Faculty/Staff Achievements - 2021

Faculty/Staff Achievements

IEEE Fellow, Class of 2022 - Professor Ang Lay Kee, Ricky

For his contributions to electron emission and space charge effects in nanodiode and quantum materials, Professor Ang Lay Kee, Ricky has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, Class of 2022. He is one of five Fellows from Singapore in the Class of 2022.

Prof Ang is currently the Head of the Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMT) cluster, and the Ng Teng Fong Chair Professor for the SUTD-Zhejiang University (ZJU) Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance (IDEA). He is also a faculty affiliated with the Engineering Product Development (EPD) pillar, and has been awarded the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer since 2018.

The IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members with extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. Each year, the total number of recipients is less than 0.1% of the IEEE voting members.

Innovation Prize at Purmundus Challenge 2021

For their project 'Bespoke 3D Printed Soft Robots', Assistant Professor Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado (EPD) together with Vincent Sebastian Joseph (Postdoc research fellow), Stalin Thileepan (EPD PhD student), Theo Calais (Research fellow), Lee Shien Yang (Master programme alumni) and their team members (Washington State University, University of Colorado Denver), have won the Innovation Prize at the Purmundus Challenge 2021.

Their batoid-inspired optimised soft robot displayed 50% faster swimming speeds, 28% faster turning rates, and 55% smaller turning radii compared to other benchmark prototypes.  

Conventional computer-aided designs and fabrication approaches provided limited complexity and functionality, hindering the performance of 3D printed functional structures. So, the research team adopted a systems-level approach that allowed for innovative design, a higher degree of customisation and functionality of novel soft composite structures.  

Using an all-in-one fabrication workflow with resilient silicone polymers, the team was able to produce the precise tailoring of mechanical properties. The fin fabrication process used Direct-Ink-Writing (DIW) and embedded 3D printing to achieve a 3D composite structure with fine features as small as 100 microns, or as thick as a single sheet of paper.

Read more on their universal approach to tailoring soft robots.

24% of SUTD Faculty Listed Among the Top 2% Scientists in a Global List by Stanford University

24% of SUTD faculty have been listed among the top 2% of scientists globally. The database released by Stanford University and Elsevier BV identifies the world’s top scientists across 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields.

The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) and the database provides standardised information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator.

Single-year (2020) Impact
(In alphabetical order of last name)

Singapore 100 Women in Tech List

Four SUTD faculty and alumna have been selected for the 2021 Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) List, namely Associate Professor Cai Kui (Science, Mathematics and Technology), Associate Professor Dawn Tan (Engineering Product Development), Assistant Professor Dorien Herremans (Information Systems Technology and Design) and alumna Jean Tan (Computer Science and Design, Class of 2015).

Alumna Glenda Wee (Computer Science and Design, Class of 2021) is also recognised in the Girls in Tech List which is newly introduced this year.

The 2021 SG100WIT List was unveiled on 15 October by Mrs Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister of Communications & Information, and Patron of the Singapore Women in Tech (SGWIT) movement, at the 2021 Tech³ Forum. Organised by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) and in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the SG100WIT List celebrates women role models in tech who have made significant contributions to the industry. A total of 600 nominations were received this year.

Full citation:

Associate Professor Cai Kui
Cai Kui is a distinguished scientist working in advanced ICT for the last 20 years. Recognised as a thought leader, her work has contributed significantly to the advancement of ICT and data storage technologies for Singapore. Her patents on coding had also been licensed to large multinational corporation like Marvell Technology.

The research field that she is working on relies on the combination of mathematics, information and communication theory, which is traditionally dominated by men. It makes her achievements even more inspiring.   In the past 18 months, she has successfully received significant research grants from the Ministry of Education and defence agencies; published 29 papers in prestigious journals and filed one patent.

Her most recent project is very cool, studying the use of DNA-based data storage technology which stores digital data using synthetic DNA. This approach has emerged as a promising candidate for the storage of over 180 zettabytes of data the world will generate by 2025. She is the principal investigator for this three-year project awarded by the Ministry of Education.

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Associate Professor Tan Dawn
Dawn is a well-respected photonics researcher with many published papers and invited speakerships under her belt. Together with her team, Dawn’s research aims to advance the science of light especially in technologies which increase the amount of data capacity that maybe transmitted in internet networks.

Among her achievements is her extensive work in nonlinear integrated optics and rapidly prototyped 3D printed nano-scale photonic devices. What excites her is making discoveries in optical physics that have led to new technologies for high gain amplification, efficient light generation, and the manipulation of light waves. She is currently studying a class of solitary waves called Bragg solitons which allow light packets to be transmitted while being immune to imperfections and enable generation of supercontinua.

Dawn is elected a Fellow of the Optical Society for her “Pioneering and significant contributions to CMOS-compatible nonlinear optics and integrated photonics, as well as sustained outreach to advance diversity and inclusion in optics.” She was named an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 (Asia) and awarded the L’Oreal for Women in Science National Fellowship. She was on the founding committee of the SCS Women in Technology Special Interest Group and continues to contribute towards promoting gender parity in Engineering.

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Assistant Professor Herremans Dorien
Dorien has successfully combined her twin love of music and AI into a research career. Her research was pioneering in the field, laying the basis of technologies now used by companies such as Aiva, Jukedeck, Spotify and other digital music platforms.

Currently, she is working on an AI system that can generate music based on the emotions desired by users. She is also developing a new neural network architecture that can represent audio so that it can be applied in multiple tasks such as speech recognition, hit song prediction, artist identification and others.

Dorien is excited about the nnAudio library that her team has developed. This library is a free toolkit that developers and engineers use to load audio data directly into a Python neural network.

She has received several awards in recognition of her efforts. She is also the recipient of many grants to advance AI for music and audio. Dorien is extremely gratified to have gone from having to explain why anyone would want to use technology for music, to a living in a world where everyone has multiple apps on their phones that use music/audio and AI technologies including Siri, Spotify, Shazaam, and others.

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Jean Tan (Currently Software Engineer, Government Technology Agency)
An experienced software engineer, she is behind many systems that allowed the government to keep residents informed especially during the Covid-19 crisis. She was responsible for building several critical systems during the pandemic. The vaccine.gov.sg is a pre-registration and national appointment systems, that have resulted in garnering citizens to receive more than six million inoculations, significantly accelerating Singapore’s vaccination progress.
 
She was the lead engineer behind the 1.2 billion WhatsApp notifications sent by gov.sg, providing the public with timely and accurate information on Covid-19 developments.
 
Prior to the pandemic, she led the development and launch of Postman, a mass-messaging service that transformed the way the government communicates and connects with citizens. Since launch, Postman has delivered over six million email messages and 1.5 million text messages across 15 thousand messaging campaigns.

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Wee Qihui, Glenda
Glenda has just graduated from the Computer Science and Design pillar in September 2021, and is part of the pioneer batch of students in SUTD-Duke-NUS Special Track. She is currently embarking on her Doctor of Medicine (MD) studies with Duke-NUS medical school.

Her aspiration is “to be able to speak both the languages of engineers and doctors”. Her zeal in technology is evident in the healthcare field, where she has embarked on several healthtech projects, including the most recent completion of her final-year industry-related capstone project with a local hospital.

She has also recently volunteered as a UX designer with GovTech working on the app, Supply Ally that facilitates distribution of various items to different groups of the Singapore population, including the dissemination of masks and Trace Together tokens during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

See also: 18 students make this year’s Singapore 100 Women in Tech List

Golden Pin Design Mark Recipients

Two of our Architecture and Sustainable Design publications have received the Golden Pin Design Mark:

• Forming—Unforming
  Prof Erwin Viray, Assoc Prof Yeo Kang Shua, Assistant Prof Immanuel Koh, Ms Julie Goh
  (ISBN: 9789811489020)

• Wak Hai Cheng Bio: A Dialogue Between Architecture and History (粤海清庙 : 建筑与历史的对话)
  Assoc Prof Yeo Kang Shua
  (ISBN: 9789811432187)

The 627 winners of the 2021 Golden Pin Design Award were announced on 9 September. These Design Mark winners will compete for the Best Design award which will be announced at the awards ceremony in December 2021.

Established in 1981, the Golden Pin Design Award is the most influential design award in the global Chinese-speaking market.

About the Publications

(taken from asd.sutd.edu.sg)
Forming—Unforming

“When conceptualising the design for Forming—Unforming, we asked how can we represent emerging ideas of architecture and to represent what Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design aspire to be, while celebrating the diversity of architecture knowledge ranging from design, history, to technology. With the growing presence of artificial intelligence and machine learning in design, we roped in our faculty Immanuel Koh to train a machine-learning model using the contents of all of ASD’s bi-annual publications – Forming / Unforming (2017), Unforming / Forming (2018) and Forming—Unforming (2021) – to decontextualise the contents before being reinterpreted by the machine to generate 700 unique cover designs. With the machine as a designer, these generated covers function as an objective reflection of SUTD ASD’s ethos and challenge the role of the architect in the world today.”

Art Direction & Design → Practice Theory (@practice.theory)
Collaborator/Client →  ASD@SUTD (Erwin Viray, Yeo Kang Shua & Julie Goh)
Cover AI Design → Practice Theory (@practice.theory) & Immanuel Koh
Publisher → ASD@SUTD
Photographer → Daryl Tan (@daryltanyp)

Wak Hai Cheng Bio: A Dialogue Between Architecture and History (粤海清庙 : 建筑与历史的对话)

“The cover design of Wak Hai Cheng Bio: A Dialogue Between Architecture and History (粤海清庙 : 建筑与历史的对话) was inspired by the traditional Teochew lanterns that adorn the front elevation of the temple. The design for the book title adopted the clerical script (隶书) font that is traditionally used on lanterns. This font is strikingly rectilinear with uniformity of the strokes, and is characterised by slender horizontal strokes with broad vertical strokes, which imbues a sense of quiet elegance to the overall aesthetics. The title wraps around the front and back covers, akin to that of a lantern, paying homage to its history and heritage. Likewise, the design for the entire book take reference from the temple’s architectural and social history.”

Art Direction & Design → Practice Theory (@practice.theory)
Collaborator/Client → Yeo Kang Shua
Publisher → ASD@SUTD
Photographer → The Gentle Studio (@thegentlestudio)

Advance Awards 2021 Finalist – Prof Cheong Koon Hean

(Image credit: advance.org)

The Advance Awards 2021 virtual ceremony was held on 8 September 2021, where Professor Cheong Koon Hean was celebrated as one of four finalists in the Asia Impact Award category.

Prof Cheong is currently chairperson of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC). She has played a key role in the urban transformation of Singapore over the years.

Excerpt from finalist profile page:

“Dr Cheung introduced a new generation of well designed, community centric, sustainable and smart public housing during her tenure as CEO of the Housing and Development Board from 2010 to 2020, implementing some 1 million public housing flats. Dr Cheong brings extensive experience in land use planning, urban design, conservation of built heritage and the real estate market to bear, playing a lead role in major urban transformations locally and internationally. Her successful efforts to improve the quality of affordable housing — not just increase the quantity — for Singapore’s residents, has guided the transformation of Singapore’s public housing into award-winning projects.”

The Advance Awards was established in 2012. Each year, it recognises 100 outstanding individuals who are shaping our world and making an extraordinary impact on the global stage in various industry sectors.

National Day Awards 2021: SUTD Recipients including Public Administration Medal (Gold) for SUTD President Prof Chong Tow Chong

The Singapore National Day Awards (NDA) are a means of recognising various forms of merit and long service to the nation. This year, a total of 5,710 individuals received National Day Honours, including eight staff members from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and three pioneer members of the SUTD Board of Trustees.

SUTD President Prof Chong Tow Chong received the Public Administration Medal (Gold). Prof Chong played a vital role in growing the University as founding Provost from 2009 till 2018, and he continues to lead as SUTD President today.

SUTD recipients of the National Day Awards 2021:

• Public Service Star (Bar) - Mrs Fang Ai Lian (PBM), Pioneer member of SUTD Board of Trustees (former), Chairman, MediShield Life Council

• ​Public Service Star - Mr Philip Antony Jeyaretnam, Pioneer member of SUTD Board of Trustees (former), Former Chairman, Maxwell Chambers Private Ltd

• Public Administration Medal (Gold) - Professor Chong Tow Chong, President

• Public Administration Medal (Silver) - Mr Poon King Wang, Senior Director, Strategic Planning and Director, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities

• Public Administration Medal (Bronze) - Associate Professor Yow Wei Quin, Associate Head of Cluster (Research), Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS)

• Commendation Medal - Ms Zerlina Tay, Deputy Director, Marketing & Communications

• Commendation Medal - Ms Angelvin Chee Parma, Deputy Director, Career Development Centre

• ​Public Service Medal - Ms Low Sin Leng, Pioneer member of SUTD Board of Trustees (current), Chairperson, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

• Efficiency Medal - Mr Tommy Lee, Senior Manager, Human Resources & Organization Development

• Long Service Medal - Mr Allan Chan, Deputy Director, Undergraduate Studies

• Long Service Medal - Dr Andrew Yoong Cheah Huei, Senior Research Fellow, iTrust

President*s Design Award 2020 - AirMesh Pavilion (Design of the Year)

The AirMesh Pavilion has been awarded Design of the Year at the President*s Design Award 2020. One of the world’s first fully functional 3D printed space frame structures, the AirMesh Pavilion is designed by the Architectural Intelligence Research Lab (AirLab) at SUTD, led by Assistant Professor Carlos Banon from the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar. 



“AirMesh Pavilion and the technology behind it put Singapore firmly at the forefront of global additive manufacturing of complex structures. The pavilion is an emphatic proof of concept and the first in the world to be made out of 3D printed stainless steel components.” – extracted from the jury citation

The AirMesh Pavilion has multiple bespoke components but can be assembled in just two days. This is possible with technology, which automates the design process – based on specified geometry, the parametric script calculates and generates designs of nodes and bars which are sent directly to the 3D printer. The construction sequence is also simplified by integrating as many components as possible into each node and bar, which are assembly-ready as far as possible.

Established in 2006, the President*s Design Award is Singapore’s highest honour for designers and designs across all disciplines.

Golden A' Design Award in 2020 – 2021 3D Printed Forms and Products Design Award Category

The AI Table has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the 3D Printed Forms and Products Design Category. It is designed and created by AIRLAB co-directors Assistant Professor Carlos Banon from the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar and Associate Prof Felix Raspall (Adolfo Ibáñez University), together with 3 SUTD ASD alumni - Jonathan Ng Ming-En, Natalie Chen Mei Qing and Muhammad Syahid Bin Mustapa.

At first glance, the filigree, interwoven structures serving as table legs may look fragile, but in fact they are fully equal to a solid construction in terms of stability. This is achieved using AI-assisted design and 3D pattern printing combined with traditional metal casting technologies.

Find out more at the AI Table design details page.

Resources, Conservation & Recycling 2020 Best Paper Award 

Co-authored by Associate Prof Arlindo Silva (Engineering Product Development), Associate Prof Lynette Cheah (Engineering Systems and Design), Mohit Arora (SUTD PhD alumni) and Associate Prof Felix Raspall (Universidad Adolfo Ibanez), ‘Buildings and the circular economy: Estimating urban mining, recovery and reuse potential of building components’ won the 2020 Best Paper Award for the Resources, Conservation & Recycling journal. Among the 501 papers published in 2020, three papers were selected for this award.
 
The selection for the Award was based on criteria like rigour, novelty, importance and presentation.
 
Citation: Arora, M., Raspall, F., Cheah, L., Silva, A., Buildings and the Circular Economy: Estimating Urban Mining, Recovery and Reuse Potential of Building Components. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 154 (2020) 104581. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104581)

IEEE Fellow Class of 2021 – Associate Professor Yuen Chau

For his contributions to energy efficient wireless communications, Associate Professor Yuen Chau has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, Class of 2021.

Associate Prof Yuen, a faculty with the Engineering Product Development pillar, was also awarded the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Distinguished Lecturer (DL) and IEEE VTS Singapore Chapter Outstanding Service Award in 2020 and 2019 respectively.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the total IEEE voting membership is bestowed the prestigious honour of the IEEE Fellow each year.