The AlumNUS Oct-Dec 2019 by NUS Alumni Office

issue

#119

O C T- D E C 2 0 1 9

“Our goal is not just to create patents and make a profit, but to create entrepreneurs. It has more to do with producing the person than producing the company.” P R O F E S S O R F R E D D Y B O E Y ( E N G I N E E R I N G ’ 8 7 ) , N U S D E P U T Y P R E S I D E N T ( I N N O VAT I O N & E N T E R P R I S E )

ENTREPRENEURS: BORN OR MADE? ALUMNI BUSINESS OWNERS CHAT ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO ‘MAKE IT BIG’

QUEEN OF THE DEEP DR NEO MEI LIN (SCIENCE ’09 + PHD ’13)

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CYBERSECURITY MR TOMMY HOR, CHIEF IT OFFICER, NUS

POWERING ‘ S I N G A P O R E I N C .’ T H E WAY S I N W H I C H N U S I S N U R T U R I N G T H E L O C A L S TA R T - U P S C E N E — A N D W H Y.

T H E A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E O F T H E N AT I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F S I N G A P O R E

nus.edu.sg/alumnet/The Alum NUS

NUS ALUMNI Office of Alumni Relations Faculty of Engineering NUS Libraries

Calling all alumni from

Faculty of Engineering and School of Design and Environment!

School of Design and Environment

Come home to campus oNN Saturday, 2 November 2019

Upskill, reskill & stay up-to-date with the latest industry developments at NUS SDE4

Guided Tour of NUS SDE4

Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First new-build Net-Zero Energy Building Learn all about water, wellness, tropical architecture, hybrid cooling, net zero energy and biophillic design behind SDE4.

12pm to 2pm

Technology Project Showcase by Engineering students

Showcasing the bionic glove, racing car, drones and more!

12pm to 2pm

Sharing / Engagement Sessions by - Building and Construction Authority (BCA) - Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) - Land Transport Authority (LTA) 2pm to 3.30pm

Learn about the latest developments in the built environment sector.

Navigating Through Fake News in Everyday Life by NUS Libraries

3.30pm to 5.30pm

Find out more and register at alumnet.events/AWnov19.

OCT – DEC 2019

16 FOCUS

The Thinking Behind ‘Singapore Inc.’

FORUM

Entrepreneurship: Nature or Nurture?

26 PA N O R A M A

The Art and Science of Cybersecurity Mr Tommy Hor

28 GIVING

An App-solute Success

30 CHANGEMAKER

Nursing a Dream

CONTENTS C A M P U S U P D AT E S 04 NUS Day of Service 2019

Ms Joanna Dong (Arts and Social Sciences ’04)

34 Queen of the Deep Dr Neo Mei Lin (Science ’09, PhD ’13)

Moving Pictures The Virtual Wallace Collection

08 A Fiesta on the Green 10 The Big Day/Speakeasy Night 11 Creating Machines That Can See

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Hitting the Right Note

FRONTIERS

OAR HIGHLIGHTS

Magazine, Journals & Tabloids – Design and Layout

SPOTLIGHT

06 A Garden Party Reunion Under the Stars

The AlumNUS clinched the following awards at APEX 2019:

PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

02 Alumni Receive Top Honours for Service to the Nation

Mrs Doris Fok (Arts and Social Sciences ’78)

ALUMNI TRAVEL PROGRAMME Memories of Mystical Myanmar

12 Breakfast Dialogues

ALUMNI

13 Health & Wellness/ SkillsFuture Advice Workshop

CALENDAR OF ALUM NI EVENTS

HAPPENINGS

T H E PAT H LESS TRAVELLED

Hyped About Heritage Mr Kwek Li Yong (Arts and Social Sciences ’13)

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Magazine, Journals & Tabloids – Print +32pp

Fo r m o re i n fo r m at i o n o r t o re a d T h e A l u m N U S o n l i n e , please visit nus.e du.sg/alumnet/TheAlumNUS.

OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS 11 Kent Ridge Drive #05-01 Shaw Foundation Alumni House Singapore 119244 Tel: (65) 6516-5775 Fax: (65) 6777-2065

S TAY C O N N E C T E D :

@NUS_Alumni

Advisor MR BERNARD TOH (Architecture ’84) Editor MS YEAP SU PHING (Arts and Social Sciences ’06) Assistant Editor MS TAN LING ING Production Assistant MS NOREEN KWAN Publishing Consultant MEDIACORP PTE LTD

NUS Alumni

@NUSOAR

Subscribe: +6 5 8698 5131

The AlumNUS is published quarterly by the NUS Office of Alumni Relations. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations or the National University of Singapore. Copyright 2019 by the National University of Singapore. All rights reserved. Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd.

C A M P U S U P D AT E S

Alumni Receive Top Honours for Service to the Nation Mr J Y PIllay and Dr Gerard Ee were lauded for their distinguished contributions to Singapore made over the course of several decades.

MR J Y PILLAY (LAW ’96), former Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) and Rector of the NUS College of Alice & Peter Tan, topped the National Day Awards this year, receiving the highest honour for civilians — the Order of Temasek (with Distinction). NUS Honorary Doctor of Letters Dr Gerard Ee Hock Kim (’17), Chairman of the Charity Council and Agency for Integrated Care, was honoured with a Distinguished Service Order. Mr Pillay is one of Singapore’s pioneers and a veteran civil servant. Over his long and distinguished career, he served in key ministries including finance, defence and national development, playing a crucial role in the development of post-Independence Singapore. Mr Pillay is perhaps most known for his achievements as the Chairman of the nation’s flagship carrier, Singapore Airlines. Under his direction, it grew from a small company with a modest fleet of 12 aeroplanes into a worldclass carrier.

Mr Pillay was awarded the highest civilian honour — the Order of Temasek (with Distinction).

2 4. .TA HLEUA MLN UU MSN U S

For his dedicated service to Singapore, he was previously awarded two other National Day Awards — the Meritorious Service Award in 1978 and the Order of Nila Utama in 2012. Mr Pillay holds the record of the longest-serving chairman of CPA, a position he held from 2001 to January 2019. He was also the founding chairman of the Singapore Stock Exchange and the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and served as chairman of various other companies including Temasek Holdings and the Development Board of Singapore. Formerly Singapore’s Ambassador to Ireland and High Commissioner to Britain, he is currently a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights, and a board member of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority. In honour of his many contributions, the University has presented him with multiple accolades, including the Outstanding Service Award at the University Awards in 2010. He is seen as a role model for the NUS community. The J Y Pillay Global-Asia Programme and the J Y Pillay Study Award at Yale-NUS College were established in 2012 in his name. The Global-Asia Programme incorporates two Distinguished Professorships, one Fellowship and also innovative academic and student programmes while the Study Award supports financially-needy students at the College. NUS also instituted the J Y Pillay Comparative Asia Research Centre under the NUS Global Asia Institute. This Centre pursues comparative research into key development issues of Asia. Dr Ee is a well-known figure in Singapore’s charity sector. The son of Singapore’s “Father of Charity” — the late Mr Ee Peng Liang, Dr Ee is a champion of many social causes, including the Assisi Home and Hospice, Action for Aids, Mount Alvernia Hospital and the Canossian School for the Hearing Impaired.

RE AC H YO UR CARE E R G OAL S W I T H

NUS CAREER+! With NUS career+, alumni now have access to a unique tool to chart your desired career goals with the help of big data and artificial intelligence. Dr Gerard Ee at the Commencement Ceremony for the conferment of his honorary degree.

An accountant by trade, he has also served as a Nominated Member of Parliament, President of the National Council of Social Service and the Chairman of the Public Transport Council. He also headed the Ministerial Salary Review Committee in 2012. Dr Ee is credited for the turning around of the reputation of the Singapore National Kidney Foundation (NKF) after a corruption scandal in 2005 caused the organisation to lose public faith. Through his capable leadership, NKF regained its footing and rebuilt public trust to become one of the major healthcare charities in Singapore. Dr Ee is an active supporter of NUS Social Work. He was a member of the fundraising committee for the S R Nathan Professorship in Social Work and was also adviser to the Ee Peng Liang Memorial Fund. In addition, Dr Ee is a member of the Resource Committee on research relating to accountability of the social service sector, chaired by NUS Centre for Social Development Asia. For his many contributions to Singapore, Dr Ee has previously received three National Day Awards — the Public Service Medal in 1993, the Public Service Star in 2003 and the Meritorious Service Medal in 2007.

3 Key Components:

career goals setting job recommendations suggestions for relevant courses to close skill gaps Your profile will be matched to millions of real-time jobs and courses currently in the market to find the best match for you. “The app nudges our alumni to set clear career goals and encourages them to update and upgrade their skills and work experience,” said NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost Professor Ho Teck Hua (Engineering ’85). Be one step closer to achieving your career goals by completing these steps:

1. Download NUS career+, available on both Android and iOS. 2. Log-in with your NUS Lifelong Email account (@u.nus.edu), which identifies you as an alumnus. Chart your career path now!

This article was first published on 13 August in NUS News under the title of “Honoured for service to the nation” at news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/honoured-service-nation, and has been edited for The AlumNUS.

OCT—DEC 2019 . 3

C A M P U S U P D AT E S

NUS DAY OF SERVICE 2019 The fourth NUS Day of Service saw many repeat volunteers as well as those who participated for the first time. It was another Saturday well spent helping those less-fortunate, and doing our part for our environment!

3 MANGROVE CLEAN-UP WITH EVBIG Champion: Environmental Biology Interest Group, Life Sciences Society NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science ’85) and volunteers kicked-off the day at the Sungei Pandan mangrove for a cleanup, and collected 59 garbage bags of trash weighing 214 kilograms.

4 TH DOS 53

ACTIVITIES More than

2,000

VOLUNTEERS

OVERSEAS ACTIVITIES More than

5,000 beneficiaries

42 4. .TA HLEUA MLN UU MSN U S

1 VISITING SEMAKAU LANDFILL AND BEACH CLEAN-UP Champion: NUS Master of Science (Environmental Management) (MEM) Alumni The group visited Singapore’s only landfill and learned more about waste reduction, and went to Labrador Park to pick up trash.

4 GIA BAC AT VIETNAM - SHARING THE LOVE WITH ETHNIC CHILDREN 4

5 CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKSHOP WITH ELDERLY

2 WILLING HEARTS SOUP KITCHEN Champion: Tembusu College NUS Provost Professor Ho Teck Hua (Engineering ’85) joined volunteers to prepare food for distribution to needy families.

Champion: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Vietnam Alumni Chapter Volunteers visited the villagers at Gia Bac (a mountainous village in the Central Highlands of Vietnam) with stationery and rice for needy local kids.

Champion: NUS Dance Synergy Students spent time with the elderly and shared with them the joy and benefits of contemporary dance.

Want to be a DOS 2020 Champion? Write to us at OARconnect@nus.edu.sg

6 SING-ALONG @ LING KWANG HOME

9 DAY AT LEE AH MOOI OLD AGE HOME (SILAT)

Champion: NUS Alumni Sing-Along Alumni treated the residents to a dim sum breakfast, and entertained and engaged them with popular sing-along songs.

Champion: NUS Alumni Relations Staff spent the morning interacting with the elderly through games and karaoke, as well as painting a mural wall and helping to set up a mini garden.

7 UBIN KAMPONG CLEAN-UP PROJECT Champion: King Edward VII (KEVII) Hall Students helped to clean homes, courtyards and gardens at Kampung Durian on Pulau Ubin.

8 FOOD DISTRIBUTION Champion: NUS Food Science & Technology Alumni Volunteers collected ‘ugly’ but still goodto-consume fruits and vegetables at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre for distribution to needy families and charitable organisations.

10 DAY AT LEE KONG CHIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Champion: NUS Office of Human Resources Staff from NUS Office of Human Resources spent an afternoon with clients of Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore and their families at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.

11 LEARNING JOURNEY AT FOREWORD COFFEE Champion: Ms Velda Wong (Arts and Social Sciences ’18) Participants, including NUS Deputy President (Research & Technology) Professor Chen Tsuhan and NUS Alumni Advisory Board member and Member of Parliament Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Science ’98), learnt how to make coffee from the café’s differently-abled baristas.

12 DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD TO ROADSIDE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Champion: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) Pakistan Alumni Chapter Alumni distributed lunch to the informal construction workers who gathered at intersections to wait for jobs.

NUS DAY OF SERVICE

is an annual event. Please save the date for next year’s event.

5 September 2020

OCT—DEC 2019 . 5

C A M P U S U P D AT E S

A GARDE N PARTY RE UNION UNDE R THE STARS Alumni gathered for a cosy evening and relived memories together at the Bukit Timah Homecoming.

Prof Tan (5th from left), Dr Tan (6th from left) and other members of the NUS community celebrating anniversaries of various faculties and schools, and class of 1969.

A panel discussion featuring Dean of NUS Law Professor Simon Chesterman (2nd from right), Dean of LKY School Professor Danny Quah (left), Dean of NUS Business Professor Andrew Rose (2nd from left), as well as NUS Law Associate Professor Jean Ho (right) was held before the evening festivities. The panellists exchanged views about the challenges of US President Donald Trump in power, Brexit being on the horizon and the looming US-China Trade War.

62 4. .TA HLEUA MLN UU MSN U S

DRESSED IN SPLENDID TROPICAL BLOOMS, alumni who studied at the NUS Bukit Timah Campus (BTC) returned for a spectacular garden-themed Bukit Timah Homecoming celebration, organised by NUS Alumni Relations, and co-hosted by NUS Law and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School). Among those who returned to their former stomping ground included former Singapore President and Chancellor Dr Tony Tan (Science ’62), together with his wife, Mrs Mary Tan (Arts ’62). After a light shower in the late afternoon, the alumni filled the Lower Quadrangle amidst cool breezes. Against the archways of the Manasseh Meyer building and branches of the heritage angsana tree, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science ’85) welcomed the alumni home and thanked them for their continued support. Soon after, the guests feasted under the stars on local delights such as roti prata, nasi lemak, satay, chendol and bandung.

Prof Tan was persuaded to join in to deliver a tuneful 夜来香 (Fragrant Primrose) and had many alumni singing along.

Festivities included live performances by NUS alumni as they belted classic tunes such as Let Me Be There and 月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart). A highlight of the evening was the cakecutting ceremony to commemorate the anniversaries of various NUS faculties and schools. At the event, the 90th anniversaries of NUS Arts and Social Sciences and NUS Science, the 50th anniversary of NUS Design and Environment and the Class of 1969, as well as the 15th anniversary of the LKY School were celebrated. Additionally, alumni from NUS Science and NUS Law took the opportunity to hold their own mini-reunions. Visit nus.edu.sg/alumnet/gallery for more photos.

(Clockwise from left) Alumni catching up with one another and enjoying the performances.

OCT—DEC 2019 . 7

OAR HIGHLIGHTS

A FIESTA ON THE GREEN This year’s Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day featured a diverse and exciting programme that catered to all. UNIVERSITY TOWN (UTOWN) GREEN was transformed into a sea of smiling faces as alumni and their families, students and staff turned out for the annual Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day (KRAFD) on 17 August. More than 4,000 guests thronged the campus to reconnect with their alma mater, as well as with old friends. The highlight of the evening was a mesmerising performance by singer and actress Ms Joanna Dong (Arts and Social Sciences ’04). Between jazzy renditions of Liàn Qu 1990 and We Are Young, Ms Dong spoke fondly of her days as an NUS undergraduate. She also interacted with guests at the NUS Centre For the Arts booth after her show. The NUS Alumni Indian Ensemble, NUS Dance Synergy, NUS Silat, NUS Chinese Society Geyao and

8 . THE ALUM NUS

Left: Ms Joanna Dong wowing the crowds. Above: In addition to other activities, attendees got to engage in a spot of rock-climbing.

Members of the NUS Alumni Indian Ensemble in full song.

Imprompt-3 alumni also treated the guests to lively performances. The stage shows closed on a high note with an appearance by Bunz (Arts and Social Sciences ’14) and other members of the cast from the musical web series So Bright 2. Various technologies championed at NUS were also showcased at the event, such as robotics and Virtual Reality demonstrations by NUS Engineering and the NUSmart Shuttle autonomous vehicle. In his speech, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science ’85) elaborated on the University’s smart campus aspirations — for example, drones doing deliveries, robots patrolling the grounds and apps for real-time bus arrival timings. As stars appeared in the darkening sky, guests settled down on the Green to watch Smallfoot, an animated film — a perfect ending for the day. The event provided numerous opportunities for alumni and their families to bond, play and feast.

Visit nus.edu.sg/alumnet/gallery for more photos.

OAR HIGHLIGHTS

FEAT URE FILMS

TH IRST Y THURSDAYS

Speakeasy Night

T HE B I G DAY ALUMNI AND FRIENDS WERE TREATED to romantic comedy The Big Day which stars MrÂ Desmond Tan (Design and Environment â&#x20AC;&#x2122;11) on 29 August at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House. Mr Tan, who was in Taipei and could not attend the event, specially recorded a video message that was shown to the audience before the movie. Mr Tan shared that even when he was a Real Estate student, he took acting modules that provided him with a very good background for his career in acting. He advised aspiring actors that they needed to have passion for acting in order to see themselves through the ups and downsÂ of their acting career.

THIRSTY THURSDAYSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; FIRST-EVER SPEAKEASY NIGHT was held on 5 September at Horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mouth, a hidden bar down a dark walkway in the middle of bustling Orchard Road. About 80 young alumni gathered there with their friends, and took the opportunity to meet their fellow alumni. They also heard from Ms Tan Shui-Min (Computing â&#x20AC;&#x2122;91), DirectorÂ (Applications) at NUS IT, on how the University isÂ harnessing technological advances to make NUS aÂ forward-looking university.

(TQO XKUKQPCT[ Å¿NOOCMGTU ,COGU %COGTQP #XCVCT CPF 4QDGTV 4QFTKIWG\ 5KP %KV[ EQOGU #.+6# $#66.' #0)'. CP GRKE CFXGPVWTG QH JQRG CPF GORQYGTOGPV DCUGF WRQP VJG /CPIC ITCRJKE PQXGN UGTKGU D[ ;WMKVQ -KUJKTQ 9JGP #NKVC CYCMGPU YKVJ PQ OGOQT[ QH YJQ UJG KU KP C HWVWTG YQTNF UJG FQGU PQV TGEQIPKUG UJG KU VCMGP KP D[ +FQ C EQORCUUKQPCVG E[DGTRJ[UKEKCP YJQ TGCNKUGU VJCV UQOGYJGTG KP VJKU CDCPFQPGF E[DQTI EQTG KU VJG JGCTV CPF UQWN QH C [QWPI YQOCP YKVJ CP GZVTCQTFKPCT[ RCUV

Ms Tan Shui-Min (Computing â&#x20AC;&#x2122;91), DirectorÂ (Applications) at NUS IT, addressing the crowd.

THURSDAY, 7.30PM Auditorium, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at:

alumnet.events/MMnov19

NUS Alumni Relations organises regular movie screenings for members of the NUS community, ranging from all-time classics to family favourites. Join us for Movies On The House, friends and family members are welcome too!

T ECH TALK

C RE AT ING M A C H I NE S T H AT CA N SE E

TSnov19 - AlumNUS Half Page_v050919.pdf 1 6/9/2019 10:49:48 AM

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) is the buzzword these days, and computer vision – the science of making computers see, analyse and understand images and videos – is a subset of AI. This technology is already being widely used in society and the workforce. On 21 August, participants learned more about computer vision from Dr Tian Jing (Lecturer and Consultant, Artificial Intelligence Practice, Institute of Systems Science, NUS) and its uses in industries such as manufacturing, construction, security, environmental, financial, transport and logistics etc. Dr Tian also shared on the concerns regarding computer vision such as privacy and bias.

Speaker:

Mr Justin Saw

Solution Architect, Huawei Singapore Wireless Network

20 November 2019 (Wednesday) 7.30pm Coriander, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at alumnet.events/TSnov19

5G Development & Use Case 5G network is the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, and deployments in Singapore and several countries are in the pipeline. The initial deployment phase focuses on providing greater bandwidth and minimised latency, meaning speedier and more reliable connections on smartphones and other mobile devices. In addition, emerging augmented reality and virtual reality applications, UltraHD and 360-degree video streaming, will be enabled to offer truly immersive user experience even on mobile broadband connection. In the next phases, 5G promises virtually lag-free connection required in industrial applications such as remote surgery and autonomous vehicles. Find out more about these meaningful advantages that 5G can offer at this talk.

SOME USES OF COMPUTER VISION: DETECTION OF DEFECTIVE ITEMS IN MANUFACTURING LINES FACIAL RECOGNITION DETECTION OF HIGH-RISE LITTERING MONITORING OF FOOD WASTAGE IN COMMERCIAL KITCHENS IMPROVEMENT OF PROPERTY VALUE ESTIMATES

OAR HIGHLIGHTS

BREAKFAST DIALO GUES

T HE O NLY C O N STA N T I S C H AN G E - F R O M A C O RP O RAT E CA RE E R T O E N T RE PRE NE UR S H IP CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT – especially more so in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. During this session on 26 July held at NUSS Suntec City Guild House, Mrs Bernadette Giam (Arts and Social Sciences ’09), Director of Corporate Affairs and Human Resources in Creative Eateries, shared with alumni and guests her experience switching careers from the Singapore civil service with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to her family business in the food and beverage industry. Mrs Giam also shared on the challenges she faced and the lessons she learned along the way. The session was moderated by Mr Morgan Ang (Engineering ’08).

Media Disrupted!

Ms Melissa (EMBA ’09) Ms Chong Melissa KweeKwee Ms Glenda

(EMBA ’09

(Arts Social Sciences 07) & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC CEO,and National Volunteer

News Anchor / Executive EditorVolunteer at CNA CEO, National

& Philanthropy Centre (NVPC)

Mr Steven Chia

Building a City of Good

Member of NUS Communications and New Media Industry Advisory Council; Presenter / Senior Editor at CNA

Building a City of Good

25 October 2019 (Friday) 12.00pm, NUSS Suntec City Guild House, 3 Temasek Boulevard (Tower 5), #02- 401, Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983

26 October (Friday), 7.30am, NUSS Suntec City Guild House, 3 Temasek Boulevard (Tower 5), #02- 401, Suntec City Mall, Singapore 03898

What if Singapore was known to be a giving nation, aSingapore city of good where peopl 7.30am, NUSS Suntec Boulevard #02- 401, Suntec City 038983 Consumers today are(Tower showing 5), a preference for mobile news andMall, bite-sized digital media. Media Registration Fee: City Guild House, 3 Temasek

voluntarily gave of their time, talent and treasure generously? Building a city o Registration fee: outlets must acknowledge the changing media consumption habits and tailor their offerings to $22 (Alumnus, Student, Staff) good is not something that can be achieved by one individual or organisation. I $10 (Member) $15 (Guest) stay relevant in the competitive What is transmedia journalism the digital age? In this $30 (Guest) What if Singapore was known tovision be landscape. a and giving nation, a city of goodintowhere people takes collective people who are committed changing the narrativ session, renowned CNA presenters Ms Glenda Chong and Mr Steven Chia will share their views on the

e: Register at: alumnet.events/LDoct19 $15 (Guest)

voluntarily gave ofbytheir time, talent Building citylook of like. A galvanising givers and and treasure changing generously? mindsets of what givingacan impacts of digitalisation, and how consumers are one disrupting and shaping theorganisation. next frontier in media. good is not something that can be achieved by individual or Ituse thei City of Good can only be achieved when many come alongside to Click here to Register! powerand in and influence overcommitted the public arena for the purpose of doing good takes collective vision people who are to changing the narrative PROGRAMME PROGRAMME Chong was named Best News Anchor at the Asian Television Awards in 2001 and awarded by galvanisingMs givers andat changing mindsets of the what giving Volunteer can lookand like.Philanthrop A Melissa Kwee isAnnual the Excellence CEO of National Best Ms Presenter Mediacorp’s Awards in 2005. She currently anchors Asia 7.30am Light Breakfast & Networking 12.00pm Lunch & Networking City of Good can only be achieved when many come alongside to use their Centre (NVPC). a spokesperson wide cases, Ms Kwee ha Tonight on CNA. Mr Chia isAs a veteran presenter whofor hasaover two range decades of of experience in the Click here to Register! 12.30pm Sharing by Ms Glenda Chong power in and media influence over the public arena the of shows doingwhich good. been involved inknown mobilising resources topurpose aid inrated community development industry and is best for AM LIVE! -for one of CNA’s highest aired ME 8.00am Sharing by Ms Melissa Kwee (Arts and Social Sciences 07) every weekday morning for eight years. He currently helms Talking Point – a weekly programme Spanning the public, and community sectors, has assumed a wid Ms Melissa Kwee isat the CEO of inprivate the National Volunteer andshe Philanthropy and Mr Steven Chia Breakfast & Networking that looks the hottest issues Singapore. range of roles including Chairman of Halogen Foundation, President 8.30am Q&A Session Centre (NVPC). As a spokesperson for a wide range of cases, Ms Kwee has of UN 1.00pm Q&A Session Women Singapore, Founder of Beautiful People, Chairman of the investment firm been involved in mobilising resources to aid in community development. 1.30pm End of Programme Join us for an exciting session over lunch in the city to hear from these industry gurus! ng by Ms MelissaEnd Kwee for Capella Singapore and Vice President, Human Capital at Pontiac Land Group 9.00am Spanning the public, private and community sectors, she has assumed a wide

HEALTH & WELLNES S

Demystifying Childhood Fevers – When to See a Doctor? MYTHS 1 TEETHING CAUSES FEVER. 2 PROBIOTICS IS EFFECTIVE IN TREATING HFMD.

IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR CHILDREN to have fever, and many parents struggle with the decision to bring them to see a doctor or self-medicate. During this session held on 21 June, Dr Christelle Tan (Medicine ’10), an accredited paediatrician in Raffles Medical Group, shared with alumni the myths about childhood fever, how to prevent fevers and how to help their children when they have fever. In addition, Dr Tan also talked about Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) and Influenza.

SKILLSFUT URE ADVICE WORKSHOP

SK IL L SF U T URE F O R B U SINE S SE S THE PREVIOUS SESSIONS OF SkillsFuture Advice Workshop had focused on the individuals and helping them to reskill and upskill. The latest session held on 16 July shifted the focus to businesses – for Human Resource practitioners and business owners to learn more about how technology is causing disruptions, and at the same time creating benefits and opportunities; as well as the various programmes and initiatives that are available for them to utilise for their employees’ training and skills upgrading needs.

CALENDAR OF ALUMNI EVENTS

nus.edu.sg/alumnet/events

O C T. N O V. D E C

O C T O B E R

28th NUS Alumni & Friends Golf Tournament 2019

The annual NUS Alumni & Friends Golf Tournament brings together NUS alumni, students, staff and friends. This event is organised by NUS Alumni Relations in collaboration with the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS).

OCT

Keppel Club, Thu, 1pm

Ticket Price: $150 (Alumni/Staff/Friends) $100 (Keppel Club Members) $80 (NUS Students) Note: Fully subscribed alumnet.events/ANF19 Contact: Ms Josephine Chng jochng@nus.edu.sg

ALUMNI NOV WEEKENDS Calling all graduates from the Faculty of Engineering and School of Design and Engineering. Spend a Saturday back on campus to learn more about the latest industry developments, career opportunities and take part in sharing sessions by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Land Transport Authority (LTA).

China Film Festival

Back by popular demand, join us to enjoy acclaimed Chinese films jointly brought to you by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, Singapore China Friendship Association and NUS Alumni Relations. 23-25 OCT

Shaw Foundation Alumni House, Wed-Fri, 7.30pm

14 . T H E A L U M N U S

2 Nov, Sat NUS SDE4, 4 Architecture Drive, 12pm Register: alumnet.events/AWnov19 Contact: Ms Gabriella Nyam gabriella@nus.edu.sg

N O V E M B E R

Media Disrupted!

Alita: Battle Angel (PG13)

Lunch Dialogues

Movies On The House From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (Avatar) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), comes Alita: Battle Angel, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment, based upon the Manga graphic novel series by Yukito Kishiro. When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is, in a future world she does not recognise, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate cyberphysician who realises that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg core is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.

Speakers: Ms Glenda Chong (Arts and Social Sciences ’07), News Anchor and Executive Editor at CNA

25 OCT

NUSS Suntec City Guild House, Fri, 12pm

Ticket Price: $22 (Alumni/Students/ Staff), $30 (Guests) Register: alumnet.events/LDoct19 Contact: Mr Edmond Kwek edmond_kwek@nus.edu.sg

Philippine Film Festival

The inaugural Philippine Film Festival, jointly presented by the Embassy of the Philippines in Singapore, Film Development Council of the Philippines and NUS Alumni Relations, brings to you a crop of the best films that captures the Filipino experience, its culture and way of life. 13-15 NOV

Shaw Foundation Alumni House, Wed-Fri, 7.30pm

All information is correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.

Islamophobia - Do Two Wrongs Make a Right? U@live Panellists: Mr K Shanmugam (Law ‘84) Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, Singapore Associate Professor Maznah Mohamad Head, NUS Department of Malay Studies Ms Farah Pandith Foreign Policy Strategist and Former Diplomat Moderator: Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ‘83) Former NMP and U@live Chairman

30 OCT

Shaw Foundation Alumni House, Wed, 7.30pm

NOV

Shaw Foundation Alumni House, Thu, 7.30pm

5G Development & Use Case

Mr Steven Chia, Member of NUS Communications and New Media Industry Advisory Council; Presenter and Senior Editor at CNA

Teck Talk Speaker: Mr Justin Saw, Solution Architect, Huawei Singapore Wireless Network

5G network is the next generation of mobile internet connectivity. Join us to find out more about the advantages that 5G can offer.

NOV

Shaw Foundation Alumni House, Wed, 7.30pm

D E C E M B E R

Networking with the Stars Thirsty Thursdays A popular event for young alumni to catch up with one another over drinks at a rooftop bar. Sunset Bar Level 6, One Farrer Hotel DEC 1 Farrer Park Station Road Singapore 217562 Thu, 6.30pm Ticket Price: $10 Register: alumnet.events/TTdec19 Contact: Mr Roystonn Loh roystonn.loh@nus.edu.sg

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 15

F O C U S

T HE

THINKING

BEHIND

A key catalyst of the local start-up scene, NUS has set its sights on becoming a locus of innovation and entrepreneurship across Southeast Asia and China. The payoffs, once realised, will extend far beyond the University.

16 . THE ALUM NUS

‘SINGAPORE

TEXT BY WANDA TAN

INC.’

DID YOU KNOW? Over the last five years, the NUS Industry Liaison Office has been pivotal in getting more than

670 PATENTS

granted and more than

TECHNOLOGYBASED COMPANIES

spun off from NUS.

AROUSELL, 99.CO, SHOPBACK, MONEYSMART — these ventures are household names. And they were all founded in the last decade by NUS alumni, with the backing of their alma mater. In fact, there now exists an entire generation of alumni who graduated after the University had made its tentative first steps on its innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) journey. This began in 1988 with the establishment of the Centre for Management of Innovation and Technopreneurship (later renamed the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre); today, NUS Enterprise serves as the linchpin of NUS’ I&E activities in Singapore and beyond. Two of NUS Enterprise’s best-known programmes are NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC), which allows students (mostly undergraduates) to intern at start-ups in business hubs worldwide while taking entrepreneurship courses at renowned partner universities; and BLOCK71, a global network of entrepreneurial hubs to help startups grow and access new markets. Working in tandem, the NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO) is the University’s technology translation and commercialisation arm. It specialises in bringing NUS research to market and manages the resulting intellectual property (IP). Even then, this barely scratches the surface of all that NUS does to nurture entrepreneurial talent. For example, there are other incubation facilities on campus (The Hangar by NUS Enterprise) and off campus (NUS Enterprise@Singapore Science Park); large events like the annual Innovfest unbound, a showcase for Asian innovations; as well as regular ‘Kopi Chats’ among the startup community. Crediting the last 30 years where a strong entrepreneurial foundation was built as “I&E 1.0”, Professor Freddy Boey (Engineering ’87), NUS

Deputy President (Innovation & Enterprise) since April 2019, acknowledges the vital role NUS has played in grooming homegrown companies for global success. “NUS was one of the pioneers in building ‘Singapore Inc.’ Under my predecessor Dr Lily Chan [former CEO of NUS Enterprise], NOC and BLOCK71 took off well and created strong branding for NUS in Singapore and other parts of the world,” says Prof Boey, who heads both NUS Enterprise and ILO in his current appointment. The challenge now is how to keep up this impressive streak. That is, what will “I&E 2.0” for NUS look like?

ENGINEERING THE ENTREPRENEURS Bringing NUS technologies to market and licensing these to third parties would, of course, generate considerable revenue for the University. However, this is not why NUS embarked on I&E to begin with. “NUS is first and foremost an educational institution; innovation is one form of education,” explains Prof Boey. “Our goal is not just to create patents and make a profit, but to create entrepreneurs. It has more to do with producing the person than producing the company.” In the present Industry 4.0 era, this increasingly means producing technopreneurs — and not just any tech-savvy entrepreneur, but those who establish deep tech start-ups. ‘Deep tech’ refers to cutting-edge, disruptive technologies based on radical scientific or engineering breakthroughs that seek to solve the world’s biggest problems, such as curing cancer or fighting climate change. Singapore possesses an advantage in this arena due to the Government’s heavy investment in deep tech. “We have a considerable reservoir of deep tech waiting to be released and that society thinks is compelling, so it makes sense to get this to market,” claims Prof Boey. He singles out agritech

NUS is first and foremost an educational institution; innovation is one form of education. Our goal is not just to create patents and make a profit, but to create entrepreneurs. It has more to do with producing the person than producing the company. Prof Freddy Boey, NUS Deputy President (Innovation & Enterprise)

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 17

F O C U S

MADE IN SINGAPORE Here are a handful of start-up founders (or co-founders) who got their start at NUS and have successfully branched out into Southeast Asia and/or China.

Mr Matthew Low (Arts and Social Sciences ’09) and Mr Kester Poh (Computing ’09) AiChat, an artificial intelligence–powered platform for brands to manage chatbots on popular messaging apps

Mr Rameez Ansar (Computing ’05) Circles.Life, Asia’s first fully-digital telco and consumer company that delivers a highlycustomisable digital service to users

Mr Wang Bin (Engineering ’08) Taidii, an innovative preschool management system incorporating the latest sensing and communication technologies

Mr Shamir Rahim (Science ’07) VersaFleet, a transport management softwareas-a-service that enables supply chain automation

Mr Kelvin Teo (Business ’10) Funding Societies, the largest online peer-to-peer lending marketplace for SMEs in Southeast Asia

Ms Tan Peck Ying (Science ’11) and Mr Caleb Leow (Design and Environment ’15) pslove, a femtech (female technology) start-up that addresses women’s health issues via its mobile app and physical products

18 . THE ALUM NUS

(agricultural technology) and medtech (medical technology) as some of the hottest industries right now, given their probable efficacy in addressing concerns over food supply and population ageing, respectively — both at home and abroad. As Prof Boey says, “Entrepreneurs must go where the market is. As Singapore is a small country, we almost always have to look outside our city-state.” Notwithstanding the leading tech hubs of Silicon Valley and more recently Boston, he argues that the most exciting developments are taking place “in our own backyard” — specifically in the vibrant, populous ASEAN region (650 million people, with more than half living in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand) and China (1.4 billion). NUS thus aims to position itself as a key node within the regional, tech-focused I&E ecosystem. “By enabling linkages between Singapore and Southeast Asia, and also with China, NUS can produce a high concentration of talented people moving around the region,” says Prof Boey. He adds that the flow of people should go in both directions. “We need to encourage Singaporeans to expand their companies overseas, as well as draw foreign talent to NUS and create an outpost for them here. That way, they can go back and use the technologies developed at NUS to transform their home countries.” So what is Prof Boey’s strategy for I&E 2.0? “We will build on past achievements and enhance certain flagship programmes to capture more value, especially in the deep tech space,” he reveals. The University’s efforts are focused on “four flagship programmes” in the next few years:

(i) ramping up the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP) (nus.edu.sg/grip), hosted by ILO; (ii) extending the NOC programme (nus.edu.sg/enterprise/noc) to “NOC 2.0”, to include NOC for PhD students, (iii) launching the new NUS Master of Science in Entrepreneurship (bit.ly/NUSMScEntrepreneurship) and (iv) launching the Residential Accelerator Programme within BLOCK71 (block71.co). The one-year MSc in Entrepreneurship seeks to develop entrepreneurial talents and will take a more experiential rather than academic approach. It will include the exercise of doing an actual start-up after a hot-housing accelerator programme, using existing NUS IP and technologies, and with the possibility of initial seed investment by NUS. The accelerator programme will provide them with direct pathways (including mentorship and technology support) to accelerate their ideas to reality.

GETTING A ‘GRIP’ Launched in September 2018, GRIP is part of ILO’s strategy to guide NUS postgraduate students and researchers in creating their own deep tech start-ups. Selected teams spend12 months gaining entrepreneurial skills and experience through workshops, mentorships, industry linkages and incubation support. Each team receives funds of up to $100,000 from NUS, and also has opportunities to pitch its start-up to external investors. NUS has committed $25 million to GRIP, with the aim of co-creating 250 companies over a five-year span. Over 40 teams have graduated from the programme, with several securing funding. This is more than double the annual number of spin-offs ILO had previously seen, according to

Prof Boey. “I believe GRIP will change the I&E landscape in Singapore by producing more entrepreneurs than ever before. Having undergone the programme, they will also be more focused and more likely to get funding,” he asserts. “Think of GRIP as a hatchery that produces lots of small fry. The more fry we push out, the better our chances that some will succeed, and one may even turn into a big salmon [or ‘unicorn’, defined as a privately-held start-up with a valuation of over US$1 billion].” Among the promising “fry” are BeeX and Craft Health, two deep tech start-ups from the inaugural batch of GRIP. Founded by married couple Mr Goh Eng Wei (Engineering ’13) and Ms Grace Chia (Engineering ’14), BeeX is leveraging on its autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems to disrupt marine inspection and repair activities for the oil and gas industry. Craft Health, founded by pharmacists Dr Goh Wei Jiang (Science ’12 + Business ‘18) and Dr Lim Seng Han (Science ’11), is marketing its 3D printing platform to supplement distributors and pharmaceutical companies, so as to personalise nutrition and medicine. Seven years in the making, BeeX’s AUV technology arose out of an undergraduate project by a group of NUS Engineering and Computing students, including Mr Goh and Ms Chia. “The inspection and repair of subsea installations, such as submerged oil wells or submarine cables and pipelines, is usually performed by remotely-operated underwater vehicles or human divers. Deploying AUVs would eliminate the need for vessels and divers to be sent offshore, thus saving costs for oil and gas companies — and potentially saving lives, too,” says Mr Goh, a research associate at the NUS Advanced Robotics Centre. Drs Goh and Lim — University mates and later colleagues at a hospital pharmacy — decided to collaborate on their concept in 2017, during their PhD studies at NUS. “We had both seen at work how patients struggle with their medication. Because patients often have multiple sachets of medicines, they find it complicated trying to keep track of which pills to take and when. Our idea is to use 3D printing to combine and customise different medications and supplements into a single daily pill,” says Dr Goh. The 3D printer they developed is capable of changing the active ingredients within the pill (including the rate of release for each

FROM START-UP TO SCALE-UP Things are looking up for BeeX and Craft Health, as they recently signed (or, in the latter’s case, is close to signing) their first commercial contracts with customers in nearby Southeast Asian countries. Having identified Southeast Asia and China as their primary markets, they intend to gain a foothold among

Mr Goh Eng Wei and Ms Grace Chia, cofounders of BeeX, with their AUV technology.

As scientists, we are striving for better solutions that can revolutionise things today. It’s time to prove what you submit in grant proposals is real! Ms Grace Chia, Co-founder, BeeX

active ingredient) as and when required, on a just-intime basis. Through GRIP, both teams became familiar with the ins and outs of the start-up process, from product and market validation to business modelling and strategising, as well as IP protection and licensing. This was particularly enlightening for less business-minded individuals like Dr Lim. “Unlike Wei Jiang, who also has an MBA from NUS, I don’t have a business background. I didn’t even know what financing terms like ‘equity’ and ‘convertible notes’ meant,” he admits. “Going through the three-month Venture Hothouse at the start of the programme, and attending the workshops, helped level up my business knowledge.” Other benefits of GRIP, say the foursome, included access to NUS resources such as lab facilities and corporate secretarial services; networking opportunities with industry stakeholders, who gave useful feedback on business plans; widespread publicity and media exposure, which helped both start-ups secure investors and industry partners; and peer support among participants. Fresh off their year-long GRIP run, BeeX and Craft Health are currently preparing to move into new digs off-campus, recruit more staff and file patents for their inventions with ILO. They are gearing up to debut their pilot products within the next year or two — and hope to

underserved customers in the region without having to compete against their more experienced Western rivals. “Singapore lacks natural resources like land and water, so advances in deep tech could be a way of helping Singapore punch above its weight in this field,” posits Dr Goh. However, none of them expect scaling up to be easy in the nascent deep tech sector. “To deliver nextgen technology, you need grit and

tenacity to demonstrate that you can productise and monetise your invention, and to make people see the value of it. The journey can be discouraging, and you are bound to face rejections from customers and investors. Never give up!” says Mr Goh. Dr Lim offers the same advice to aspiring technopreneurs: “Stay in the game, as deep tech takes time to mature. Make sure your product has defensibility, so that you can sell it better.”

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 19

F O C U S

Dr Lim Seng Han (left) and Dr Goh Wei Jiang (right), co-founders of Craft Health.

see more deep tech researchers-turned-entrepreneurs like themselves by then. “As scientists, we are striving for better solutions that can revolutionise things today. It’s time to prove what you submit in grant proposals is real!” urges Ms Chia.

ENABLING REGIONAL MOBILI T Y NOC has success stories aplenty of NUS undergraduates who went into the programme and used the experience as a springboard for their entrepreneurial ambitions. This was exactly how the likes of Carousell and 99.co came about. Since the first batch of NOC students went to Silicon Valley in 2002, the programme has expanded to more than 10 locations globally, including two new ones — NOC Southeast Asia, a three-month internship across four cities in Indonesia and Vietnam; and NOC Shenzhen, open to undergraduates and postgraduates. “Under NOC 2.0, NUS’ sizeable graduate student community — numbering about 10,000, or almost onethird of all NUS students — will be brought more fully

GET PLUGGED IN! With a 312,000-strong community spread across the globe, NUS alumni can play a formidable role in propelling the University’s vision for I&E 2.0. Are you keen on contributing to this ecosystem? Get inspired by these suggestions:

If you are a start-up founder:

Check out NUS Start-up Runway. Most of NUS Enterprise’s services are bundled under the NUS Start-up Runway, a comprehensive incubator-cumaccelerator programme that provides end-to-end support for fledgling and seasoned entrepreneurs, such as office space, mentorship, professional services, networking and funding.

2 0 . THE ALUM NUS

into the programme. This will give us a larger pool of students with the know-how and wherewithal to produce deep tech,” says Prof Boey. Networking events will also be organised to strengthen connections between NOC and GRIP participants, so that NOC alumni will stay plugged in to NUS’ I&E ecosystem after their internships have ended and gain more insights about how to start a company. BeeX’s Ms Chia, who took part in NOC Beijing as an undergraduate, knows firsthand the benefits of progressing from NOC to GRIP to start-up founder. During her year-long stint in Beijing, Ms Chia learnt how foreign businesses operate there — this will come in handy as BeeX tries to penetrate the Chinese market. “My internship boss also taught me that cash flow is of the utmost importance,” she recalls. “Keeping this in mind, Eng Wei and I opted to keep BeeX as an idea only, until we had secured a revenue stream that could allow us a good runway over the next two to three years. The $100,000 in funds from GRIP helped with that.” As for BLOCK71, it has grown from its humble beginnings in 2011 at Ayer Rajah Crescent to a tech ecosystem builder and global connector with seven facilities in four countries. All but one of these are located in Southeast Asia and China, with three in the Indonesian cities of Bandung, Jakarta and Yogyakarta (the same cities covered in NOC Southeast Asia). Entrepreneurs in BLOCK71 can tap on this network to access and learn about new markets, testbed their ideas and build ties with the international start-up community, while utilising NUS Enterprise and partner resources and contacts. Mr Vincent Woon (Business ’08), co-founder and CEO of data analytics and business intelligence company Holistics, is one of them. Holistics initially operated out of BLOCK71 Singapore in 2015; two years later, it formed part of the pioneering batch of start-ups at BLOCK71 Jakarta. Holistics is still based at BLOCK71 Jakarta and has graduated from BLOCK71

BLOCK71 Singapore offered us not just an affordable space to work together, but also a space to interact with the community. Through the community, we understood implicitly that we were not alone. Mr Vincent Woon, Co-Founder and CEO, Holistics

Join the NUS Entrepreneurs’ Village (NEV). Initiated in 2017, NEV seeks to nurture an active and engaged NUS community in entrepreneurship by leveraging on a tripartite relationship between the University, alumni and students. NEV holds pitching-cum-networking events where budding entrepreneurs from NUS get to interact and follow up with senior alumni mentors. “Given our different career paths and contact spheres, we can help guide and open doors for each other,” says Mr Kelly Choo (Computing ’08), a serial technopreneur and co-founder of NEV.

If you have the financial capital:

Invest in a NUS start-up. As a partner at venture capital firm SeedPlus and an angel investor in his personal capacity,

NEV events allow NUS start-ups to present pitches to, and network with, alumni mentors.

BLOCK71 provides more than just physical office space for tech entrepreneurs.

Singapore. A third office has also been set up in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the birthplace of the other two co-founders, Mr Thanh Dinh Khac (Engineering ’09) and Mr Huy Nguyen (Computing ’12). “BLOCK71 Singapore offered us not just an affordable space to work together, but also a space to interact with the community. Through the community, we understood implicitly that we were not alone, and we learned a lot from the other founders. We were also able to get good feedback, referrals and supportive customers,” says Mr Woon, a NOC Silicon Valley alumnus. The same was true of Holistics’ expansion to BLOCK71 Jakarta. Mr Woon adds, “Whenever we launch events like global webinars,

Mr Foo Tiang Lim (Engineering ’10), a NOC Silicon Valley alumnus, supports a wide range of tech start-ups. Two companies in his portfolio, e-scooter sharing service provider Neuron Mobility and local fintech start-up Xfers, were founded by NUS alumni. “I have benefitted so much from being a part of the NUS community, both personally and professionally. It made sense for me to give back and help the next generation of NUS entrepreneurs,” says Mr Foo.

If you are based overseas:

Establish an I&E-focused fund. “NUS alumni overseas chapters can set up an investment fund with the sole purpose of investing in NUS start-ups. Or, they can sponsor a scholarship programme for interested students and researchers from their home countries to come to NUS and receive training in I&E,” says Prof Boey.

More than

2,800 STUDENTS

have taken part in NOC to date. NOC alumni have founded more than

660

COMPANIES.

BLOCK71

has supported more than

600

TECH START-UPS

since 2011. Globally, NUS Enterprise supports more than

300

INCUBATEES

per year across its ecosystem.

we now have an additional channel to help drive traffic.” Led by Prof Boey, plans are afoot to further catalyse and aggregate the BLOCK71 family. An intensive, threemonth Residential Accelerator Programme will soon be launched for early-stage start-ups and individuals housed in BLOCK71 Singapore. A PhD in Innovation programme requiring PhD candidates to “find solutions to unmet needs” is also on the table, says Prof Boey. “Through these initiatives, we intend to produce good, tech-savvy entrepreneurs and build our IP library, which people can then use to create global societal and economic impact.”

A “ S TA R T - U P U N I ” The University can be rightly proud of its accomplishments in the I&E landscape over the past three decades. In that time, it has spurred the birth of numerous regionally-acclaimed tech start-ups. Some, notably Zopim and tenCube, have been acquired; others, like Biolidics and Unum Therapeutics, have even achieved public listing. As NUS looks forward to I&E 2.0, Prof Boey stresses that its educational mandate remains unchanged: “Incubators are important, but our focus is on humans rather than brick-and-mortar spaces. … Singapore produces top-notch scientists and researchers. We need to ensure their high-quality research output reaches society, first to Singapore and then the world.” Paving a smooth path from lab to market will accelerate researchers’ innovations toward commercialisation, and create a positive — perhaps world-changing — impact for people and society. Citing Israel’s moniker as the “start-up nation”, Prof Boey notes, “When we have people coming to NUS specifically to create a start-up because they know there is a high chance of success here, then that’s a sign we have become a ‘start-up University’.” O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 21

forum

TA L K I N G S H O P Given the realities of the new economy — with its emphasis on innovation and non-traditional business models — the entrepreneurial spirit matters more than ever. NUS for its part has been successful in nurturing this through initiatives such as NUS Enterprise and Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP). But the question remains: Are enterpreneurs born or made? Alumni who have ventured down this path come together to discuss this, as well as the appeal and challenges of being in the start-up world.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

NATURE OR NURTURE? NUS alumni entrepreneurs share their personal motivations, tribulations and insights on navigating the start-up ecosystem. What are three key qualities entrepreneurs should ideally possess?

This issue’s Forum topic was debated at a special installment of Kopi Chat, held on 31 August at The Hangar, and co-organised by NUS Enterprise and Alumni Relations.

GOH YIPING: Resilience, grit and connections. My first two start-ups didn’t work out, but I just kept coming back even though I was beaten to the ground. The ability to connect with all sorts of people is also integral. Raising money requires the right connections. Admittedly, coming from a well-connected background does have an impact, but I say to the underdogs: if you can’t beat them, join them. Be thick-skinned and find yourself in their crowd. JEFFREY TIONG: Curiosity and an open growth mindset. For example, I wasn’t good at public speaking, but I challenged myself to grow. I also have people from 13 different nationalities in my company, so knowing how to work with all of them requires adaptability. AMOS HENG: Speaking as someone who is more junior, I would say resourcefulness is one of the most important qualities. In the start-up world, having a good idea alone doesn’t mean that things are going to happen. For example, an investor might seem very keen but might eventually decide not to invest. It is easy to feel like you are entitled to this, that and the other, but you require a resourcefulness to know where to get what you need when things fall through. Also, pick your battles. Motivational videos will tell you to keep pursuing your particular goal. But there is no shame in saying that something is not your fight.

22 . THE ALUM NUS

TEXT BY KOH YUEN LIN . PHOTOS BY LIONEL LAI

NG ZHEN NING: The key thing is to be positive. Conveying what I want to achieve can be challenging — when I say that I am in the space tech business, people think I am offering coworking spaces! The questions that others ask can make you very demoralised. But always think of what you want to do next and don’t give up. SHAMIR RAHIM: One thing often not talked about is that the role of the founder changes as the company grows. You might be a product manager at the start, and then an engineer; and when you restructure with growth, the way you do things has to change. It is not a ‘one-trick pirate ship captain’ thing, because one day the sole pirate ship needs to turn into a naval force.

O U R PA N E L

MR JEFFREY TIONG (ENGINEERING ’07), 35 FOUNDER, PATSNAP

In your opinion, then, are entrepreneurs made or born?

AMOS: I’d say that entrepreneurship is nurtured, because anyone who knows me would say that I am not the “start-up type”. Yet here I am, a cofounder of my own company. NOC (NUS Overseas Colleges) started me on this journey, and I came to see that doing my own thing is the best way for me to be part of the med tech scene. JEFFREY: When I was young, the expected path for graduates was to become an engineer, doctor, lawyer or accountant. Going to the US through NOC opened my eyes. That said, all skillsets can be learnt, but you cannot train a drive or a hunger to achieve something. YIPING: It’s really not as binary as whether it is nature or nurture. It is both. I am probably born to want to be an entrepreneur — having helped out at my parents’ hawker stall since I was eight, and growing on a farm set up by my grandmother, whom I look up to. I have that raw drive to succeed but I kind of never knew what to do, or where to even start. Through the NOC programme, we saw a different degree of polish when it comes to entrepreneurship. It also offered us great courses for training with the greatest minds. Being forced to come up with ideas within a short time frame also sharpened us and showed what we are made of. ZHEN NING: Similarly, my dad started his own tech business back when I was seven or eight and I looked up to him. I would even follow him to his client meetings. You could say that I was born to lead an entrepreneur’s path, but I wouldn’t have followed him if I wasn’t inherently interested.

MS GOH YIPING (DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENT ’05), 37 PARTNER, QUEST VENTURES

MR AMOS HENG (ENGINEERING ’19), 24 CO-FOUNDER, FATHOMX

MR NG ZHEN NING (ENGINEERING ’15), 29 CO-FOUNDER & CEO, NUSPACE

MR SHAMIR RAHIM (SCIENCE ’08), 37 FOUNDER, VERSAFLEET

SHAMIR: To use a scientific analogy: a bacterial system might randomly have a gene for antibiotic resistance, but you need the right conditions for the gene to express itself. I liken this to entrepreneurship: you need the right conditions to bring out what might be within you — and NOC did that for me. What was the biggest challenge in your entrepreneurship journey, and how did you overcome it?

SHAMIR: One of the biggest challenges during our first five years was the change of staff. For example, you start the company with your first few team members who follow you for years and believe in your vision. Their departure can be painful, and you also develop a survivor’s guilt. But you just have to wrap your head around it, wish them well and prop them up if need be. ZHEN NING: It took a year just to get our first investor. Finding the right mentor who has been in the right industry can help to unlock doors for you. YIPING: Back in 2010, we were trying to stay true to fundamentals of doing a proper, profitable business. But then the market was flooded with big players with deep pockets, and who operated on different models that a small start-up simply wouldn’t have had the scale to execute. Soon it became a war of capital, of who is more wellfunded. There I was thinking about how to make it with a margin from what I sell, when Qoo10’s business model actually has it making a loss with every item they sell! I realised that it is really about finding funding — and doing so much earlier than you need it, because no venture capitalist (VC) will want to rescue a start-up. Start the conversations early and be confident for VCs to track you early. VCs also hope to see start-ups expanding

I realised that it is really about finding funding — and doing so much earlier than you need it, because no VC will want to rescue a start-up. — M S G O H Y I P I N G

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 23

forum

regionally faster, and that makes star-ups that are better-placed to do so more attractive as an investment. The adaptability of the founder is a challenge too. I often question my abilities, skills and relevance, and one can have an extended downtime where one just feels like he or she is not good enough. Having fellow founders to cry on and hang out with, and who can show you the ropes, keep my sanity as a founder. Maintaining good mental health is a huge thing. JEFFREY: This is my 12th year [of running my own business] and there has definitely been a lot of ‘extended downtime’! In 2013, I tried to raise our series A funding and we were in the meeting with an angel investor. He banged the table and said that I was not fit to be a CEO as I did not know how to speak in a way that instils confidence. Over the years I have evolved and developed my own authentic style. How to keep evolving — especially in relation to how to work with a growing team — is my challenge. AMOS: Am I really fit to be sitting here [on this panel], or am I just filling the space? Dealing with the ‘impostor syndrome’ is a challenge. I am in an industry not traditionally dominated by young people, and am generally surrounded by people who are much older than I am. I overcame that by leveraging upon mentors who can offer their expertise, and tell me the dos and don’ts, which is vital.

YIPING: You will feel like an impostor as long as you are pushing yourself out of the norm and trying to achieve more, and surrounding yourself with people who are better than you. But you can only learn new things by exposing yourself to uncertainties. Even now, I still feel this way. This is normal, and you just need to know the mechanisms to deal with that. For me, I strive to be the best that I can be, and let the rest take care of itself. Do you think entrepreneurs by choice have the same kind of drive as those who do it out of necessity?

SHAMIR: The ‘educated entrepreneur’ is a recent phenomenon. In our parents’ time, you started a business if you couldn’t find a job. But we live in a time of abundance, and many entrepreneurs are doing it by choice. That doesn’t make them any less driven. Those who are propelled by necessity might be hungry for success, but they might also be a bit raw and make knee-jerk decisions. Those who start companies by choice might have the benefit of clarity of thought to make better long-term decisions – so it kind of balances off. AMOS: For the younger generation, I would say that we can be just as driven – not to put the next meal on the table, but to make an impact. JEFFREY: Even in China, you see that the millennial entrepreneurs born after the 1990s – who are of better means than their parents – are still very driven, though not by hunger but by passion. And in China, they use different terms for entrepreneurs of different levels: a businessman (商人) who works solely for a profit, a start-up founder (创业家) who has a personal mission; and an entrepreneur (企业家) who has a social mission. YIPING: We are seeing a very different breed of entrepreneur: folks who have a lot more means and are very passionate about their cause. JEFFREY: You will see more variety from the younger generation of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is seen as a national agenda — what more do you feel can be done to grow the start-up sector?

SHAMIR: There are quite a lot of barriers to getting a government contracts, especially when a lot of the sectors are state-invested. My first big contract was from a German MNC, followed by a Swiss MNC – I am still waiting for my Singapore contract! JEFFREY: The government gives out a lot of grants, but what start-ups need are contracts. You see that a lot in other countries: in China, they are always supporting their own products. AMOS: When I went to Shanghai on the NOC programme, I observed that the government institutions

24 . THE ALUM NUS

ILL US TR AT ION S: GE TT Y IMA GES

We live in a time of abundance, and many entrepreneurs are doing it by choice. That doesn’t make them any less driven . — M R S H A M I R R A H I M

are very open to trying out new systems. It is easy to look at a start-up and say: you are so small, what can you do? But start-ups are such that the more contracts you get, the more you will grow. For example, Singapore’s HOPE Technik has grown so much since their contract to produce the Red Rhino for the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). YIPING: Nothing beats a contract. It is not about spoon-feeding, but just giving opportunities to our own. Internationally, Singapore companies are gaining recognition and winning lots of competitions. But somehow we don’t see that same level of confidence in us on home ground. In this aspect, the government needs to take the lead. We are a small enough country with not enough users, so if the government can take the lead to ‘support local’, that is a huge boost

of confidence. For example, when you say that the Singapore government is using your software, the Indonesians will take note. What would be your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

ZHEN NING: If you have no idea how to start, go take a start-up course. Don’t go in and try to trouble-shoot as you go along. SHAMIR: Entrepreneurship might seem like the flavour of the moment, but it isn’t for everybody. You might feel a social pressure to start something, or put on your resume that you founded this, that and other. I am a very pragmatic guy, I have my study loans to settle, my parents’ expectations to manage. So, I started only five years after graduation. If your moment comes earlier, such as when you are an undergraduate — great. But it is never too late to start your own business when you find your passion.

If you’d like to join our Forum panel, do write to us at OARconnect@nus.edu.sg to express your interest and pick from our list of future discussion topics that you may want to be part of. O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 25

panorama

The Art and Science of Cybersecurity As IT threats become more prevalent, increasingly sophisticated strategies are needed to deal with them. NUS Chief Information Officer Mr Tommy Hor examines these threats and shares how the University is countering them.

IVEN THE NUMBER AND FREQUENCY OF news reports these days on the topic of cybersecurity — and in particular breaches in this area — it would not be unreasonable to believe that organisations around the world are fighting a losing battle when it comes to the protection of data and other IT assets. And as we might have read or heard, cyberattacks have become more targeted and sophisticated. No longer just ‘entry-level hackers’, our adversaries now are armed with abundant resources and the most advanced techniques. The standard, age-old defensive and preventive measures adopted by many organisations are proving increasingly incapable of countering these threats effectively. We also see a rapid convergence of IT, operational technology (OT) and the Internet of Things (IoT), making the execution of cybersecurity measures much harder, as these significantly expand the surface for attack. In addition to standard Internet protocols and programming languages, OT and IoT extend the security risks to industrial control systems and communication protocols which often deal with human safety, and essential supplies such as water and electricity Whatever it takes to prevent, or protect us from, such threats will have a huge potential impact on the physical world. Obviously, cybersecurity issues affect more than just University staff and students — they ought to concern us all. As such, the leaders in this field must adapt their strategies, frameworks and technologies to deal with threats in a rapidly-changing environment.

SOMETHING PHISHY When it comes to cyberattacks, phishing tops all threats that lead to security breaches today, based on a 2019 report by global communications company Verizon[1]. Its findings stated that 32% of breaches reported involved phishing, and 94% of malware-related incidents had been found to come through emails. For those

2 6 . THE ALUM NUS

unfamiliar with the term, phishing is a form of social engineering that exploits human vulnerabilities, where, for example, many of us would empathise when asked to help in a situation. Likewise, most staff act swiftly when they receive requests from their managers. But vulnerability can also manifest as greed, which may surface when one is tempted with an opportunity to make a quick profit – causing us, for instance, to enter our login credentials without a thought. This is especially so if we are accessing the same website repeatedly without realising the website is fake. Among the forms of email phishing, impersonation is the hardest to detect, as it becomes increasingly sophisticated with techniques such as the Business

378

BUSINESS EMAIL IMPERSONATION SCAMS WERE RECORDED IN 2018 — UP FROM

332 IN 2017 — RESULTING IN

$58

MILLION IN LOSSES, ACCORDING TO THE CYBER SECURITY AGENCY OF SINGAPORE

Email Compromise (BEC). The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — which is linked to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — received 15,690 BEC complaints with adjusted losses of over US$675 million in 2017 [2]. A BEC attack is a highly-targeted one. The adversary will conduct thorough research on his subject, finding out his roles, regular contacts, staff subordinates, working hours and even hobbies before launching a personalised attack. A BEC often begins with a casual pretext such as “Do you have a minute?” or “Are you available?” to sense its target’s vigilance and interest in following up. The perpetrator will time it well, impersonate the victim’s manager and appeal for money transfer by claiming that he is overseas and/or just robbed when he is indeed travelling. If this is not sufficient to trick the victim, he will launch a takeover of the accounts of the manager in question (or those of close friends in other cases) and if successful, send a phishing attack on you using the compromised (and yet legitimate) ID. What is important to note is that while humans form the first level in the entire cyber-defence system, they are also its weakest link. Security measures like email filtering and sandboxing (where a programme is ‘quarantined’ from other

While humans form the first level in the entire cyber-defence system, they are also its weakest link. programmes in a separate environment so that if errors or security issues occur, these will not spread to other areas on the computer) work best with predefined rules. As such, they are less effective with BEC attacks, as these work on writing styles, the language used, words chosen and expressions of intent. Like an Arts subject, BEC is a language on its own, understood by an individual, and it works by exploiting the social and behavioural dynamics of a society.

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE Having come to understand the continually-evolving nature of such threats, the University has been investing significantly in cybersecurity in technology, processes and people over the years. We are transforming our cybersecurity strategies and framework in a number of ways. Firstly, we deploy Machine Learning (ML) as a possible solution in situations where humans remain a weak link, such as in the case of a BEC attack. A ML model learns from past data, identifies patterns and makes decisions with minimal human intervention. Once an ML model learns your email writing style, it is possible for your acquaintances to infer an email received was indeed from you or not. Under supervised learning conditions — or if learning is augmented by human intelligence — one can label certain data set to help the ML model achieve a good level of accuracy. It mimics the type of training that is used if the ML model is, for example, taught to recognise a dog by feeding it thousands of pictures of dogs of various breeds, colours and sizes. Over time, the accuracy improves and error rate drops to the extent that the ML is able to identify a dog from a picture that it has not seen before. [ 1]

Ve r i zo n Dat a Breach I nves ti gati ons Report 2 0 1 9

[2]

Secondly, the University is moving to an Advanced Threat Hunting model. We do this by establishing partnerships with industry experts and become much more proactive to research and listen into the dark web and global happenings as well as blog activity on indicators, variants, targets and the motives behind attacks. We may then deploy deception tools to purposely build a fake environment comprising virtual workstations, servers, devices, applications, services and protocols to detect, lure, entice and ultimately engage attackers. There are over 150,000 devices connected to the campus network. We view every device an asset rather than a burden to our defence as we will enable every device as a sensor, providing us intelligence and insights to potential threats in networks, systems and applications. Thirdly, we have to strike a balance in the University for our users to do their jobs efficiently and closing off avenues of attack. User Behavior Analytics (UBA) is one of our key strategies, where we detect anomalies in the behaviour of users or systems without imposing extra steps and controls. UBA studies logs of past behaviour to identify standard patterns — such as login hours, assets accessed or data transfer volume, etc. — that can be picked up over a year or more of analytics. The more UBA knows about a user or system, the more precise its patterning and anomaly detection become.

I T TA K E S P E O P L E P O W E R For all the measures that can be taken however, science or technology alone is not enough to combat cyber-attacks. The “art” of defence — where humans become aware of the threats and learn to defend against them — plays an important role. As in the case of phishing attacks, we need to change our behaviour and perspectives towards emails received. NUS Information Technology for one conducts regular phishing drills, with an aim to change working culture and behaviour through education. The drill targets various groups of employees at different frequencies and by employing different themes, occasionally through impersonating an important sender. It is fascinating that people’s reactions to various scenarios of appeals for help (with dire consequence to follow if no action is taken by certain deadline) can be vastly different. All said, we believe in nurturing a holistic cyber-secure personal lifestyle that includes good cyber-hygiene habits that will permeate the workplace, households and social spaces. Besides modernising our cybersecurity framework, our drive towards lifelong learning will impart the essential skills and behaviour to individuals, and hopefully serve to strengthen the weakest link in the cybersecurity ecosystem. Mr Tommy Hor, Chief IT Officer, NUS, spearheads the IT development on campus supporting teaching, learning, research and administration. Conferred the CIO Asia Award in 2006, Mr Hor won the 2008 MIS Asia IT Excellence Award for the Best Security Strategy Category, and also received the Public Administration Medal (Silver) at the 2017 National Day Awards. His current work includes IT governance, cybersecurity, research & mobile computing, and applications of artificial intelligence and big data.

Internet Cri me C om pl a i n t C e n tr e Re por t 2 0 1 7

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 27

giving

AN APP-S OLUTE SUC CES S

Ms Laure Sione (far left) and Dr Olivia Jensen (far right) with local collaborators.

VER FIVE MILLION RESIDENTS of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal face a daily struggle to get water. Due to a lack of investment in water supply provision and system maintenance, the water network system of the region — and of the country’s capital which lies within it — has not been able to keep up with the high urban population growth. As such, many receive piped water for only a couple of hours once every few days. Adding to their woes are the inconsistencies in water quality and the lack of a proper monitoring system to ensure that households receive their water supply. To supplement their daily water needs, residents have to install costly tanks and sink their own wells, as well as buy bottled water to drink. And as is typically the case, those at the lowest-income bracket end up being hit the hardest.

EMPOWERING RESIDENTS Aiming to improve Kathmandu Valley’s water distribution network, a multi-disciplinary team comprising researchers from NUS, Imperial College London and Nepal Engineering College looked to citizen involvement to generate data. This practice, known as citizen science, involves public participation in collecting and monitoring data to increase scientic knowledge. “Citizen involvement has been hugely successful in gathering certain types of data and making the data

Above: A resident showing the results of the test for bacteriological contamination in the water supply. Below: The NW Data app for monitoring of water supply services.

accessible and useful to those who need it, like the global Open Street Map initiative and the Peta Bencana flood information system in Indonesia,” says Dr Olivia Jensen, Lead Scientist at the Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk (IPUR) in NUS. The success stories inspired Dr Jensen and Ms Laure Sione, a PhD candidate at Imperial College London and visiting researcher at NUS, to use Networking Water (NW Data), a mobile app created by Ms Sione, to collect citizen-generated data on the quantity and quality of water supplies in Kathmandu. With the support of Nepal Engineering College, the researchers have also been engaging local decisionmakers in using the data for planning and management. Associate Professor Stéphane Bressan from the NUS School of Computing helps to analyse the generated data under a research grant from the Singapore Institute of Data Science. “We are devising machine-learning algorithms to find the ground truth and construct descriptive and predictive models from the crowdsourced information,” he explains. These data can then be used by: Kathmandu Valley’s water utility to monitor water distribution, take action when water quality is not good, and advise the government for service improvement. Development partners and funders to more efficiently valuate the impact of their waternetwork upgrading projects on end users. Residents to stay informed on their water risks. About 80 residents were selected for the pilot data collection. Besides teaching them how to use the app at community meetings, the residents were given simple water-testing kits. Photos of the results are sent to the NUS researchers through a Facebook page, after which the residents receive feedback on the interpretation of the results and what actions they should take, such as boiling the water or not using the water for drinking. Dr Jensen says that the research team is aiming to introduce the app in smaller cities that are growing rapidly but do not have the capacity to monitor water service quality. “With this project, we are bringing together social science, engineering and computing to help people understand everyday risks and take the right actions to keep them and their families safe,” says Dr Jensen.

To scale up Networking Water, the reseach team is seeking additional funds to cover the costs of travel for trainers and facilitators, as well as pay for the water-testing kits. To find out how you can contribute to the project, please contact Dr Jensen at lrfonjb@nus.edu.sg.

2 8 . THE ALUM NUS

TEXT BY DENNIS YIN

A mobile app is helping a global, multi-university team which includes researchers from NUS to empower citizens in Nepal to tackle their water issues.

L IM IT E D S E AT S ! R E MA IN IN G

Panellists:

Islamophobia: Mr K Shanmugam (Law ‘84)

Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Singapore

Assoc Prof Maznah Mohamad Head of Department of Malay Studies, NUS

Do Two Wrongs Make a Right? “Islamophobia” and “Islamic radicalism” are two sides of the same coin. While Islamophobia refers to fear of, hatred and discrimination towards Islam and Muslims, Islamic radicalism is associated with acts of violence and terrorism committed in the name of religion. It is not easy to determine whether one leads to the other, but there is clearly a connection between the two. Is either justiﬁed? Is the problem merely about labelling? Do these labels reﬂect a hard truth? Do these questions warrant debate?

“

Just as we come down hard on terrorists who say that they attack on behalf of Islam, you’ve got to come down hard equally on Islamophobic people, and also you’ve got to deal with the ideology. Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Law March 2019

Ms Farah Pandith Foreign Policy Strategist and Former Diplomat

U@live Moderator and Chairman:

“

30 October 2019 (Wednesday), 7.30pm Auditorium, Shaw Foundation Alumni House

? Mr Viswa Sadasivan

Student Panellist

(Arts and Social Sciences ‘83)

Essay Competition Winner

Former Nominated MP

alumnet.events/UALIVE

changemaker

WHO IS SHE? Mrs Doris Fok is the first Singaporean to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). For more than three decades, she has spent her life blazing the trail for breastfeeding mothers, a journey that has taken her around the world.

Nursing a Dream A pioneering advocate of breastfeeding here in Singapore, Mrs Doris Fok (Arts and Social Sciences ’78) had to overcome several challenges in her bid to promote a practice that holds physical, psychological and emotional benefits for both mothers and infants. HEN MRS DORIS FOK became a mother in 1984, she found herself in a position we may regard as rather odd today. “I asked the nurse for my baby to breastfeed her, and she said no!” she recalls. “Breastfeeding was a rare phenomenon. There was no support from any sector: from confinement ladies to health professionals, everyone said the default was to give newborn formula.” It was no one’s fault, she points out. “There was just misinformation worldwide. At that time, there was a huge push towards industrialisation. I chose to stay home fulltime, but many women went back to work.” Formula afforded new mothers the freedom to return to the workforce. Additionally, there was also the social stigma back then that only uneducated and lower-income women breastfed their children. For Mrs Fok and her engineer husband, the choice to breastfeed had been made even before they conceived: “We expected our parenting journey to include natural birth and breastfeeding.” Her own mother breastfed her, and Mrs Fok successfully did the same for her first child — a daughter — for a year. That daughter is now 35 and also a breastfeeding mother. While breastfeeding was already an unusual choice, Mrs Fok then went a big step further: she began helping other new mothers to breastfeed. “I was the nosy neighbour that went around talking to everybody, and they all said they had problems breastfeeding: not enough milk, pain, etc. So a group formed in our neighbourhood around 1985 to support mothers at home, and when I had my second child, many of

Above: Mrs Fok (seated, 5th from left) with the first batch of nurse trainees at KKH. Right: With her baby daughter in 1984.

3 0 . THE ALUM NUS

them also had another child so we said, ‘Let’s do it together!’” How did she teach these other mothers to breastfeed? “I went to their houses and breastfed in front of them!” she says matter-of-factly.

A VOICE IN THE WILDNERNESS That was the start of her journey as a breastfeeding advocate. She got involved as a sub-committee member with the Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group (BMSG), helping young mothers to breastfeed, and eventually became its President in 1995. The group had been founded in 1975 by the late Prof Wong Hock Boon (Medicine ’52), the Founding Professor of the Paediatrics Department at the then-University of Singapore. With the help of a handful of expatriate mothers, BMSG was set up as an Advisory Committee under the Consumers’ Association of Singapore (CASE). BMSG was set up to support babies who were allergic to cow’s milk and bottlefed babies with gastroenteritis. Prof Wong also ran a human milk bank with milk donated from breastfeeding mothers. “I decided to champion breastfeeding as I believe it is normal to feed our babies,” she explains. “I also believe in giving children the best possible start and situation to thrive.” Mrs Fok has a degree from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, from the then-University of Singapore, as well as a post-graduate degree in Education from the Institute of Education. She worked as an educator for six years before she became pregnant with her first child. She decided to pursue further education in the area of lactation, after being inspired in 1988 at an International Breastfeeding Association Conference in Melbourne to become a certified lactation consultant. “I found out that to be an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), I didn’t need to be a nurse or a doctor, though it would have been a huge advantage,” she says. “But what was lacking was the medical part. So I asked people to be my mentors. You must remember that this was in the 1980s: there was no Internet, and there were no books, no teachers, no curriculum.” To learn, she sought out the likes of Ms Sue Saunders, IBCLC, one of Australia’s first board-certified lactation specialists; Ms Felicity Savage King, a renowned British expert on paediatric nutrition and author of Helping Mothers To Breastfeed; Dr Ellen McIntrye from South Australia’s Flinders Medical School; and Ms Chele Marmet, IBCLC, one of the co-directors of the Lactation Institute in the US.

TEXT BY THERESA TAN . PHOTO BY ALVIN TEO

I decided to champion breastfeeding as I believe it is normal to feed our babies. I also believe in giving children the best possible start and situation to thrive.

COMING FULL CIRCLE

MI LK RUN

500600

CALORIES are burned by the average breastfeeding mother daily; this roughly amounts to what is expended by running for an hour.

Though Mrs Fok was not a medical professional and had been told to her face that she was not “qualified”, her persistence paid off. Her mentors gave her support, and she became the first IBLCE (International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners)-certified lactation consultant in Singapore. “An IBCLC has to know everything there is to know about breastfeeding,” she explains. The only thing she can’t do, she says, is prescribe medication. In 1991, KK Hospital (KKH) took “a leap of faith”, as she puts it, and engaged her to train its nurses in the maternity wards to promote breastfeeding and to help new mothers to breastfeed. “Then, in 1993, I started teaching medical students, medical officers and postgraduate students about breastfeeding. That year I also brought the IBLCE certification exams to Singapore, and served as the first country coordinator till 2003, when I had to step down to serve on the exams board for lactation consultants,” she explains. Singapore was the first Asian country to offer the IBLCE certification. This move exponentially increased the number of lactation consultants here, across different hospitals, including KKH, National University Hospital (NUH) and Thomson Medical Centre. Today, each hospital has its own lactation team. Mrs Fok was

presented a service excellence award from KKH during her time there for providing excellent lactation service to mothers. She has since been bringing the IBLCE certification to countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong as well as China. She is also the only IBCLC in Singapore to devote herself full-time to doing research in human milk and lactation in NUS and in Singapore, and has written papers in this field. Mrs Fok has had the privilege of meeting the babies that she has helped. “I was at a mall when a woman came running after me. It turned out that she was one of the mothers I had helped, and she had her son with her. He was now in his late 20s! We took a photo together.” It has been 35 years since Mrs Fok embarked on this journey. In both NUS and NUH, she continues to promote breastfeeding among her colleagues and her patients. “I just wanted to help mothers to breastfeed!” she says with a laugh, noting that it has been a gradual journey of changing society’s attitude towards breastfeeding, to the point now that most mothers choose to. “I want to build a legacy for future generations. What gives me great satisfaction is that the various initiatives — the BMSG, lactation consultancy — are still ongoing, and the stayhome mothers group in my neighbourhood still exists — and we are helping our daughters to breastfeed now!” O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 31

spotlight

Hitting the Right Note Vocalist and actress Ms Joanna Dong (Arts and Social Sciences ‘04) is a self-professed latecomer to jazz, but she has since made her mark in the scene. HERE’S NO NEED TO BE too precious about jazz. So says crooner Ms Joanna Dong, who got into the spotlight after coming in third at regional singing competition Sing! China in 2017. Ms Dong’s sentiments about the genre hints at the fluidity of her musical leanings, having performed pop, folk, and of course jazz, in both English and Mandarin, over the years. “Art is always evolving after all,” says the 37-year-old. By her own admission, competing in Sing! China has been pivotal to her career. “Prior to this I had some fans, but it was on a smaller scale — a niche audience,” she says. “Being on the show exposed me to a mainstream audience, and put me on the map back in Singapore.”

32 . THE ALUM NUS

The exposure opened up a world of opportunities, including performing at the National Day Parade and the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix concert in 2018. Prior to this, Ms Dong also starred in various theatre productions. Her role in the 2007 musical If There’re Seasons... won her Best Supporting Actress at the ST Life! Theatre Awards. She has also hosted infotainment shows on television, including Homeward Bound and Life Extraordinaire on Mediacorp’s Channel U as well as City DNA on CNA. Singing, however, remains her first love, and she has every intention to keep at it — to the very end. “As morbid as it sounds, I’d be okay if I died on stage post-singing,” she quips, with a chuckle. Have you always wanted to be a (jazz) singer?

I’ve been singing and performing since I was six, and was in the choir throughout my school years. I may have gotten the interest from my father, who’s into classical singing. But at the time, I never thought of singing, much less jazz, as a viable career, not least until I was in year two at NUS. The NUS Jazz Band was auditioning for a permanent singing section. My friend pulled me along to it and we both got in. The friendships I made in the jazz

TEXT BY FAIROZA MANSOR . MAIN PHOTO BY TECK LIM

group became a great influence. My bandmates were my first mentors and collaborators. It was through them that I got paid to sing at gigs after graduation. It dawned on me that I could properly give singing a shot. So NUS is somewhat responsible for your musical career?

Definitely. I loved my time at NUS. I was a late bloomer when it came to learning. Choosing the right major — Sociology — helped. I fell in love with the subject, my classmates, my tutors and our discussions. These became the cornerstone of my intellectual development. Apart from the jazz band, I also formed an a capella group and did lindy hop. The experience shaped a lot of who I am today and informed my creative endeavours. Do you think jazz has a place in Singapore, and in this region?

There’s an active, sizable jazz community of musicians and fans in Singapore. There are many upcoming talents performing at excellent standards, and on a global stage too. I’m not at the top of the scene but because I do pop jazz, I am able to serve as a bridge between jazz geeks and those who find jazz to be

EP P HO TO C OUR TES Y O F R E D R O O F R E C O R D S

Trust that whatever you spend your time doing will become a part of who you are. So be aware of your own experiences and how these set you apart from others. inaccessible. My bilingualism also enables me to reach out to a previously-untapped Chinese-speaking community. It’s tricky to measure the influence of jazz, but the great turnouts at gigs indicate that there is a healthy, and growing, market. And I want to contribute to helping to grow this.

Ms Dong was one of the headlining acts at this year’s Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day event (see page 8).

misconstrued, and taken out of context and proportion, especially on social media. That being said, I know I cannot live my whole life just worrying about what people may think. So although I have a responsibility as a public figure, I am increasingly willing to speak my mind, and stay true to my conscience. When making music, what’s your process like?

There are a lot of expectations these days for musicians to be everything, but I’m not that self-sufficient. I see myself as a singer primarily; I interpret music. As such, I work with a lyricist, an arranger and a producer. I enjoy the symbiosis of skills and talents, and I think that’s how we expand our repertoire as well. I’m also not so ‘regimented’ — the kind of musician who devotes ‘x’ number of hours of practice each day. But I do commit to experiences that are outside my comfort zone, forcing myself to grow. I recently collaborated with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. It was stressful because a form of discipline is required in an orchestra, but I’m used to jazz, which is more spontaneous. Still, I’m glad I stepped up to the challenge. You also act and host. Do you hope to continue to do it all?

How are you navigating this newfound fame, so to speak?

It’s such a different world to be a public personality. I am conscious of my conduct on television and during interviews, and careful not to create a ruckus with something I say in passing. I have to be mindful about what I write or post, so I don’t offend people. I find that it’s so easy for words to be

SHE’S GOT IT COVERED Released last year, Ms Dong’s latest EP So Here I Am comprises, in her words, “easy-listening Chinese jazz covers and original numbers”. It was launched over a two-night concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in June 2018. She then took “a redux version” of the concert on tour to Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong. To listen to some of the tracks on the EP, go to www.redroofrecords.com/joanna.

I’m open to the opportunity, and will say ‘yes’ to a good project. I do after all enjoy acting and hosting. With hosting, I found my degree in Sociology useful. For example, when asking questions, I’ve been trained to never assume, and am always ready for all sorts of answers. But if push comes to shove, singing will always come first. And there’s a theatrical element to singing. I have to convey emotions and nuances while I’m onstage; singing is thus inseparable with acting. What’s your advice for people who do want to pursue music as a career, as you have?

The truth is that there are many ways to arrive at your desired destination. So to me, to give generic advice would be irresponsible. This is why I often turn down invitations to give inspirational speeches. But I will recommend this: Trust that whatever you spend your time doing will become a part of who you are. So be aware of your own experiences and how these set you apart from others. O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 33

pursuit of excellence

WHO IS SHE? Known among peers as the “Mother of Clams”, marine scientist and conservationist Dr Neo Mei Lin has been credited with singlehandedly restocking the endangered giant clam in Singapore waters. The winner of the NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award (2017) and a TED Fellow, she is also a science communicator who is well-known for her work with the public.

ROWING UP, DR NEO MEI LIN’S PARENTS used to bring her to green spaces such as the lalang fields of Punggol and the Sungei Buloh mangroves. That sparked a lifelong love of nature — and as a teenager, she was so convinced that we could all do our part to preserve the environment that she decided to give a presentation on climate change in school. It received lukewarm response. She wondered why. “I noticed my peers didn’t have any interest in it. At the time, I didn’t know how else I could convince them about the realities of climate change. For example, they didn’t see why we should use two sheets of paper instead of six, if two would do,” says the 33-year-old, who currently works at the St. John’s Island National Marine Laboratory. Still, Dr Neo, who is now a mother of a little girl, considers it a pivotal moment. “It was the start of the environmentalist in me,” she says. “However, it was still some time before I knew how to channel that energy in the right direction.” She took real action when she entered University, where she decided that a career as a teacher would equip her with the knowledge to educate and guide others convincingly. At the same time, it would give her access to student bodies and youths, a group she thought has great potential to make a difference in the years to come. Then, during her four-year Life Sciences degree programme at NUS, she fell in love with research, and decided to pursue it as a career instead. “I really struggled with my decision. My head was telling me that I shouldn’t be fickle and just give up on teaching,” say Dr Neo, who switched tracks in late 2006 and later went on to pursue a PhD in marine biology. “But my heart was telling me that research was my calling.” Through the undergraduate

Queen of the Deep One of Singapore’s leading champions of marine conservation, scientist Dr Neo Mei Lin (Science ’09, PhD ’13) shares why bringing research out of the lab, and into everyday lives, matters. 34 . THE ALUM NUS

Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) module (see box), she found her passion — giant clams — and her mentor, Dr Peter Todd. Still, she questioned herself again when she neared the end of her PhD. “What can I do with a PhD in giant clams? It’s such a specialised topic. I had peers who studied broader topics, those with actual application,” Dr Neo says, recalling her anxiety. After some soul-searching and speaking with her friends and mentor, she found her answer in conservation work.

GIANT LEAPS Using data from her research, Dr Neo single-handedly spearheaded the giant clam breeding and restocking programme here in 2011 — the population numbers then were low and not self-sustaining. These clams, which can grow to more than a metre long and weigh about 300kg, play important ecological roles as food and shelter for other organisms, as well as reef-builders. Dr Neo continues to oversee the transplantation of baby giant clams in Singapore’s reefs and monitors their growth and survival. This work, and conferences she attended, has led to more research collaborations in the region, expanding her knowledge and contributions. She was also chosen as a TED fellow in 2017, one of only 15 that year. The honour is reserved for young innovators who display outstanding achievement, exemplary character and an

TEXT BY ESTHER AU YONG . MAIN PHOTO BY ALVIN TEO

at the World Economic Forum (2016). “These are acknowledgements among my academic peers that I am an expert in the giant clam,” shares Dr Neo. “Not only has it raised my profile — which has helped me in my work and cause — it has also allowed me to push for grant applications for giant clam research, both for myself as well as my colleagues in their localities.”

S C I E N C E FO R E V E RY O N E

innovative approach to solving the world’s tough problems. Her talk on the TED stage in Canada that year, “The fascinating secret lives of giant clams”, has received over 1.2 million views on the TED site. And that’s just one of a long list of international accolades, which include, among others, the World Future Foundation Ph.D. Prize in Environment and Sustainability (2014), the L’Oreal for Women in Science National Fellowship (2015) and the Young Scientist award

Researchers should bring the work we do outside of our labs. We need to make people aware of the importance of data-led conservation, then advocacy and education kicks in.

Dr Neo pictured with a large Acropora coral table, when on a diving trip to Apo Island in the Philippines in 2013.

While recognition for research certainly boosts a young scientist’s profile, Dr Neo considers one of her best achievements so far to be her work with the communityat-large, communicating science in an understandable and meaningful way. “Researchers should bring the work we do outside of our labs,” she insists. “We need to make people aware of the importance of data-led conservation, then advocacy and education kicks in.” To this end, Dr Neo does a lot of outreach, together with a community of dedicated volunteers. Last year, together with Singaporean eco-activist Ms Ria Tan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83), she started Celebrating Singapore Shores, a platform that brings together partners such as public agencies, NGOs, interest groups, academics, private organisations and civil society. “I see it as a form of citizen science; a merger between community and academia,” she says. “This had a huge impact in terms of opening up engagement with the public through science.” She complements this with talks at schools as well as engagement with international organisations such as United Nations Environment Programme and International Union for Conservation of Nature. She has also taken to playing big sister. “I try to include my younger colleagues when I catch up with overseas collaborators at conferences. I want to help them network and through that, we can have more collaborations for local scientists to expand their work.” Recently, Dr Neo has also found an increased personal interest and motivation to continue her work. “As a first-time mum, I feel that my work has now taken on a greater purpose – to leave a positive environmental legacy for my daughter.”

LIGHTING A SPARK Dr Neo credits the Science faculty’s UROPS module as crucial to her decision to embark on a career in research and academia. It gives undergraduates a unique opportunity to work with faculty, and experience the challenges and benefits of pursuing an independent research project. “Besides giving me insights into the methodology and rigours of a real science research project, the programme also provided opportunities for me to interact with veteran scientists,” she says. “They really inspired me to pursue a career in marine science. One of them is Dr Peter Todd. When I first met him as an undergraduate, I had zero field experience. He not only took a chance on me, but guided me closely, and even spent time helping me design and build research modules using hand and power tools. I continue to count on him as one of my most steadfast pillars of strength and wisdom.”

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 35

frontiers

T H E FA U N A F I L E S Based on the records of 19th century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, Professor Rudolf Meier and his team from NUS surmised that over 10,000 specimens from Singapore belonging to hundreds of species were collected, preserved and sold to European collectors; Wallace had used the proceeds of the sales to fund his expeditions. The team has since embarked on a ‘vitual repatriation’ of these specimens, by creating an online image archive of this treasure trove of biodiversity.

Moving Pictures The Virtual Wallace Collection is now available online, visually illustrating the most complete record of Singapore’s natural history heritage from the 19th century. MAGINE SINGAPORE in the early 19th century. In the wake of the Singapore Bicentennial, plenty of people did exactly that this year, speculating what life was like at the time of Sir Stamford Raffles’ arrival, with others then going as far back as1299, when the Kingdom of Singapura was founded. Several commemorative exhibitions and events held this year have done much to fire their imaginations. But these narratives are by and large, the story of people, and of culture. While colourful and dramatic, they often ignore a crucial element… “The Singapore Bicentennial is not only about human heritage but also natural heritage,” says Professor Rudolf Meier from the NUS Department of Biological Science. “We have only very incomplete knowledge of which species lived in Singapore in the 19th century, but this is also part of the country’s heritage.” Prof Meier knows a thing or two about this, because he and his team — including Research Fellows Dr Ang Yuchen (Science ’08) and Dr Wan F A Jusoh — happen to be part of an effort to build a virtual collection of Alfred Russel Wallace’s collection of specimens, collected in the middle of the 19th century in Singapore. A contemporary, and some say rival, of the great

Charles Darwin (see box), Wallace conducted what could be called the first recorded survey of Singapore’s biodiversity, but the results have always been a bit of a mystery because the specimens from Singapore were sold to European collectors. Prof Meier and team embarked on their quest to shed light on this mystery.

FROM HERE T O LOND ON, AND BACK AGAIN In many ways, the story begins in 1854, when Wallace dropped anchor in Singapore. Over the next eight years, he surveyed the biodiversity of this part of Southeast Asia, and used Singapore as a base for his expeditions. He visited Singapore four times and used his 222 days on the island to collect fauna samples. Most of the material is now in the Natural History Museum (London) where the specimens are dispersed throughout the collections. Because the specimens are dispersed, we do not know precisely what species Wallace collected. This is why the results of the earliest and most extensive biodiversity survey of Singapore from the 19th century remain incompletely known. Researchers Dr Ang and Dr Wan went to work on completing the survey, spending three and four months respectively at the museum meticulously recording everything — including all the information on the original labels — and photographing the specimens. To give you an idea of how painstaking this process was, it took an average of 25 minutes to photograph every specimen, meaning both researchers worked from dawn to dusk every day. On occasion, the museum staff would come and shoo them away at closing time.

S PA R K I N G C U R I O S I T Y

PHOTO: WILSON PANG

Dr Wan F A Jusoh. Dr Ang Yuchen and Professor Rudolf Meier with a specimen of a cerambycid beetle, an example of an insect that is part of the region’s ecosystem.

3 6 . THE ALUM NUS

The results of these photographic sessions can be viewed at wallace.biodiversity.online. “My hope is that someone will look at the pictures of insects and discover all the marvelous structures on their bodies,” says Prof Meier. “Then they will go and investigate further. This is how you build appreciation, via visual stimulation. It’s about sparking curiosity.” The pictures are truly stunning, and they highlight a treasure trove of information, since each image is tied to the notes Wallace and company made. This library represents a virtual repatriation of the Wallace specimens, since these are mostly too fragile to transport from the UK. This digital archive

TEXT BY ASHOK SOMAN

now adds immeasurably to the modest collection of actual Wallace specimens at the Lee Kong Chian Museum of Natural History. It will also become evident, looking through the Virtual Wallace Collection, that Wallace collected plenty of bird and insect specimens. Prof Meier and the team think it is worth taking a moment to realise the importance of insects – and other less-photogenic elements of the biosphere – in the record of biodiversity, and in its future. “When it comes to keeping (the world) going, if you only have birds, butterflies and trees, the forests will be dead in 10 years,” says Prof Meier. “You are missing the bigger picture. You have to have (fungi) to recycle decomposed organisms into nutrients, insects to do the pollination, and control pests. Basically, if you kill off all insects, life comes to an end.” Indeed, scan through the images and you will find specimens that are listed as ‘Nationally Extinct,’ and the chances are it is an insect specimen. Overall, this highlights that we already know that things have changed in the 21st century.”

T O WA R D S A N E W S U R V E Y There are three steps in this current project that Prof Meier’s team is running, only one of which is the building of the Collection. The team has located the relevant specimens and recorded them, and now can use the information to build a baseline to carry out a repeat survey to capture the state of Singapore’s current biodiversity. “Few countries have gone into the historical record of biodiversity. What we have found (the fruition of the current project) establishes a baseline for doing that,” says Prof Meier. Basically, Prof Meier and the team are undertaking a new survey to identify conservation priorities in Singapore.

ABOUT ALFRED WA L L A C E One might recall Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) as the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection; he is remembered today for lending his name to the Wallace Line, which divides the fauna of Asia from that of Australasia. He also published The Malay Archipelago, a book recounting his scientific adventures in this region. Wallace was one of the first prominent scientists to express concerns over the environmental impact of human activities.

The idea here is pretty easy to understand: with the background and understanding of the Wallace survey, a new survey may reveal how things have changed, uncovering how much of Singapore’s biodiversity is intact. “Here Singapore has an advantage, not only because it is small, but because…Europe’s original forests were lost thousands of years ago,” says Prof Meier. “Even though there were disturbances in the 19th century (in what is today Singapore), biodiversity was still present and was probably closer to the natural state than you would get if you compared European biodiversity today with that of the 17th century, for example. Deforestation and such here took place while scientists were already collecting samples.” A new survey would of course look for the presence of the same species Wallace found, obtain genetic samples and DNA barcodes for all species for future monitoring through environmental genotyping, and of course to photograph all new species. The implication here is that the new survey will be a thoroughly modern project; the teams tells us that Wallace and company would have been armed with rifles to shoot the animals, which they would then preserve. Obviously, field researchers no longer need to resort to these tactics! What will such a current survey find? Hopefully an example of something like the cerambycid beetle the team is pictured with here. Otherwise known as Batocera thomsoni, it is not uncommon in this region, and is recorded in the Wallace Collection too. A recently-unveiled statue at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS commemorates the contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali to the understanding of Southeast Asia’s ecology.

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 37

ALUMNI TRAVEL PROGRAMME

Mount Popa, an extinct volcano over 1,500m above sea level.

MEMORIES OF MYSTICAL MYANMAR An eye-opening journey to the country sometimes referred to as ‘the Golden Land’.

22 ALUMNI AND FRIENDS went on an enjoyable and educational trip to Myanmar from 8 to 12 June. The highlights of the trip included visits to Shwedagon Pagoda (the most sacred and impressive Buddhist site in Myanmar) and Bagan (home to the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, pagodas, stupas and ruins in the world). The happy adventurers also had a great time catching up with NUS alumni currently residing in Yangon over a dinner which was graced by Ms Vanessa Chan, Ambassador of Singapore to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

32 48 . A TH LU EM AN LU UM S NUS

Tired but happy after reaching the top of Mount Popa.

Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist stupa in Myanmar.

Production of palm sugar at a local village.

Local guide sharing with alumni about the history of Bagan.

Dinner with NUS alumni residing in Yangon.

Group photo at Shwedagon Pagoda.

Shopping at Nyaung U Market.

Look out for more Alumni Travel Programmes in 2020. To register your interest to join us, please email oarconnect@nus.edu.sg. Bagan, an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 39

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS

EVENTS

GRADUATION CELEBRATIONS

Heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2019, and welcome to the NUS alumni family! Here are highlights of some of the graduation parties:

PHARMACY – 17 July The Department celebrated with graduands and their families at a graduation party held at Bar Bar Black Sheep, prior to their Commencement Ceremony. The party welcomed the graduands to the AlumNUS Pharmily, and was also held in conjunction with the Faculty of Science’s 90th anniversary celebrations!

NUS CENTRE FOR THE ARTS (CFA) – 20 July A lunch to congratulate the 2019 NUS Centre For the Arts (CFA) graduates was attended by graduates from various faculties and departments. These graduates have found their passion in dance, orchestra, wind symphony, drama and backstage work during their time at NUS CFA. Visit cfa.nus.edu.sg/get-involved/ for-alumni to find out how alumni can stay connected with CFA.

42 40 . A TH LU EM AN LUM S NUS

Visit the Alumni Happenings section on nus.edu.sg/ alumnet/TheAlumNUS for more articles and photos of alumni events.

INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING – 14 July About 60 graduating Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) students and their guests attended the event and enjoyed interesting games such as ‘Guess the Company’, where participants were tested on their knowledge of various companies based on the companies’ mission and values. During the ‘ISE Star Award’ segment, participants nominated and voted for their peers for various awards such as the ‘Best Project Mate’ and ‘The Most Well Liked!’.

NUS ALUMNI SING-ALONG

5th Milestone Year-cum -National Day Party 2019 is indeed a very eventful year for NUS Alumni Sing-Along. A key highlight was their 5th Milestone Year-cumNational Day Party held at the Chill-Lab, NUS Society (NUSS) on 17 August. It was a time of merry-making with members performing and entertaining, backed

by the music of Silver Jam and keyboardist, Ms Elaine Sim (Arts and Social Sciences ’66). Everyone had a wonderful time enjoying great music and scrumptious food with good friends!

rjyeo@singnet.com.sg

MATERIAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING – 27 July The newly-minted alumni from Material Science and Engineering (MSE) gathered and caught up with one another over dinner at a chalet. They had a great time looking at old pictures and reminiscing about the past four years spent at NUS, and sharing their experiences of transitioning into the working world.

Committee Members & NUS Alumni Relations Director Mr Bernard Toh (Architecture ’84) on the extreme right.

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 41

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS

EVENTS

FASS celebrates 90 with Top Achievement Award

It is a great year for NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) as it celebrates its 90th Anniversary. The Faculty received the Top Achievement Award (Faculty with 1,000 or more graduands category) in the Commencement Class Giving 2019 campaign for attaining the highest participation rate. FASS 2019 graduands, Ms Sabrina Meah and Ms Losheini Ravindran, also clinched the top Class Champions Awards. The Commencement Class Giving is an important tradition that instills the spirit of giving in our students to give back. The FASS 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner will be held on 15 November 2019 at Carlton Hotel. Join FASS at this exuberant dinner as it celebrates its memories and milestones! Visit fas.nus.edu.sg/fass90gala for more information.

fas.nus.edu.sg fasbox29@nus.edu.sg facebook.com/nusfass

NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost Professor Ho Teck Hua (Engineering ’85) and Top Class Champion Award Winners.

UPCOMING EVENT FASS90 Gala Dinner 15 Nov 19

NUSSU 70th Anniversary Fund-raising Dinner In celebration of National University of Singapore Students’ Union’s (NUSSU) 70th anniversary, a fundraising dinner was held on 23 August to help financially-challenged NUS students. A total of $113,588.80 was raised for the NUSSU and NUSSU Alumni Bursary Fund (Endowed). The event was attended by Guest-of-Honour Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (Medicine ’85), who was a former president of NUSSU. During his speech, Dr Balakrishnan encouraged alumni to give generously to the fund, and said that “not only the Government but society and the alumni at large will ensure that educational opportunities will always be open to all”.

42 42 . A TH LU EM AN LU UM S NUS

THE “LAST LECTURE” SERIES

The Gift of Pain and The Goodness of Laughter The Pharmacy Alumni Group held the 2nd “Last Lecture” on 17 August in conjunction with Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day. Dr Tan Lai Yong (Medicine ’85) shared heartily with alumni and friends about his experiences in Yunnan, China, where his family was based for 15 years. He shared insights as to why pain is not always bad, and how laughter is indeed the best medicine.

Dr Tan (middle) with participants of the lecture.

pharmacy.nus.edu.sg phabox12@nus.edu.sg facebook.com/NUSPharmacyDept

BEMA RAISED $633,500 FOR SDE DEVELOPMENT FUND 128 golfers in 32 flights teed off for a good cause at the SDE50 Fundraising Golf event held on 25 July. The event was jointly organised by the School of Design and Environment (SDE) and the Building and Estate Management Alumni (BEMA) in celebration of the School’s 50th anniversary. President of BEMA Dr Teo Ho Pin (Building ’85) hosted the Fundraising Golf and Appreciation Dinner held at the Orchid Country Club for alumni to network and connect with friends and business associates. This year, BEMA raised a record $633,500 for the SDE Development Fund, a more than seven-fold increase from fundraising efforts the year before and the largest amount of funds raised by BEMA for SDE so far.

The SDE Development Fund will go towards establishing a Well & Green SDE precinct — a prototype for urban resilience and a living lab to nurture future-ready individuals through research and education. “I am heartened by the faithful giving of our donors year-on-year. This is commendable despite the economic headwinds and other global uncertainties in recent months. I thank our donors for their contribution as we shaped the next lap together, for both our current and future generations,” said Dr Teo.

SDE Dean Prof Lam Khee Poh (left) presenting a token of appreciation to Dr Teo.

bema.org.sg facebook.com/BEMANUS

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 43

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS

EVENTS

BAC H E L O R O F D E N TA L S U R G E RY

48TH BDS ‘71 CLASS REUNION IN PENANG

A total of 38 alumni from the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) class of 1971, together with their spouses, arrived for their 48th reunion at G Hotel Kelawai, Penang, from 21 to

23 June. The atmosphere at the welcome dinner was boisterous as alumni caught up with one another, and some of them had not seen each other since their graduation in 1971.

The Class has had several class reunions: 1992: Singapore (a $100,000 Scholarship Fund was set up for NUS Dentistry for the Best 3rd Year Student) 1996: Perth, Australia 1998: Malacca, Malaysia 2000: London, UK 2001: Singapore 2018: Perth, Australia 2019: Penang, Malaysia The 50th BDS class reunion will be held in Singapore.

Faculty of Dentistry 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner The NUS Faculty of Dentistry held its 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner on 31 August at Suntec Convention Centre. Over 470 alumni, faculty, students and supporters came together to celebrate the Faculty’s journey since it began as a Department of Dentistry within the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1929. Among the guests were the Minister for Education Mr Ong Ye Kung, Chief Executive of the National University Health System Professor John Eu-Li Wong (Medicine ’81), and NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science ’85). The Dinner was the Faculty’s capstone event for the year, rounding off events such as the Oral Health Awareness Roadshow in March and the official opening of the Faculty’s new campus at the National University Centre for Oral Health, Singapore in August.

42 4 . A TH LU EM AN LUM S NUS

From left: Prof Chew, Prof John Wong, Prof Tan, Mr Ong, Dean of Dentistry Professor Patrick Finbarr Allen, and ex-Dean of Dentistry Dr Loh Hong Sai.

As part of the celebrations, awards recognising excellence and contribution by students, faculty and alumni were presented. The Faculty was also proud to recognise two of the Faculty’s senior staff members, Professor Chew Chong Lin (’71) and Dr Keng Siong Beng (’72) for being awarded the Emeritus Professorship and Honorary Fellowship respectively.

USP Homecoming 2019 The University Scholars Programme (USP) held its annual Homecoming in conjunction with Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day on 17 August. The event welcomed home over 70 USP alumni, students, faculty members and staff, and also celebrated the 15th, 10th and 5th anniversary of the Class of 2004, 2009 and 2014 respectively. A tradition of the Homecoming is the USP classes for alumni – where they can relive their good old days as USP students. USP Deputy Director (Academic Matters) Associate Professor Low Boon Chuan conducted a discussion on Life and Love. Associate Professor’s Lo Mun Hou’s class on Early-Onset Nostalgia for Millenials was also interesting and filled with engaging discussions. There was also a class on Synthetic Biology – Engineering Life conducted by Associate Professor Mahesh Uttamchandani (Science + USP ’04), which was attended by some of his former classmates.

The Classes of 2004, 2009 and 2014 celebrating their 15th, 10th and 5th anniversaries respectively.

The joy of attending USP Homecoming and reliving one’s days as an undergraduate are summed up perfectly by a heartfelt quote from Mr Lan Ying Jie (Science + USP ’16): “USP Homecoming continues to remain a wonderful opportunity to meet old friends across the batches within a nostalgic and familiar setting, reigniting and rekindling

old friendships over conversations, both intellectual and personal! It is really wonderful to be able to connect beyond your own batch, or even the seniors and juniors, to get to know other alumni who might have graduated by the time you matriculated, and swap notes!” usp.sg instagram.com/nus_usp facebook.com/NUSUSP

Two-in-One Special on 6 July 2019 The Chemistry Department of NUS Science organised a reunion tea in celebration of the Faculty’s 90th anniversary, in conjunction with this year’s Bukit Timah Homecoming. The organisers took the opportunity to showcase the artistic side of their fellow alumni: former NUS Registrar Mrs Joanna Wong (’63) of Cantonese Opera fame; Dr Tan It Koon (’63) whose paintings have been exhibited and used in prestigious scientific journals; and the late Mr Goh Choo San (’69) who was a great dancer and a renowned choreographer. Alumni who attended the reunion included ex-Senior Minister of State Dr Tan Eng Liang (’61), Emeritus Professor Huang Hsing Hua (’55), former NUS Science Dean Dr Gloria Lim (’55), and former Head of Chemistry Department Professor Sim Keng Yeow (’60). The AlumNUS thanks all contributors for the articles and photos in Alumni Happenings, showcasing our vibrant alumni community. Please submit your articles at nus.edu.sg/alumnet/TheAlumNUS/AHSubmit.

O C T — D E C 2 0 1 9 . 45

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the path less travelled

Every community has a story to tell, and Mr Kwek Li Yong (Arts and Social Sciences ’13), who has made preserving heritage his day job, plans to collect them all. BY FAIROZA MANSOR

HYPED ABOUT “Heritage is multifarious; it is also intangible. Every physical space, building, structure, object or even artifact is meaningless unless there is a story wrapped around it. The collective memories attached to these tangible items make them significant.” Mr Kwek Li Yong, President and co-founder of My Community

TUCKED AWAY in a row of shops at the void deck of Block 463 Commonwealth Drive is a modestly-sized museum filled with treasures from old Queenstown. Bowling pins from an alley that no longer exist, a vintage television set, old store signs and other well-preserved bric-a-brac are meticulously curated within Museum @ My Queenstown, capturing the heritage of the area. The man responsible for this novel set-up is NUS alumnus and Economics graduate Mr Kwek Li Yong. Opened in January 2019, the museum is a product of more than 10 years of legwork in the area. Over this time Mr Kwek and his team — comprising some 500 volunteers — have been going door-to-door collecting stories from residents, conducting tours, as well as hosting carnivals and block parties in Queenstown. “The interest sparked when I was 17, and was volunteering as a befriender to elderly residents in the area,” he explains. “Many were eager to share Some vintage bric-a-brac on display at Museum @ My Queenstown.

stories about the neighbourhood and how it was like in the past.” Mr Kwek was intrigued by their sense of belonging to the community, and his own affinity for the past began to take shape. The now 29-year-old went on to pursue a Masters in Heritage Studies in Sydney, and the rest, as they say, is history. When he returned to Singapore, Mr Kwek founded My Community, a registered charity and an Institution of Public Character, which “documents social memory, celebrates civic life and champions community heritage.” Studying economics to appease his parents turned out not to be a waste of time. “Heritage companies are typically underfunded by the state. So we have to be self-sufficient and look for our own sources of funding and support,” Mr Kwek lets on. “Knowledge in finances and budgets, data management and analysis, became a useful tool.” The company’s end-goal is for every community in Singapore to have a heritage tour and museum driven by residents. Says Mr Kwek: “Every community has a story to tell, and it is our privilege to bring people together so they can share their fondness for and memories of a particular area. That’s when heritage comes alive.”

To find out more about the tours and programmes organised by My Community, or to come forward as a volunteer, visit mycommunity.org.sg.

48 . THE ALUM NUS

MAI N P HO TO: A LVI N T EO

H E R I TA G E

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY in

SINGAPORE

Philippine

Film Festival 13 – 15 November 2019 (Wednesday – Friday) | 7.30pm Shaw Foundation Alumni House

Event Partner :

In Celebration of :