SUTD held two ceremonies.
SUTD Chancellor, Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, presided over the first ceremony, while SUTD Chairman, Mr Lee Tzu Yang, presided over the second ceremony.
Quotes & profiles from some SUTD graduating students:
24-year-old Jordan Sim Yan Jie is an Engineering Systems and Design graduate that has always enjoyed observing the world, discovering patterns and systems, and applying them in a useful way. During his internships at SingHealth, Jordan learnt more about data mining, data analytics and data visualisation, of which he developed a great passion for as it allowed him to paint the patterns and trends he saw in the data into a picture. He said: "My experiences as an intern also gave me insight into how data analytics could play a part in improving systems and services." Jordan also participated in the Create4Good Challenge, where his team emerged as one of the top five winners and received $10,000 proof-of-concept funding to develop a prototype Smart Pill Dispenser for the elderly and his experience there taught him the importance of having a proper business model and strategy. He also learnt a little bit about the process of being an entrepreneur. Jordan will be joining Temenos Singapore, the Asia Pacific office of a Swiss banking software company, after graduating, and he hopes to bring his data analytics experience to Temenos to help improve their core banking solutions with big data analytics and visualisation capabilities.
A student from the Information Systems Technology and Design pillar, 26-year-old Joe Ng Jie Rong, has a deep interest in machine learning and will be joining Cyber Security Agency (CSA) when he graduates. He said: "Since my polytechnic days, I have been interested in cybersecurity and forensics, which expanded into an eye for artificial intelligence in SUTD. During my pillar years in SUTD as well as when I was doing my internships at Micron Semiconductor Asia and DSTA, I had some first-hand experience with natural language processing and machine learning, which is where I found my niche, so I am excited to join CSA and see how I can contribute in this and other aspects in defending Singapore's cyberspace."
Valedictorian Koh Kai Wei (26 years old) has always had a keen interest in coding since his polytechnic days. He joined SUTD’s Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) pillar and contributed greatly as the ISTD student board president. His strong passion in technology and design led him to take part in several hackathons, where he received multiple awards and accolades – his team came in first in a hackathon, ‘Hood Disrupt’ on property technology, held in August 2017. He also led in the organisation of SUTD’s first national level What the Hack @SUTD hackathon. Kai Wei is also generous about sharing his knowledge on technology and computing with his fellow students and this was evidenced when he volunteered to assist faculty members in conducting a computing boot camp. Kai Wei will be joining GovTech after he graduates.
Basheer Ahamed Mohsin Ahamed (24 years old) graduates from SUTD's Engineering Product Development undergraduate programme specialised in Mechanical Engineering. One of SUTD's over 60% of graduates who has secured a job even before graduating; Mohsin will be joining with Schneider Electric. Last year, he went to Embraer, an aerospace conglomerate in Brazil for his internship and learnt about designing high density passenger cabins, as well as a new language, Portuguese. A well-rounded student, Mohsin is also very active in sports, such as floorball and tchoukball, where he represented SUTD at the Singapore University Games in 2015. He has a strong interest in smart cities and how urbanisation affects society, and will be working under the Ecobuilding division in Schneider Electric‘s Energy Generation Programme X. Mohsin hopes to make an impact in the future of smart cities by developing and designing buildings that consume less energy and are more self-reliant in terms of waste management.
24-year-old Vivek Kalyan is graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from SUTD’s Information Systems Technology and Design undergraduate programme who has a passion for machine learning and artificial intelligence. He is fascinated by the amount of power computers can have in the near future and wants to be in the forefront of the advancements in the future. After graduating, he will be working at DC Frontiers (a Singapore fintech start-up) as a machine learning engineer. While working in the industry, he hopes to solve difficult problems such as automation, but he also wants to lead the discussion of how people can cope with the ramifications of the unemployment that is likely with increased automation. During his time at SUTD, Vivek also helped the school develop an exploreSUTD mobile app targeted at prospective students. The app featured a geolocation-based treasure hunt, calendar integration, notifications and a content management system that allows editing of information by SUTD’s Admissions office. Beyond studies, Vivek is very active in sports, especially soccer, and he was the Vice-President of SUTD’s Soccer club.