on 20 August 2026, AI Sense Maker draws on over 150,000 digitised materials from NUS Libraries’ ScholarBank and Digital Gems collections. Supporting academic inquiry, the platform enables students and researchers to ask questions in everyday language and uses semantic search to generate concise topic summaries, identify related concepts, curate references and create interactive knowledge graphs for deeper exploration of ideas.

NUS remains committed to the thoughtful integration of AI into education, research and administration, ensuring its community is equipped for technological advancement while upholding principles of responsible and ethical AI use.

• Suria News Online, 9 August 2026

Since 2024, the ceremony has gained new meaning with the introduction of an ethics pledge, through which the law freshmen affirm their commitment to uphold the values of integrity, professionalism and service that define the legal profession.

Held at the NUS University Cultural Centre, the event was the culmination of the Faculty’s orientation activities. Gracing the ceremony this year was NUS Law alumnus Mr K Shanmugam (Law ’84), Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, who served as Guest-of-Honour.

Mr Shanmugam encouraged the incoming cohort to approach their legal education with both ambition and realism, describing the legal profession as rewarding and impactful with high demands and trade-offs at the top-end.

“If you choose to be in legal practice, and you want to be at the top-end, the cutting edge, then you must expect the demands to be very high,” he said.

Mr Shanmugam also noted that law graduates have a range of career paths open to them, and hoped that his remarks would help students make wiser choices during law school and as they consider the careers they wish to pursue.

Building on Mr Shanmugam’s message, Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law, outlined how the Faculty will prepare students for the future by focusing on three key areas: legal doctrine, skills and perspective.

While students will learn the rules and vocabulary of law, he emphasised that the law is constantly evolving. “Our job is not so much to teach you the rules as if it’s a fixed body of information, but to teach you how to be a lawyer 10 years from now,” said Prof Simester.

He further encouraged them to embrace the transformative journey ahead while staying grounded in their values. “With your induction into the law school today, do not lose sight that the hallmarks of a successful lawyer are good character and using your considerable abilities responsibly,” he added.

In an address to her peers, Gwen Chong, third-year law student and Vice President of the NUS Law Club, shared her personal reflections on navigating law school, as she stressed the importance of friendships, balance and finding one’s own path.

“Take your work seriously, but do not feel like every hour has to be productive. Be ambitious, but do not measure the value of your time here only by the number of achievements you collect,” she said. While she acknowledged that law school and the opportunities it offers are important, she reminded the students that there is no single correct path to spend their four years.

Reflecting on the ceremony, first-year student Putra Zayan Bin Mohd Jaffry shared, “Taking the ethics pledge alongside my classmates was a powerful moment. It made me realise that we’re all starting this journey with a shared commitment to the values that make the legal profession meaningful. I’m grateful to have my family here to witness this milestone and to support me as I begin this new chapter.”

Fellow freshman Arivalagan Sharmadha added, “Prof Simester’s advice really resonated with me — to not panic, work hard and have fun. His reminder that we belong to the NUS Law community was incredibly reassuring as I start this journey. I’m excited to be part of this community and to learn alongside such a talented and committed group of classmates.”

The freshmen and their families also witnessed the sealing of a time capsule containing letters written by the students to their future selves. Mr Shanmugam, Prof Simester and student leaders from the Freshmen Orientation Central Committee and Freshers’ Week (an orientation programme for incoming freshmen), sealed the capsule, which will be reopened upon the cohort’s graduation in 2030.

This interconnected approach, which she calls “roots to reefs”, recognises that ecosystems do not exist in isolation. What happens upstream in forests, rivers and coastal habitats can shape the health and resilience of mangroves and coral reefs downstream. This holistic vision has become the foundation of her research and teaching at NUS.

Her work spans mangrove restoration at Pulau Ubin to leading expeditions across Southeast Asia, where she uses drones and 3D mapping technologies to create detailed digital models of coastal ecosystems. She also produces immersive 360-degree conservation films — one of them, entitled Roots to Reefs 360, clinched the Bronze accolade at the 2023 QS Reimagine Education Awards.

As we observe World Mangrove Day on 26 July, Dr Coffman discusses Singapore’s mangrove story, why these forests matter for our climate future and what gives her hope in the next generation of mangrove champions.

World Mangrove Day puts a spotlight on mangrove ecosystems globally. What’s the current state of Singapore's mangroves?

Around 13 per cent of our coastline was originally fringed by mangroves, but today less than 1 per cent of Singapore’s land area remains as mangrove habitat. Against a backdrop of continued mangrove loss across Southeast Asia, Singapore has become a regional leader in mangrove conservation through projects such as Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network and Sungei Durian in Pulau Ubin.

Singapore’s mangroves also remain rich in biodiversity. We have 35 species of true mangroves – almost as many as Indonesia, the global leader with about 48 species. Singapore’s mangrove flora is exceptionally diverse for a highly urbanised nation.

Every year, I begin my Aquatic, Riparian and Coastal Systems course at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve because it tells one of Singapore’s greatest conservation stories. In the 1980s, the Nature Society Singapore recognised the site was internationally important for migratory shorebirds. Their advocacy helped protect it, making it Singapore’s first ASEAN Heritage Park. It is a powerful reminder to students that conservation succeeds when passionate people speak up and scientists, communities, policymakers and citizens work together.

What excites me most is that Singapore is no longer conserving isolated patches but restoring connected coastal ecosystems, reflecting the “roots to reefs” approach that underpins my research and teaching. The healthier these ecological connections become, the more resilient our wildlife, coastlines and communities will be.

Mangroves have been described as “climate infrastructure”. Can you explain what that means?

The word “infrastructure” brings to mind bridges, roads or seawalls. Mangroves perform many of those same functions naturally, which is why scientists call them natural climate infrastructure.

Mangroves are among the planet’s most efficient ecosystems for capturing and storing carbon, particularly in their deep waterlogged soils. Over hundreds of years, this builds up like an underground carbon bank.

But carbon is only part of the story. Mangroves reduce wave energy, buffer storm surges, stabilise shorelines, filter pollutants and provide nursery habitat for fisheries. A seawall protects a coastline, but a mangrove forest does this while storing carbon, supporting biodiversity and improving water quality.

As sea levels rise, our future resilience will depend on combining engineering with healthy ecosystems through nature-based climate solutions.

You bring NUS students into mangrove ecosystems for field learning. What do students discover that they cannot learn in a classroom?

One of my favourite moments happened during a field research trip in a mangrove forest in Lombok. After collecting data, I asked students to sit quietly on the mangrove roots, close their eyes and listen. They described hearing birds calling, crabs clicking beneath the mud and how surprisingly cool the forest felt.

It was a simple exercise but it changed how they saw mangroves — not just as muddy coastal forests but as a living, interconnected ecosystem.

While lectures provide the scientific foundation, students develop deeper understanding by seeing and doing. They learn to observe like scientists and understand how every species plays a role.

I also want students to see themselves as future conservation leaders. In my course, teams choose a degraded mangrove site and develop restoration proposals. Successful restoration requires understanding tides, sediments, biodiversity, communities and long-term management. The best strategies bring together ecologists, engineers, planners, policymakers and communities to design solutions beneficial for people and nature.

As an educator nurturing the next generation of conservation leaders, what gives you hope?

I see hope in the moment curiosity turns into connection. Students often arrive thinking mangroves are muddy, smelly places. By day’s end, they’re excitedly pointing out mudskippers and kingfishers, imagining how these places can be restored.

I see the same hope when working alongside communities across Southeast Asia as I meet people who care deeply about restoring coastal environments. Conservation succeeds when local communities lead, because they continue caring long after researchers leave.

People protect what they understand, and understanding often begins with experience. I hope that everyone experiences a mangrove forest at least once. Once you’ve experienced that magic, it’s hard not to want to protect it.

How can one experience the “Mangrove Magic” this World Mangrove Day?

Visit Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Chek Jawa Wetlands or Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk. Pause, listen to the birds, watch the mudskippers and crabs and look out for the otters.

Consider joining a kayak tour at Pulau Ubin, or participate in mangrove planting and coastal clean-ups organised by NParks, the Nature Society Singapore and the International Coastal Cleanup Day in Singapore.

Once you spend time in a mangrove forest, you begin to see it differently.

World Mangrove Day is observed annually on 26 July to raise awareness of mangrove ecosystems and promote their sustainable management, conservation and restoration.

Held from 6 to 9 July 2026, HERDSA welcomed 1000 participants who explored the theme “Re-envisioning Higher Education for Tomorrow’s Learners”. Through a variety of keynote sessions, panel discussions and lightning talks, participants discussed approaches to nurture habits of inquiry, judgment and adaptability that empower students to keep learning, in addition to cultivating habits of mind that enable students to use knowledge well.

As technology reshapes how the world lives, works and learns, conversations revolve around maintaining a human-centric approach in higher education amidst these changes. A key highlight was the panel “Re-envisioning Higher Education for Tomorrow’s Learners: How Can We Develop Human-Centric, Workforce-Ready Graduates in the AI Era” held on 9 July. Moderated by Dr Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook from NUS’ Centre for English Language Communication, HERDSA 2026’s co-convenor together with Dr Mark Gan from the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT), this session brought together Asia-Pacific higher education leaders and scholars to explore how universities can redefine learning in an AI-enabled world.

What it means to be human

The panel discussion focused on the importance of “human-centric” learning. Associate Professor Soo Yuen Jien, who leads the pedagogy team at NUS’ Artificial Intelligence Centre for Education Technology (AICET), advocated for more experiential learning by incorporating more project work into courses and encouraging more students to do internships or community service.

Assoc Prof Rachel Fitzgerald, Deputy Associate Dean (Academic) from the University of Queensland, called on educators to take a big-picture view of higher education, focused on learning, rather than “small measures of success” such as the ability to complete certain tasks.

“We don’t know what the future is going to look like, but we do know the values we want our graduates to have. We want them to be ethical leaders, caring, courageous and good members of our community,” she said.

Professor Giovanni Russello, who heads the University of Auckland’s School of Computer Science, also cautioned educators against being “hyper-focused” on AI. “There are other technologies coming our way, and it often takes years for the curriculum to catch up. We need to focus on teaching our students how to learn – fundamental knowledge and intellectual curiosity are what is going to differentiate us from the machine.”

The role of the educator

Discussions also addressed the evolving role of educators preparing students in a job market where AI is increasingly replacing entry-level roles. “The bar is higher,” observed Assoc Prof Soo, suggesting educators could consider exposing students to more situations that mimic real-world challenges.

He also urged re-evaluating assessment methods. “Rather than focus on detecting if a student has used AI, perhaps educators should ask themselves: What kind of assessment can I design for students who are augmented by AI?”

Even as they support students, educators themselves could benefit from more support in using AI.

Fellow panellist Akriti Sethi, a PhD candidate from Monash University (Malaysia), noted that educators need a safe space to experiment with the technology.

“I’ve had educators tell me, ‘I’d love to create an AI-enabled environment, but I don’t know where the line is. When does it go from creating an AI tech-savvy environment to overuse and over-reliance?’ Experimentation cannot come out of fear,” she added.

Looking to the future

With AI’s growing prevalence, human skills are paramount. NUS is committed to fostering environments where students cultivate resilience, as well as collaborative and communication skills. Our evolving educational framework equips students to connect diverse ideas and acquire the skills to thrive in this complex, changing world.

Farming data for the community

One of the first things that Agrolitik founders Jayden Tan, Tsui Yi Wern, and Yong Li An did when they moved into THE HANGAR, a launchpad for early-stage start-ups by NUS Enterprise, was to plant a small garden.

They were testing Agrolitik’s precision farming tool, which would help fix common problems that Southeast Asian farmers face — insufficient knowledge on soil conditions leading to wastage from over-fertilising and over-watering, and inconsistent soil quality.

Agrolitik supports smallholder farmers through automation. Through its efforts, the start-up advances four of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals: No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Climate Action.

Once its sensor is stuck into the soil, Agrolitik’s mobile app gives farmers insights into soil moisture, temperature, pH and NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) levels. Building the app took some work. Yi Wern, a Computer Science major from the School of Computing, created multiple iterations of the application for a smoother user experience. She also factored in the possibility that some farmers could not read, and simplified both the language and user flow of the application.

Being incubated at THE HANGAR proved a great help. Fellow start-up founders became their first testers, providing feedback on app functionality and identifying bugs and glitches. But more than that, the spirit of entrepreneurship drove them to continuously improve their product and business model.

“They are deeply aspirational in building everything from nothing. There's a mutual accountability that forms around us,” said Jayden, referring to fellow start-up founders at BLOCK71.

Since Agrolitik’s start in November 2024, the trio have rolled out their product in Indonesia, and now sees over 40 users in more than 10 farms using their sensors and app.

In a trip to Medan in 2025, organised by Jayden, a Data Science and Analytics major at the College of Humanities and Sciences, the team conducted a field validation, the first on a farm after many tests in the garden. The feedback from farmers was positive. Most of the equipment on their farms were analogue, and they were intrigued by how the smart equipment could tell them about soil conditions.

Agrolitik was selected for the highly competitive Climate Catalysts Programme, an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme and Microsoft to empower youth-led ventures. The programme advances scalable innovations in clean air, food security, renewable energy, circular economy, and water to foster resilient communities across the Asia-Pacific.

Agrolitik’s expansion plans to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are on track. Following applications by Li An, a Computer Science major, to leading start-up programmes, Agrolitik has not only secured its spot at THE HANGAR but is now part of NUS Enterprise’s Venture Initiation Programme (Impact Track), which provides funding of up to S$10,000.

Solving pain points

For College of Design and Engineering student Leipakshi Gupta, pain kick-started her start-up journey. She had experienced back pain after sitting all day during her internship. Her doctor told her to “sit better and be more aware”. But the question was, how?

Together with co-founders Benecia Tang and NUS alumna Pragya Jha (Computing ‛25), she set out to build posture care start-up s’up in September 2025. Through wearable sensors attached with adhesive patches, the s’up’s app could provide actionable insights on spinal alignment throughout the day. These remind users about their posture while at the desk, whether they are hunched or twisting their spine while seated.

Leipakshi drew on her Electrical Engineering background to apply sensors for alignment tracking, while Benecia contributed market research experience from her Business Analytics modules in the School of Computing (SoC). She also applied her knowledge from launching a previous start-up and an NOC module on ideation.

But it was at the N-House residence that s’up really came together. There, they were kept accountable with N-house’s boot camp, which consisted of weekly check-ins with resident mentors and monthly pitch nights.

After presenting at Demo Day, where students showcase their start-ups and receive feedback, they refined their proposal for Pitch Night, which dangled a top funding prize of S$5,000.

Benecia and Leipakshi won second place and got a first taste of pitching s’up live. Building it from there was a learning journey in itself.

“In the beginning, I was very product-focused. I even thought of building a circuit myself,” said Leipakshi. But Benecia convinced her to get the prototype out fast.

“It's about getting validation before you have a very sophisticated, over-engineered product,” Leipakshi explained. Benecia talked to different stakeholders for ideas on how they could rapidly prototype “instead of wasting time on the nitty-gritty”.

They leaned on each other. Leipakshi was full of ideas, while Benecia was the voice of reason and kept them grounded. In 2026, they received the Venture Initiation Programme @ SoC grant, and will use the S$10,000 to move on to prototyping, user testing, product development, and manufacturing.

Currently they are working on automation to incorporate features like real-time form correction during workouts and reminders while users work. Its beta version was released in June 2026, with over 200 people on their waitlist who can provide feedback.

The founders are also speaking to physicians and doctors for insights. Their ultimate aim is to develop a medtech solution for those with chronic back pain. To kickstart this, s’up is working with the National University Hospital on a study timeline.

A nose for business

To launch her scent-based marketing business, Jocelyn Lim first had to keep her nose to the grindstone. Over a few months, she sent out over 80 personalised emails to pitch Scentura, a start-up she co-founded with fellow NUS Business School student Valerie Wong in August 2025.

Scentura aims to use food scents to help cold food businesses — which lack the natural, appetising smells of hot meals — strengthen brand identity and attract customers. Examples include caramel scents for pastry cafés and brownie scents for chocolate shops.

The idea first came to Valerie during her NOC programme in Shenzhen, where she found that many tea shops had distinct scents, creating memorable customer experiences. Jocelyn, who was attending an NOC programme in Toronto, found while working in a start-up there that it was invigorating — she wanted to be part of this culture where her impact was so visible.

When the pair met in N-House, Scentura took shape. They began preparing for Pitch Night with help from advisors and seniors. Fellow competitors chipped in too, helping with pitch practices where the pair showcased a coffee scent for a café. Fellow N-Housers even helped with brewing coffee to create the scent — a true display of camaraderie from N-House’s start-up community.

Valerie tapped the skills from her Business Analytics and Management & Organisation programme to prove that Scentura had a place in the market based on market analysis and data on the efficacy of scent marketing. Meanwhile, presenting and pitching came naturally to Jocelyn, who had often done both in her Marketing classes.

“Jocelyn speaks to the client — she’s like the heart of the business,” said Valerie. “And Valerie is the head,” Jocelyn added. “She's the logical side, thinking about and gathering data so our clients can trust us. That’s why I’m the heart; I get them excited!”

As part of the N-House experience, the pair could also consult resident mentors, attend founder talks for inspiration, and seek advice on problems they were facing. From these sessions, Jocelyn learnt that sales calls were not just pitches, but opportunities to refine Scentura to better suit clients’ needs.

The two have decided to go all in for the next few months after graduating. While they have moved out of N-House, they remain connected to its community through alumni events. They are now working on research and development for their first pilot with an ice cream shop.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, which celebrates the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more on Commencement, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Dr Noeleen will join current NUS Pro-Chancellors Mr Gautam Banerjee, Mrs Theresa Foo, Professor S Jayakumar, and Mr Po’ad Mattar in the University’s Chancellery, headed by the NUS Chancellor. University Pro-Chancellors act on behalf of the Chancellor during the Chancellor’s absence from the University and preside at the annual Commencement ceremonies.

“NUS is honoured and privileged to welcome Dr Noeleen Heyzer as our Pro-Chancellor. Dr Noeleen’s exemplary leadership at the United Nations and lifelong dedication to sustainable development and social progress reflect the values we cherish,” said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye. “Dr Noeleen’s global vision, deep commitment to public service, and unwavering drive for positive change will deeply enrich our university community. Her rich experience will guide us as we nurture leaders, advance knowledge for the public good, and strengthen NUS’ role as a leading university shaping the future of Singapore, Asia and the world.”

A trailblazer of women’s global leadership for equality, development and peace

An NUS alumna, Dr Noeleen Heyzer has dedicated her life to building a more peaceful and sustainable world and raised Singapore’s international profile during her career at the United Nations (UN) and beyond. She served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 2007 to 2014 and was the highest-ranking Singaporean in the UN system during her term.

She was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) since its founding in 1947. Under her leadership (2007-2014), ESCAP had grown in profile and stature, focusing on regional co-operation for a more resilient Asia-Pacific, founded on shared prosperity, social equity, and sustainable development. Major milestones included intergovernmental agreements on regional transport and logistics, inclusive socio-economic policies, disaster preparedness, paperless trade, and financing and technology for an inclusive and green future.

Prior to this, Dr Noeleen was the first woman from outside North America to head the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). During her tenure (1994-2007), she transformed UNIFEM from a small organisation into a leading powerhouse empowering women globally. She was instrumental in securing the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which criminalises sexual violence, and recognises women as essential to sustainable peace and post-conflict recovery.

As the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Timor-Leste (2013-2015) and later as Special Envoy on Myanmar (2021-2023), Dr Noeleen worked closely with conflict-affected communities and leaders to forge a path towards peace. Between these appointments, she served as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation (2017–2021), where she contributed her expertise to support mediation efforts in diverse conflict settings worldwide.

A trusted voice in global governance, Dr Noeleen continues to contribute her insights through her service on many boards and committees, including the NUS Board of Trustees from 2013 to 2019. She currently serves as the Rector of the Ridge View Residential College at NUS.

In recognition of her visionary leadership in advancing the empowerment of women globally, raising Singapore’s international profile and making a global impact, Dr Noeleen was conferred the NUS Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters in 2025. The Honorary Degree is the University’s highest form of recognition of outstanding individuals who have rendered distinguished service and have had a noteworthy impact in Singapore and globally.

Dr Noeleen said, “I am deeply humbled and profoundly honoured to be appointed as a Pro-Chancellor of our nation’s most distinguished university. The National University of Singapore (NUS) has shaped generations of thinkers, doers, and leaders with character and purpose whom it sends into the wider world. I shall do my utmost to serve NUS with integrity, wisdom, and unwavering commitment, and to uphold the values of excellence that it represents.”

At 16, Mervin Tee was clocking hours on a factory floor to give himself a second chance at retaking his GCE O-Levels. Two decades later, at 37, he holds a PhD from the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH), where he studied cognitive decline using neuroimaging.

Growing up in a low-income household with parents who did not have formal education, Mervin had little to no familial support when it came to carving out his academic path. The period of his O-Level exams was particularly challenging. The birth of his baby brother meant tighter finances and new responsibilities, as Mervin spent his free time helping his parents with his newborn sibling – a combination of pressures that unfortunately saw him failing his O-Levels.

As his family could not afford to send him back for another year of secondary school, Mervin decided to take on a full-time role at an elevator manufacturing factory to support himself while preparing to retake the exams. For 10 months, he worked 12 gruelling hours assembling elevator buttons, five days a week, earning only S$3.50 per hour. “I was hired by an agent, so 10 per cent of my salary goes to the agent too,” Mervin explained.

Working at the factory meant waking up at 5.30am and making a 1-hour journey. “By the time I was home, it was after 8pm. That was when I would continue to catch up with my revision for O-Levels,” he recounted.

Seeing his friends begin their studies at the junior colleges, he felt left behind. “I wondered if my life was going to remain that way for the rest of my life, given that I did not feel like I was academically capable.”

His determination landed him a spot at Republic Polytechnic (RP), where he enrolled in the Biomedical Sciences course, a field that aligned with his interests and strengths. Throughout his polytechnic life, Mervin continued working part-time to pay his school fees and sustain his own living allowance; he worked at two fast food chains concurrently and took on ad-hoc event jobs whenever he could. Through RP’s problem-based learning format, where groups of students independently learn about a topic and then teach the class, Mervin started to excel academically. Eventually, his efforts paid off as he was awarded a scholarship to pursue a degree in Food and Human Nutrition offered by Newcastle University in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Technology.

“It dawned on me that perhaps the traditional teaching methods didn't suit me; it’s not that I wasn't capable. That's when things started to change.”

After graduation, Mervin worked as a researcher in a lab investigating gut microbiota, but found his work increasingly disconnected from the patients it was ultimately meant to help. That pursuit of meaningful purpose led him to social work, where he spent five years working to uplift low-income families, before an unexpected return to research led him to take on a PhD in Public Health at NUS.

Two PhDs, one household

The step back to research came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Mervin started learning data science through online courses.

Seeing his interest, his wife, Cindy Chan, 34, a researcher at SSHSPH, nudged him back towards research. “Why don’t you try it again?” she asked. He took the leap of faith in 2022 and began his doctorate in cognitive decline research at SSHSPH.

“I get an adrenaline rush from solving problems and finding something new,” Mervin shared. While he had found his years as a social worker meaningful in helping vulnerable communities, public health research offered a way to do that on a broader scale through policymaking.

At SSHSPH, Cindy channelled her decade-long expertise in children and adolescent nutrition into a PhD on promoting healthy lifestyles among primary school children through healthy eating and active living.

Much of that journey was shaped by her research supervisor, Associate Professor Mary Chong. “Even though she’s at the professor level, she’s always learning new things,” said Cindy. “The mindset of being open to learning, even when you have reached that level, inspired me to be like her.”

With Mervin diving into his PhD on cognitive decline using neuroimaging, the couple often found support in each other. “Whenever we face a roadblock, we start discussing and bounce ideas off each other,” he said.

His commitment to finish alongside Cindy — she had started a year before him — saw him complete his PhD in 2026, taking just three and a half years instead of the usual four or more years. “He wanted to catch up, so that we could graduate together,” she said.

Baby bonus

If juggling two PhDs was not challenging enough, Mervin and Cindy did it while expecting their first child. The timing was intentional — they had planned for their baby to arrive during the thesis-writing stage, after the bulk of data collection and analysis had been completed.

One unexpected benefit from their PhD journey was how it prepared them for parenthood. “If you are a typical employee, you work from eight to six and your mind switches off after six. For us, that has not been the case for the last four years,” said Mervin.

“We have always been working past midnight to keep our research going. When we converted that into caregiving, we realised our work duration was very similar. Our PhDs kind of prepped us for the fatigue that comes with being parents.”

Beyond the PhD

Outside of the lab, both Mervin and Cindy have cultivated interests that keep them grounded.

Mervin roasts his own coffee beans at home, approaching the craft with the same curiosity and dedication he brings to research. Cindy tends to her garden, sews her own clothes, and plays the violin, although the last has taken a backseat since their daughter arrived. Together, they share a love of hiking, including a memorable 11-day Nepal trek with SSHSPH colleagues in 2024.

For Mervin, the outdoors serves a deeper need. “Outdoor activities help me a lot,” he said. “When I go for a run or a hike, that’s when I start to realign my thoughts.”

Both plan to expand their research horizons. Mervin hopes to explore mental health research, drawing on his background in social work and public health. Cindy is keen to delve into adolescent behavioural science, an area she feels is under-researched.

They also share the same hopes for their daughter. While grateful for the opportunity to pursue their PhDs, they believe that self-worth is not defined by academic achievement alone. “As long as she is happy with what she does, we will gladly support whichever path she embarks on,” said Mervin.

It is a conviction shaped by their own journeys, from which they have derived much purpose, fulfilment, and personal growth.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, which celebrates the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more on Commencement, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Huang Chao Hung: Of data science and musical numbers

While Huang Chao Hung, a double bassist with the NUS Chinese Orchestra (NUSCO), enjoyed composing multimedia “diaries” featuring his own synthesised music and drawings, he didn’t always hit all the right notes. His friend had told him, “You have good intuition, but you don’t have strong training.”

This prompted the Data Science and Analytics major to take up music courses at the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), such as “Introduction to Classical Composition” and “Classical Styles and Romantic Spirits”. When NUS launched its Second Major in Performing Arts at YST as part of its Arts for All initiative to increase student participation in the arts and enhance interdisciplinary learning, he seized the opportunity.

“Music theory has always intrigued me. Though data science and music seem unrelated, both involve breaking down complex concepts into understandable ideas,” shared Chao Hung, 26.

For his YST capstone project in 2026, he took on multiple roles: as producer, composer, performer and script writer. The multimedia performance explored loneliness through instruments including the violin, double bass and piano, with visuals he had drawn projected on screen.

“I wanted to tell people that if you’re going through a phase of loneliness, you are not alone,” said Chao Hung.

He took the same storytelling approach when he organised NUSCO’s annual concert “In Bloom” in 2024 as a student leader. Rather than simply performing pieces, he led his team to create a narrative journey using seeds as a metaphor for people who blossom despite life’s challenges, complete with original graphics and synchronised projections.

Throughout his time leading NUS arts initiatives, Chao Hung found mentors in Ms Sing Mohli, Deputy Head of the Centre for the Arts at the NUS Office of Student Affairs and Mr Moses Gay, NUSCO conductor. “Working with them brought me to a higher level from just a student who follows instructions to someone who creates with a clear purpose and strategy,” he explained.

Beyond NUS, he performs with the Singapore Foochow Association and The Purple Symphony, an inclusive orchestra comprising musicians with and without disabilities. “It’s meaningful to play with people from different backgrounds and age groups who enjoy music like I do – hearing their stories and sharing mine,” he said.

Chao Hung will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Analytics with Honours (Highest Distinction) and will notably be among the first batch of graduates from the Second Major in Performing Arts course. He plans to continue his twin passions after completing a Master’s in Data Science and Machine Learning at NUS, aiming for a public sector career while pursuing music. “I want to use data science to help citizens, while continuing to create and perform music that connects people.”

Toh Chang Hui: Trombonist has a blast giving back to the community

Toh Chang Hui was set to graduate with a diploma in Mechanical Engineering when he made the bold decision to change course. The reason: He had just secured a scholarship from YST to pursue a Bachelor of Music. It was a dream come true.

“I was already in the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) and knew I wanted to do music one day. I think I spent more time in the youth orchestra than in polytechnic studying,” said the 24-year-old wryly.

At YST, Chang Hui discovered that music education extended beyond performance. His Music, Collaboration & Production major required him to conceptualise and execute independent projects – developing skills in ideation, planning and community engagement.

Having received abundant support from YST and SNYO during his musical journey, he felt compelled to pay it forward. This shaped much of his time at YST, where he took on projects that created opportunities for young and developing musicians to perform, learn from professionals and grow as a community.

Amongst them was a YST Trombone Weekend in 2023, which he organised to allow budding musicians to perform side by side with Singapore Symphony Orchestra brass musicians. “I learnt a lot as I had to do everything from marketing to finance to securing sponsorships. I’m thankful to have YST faculty mentors like Mr Sam Armstrong and seniors who guide me along,” he shared.

That same year, he also co-founded SingaBones, a community trombone orchestra, encouraging trombonists of all levels to play together so less experienced players have the experience of playing alongside professionals. The group has since grown to about 100 members, ranging from secondary school students to professional musicians.

Chang Hui credits the overseas travel opportunities in YST for broadening his musical horizons. His exchange semester at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague in 2024 proved formative as he immersed himself in intensive hours of practice and was inspired by European peers who balanced rigorous musical training with part-time work.

The experience strengthened his belief in creating opportunities for others. Noticing that students there had limited opportunities to perform orchestral repertoire, he rallied peers to sight-read, rehearse and record Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony – all in one day. The project, which mirrored the intensity and discipline of professional music making, also marked his first time conducting an orchestra.

“Music is all about playing with others. I want to share my love for music and try to get as many people on board, just like my seniors did for me,” he said.

In August, Chang Hui will head to Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Texas to pursue a Master’s in Trombone Performance on a full scholarship.

Kuah Hui Min: Stringing worlds together with the guzheng

When Kuah Hui Min arrived at YST for orientation week, she faced an unexpected challenge: performing with 59 other students – all playing different instruments – to deliver a concert.

For over a decade, Kuah, 26, had played only traditional Chinese music on her guzheng, a traditional Chinese plucked string instrument. This collaborative exercise was unlike anything she had experienced before.

It was a refreshing foretaste of what her time at YST would be like, as her peers and mentors pushed her to explore how the guzheng can be presented beyond its traditional context. YST’s emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration from day one influenced her artistic identity.

“My peers were very spontaneous. We could just go into the practice room and start jamming music. Those small moments made my YST life enjoyable,” she said.

To expand her understanding of music, she enrolled in YST’s Music, Collaboration & Production programme. Through courses like Area Studies, she explored jazz and blues on guzheng, performing with her peers who played electric bass, percussion, drums and keyboard. She also experimented with electronics, connecting pickups to her guzheng and using digital audio software to explore new sonic possibilities.

She shared, “It made me realise the guzheng has many possibilities for experimentation.”

These multicultural influences inspired her 2026 capstone project titled “In Another Light”, featuring guzheng with a string quartet. She wanted to break the assumptions that Chinese instruments can only exist in the Chinese music world.

“The most challenging part was learning about western string quartet instruments, like their range, technique and what kind of phrasing would be suitable,” said Hui Min, who also teaches young children to play the guzheng.

She feels YST has helped shape her into a confident musician who can think critically, perform, collaborate and curate concerts across musical traditions.

“I don’t see myself as a traditional Chinese guzheng player, but as a musician who can do a lot of things, who just happens to play the guzheng,” she explained.

She hopes to continue collaborating with players of western instruments while imparting her knowledge to the younger generation. “I want to share my knowledge with younger students, and help them build a strong foundation,” she said.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

• 19 July 2026, p14 & 15

Eliza Lim: Broadening her horizons

An innate curiosity has always fuelled Eliza Lim’s intellectual pursuits. While other teenagers might set aside their books after exams, Eliza was poring over a wide range of books after her A-Levels, from cosmology to geriatrics and human psychology.

“I didn’t grow up in a very good environment,” said Eliza, 24, who came from a low-income background. “Studying helped me to feel a sense of control in my life.”

She received financial aid from primary school to junior college and did not have access to private tuition.

She then set her sights on NUS, where she majored in philosophy at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, supported by a bursary.

It was her love for physics that led her to philosophy. “Philosophy was the first-ever science, before it branched out into physics. I found it very mathematical and I liked it a lot.”

Beyond her demanding academic schedule and extracurriculars, Eliza juggled multiple part-time jobs to support herself and her family. These included working as a freelance copywriter and teaching Japanese, a language she picked up during a year in Japan on an external scholarship.

In her third year, Eliza began applying to graduate school. Following Assistant Professor Lavinia Picollo and Associate Professor Daniel Waxman's advice, she decided to pursue a PhD in philosophy overseas to deepen global exposure. Her dedication paid off and she received an offer from the University of Oxford for their Bachelor of Philosophy in Philosophy course, a Master's level postgraduate degree. She also enrolled in advanced 4000-level philosophy courses, which exposed her to Master's and PhD-level topics, exploring abstract topics from mathematics to computational theory.

Eliza, who will graduate with Honours (Highest Distinction) for her Bachelor of Arts degree and plans to go into academia, particularly valued the investigative and analytical approach of these advanced classes, which offered greater independence in choosing research topics. “You can choose ideas that interest you most, write papers on them, and consider expanding on your research,” she noted.

“Learning philosophy helps us to make decisions. Decision theory can provide theories that explain why we are making certain choices, and encourage reflection on whether to pursue these choices,” she said.

“When I was younger, studying came from a place of desperation. Now, it comes from wanting to improve myself and contribute to society.”

Nicolette Koh: Advocating for inclusivity in healthcare

While most children grow up surrounded by sound, Nicolette Koh was no stranger to silence. Diagnosed with hearing loss at age two, Nicolette went for her first cochlear implant surgery when she was just five. After her second and third procedures at ages 12 and 13, her hearing improved.

Her personal journey with health sparked an early interest in medicine. Prescribed various medications after each surgery, Nicolette’s curiosity was piqued as she researched how the various components of these prescribed drugs aided her postoperative recovery.

This fascination deepened through chemistry and biology in secondary school, and later, pharmaceutical sciences in polytechnic.

“I wanted to help people through medicine, and this also formed part of my motivation to pursue pharmacy at NUS,” said Nicolette, 25.

The Bachelor of Pharmacy graduate from the Faculty of Science was drawn to NUS’ holistic curriculum which integrated all the pharmaceutical topics into distinct modules, with each focusing on a specific body system (i.e. gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, respiratory). In her first year, she and her batchmates also had the opportunity to study cadavers in anatomy classes, providing an up-close understanding of the human body.

Beyond academics, Nicolette was committed to disability advocacy throughout her time in NUS. In her third year, she led NUS SIGNapse, a sign language club comprising students from healthcare courses. As project director, she was instrumental in transitioning sign language classes from a peer-learning model to instruction by deaf instructors. This change allowed students to authentically learn both the language and culture, ultimately aiming to bridge communication gaps in healthcare, and improve access to healthcare for underrepresented communities.

Nicolette is resolute in continuing her advocacy for inclusivity in her future career.

“I aspire to be a pharmacist who cares for each and every patient,” said Nicolette, who has started her training as a pre-registration pharmacist at Changi General Hospital. “They aren’t just names on a piece of paper, but real people who deserve the best possible care, regardless of their condition.”

Yap Yu Ting: From patient’s daughter to doctor

Eight years ago, when her parents did not arrive to pick her up from canoe training, Yap Yu Ting knew something was amiss. Her intuition proved correct: her mother, a teacher, had been rushed to the hospital after suffering a severe headache and vomiting. Doctors diagnosed a ruptured aneurysm, necessitating emergency surgery.

Yu Ting, then 16, spent the following days at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s intensive care unit. It was there, amidst the anxiety, that she experienced how the healthcare workers took the time to show her compassion.

“They were not only focused on how they could cure my mom, but also very caring,” the 24-year-old recalled. “Their clear explanations, reassurance and presence made the overwhelming situation more manageable.”

This powerful display of empathy ignited her dream of becoming a doctor — a path that would eventually lead her to the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) a few years later.

However, the journey to medical school was anything but easy. Her mother — who has since made a full recovery and returned to teaching part-time — was hospitalised for over a month, during which she underwent three major surgeries.

During this challenging period, Yu Ting juggled schoolwork, extracurriculars and the responsibility of caring for her younger brother, then only eight. She credits her years in competitive sports, with training sessions taking place both before and after school, for helping her develop the mettle to navigate tough times.

“I learnt a lot about time management and perseverance,” she said.

At NUS, Yu Ting continued her passion for sports, joining the NUS Dragon Boat Team. She competed in two major competitions: the 2023 Singapore Dragon Boat Association Century Race and the 2023 Prime Minister’s Challenge Cup, where her team placed second and third, respectively.

During competition seasons, she would balance rigorous training with her studies and spending time with her family — all while getting eight hours of sleep every night.

“Planning and prioritisation were essential,” she said. “My responsibilities and my passions do not always have to compete with each other.”

Now a house officer at Singapore General Hospital, the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) graduate is determined to embody the very qualities that inspired her as a teenager: compassion and sportsmanship.

“My coach used to tell us that we’re only as strong as our weakest player. We never left anyone behind,” she said. “I hope to carry the same values into my working life in healthcare.”

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Gan Xin Chen: Shooting for the stars

National shooter Gan Xin Chen first picked up a rifle when she was only 10 years old.  Intrigued by the sport, her fascination quickly blossomed into a lifelong love affair with shooting, taking her from local competitions to international events around the world.

Those experiences also shaped her academic interests. Travelling overseas exposed her to different cultures, political systems and ways of thinking, sparking a curiosity about international relations and global affairs.

That interest eventually led Xin Chen to pursue a double degree in history and political science at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, completing it in four years instead of the usual five, earning a place on the Dean’s List, and graduating with Honours (Highest Distinction).

While her life as a shooter and student may seem disparate at first, they overlap in many ways. “Participating in overseas competitions helped feed my interest in the world,” said Xin Chen. “History provides me with cultural context and the ability to read between the lines.”

She chose to pair political science with history in part because of NUS’ strong reputation in Southeast Asian history. Studying both subjects helped her appreciate the many dimensions of international relations, from culture and science to defence and security.

Xin Chen’s experiences as an athlete often reinforced what she learnt in the classroom. Travelling internationally for competitions gave her first-hand insights into how countries interact and cooperate.

She cited, for example, her experience of travelling overseas for competitions with the team’s air rifles, noting how the security checks varied between countries. While some allowed them to pass with minimal hassle due to diplomatic courtesies, others subjected them to more rigorous scrutiny.

“There’s a lot of undertones of diplomacy that you’ll observe in the sporting world... some things cannot be read or learnt,” she said.

While balancing academics and elite sports was demanding, Xin Chen found that the discipline she developed through shooting helped her navigate both.  “Learning how to control my emotions and stay focused during competitions was good personal growth,” she said. “It helped me in other aspects of my life as well.”

The same mindset shaped her approach to her studies. When assignments did not go as planned, she sought feedback from professors and worked to improve.

It is an academic feat she has replicated in the realm of sports.

Aside from clinching a bronze medal at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, she made her mark at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in 2025, placing 16th in the mixed team event.

She has also been long-listed for the 2026 Asian Games, and will soon begin a career in public sector.

Reflecting on her journey, Xin Chen expects to draw on many of the lessons she learnt through sport.

“In a competition, you're bound to make mistakes,” she said. “Through shooting, I learned how to give myself grace and learn from them. No matter how much you train or prepare, you're still human.”

Oliver Lim: ‘Pressure is a privilege’

At 17 years old, Oliver Lim fell during a race and broke his thumb. The injury left the track and field athlete, who had inter-school competitions coming up, distraught.

But a visit to the doctor would ultimately shape his future career. “The doctor said, ‘I want to be able to help you achieve your dream,’” he recalled. Rather than simply treating Oliver's thumb, the doctor took the time to understand what the injury meant to him. Running wasn't just a sport - it was a huge part of Oliver's identity. Together, they discussed the risks and benefits of the available treatment options before making a shared decision that balanced his recovery with his hope of returning to competition.

Oliver went on to compete in the 4×400m relay wearing a protective hand guard and eventually clinched a gold medal with his team.

"What stayed with me wasn't just the decision itself," Oliver recalled. "It was that my doctor saw me as more than just a medical problem to fix. He recognised what running meant to me and took that into account when caring for me. That experience changed how I viewed medicine. I realised that being a doctor isn't just about treating a condition. It's about caring for the whole person.” In fact, Oliver was so inspired that he later applied to study medicine at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Although he was rejected on his first attempt, he reapplied the following year and succeeded on his second try. Not only that, but he was even awarded the NUS Merit Scholarship, a prestigious accolade given to top performers.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” he said. “The scholarship gave me a certain level of financial freedom, allowing me to experience living in a hall and spend more time on training. More than that, after being rejected from medicine the first time, it felt like a form of validation that encouraged me to pursue both medicine and athletics wholeheartedly.”

Indeed, Oliver continued to chase his passion for running amid his hectic schedule. “When I’m running, I enter a flow state. Time stands still,” he said, adding that he had never been a gold medal favourite throughout his track and field career.

That changed with his “breakthrough” race in 2024. At the Singapore Athletics All Comers Meet, he shaved two seconds off his personal best in the 800m race to hit a timing of 1 minute and 59 seconds. The result helped earn him a place on the national team, and later gave him the confidence to test himself in the 1500m.

“I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to treat this as a game,’” said Oliver. “My coach gave me a very specific race plan… I executed (the race) according to how he told me to do it.”

What began as an experiment quickly proved promising. Within a year, Oliver had improved enough to qualify for the Southeast Asian Games in 2025, where he recorded one of Singapore’s fastest 1500m performances in recent years.

Oliver said his experiences in medicine have also shaped the way he views success and setbacks. During his clinical training, he encountered situations that reminded him that not everything is within one’s control.

“It made me realise that it’s important to know your limits,” he said. “In life, we’re given the guise of control, but a lot of times, that’s not true. The best we can do is focus on what we can control and make the best out of the situation when things don't go as planned.”

Although it was hard to juggle studies and training, Oliver made it to the academic finish line and will graduate with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in July.

Looking back, Oliver believes the lessons he learnt through sport have helped him navigate both medicine and athletics. “Pressure is a privilege,” he said. “It was a challenge and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it if I put my mind to it.”

Oliver is now working as a house officer in the Internal Medicine department at a public hospital and will continue to pursue his dual passions for sports and medicine.

Joanna Wu: From mentee to mentor

When Joanna Wu first stepped into NUS, she had only one goal: try everything.

Having spent most of her life playing badminton competitively as a member of the National Intermediate Squad, Joanna graduated from junior college feeling unsure of what came next. “Other than badminton, I felt useless,” she said. “So in university, my goal was to try as many things as possible. I did not say no to any opportunity.”

This never-say-no attitude led the Real Estate undergraduate from NUS Business School to try out squash and tennis during her stints in Temasek Hall and Eusoff Hall. She even ventured beyond the arena of sports, joining the NUS Students’ Sports Club in 2022. There, she served as Project Director for RunNUS, an annual run that raises funds for the NUS Enhanced Financial Aid Scheme.

Her experiences helped her pick up a wide range of skills, from communication and stakeholder management to project planning and leadership. The skills proved valuable during her internships with CapitaLand and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, where she deepened her knowledge of Real Estate through handling placemaking initiatives and property tax.

Yet the experiences she gained outside badminton ultimately brought her back to the sport. After dedicating four years to coaching badminton, Joanna and a business partner launched Wu Badminton Academy in 2025. The venture signalled her shift from mentee to mentor.

“I wanted to help players compete at a higher level,” she said, adding that starting her own school gave her the autonomy to run lessons as she saw fit.

Looking back, Joanna credits NUS with supporting her both on and off the court. As a recipient of the NUS Sports Scholarship, she benefitted from subsidised tuition fees, while staff from NUS’ Office Student Affairs (OSA) also conducted regular check-ins and supported her throughout her university journey.

The support extended beyond campus. OSA staff even turned up to cheer her on during the 2025 Summer World University Games in Germany, which she participated in as a member of NUS’ Badminton varsity team. “Their hotel was far away, but they came down whenever they could and supported us the whole time,” she said. “I was so lucky to have all these people behind me.”

The encouragement bolstered Joanna’s confidence, both as an athlete and as a student.

As Joanna graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Real Estate with Merit this July, an exciting new journey begins, one guided by lessons from both the classroom and the court.

Sean Pang: An empathetic leader and son

When Sean Pang became President of the NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU) in 2025, he made it his mission to help better support students.

Among his key achievements was a significant policy enhancement that allowed NUS students to carry their first-year Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory credits over to their second year. Previously, these credits – which allow students to take eligible classes without their letter grade impacting their final cumulative average point – would expire after the first year. This change offers students greater flexibility. 

While he advocated for the student body, Sean, a Bachelor of Business Administration graduate from NUS Business School, who had specialised in Finance, Marketing, and Leadership & Human Capital Management, faced an unexpected crisis in his final semester.

As he was preparing for a tutorial one morning, he received a call from his father: his mother had suffered a stroke and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

"I'd be in the ward with her from 8pm to 8am, and my dad would take over from me each morning. We didn't know whether she could hear us at times, but we never wanted her to feel she was alone," recounted Sean.

But things took a turn for the worse. “I was in the ICU when she suddenly became unresponsive,” he added. The doctors informed his family that his mother, in her 70s, had experienced a further brain bleed, and would need to undergo a high-risk surgery.

At that point, Sean was juggling caregiving responsibilities with three final exams, individual assignments and presentations to complete.

“I felt that I should still try my best, because if my mom were conscious, then she’d also tell me not to miss my exams,” he said wryly.

His peers and professors from NUS Business School actively reached out during this tumultuous time, sending him class notes and offering emotional support. Sean’s mother managed to pull through, and he spent the next few months shuttling between the hospital, home and school. He eventually managed to graduate with Honours (Highest Distinction).

“Going through a family crisis in my final semester gave me a perspective I did not have before. I learnt what it actually feels like to be the one who needs support,” he said. “Strength is not about holding everything together by yourself, but knowing when to let others in.”

His personal experience deepened his understanding of mental health advocacy and student well-being initiatives he championed, including the UCare Mental Health Report presented to government stakeholders, and NUSSU Wellbeing Workshops to encourage students to engage in non-academic pursuits.

“I want to be the kind of leader who creates space for the people around him to be human – to struggle, to ask for help, and to find their way through,” he said.

Nur Harisa Binte Hassan: A family’s pride and joy

Nur Harisa Binte Hassan’s childhood fascination with crime dramas ignited a dream of pursuing forensic science. This ambition was further fuelled by a deeper, more personal motivation: her mother's unfulfilled desire for a university education due to financial constraints. “My mother was really determined to go to university when she was younger, but (didn’t) manage to because of financial reasons,” Harisa said. “That motivated me to try my best and go to university for her, as well.”

However, she did not do well enough to get into any of her chosen courses after A-levels.

She decided to defer attending university, opting instead for Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Medical Biotechnology. Her initial aim was to graduate quickly and secure a good job to supplement the family income, as her father was grappling with the effects of diabetes on his health.

Three years later, she did well enough to pursue a degree in life sciences, offered by the Faculty of Science at NUS. Through fitDeen, an outdoor-based group under the NUS Muslim Society, she discovered a love for hiking and went on multiple expeditions, scaling mountains across Southeast Asia.

Just before her third year of study, her father’s diabetes unfortunately worsened and he began showing early signs of dementia. This meant her mother had to take on additional work to support the family, while Harisa and her sister stepped up as caregivers to her father, sharing responsibilities like taking turns to bring him to daycare and administering medication.

“You’d think that your parents’ health would only get bad when they become grandparents,” she said. “It’s a different feeling altogether, to have to take care of them earlier on in your life.”

Despite these immense challenges, Harisa found solace and strength in her strong support network at NUS, particularly her friends in the Muslim Society, whose shared faith and frequent encouragement uplifted her.

Reflecting on her journey, Harisa said, “We spend so much time wondering why bad things happen to us that we often forget to find the light in the darkness.”

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!
 

Across diverse topics ranging from infectious diseases to language acquisition and the pedagogy of philosophy, undergraduates from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) at NUS have demonstrated how undergraduate research can deepen understanding while contributing meaningfully to society.

Coming from different disciplines, NUS UROP undergraduates undertake research alongside academic mentors. The programme equips students with the knowledge and skills required for the inquiry process. Since 2023, students have also been able to deepen their research experience through the Research Experience (REx) programme, which offers a suite of research learning topics alongside financial grants to support their projects.

Diverse topics: From playful philosophy to dengue defence

For Joash Lee, there is room for play even in a highly theoretical field like Philosophy. The NUS Philosophy undergraduate set out to investigate whether playful pedagogy could encourage students to engage with philosophy as a way of thinking rather than merely an academic discipline. Under the supervision of Dr Sherice Ngaserin, Joash analysed qualitative data from students enrolled in her Philosophy of Games course, where Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) were used to explore philosophical concepts and ethical decision-making.

Indeed, Joash found that immersing students in real-time gameplay that requires critical thinking, perspective-taking and nuanced moral reflection made abstract philosophical concepts more tangible and personally meaningful.  His research opens potential possibilities for teaching philosophy – and other traditionally theoretical disciplines – in more engaging and impactful ways.

Instead of targeting the dengue virus itself, NUS Biological Sciences undergraduate Sruthi Annamalai is studying the mosquito that carries it.

Shifting the focus from virus to vector, she isolated the salivary protein produced by the Aedes aegypti mosquito – known as Neutrophil Stimulating Factor 1 (NeSt1) – which enters the body alongside the dengue virus and attacks the immune cells, where the virus then replicates. Through molecular laboratory techniques, Sruthi's research with Professor Jayaraman Sivaraman uncovered the three-dimensional structure of NeSt1 and its interactions with human immune cells, providing a much-needed blueprint for scientists seeking to block its function.

Because NeSt1 is linked to the mosquito rather than any of the four unique strains of dengue, Sruthi’s findings could potentially solve the longstanding challenge of developing a tetravalent vaccine effective against all of them. In dengue-prone tropical regions such as Singapore, this strategy could complement existing vaccines and strengthen efforts to curb transmission.

Medication labels could convey more than just essential information about dosage, risks and safe usage – depending on how they are presented.

Utilising eye-tracking technology, Ziv Ng worked with Dr Mike Hou Minzheng and Dr Wong Chin Yi at the Institute of Policy Studies' Social Lab to track how people visually engaged with medication labels that differed in language and message framing. He found that the latter significantly influenced receptivity, suggesting that the way information is presented can meaningfully shape how individuals engage with health-related messages.

Beyond medication labels, the study is especially pertinent to broader discussions on public health communication and policy design, as healthcare institutions increasingly rely on behavioural interventions to promote healthier choices. Identifying effective communication strategies that capture attention and increase engagement is therefore crucial in improving healthcare outcomes.

Future-focused: Accelerating discoveries with AI

By keeping pace with rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), UROP participants are adopting emerging techniques and best practices in their research methodologies, fostering a research environment that combines technological innovation with rigorous scientific inquiry.

Working with Dr Steven Pan from NUS Psychology, REx Fellow Prathibaa Ramesh investigated whether self-generated or AI-generated mnemonics could help learners acquire Korean and Spanish vocabulary more effectively.

Despite AI’s growing capabilities, Prathibaa found that AI-generated mnemonics were less effective than self-created ones and performed no better than having no mnemonic aid at all. However, when learners took AI-generated mnemonics and adapted them in their own way, their learning outcomes matched those achieved through self-created mnemonics – suggesting that active engagement remains a key tenet in language learning.

Like humans, AI can evolve to solve complex problems more effectively and efficiently – this was Guo Wenjin’s ultimate goal when he embarked on his project with Assistant Professor Liu Yang from NUS Mathematics.

Borrowing from the concept of natural selection from Darwinian evolution, Wenjin used the OpenEvolve framework to see how AI could propose meaningful improvements to representational reasoning and coding tasks. Rather than making random modifications to computer programmes, he evaluated the AI’s performance and retained only the best-performing versions – a process which went through rounds of iteration. Over time, simple programmes evolved into increasingly capable solutions.

Refining AI through this evolutionary “trial-and-improvement” process highlights its potential in discovering better algorithms and solutions to complex problems in a range of fields, from scientific discovery to software engineering.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Sprinting through an HDB corridor with a defibrillator in hand, nursing student Cheok Xin Lin was responding to a cardiac arrest emergency in his community, knowing that every second before the paramedics arrived could mean the difference between life and death.

Netra and Xin Lin are two NUS students on very different paths, yet both realise that the most important lessons often take place outside the classroom.

Human faces behind the law

Netra joined NUS College’s inaugural intake in 2022, pursuing an interdisciplinary education alongside her law degree at NUS Law that introduced her to the human realities of the legal system.

Accumulating over 250 hours of pro bono work, including assisting in a capital drug trafficking case at the High Court, the 23-year-old found herself facing a side of the law that is not usually captured in textbooks.

“When you interact with accused persons, you realise more about their personal struggles. It forms a lot more empathy,” she said.

She found herself navigating a delicate balance as she felt for the families who watched their loved ones receive longer than expected sentences, yet as their legal assistant, she had to maintain a distance and remain professional.

These experiences reinforced the importance of access to justice. "A lot of people facing criminal charges do not have legal knowledge, which includes how to access legal help, making it very hard for them to navigate the system, understand their odds and ultimately come to a decision that they can accept – this is important so that they do not feel resigned to a certain fate," she said. 

From the courtroom to Thailand’s rice fields

NUS College also took Netra to the remote hills of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

As part of her Impact Experience (IEx) project — NUS College’s two-year capstone where students work alongside communities in Singapore and Southeast Asia — Netra made six trips over two years to a Karen village, helping farmers transition from corn to coffee farming.

Although she and her team were full of enthusiasm, reality quickly set in. The farmers, who had debts to service and livelihoods to protect, were wary after a failed non-governmental organisation-led coffee initiative years earlier.

Her professor, Associate Professor Peter Vail at NUS College, reminded her that it was about the journey, not the destination. “There are a lot of things outside your control, and you can’t really fixate on that,” she recounted.

Rather than push for a wholesale transition, the team adjusted their approach by introducing farmers to how coffee is made and distributed, the qualities the industry looks for, and connecting them to a network they could turn to in the future. “It’s about understanding what they want from you, rather than what you want to bring for them,” she said.

Paramedic to nurse

While Xin Lin started volunteering and responding to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases since his junior college days, serving as a brigade combat medic during his National Service (NS) was what deepened his interest in healthcare. After his NS, he continued volunteering with his constituency’s Community Emergency Response Team in Taman Jurong and continued responding to OHCAs through the myResponder app.

In those critical moments, he would work alongside paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force to support the affected individual, solidifying his interest in medicine.

Inspired by these experiences, Xin Lin entered NUS Nursing with aspirations of becoming a paramedic. As it turned out, a different calling awaited him.

As part of his NUS nursing training, Xin Lin was posted to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital for four weeks. Attached first to a neurosurgery ward and then to a neuro-rehabilitation ward, Xin Lin found himself following the same patient through both postings, from acute care to recovery.

He realised that while paramedics work to keep a patient alive until they reach the hospital, nurses stay for the whole journey. “In healthcare, nursing is one of the few careers, if not the only career, that stays with the patient throughout,” he said.

Over time, his ambition changed from becoming a paramedic to becoming a nurse, as he found himself drawn to the more sustained care that nursing provides.

To ensure Xin Lin knew what he was in for, his father stress-tested his commitment for several months by pointing out the long hours, the demands, and the thankless nature of nursing. He was undeterred.

“Nursing gives me a sense of accomplishment as I’m able to directly impact someone’s life, to literally try to save them,” said Xin Lin, who received a Ministry of Health Holdings scholarship to study nursing at NUS.

He will be bonded to Alexandra Hospital for four years upon graduation.

His role model

For 25-year-old Xin Lin, being a nurse means more than delivering care at the bedside. It is also about giving voice to the nursing profession.

As cohort representative, Xin Lin started a feedback channel where fellow nursing students could raise concerns directly with the school.

Acting as a bridge between the student body and faculty, he raised issues such as the discomfort of the traditional white nursing uniform during clinical postings, which eventually led the school to transition to scrubs.

“There’s sometimes a gap between what the student body feels and what the school sees, and someone has to bridge that,” he said.

Xin Lin credits Ms Mary Yeo Kim Luang, an Associate Adjunct Lecturer at NUS Nursing and nursing veteran with 58 years of experience, for leaving a deep impression on him through her stories of fearless advocacy for her patients and fellow nurses.

“I want to be a nurse who is vocal, who won’t be silent on things that don’t sit right,” he said.

Living their dreams

With her sights set on criminal law and white-collar crime, Netra is studying for her bar exam, while a training contract beckons in January 2027.

“My experiences at NUS have given me a much better idea of what I want, what I value, and what I think the law should do,” she said.

For Xin Lin, the journey to becoming a nurse begins at Alexandra Hospital. He also dreams of one day becoming a nurse clinician or even representing nursing on a bigger stage, giving voice to a profession he feels is underappreciated and undervalued.

“There’s so much more that you can do,” he said to aspiring nurses. “Don’t confine yourself to just what you see today.”

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Givson Ong: Design for a cause

When teachers at AWWA School go on Inclusive Journey trips, they support students with special needs, while observing, documenting, and preparing information for post-trip reporting.

To keep track of students’ progress, they use a mix of hand-written notes, mobile apps, and phone cameras – an approach that allows for flexibility in the moment, but also requires observations to be manually compiled after each trip.

Seeing an opportunity to improve this process, NUS Industrial Design student Givson Ong led the development of FieldNote, an AI-assisted documentation platform designed to help teachers capture observations, organise student progress records, and generate structured draft reports after each trip.

The project was developed as part of the Innovation and Design Capstone at the College of Design and Engineering at NUS, supervised by Mr Eugene Ee and Adjunct Professor Chan Tong Leong. The design direction and research approach behind FieldNote were shaped by a concurrent design thesis supervised by NUS Adjunct Associate Professor Jung-Joo Lee, through which Givson developed his understanding of co-design, stakeholder engagement, and design’s role in complex care contexts. To bring FieldNote from concept to prototype, Givson worked with an interdisciplinary student team comprising members from Communications and New Media, Data Science and Economics, and Mechanical Engineering.

Givson led the project by defining the problem space, shaping the design direction, and assembling a team whose collective strengths spanned qualitative research, software development, testing, and quantitative evaluation.

“I wanted to do projects where you can really engage a broader community, but you can't hope to solve problems or challenges with just a single discipline,” said Givson. “I was very lucky that I was able to access different departments in NUS.”

His role was to bridge these contributions through design, translating field research and co-design insights into a coherent platform for documentation, reflection and reporting during Inclusive Journey trips.

Through co-design workshops, interviews, and pilot testing with AWWA teachers, the team developed a platform that allows teachers to document observations in a more structured way. FieldNote supports note-taking, student profiles, checklist-based scoring, and AI-assisted writing suggestions to help teachers record observations more efficiently.

The project with AWWA began in Givson’s final year at NUS as his capstone project. Before this, he had also worked alongside Adj Assoc Prof Jung-Joo Lee on projects involving local hospitals and different stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem.

The experience has been gratifying. “I realised that design can have a broader impact on society, particularly for healthcare and community care. It pushed me to see that I can use my skills to support hospital staff or special needs educators,” said Givson, who plans to pursue a joint Master of Arts and Master of Science in Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

He continues to work with AWWA teachers to refine FieldNote, with the goal of supporting an internal innovation grant application within AWWA School for further development and deployment.

John Thng: Healthcare without borders

Healthcare challenges are complex, often calling for integrated solutions that bring together disciplines ranging from technology and engineering to social sciences and design.

Inspired by this need, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) student John Thng founded NUS HealthX in 2024. “What we needed was a platform that could bring all these disciplines together,” he said.

The idea grew out of his clinical attachments, innovation projects and hackathons, where he saw that solving healthcare problems often took more than medical knowledge alone. Clinicians could spot the unmet needs, but turning ideas into practical solutions meant working with engineers, designers, programmers and entrepreneurs.

NUS HealthX was founded to bridge this gap - by bringing together people from different disciplines on a regular basis so they could exchange ideas and brainstorm solutions for real-world healthcare challenges. Beyond fostering collaboration, the platform also creates opportunities for students to explore emerging fields through regular programmes on medical 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence and healthcare entrepreneurship, alongside international exchanges with partner institutions in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

One of the platform's standout achievements is Design for Medicine, an interdisciplinary module developed with the Division of Industrial Design under the College of Design and Engineering at NUS and the Centre for Healthcare Simulation at NUS Medicine. The module was introduced in 2025 with an enrolment of 24 design and medical students and could see future iterations. It has also launched five student-led medical device projects, pairing medical and design students to tackle real clinical challenges – several of which have progressed to faculty showcases and innovation grant applications.

"Students often approach the same problem from very different perspectives," he said. "When you bring those perspectives together, you can arrive at solutions that may not have been possible within a single discipline."

John's interest in turning ideas into impact deepened during an internship where he evaluated emerging medical technologies and healthcare companies across Asia, Europe and the US. The experience taught him that great ideas alone are not enough — scaling healthcare innovation takes clinical insight, technological capability, regulatory know-how and investment support, all working in concert.

Since its founding, NUS HealthX has grown from a simple vision into a vibrant cross-disciplinary community reaching hundreds of students a year. John has since completed his undergraduate medical studies and now works as a junior doctor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at a local general hospital, but continues to chair NUS HealthX, which has secured grant funding, expanded its network, and built leadership structures so students can carry its mission forward.

"We're still a very young setup, but I hope HealthX can continue to empower future generations of students to take ownership of healthcare challenges and work together to address them," he said.

As his medical career unfolds, John hopes to make an impact not just through patient care, but by bridging healthcare, technology and innovation. "To me, that would be a meaningful career in medicine,” he concluded.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!
 

Crossing the stage at the inaugural ceremony on 9 July 2026 were graduates from the NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE), which celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year. Some 57 graduates across two SCALE programmes – the Master of Science in Environmental Management and the pioneer cohort from the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation – received their degrees in the presence of their families and friends.

Presided over by the President of the Republic of Singapore and NUS Chancellor Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the event also saw the conferment of honorary degrees upon two outstanding leaders – Ms Kay Kuok Oon Kwong, Director of Shangri-La Hotel Limited (Singapore); and Professor Lim Pin, University Professor at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.  

The real test of education

Addressing the Class of 2026, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye acknowledged both the hopes and anxieties of the graduates as they prepare to step into a world dramatically transformed by AI. Prof Tan noted that higher education had equipped the graduates with more than just expertise in a field or discipline, but also the critical thinking, interdisciplinary mindset and sense of responsibility needed to build a better world. “In a world where technology can amplify both good and harm, values matter more than ever,” he emphasised.

Calling on graduates to contribute positively to their professions, communities and the wider world, he added: “As you step out today, you must realise that the future will not be defined by technological advances or economic trends, but by the choices people make. This is the real test of your education.” 

These themes of service and purpose were echoed in the honorary degrees conferred upon Ms Kuok and Prof Lim, the University’s highest tribute for exceptional individuals who have rendered distinguished service and made a lasting impact on Singapore and the world.

Ms Kay Kuok: ‘Education is not an end point, but a foundation’

Ms Kuok was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of her distinguished contributions to business and public service. A former member of the NUS Board of Trustees, she was cited for her exemplary leadership as founding Chair of the Yale-NUS College Governing Board – shaping Singapore’s first liberal arts college – and her pivotal role in its transition to NUS College.

Delivering the citation for Ms Kuok’s conferment, Professor Simon Chesterman, NUS Vice Provost (Educational Innovation) and Dean of NUS College, traced the arc of her remarkable career – from her early training as a barrister to her rise in corporate leadership through the Kuok Group’s Singapore entities and the Shangri-La Hotel, and her later stewardship of the National Healthcare Group. As Chair of the group, she guided one of Singapore’s largest healthcare systems, supported the establishment of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, and provided steady leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for her lifetime of outstanding contributions to Singapore.

In a speech that paid tribute to the power of education and reflected on her time as Chair of the Yale-NUS College Governing Board, Ms Kuok advised graduates charting their futures in an increasingly interconnected world to continue seeking knowledge from real experiences and new challenges. "Be true to your values and to yourselves, and as you move forward, remember that education is not an end point," she said. “It is the foundation upon which you will continue building the rest of your life.”

Professor Lim Pin: ‘Carry the torch towards greater heights’ 

Prof Lim was also presented with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his transformative leadership in advancing NUS’ growth and international standing, and his lifetime of distinguished contributions to medicine, higher education and public policy.

Presenting the conferment citation, Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, lauded Prof Lim’s pioneering efforts that laid the foundations for NUS’ evolution into the university it is today. 

As NUS’ longest-serving Vice Chancellor, Prof Lim was instrumental in building Singapore’s scientific research capabilities, fostering an enduring research culture on campus, and championing interdisciplinary collaboration. By the time he stepped down in 2000, NUS had secured a multi-million-dollar annual research budget and established six research institutes. Appointed Vice-Chancellor in 1981 at just 45 years of age, Prof Lim later became the first professor to be named University Professor, NUS’ highest academic appointment.

Beyond the University, Prof Lim's counsel has been widely sought on matters of national importance spanning science, ethics and public policy. He has chaired the National Biotechnology Committee and the Bioethics Advisory Committee, among other appointments. For his achievements, he has been recognised with national honours, such as the Distinguished Service Order, and prestigious international accolades. 

In his acceptance speech, Prof Lim expressed his sense of privilege in having contributed to the University’s development throughout his career in medicine, education and leadership. Adding that he was heartened to see that NUS was ranked among the best in Asia and the world, he said, “I am confident that our Class of 2026 will keep the flame of excellence burning bright and carry the torch towards greater heights.”

Different experiences, shared perspectives

Speaking on behalf of the graduating class, Ms Ng Xi Min, valedictorian from the Master of Science in Environmental Management programme, offered a fitting tribute to SCALE’s 10^th anniversary as she reflected on the diverse paths taken by her fellow graduates. 

“Some of us came in as fresh graduates while others arrived from government, industry and many other fields. We all arrived with different experiences and perspectives, and yet through discussions, group projects and countless conversations, we learnt as much from each other as we did from our professors.”

Over the next two weeks, more than 13,000 graduates from the Class of 2026 are expected to take the stage across 39 ceremonies. The season concludes with the Commencement Dinner on Friday, 24 July 2026.

This story is part of NUS News’ coverage of Commencement 2026, celebrating the achievements of our graduates from the Class of 2026. For more, read our stories and graduate profiles, check out the official Commencement website, or look up and tag #NUS2026 on our social media channels!

Delivering effective behaviour guidance in clinical settings demands confidence, strong communication skills, and the ability to adapt in real time — qualities typically developed through personalised faculty feedback during live sessions. Now, educators at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Dentistry have identified a promising approach to enhance the efficiency and scalability of this training process.

In a recent study published in the scientific journal, JMIR Medical Education, Dr Ishreen Kaur, Dr Gabriel Lee, and Associate Professor Hu Shijia demonstrated that dental students’ skills in handling children’s behaviour can be accurately assessed using only text transcripts. Their findings revealed that transcript-based evaluations produced results comparable to those obtained from full video-recorded clinical session assessments.

These findings could significantly reduce the time and manpower required for clinical teaching, especially in settings where faculty resources are stretched. Instead of reviewing lengthy videos, educators may be able to assess student performance more quickly through transcripts, while still delivering meaningful personalised feedback.

Assoc Prof Hu said, “These findings allow us to enhance training for our dental students by providing more personalised and insightful feedback on their interactions with young patients. With a better understanding of each student’s needs, we can better tailor our training to help them grow into more confident and effective dentists, ultimately providing better care for young patients.”

If proven effective, this method could potentially be adapted to other disciplines to enhance patient communication and applied in broader healthcare contexts, such as nursing and medicine, to improve the management of child patients.

The study also highlights the future potential of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in dental education. Because transcript-based evaluations can be processed digitally, the approach opens the door for AI-powered large language models (LLMs) to assist in analysing student interactions and generating feedback.

In the long term, the NUS Dentistry team envisions the development of a “virtual mentor” system that could support clinical training, helping dental students build confidence and communication skills in paediatric care while enabling teaching faculty to focus on higher-level mentorship and more personalised guidance. To this end, the research team has also received a Ministry of Education Tertiary Education Research Fund grant to carry out a follow-up study to assess the effectiveness of using AI to provide feedback to dental students on their behaviour management skills during actual clinical sessions. 

Unveiled by Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, on 19 June 2026, CAVE@NUS transforms how healthcare professionals learn. It enables impactful, scalable experiences for hundreds of students, fostering collaboration and communication for enhanced patient care. For instance, to address the traditionally separate training of Registered Nurses (RNs) and Enrolled Nurses (ENs), CAVE@NUS hosts collaborative programmes like the Virtual Escape Room Simulation-based Education (VERSE) initiative to better simulate real-world healthcare settings where RNs and ENs work collaboratively in delivering patient care.

A collaborative learning hub for healthcare

Spanning 2,320 square metres at the Medicine+Science Library, CAVE@NUS is a dedicated hub where virtual reality, advanced simulation and collaborative learning converge. At its core is an immersive CAVE, complemented by nine connected learning rooms. This unique setup allows students to step into realistic healthcare scenarios, experience clinical decision-making, and engage in facilitated discussions and reflections.

Its "Learning at Scale" capability is a key differentiator. Unlike immersive environments for small groups, CAVE@NUS accommodates up to 350 learners simultaneously. Adjoining learning rooms allow large cohorts to observe, participate and learn from simulated experiences, transforming immersive training into a widespread, collaborative educational experience. This ensures many future healthcare professionals could benefit from hands-on, high-fidelity simulation.

VERSE: Cultivating teamwork in nursing

The VERSE programme, a joint initiative by the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Nursing), NUS Information Technology (NUS IT) and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), illustrates CAVE@NUS' potential to strengthen teamwork and communication.

Bringing CAVE@NUS’ flexible design to life, which enables educators to continuously create and adapt training experiences, required crucial technical expertise and infrastructure from NUS IT. Their Interreality Technology Team seamlessly integrates advanced virtual reality systems and networking to create a scalable immersive learning environment.

Staff from NUS IT worked closely with educators in NUS Nursing and ITE to translate educational objectives into a multi-user virtual environment with underlying networking infrastructure and a facilitator monitoring dashboard. The system enables instructors to observe participants in real time, monitor team interactions and progression, and guide learning activities across geographically separated groups, allowing nursing students from NUS and ITE to collaborate seamlessly within the same virtual healthcare scenarios, regardless of their physical location.

Supported by the Ministry of Education’s Tertiary Education Research Fund, VERSE advances Singapore's strategic efforts to foster greater collaboration across educational institutions, creating a more integrated training ecosystem. Emphasising its impact, Professor Liaw Sok Ying, Head of NUS Nursing and Principal Investigator of VERSE, said, “What makes VERSE unique is not just the technology, but the relationships it builds. By bringing students from different educational pathways together, we help them understand each other's roles, communicate more effectively, and develop the trust needed to function as a cohesive nursing team.” This intra-professional training, which will be integrated into the Nursing curricula of NUS and ITE from 2027, will benefit 700 students annually, preparing them for seamless collaboration in clinical settings.

Students' learning experience has been enriched considerably. Tan Choon Kiat Bradley, a Year 3 NUS Nursing student, found that the virtual patient's responsiveness made the experience "much closer to actual clinical practice", enhancing his appreciation for the role of Enrolled Nurses. 

Harini D/O Selvarajan, a Year 3 ITE Higher Nitec in Nursing student, shared that the headset communication made the simulation "feel much closer to a real hospital setting", giving her "more confidence to speak up and contribute as part of the team".

This positive feedback highlights how CAVE@NUS provides a safe space for nurses to hone critical communication and teamwork skills before entering the workforce.

Shaping skills for every healthcare role

With its emphasis on collaborative, reflective and scalable learning, CAVE@NUS provides educators with a powerful platform to equip students with essential clinical skills, vital teamwork and communication abilities, thereby fostering a new generation of highly competent, collaborative and adaptable healthcare professionals prepared to provide the best patient care.

They succeed current Deans Professor Andrew Rose and Professor Sun Yeneng respectively, who are returning to their academic pursuits at NUS.

Prof Teo will relinquish his role as the Executive Director of the NUS Institute of Operations Research and Analytics (IORA) with effect from 1 July 2026.

Prof Koh will continue to serve as the University’s Vice President (Sustainability and Resilience) and Chief Sustainability Scientist until 31 December 2026. He will also continue as Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions under the NUS Faculty of Science.

NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye, said, "We are delighted to appoint Prof Teo Chung Piaw as Dean of NUS Business School and Prof Koh Lian Pin as Dean of the Faculty of Science. Both have demonstrated exceptional vision and deep expertise throughout their distinguished careers at NUS, and are ideally positioned to drive our faculties forward in this era of rapid transformation. Under their leadership, I am confident our Business School and Faculty of Science will not only advance groundbreaking research and education, but also develop the next generation of leaders and innovators who will shape solutions for Singapore and the global community."

Business School

Prof Teo, who is an NUS alumnus, is the Stephen Riady Professor at NUS Business School and Co-Director of the SIA–NUS Digital Aviation Corporate Laboratory.

Over an academic career spanning more than three decades, Prof Teo has distinguished himself as a researcher, educator and academic leader. A leading scholar in operations research and analytics, his work has advanced the optimisation of business processes in areas such as logistics, inventory management and supply chain planning.

Prof Teo’s achievements have been recognised across the University, and at national and international levels, reflecting both the scholarly depth and practical relevance of his work. He has also held key leadership roles at NUS Business School and helped develop IORA into a key NUS platform for research, application and collaboration in operations research, optimisation and analytics.

“It is a privilege to be entrusted with the leadership of NUS Business School, an institution that has built a strong reputation for academic excellence, research impact and deep engagement with industry and society. I am grateful to Prof Rose for his stewardship and for the many ways in which he has built on and strengthened the School’s foundations. I look forward to working closely with our faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners to build on the School’s strengths, deepen our impact in Asia and beyond, and prepare future business leaders to navigate an increasingly complex and technology-driven world,” said Prof Teo.

Please refer to Prof Teo’s biography here: Annexe 1.

Faculty of Science

Prof Koh, a leading expert in sustainability and environmental science, helms NUS’ sustainability agenda and brings together diverse stakeholders to enhance the climate resilience and sustainability of Singapore through system-level mitigation and adaptation solutions. He oversees and champions sustainability-related research at NUS, tackling the twin planetary crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, through a whole-of-university strategy that bridges academia with policy makers, industry and civil society.

With over 20 years of international experience, Prof Koh is among the world’s most cited conservation scientists. His previous roles include positions at ETH Zurich, University of Adelaide, Conservation International Foundation, and Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF).

An NUS alumnus, he joined the NUS Department of Biological Sciences in 2020 under the NRF’s Returning Singaporean Scientists scheme and went on to serve as Vice Dean (Research) at NUS Faculty of Science from 2022 to 2024 and Director of the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute from 2021 to 2024. He was appointed Associate Vice President and Chief Sustainability Scientist in 2023 and promoted to Vice President (Sustainability and Resilience) in 2025.

Prof Koh focuses on policy-relevant science and advocacy, and has contributed to major forums including the UN COP sessions, TEDGlobal and TEDx, and the Singapore Parliament as a former Nominated Member of Parliament (2021–2023). He is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Founding Director of ConservationDrones.org.

Prof Koh said, "I am deeply honoured and excited to serve my alma mater as Dean of Science. I would like to thank Prof Sun Yeneng for his outstanding leadership in shaping the Faculty into the excellent institution it is today. I am committed to working closely with our faculty, staff, and students to advance cutting-edge research, enhance educational excellence, and translate scientific discoveries into real-world impact. Together, we will foster an inclusive and collaborative environment, strengthen our partnerships with industry and the community, and elevate the Faculty as a leading hub for scientific discovery and talent development."

Please refer to Prof Koh’s biography here: Annexe 2.

In appreciation

Prof Tan said, “NUS is profoundly grateful to Prof Rose and Prof Sun for their exemplary leadership and dedication. Their contributions have shaped not only their respective schools, but also the University and the broader society.”

“Prof Rose has steered the NUS Business School with foresight, elevating its global standing, fostering innovation and equipping our students to excel in a rapidly evolving world. Prof Sun has led the Faculty of Science with distinction, advancing research and fostering a vibrant community of scholars dedicated to excellence and advancing knowledge, while inspiring and supporting students to reach their fullest potential,” added Prof Tan.

During his tenure as Dean since 2019, Prof Rose strengthened NUS Business School’s academic portfolio, regional engagement and research mission, alongside improvements in its international rankings and reputation. He oversaw the continued development of the School’s undergraduate and postgraduate offerings, expanded its faculty strength, and supported initiatives that enhanced its multidisciplinary breadth, including the integration of the Department of Real Estate into the School.

Under his leadership, the School broadened access to postgraduate business education through new pathways, including the launch of the Executive Master of Science in Management for experienced professionals. NUS Business School also made further strides as a leading Asian voice in business education and policy, while advancing research in areas such as governance, sustainability, analytics, AI and policy impact.

These academic, research and regional developments were complemented by continued investment in the School’s long-term institutional capacity, including enhancements to its campus infrastructure and learning spaces.

Prof Sun helmed the NUS Faculty of Science since 2020. Under his leadership, the Faculty  attained new heights of excellence in both undergraduate and postgraduate education. As a founding Co-Dean of the NUS College of Humanities and Sciences, Prof Sun played a pivotal role in advancing an undergraduate education model that integrates scientific inquiry, the humanities and societal impact, equipping graduates with the intellectual agility to address complex problems across disciplines. 

Prof Sun transformed graduate education at the Faculty, significantly expanding the Faculty’s suite of self-financing Master of Science programmes in emerging, industry-relevant fields, to prepare future-ready leaders with advanced skills for a rapidly changing landscape. He also expanded doctoral scholarship support to draw high-calibre PhD candidates to the Faculty.

His deanship was marked by the recruitment of exceptional scientific talent, enhancing the Faculty’s scholarly and research stature. He also oversaw the strategic establishment of the NUS Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, NUS Research Centre on Sustainable Urban Farming and Centre for Data Science and Machine Learning, reinforcing the University’s global standing in impactful, future-focused scientific research.

The new research collaboration between NUS and Applied Materials aims to shorten one of the most expensive bottlenecks in chipmaking: the long cycle of trial and error needed to develop and optimise new materials and processes. By training AI on data generated from the Corporate Lab’s processing equipment, the partners aim to build a system that can predict the most promising experiments to perform, speeding the path from the laboratory to the production line and reducing costly trial-and-error cycles.

The initiative also aligns with national and global priorities, including the Semiconductor Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) Flagship launched under RIE2030. It comes as the global chip industry heads towards US$1 trillion in annual revenue, with an additional US$300 billion of potential upside from generative AI.  Singapore plays an outsized role, where it produces one in 10 chips worldwide, with the sector accounting for nearly six per cent of the country's GDP and has drawn over S$30 billion in semiconductor investment between 2022 and 2025.

The Corporate Lab, launched in 2018 and expanded in 2024, spans applied chemistry, materials science and semiconductor process engineering. Harnessing NUS’ strengths in materials science, engineering and AI, alongside Applied Materials’ expertise in semiconductor equipment and advanced manufacturing processes as well as Singapore’s mature semiconductor ecosystem, there is now an opportunity to close a critical industry gap. AI has transformed materials discovery in many fields, but has had limited impact on semiconductor manufacturing, due to the complex set of processing parameters and possible materials outcomes at different scales, which is difficult for general material-discovery models to capture.

“Semiconductors are fundamental to today’s AI, and now AI is transforming how semiconductors themselves are designed and made. That makes ever-closer collaboration between universities and industry essential, both to turn research into real-world impact and to prepare graduates for the roles this shift is creating,” said Professor Aaron Thean, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost. “Deepening our collaboration with Applied Materials, together with our new AI specialisation in semiconductor engineering education, reflects how NUS is advancing this sector on both fronts, through research that forges new frontiers and education that nurtures the talent to apply it.”

“Accelerating semiconductor innovation requires materials engineering, process technology and AI to come together as one system," said Dr Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials. "By combining NUS' strengths in AI and materials science with Applied Materials' process equipment expertise and real-world data, we can significantly reduce development cycles and speed innovation from lab to fab. Just as important, this collaboration helps prepare a new generation of engineers to operate at the intersection of AI and semiconductor manufacturing."

To mark the start of the collaboration, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Professor Aaron Thean, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, and Mr Brian Tan, Regional President (South East Asia), Applied Materials, in conjunction with the opening of the Applied Materials Tampines Campus. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Mr Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials, and Mr Png Cheong Boon, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board.

Closing the gap between AI and chip manufacturing

The new research collaboration between NUS and Applied Materials would address three key challenges in implementing AI in semiconductor manufacturing: the complexity of processing parameters in materials development, the fragmented data generated during semiconductor manufacturing, and understanding how minute structural changes in materials impact device performance.

The aim is to develop an AI platform that learns from both simulations and real experiments and recommends the next best experiment to run, resulting in a closed loop that steadily narrows the search for better materials and process conditions.

“AI has already spurred materials discovery in many fields, but it has not yet reached the factory floor in semiconductors, where the messy physics of real equipment often stymies its implementation,” added Prof Thean. “By coupling our physics-informed AI with Applied Materials’ tools and the Corporate Lab’s advanced processing capabilities, we can build models that understand how a process actually behaves, and use them to point researchers to the experiments most likely to pay off.”

Building AI-ready semiconductor talent

The new Applied AI for Materials and Process Engineering specialisation extends the MSc STO programme into a rapidly growing field where AI is transforming materials innovation, semiconductor manufacturing, and advanced engineering operations.

Designed for STEM graduates and early- to mid-career professionals, the specialisation equips students to apply data-driven and computational methods to real industrial problems. Students will gain hands-on experience with technologies such as machine learning, generative AI, computer vision, semiconductor technologies, and digital twins through practical applications such as defect detection, predictive maintenance, yield optimisation, and materials characterisation.

Students will also have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects through placements in the industry. These placements span sectors such as semiconductors, materials and process engineering, and advanced manufacturing and operations, enabling students to develop interdisciplinary expertise, apply AI to real-world challenges, and build industry-relevant skills for careers in emerging technology sectors.

The curriculum emphasises human-centricity, ensuring that students retain responsibility for decision-making and applying domain knowledge even as they leverage AI tools. By combining human expertise and critical thinking with AI-driven insights, graduates will be equipped to accelerate innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and drive competitive advantage across the semiconductor industry.

Prof Thean said, “This new AI specialisation represents a timely convergence of education and innovation. We are building a pipeline of AI-ready talent for an industry vital to our technological future. As we integrate AI across education and research, we maintain a core principle: humans remain in the driver's seat. AI is a tool to augment, not replace, human ingenuity and judgment. This reflects NUS' commitment to empowering our community to harness AI responsibly while preserving the critical thinking and creativity at the heart of innovation."

The MSc STO programme is part of a comprehensive range of engineering courses offered by NUS CDE at both undergraduate and graduate levels designed to build the semiconductor talent pipeline. Covering disciplines such as electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, as well as industrial systems engineering and management, these courses provide diverse opportunities for students to make impactful contributions to the sector.

NUS’ new research collaboration with Applied Materials and AI training specialisation complement existing efforts strengthen Singapore’s position at the leading edge of the global semiconductor industry as it converges with AI. Together, they advance both the research that drives the field forward and the talent that sustains it.

The partnerships will give the NUS Law community access to both platforms, enabling them to explore how AI-enabled tools support legal research, education and scholarship while developing a critical understanding of their appropriate and responsible use. Students and faculty will gain access to both AI legal platforms from the new academic year, AY2026/2027. Access will be facilitated by NUS Libraries, which will also conduct training on the platforms while incorporating them into ongoing information literacy programmes.

Harvey and Lucio’s AI products are designed to support a wide range of legal workflows, including legal research, drafting, document review, summarisation, contract analysis and due diligence. By making these platforms available across the school, NUS Law aims to equip its community with tools that can improve efficiency and productivity, while preparing students for a profession increasingly impacted by AI.

Students will not only hear about AI in the abstract but experience first-hand how it can support different aspects of legal work. For example, they may use the AI tools to break down a legal problem, summarise lengthy documents, compare arguments, generate a first draft of a memo, or explore how a clause or position could be framed. Importantly, students will then need to review the output critically: checking for accuracy, identifying gaps, testing it against legal authorities and refining it using their own legal judgment.

The collaborations form part of NUS Law’s strategic approach to preparing students for an evolving legal profession. Through early, hands-on experience with technology used in legal practice, students will gain a deeper understanding of how AI is changing the work of lawyers, alongside the opportunities, limitations and responsibilities that accompany its use.

The platforms’ research capabilities will also enhance cutting-edge research conducted by NUS Law faculty, while providing valuable insights into AI use in student learning to support pedagogical innovations that build deeper reasoning and judgment essential to legal practice.

Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law, noted how AI is increasingly influencing how legal work is carried out, and that legal education must prepare students to engage meaningfully with these developments. The collaborations with Harvey and Lucio form an important part of NUS Law’s broader efforts to equip our students for the future of legal practice.

He added, “Giving students access to AI tools is not about replacing the foundational skills and judgement that lie at the heart of legal education. Rather, it is about ensuring that our students become familiar with how such tools may be used and understand that their outputs must be assessed critically and responsibly. We are very grateful to Harvey and Lucio for supporting us in this endeavour.”

“As AI reshapes the legal industry, law schools have an important responsibility to prepare students for how legal work will evolve,” said Mr Winston Weinberg, CEO and Co-founder of Harvey. “By integrating advanced legal AI into teaching, learning, and research, NUS Law is helping ensure students graduate with the skills and judgement needed to use these technologies thoughtfully, responsibly, and effectively in practice.”

“The lawyers coming out of NUS will enter a profession already shaped by AI. The question is whether they arrive prepared,” said Mr Vasu Aggarwal, Co-Founder of Lucio AI. “With this partnership, we’re making sure they do. We will equip them with the skills to use AI effectively, challenge it intelligently, and deliver defensible work they can stand behind from day one.” 

From 2027, all students from institutes of higher learning (IHLs) will learn AI skills that are catered to their fields of study, said Education Minister Mr Desmond Lee at the NUS120 Distinguished Speaker Series on 21 May 2026. The lecture series is among a line-up of events held to mark the University’s 120^th anniversary.

“If we want to remain a nation that creates opportunities, attracts investments and solves hard problems, our graduates must be confident, capable and responsible in how they engage with AI and technology,” he told 350 students, faculty, alumni and university leaders.

Mr Lee, who is an NUS alumnus, recalled his fond memories of studying law at the campus when undergraduates were still taking notes by hand – a far cry from the digitally savvy students today who are living in an AI-transformed world.  

While encouraging IHLs to equip graduates for this new world, he also highlighted the importance of strengthening human qualities such as curiosity, critical thinking and adaptability, which matter more than ever precisely because of AI.

“It's interesting, right? That something artificial provokes our quest to be ever more human,” he remarked.

New AI learning frameworks

At the event held at the Sea Building at NUS, Mr Lee announced that IHLs have developed two baseline AI competency frameworks – one for autonomous universities, and one for polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education.

Built around the Ministry of Education’s “Four Learns” – Learn About AI, Learn to Use AI, Learn With AI, and Learn Beyond AI – the frameworks establish a baseline for every student to receive a foundation in AI competencies. This covers a range of skills, from understanding what AI can and cannot do, to using it to analyse problems and generate insights.

“This seeks to ensure a coherent as well as cumulative learning journey from school, through the IHLs, and into the workforce,” said Mr Lee.

These competencies will be infused into compulsory modules for all incoming IHL students from 2027. Students already enrolled will also have opportunities to build these abilities through enhancements to existing curriculum.

This builds on Mr Lee’s earlier announcement in April of the formation of the Committee for Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education, which provides strategic direction on AI usage. The committee supports the work of the National AI Council chaired by Prime Minister Mr Lawrence Wong.

Beyond building a common baseline, Mr Lee notes, developing mastery in domain-specific AI competencies is also important.

“The future will belong to professionals who not only have the confidence to use such tools across common tasks, but also the mastery to combine and apply both AI and their deep knowledge meaningfully within their own discipline,” he said. From 2027, all IHL students, including adult continuing learners, will be given the chance to develop AI competencies within their own domains or disciplines, as part of their full-qualification programmes.

Students in the Product Design and Innovation module at the NUS College of Design and Engineering, for instance, are already applying AI tools by using large language models to sharpen problem statements, and platforms like Figma Make to turn descriptions into prototypes.

But he also cautioned against letting technology drive pedagogy. “AI must never replace deep, human learning in our schools and IHLs,” he stressed, noting that students must experience the struggle of learning without the shortcuts offered by AI.

“Our graduates should not just be competent and confident users of AI… but people who can lead it, steer it and question it.”

He cited the example of Dylan Pon, a first-year Business Economics and Political Science student at NUS, who treats AI as a tool for deeper inquiry rather than a shortcut. 

In a video message, Dylan shared how he uses AI to challenge preconceived notions, test arguments and ask better questions when working on his papers. Crediting this approach as fundamentally transforming the way he learns, Dylan said: “AI helps me think more critically and evaluate whether its responses make sense.”

As AI tools continue to advance, learning frameworks will remain dynamic with each IHL developing new approaches suited to its own students and courses, and to pilot new methods of teaching and learning. 

NUS embraces the AI revolution

At NUS, that transformation is already underway. “Our faculty and students are leveraging AI to reimagine learning experiences, innovate teaching methods and unlock new ways of understanding complex subjects,” said Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS President, in his opening address.

He cited ScholAIstic, an AI-powered platform developed by the NUS AI Centre for Educational Technologies. Currently used by over 1,700 students across nine faculties and 20 courses, it enables educators to create immersive learning tools.

For example, AI patients help nursing students practise difficult conversations, while courtroom chatbots stimulate different stages of a trial, sharpening law students’ arguments.

Prof Tan also echoed Mr Lee’s call for education to remain human-centric. “Critical thinking, metacognitive awareness and sense-making should be augmented by AI, not substituted by it,” he said.

Mr Lee built on this call for human-centred learning in his closing remarks.

To students and learners, his message was simple: Don’t fear AI, but don’t follow it blindly.

“Learn how it works. Test it. Challenge it. Use it to stretch our imagination, deepen our learning, problem solve, and to do good. Always apply our judgement, wisdom and critical thinking. And be discerning,” he said.

The new partnership positions NUS Law at the forefront of legal education and research, and forms part of the Faculty’s broader strategy to strategically and thoughtfully incorporate AI into teaching, learning and research. This approach ensures students continue to develop the analytical rigour, sound judgement and critical thinking that remain central to the study and practice of law, including the critical evaluation of AI outputs. It represents one component of the Faculty’s wider commitment to legal innovation and to preparing graduates who can navigate, evaluate and shape the responsible use of technology in the legal profession.

By making Harvey available across the school, NUS Law aims to equip its community with a platform that can improve efficiency and productivity, while preparing students for a profession increasingly transformed by AI.

Students will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with a technology that is adopted by law firms, in-house legal teams and other legal service providers in Singapore and globally. Early exposure to this technology will help students understand both the opportunities and limitations of AI in legal practice, and how it can be used responsibly and effectively.

WongPartnership LLP played an instrumental role in bringing the partnership together, reflecting a shared commitment across academia, legal practice and technology to equip the next generation of lawyers with the skills and judgement needed for the future of legal practice.

With the opening of Harvey’s Singapore office, the partnership also reflects Harvey’s growing commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and its investment in supporting the next generation of legal professionals.

The powerful research capabilities of Harvey will also enhance the cutting-edge research conducted by NUS Law professors. Additionally, the collaboration will provide valuable insights into how AI is being used in student learning, enabling the Faculty to develop pedagogical initiatives and innovations that continue to challenge students intellectually while building the deeper reasoning and judgement essential to legal practice.

Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law said, “As AI reshapes how legal work is done, it is crucial for us to remain agile in our approach to education. Our collaboration with Harvey represents an important step in preparing our students for the future of the profession. By providing access to Harvey, we can enhance the efficiency of their research. At the same time, access to AI does not displace the need to inculcate fundamental legal skills in our students. NUS Law’s aim is to ensure that our students learn to engage with these tools, and that they do so thoughtfully, critically and responsibly. We are very grateful to Harvey for helping us to achieve these goals.”

Ng Wai King, Chairman and Senior Partner of WongPartnership LLP said, “As the first Singapore law firm to adopt Harvey, we could see how a dedicated legal gen AI platform can provide an operational edge to the way we practice and serve our clients. We believe the next generation of lawyers who are currently in NUS Law should have exposure to legal-specific gen AI platforms to learn how to use these tools thoughtfully and responsibly as they enter practice. The future of the profession is shaped by the strength of the ecosystem we build collectively, even more so now given the evolving AI landscape. In collaborating with Harvey and NUS Law, we hope to facilitate skill development amongst our students through greater familiarity with emerging technologies. That is what this partnership is about.”

“As AI reshapes the legal industry, law schools have an important responsibility to prepare students for how legal work will evolve,” said Winston Weinberg, CEO and Co-founder of Harvey. “By integrating advanced legal AI into teaching, learning, and research, NUS Law is helping ensure students graduate with the skills and judgement needed to use these technologies thoughtfully, responsibly, and effectively in practice.”

For more information on Harvey’s law school programme, visit https://www.harvey.ai/about/law-schools

Boosting social work training

ScholAIstic’s journey began in May 2024, stemming from a collaboration between AICET and the NUS Department of Social Work. Their initial project focused on an AI-powered chatbot aimed at helping social work students develop skills to navigate sensitive and challenging client situations. The innovative chatbot could simulate non-verbal cues, such as “client starts to cry and looks away”, allowing students to practise their responses without the pressures of real-world anxieties or the risk of impacting actual clients.

ScholAIstic was deployed in the social work course SW2105 Values & Skills for Helping Relationships to simulate interpersonal client scenarios, providing a low-risk environment for students to practise and receive feedback. After the simulations, students obtain real-time AI feedback on specific skills, such as their use of affirmations, thereby sharpening their clinical social work skills. Student feedback at the end of the course showed that the tool boosted their confidence in engaging service users in clinical settings.

Looking ahead, the Department of Social Work is expanding this initiative through a multi-school collaboration with NUS Information Technology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies. They aim to develop a new AI-roleplaying system, with plans to upgrade the current text-based interface to incorporate speech and visual AI avatars.

Building confidence in interpreting dental x-rays

ScholAIstic also hosts a chatbot tutor that has been successfully applied in the course OMS3100 Oral & Maxillofacial Medicine, Pathology & Radiology, helping students enhance their ability to recognise and interpret abnormalities on dental X-rays. Traditionally, students would discuss X-ray cases in tutorials, and receive feedback from their instructor, Dr Lim Li Zhen, Senior Lecturer at the NUS Faculty of Dentistry, and fellow students. However, due to time constraints, students often may not have the opportunity to present and receive feedback for entire cases. To address this, the Faculty’s teaching team worked with Ms Ng Sook Mun from AICET to build a chatbot tutor, enabling students to practise in a more structured manner and receive individualised feedback before their tutorials.

Dentistry students in the course are required to use the chatbot to complete five X-ray cases prior to attending the class. The chatbot guides them through a three-stage learning process; describing the lesion (what is visible on the X-ray), categorising it (identifying the potential disease category) and giving different diagnoses with supporting reasons (possible conditions and their rationale). This approach allows Dr Lim to dedicate her time during class to address students’ questions arising from chatbot use, elaborate on deeper teaching points better handled in-person, and correct any misconceptions or chatbot errors.

To refine the chatbot’s prompts for future students and cohorts, the teaching team is planning to conduct a detailed review of student performance in the chats, student feedback on the chatbot experience, and the chatbot’s quality and consistency.

Highlighting its significant impact on enhancing teaching and learning, the AICET team behind ScholAIstic recently received the OpenGov Asia Recognition of Excellence Award 2026. This accolade celebrates the team’s remarkable creativity, discipline and commitment to elevating the student experience through digital innovation, ultimately empowering students with confidence, practical skills and a dynamic learning environment that prepares them for real-world challenges.

Second-year CDE undergraduate Terra discovered that AI "was not just about speeding up work, but also about expanding creative thinking and challenging assumptions during the design process". Her peer at CDE, Dhaaniya echoed this, noting AI "changed the dynamics of the design process from simply creating outputs to spending more time on critical thinking and decision-making".

This collective experience, inspired by AI's ability to rapidly generate a wide range of ideas, fundamentally deepened their empathy and enriched their understanding of design approaches and user needs.

Unlocking human perspectives with design thinking

This transformative experience is at the heart of NUS’ groundbreaking approach to education: integrating AI with design thinking. Here is a human-focused problem-solving methodology that enhances, rather than replaces, human capabilities like critical thinking, creativity and empathy. It capitalises on AI to accelerate and deepen human understanding and innovation.

When used thoughtfully, AI unlocks fresh opportunities to enrich teaching and learning. For example, AI enables the use of advanced role-playing prompts to generate nuanced user personas that help student designers address real human emotions and struggles.

During a hackathon in May 2026 organised by Dr Lee to design sensor-integrated products for the elderly, an AI-generated persona of "Madam Salmah" – an elderly individual fiercely resisting help due to a fear of losing independence – was created. This has proven to be tremendously useful in designing care from the true perspective of elderly living in Harmony Village, a community care apartment block in Bukit Batok.

Dr Lee, who is also Principal Investigator of the Human-Centred AI Design (HCAID) research team, finds her own understanding of human-centred design deepening as such personas challenged even her long-held beliefs.

“Before these AI-generated Provotypes (Provocative prototypes) and extreme edge-case personas, students would unconsciously speak of marginalised users as a detached "they", people who needed our help or protection. The most profound lesson was witnessing how quickly students shifted from objectifying users to genuinely empathising with them,” shared Dr Lee.

“Even as an educator who has studied these dynamics for years, I found myself surprised by what the personas surfaced. It reinforced my conviction that the real work of education is not transferring knowledge, but it is creating the conditions for assumption-shattering. Witnessing that happen with AI as the vehicle was both humbling and exhilarating,” she added.

Henry Lim, a first-year Architecture student who participated in the hackathon, said, “Leveraging my architectural skills with AI, I created an interactive digital twin of a building and linked real life raw data from physical sensors to programmed readable data. My 'ah-ha' moment was realising AI expanded my capabilities beyond what I could achieve alone, inspiring peers and surpassing my own expectations of what was possible.”

Keeping the human in charge of the loop

Human creativity and critical thinking are amplified as AI rapidly generates brainstorming possibilities and prototypes. Students, however, remain active curators critically evaluating and refining AI output to infuse human judgment and ethical considerations. While AI could structure workflows and generate concept renders, Dhaaniya reflected that “good decision-making still depends on human judgement, empathy and understanding context”.

Dr Lee emphasises the 'AI-Human Validation Loop' which trains students to identify systemic gaps and automation bias, fostering a highly inclusive, ethical and critical mindset. She explained, “While AI is an incredible engine for generating vast creative possibilities, the critical filtering and evaluation must belong entirely to human intelligence. Our primary responsibility as educators in this era is to scaffold with this framework and cultivate that discerning eye.”

AI creates better versions of ourselves

“My ultimate vision is to design technology that fundamentally helps us become better versions of ourselves,” Dr Lee concluded. “By centering empathy before intelligence, we ensure that the next generation of engineers, designers and thinkers view AI not as a shortcut to bypass human thought, but as a tool to elevate our collective social impact and tackle society’s most complex, deeply human challenges.” Her long-term goal is to institutionalise 'Responsible AI in Pedagogy' as a distinct discipline, creating guidelines, tools and assessment frameworks to help educators foster more human-centric learning.

Presented to fellow educators at the “AI in Education” poster showcase on 12 May 2026, Dr Lee’s experience of applying AI in design thinking highlighted the rapid pedagogical innovations at NUS driven by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Professor Melvin Yap, NUS Associate Provost for Education and Technology, shared, “Education for the AI era has to both defend human value and unlock human potential to prepare graduates for complex, AI-resilient roles. The true human edge lies in our unique ability to collaborate with each other and AI agents to perform work of higher value, ahead of the competition.”

By purposefully weaving AI into teaching and learning to boost effectiveness and agility, NUS seeks to demonstrate that advanced technology, when guided by a human-centred philosophy, can powerfully enhance our humanistic skills. The ability to understand, create and critically evaluate these tools will be a defining skill of the future.