A Vision For Tomorrow: Nus Faculty of Engineering

NUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
A Vision for Tomorrow

ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - 2005

9 ENGINEERING DRIVE 1
A Vision for Tomorrow
SINGAPORE 117576
TEL: 6874 2101
FAX: 6777 3847
www.eng.nus.edu.sg/ar/2004
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Project Director
Assoc Prof Ang Kok Keng
Editorial & Production Team

Maureen Kwee
Deborah Chew
Espallela Wasion
Seah Poh Fatt
Raymond Yap
Alvin Yeo
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CONTENTS
DEAN’S MESSAGE - POINT OF VIEW 2

DEAN’S ADVISORY BOARD 6
FACULTY BOARD 7
THE MARKS OF EXCELLENCE 8
THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE 11
THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS 14
THE DRIVE TO DISCOVER 22
THE CALL TO SERVE 26
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS 28
DIVISION OF BIOENGINEERING 30
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING 32
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING 34
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING 36
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING 38
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 40
DEPARTMENT OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 42
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING PROGRAMME 44
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMME 46
OFFICES OF THE VICE-DEANS - UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES 50

1
GRADUATE STUDIES 51
RESEARCH 52
ADMINISTRATION 53
EXTERNAL & INDUSTRY RELATIONS 54
BENEFACTORS – PAST & PRESENT 56
FACTS & FIGURES 60
INCOME & EXPENDITURE STATEMENT 64
Mission
• TO NURTURE ENGINEERS WITH A GLOBAL OUTLOOK AND PASSION FOR
INNOVATION, WHO CAN LEAD TEAMS AND APPLY KNOWLEDGE CREATIVELY
ACROSS FUNCTIONAL BOUNDARIES
• TO BE A LEADING SOURCE OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, PRODUCTS AND

PROCESSES BY ADVANCING FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE
• TO BE AN ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF CHOICE FOR TALENTED STUDENTS,

CAPABLE RESEARCHERS, OUTSTANDING FACULTY AND HIGH QUALITY STAFF
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DEAN’S MESSAGE
Point of View
“ A VISION FOR TOMORROW. THIS THEME
REFLECTS THE VERY CULTURE OF THE NUS
It is with great pride and pleasure that I present this report
entitled “A Vision for Tomorrow”. This theme reflects the very
culture of the NUS Faculty of Engineering. Our mission is to
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. OUR MISSION educate and equip our students with the engineering skills
and knowledge to innovate and meet the challenges of the
IS TO EDUCATE AND EQUIP OUR future. As we set our sights on new engineering frontiers, our
focus remains that of a leader in research and innovation,
STUDENTS WITH THE ENGINEERING SKILLS
with the ultimate goal of advancing the wealth and well-being
AND KNOWLEDGE TO INNOVATE AND of our nation. Indeed, everything we do today will make a
difference tomorrow. We build with the next generation in
MEET THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE... mind, knowing that they will inherit what we create today.
EVERYTHING WE DO TODAY WILL MAKE This report highlights our new developments, innovations
and achievements in Fiscal Year 2004. Along with NUS’
A DIFFERENCE TOMORROW.
” direction to be among the best in the world, our Faculty has
entered a phase of growth that is exciting and challenging.
We have made tremendous strides in the international arena.
In a Times of London (Times Higher Education Supplement)
analysis released in December 2004, NUS now ranks among
Professor Seeram Ramakrishna
the Top 10 Engineering and IT universities in the world. This
Dean, NUS Faculty of Engineering
spotlight on the Faculty could not have come at a more
opportune time as the educational landscape is fast developing
into a highly competitive environment. As NUS joins the top
2 league of Engineering and IT universities, the NUS Faculty of
Engineering will leverage on its strengths and continue to
review and offer differentiated programmes in our quest for
global excellence.
EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
The Faculty has continued to spearhead several new
educational initiatives. In mid-2004, the Faculty established
the Centre for Management of Science and Technology (CMOST)
with the aim of linking technological capabilities with principles
of management. The Environmental Science & Engineering
Programme (ESEP) will formally become a Division within the
Faculty in April 2005. This Division will not only emphasise
inter-disciplinary education and reseach, but will also promote
collaborative efforts across Faculty boundaries. In the same
month, the Faculty will also establish its sixth department, the
new Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE).
This move will respond to the challenge of transforming
knowledge in materials science into useful products through
the application of engineering principles and practices.
We are currently developing with the Faculty of Science,
an Engineering Science Programme (ESP) that will cater to
the most capable and talented young minds. Besides
equipping students with a strong foundation in applied
sciences and mathematics, this programme is developed to
produce a new breed of research-oriented, technology-savvy
engineers who will excel in emerging inter-disciplinary areas.
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We also launched new specialisations in Biomechanical Engineering, Biomolecular Engineering, Process & Systems Engineering,
and Offshore Engineering so that students have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest technological developments in their
different areas of interests. In addition, an Economic Development Board (EDB) sponsored new Master of Engineering programme
in Nanoengineering was launched in August 2004 to contribute to Singapore’s efforts in developing nanotechnology as an engine
of growth. These initiatives offer more flexibility and choice within the curriculum so as to cater to the varying interests and attitudes
of our students and to better prepare them for the demands of a knowledge-based economy.
In line with NUS’ new admissions policy to attract key talent and enhance their educational experiences, students applying to
study engineering at NUS have two options. Those who have decided on a specific field of engineering can be admitted to a
specific engineering course with immediate effect. For those who require time to discover their strengths and interests, they can
opt for a specific course at the end of their first year. These options are centred upon helping students discover and optimise their
talents and passions.
The Faculty taps on alumni talent and expertise by initiating their involvement in Departmental Consultative Committees with
the aim to enhance the Faculty’s links with public and private sector organisations and to have a mechanism for regular consultation
and exchange of views. These consultative committees provide valuable feedback and give views on substantive issues relating to
the academic development of the departments.
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS
The Faculty forged new global partnerships with leading overseas institutions in our effort to achieve greater synergies in
research and education. The Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) and Ecole Superieure d’Electricite (Supelec),
one of France’s top universities, will offer a joint PhD degree for the first time. Another new graduate programme, a joint Master of
Science degree in Intelligent Transport Systems with the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM), Germany, was also finalised in
2004. Two faculty-backed graduate programmes - Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems and Computational Engineering
will be launched under Phase Two of the Singapore-MIT Alliance in July 2005. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering
research collaboration and student exchange with the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU) was also sealed with
a touch of fanfare in the presence of His Majesty King Harald V of Norway.
In March 2005, the NUS and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay signed an MOU to implement a joint graduate
degree programme. This is a prelude to the setting up of a tangible IIT presence in Singapore. The project was developed with the
strong support of EDB and Ministry of Education (MOE). In addition, the Faculty also signed MOUs with the remaining IITs across 3
India to promote student exchange programmes and research collaboration. An MOU for student exchange and academic
collaboration was also signed with the Kyoto Institute of Technology. In extending our relationship with top Chinese universities,
we have also extended our outreach to potential new partners with the aim of collaborating in research, academic staff exchange
and student talent recruitment. These partnerships will allow the NUS Faculty of Engineering to lead in engineering education and
to continue to attract top talents.
RESEARCH
The Faculty received international recognition and funding in the areas of Nanotechnology, Offshore Engineering and Information
and Communications Technology, among others. The ECE Department pioneered a significant breakthrough at its Silicon Nano
Device Laboratory (SNDL) to become the first laboratory in the world to incorporate local strained-silicon using silicon-carbon
materials for boosting electron mobility and injection velocity in transistors. Jusung Engineering, the largest maker of semiconductor
manufacturing equipment in Korea, has recently signed an agreement to contribute US$2.2 million to work with SNDL.
The Centre for Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE) was launched to advance Singapore as a global leader in the oil & gas
and offshore engineering industry. Founding members include Cooper Cameron, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, Lloyd’s Register
Asia and SMOE Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of SembCorp Utilities. Besides strong support from EDB, the Centre’s other key collaborators
include the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Imperial College London, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Delft University of Technology, Kyoto University, University of Western Australia, Heerema Marine Contractors, Det Norske Veritas
and Norsk Hydro. A joint fund with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was established to encourage and support
R&D in maritime, port and offshore engineering. Firm support for co-funding of Maritime Technology Professorships (MTPs) was
also secured from MPA.
The year in review saw clear and definite steps taken towards initiating major areas of inter-disciplinary research in Information
and Communications Technology. The Laboratory for Concurrent Engineering and Logistics (LCEL) received funds of $1.88 million
from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to work on a research programme in IT-based Collaborative
Engineering. The Faculty is now ready to further develop InfoComm and InfoTech (ICIT)–related research through NUS’ ICIT Initiative
as well as through other relevant sources of research funding. The Faculty will spearhead and support the Interaction & Entertaintment
Research Centre (IERC), a Faculty-level centre set up in 2005 with the purpose of making the NUS and Singapore a world leader in
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the revolutionary field of creative media.
A joint research centre with the University of British Columbia, Canada, was set up in June 2004 to promote research collaborations
in selected areas of applied science, including information and communications technology and nanoscience and nanotechnology.
The programme on Advanced Membrane Science and Technology in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
(ChBE) has also attracted the attention of a number of global and local industry leaders in chemicals, materials and bio-pharmaceuticals
to initiate joint research on the development of new membranes for gas/liquid/bio-pharmaceutical separations. Research collaborations
with Hyflux Ltd (Singapore) focus on the development of new membranes for water-related applications such as bioreactors; with
UOP (Universal Oil Products, USA) on new materials for
gas and chemical separation; with Merck (USA) for
pharmaceutical solvent recovery; with BASF (Germany) for
kidney dialysis applications; and with Mitsui (Japan) for gas
separation.
The Faculty will further leverage on the momentum
set in place for partnerships in research by increasing
collaborative efforts and working synergistically with the
national research institutes, industry, overseas institutions,
and with other key funding agencies to further advance
R&D activities in Singapore. Given the limited pool of
research funds, the Faculty has done extremely well in securing alternative sources of funding for its research activities. Nine
months into Fiscal Year 2004, the Faculty’s research funding from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has
increased by 16%; from Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and other government agencies by 277%; and from
industry and other sources by 145%, as compared to Fiscal Year 2003.
ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY
The Faculty continues to actively promote entrepreneurial activities and initiatives to create value from knowledge. As early as
2001, we embarked on a pioneering step to bring entrepreneurship learning and hands-on experience formally to students
through the Technopreneurship and Incubation Programme (TIP). The TIP is a major initiative aimed at enhancing our undergraduate
curriculum through a topical development programme on entrepreneurship. To date, more than 1000 undergraduates have
4 registered on this programme and currently, there are 11 project groups incubating start-ups in the Faculty’s Incubation Centre.
Outstanding students who possess the extra spark and passion for entrepreneurship are also given the opportunity to spend a year
of internship in start-up companies or work and study at one of NUS’ overseas colleges in either Silicon Valley, Philadelphia or
Shanghai. In keeping with our development plan, the Faculty will enhance the TIP by making our in-house resources and facilities
available to students, and by organising activities that will give our students access to our intellectual property and know-how. In
doing so, we hope to help seed new start-ups that will draw technology directly from our research. This will certainly further
differentiate our programmes and provide our graduates with that competitive edge to become engineer innovators and leaders.
LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

In anticipating changes in funding principles and increased autonomy to the universities, we have positioned the Faculty to
compete effectively for faculty, students, research funds and industry support. Infrastructure and most importantly, people of the
right calibre and commitment, are already in place within the Faculty to take on these challenges and responsibilities. Furthermore,
we also foster goodwill with alumni working in China to facilitate collaboration and technology commercialisation.
We are proud to be a part of NUS as it celebrates its centennial year. As in all successful institutions, our strength comes from our
people. It is our high-achieving students, successful alumni and excellent staff contributions that make the NUS Faculty of Engineering
what it is today. We want to also thank the many corporations and individuals who have donated generously to the cause of
engineering education. As you look through our report, you will see the many achievements, and get a glimpse of the exciting
research activities and initiatives that make the NUS Faculty of Engineering a leading engineering institution with a vision for
tomorrow. I invite you to share our vision and our enthusiasm as we strive to become a truly outstanding 21st century global
engineering school.

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Global Outreach
“ THE FACULTY FORGED NEW GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS WITH LEADING OVERSEAS INSTITUTIONS
IN OUR EFFORT TO ACHIEVE GREATER SYNERGIES IN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
THESE PARTNERSHIPS WILL ALLOW THE NUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING TO LEAD IN

ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND TO CONTINUE TO ATTRACT TOP TALENTS.
”
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Dean’s Advisory Board
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
1. Adj Prof BOON Swan Foo 6. Prof Venkatesh NARAYANAMURTI

Managing Director, Agency for Science, John A and Elizabeth S Armstrong Professor
Technology & Research (A*STAR) of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Deputy Chairman, Science & Engineering Research Council Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied
(SERC), A*STAR Sciences, and Dean of Physical Science
Executive Chairman, Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd, Singapore Harvard University, USA
2. Prof Torbjørn DIGERNES 7. Mr Inderjit SINGH
Dean, Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology CEO, Infiniti Solutions Pte Ltd
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Executive Chairman, Tri Star Electronics Pte Ltd
Member of Parliament, Singapore
3. Er Dr FOO Say Wei
President, The Institution of Engineers, Singapore 8. Mr SOO Kok Leng
Chairman
4. Prof Don P GIDDENS JTC Corporation
Dean, College of Engineering Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd
Lawrence L Gellerstedt, Jr Chair in Bioengineering Singex group of companies
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar (Venues, Exhibitions, Exhibition Ventures)
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Singapore Cruise Centre Pte Ltd
Singapore Cable Car Pte Ltd
5. Prof Thomas L MAGNANTI
Institute Professor 9. Prof Anastasios VENETSANOPOULOS
Dean, School of Engineering Dean, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA University of Toronto, Canada
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Faculty Board
2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14
1. Prof Seeram RAMAKRISHNA 8. Prof Raj RAJAGOPALAN

Dean Head, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
2. Prof CHOW Yean Khow Director, Environmental Science & Engineering Programme
Vice-Dean (Academic Affairs & Graduate Studies) 9. Prof FWA Tien Fang
3. Assoc Prof Ashraf KASSIM Head, Department of Civil Engineering
Vice-Dean (Undergraduate Programmes) 10. Prof YEO Swee Ping
4. Assoc Prof CHUA Kee Chaing Head, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Vice-Dean (Research) 11. Prof ANG Beng Wah
5. Prof YEO Tat Soon Head, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Vice-Dean (Administration) 12. Prof LIM Seh Chun
6. Prof CHOU Siaw Kiang Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vice-Dean (External & Industry Relations) 13. Prof CHOW Gan-Moog
7. Prof Colin SHEPPARD Head, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Head, Division of Bioengineering 14. Prof POO Aun Neow
Chair, Engineering Science Programme Director, Bachelor of Technology Programme
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A VIEW FROM NEW FRONTIERS
The Marks Of Excellence

OUR SUCCESS IS A REFLECTION OF THE TALENT, CREATIVITY, AND DRIVE OF OUR PEOPLE.
WE CELEBRATE SOME OF OUR SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE PAST YEAR.
NUS Faculty of Engineering The Times Higher Education Supplement

Top 10 Engineering & IT Universities
Top 10 in the World
Rank University
In a recent survey conducted by The Times Higher Education 1 University of California, Berkeley, US
Supplement (THES), the NUS Faculty of Engineering ranked
ninth best in the world. The rankings were based on data 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
collected from 1,300 academics in some 88 countries, who
gave their opinions about top universities in subject areas 3 Stanford University, US
where they had expert knowledge.
The results were especially encouraging since the Faculty 4 Indian Institutes of Technology, India
was compared to other institutions that had larger pools of
5 Imperial College, UK
resources and stronger industrial connections. NUS President
Prof Shih Choon Fong highlighted that our success stems 6 California Institute of Technology, US
from the way we offer knowledge-based engineering
courses that also focussed on research and 7 Tokyo University, Japan
entrepreneurship opportunities for students. Our ties with
8 reputable institutions like Massachusetts Institute of
8 Cambridge University, UK
Technology (MIT), and our presence in key places like
9 National University of Singapore, Singapore
Silicon Valley and Shanghai, have also contributed
significantly to our global standing. 10 Beijing University, China
100
A view of the NUS Faculty of Engineering building with the Centennial Clock
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International Awards in Canada during the Media Festival 2004 held at the
Laurentian University, Ontario for “SimFurnace”, a web-based
simulator for process control education, developed jointly with
TEH HUAY HOON; HO CHEE CHEN
NUS’ Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning and
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Centre for Instructional Technology.
Two NUS teams won the top two spots at the 2nd Lee Kuan
YU HONGYU
Yew Global Business Plan competition held in Singapore in
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
July 2004. The competition was organised by the Singapore
Management University (SMU) and is the first-ever international
Yu Hongyu, a PhD student of ECE Department, was awarded
the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) Graduate Student
Fellowship in 2004 for his excellent academic achievements
and pioneering contributions to advanced gate stack research.
The Fellowship Programme was established to promote,
recognise, and support graduate study and research within
the EDS field of interest. The award comprises a plaque and a
cheque of US$5,000. This is the second time an ECE
Department PhD student has won the fellowship
MARK SAEYS
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
NUS ME students posing with NUS President Shih Dr Mark Saeys was honoured by the American Chemical
at the award presentation ceremony of the Lee Kuan Yew Global Society for his work on steam cracking. Steam cracking is the
Business Plan competition held on 22 July 2004 in Singapore
most important process for the production of light olefins, the
business plan competition to be organised at the building blocks of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry,
undergraduate level, targeting students from universities, and is the largest petrochemical process in Singapore. The
colleges and polytechnics internationally. The teams beat 545
other teams from 117 universities spanning 35 countries. 9
Two ME students (Teh Huay Hoon and Ho Chee Chen),
on the NUS Overseas College programme, were members of
the first runner-up team, TMD Corporation. Their winning entry
was a Fiber-reinforced Plastic made from incorporating chicken
feather fibers with traditional commodity plastics such as
polyethylene and polypropylene. Its function is to add value to
worthless industrial waste by converting them into useful
materials for manufacturing various products.
RAJAGOPALAN SRINIVASAN
Dr Mark Saeys with his award
focus of his research is on developing computer assisted

Assoc Prof Rajagopalan Srinivasan was given an Award of
techniques to understand steam cracking and to direct it to
Merit by the Association for Media Technology in Education
the products we need.
Best Paper Awards

KAM POOI YUEN; ZHANG SONGHUA; PAUL HO
Prof Kam Pooi Yuen, Mr Zhang Songhua (PhD student)

and Prof Paul Ho won the Best Paper Award for their paper
entitled “Performance of Pilot-Symbol-Assisted-Modulation
with Transmit-Receive Diversity in Nonselective Rayleigh
Fading Channels” at the IEEE Vehicular Technology
Conference 2004-Fall "Wireless Technologies for Global
Assoc Prof Rajagopalan Srinivasan with his award Security," 26-29 September 2004, Los Angeles, USA.
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TANG LOON CHING; XIE MIN; YANG GY was entitled "Reliability and Modeling of Systems Integrated
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering with Firmware and Hardware". It discusses the features of
firmware-dominated systems’ failure and reliability modeling
The Stan Ofsthun Award was presented to Assoc Prof Tang and deals with parametric analysis of some typical statistical
Loon Ching during the 2004 Annual Reliability and distributions with application to modeling firmware-dominated
systems’ failure.
LIM CHWEE TECK

Division of Bioengineering
Assoc Prof Lim

Chwee Teck and
co-authors were
awarded an out-
standing paper
award, also known
as the Ribbon Award
for their paper
entitled “Continuous
Force-Displacement
Relationships for the
Human Red Blood
Assoc Prof Tang Loon Ching with his award
Cell at Different
Erythrocytic Develop-
Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) for his paper on “Planning
mental Stages of
of Step-stress Accelerated Degradation Tests”, co-authored with
Plasmodium
Assoc Prof Xie Min and their PhD student Ms GY Yang. The
Falciparum Malaria
award recognises the most outstanding technical paper written
Parasite". This paper Assoc Prof Lim Chwee Teck (seated),
by a member of the Society of Reliability Engineers at the Division of Bioengineering and Dr Kevin
was presented dur- Tan, Department of Microbiology use
Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium, which is into
10 its 50th anniversary and attracts more than 700 delegates
ing the Materials Re- nanomechanical tools to understand the
pathogenesis of the malaria disease
search Society (MRS)
from all over the world. The paper addressed the problem
Fall Meeting that was held in December 2004 in Boston, USA.
with consideration to testing costs and removing the need
for complex evaluation of the Fisher information matrix.
POH BOON HOR; KO CHI CHUNG; ZHI WANJUN
ZHANG TIELING; XIE MIN;
TANG LOON CHING; NG SZU HUI At the joint event of IEEE International Workshop on Ultra Wideband
Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering Systems (IWUWBS) and Conference on Ultra Wideband Systems
and Technologies (UWBST), Mr Poh Boon Hor (MEng) won the
The team received the Best Paper Award at the Asian Joint UWBST & IWUWBS Best Student Paper Award (2004) for his
International Workshop on Advanced Reliability Modeling paper “BER Performance of Pulsed UWB Systems in Colored Gaussian
(AIWARM 2004) held in August 2004 in Japan. Their paper Timing Jitter”, based on research work carried out under the
supervision of Assoc Prof Ko Chi Chung. It is the first time that an
NUS student has won this award.
Local Awards
CHEN NANGUANG
Division of Bioengineering/
Dr Chen Nanguang was selected for the Merit Award of

the 2004 NUS/OLS Young Investigator Award by the Office
of Life Sciences for his project "Optical Mammography for
Breast Cancer Early Detection". The award carries a start-
up fund of $50,000 and an annual budget of $50,000
Dr Zhang Tieling with his award
for a total of three years, totalling $200,000 in funding.
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The Spirit Of Enterprise

OUR VISION IS TO FACILITATE THE ENTREPRENEURIAL APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF OUR NATION. WE ARE PROUD OF THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE
DEMONSTRATED BY OUR PEOPLE. THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS WILL ULTIMATELY
IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN OUR WORLD TOMORROW.
Magic Cubes
STEVEN ZHOU ZHIYING
At the 2004 Idea to Product International Competition

organised by the University of Texas at Austin, USA, our entry
by Steven was awarded 2nd Prize in the IT & Engineering
category with the “Magic Story Cubes”, where a story unfolds
in 3D, as a child unfolds a specially designed cube. Using
just a web camera, personal computer and the special
cube, a child will be able to see and interact with stories
Robotizing Lives
in 3D mixed reality.
Founders: Mr Tan Shin Jiuh, Dr Prahlad Vadakkepat
and Mr Janesh Janardhanan
by 2010, and US$90 billion by 2020. Robhatah is pitched at

gaining significant consumer mindshare in these emerging
11
markets.
Robhatah is currently marketing two award-winning
robotic research platforms – a humanoid robot and a robot
soccer system – catering to the research robotics market. The
humanoid robot, Manus-I, retails for $25,000 while the robot
soccer system is marketed at $13,000. Robhatah also markets
a biped research platform targeted at the research community
dealing with biped
and humanoid
MXR Cubes student founder Mr Steven Zhou with mentor Dr Peter
Kew (extreme right) and University of Texas officials at the competition
robotics.
Manus-I has
carved a name for
The Robots are Here itself by winning
the first places in
PRAHLAD VADAKKEPAT; JANESH JANARDHANAN; International
TAN SHIN JIUH; ZHANG RUIXIANG Humanoid Robot
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering/ Competitions twice
Department of Mechanical Engineering in a row. Organised
by the Federation
Robhatah is a robotics consulting and manufacturing of International
company. With a view to developing revolutionary robotic Robosoccer
solutions for emerging mass markets, Robhatah was founded Association (FIRA),
in December 2003 by a team of engineers at the NUS Centre the competitions
for Intelligent Control under the guidance of Dr Prahlad. were dominated by
Advances in embedded technologies are finally making Manus-I in 2003
Mr Zhang Ruixiang after winning the
consumer goods a reality. Recent research shows an emerging (Austria) and in Federation of International Robosoccer
personal and service robotics market surpassing US$20 billion 2004 (Korea). Association (FIRA) cup
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to innovations for medical devices for the gastro-intestinal tract.
These inventions will help pioneer minimally invasive
technologies for medical applications in this area.
Data Storage Device

CHOI WEE KIONG; CHIM WAI KIN
The duo from ECE, Assoc Prof Choi Wee Kiong and Assoc Prof
Chim Wai Kin received the inaugural NUSNNI Research
Achievement Award 2004, for the development of a data
Assoc Prof Anjam Khursheed (background) and Research Engineer
Mr Nelliyan Karuppiah (front) with their invention of the world's
storage device, consisting of germanium crystals that are
first mobile scanning electron microscope 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, as
a reliable data storage device for computer memory. The device
The Mobile Scanning Electron has attracted commercial interest and the two researchers have
applied for patents in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Microscope
ANJAM KHURSHEED; NELLIYAN KARUPPIAH
To get the big picture, think small. That is what the research
duo at NUS have done by making the world’s first mobile
scanning electron microscope (SEM). Assoc Prof Anjam
Khursheed and fellow research engineer Nelliyan Karuppiah
worked with a Czech firm to come up with the microscope
which is smaller and cheaper than conventional SEMs. This
work is the fruit of university research projects spanning a
12 period of six years, the latest of which ends in March 2005.
Prof Khursheed and Mr Karuppiah have started a spin-off
company called MEBI, Mini Electron Beam Instruments, and
Assoc Prof Choi Wee Kiong and Assoc Prof Chim Wai Kin
are now making mobile SEMs available to industry, research with their award
and educational institutions and the general public.
The Biodegradable Plastic Plug
A Penchant for Patents
TEOH SWEE HIN; DIETMAR WERNER
PEH RUEY FENG HUTMACHER; JAN THORSTEN SCHANTZ;
Department of Mechanical Engineering LIM THIAM CHYE; CHOU NING; TAN KIM CHENG
Department of Mechanical Engineering/
With his six American joint patents pending, NUS Overseas Division of Bioengineering
College (NOC) student Peh Ruey Feng is the first student in
NUS to have achieved such a feat. The six patents are related A joint NUS-NUH-Temasek Polytechnic research team has
netted the Gold Award in the Asian Innovation Awards 2004.
It is the third gold in three straight years for NUS in the
prestigious annual awards. The prestigious award was
presented in a special ceremony attended by more than 1100
business executives and graced by Singapore’s President S R
Nathan. The breakthrough news was featured in the cover page
of the Far Eastern Economic Review and reported in the Wall
Street Journal, USA, which resulted in numerous international
queries. It has put NUS on the world map in tissue engineering.
The multi-disciplinary team’s innovation, a biodegradable plastic
plug, spells good news for patients undergoing reconstructive
surgery for head injuries. Clinical trials have been successful in
more than 15 patients, with a global market estimated at some
US$150 million (S$255 million). The team is further developing
Mr Peh Ruey Feng, holder of 6 patents the platform technology to come up with different scaffold
6575-P8-29 12 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

designs for implanting in other parts of the body, such as the

spine and jaw. They have formed a new company, Osteopore
The Universal Miniature
International Pte Ltd, to market the products. Machine Tool
MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN; POO AUN NEOW;
WONG YOKE SAN; A SENTHIL KUMAR;
LIM HAN SEOK; SHINICHI MIYAZAWA
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Realising the need and its

potential, Prof Mustafizur
Rahman and his research team
of mechanical engineers, have
successfully designed, deve-
loped and fabricated a
universal miniature machine
tool that is capable of carrying
The Golden Team sharing their joy together. out multi-functional tasks of
Left to right: Mr Chou Ning, Prof SH Teoh, Dr DW Hutmacher, micro machining on the same
Assoc Prof TC Lim, Dr JT Schantz, Mr KC Tan
machine. For their invention,
the team received the
Clean Water from Wastewater IES Prestigious Engineering
Multi-purpose universal
miniature machine tool
for micro-machining
Achievement Award 2004.
NIKOLAI KOCHERGINSKY
Packing More Punch
A new membrane-based method for metal recovery from
aqueous solutions, invented by Assoc Prof Nikolai Kocherginsky
in a Disk Drive
of the ChBE Department, is now the basis of a new spin-
off company – RANDALL LAW
Biomimetico. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
13
The new
method does not At the Asia-Pacific Young Inventors Awards jointly organised
require pressure by the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) and Hewlett-Packard
or voltage for (HP), NUS research student Randall Law was presented the
purifying the Silver Award for inventing an ultra-fast laser nano-patterning
waste solution, device that can make lines as tiny as 20 nanometres, one-five
produces no thousandth the width of a strand of hair. This will allow even
secondary waste, more data to be squeezed onto a disk drive, as well as support
and is therefore the exciting new field of nanoelectronics. This technique is a
more attractive collaboration between NUS and A*STAR's Data Storage
than reverse Assoc Prof Nikolai Kocherginsky at the Institute (DSI).
osmosis or new pilot plant demonstration
electro-dialysis in the treatment of wastewater and spent etchant.

One potential application of the method is in the microelectronics
industry (for example, to treat the wastewater generated during
printed circuit board production). The research, supported by
an A*STAR grant, has resulted in European and US patents.
Biomimetico was formed to commercialise the above process
and other processes developed by Prof Kocherginsky, including
membrane based sensors and drug delivery systems. Please
see http://www.biomimetico.com for more information.
Two licenses based on the patents co-authored by Prof
Kocherginsky have been sold to a Singaporean and a European
company. He plans to develop non-traditional, membrane-based
technologies important to environmental and biotechnological
Mr Randall Law, the Young Inventors Awards 2004 silver winner with
applications, including water treatment. Additional support was the poster of his award winning work on laser nanofabrication, and his
supervisor, ECE Department’s Dr Hong Minghui (also a Research
also recently approved by A*STAR.
Scientist in A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute)
6575-P8-29 13 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

The Power Of Partnerships

THE FORMATION OF STRONG ALLIANCES IS INTEGRAL TO ACHIEVING GREATER SYNERGIES IN
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION. THE POWER OF LOCAL AND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS TAKES A
SIGNIFICANT PLACE IN OUR MISSION TO BE A LEADER IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION.
Launch of Centre for

Offshore Research &
Engineering
T he NUS Faculty of Engineering officially launched the
Centre for Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE) with
the Economic Development Board (EDB) in an all out effort
to ramp up Singapore’s performance as a global leader in
the oil & gas and offshore engineering industry. The launch
was timely as it came in the wake of high growth forecasts
for the industry globally.
CORE was launched by Guest-of-Honour, EDB
Chairman Mr Teo Ming Kian at a milestone event attended NUS President Shih thanking EDB Chairman,
Mr Teo Ming Kian, at the CORE launch
by senior level management from all sectors of the industry,
including the Norwegian Ambassador to Singapore, Mr and Dr Ju Feng for heavy lift installation engineering of
14 Enok Nygaard on 22 September 2004. Officiating at the major offshore and marine structures, was awarded the
launch was NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong. Institution of Engineers Prestigious Engineering
The Centre’s key objectives are to work closely with Achievement Award 2003.
industry to address its current and future technological The International Energy Agency predicts that more
needs, to develop strategic programmes which will add than US$6 trillion of upstream investment will be required
to the wealth of knowledge, and serve as a fertile training to meet world demand for oil & gas until 2030. Singapore,
ground for research engineers for the industry. In addition, being the leading oil trading hub in Asia, the third largest
the Centre plans to establish a platform for networking oil refinery centre and leading drilling rig and FPSO
among oil & gas, offshore and marine industries, conversion centre is well poised to ride and benefit from
universities and research institutes. these trends.
As part of the launch, four founding member
companies of CORE signed a ‘pledge of commitment’ to
reinforce their support for the Centre’s R&D initiatives. The
founding members are Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd,
“ WE VIEW THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY AS
AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY FOR SINGAPORE
Cooper Cameron, Lloyd’s Register Asia and SMOE Pte Ltd.
The Centre garners strong support from A*STAR and AND ARE COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING ITS
key collaborators include the Norwegian University of
GROWTH... THE LAUNCH OF CORE IS TIMELY AS
Science & Technology (NTNU), Imperial College London,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Delft University IT WILL PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR COMPANIES
of Technology (The Netherlands), Kyoto University,
University of Western Australia, Heerema Marine TO MOVE BEYOND MANUFACTURING
Contractors (The Netherlands), Det Norske Veritas AND SERVICES TO UNDERTAKE MORE
(Norway) and Norsk Hydro (Norway).
Long before the launch, CORE started to make waves
within the industry by contributing to several Joint Industry
R&D ACTIVITIES HERE.
”
Projects (JIP), including the FPSO Fatigue Capacity JIP
managed by Det Norske Veritas. The H-LIFT software Mr Teo Ming Kian
developed by Assoc Prof Choo Yoo Sang, Director of CORE, Chairman, Economic Development Board
6575-P8-29 14 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

His Majesty King Harald V with NUS and NTNU representatives and students
Memorandum of Understanding
with Norwegian University of Science & Technology
and King of Norway Visit
The Faculty put another feather in its cap when a royal state of Excellence in Ships and
15
visit to Singapore by His Majesty King Harald V and Her Majesty Ocean Structures (CESOS).
Queen Sonja of Norway coincided with the signing of an CORE’s Director, Assoc Prof
MOU between NUS and the Norwegian University of Science Choo Yoo Sang and CESOS’
& Technology (NTNU) on 29 October 2004. A special MOU Director, the internationally
signing ceremony was arranged with a packed gathering renown Norwegian marine
which included the Royal entourage, government and structure expert, Prof Torgeir
embassy officials and industry chieftains. Moan, have already cham-
NUS President Shih welcoming
The signing of the MOU further enhanced the existing close pioned some industry projects. the Royal guest
ties between the two universities. It brought collaborations in a Prof Moan has also delivered
wide range of areas such as maritime and offshore technology, the 1st and 2nd Keppel Offshore & Marine Lectures which
oil and gas, energy, materials engineering, geohazards, drew tremendous attendance.
nanotechnology and logistics to the next level. Aside from university R&D collaborations, the Faculty has
Collaborations between the two universities have resulted in its own unique way, been pivotal in making NUS an
in active cooperation between CORE and the NTNU Centre important contributor to warm diplomatic relations between
Norway and Singapore. The signing ceremony was conducted
in the presence of the Norwegian King with Norwegian
exchange students (to NUS) serving as ushers and assisting
in the ceremony proceedings. The presence of the Norwegian
students added a bright sparkle to the simple but elegant
ceremony held at the NUS Museum.
With the official state visit, areas of joint interests and
concerns will undoubtedly expand to include other fields such
as tourism, renewable energy and even aquaculture sea farms.
The Faculty is conscientious in fostering good relations with its
partners as this helps create more opportunities for collaborations
in new and bolder future projects that will impact the Faculty and
NUS and its other research and industry collaborators.
His Majesty King Harald V inking the guest book.
6575-P8-29 15 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

Memorandum of Understanding with
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
A nother wave of support for the NUS Faculty of Engineering
came in the form of $4 million worth of funding from the
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to help
establish Singapore as a global maritime hub through the
initiation of cutting edge research in the maritime field. This
robust support was sealed between both parties at an MOU
signing ceremony-cum-industry seminar on 4 November 2004.
The MPA-NUS MOU also provides for R&D projects in many
areas, including engineering and IT, to be undertaken jointly
by both NUS and MPA.
MPA Chief Executive Lui Tuck Yew underscored the
importance of reaching out to industry by encouraging and
nurturing partnerships that would advance technological
improvements between industry, tertiary and research
institutions. Setting a partnership on course:
The setting up of Maritime Technology Professorships NUS President Shih and MPA Chief Executive Lui Tuck Yew
would also enable the NUS Faculty of Engineering to actively
seek industry participation and contributions to support about $500,000 a year to seed projects with useful
maritime R&D projects. Both NUS and MPA have each allocated applications for the maritime industry.
Silicon Nano Device Laboratory

fabrication. Ideally, this can be reduced to allow for faster
16 operation, lower power consumption, and more functions
on a chip. For CMOS transistors with dimensions smaller than
50 nanometers, a number of new innovations in both material
and device structures have to be first made. In 2004, the SNDL
research team achieved a series of CMOS technological
breakthroughs. These include:
• A new high-κ gate dielectric formation process with

record low leakage currents
• Several new metal gate electrode materials and process

techniques, such as the Hafnium Silicide (HfSi) gate,
Signing of the Research Collaboration Agreement between NUS the Aluminum substitution process and the Lanthanide-
(SNDL) and Jusung Engineering - a US$2.2 million project doped metal nitride gate
T he Silicon Nano Device Laboratory (SNDL) at the • A new device structure to enhance electron mobility
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering was (resulting in higher transistor operation speed) using
established as an advanced CMOS process and device silicon carbon source/drain
technology research facility. It aims to develop the scientific
• New process techniques enabling the use of
and technological bases to meet the most critical needs for
germanium (Ge) substrates for higher speed devices
future generations of very fast CMOS silicon nanoelectronic
devices. The vision of the SNDL is to become one of the world’s The SNDL team has also demonstrated new technologies
leading research laboratories in its field. In order to achieve for Flash memory devices such as high-κ embedded quantum
this, the Laboratory collaborates closely with the Institute of dot Flash memory, and SONOS type high-κ storage layer Flash
Microelectronics and Institute of Materials Research & memory device.
Engineering. Another important achievement is in MIM capacitor
Currently, the leading wafer fabrication plants in CMOS technology for radio frequency IC devices. The SNDL team
technology use 90 nanometers technology for CMOS IC chip has successfully developed new MIM capacitor technologies
6575-P8-29 16 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

to satisfy the industry’s requirements up to the year 2010. This semiconductor proc-
is a significant step as prior to our innovations, no known ess equipment in
solution could be found in the industry. Korea. This event was
In addition, the SNDL team achieved significant progress given much publicity
in physical modeling for future nano scale devices. These by the Korean media.
devices will provide the theoretical background to device Under this agree-
technology research activities. ment, Jusung will
Our groundbreaking research achievements have led to contribute US$2.2
much publicity in various key publications. At the International million to the SNDL to
Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco in cover the cost of the
December 2004, we presented the largest number of papers entire project. Both
(six papers) among all the university laboratories in the world. the SNDL and Jusung
The IEDM is the most prestigious conference where all new will work together for
breakthroughs in the field of CMOS technology are first the technological de-
presented. The SNDL team also published 16 papers in IEEE velopment of high
Electron Device Letters in 2004, making NUS the most prolific speed 30 nan-
university, as rated by the most prestigious journal in CMOS ometers CMOS de- A 50 nanometer MOS transistor
technology. The team also filed four US patents in 2004 and vices. This large with silicon carbide source/drain for
enhanced performance
one of its students was awarded the 2004 IEEE Electron Device amount of funding
Society Graduate Student Fellowship. by an industry overseas is evidence of the value of our
This strong research track record has helped to draw a work in CMOS technology. We foresee that CMOS device
significant amount of external research funds. In 2004, the technology is likely to advance rapidly and remain the key
SNDL received an additional $3 million in research grants under mainstream technology for the next 20 years. In that
A*STAR’s highly competitive Thematic Strategic Research Pro- respect, we remain committed to our vision to being one
gramme. We have also signed a research collaboration agree- of the leading CMOS research laboratories in the world.
ment with Jusung Engineering, the largest manufacturer of
NUS-UBC Applied Science Research Centre 17

T he NUS–UBC Applied Science Research Centre was
established in June 2004. The Centre was set up to support
and enhance research collaborations between the NUS
Faculties of Engineering and Science and UBC’s (University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) Faculty of Applied
Science. The Centre aims to:
• Act as the administrative centre to encourage and

facilitate research collaborations between researchers
in NUS and UBC and their respective partners in
industry and research institutes;
• Organise regular workshops to discuss progress and
results of on-going research collaborations between
NUS and UBC under its charge;
NUS and UBC participants at the December 2004 workshop in UBC
• Encourage and facilitate faculty exchange and short
visits to explore and/or develop research collaborations; • Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
• Develop and maintain a portal to publicise relevant • Organic Electronics
information on the research linkage between NUS and
UBC such as joint projects, faculty expertise, funding Each area of research is jointly championed by faculty from
opportunities and planned activities and events. NUS and UBC. To kick-start research collaborations, NUS
provided seed funding for eight research projects during the
The Centre will focus on these primary research areas in
fiscal year. They are:
the next few years:
• Information and Communications Technology • Remote monitoring and control of industrial processes
• Mechatronics • Self-organisation and data dissemination for wireless
• Industrial and Manufacturing Processes mobile sensor networks
6575-P8-29 17 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

• Virtual reality rehabilitation of arm and hand function behaviors in social systems and financial markets
after stroke
• Numerical methods and analysis for partial differential
• Fabrication and formulation of drug delivery carriers equations and their applications
using vitamin-PEG type surfactants as additives
A workshop to track the progress of the research projects
• Characterisation of regulators and effectors of novel and brainstorm for ideas to develop a flagship project covering
protein secretion systems in Edwardsiella tarda all primary areas of research was held in UBC in early December
• Synthesis, characterisation and self-assembly of 2004. Details of the workshop proceedings can be found on
biopolymer-conducting polymer conjugates the Centre’s website at http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/
research/NUS-UBC.html.
• Agent based modeling for understanding emergent
Masters Programme in
Defence Technology and Systems
The Masters Programme in Defence Technology and Systems In December 2004, Mr Koh Jin Hou and Mr Ong Chin
(MDTS) carves a niche in postgraduate defence technology Siang won two other awards.
and systems education and research in Singapore. It optimises Mr Koh won the Naval Postgraduate School Outstanding
the synergies of the NUS and the Naval Postgraduate School Academic Achievement Award for International Students. This
award is presented to a graduating military or civilian non-US
citizen student who has exhibited outstanding academic
achievement, conducted notable thesis research, maintained
motivation and serious interest in the community, and who
has interacted well with other students in the interest of
international alliance.
Mr Ong won the Armed Forces Communications and Elec-
tronics Association Award. The award is presented to the
18 graduate who has achieved academic excellence and best
demonstrated professional qualities in the programme.
The MDTS students, some of them with families accom-
panying, also enjoyed a rewarding and fulfilling social and
cultural experience. With a large international student com-
Mr Koh Jin Hou at the NPS Graduation Ceremony
munity comprising senior military and civilian officers from
over 70 countries, NPS is a mini global hub for the students
(NPS) in USA by bringing together military staff and defence and their families to network and form strong bonds after
technologists to plan, design, develop, operate and sustain graduation. Such linkages provides a foundation for future
integrated military forces for the 21st century. Managed by international cooperation and peace.
the Temasek Defence Systems Institute (TDSI), this Programme
comprises a Common Curriculum at NUS and a Specialised
Curriculum at NPS. Successful students receive a degree from
each of these universities at the end of the 18-month full time
programme. Rendering teaching support to this programme
are the NUS Faculty of Engineering, School of Computing,
Faculty of Science, Tropical Marine Science Institute, Defence
Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and DSO National
Laboratories.
Three students from the two cohorts who completed this
programme since its launch in July 2002 have won awards at
NPS. In December 2003, Mr Teo Tiat Leng won the Rear
Admiral Grace Murray Hopper Computer Science Award. This
award is presented in recognition of excellence in Computer
Science to the most outstanding graduate in Computer
Science, who has demonstrated outstanding academic
performance, thesis quality and leadership ability.
Mr Ong Chin Siang (first from left) with some of his course mates
6575-P8-29 18 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

DTI graduates posing for a photograph with President S R Nathan after the Commencement in July 2004
Design Technology Institute 19

D esign Technology Institute (DTI) was founded by NUS and Critical Examination of Six Sigma, Applying Systems Engineering
the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 2002 to Design to Defence, Risk Management in New Product
nurture talent in design systems, methodologies, processes and Development as well as emotion-based product design and
technology. As industries move beyond manufacturing towards innovations in Korea.
product design and development, design technology is of
strategic importance in a knowledge-driven economy. The
combined expertise of TU/e and NUS will enable DTI to make “ IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, COMPETITIVENESS
STARTS WITH DESIGN, AND CUSTOMER-CENTRIC

significant contributions to education and research in product
design and to benefit from shared resources, ideas and DESIGN AT THAT. NO AMOUNT OF PACKAGING,
knowledge for value creation.
The pioneering batch of Master of Technological Design MARKETING, HOLLYWOOD GIMMICKS, ETC.
(MTD) students received their MTD degrees in July 2004 – after
COULD MAKE A SUCCESS OUT OF A POORLY
completing their grueling two-year programme (one year of
academic coursework and one year of industrial attachment). DESIGNED PRODUCT. DTI HAS BEEN NURTURING
Another 38 MTD students completed their two-year
DESIGN TALENTS FOR SINGAPORE, AND IS
programme in FY 2004. There are 92 students currently enrolled
in the MTD programme. The Institute trained over 70 executives POISED TO HELP ENHANCE THE
in three workshops and courses in FY 2004.
In 2004, DTI staff/students/associates published about 20
COMPETITIVENESS OF SINGAPORE INDUSTRY
journal and conference papers and have filed a patent on
“Removable Support For Free Form Objects” jointly with NUS.
IN THE YEARS AHEAD.NN
”
DTI (together with the Department of Industrial & Systems
Engineering) organised an international symposium on
Prof Goh Thong Ngee
Management of Design Technology on 22 October 2004. This
Chief Executive Officer
symposium featured international speakers from the UK, Design Technology Institute
Australia, The Netherlands and Korea. The topics included: A
6575-P8-29 19 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

Singapore-MIT Alliance
In 2004, the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) completed two
pioneer programmes in the Advanced Materials for Micro- and
Nano-Systems (AMM&NS) and High Performance Computation
for Engineered Systems (HPCES). The other programmes in
Innovation in Manufacturing Systems and Technology (IMST),
Computer Science (CS) and Molecular Engineering of Biological
and Chemical Systems (MEBCS) continued to attract the best
students locally, regionally and globally. The average GRE and
TOEFL scores for students admitted into the 2004/2005 intake
were 2,095 and 635 respectively.
To date, 557 students have graduated from SMA. These
students have excelled in their chosen fields. Ang Ting Yang, Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry speaking
a Class of 2001 Master of Science (SM) graduate, was featured at the SMA Fifth Annual Symposium
in The Straits Times for his outstanding contribution to Keppel at MIT in Boston.
Offshore and Marine. Ang started as a project engineer at The theme of SMA’s Fifth Annual Symposium, “Frontiers in
Keppel Hitachi Zosen. Shortly after, he was roped in to help Innovative Technologies” reflected SMA-2’s forward-looking
with the merger of Keppel FELS and Keppel Hitachi Zosen. He objective. Graced by Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade
also contributed to the acquisition of a subsidiary and is now and Industry, the Symposium, held on 19 and 20 January
an assistant project manager of shipbuilding at Keppel 2005, was attended by more than 300 faculty and students
Singmarine where he manages some 200 employees, of MIT, NUS and NTU, ministry members and industry partners.
including rank and file workers and supervisors. Another
aspiring entrepreneur, Tan Boon Kiat (Class of 2000 SM
graduate), co-founded Ozis Systems Private Limited, which
distributes quality pen drive flash memory products from Student Exchange Programme
Taiwan to Singapore and Indonesia. A current PhD student,
Ying Shirley Meng, will continue to work with Prof Gerbrand T he Student Exchange Programme (SEP) provides an
Ceder as a Post-Doctoral Associate at the Department of
20 Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of
opportunity for students to study overseas. Students can
select from more than 70 universities in 18 countries. These
Technology (MIT) after her graduation. include premier institutions in North America, Europe, Asia
SMA involves teaching staff from various NUS faculties and and Australasia. The Exchange Programme offers students
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) schools, of whom an exciting opportunity to get a fresh perspective on the
58% of SMA Fellows and 75% of SMA Associates are from subjects they study, to experience a foreign culture and to
NUS. SMA Fellows, Assoc Prof Choi Wee Kiong and Assoc Prof forge friendships across borders. They gain maturity,
Chim Wai Kin of NUS won the 2004 NUS Nanoscience and confidence, independence and the ability to work with
Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) Award for their research people from different parts of the world. Some students
achievements in work done by the Department of Electrical also develop new language skills that may serve them well
and Computer Engineering and SMA students. in future careers.
In the past year, the stakeholders and Governing Board Candidates are normally selected for the programme
members of SMA were also planning the launch of SMA’s during their second year and go on exchange during their
second phase in four new programmes for July 2005: third year. They usually spend one semester at the partner
• Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems university. In some cases, partner universities require
(AMM&NS) students to go on exchange for a full academic year.
Students design their own study plan by selecting modules
• Computational Engineering (CE)
offered by the partner university and mapping them to
• Manufacturing Systems and Technology (MST) equivalent modules offered at NUS. Study plans are
• Computation and Systems Biology (CSB) approved and endorsed by the respective SEP co-ordinators
of each department. Modules taken at the partner
Aptly named SMA-2, it is the continuation of the largest
university must be examinable and must appear on the
collaboration of its kind in the world and signifies MIT’s serious
transcript issued by the partner university. Upon their
commitment to the Alliance. SMA-2 takes the achievements of
return to NUS, students are credited with the appropriate
SMA-1 to a higher level with the award of a Masters degree
number of modular credits for the modules successfully
from MIT and either a Masters or a PhD degree from NUS or
completed on SEP. The grades achieved while on SEP are
NTU. There will be greater focus on research and doctoral
not included in the cumulative average grade point
training with participation from the industry and research
calculation, since they are graded on the Satisfactory/
institutes. All students will spend a minimum of one semester
Unsatisfactory basis.
6575-P8-29 20 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

A World-Class Union, NUS - IIT Bombay

T he NUS and the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay (IITB) signed an MOU on
29 March 2005 to establish a joint graduate
engineering degree programme. The MOU
will provide a framework for both NUS and
IITB to work on a programme leading to a
joint Master of Science degree in Advanced
Engineering Materials, training human
resource relevant to a number of industrial
sectors in both countries. The master's degree
part of the programme is due to start next
year, while a doctoral degree will begin this
year. Classes will be held at the NUS campus
but students will spend at least a month at
the IITB as well.
Singapore's Education Minister Mr The beginning of a long term relationship between NUS and IIT Bombay. From left: Dean
Seeram Ramakrishna, NUS President Shih Choon Fong, Singapore Minister for Education
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who witnessed Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, India Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD)
the signing ceremony, commented that the Shri Arjun Singh, IIT Bombay Director Prof Ashok Misra, High Commissioner of India, H.E.
Mr Alok Prasad, Joint HRD Secretary Shri Ravi Mathur
presence of an IIT in Singapore, for which the
joint master's programme is a prelude, would
further enhance Singapore's image as an education hub Faculty of Engineering professors. It aims to graduate some
in much the same way as US and European universities 40 students annually. For every five MS students, the
such as MIT and INSEAD. He further commented that the programme will take in one PhD student. The programme
union of two of the world's best engineering universities plans to attract as many students as possible from the IIT
would lead to an enlarged campus of talent, promising system as well as from China and ASEAN.
21
“ PARTNERING INDIA, A POWERFUL GROWTH
ENGINE IN ASIA, PROVIDES ABUNDANT
OPPORTUNITIES FOR NURTURING TALENTS IN

LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR
KEY ENGINEERING AREAS.

”
Prof Shih Choon Fong
An exchange of gifts between NUS President Shih Choon Fong President, National University of Singapore
and IIT Bombay Director, Prof Ashok Misra
greater innovation to attract some of the best brains in

the region.
NUS President Shih Choon Fong said the graduate
degree programme in advanced engineering materials
would produce professionals in key engineering areas.
Among these are wafer fabrication and data storage,
chemical processing, aerospace and automotive areas,
bioengineering, energy and construction.
Describing NUS as an “equal partner”, IITB Director
Ashok Misra said: “Together, we have an opportunity to
make a significant difference in the Asia-Pacific region and
eventually, in the world.”
The Master of Science programme, stretching over 18
months, will be jointly taught by leading IIT and NUS NUS President Shih sharing his thoughts in an engineering
laboratory at NUS after the signing ceremony
6575-P8-29 21 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

The Drive To Discover

THE DRIVE TO ADVANCE THE FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING IS SPURRED BY INNOVATION AND
TECHNOLOGY. IN THE PROCESS, WE HAVE DISCOVERED NEW IDEAS AND SET NEW BENCHMARKS IN
ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE. THE PUSH TO REACH NEW FRONTIERS ALSO STEMS FROM OUR
RELENTLESS BELIEF IN OUR ABILITY TO ATTAIN WHAT MAY SEEM IMPOSSIBLE.
NUS Nanoscience and

Nanotechnology Initiative
M icrotechnology, with its creation of the microchip, has been
a buzzword in the 20th century. Its presence is evident in all
aspects of modern life – from PCs, to handphones, to small
implants, etc. However, it is nanotechnology that will hold
the key to the devices of the future.
Recognising the vast potential in nanotechnology, the NUS
Faculty of Engineering partnered with the Faculty of Science
in 2002 to set up the NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Initiative (NUSNNI). NUSNNI was officially launched by the
The use of nanofibrous structures not only enable cells to grow on them,
Minister for Education, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam on 9 but to grow in a directional manner when the nanofibres are aligned
July 2004. In parallel development, NUSNNI identified five
core research and development areas. They are as follows: Board (EDB) in part to finance the NUS-EDB Scholarship for
22 • Nanomagnetics and Spintronics excellent students in the MEng degree in Nanoengineering.
The Year 2004 saw the first intake for these NUS-EDB scholars.
• Nanophotonics
The goal of the graduate level scholarships is to encourage
• Nano/Micro Fabrication nanotechnology research and development in our top brass.
• Nanobiotechnology Apart from scientific know-how, research students are even
involved in patent filing. In so doing, we are training them to
• Nanofibre Science and Technology
be technopreneurs of the future.
The implementation of these core areas will enable the
Faculty to remain progressive with an astute vision for the future.
Besides NUSNNI Research Scholarships, which emphasise
multi-disciplinary research in nanotechnology, NUSNNI also
“ THE 21ST CENTURY BELONGS TO CITIES AND
NATIONS WHICH BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER TO

receives funding from NUS and the Economic Development
CATCH EACH NEW WAVE OF IDEAS, AND WHICH
SPUR ENTERPRISE TO CREATE NEW VALUE
ADDED AROUND THESE IDEAS. THE NANO AREA

IS ONE OF THE NEXT BIG WAVES IN SCIENCE. IT
IS A REVOLUTION BUILT ON THE MOST BASIC
BUILDING BLOCKS OF NATURE – ATOMS – BUT

WITH PROMISE OF IMMENSE PROPORTIONS ...
AND POTENTIALLY, TO DO THINGS THAT WERE
PREVIOUSLY INCONCEIVABLE.
”
Assoc Prof Choi Wee Kiong and Assoc Prof Chim Wai Kin receiving
the Research Achievement Award from the Minister for Education, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam Minister for Education
6575-P8-29 22 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

NUSNNI’s contribution is reflected on a global scale. products work up to a thousand times faster. Such a
Our work has gained the attention of the University of breakthrough will allow computers to boot up instantly
California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the Japan Society with a minimal use of power.
for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), with whom we co- In the area of nanofibre science, the research team
organised symposia in nanotechnology in April and led by Prof Seeram Ramakrishna has developed a range
November 2004 respectively. of materials which comprise a network of very thin fibres
Three researchers, Dr Jalil Mansoor, Dr Teo Kie Leong that are highly compatible for cell growth. It is envisaged
and Dr Thomas Liew, are concentrating in the field of that the development of these materials will be helpful for
Spintronics. They are working on a device to control the implants for accident victims and patients with
movement of electrons with the aim of making electronic degenerative diseases.
Centre for Water Research –

A Cheaper and Greener Way
to Treat Domestic Wastewater
W ater is essential to life. It is fundamental to our human
existence and its availability in sufficiently good quality often
determines the survival of entire communities.
In order for water sources to be safe for human
consumption, water bodies have to be protected from
pollution such as from wastewater contamination. To minimise
pollution, wastewater is normally treated to remove organics Domestic wastewater treatment using anaerobic sequencing batch reactors
and other inorganic pollutants before being discharged into
the receiving water bodies. requirement for oxygen. A potential solution is to replace the
Typically, wastewater is treated using micro-organisms in activated sludge system with more energy efficient alternatives
the presence of oxygen. This process is known as activated such as anaerobic and membrane separation processes. This
sludge treatment. As the availability of fresh water has become
23
novel treatment system generates biogas for energy
limited in recent years, wastewater is increasingly subjected production and at the same time, produces high water quality
to advanced treatments. For instance, reverse osmosis is used for water reuse.
to produce suitably high quality water for indirect potable The Centre for Water Research in the Department of Civil
and direct non-potable uses. Engineering is working on this wastewater treatment project,
However, wastewater treatment using an activated sludge which is funded by the Public Utilities Board at a cost of $1.2
system is a high-energy consuming process due to its million. The goal is to find a cheaper and greener way to treat
domestic wastewater. When successfully concluded, this
“ THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT SHOULD REAFFIRM THE

project will decrease the overall cost of wastewater treatment
for water reclamation. It will also help to propel Singapore to
becoming a technology hub in the area of water treatment
for the region and the world.
IMPORTANCE OF ACHIEVING WATER SECURITY
AND ADOPT TARGETS AND ACTIONS THAT WILL
ALLOW US TO MEET THIS CHALLENGE JOINTLY. Centre for Management of

IN THIS CONTEXT, I WOULD EVEN DARE SAY Science and Technology
THAT IF NATIONS CANNOT MANAGE
In a fast-growing knowledge-based industrial environment,
THEIR WATER RESOURCES, SUSTAINABLE competency in Science and Technology is critical to the survival
DEVELOPMENT REMAINS A and growth of technology-intensive companies. For this
purpose, the Centre for Management of Science and
FARAWAY DREAM.
” Technology (CMOST), in the NUS Faculty of Engineering, was
developed as a new and multi-disciplinary field that connects
science, engineering and management disciplines. CMOST aims
Introductory statement by the to address important issues involved in the planning,
Netherlands Crown Prince, Willem Alexander,
development and implementation of technological capabilities.
in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
6575-P8-29 23 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

CMOST was conceived by Prof Hang Chang-Chieh upon his activities in the
return to the Faculty after serving three years as Deputy other two tracks.
Chairman of A*STAR. Prof Hang brings to CMOST a wealth of Alongside over
experience in science and technology development policies 400 journal and
and management. conference publi-
CMOST undertakes both education and research activities, cations, the Centre
with initial focus in three key areas – Technology and has nine US pat-
Innovation Policies and Strategies, New Product Development/ ents granted with
Management, and Management of R&D and Intellectual others pending.
Property. The Centre has de-
On the educational front, the objective of the CMOST veloped technolo-
educational programmes is to educate engineers/scientists to gies that have
manage activities associated with bringing high technology been commercial-
products and services to the marketplace. Students will learn ised in several in-
business fundamentals such as finance, accounting, human strument systems
The first inventor, Mr YY Liu with the
resource and operations. They will also learn to manage under University proof-of-concept prototype of the
technology innovation and formulate commercialisation license. Technolo- Polar Scanning Stage
strategies. gies developed at the Centre have also resulted in three spin-
The Centre launched an undergraduate Minor in the off companies to date. In 2004, a new US patent (No.
Management of Technology (MOT) in August 2004. A similar 6,777,688) was granted for a large-area scanning technique
programme for Business students is currently being planned. that enables focused beam systems (such as optical-beam, elec-
Another new programme is the MSc in Management of tron-beam, and ion-beam) imaging systems to acquire high-
Technology (MOT), which is scheduled to start in August 2005. resolution images over large areas rapidly.
These MOT modules will also be offered to graduate (MEng As integrated circuit dies become larger, image acquisition
and PhD) students who are doing research in all areas of has become increasingly slow as the die is mechanically
engineering. Finally, a new MSc in Intellectual Property (IP) translated in an x-y raster fashion in a conventional approach.
Management is being formulated in cooperation with the At the completion of a line scan of the specimen, the need to
Faculty of Law and the IP Academy, Singapore. reverse the direction of scanning for the next line would mean
many mechanical start and stop operations. The current
24 invention makes use of high speed spindle motors borrowed
Centre for Integrated Circuit from hard disk drive technology for implementing polar co-
ordinate scanning to achieve image acquisition many times
Failure Analysis & Reliability faster than the existing state-of-the-art technologies. This new
technology possesses high value for commercialisation of a
The Centre for Integrated Circuit Failure Analysis & Reliability product for scanning microscopy with a focused beam.
(CICFAR) is guided by the principle of developing new
techniques and instrumentation for the physical and failure
analysis of semiconductor materials and devices, to meet the
integrated circuit (IC) industry’s projected needs of the future. Interaction and Entertainment
Research activities involve a co-ordinated three-track strategy.
The first track is the development of novel instrumentation, Research Centre
which involves equipment that is currently not available either
commercially or in other research laboratories. Such new The Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre Singapore
instrumentation enables the Centre’s researchers to address a (IERC), a Faculty-level centre, is a cutting-edge creative media
host of new and emerging problems as a result of device research laboratory that will be set up in 2005 with the purpose
miniaturisation. The second track is aimed towards the of making the NUS and Singapore a world leader in the
development of new techniques through a deeper revolutionary field of creative media.
understanding of the underlying physics of integrated circuits. The centre will explore interactive new media research,
This involves experimentation on test structures together with which will assist in development of blue sky explorations and
theoretical analysis and computer modelling. Successful scientific and cultural exuberance for Singapore. It will create
modelling enables the technique to be quantified, thus interactive human technology which involves the
enhancing its capability. Improved understanding of the development of new interfaces to make machines more
fundamental physics of integrated circuits also leads to natural, intuitive and easy to use. Our goal is to make
technique refinement and superior instrumentation. Singapore one of the global cross-points and nuclei of new
The third track of the strategy involves extensive application interactive media and the exporter of new media in the Asia
of the novel technique for failure analysis and reliability studies Pacific region.
using industry samples. Such involvement with industry’s A major focus will be entertainment computing. Electronic
problems usually results in feedback and refinements to the gaming is now one of the most popular forms of entertainment
6575-P8-29 24 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

and a pervasive component of global

culture. Digital games open up vast
opportunities for Singapore's future
growth.
Video game sales last year exceeded
US$40 billion worldwide. Computer
Entertainment is also becoming a
cutting-edge area for many renowned
academic institutions in the world. Such
activities will contribute to the long-term
goal of establishing Singapore as one
of the leading players in the international
Entertainment industry.
In addition, our research will explore
new and yet unknown technologies
such as entertainment robots and
entertainment sensor networks. The
Multi-user experience in the Free Networks Visible Networks
IERC will invent the future through the
visualisation and realisation of new interactive media ideas. • Future-casting: extrapolation of recent and present
The work can be termed "Imagineering", or the imaginative technological developments, making imaginative but
application of engineering sciences. Imagineering involves credible ("do-able") scenarios, and simulating the future.
three main strands of work:
• Creative engineering: new product design, prototyping,
• Imaginative envisioning: the projections and and demonstration work of engineers, computer scientists,
viewpoints of artists and designers and designers.
Centre for Transportation Research – Trip Forecasting and Relocation for

25
Intelligent Community Vehicle Systems
In cities with high population densities, shared-use vehicle of relocations.
systems exhibit great promise in improving mobility, lowering On this premise, NUS is funded by Honda ICVS Singapore
emissions and congestion problems. Termed carsharing, this Pte Ltd for a 20-month collaborative research project. NUS is
new approach allows members to share a common pool of the third university worldwide to collaborate with Honda on
vehicles reserved for their individual use as and when required. carsharing and the first in Asia, outside Japan. The NUS
Developed through pilot projects around the world research team consists of Assoc Prof Cheu Ruey Long, Assoc
(CarLink, IntelliShare, etc.), Honda Diracc launched their new Prof Xu Jianxin, Assoc Prof Lee Der Horng, Dr Meng Qiang,
system in Singapore in March 2002. Competing with three Ms Alvina Kek and several final-year undergraduate students.
other carsharing companies in Singapore, Honda attracts Pioneering the exploration of trip forecasting models for
commuters through perks such as the freedom to pick-up carsharing systems, the team also concurrently developed a
and return vehicles at any port of their choice and the simulation model of Honda’s relocation system. Encouraged
ability to change destination port at any by promising results, the final phase of this research
time during the trip without aims to facilitate pre-emptive relocation by
needing to state a return time. integrating forecasted trip data with the
This invariably burdens simulation model. The successful
operators with the added completion of this
cost of relocating vehicles project will poten-
to prevent un-even tially bring about
supply at ports. A need substantial cost
thus arises for the savings and en-
forecasting of trip hancements in the
data and potentially operational efficiency
minimise the number of carsharing systems.
Map of Honda Diracc’s port locations in Singapore. Photo courtesy of Honda ICVS Singapore Pte Ltd
6575-P8-29 25 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

The Call To Serve

OUR HIGHEST CALLING AS AN ENGINEERING SCHOOL IS TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT IN SOCIETY, OUR COUNTRY AND THE
WORLD. WE BELIEVE THAT OUR ROLE IS TO LEND OUR EXPERTISE AND TO SHARE OUR KNOWLEDGE FOR THE WELL-BEING
OF SINGAPORE AND BEYOND. IN THE PAST YEAR, WE HAVE RISEN UP IN RESPONSE TO THIS CALL TO SERVE.
MRT Circle Line Nicoll Highway Collapse

O n 20 April 2004, at about 3.30pm, a 80m by 100m section
of the MRT Circle Line collapsed taking along with it a large
section of the Nicoll Highway very close to the Golden Mile
Complex building. Subsequently, the Land Transport Authority
(LTA) raised its own internal inquiry to investigate the cause of
the collapse, for which Prof Yong Kwet Yew served as Chairman
for the LTA internal panel.
As four lives were lost in the incident and LTA was a party
to the incident, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) under the
Factories Act, raised an Independent Committee of Inquiry
(COI), chaired by Richard Magnus the Senior District Judge of
the Subordinate Court, to carry out an in-depth investigation State Experts in the Court Hearing (from left): Assoc Prof Richard J Y
Liew (NUS), Assoc Prof Harry S A Tan (Leader, NUS),
into the causes and circumstances that led to this unfortunate Prof Pieter Vermeer (University of Stuttgart, Germany) and
incident. Prof Helmut Schweiger (TU Graz, Austria)
Several parties were involved, each engaging their own
counsels and technical experts for the court hearings and by the response of all parties involved, it was generally felt
26 conduct of independent studies. In total, 18 experts comprising that the State Panel of Experts were highly professional and
well-known international experts in geotechnics and steel very impartial in their position, giving fair treatment to the
works from industry (ARUP, GCG and Maunsell) and academia views of all parties involved in this highly complex case.
were involved. The experts from academia included faculty
from universities such as MIT, Imperial College, TU Graz Austria,
University of Stuttgart, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
Spain, and the NUS (Department of Civil Engineering). Seminar on Tsunamis and
Many of the geotechnical experts were well versed in the
use of FEM codes like PLAXIS. Earthquakes
The State Panel of Experts were engaged by MOM to aid
the State Counsel in the Inquiry, which stretched over 87 days On 26 December 2004, a tremendous earthquake in the
of court hearings. The State Experts Panel comprised of Assoc Indian Ocean resulted in a massive tsunami that devastated
Prof Harry Tan Siew Ann as the leader, Prof Helmut Schweiger the coastal regions of South East Asia. The colossal damage
(TU Graz) and Prof Pieter Vermeer (University of Stuttgart) as and loss of lives were unprecedented in Asia’s history. In the
the Geotechnical Experts, and Assoc Prof Richard Liew as the wake of the crisis, countries all over the world mobilised their
Steel Expert. Prof Liew also carried out essential large scale resources to help the affected countries.
tests of steel strut-waler connections at the NUS Structures The disaster engendered a widespread interest in knowing
laboratory, and the results of these tests were of great the origins and antecedents of tsunamis and earthquakes in
significance to the State Experts investigation report on the general.
performance of the steel joints. Such geological phenomena come under the interest and
The Panel of Experts had two protracted periods of research responsibilities of the Department of Civil Engineering
meetings, from 1 to 5 September 2004, and from 10 to 17 (CE). In the aftermath of the tsunami, the Department
January 2005. Many expert reports were issued by all parties responded to the media and provided technical clarifications
involved. During these meetings, intense discussions and and insight on such catastrophes. This helped Singapore to
technical debates on these reports were conducted to arrive better understand the nature of such disasters and allay fears.
at the Joint Experts Statement reports for the COI. Each party With the aim of helping the public understand tsunamis
panel of experts was also intensely cross-examined by various and earthquakes, a half day seminar was held on 14 January
counsels during the last two weeks of public hearings. Judging 2005 at the NUS Faculty of Engineering. The response was
6575-P8-29 26 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

Post-Tsunami Assessment
JEFF OBBARD
Environmental Science & Engineering Programme
Tropical Marine Science Institute
At 7.58 am on 26 December 2004, an undersea earthquake,

at a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale, occurred about
250km off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It triggered a
devastating tsunami, measuring up to 20m high. The tsunami
Tsunami and Earthquake Seminar held at NUS Faculty hit many countries around the Indian Ocean including:
of Engineering on 14 January 2005 Indonesia (Aceh and North Sumatra), Sri Lanka, India, Thailand,
Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Yemen,
overwhelming - with about 1000 people participating. 40%
Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
of the participants were practicing engineers; 35% were from
The number of people confirmed dead across Aceh and
schools and junior colleges and the remaining 25% were staff
the adjacent province of Northern Sumatra is now more than
and students from NUS. Others tuned in via the web, while
120,000 with many thousands still missing, almost certainly
excerpts of the seminar were also delivered at the Institution
dead. Officials now estimate that about a third of the population
of Engineers, Singapore and at various other schools. The
of the provincial capital Banda Aceh died in the tsunami.
seminar covered the following topics:
Deliveries of emergency aid are now drawing to an end, and
many of the foreign military personnel who were drafted into
• Overview of recent
the region in early January have now departed. Relief workers
earthquakes and
are now starting to look at long-term needs for the Acehnese
tsunamis
people, including the rebuilding of homes, schools and
• A geological hospitals. Most experts predict it will take at least five years for
perspective to the Aceh to fully recover, and the UN has warned that more funds
causes of earthquakes will be needed for longer-term reconstruction efforts.
I was invited to undertake an environmental/ecological
• Waves, tsunamis,
impact assessment (EIA) of tsunami affected habitats on the
effects and warning 27
Physical model for tsunami research northern island of Pulau Weh by the UK based conservation
systems
group Fauna and Flora International (FFI). Founded in Oxford,
• Recent earthquakes in the region of Sumatra and effect England in 1903, FFI is the world’s longest established
on structures in Singapore international conservation body (see: http://www.fauna-
flora.org/index.html) and has worked for many years in Aceh
• Aftermath of earthquakes and tsunamis: role of civil on biodiversity projects. I was joined on the trip by two NUS
engineering in planning, redesign and reconstruction of colleagues from the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) and
affected areas. Department of Biological Sciences, Ms Loh Tse-Lynn and Ms
Zeehan Bte Jaafar. In Aceh, we worked with a team of local
In the days ahead, the CE Department will work with other
government officials and staff from FFI and the United Nations.
research institutes to carry out research to further enhance
Pulau Weh is about the same size as Singapore, and located
our understanding of such natural disasters. A special focus
approximately 2-3 hours by boat off the northern coast of Banda
will be the exploration of early warning and protection systems,
Aceh. On the island, many communities along the coast have
as well as the study of effective infrastructural re-construction.
been devastated. From the assessment, it was evident that over
70% of the mangrove forest has also been destroyed by the
tsunami, and loss of coral habitat is widespread. I am also
involved in assisting a local village to redevelop its wastewater
treatment system. The NUS team is now coordinating with the
FFI to arrange further volunteer and Youth Expedition Projects
to Pulau Weh to assist in the
rehabilitation effort.
I am grateful to the TMSI for
sponsoring my excursion, and for the
support of the NUS Faculty of
Engineering. For more details on
tsunami rehabilitation efforts and how
to register as a volunteer, please contact
Devastation of Aceh after the tsunami me at chejpo@nus.edu.sg. Assoc Prof Jeff Obbard
6575-P8-29 27 4/26/05, 1:47 PM

Celebrating 100 Years

Scribbles from the Clouds –
The Preparation for Everest
Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, stands at a
formidable 8850m. Man has made countless attempts to reach
its summit - some have
succeeded, but many have
failed. Conquering Everest
involves sheer human
determination, strength and
courage. It is the ultimate symbol Trekking through the big boulders to Mount Cho Oyu
of human achievement and the
triumph of the human spirit. To careless pursuit of risk. There is no gold to be found, no cheap
commemorate its centennial thrill to seek. It is a sport which requires immense preparation
year, NUS decided to attempt a and focus, and is therefore often the metaphor for the pinnacle
historic feat by sending a team of human spirit and the celebration of life.
Well dressed for altitudes of bold and pioneering students While engineering and the Himalayas may seem to have
above 8000m
to scale Mount Everest. The little in common, meaningful parallels can be drawn in the case
selection process began in December 2002. Of the 80 aspiring of our two students. Both of them feel that mountaineering
students who vied to be part of the team, only five were selected. mirrors the experience of persevering through their many
Both Stefen Chow E-Fung and Teo Yen Kai, from the Department engineering courses at NUS. Engineering infuses students with
of Mechanical Engineering (ME), beat the odds to emerge as a mindset that requires systematic and rational approaches to
28 members of this final assault team. problems. In mountaineering, one cannot rely solely on instinct
Yen Kai, a second year undergraduate with the ME but requires scientific and tested approaches to take calculated
Department, saw the worth in taking a year off his studies to risks. Like in the case of ascending a steep mountain, rigorous
pursue this dream. Stefen graduated from the same discipline and tenacity are required to succeed in the engineering
department in 2003, and although he was working as a sales curriculum.
engineer in a multinational company after graduation, Both students believe that the lessons, skills and perspectives
resigned to be part of this endeavour. gained in NUS Faculty of Engineering are truly invaluable to
Mountaineering is not a sport that involves the blind and success in life. As Stefen says, “An engineer always strives to
attain what seems impossible and always asks, Why not?” With
this first attempt to climb Everest, both students will bring
engineering beyond the classroom, into reality, and even into
our dreams.
More information on the NUS Centennial Everest Climb 2005
can be found at www.nus.edu.sg/everest.
“ THE PHYSICAL ASCENT UP THE HIGHEST

MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD BY THE TEAM IS A
REFLECTION OF THE COLLECTIVE NUS EFFORT
IN PUSHING OUR OWN LIMITS AND TESTING

OUR OWN PERSERVERANCE.
”
The NUS spirit of enterprise and true grit is embodied in our
Centennial Everest Expedition team. From left: Mr Stefen Chow
E-Fung (alumnus of ME Department), Mr Teo Yen Kai (ME Prof Shih Choon Fong
Department), Mr Lindley Morris Zerbe (Associate Scientist with President, National University of Singapore
CRISP), Mr Ernest Quah Wei Siong (alumnus of the Faculty of
Science), Mr Ee Khong Lean (team leader - alumnus of the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)
6575-P8-29 28 4/26/05, 1:48 PM

29
“The question is not what you look at,
but what you see”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
6575-P8-29 29 4/26/05, 1:48 PM

DIVISION OF
Bioengineering
MAKING THAT DIFFERENCE
The Division of Bioengineering was formed in 2002, with
the objectives of contributing to national manpower
needs, building up research strengths in certain strategic
“ BIOENGINEERING IS AN EXCITING NEW

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY FIELD, IN WHICH
areas of Bioengineering, and promoting inter-disciplinary
studies in the Faculty and in the University. The Division
will contribute to Singapore’s vision to be a Biomedical
Sciences Hub with world-class capabilities across the whole
ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES ARE APPLIED
value chain from research to manufacturing and
TO DEVELOP NEW DEVICES AND healthcare delivery. Its inter-disciplinar y nature is
accentuated by the large proportion of academic staff
TECHNIQUES IN MEDICINE, AS WELL AS holding joint appointments in other engineering
CONTRIBUTING TO AN UNDERSTANDING departments or in the Faculty of Medicine.
The first intake of students for the Bachelor of
OF THE LIFE SCIENCES.
” Engineering (BEng) programme with a Major in
Bioengineering is presently in its third year of a four-year
course. The programme combines modules in Basic
Prof Colin Sheppard Engineering and Bioengineering with those in
Head, Division of Bioengineering
Director, Engineering Science Programme
30
A stomach model embedded in anatomical

images from the Visible Human Project
Mathematics and Science. Students take modules in

Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, to
give them a firm foundation in the Life Sciences. Electives
are also offered in Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering,
Biosignals & Bioimaging, and Biomechanics.
The Graduate Programme in Bioengineering offers
high-quality research training with a wide range of
graduate modules, leading to a MSc or PhD degree. Inter-
disciplinary experience is achieved by including two
laboratory rotations with a dissertation project taken in
an approved laboratory chosen from the different
Faculties. The graduate modules are also available to
graduate students enrolled directly through the NUS
Faculty of Engineering for MEng or PhD degrees by
research.
Research within the Division follows a joint-lab concept
6575-P30-47 30 4/26/05, 1:59 PM

with the aim of facilitating the cross-fertilisation of ideas

and fostering of multi-disciplinary teaching, learning and
research. To this end, the Division seeks to develop core
competencies in four focused areas of research: Biosignals
& Bioimaging, Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering,
Biomechanics & Computational Bioengineering, and
Nanobioengineering. These areas have applications in
Biopharmaceutical Engineering, Medical Devices,
Biosensors & Bioinstrumentation, Regenerative Medicine
and Cancer Therapy.
Computational Physiology
Computational physiology is a new research area for the

Division. Led by Dr Martin Buist, our focus is on integrated “
computer modelling in Electrophysiology. Current
applications range from cellular models (where processes
such as electrical activation and mechanical contraction
““ THROUGH THE DIVISION,
I WAS ABLE TO SECURE A RESEARCH

are integrated) to whole organ models, for which high
performance computers are needed to obtain solutions. FELLOWSHIP AT THE CALIFORNIA
The stomach is a muscular organ activated by electrical
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR
signals. In collaboration with researchers from the
University of Auckland, New Zealand, we have developed THE SUMMER OF 2004. BESIDES
31
the first anatomically detailed computer model of gastric
electrophysiology. Using this model, the omnipresent SUPPORTING MY ACADEMIC PURSUITS,
electrical wave that moves down the stomach with a THE DIVISION HAS ALSO ENCOURAGED
frequency of 0.05 Hz has been simulated. The resulting
waves of activation can then be used to estimate how this ME IN MY SPORTING DREAMS DURING
stomach activity will appear as voltage changes on the
MY TRAINING PREPARATION FOR
skin surface. The focus of this study is now turning towards
detection of disease conditions, such as diabetic
gastroparesis, where there is a degradation of the cells
THE 2003 SEA GAMES.
””
that generate the electrical activity. Mr Lin Qinghui, from the pioneering batch of the
Bioengineering undergraduate programme,
is currently in his 3rd year
Division Consultative Committee

(External Members)
(19 November 2002 - 18 November 2004)
Mr Abel Ang Boon Thong
Head, Medical Technology - Economic Development Board
Mr Alok Mishra
Vice President – Johnson & Johnson Medical, Asia Pacific
Dr Nicholas Ng
General Manager – Promega Corporation
Mr Wong Yew Sin

Dr Dietmar W Hutmacher and Dr Jan Thorsten Schantz studying Director – Centre for Medical Device Regulation,
a scaffold/cell construct via confocal laser microscopy Health Sciences Authority
6575-P30-47 31 4/26/05, 1:59 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

The coming century augurs exciting developments in
MAKING THAT DIFFERENCE chemically functionalised and nanostructured materials
and devices as well as in process sciences for new
challenges in the bio/pharmaceutical industries. Chemical
“ THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO
CAN TAME NATURE AT THE NANOSCOPIC

and biomolecular engineering, where many of these
challenges reside, thus stands at the threshold of yet
another new era, and the Department has set in motion
AND MOLECULAR LEVELS. THIS REQUIRES a number of initiatives to meet the new challenges.
A NEW BREED OF PROFESSIONALS WHO
CAN COMBINE THE QUANTITATIVE/
ChemBioSys @ NUS
INTEGRATIVE SKILLS OF THE ENGINEER WITH
THE DEDUCTIVE THINKING OF THE
CHEMICAL AND LIFE SCIENTIST.

”
Prof Raj Rajagopalan
Head, Department of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
32
From molecules to multinationals and single cells to ecological webs:

No system is too small or too large for the ChemBioSys Group
Examples include:
• A revamping of the curriculum to integrate biological

and core chemical engineering principles, with an
initial funding of $3.25 million from the Provost’s
Educational Innovation Initiative (with co-sharing by
the Faculty).
• A new Biomolecular Research Cluster for cutting-

edge research and for our partnership with A*STAR’s
Bioprocessing Technology Institute.
Our traditional areas also remain vibrant and are being

expanded to meet the challenges of tomorrow. For
example,
• Our Process Systems Engineering group, with a strong

record in classical chemical process engineering, is
expanding its scope to address emerging problems in
biological sciences and is now renamed as the
6575-P30-47 32 4/26/05, 1:59 PM

ChemBioSys Group (for Chemical and Biological

Systems Engineering).
• Our Joint PhD Programme with the University of Illinois

at Urbana-Champaign is moving beyond its original
biological flavour to include the continuing and
exciting challenges ahead in chemicals and materials.
• In our continuing drive to serve as an educational hub

between the East and the West, our links with pre-
eminent US and European universities are expanded
to include collaborations with the Indian Institutes of
Technology in India and the Institute of Advanced
Materials at Fudan University in China.
The Department is also reaching out to global

multinational companies as well as regional powers such
as Hyflux Ltd. Our educational and research leadership is
beginning to bear fruit and our international profile is
rising. As a mark of such recognition, the Department was
invited to join the US Council for Chemical Research (CCR)
in Washington DC, USA – an organisation consisting of
most of the US chemical research enterprise, which
33
comprises more than 200 companies, universities, and
government laboratories with a combined R&D budget of
over US$7 billion. The Department becomes the first
“ GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IS INCREASINGLY DEPENDENT ON A
foreign academic member of CCR, whose mission is to
promote cooperation in basic research and to encourage SINGLE SCARCE RESOURCE -- FRESH
high-quality education in the chemical sciences and
WATER -- AND HYFLUX AND ITS
engineering.
PARTNERSHIP WITH ACADEMIC
LEADERS ARE A KEY PART OF THE
ANSWER TO THIS NEED.
Ms Olivia Lum, Group CEO & President,

”
Hyflux Limited and the first woman to win the
"Businessperson of the Year" Award for 2004
Departmental Consultative Committee

(External Members)
Mr Foong Chee Leong
Head, Pollution Control Department – National Environment Agency
Mr Edwin T F Khew
Chairman – Singapore Association for Environmental
Occupational Health & Safety Companies
Mr Tan Hien Meng

General Manager, Asia Pacific Distribution & Pipeline –
ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
Sharing a moment – and a page from the lessons – Dr Patrick Yeung

with the next generation Executive Project Director – Schering-Plough Ltd, Singapore Branch
6575-P30-47 33 4/26/05, 1:59 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Civil Engineering
T he Department of Civil Engineering (CE) actively promotes
research in the multi-disciplinary areas of offshore engineering
and water research. The Centre for Offshore Research and
“ CIVIL ENGINEERS HAVE BEEN THE KEY

PLAYERS IN DEVELOPING THE WORLD CLASS
Engineering (CORE) was officially launched on 22 September
2004. Our faculty members have won the Stanley Gray Award
for Offshore Technology, the ISOPE Award in 2002 and the
INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS OF SINGAPORE. Prestigious IES Engineering Achievement Award in 2003. A
United States patent was also granted in 2004 for a "Triple
THE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, Coupler for Flexible Scaffold System", a coupling apparatus for
THROUGH ITS CONSTANTLY ENRICHED
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES AND CUTTING-
EDGE RESEARCH, WILL CONTINUE TO
PRODUCE TOP QUALITY CIVIL ENGINEERS TO
MEET THE CHALLENGES AND NEEDS OF
A BETTER SINGAPORE FOR OUR
FUTURE GENERATION.
”
Prof Fwa Tien Fang
34 Head, Department of Civil Engineering Serpentina FPSO vessel in Keppel Shipyard
Photo courtesy of Keppel Offshore and Marine Ltd
interconnecting three scaffold members. This patent originated

from a research funded by A*STAR and local shipyards under
the Marine Technology Programme. Ongoing Offshore
Engineering research projects in collaboration with partners from
Norway, United Kingdom and Australia include advanced
analysis and modeling of jack-up platforms, installation and
extraction of spudcan foundations, positioning control systems
for floating structures, and performance of offshore structures
subjected to fire and blast. Another initiative, with counterparts
in Japan, involves the design, analysis and application of very
large floating structures (VLFS) which offers an alternative to
land reclamation, particularly in deep waters or where seabeds
are extremely soft. Discussions are also currently underway to
initiate possible collaborative projects on marine and offshore
engineering with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Another area of focus is water research. Studies on fouling
characterisation in reverse osmosis (RO) systems have led to a
novel protocol for a quick and accurate estimate of the fouling
index. This new method which provides an accurate
characterisation of the feed water fouling tendency, would boost
industry and public confidence in RO processes. The removal
of MS2 bacteriophage using different membranes and under
different operating conditions indicates that viruses can be
effectively removed by RO membranes, and the performance is
independent of influent concentrations spikes. A concerted R&D
effort on UV disinfection technology has established further
6575-P30-47 34 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

useful information for formulating disinfection strategies in terms

of inactivation and re-growth potential. In addition, research
on novel parasite detection techniques has led to the
development of an ultra-sensitive nano-particle based detection
technique which has excellent photo-stability.
Our Civil Engineering students are being equipped to face
the challenges of tomorrow by taking an integrated approach
to infrastructural problems. They are being trained not only in
traditional civil and structural engineering disciplines, but also
in the latest information technology and system analysis skills,
advanced knowledge in urban environmental engineering,
intelligent transportation and logistics systems, and offshore
engineering. With the introduction of the Infrastructure and
“ ...BECAUSE OF THE ENGINEERING

TRAINING WHICH I GAINED IN NUS,
I'M ABLE TO ANALYSE THINGS,
PARTICULARLY IN A NEW COUNTRY

WHERE EVERYTHING IS NEW.
” 35
Mr Yip Hoong Mun, 1986 alumnus with a first class
honours degree in Civil Engineering, an engineer hotelier
who received a Magnolia Award by the Shanghai
Municipal Government for his contributions to the city.
Confocal microscopy for study of biofilm structure
Environmental Engineering Track, students now have greater

flexibility in choosing their modules and disciplines. A new
specialisation in Offshore Engineering was also offered for the
first time in 2004. Besides the double degree programme
between NUS and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees,
and the NUS-Tsinghua University double Masters degree
programme in Transportation and Logistics, the Department
has accepted students into the dual degree programme with
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and is currently in
discussions with Hanoi University of Civil Engineering on a similar Departmental Consultative Committee
(External Members)
twinning programme with Vietnam.
Mr Chionh Chye Khye
CEO - Building & Construction Authority
Mr Khoo Boo Tat

Managing Director - Presscrete Engineering Pte Ltd
Mr Khor Poh Hwa

Senior Advisor - CPG Corporation Pte Ltd
Mr Lim Bok Ngam

Director - Engineering Division, Land Transport Authority
Mr Harry Seah
Director - Technology Office, Public Utilities Board
Mr Teh Hee Seang

Managing Director - T Y Lin South East Asia Pte Ltd
Mr Toh Ah Cheong
Site visit to Belanak FPSO in Batam Director - Technology Division, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
6575-P30-47 35 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Electrical & Computer Engineering

T he Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE)
MAKING THAT DIFFERENCE is positioned as a premier department providing quality
engineering education and R&D leadership for the application
“ NO EFFORT WILL BE SPARED AT

SPEARHEADING INITIATIVES THAT BUILD
of technology to the advancement and development of
Singapore. Programmes launched by ECE Department are
driven by three main strategic thrusts:
ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF FACULTY AND • Steer ECE students towards creativity and
technopreneurship
STUDENTS TO REINFORCE THE
• Steer ECE research towards higher-profile areas
WORLD-CLASS STANDING OF THE
• Push for international recognition and publicity
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL &
COMPUTER ENGINEERING.
” Before Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted the
need to “teach less but learn more”, ECE Department had
already trimmed the curriculum by some 20% and introduced
a variety of independent-study initiatives for students. Our
Prof Yeo Swee Ping
curriculum taskforce also incorporated updates in keeping with
Head, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
technological advances and related developments. New
biomedical engineering modules continue to be formulated
and launched to prepare ECE students for promising
36
Virtual colonography for polyp detection
careers in the Life Sciences. Digital entertainment courses

have been proposed in response to Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore’s (IDA) recent
announcements. There are also efforts to align IC design
courses with EDB’s plans for this growing sector.
The ECE Department has over the past year, attracted more
than $10 million of external sponsored research funding for a
variety of new projects, bringing the total of ongoing projects
to 95, with total funding of more than $40 million. Of these,
6575-P30-47 36 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

the largest grants are for the follow-up Nanotechnology

projects which have been initiated, in collaboration with
Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Data Storage Institute
(DSI), after the successful completion in 2004 of the mega-
projects associated with the Temasek Professorship
programmes. ECE Department has also strengthened research
links with Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), DSI, IME,
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and
SIMTech under joint-laboratory and/or adjunct-staff
arrangements for collaboration initiatives in selected strategic
areas as identified under A*STAR’s programmes such as TSRP
and ONFIG-2.
Of the ten Assistant Professors recruited by ECE Department
in 2004, five have bioengineering-related interests. In addition,
a number of ECE faculty with primary expertise in infocomms,
microelectronics and control have extended their research
scopes and initiated collaboration with researchers in the
Division of Bioengineering, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of
“ THE KNOWLEDGE GAINED IN ECE
HAS BOTH BREADTH AND DEPTH.

Dentistry and Bioinformatics Institute on projects related to
bioimaging, bio-MEMS, bioinformatics, bio-systems modelling IT PREPARES ME WELL FOR THE
and healthcare information systems.
A joint PhD programme was launched with Ecole
COMPETITIVE WORLD
37
Superieure d’Electricite (SUPELEC) to provide the academic
platform for research students working on various SONDRA-
OF TOMORROW.
”
related projects (SONDRA is the acronym coined for the new Mr Randall Law, our top graduate in Bachelor of Electrical
SUPELEC-ONERA-NUS-DSTA Research Alliance). These joint-PhD and Computer Engineering who won Silver Medal in the
Asia Pacific Young Inventors Awards 2004, for the work
students will be required to spend two or three semesters at done during his final year project, which was a
SUPELEC’s Gif-sur-Yvette campus (outside Paris) where the collaboration between NUS and A*STAR’s Data Storage
Institute (DSI) in the Laser Microprocessing Laboratory.
SONDRA Lab is currently sited.
In all, ECE Department’s 2004 research activities resulted
in 333 papers published in top-tier international journals, 230
papers presented at major conferences, 20 books or book
chapters as well as three spin-off companies. The impact of
our research achievements is evident from the impressive list Departmental Consultative Committee
(External Members)
of accolades accorded to ECE faculty and students over the
past year. We will continue to actively seek opportunities to
Mr Alwi Bin Abdul Hafiz
expand our research activities in the department. General Manager – Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Pte) Ltd
Dr Chan Lap Hung

Director – Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd
Dr Chen Mun
President – Powermatic Data Systems Ltd
Mr Leong Sow Chun

Vice-President and Managing Director –
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Mr Lim Soon Hock

Chairman – Plan-B Technologies Pte Ltd
Mr Quek Tong Boon

Deputy Secretary (Technology & Transformation) – Ministry of Defence
Mr Seah Moon Ming

President and Deputy CEO – Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd
President – Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd
Left: Maximum intensity projection of 3D cerebral magnetic resonance Dr Tan Geok Leng
angiography. Right: Visualisation of segmentation result Director – Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
6575-P30-47 37 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Industrial & Systems Engineering

The Industrial & Systems Engineering Department (ISE)
continued to make good progress in Academic Year 2004-
2005, in keeping with its vision to be a premier department
“ WE STRIVE TO DEVELOP THINKERS WITH
THE SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVES. THE

providing quality education and leadership in research,
development and application of technology and knowledge
in the ISE domain.
The BEng (ISE) programme is in full swing with the pioneer
FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS
cohort of students in their final year of study. The curriculum
OUR GRADUATES DEVELOP AND ACQUIRE incorporates rigour in the fundamentals of the discipline and
imbues students with the knowledge and flexibility needed
IN OUR EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH
to adapt to new technological changes. Almost a third of the
PROGRAMMES WILL ENABLE THEM TO students in the first two cohorts took advantage of the
opportunity to broaden their education by participating in
REMAIN COMPETITIVE AND ADAPTABLE IN overseas exchange programmes, industrial attachments and
THE DYNAMIC GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT.
” double degree programmes. The Systems Design Project
Prof Ang Beng Wah

Head, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
38
Research in Logistics and Supply Chain Systems
requiring students to work on real-world problems in industrial

organisations has received very positive feedback from these
participating organisations.
A record number of a hundred MSc (ISE) graduates
received their degree during the July 2004 Commencement.
The MSc programme continues to be popular among
practicing engineers and has attracted some of the best students
from ASEAN. The Department's carefully-designed modules
continued to support several degree programmes, such as the
NUS-Georgia Tech Dual MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain
Management, NUS-Eindhoven University of Technology Joint
Master of Technological Design and NUS-Naval Postgraduate
School Master of Defence Technology and Systems.
The Department reorganised its research along four
strategic thrusts to align with the economic objectives of the
6575-P30-47 38 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

nation – Logistics and Supply Chain Systems, Quality

Engineering, Service and Innovation Management, and
Systems Modelling and Optimisation. Faculty members
conducted cutting-edge research in these areas and
collaborated with researchers from numerous universities
overseas. New external funding was procured from Seagate
Technology International, TLI-Asia Pacific, Maritime and Port
Authority of Singapore, and Korea Science and Engineering
Foundation for industry-based projects in logistics, quality and
optimisation. An MOU was signed with SIA Cargo to promote
joint research and development activities.
A record nine research students from the Department
received their PhD degrees in 2004. The research of one of
them was in fact featured in the December 2004 issue of
Industrial Engineer, the flagship publication of the US Institute
“ ISE PROVIDED AN EXCELLENT
ENVIRONMENT FOR MY STUDY

of Industrial Engineers. Faculty participation at international
reliability engineering conferences held in 2004 resulted in AND CAREER PREPARATION.
two best paper awards. Two-thirds of the ISE faculty members
THE CAREFULLY-DESIGNED AND
served on the editorial boards of some 25 international
research journals. Four of the Department's 17 faculty CHALLENGING PROJECT WORK
members served variously in positions outside the Department
INCORPORATED INTO THE CURRICULUM
such as, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources,
Chief Executive Officer of the Design Technology Institute,
39
ALLOWED ME TO APPLY THE
Acting Director of Office of Quality Management at NUS, and
Deputy Director of Temasek Defence Systems Institute. KNOWLEDGE LEARNT TO
Together with the Design Technology Institute, the
Department hosted the first International Symposium on
REAL LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES.
”
Management of Design Technology in October 2004. The Mr Boo See Yang, from the pioneering batch
Department also contributed substantially to the organisation of the BEng (ISE) programme, who joined
Accenture upon graduation
of the IEEE's International Engineering Management
Conference 2004 held in Singapore.
On 3 March 2005 the IBM-NUS On Demand Supply Chain
Solutions Centre, a joint collaboration between IBM and NUS,
was launched. Housed in the ISE Department, it is planned as
a key part of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in
leading edge supply chain theory and solutions. Departmental Consultative Committee
(External Members)
Mr Koh Soo Keong
President, SembCorp Logistics Ltd
Mr Ng Kok Chuan
Divisional Manager (Information Strategy) -
SAF CIO Office
Mr Alvin Ong Siau Wah

Assistant Director, IT Department –
Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd
Ms Seow Boon Quey

Director, Quality & Reliability Assurance/Training –
Tech Semiconductor Singapore Pte Ltd
Mr Than Su Ee
Vice President, Mezzanine Capital Unit,
Group Investment Banking - OCBC Bank
The international speakers (Prof Myung Hwan Yun, Prof Tony Bendell,
Prof Johannes Halman, Prof Stephen Cook) posing for a group Ms Thia Bee Hua
photo with Prof Goh Thong Ngee (CEO,Design Technology Institute) Internal Quality Consultant/Statistician –
and Prof Ang Beng Wah (Head, ISE Department) Hewlett-Packard Singapore Pte Ltd
6575-P30-47 39 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Mechanical Engineering
The Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) continued
to achieve excellence in teaching and research, garnering a
significant number of achievements and accolades in 2004.
“ WITH DESIGN EXPECTED TO PLAY A
SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE NEXT PHASE

Academic programmes at the Department are continually
being reviewed, renewed and strengthened with the goal of
equipping our graduates with the most up-to-date technologies
and skills while ensuring that they receive solid grounding in
OF SINGAPORE’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, fundamental engineering principles. For example, the newly
launched Specialisation in Biomechanical Engineering provides
A DESIGN-CENTRIC MECHANICAL
the necessary background and training for ME undergraduates
ENGINEERING CURRICULUM WILL BETTER who intend to work in life sciences and biomedical-related
industries.
PREPARE OUR GRADUATES FOR THEIR The hallmark of our ME programme is its design-centric
PROFESSIONAL CAREERS AS WELL AS GIVE curriculum. One outcome of this educational philosophy is our
increasing involvement in the inter-varsity Formula Society of
THEM A COMPETITIVE EDGE.
” Automotive Engineers (FSAE) race, held annually in the USA. To
date, our students have designed and built three cars from
scratch. The second car took part in the 2004 FSAE race and
Prof Lim Seh Chun emerged 58th out of 140 registered teams from all over the
Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering
world. More impressively, the car was placed 25th in the final
endurance event, of which only 40 cars survived the demanding
22km race. Not only was this the first external venture of our
40 ME team, it also made history by being the first entry from South-
east Asia. The invaluable lessons learnt were incorporated into
the design and construction of the third car, which was later
unveiled by the Minister for Transport, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong at
the Singapore International Motorshow 2004 next to the likes
of Lamborghini, Lotus and other world class sports cars. The
car is presently undergoing shakedown tests and further fine-
tuning in preparation for the 2005 FSAE race. Through such
activities, our ME undergraduates gain priceless experience
which will serve them well in their future professional careers.
The Department also completed a major review of its
research strategies in 2004. This resulted in the broadening of
our three multi-disciplinary fields of strategic research into six
research thrusts. They are as follows:
The NUS-FSAE 2005 car being unveiled by the Minister for Transport,
Mr Yeo Cheow Tong at the Singapore International
Motorshow 2004 on 11 November 2004
6575-P30-47 40 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

• Advanced Manufacturing Technology

– Integrated and Intelligent Design and Manufacturing
• Biomechanical Engineering
– Design, Development and Fabrication of Biomechanical
Systems
• Defence Technology
– Technology for Detection and Protection for Homeland
Security
• Design and Processing of Innovative Materials
– Smart/Coating/Hybrid/Thin Film Materials
• Energy Systems Engineering
– Advancement of Efficient Energy Use
• Micro- and Nano-Systems Technology
– Design, Development and Fabrication of Small-scale
Devices “Mechanical engg
– the S’pore edge”
“ SINGAPORE’S SAVVY MECHANICAL
ENGINEERS POSSESS THE RIGHT
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND FLEXIBILITY

41
AND ADAPTABILITY.
” – EDB
Quotes from The Business Times,

Tuesday 11 January 2005
Head eye module for robotic telepresence
Research activities in the Department continued unabated

with 24 projects initiated in 2004 on $5.4 million worth of
funding. This brings the total number of ongoing projects
to 70 and raises research funding to $24.5 million. Research
collaborators included renowned overseas universities such
as Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, Swiss Federal
Departmental Consultative Committee
Institute of Technology, Switzerland, Simon Fraser University, (External Members)
Canada, Kyushu University, Japan, Huazhong University of (19 November 2002 - 18 November 2004)
Science & Technology, China and Technion – Israel Institute Mr Richard Eu
Group CEO - Eu Yan Sang (S) Pte Ltd
of Technology, Israel.
The Department also embarked on very fruitful joint Mr Lee Chuan Seng
Chairman - Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (SE Asia) Pte Ltd
research projects with overseas and local companies and
Mr Loh Weng Whye
institutes, such as GE Corporate R&D, USA, Hitachi Production Adviser – Green Dot Capital Pte Ltd
Engineering Laboratory, Japan, Moldflow Corporation, Mr Masahiko Mori

President - Mori Seiki Co Ltd
Australia, ST Engineering, Singapore, Defence Medical &
Environment Research Institute, Institute of Materials Research Mr Quek Tong Boon
Deputy Secretary (Technology & Transformation) –
& Engineering, Institute of Microelectronics, Institute of High Ministry of Defence
Performance Computing and Singapore Institute of Mr Tan Pheng Hock

President and CEO - Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd
Manufacturing Technology. Out of these activities, 14 patents
were filed and three granted in the year under review. Mr Peter Yap Beng Khoon
Head, Business Development - Save Energy Pte Ltd
6575-P30-47 41 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

DEPARTMENT OF
Materials Science & Engineering

The Department of Materials Science (established in the Faculty
of Science in 1996) will relocate to the NUS Faculty of
Engineering in April 2005 so as to expand its education and
“ WE USE AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING IN OUR

research to include the engineering components of advanced
materials.
The establishment of the Department of Materials Science
& Engineering (DMSE) under the auspices of the NUS Faculty
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH OF THE
of Engineering will aim to provide an inter-disciplinary, science-
EMERGING AREAS OF MATERIALS FOR HIGH- driven, engineering application-oriented education and research
in advanced materials for high-technologies. Our education
TECHNOLOGIES. THE SCIENTIFIC CURIOSITY platforms will focus on integrating scientific understanding with
WILL PROPEL US TO DREAM AND CREATE
NEW MATERIALS. THE ENGINEERING
INNOVATIONS HELP US REALISE THESE
DREAMS INTO REAL APPLICATIONS.

”
Prof Chow Gan-Moog
Head, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
42
engineering principles relevant to the rational design of
advanced materials (with controlled structure and properties
over multiple length-scales for biotechnology, infocomm
technology and sustainable energy). In addition to providing a
core of knowledge in Materials Science & Engineering (MSE),
we will focus on emerging frontiers in nanostructured materials
and biomedical materials. These fields and their intersection
offer exciting opportunities in education and the research of
high-tech materials. The programme will emphasise training
highly-skilled undergraduates and postgraduates who will be
adaptive and responsive to the changing needs of local and
global materials-related careers and markets. The DMSE will offer
a four-year undergraduate programme as well as graduate
programmes leading to the MEng and PhD (Materials Science
and Engineering). Another graduate programme, the MSc
programme (Materials Science and Engineering) will be jointly
run with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The DMSE
will also offer the double degree in BEng and BSc/BSc (Hons) in
Physics, in collaboration with the Faculty of Science.
The Department of Materials Science (Faculty of Science)
has always been engaged in the cutting-edge research of
advanced materials. These include high-coercivity magnetic thin
films for high-density data storage; a three-dimensional Si micro-
electro-mechanical system with selective photoluminescence;
near-infrared-light-active nanoparticles for drug delivery;
semiconductor nanostructures; advanced electroceramics and
bulk metallic glass for functional applications. The quantity and
6575-P30-47 42 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

Hela-cancer cell viability under Au based

nanoparticles loaded with anti-cancer drug
Laser Scanning Confocal Images
Control (cancer 100 µg/ml cis-platin 100 µg/ml cis-platin

cells only) loaded nano colloids
Cancer cells stained with fluorescence dye

Red-fluorescence: dead cells
Green-fluorescent: living cells “ THE INTEGRATIVE SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING APPROACH IS
ESSENTIAL IN ORDER FOR US TO

REMAIN AT THE CUTTING-EDGE OF
GLOBAL COMPETITIONS IN MATERIAL-
DEPENDENT HIGH-TECHS. WE WORK
SEM image of high-performance ferroelectric

ON MATERIALS THAT MATTER!
Prof Chow Gan-Moog

” 43
Top photo: Some faculty members of DMSE

quality of research output in 2003 compared well with other
top MSE departments in the world. Two of our faculty members
received acclaim for their research contributions leading to an
international award and an elected fellowship, respectively.
The new DMSE aims to enhance the strengths of our current
education and research infrastructure. This will keep us globally
competitive while providing top-quality education and
application-oriented research in cutting-edge materials science
and engineering.
6575-P30-47 43 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

Environmental Science & Engineering
PROGRAMME
T he scale and complexity of environmental problems have

MAKING THAT DIFFERENCE grown substantially in the past decade and will continue to
do so in the foreseeable future. This is a consequence of rapid,
“ THE ENVIRONMENT IS A RESOURCE

AND THE ENVIRONMENT IS WHAT
worldwide industrialisation and urbanisation. Many of these
environmental issues go beyond single disciplinary education
and research frameworks. Consequently, there is a critical and
urgent need for an inter-disciplinary approach in environmental
NURTURES US. IT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF education and research.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND In order to meet the needs of the profession and the
ENGINEERING PROGRAMME TO PRODUCE
STUDENTS WITH A PASSION FOR
SAFEGUARDING OUR ENVIRONMENT AND

PROMOTING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD.
”
Prof Raj Rajagopalan
Director, Environmental Science & Engineering Programme
44
A veil over the island: The health effects of atmospheric pollution

are a matter of major concern to ESE researchers
requirements of the industry, the newly formed Environmental

Science and Engineering Programme (ESEP)1 at the NUS
Faculty of Engineering will provide students with a broad-
based education within inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary
frameworks. The innovative curriculum, which sees the BEng
and MSc programmes as a continuum, prepares future
environmental professionals by engaging them in integrated
learning and holistic approaches to solving complex and multi-
faceted environmental problems. In addition, critical and
integrative thinking skills, communication skills, managerial skills
and problem-solving skills are emphasised as part of the
education. The curriculum also looks at issues beyond
Singapore. It includes those which apply to a wider
geographical area so that graduates can be relevant beyond
Singapore.
Research is a vital and integral component of graduate
studies. Faculty members of ESEP have been involved in
numerous environmental research projects involving
collaborations with people from many disciplines. These
1
ESEP will formally become a Division within the Faculty effective 1 April 2005. The
Divisions enjoy a status equivalent to those of Departments and emphasise inter-
disciplinary education and research. The Division of Environmental Science and
Engineering will also promote collaborative efforts across Faculty boundaries.
6575-P30-47 44 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

“ AN ENRICHING UNIVERSITY LIFE
INCLUDES A WELL-BALANCED MIX OF

How far do they go? The transport and penetration of nanoparticles
in human organs are a focus of ESE research ACADEMIC AND EXTRACURRICULAR
projects encompass the three key areas of environmental ACTIVITIES. PERSONALLY, I FEEL THAT
engineering – water, solid wastes and air pollution. This cross-
THE NUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
disciplinary, collaborative framework in environmental science
and engineering is a new enterprise at NUS which leverages NOT ONLY OFFERS ACADEMICALLY
faculty strengths in areas ranging from resource management
and technology development to concepts for sustainable
ENRICHING PROGRAMMES, BUT ALSO
development. Fundamental and applied research are carried
45
HAS BEEN VERY SUPPORTIVE OF ITS
out to investigate scientific questions and to develop
technologies which can be used to address issues of immediate
and long-term societal concerns. ESEP is also sensitive to the
STUDENTS’ ORGANISATIONS.
”
Ms Christina Tan, a 2nd Year Environmental Engineering
need for industrially relevant research.
student, at the X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer used for
The goal of ESEP’s integrated education and research is to surface characterisation of materials
produce students with a passion for safeguarding the
environment and who are capable of promoting an
environmentally sound and sustainable world. By strongly
combining capabilities in environmental science and
engineering, ESEP seeks to endow its graduates with effective
capabilities in addressing both present and future
environmental challenges.
Emerging Contaminant Detection
6575-P30-47 45 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

Bachelor of Technology
PROGRAMME

T he Bachelor of Technology Programme (BTech) is a self-
funding, part-time evening programme initiated in 1995 to
cater to the strong aspirations of a large number of polytechnic
“ ALL OUR GRADUATES ARE HIGHLY

REGARDED AND HAVE NO PROBLEMS
graduates working in local industry who desire to upgrade
themselves and work towards an engineering degree. It
provides an affordable avenue for these graduates to pursue
a relevant degree course without having to give up their full-
GETTING EMPLOYMENT WITH THEIR YEARS
time jobs or having to go overseas. The modular structure of
OF EXPERIENCE WHEN THEY GRADUATE. AS the course enables students to study at their own pace
depending on their family and work commitments.
A TOP ACADEMIC FROM THE UK ONCE
The Programme provides a balance of theoretical
REMARKED, ‘THESE GRADUATES DESERVE grounding, engineering applications and project work.
Students are granted the equivalent of a one-year exemption
GREATER RESPECT FOR HAVING ACHIEVED
from a four-year full-time BEng programme. The BTech
THE SAME ACADEMIC LEVEL WHILST Programme is designed so that its academic standard matches
that of any full-time BEng course offered in NUS. To ensure
HOLDING DOWN A FULL-TIME JOB’. WE
that high standards and quality are met, the BTech programme
EXPECT INCREASING DEMAND FOR OUR adopts the same grading system, degree classification,
COURSES IN THE FUTURE.
” teaching staff, laboratory experiments and facilities as the BEng
programme.
Though based on the well-established and highly
respected full-time BEng course, the curriculum for the BTech
46 Prof Poo Aun Neow
course is specially designed to suit the backgrounds and needs
Director, Bachelor of Technology Programme
of polytechnic graduates working in local industry. The
Programme prepares these graduates for high-level positions
in engineering design, management, development and
research in a knowledge-based economy by reinforcing the
range of mathematical and engineering science foundations
so essential to managing engineering applications.
Since its inception in 1995, the Programme has produced
close to 1000 graduates.
Programme Structure
Currently, courses leading to four BTech degrees are
offered, namely the BTech (Chemical), BTech (Electronics),
BTech (Manufacturing) and BTech (Mechanical).
Admission to the BTech Programme requires a relevant
diploma from a local polytechnic, or its equivalent. Students
typically attend classes for three evenings a week and complete
their degree in four years.
All BTech degree programmes are fully accredited by the
Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) and Professional
Engineers Board, Singapore (PEB). The BTech (Electronics)
programme is accredited at the MEng level by the Institution
of Electrical Engineers (UK), while the BTech (Manufacturing)
and BTech (Mechanical) are accredited at the MEng level by
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK).
6575-P30-47 46 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

Student Intakes and Graduation

The annual student intakes for the past two years are given in
the table below.
PROGRAMME 2003/2004 2004/2005

Appl Intake Appl Intake
BTech (Elect Eng) 341 146 185 119
BTech (Mech/Mfg Eng) 180 98 186 73
BTech (Chem Eng) 114 67 72 58
Total 635 311 443 250
The number of students who graduated with a

Bachelor of Technology in 2004 is given in the table below.
PROGRAMME 2004
BTech (Elect Eng)
BTech (Mech/Mfg Eng)
69
53
“ NUS IS A LEADING UNIVERSITY OF
WORLDWIDE REPUTE. ALONG WITH THE
BTech (Chem Eng) 30
Total 152 LOCALITY AND EXCELLENT FACILITIES
AND THE VALUABLE INTERACTION

The BTech Programme continuously monitors and
BETWEEN THE LECTURERS AND
updates its curriculum contents to stay relevant to local 47
industry. The results of a survey done on a final year BTech INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, IT IS
class have shown that 92% of the students received a
promotional advancement in their jobs after their enrolment
DEFINITELY A PLACE WHERE YOU WILL
in the BTech Programme . Of these students, well over 70%
indicated that what they studied in the Programme
BE GROOMED INTO AN ALL ROUNDER.
”
contributed significantly to their promotions. The survey also Mr Anil Thrikovil, Ist Class Honours (Electronics
showed that as much as 86% of the students made use of Engineering) Product Engineer, National Semiconductor
Manufacturing (S) Pte Ltd
the knowledge gained with 38% using it to a large extent.
BTech Programme Advisory Committee

(External Members)
Mr Chng Teo Hye

Executive Chairman & Co-CEO, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd
Ms Lee Bee Wah

Vice President,The Institution of Engineers, Singapore
Mr Ng Chong Khim
Deputy President, Corporate Services & Marketing,
President, CSG Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd
Mr Peter Tan
Managing Director, Flextronics International Ltd
Mr K Y Wong
Vice President/Managing Director,
Berkley Industries (Asia) Pte Ltd
BTech Programme booth at Career Fair 2005
6575-P30-47 47 4/26/05, 2:00 PM

48
6575-P48-64 48 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

49
NUS FSAE 2005 team and Advisor Assoc Prof Seah Kar Heng with
“The Centennial” race car
6575-P48-64 49 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

OFFICE OF THE VICE-DEAN
Undergraduate Programmes
Assoc Prof Ashraf Kassim
Vice-Dean (Undergraduate Programmes)
T he NUS Faculty of Engineering, with over 6000

undergraduates, aims to produce engineers with a strong
foundation in the relevant sciences and technology, who are
able to contribute to society through innovation, enterprise
and leadership.
Our undergraduate engineering programmes are
continually updated to keep them relevant and exciting for
students. Our programmes aim to not only produce graduates
who possess the traditional attributes of problem-solving,
analytical, communication, interpersonal, management and
decision-making skills, but also the modern attributes of
innovation, creativity and ability to muster knowledge from
different disciplines, to enable them to practise their profession
with competence and confidence in the ever-changing world.
In the 21st century, engineers will face rapid changes in
society and technology. In order to prepare graduates for the
rapidly evolving engineering landscape, our undergraduate The Faculty offers the following Bachelor of Engineering
50 degree programmes are designed to equip students with a programmes in academic year 2005:
strong foundation in engineering and scientific fundamentals.
We also enable our students to learn about and participate in • Bioengineering
new and evolving cutting-edge technologies which are rapidly
changing our world. Our students are given opportunities to • Chemical Engineering
tailor their own learning experience, involving elective
• Civil Engineering
modules, projects, and independent study modules within
the scope of their engineering major. This will prepare them • Computer Engineering
for advanced technology developments in their respective
• Electrical Engineering
areas of interest.
We provide a number of exciting opportunities for our • Environmental Engineering
students through a host of enhancement programmes that
aim at broadening their educational scope. These programmes • Industrial & Systems Engineering
include not only the traditional local/overseas industrial
• Materials Science & Engineering
attachment, but also a variety of others, namely the short-
term internships, technopreneurship programme, innovation • Mechanical Engineering
programme, undergraduate research opportunities
programme (UROP) and independent work programme. The Engineering is a distinguished profession and engineers
underlying philosophy of the enhancement programmes is have helped to transform our world with many technological
to provide engineering students with opportunities to innovations. The NUS Faculty of Engineering, with its
participate and experience the many facets of industry and outstanding and internationally recognised engineering
business in the global marketplace – from R&D, design, programmes, looks forward to develop and nurture versatile
manufacturing, and intellectual property generation and engineers for the exciting world of the 21st century.
protection, to starting a new technology-based business.
6575-P48-64 50 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

Graduate Studies
Prof Chow Yean Khow
Vice-Dean (Graduate Studies)
Exciting research opportunities for graduate studies are

available in Bioengineering, Chemical & Biomolecular
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical & Computer
Engineering, Environmental Science & Engineering, Industrial
& Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering, and Nanoscience & Nano-
technology. The Faculty’s international standing is evidenced
in the recent The Times of London Higher Education
Supplement’s world ranking of top 100 Engineering and IT
Universities which placed NUS in ninth position.
In an increasingly globalised education landscape, the
Faculty continues to forge global partnerships with leading
overseas institutions in our effort to achieve greater synergies
in research and education. For instance, a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) was signed on 28 April 2004 with Ecole
Superieure d’Electricite (Supelec) of the prestigious French
Grandes Ecoles, for a joint PhD programme with our & Engineering) programme with the Department of
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. This MOU Mechanical Engineering, and will eventually host the 51
builds on the existing Double Degree Programme which was programme on its own. A new Master of Science
launched in 2000. Another new graduate programme, a joint (Management of Technology) degree programme will also
Master of Science degree in Intelligent Transport Systems with be launched in August 2005.
the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM), Germany, was We are committed to the pursuit of academic excellence
also finalised in 2004. in a vibrant, research community actively engaged in the
With the encouragement of the Economic Development forefront of ideas and innovation. Our doctoral degree
Board (EDB) and the respective governments, the Faculty and programme continues to be of prime focus. Our proactive
IIT Bombay signed an MOU to implement a joint graduate policy has seen the proportion of PhD students among our
degree programme. Two faculty-backed graduate research students growing rapidly in the past few years (2001/
programmes: Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems 02: 26%; 2002/03: 31%; 2003/04: 43%). We had crossed
and Computational Engineering will be eventually launched the 50 percent mark in 2004/05 (57%).
under phase 2 of the Singapore-MIT Alliance in July 2005. Global, regional and local competition for talented
These new alliances add to our list of eminent global graduate students will continue to be intense. A special task
partners whose names are synonymous with the best in their force has been set up to attract the best local and foreign
field: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), graduate students to the Faculty. Plans will also be developed
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), Naval to recruit talented overseas graduate students from beyond
Postgraduate School, Monterey (USA), French Grandes Ecoles, our traditional sources. We remain committed to attract the
Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) and brightest graduate students, to provide ample opportunities
Tsinghua University (People’s Republic of China). for them to realise their fullest potential and to prepare them
Apart from establishing global alliances, the Faculty for a globalised economy.
continued to spearhead new initiatives. An EDB sponsored Our economic competitiveness and prime engines of
new Master of Engineering programme in Nanotechnology growth will need to be fueled by capabilities that are
was launched in August 2004. The establishment of the knowledge-based with greater emphasis on value-creation and
Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the innovation. The challenges ahead will be to produce graduate
Faculty in April 2005 will see it offering its own research students who are entrepreneurial, creative, able to think out-
graduate programmes (MEng and PhD). This newly formed of-the-box and with good problem-solving and
department will co-host the existing MSc (Materials Science communication skills.
6575-P48-64 51 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

Research
Assoc Prof Chua Kee Chaing
Vice-Dean (Research)
Research excellence is indispensable to a research-intensive

institution like the NUS. Besides talent, adequate funding is
vital to promoting excellence in research. In this regard, the
Faculty has done extremely well in securing funding for its
research activities, especially from sources other than the
Academic Research Fund (ARF).
Nine months into Fiscal Year 2004, our funding support
from A*STAR has increased by 16%; from the Defence Science
and Technology Agency (DSTA) and other government
agencies by 277%; and from industry and other sources by
145%, compared with the whole of Fiscal Year 2003. These
significant achievements are due to Faculty colleagues
responding to the Dean’s clarion call to increase the Faculty’s
external research funding. Some major grants received to date
include:
• Over $9.64 million from A*STAR for research in nano- collagen-inspired bio-materials.
electronics; We have also achieved considerable success in another
52
of our key strategies which is to work closely with national
• $2.66 million from the Economic Development Board for
research institutes and other key funding agencies in
research in offshore engineering; and
Singapore. With the former, joint research laboratories
• $1.88 million from Infocomm Development Authority for were established respectively between our Department of
research in collaborative engineering. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) and A*STAR’s
Bioprocessing Technology Institute; and between our
The above achievements notwithstanding, we need Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE)
to increase external funding of our research to further and A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research. With the
enhance the volume and quality of our research activities. latter, we successfully received support from the University
As outlined in our last report, one of our key strategies is to establish a joint R&D fund with the Maritime and Port
to utilise part of the limited ARF funding to seed-fund and Authority of Singapore (MPA) to support maritime, port
support targeted initiatives which have the greatest and offshore engineering research. The joint fund will
potential to produce cutting-edge results and which are support up to $1 million worth of research projects per
capable of attracting significant external funding. Given year for an initial period of three years.
that such research increasingly lies at the interfaces of A more coordinated approach to planning and
traditional engineering disciplines and between managing international research collaborations was also
engineering and other related professional disciplines, it initiated with the establishment of a joint research centre
is also important that we encourage greater inter- with the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada.
departmental and inter-faculty research collaborations. This joint research centre also links the Faculty closer to
With this in mind, we have initiated the funding of group the Faculty of Science within NUS, and is described more
projects in Fiscal Year 2004 and provided the first series of fully elsewhere in this report.
seed funding to six group projects. These group projects Finally, the Faculty’s research website has been
will focus on the exciting areas of plastic electronics, expanded with the intention to make it the Faculty’s
membranes for biopharmaceutical processes, optical bio- research information hub. We welcome you to visit the
imaging, recycling of plastic wastes, bio-micro devices, and website at http://www.eng.nus.edu/research/
research.html and to give us your feedback.
6575-P48-64 52 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

Administration
Prof Yeo Tat Soon
Vice-Dean (Administration)
T he mission of the Vice-Dean’s (Administration) Office is

to support and promote the Faculty’s quest to be a premier
engineering education and research centre of world-wide
repute. A number of new initiatives have been launched
in 2004 to streamline and enhance the governance of
financial processes and human resources management.
One-line budgets were given to all departments based
on certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and expansion
plans. The entire process from budget allocation to
utilisation is now completely transparent. Subject to
university guidelines, departments are given complete
freedom to use funds in achieving their goals. This includes
transfers between Other Operating Expenditure (OOE) and
Expenditure on Manpower (EOM). This way, the
departments are able to respond quickly to changing
needs and support new initiatives when the needs arises.
Transparency and KPIs also encourage healthy competition Tracking Website has been implemented for the academic
for the departments to assess standards and work towards staff to track their own promotion and/or tenure
53
excellence. applications. A database containing essential information
Budgetary controls and monitoring are carried out at of all faculty members’ academic, research, and
both departmental and deanery levels. KPIs are planned professional activities is set to be launched in the middle
for the various Vice-Dean Offices in FY2005. These of 2005. A similar website has also been created for non-
initiatives represent the first phase of finance restructuring academic staff.
for the Faculty. The second phase involves introducing a We have also been successful in securing four levels
user-pay policy for faculty resources and this is targeted of space at the current University Hall Block E3A (a total of
for 2006. about 40,000 ft 2 ) to help alleviate the acute space
In the area of human resource management, we shortage. As a joint development by NUS and MINDEF,
formed Faculty Review Committees for the annual review the old Workshop 2 will be demolished by the end of 2005
of non-academic staff as well as administrative and and a new building constructed in its place. A total of
professional staff. These committees ensure that the same about 40,000 ft 2 of space will be made available in 2008.
standards are applied across the Faculty so as to minimise Given our logistical needs, the Faculty is in a good position
anomalies and biases. There is also a shift towards to acquire most, if not all of these spaces.
“management by exception”. New recruitment guidelines The Faculty is expected to expand further in the new
for research staff have been established and disseminated year with the formation of the new Department of
to all departments. Automatic approvals will be given to Materials Science & Engineering, the Division of
appointments and re-appointments of research staff that Environmental Science & Engineering and the launches
fall within these guidelines. of the Biomolecular programme (in the Department of
Information Technology plays a key role in our effort Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering), the Engineering
to streamline human resource management. An Intranet Science Programme and the Engineering Systems Initiative.
6575-P48-64 53 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

External & Industry Relations

Prof Chou Siaw Kiang
Vice-Dean (External & Industry Relations)
I n 2004, the Office of External & Industry Relations (EIR)

continued to focus on building relationships with industry,
schools, government and academia. Talks with schools,
dialogues with government agencies, discussions to forge new
agreements and sustain existing relationships with academic
partners, and various engagements with industry constituted
a major part of our EIR efforts.
The NUS Faculty of Engineering and the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) Bombay, have begun to develop a joint
MSc programme in advanced engineering materials. The
Faculty also signed MOUs with the remaining IITs across India
to promote undergraduate and graduate student exchange
programmes, and research collaboration.
An MOU on academic and student exchange and research
collaboration was also signed with the Norwegian University
of Science & Technology (NTNU) in the presence of His Majesty
King Harald V of Norway. The MOU will facilitate research mitigation measures. The seminar, led by the CE Department,
collaboration between the partners in areas ranging from drew an unprecedented response of more than a thousand
54 maritime and offshore technology to energy, logistics, participants from industry, secondary schools and junior
materials, nanotechnology and geohazards. colleges. Further sessions were scheduled outside campus to
The Centre for Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE) cater to the overwhelming response.
was launched with seed funds amounting to $2.66 million In July 2004, a new School Outreach programme, which
from Economic Development Board (EDB). Early partners in targets secondary schools and junior colleges, was launched.
CORE include major industry players such as Lloyd’s Register The programme comprises four components, namely, Faculty
Asia, Cooper Cameron, SMOE Pte Ltd and Keppel Offshore Professors Go Back to School, Junior Talent Development
and Marine Ltd. Programme (JTDP), Student Job Shadowing, and Teacher
The Professional Activities Centre (PAC) partnered with Attachment. During the December school vacation, 12 students
CORE to organise the FPSO Public Forum, and the Second job-shadowed at the CE Department. A first group of ten
Keppel Offshore and Marine Public Lecture. In addition, PAC secondary school and junior college students also found
collaborated with the Centre for Management of Science and mentors in the JTDP.
Technology (CMOST) to launch its first industry short course. Engineering graduates of Class 2003 and 2004 were the
As a small and flexible outfit, PAC was able to respond to new first beneficiaries of the Faculty’s inaugural batch of free lifelong
technological developments and organise industry relevant email accounts. The rest of the engineering alumni will receive
programmes to meet market interests at short notice. For their accounts through the university network later in the year.
example, the first Nano-Engineering & Nano-Science Congress To better serve our students, we have co-hired a new
2004 was successfully organised in less than six months. career coach through the Office of Student Affairs. The coach
EIR launched a series of thematic industry seminars in advises, trains and gives our students a head start in
2004. These monthly seminars aim to disseminate research their search of their first job. Our Faculty website, (http://
findings and technology expertise to industry. In the aftermath www.eng.nus.edu.sg), has been revamped and enhanced.
of the tsunami and earthquake disaster that hit Asia on 26 Learning more about the Faculty and participating in our
December 2004, the CE Department and EIR organised a educational and research programmes are now being
seminar to educate the public on earthquakes, tsunamis and facilitated through the new website.
6575-P48-64 54 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

55
Photo courtesy of Keppel Offshore and Marine Limited
6575-P48-64 55 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

Benefactors ~Past & Present

T he NUS Faculty of Engineering needs every helping CHAIR PROFESSORSHIPS
donor hand it can to transform itself into a world-class
• Temasek Professorships (A*STAR)
engineering research school. While far more still needs to • Keppel Professorship
be done to reach our goals, we are thankful for the many • ExxonMobil Professorship
corporations and even individuals who have given generously • Isaac Manasseh Meyer (IMM) Professorship
• Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (CSM)
to the cause of engineering education. The sums given vary
Professorship
but the Faculty is just as appreciative, whatever the amount
donated. These gifts have made possible various book prizes,
stipends and research grants. MEDALS & BOOK PRIZES BY
Donors have funded the undergraduate education of DISCIPLINE/YEAR
many a student for a year each, be it the first, second,
BEng I:
third or fourth year of study. In addition, donors have financed • Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide Pte Ltd
post-graduate education, be it the Masters or even further. They
have also made possible a whole host of other awards, such as BEng IV:
those for the top student of any cohort in the various • Professional Engineers Board Gold Medal
• Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd
engineering disciplines and, in some cases, the second- and
the third-best. Various alumni have also played their part. BEng: (Chemical 1)
Research can never be left out of any effort to raise • ExxonMobil Prize (two)
funds. Total funding in research grants (excluding • MIT Club of Singapore Gold Medal
scholarship monies) attracted for the financial year stands
BEng: (Chemical 2)
at $26.96 million while research funding for all on-going • Glaxo Medal (Gold)
projects amounts to $122.46 million, of which 65% are • Fraser & Neave (S) Pte Ltd
56
due to external grants.
BEng: (Chemical 3)
Listed below are the generous sponsorships from
• Tate & Lyle Sugar Refineries Book Prize
various benefactors: • Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering, 4th
Congress Commemorative Book Prize
• ExxonMobil Medal (Gold)
BEng: (Chemical 4)
• IES Gold Medal
• ExxonMobil Medal (Gold)
• Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering, 4th
Congress Commemorative Book Prize
• Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal
• Chartered Semiconductor Book Prize in Microelectronics
• Chemical Engineering Class of ’87 Prize
• Chemical Plant Safety Book Prize
BEng: (Environmental 1)
• ExxonMobil Book Prize
BEng: (Environmental 4)
• IES Gold Medal
BEng: (Civil 2)
• Hume Industries (F.E.) Ltd
• Bovis S.E. Asia Berhad
• Selco (S) Pte Ltd
• Leeng Partnership
• T.H. Chuah & Associates Pte Ltd
BEng: (Civil 3)
• Steen Sehested & Partners
• Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide Pte Ltd
• Singapore Airlines Ltd
6575-P48-64 56 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

BEng: (Civil 4) BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

• IES Gold Medal
DONATIONS
• IES/IStrucE Medal and Prize
• M.Sc (Constr Eng) Class of ’77 Silver Medal
(Electronics 4):
• Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore Medal
• IES Gold Medals
• IAHR-Singapore Hydraulics Medal
(Mechanical/Manufacturing 4):
• Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society Medal
• IES Gold Medals
• Singapore Concrete Institute Medal and Book Prize
• Continental Steel Gold Medal and Book Prize
(Chemical 4):
• ACI-SC Medal and Book Prize
• IES Gold Medals
BEng: (Electrical 3)
(Electronics 4):
• IEE (UK) Prize
• HP Asia Pacific Prize
BEng: (Electrical 3/4; Computer Engineering 3/4)
(Electronics 4):
• ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
• Tech Semiconductor Book Prize
• General Electric (USA) Affiliates
• Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Prize
• Industrial Electronics & Engineering Ltd
• Sanyo Industries (S) Ltd AWARDS FOR HIGHER DEGREES
• United Engineers (S) Pte Ltd BY DISCIPLINE
• Texas Instruments Book Prize on Digital Signal Processing
& Systems MSc: (Industrial & Systems Engineering)
• Lucent Technologies Book Prize • Motorola Electronics Book Prize
• Lucent Telecommunications Book Prize
• Standard Chartered Bank Book Prize
• Singapore Power Ltd
• National Semiconductor Book Prize
MSc: (Civil Engineering)
BEng: (Electrical 4, Computer Engineering 4) • Continental Steel Gold Medal and Book Prize
• IEEE Control Chapter Prize • L & M Geotechnic Medal and Book Prize
• IEEE Power Engineering Chapter Medal (Gold) • PEB Gold Medal
• IEEE Power Engineering Chapter Prize
• Ssangyong Cement Medal and Book Prize
BEng: (Electrical 4) • T.Y. Lin Medal and Book Prize
• IES Gold Medal
• Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce Medal (Gold) MSc: (Electrical Engineering) 57
• Methode Electronics Gold Medal • PEB Gold Medal
• Chartered Semiconductor Book Prize in Microelectronics
• Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal MSc: (Mechanical Engineering)
• PEB Gold Medal
BEng: (Computer Engineering 4)
• Defence Science & Technology Agency Gold Medal
• IES Gold Medal
GENERAL DONATIONS
BEng: (Industrial & Systems Engineering 4) Master’s Course:

• Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal • IEEE Singapore Reliability Prize
• IES Gold Medal
Higher Degree:
BEng: (Mechanical 2) • National Semiconductor Gold Medal
• Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics Book Prize Business Plan Competition:
• Diethelm Singapore Pte Ltd • NUS-Motorola Technopreneurship Challenge prizes
• ISTP-9 Fluid & Thermo Book Prize
Innovation Design Competition:
BEng: (Mechanical 3) • Cycle & Carriage Innovative Design Award
• The General Electric Company of Singapore
• Tractors Singapore Pte Ltd OTHER DONATIONS FROM
• Wearne Brothers Services Pte Ltd CORPORATIONS & BUSINESSES
BEng: (Mechanical 4) • Xilinx Inc, USA
• IES Gold Medal • Jusung Engineering, Korea
• ExxonMobil Medal (Gold) • Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS)
• Godfrey Rajasooria Silver Medal • SAS Institute Pte Ltd
• ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Ltd • Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Prize
• Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd • Tech Semiconductor Book Prize
• AAF Asia Pte Ltd • Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd
• Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal • Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
6575-P48-64 57 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

• Seraya Chemicals Singapore Pte Ltd • Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)
• DuPont (Singapore & US) • Land Transport Authority (LTA)
• Honeywell (Singapore & US) • Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)
• Schering-Plough Ltd (Singapore & US) • Meteorological Service Singapore
• Applied Materials (US) • Ministry of the Environment
• Alza Corporation (US) • National Parks Board
• Kimberly-Clark (US) • Public Utilities Board (PUB)
• Mobil (US) • Singapore Civil Defence Force
• Obiter Research, LLC (US) • Singapore Police Force
• Shell (US) • Singapore Tourism Board
• Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd • Standards, Productivity & Innovation Board
• ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd • Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
• ExxonMobil Singapore Pte Ltd
• Glaxo Wellcome Manufacturing Pte Ltd
• Glaxo-SmithKline
• Merck Sharp & Dohme (Singapore) Ltd PROFESSIONAL BODIES,
• Chevron Oronite Pte Ltd ASSOCIATIONS & CLUBS
• Intelligen, Inc
• Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore Pte Ltd • Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES)
• Singapore Petroleum Company Ltd • Institute of Industrial Engineers, Singapore
• Igus Singapore Pte Ltd • American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Singapore
• ZF South East Asia Ptd Ltd (AIChE Singapore)
• SeaCAD Technologies Pte Ltd • International Methanol Producers and Consumers
• TIBS Taxis Pte Ltd Association (IMPCA), Belgium
• VICOM Pte Ltd • MIT Club of Singapore
• 3M Singapore Pte Ltd • Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering,
• Aerolog Experts Pte Ltd 4th Congress
• Hitachi Nippon Steel Semiconductor (S) Pte Ltd • Automobile Association of Singapore
• AquaGen International Pte Ltd • Operational Research Society of Singapore
• Asian Lift Pte Ltd • SAS Institute Pte Ltd
• BHP Steel Building Products Singapore Pte Ltd • Singapore Quality Institute
• Bidim Geosynthetics S.A., France • Society of Project Managers
• Blue Circle Materials Singapore Pte Ltd • Rotary Club of Suntec City Project Fund
• Borregaard Ligno Tech (BLT), Borregaard Ind Ltd, Norway • Embassy of Belgium
• CET Technologies Pte Ltd • Professional Engineers Board
• Continental Steel Pte Ltd • External Institutions (including the Government)
58 • Det Norske Veritas
• Geonamics (M) Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
• Econ Piling Pte Ltd
• Honda ICVS Singapore Pte Ltd FOUNDATIONS
• Industrial Environmental Engineering Pte Ltd
• Jurong Cement Ltd • Lee Foundation
• Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd • Singapore International Foundation
• Keppel Corporation
• L&M Concrete Specialists Pte Ltd
• Mapei Far East Pte Ltd
• MBT Singapore Pte Ltd OTHERS
• National Cement Industry Pte Ltd
• Office of Naval Research (ONR), USA • Mrs Isaac Manasseh Meyer
• Polyfelt Ges.m.b.H., Linz, Austria
• RDC Concrete Pte Ltd
• Sembawang Marine and Offshore Engrg Pte Ltd
• SembCorp Marine Ltd To sum up, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks
• SIKA (S) Pte Ltd to all benefactors who had made a significant contribution
• Singapore Power in one way or another. However, due to space constraint,
• Singapore Utilities International Pte Ltd
• Ssangyong Cement (S) Ltd we apologise for not being able to list all the many alumni
• W. R. Grace (Singapore) Pte Ltd and individuals who had contributed to our cause. Once
• Yongnam Engineering and Construction Pte Ltd again, thank you all for the very generous donations
through the years. We certainly look forward to your
continued support.
GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS
• Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

• Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)
• Building and Construction Authority
• Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore
• Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA)
• DSO National Laboratories
• Housing & Development Board (HDB)
6575-P48-64 58 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

59
6575-P48-64 59 4/26/05, 2:09 PM

Facts & Figures 2004-2005

Milestones
1956 1968 1969 1972 1979 1980 1990 1995 1998 2000 2002 2004 2005 2006
Chemical Engineering
Engineering Postgraduate ChE renamed Science
Department (ChE) School of Chemical & ChEE renamed Programme
transferred from Engineering Environmental Chemical & (ESP)
the Faculty of Engineering Biomolecular
Science Department Engineering Engineering
National University
(ChEE) Department Systems
of Singapore
(ChBE) Initiative
Industrial & Systems
(ESI)
Engineering Department (ISE)
Bachelor of Technology Department of
Faculty of Engineering was constituted under Programme (BTech) Division of Materials Science
the University of Singapore with three Bioengineering & Engineering
departments – Civil, Electrical, Mechanical (DMSE)
First batch of Singapore Poly graduates received the EE renamed Electrical & Division of
BEng degree from the University of Singapore Computer Engineering Environmental
Department (ECE), MPE Science &
Professional engineering education commenced in University renamed Mechanical Engineering
of Malaya (UM) at Bukit Timah Campus Engineering Department (ME) (DESE)
60 Faculty and Staff Education

(AS OF JANUARY 2005)
Undergraduate Student (EFTE) and Academic Staff (FTE) Ratio = 14
Total Student (EFTE) and Academic Staff (FTE) Ratio = 20
UNDERGRADUATE
9 full-time 4-year programme leading to:
• BEng (Bioengineering)
• BEng (Chemical Engineering)1
• BEng (Civil Engineering)
• BEng (Computer Engineering)
• BEng (Electrical Engineering)
Non - Academic 33% (320)
• BEng (Environmental Engineering)
Research 22% (213)
• BEng (Industrial and Systems Engineering)
Faculty Members 29% (278) Other Teaching Staff** 3% (31)
• BEng (Materials Science and Engineering)
Adjunct* 8% (73) Administrative 5% (45) • BEng (Mechanical Engineering)2
4 part-time programme leading to :
• BTech (Chemical Engineering)
• BTech (Electronics Engineering)
• BTech (Manufacturing Engineering)
• BTech (Mechanical Engineering)
POSTGRADUATE
The Faculty provides training leading to the award of the
following postgraduate degrees:
Assistant Professors 28% (77) Professors 18% (49) 1

The BEng programme in chemical engineering includes specialisations in
Biomolecular Engineering, Biopharmaceutical Engineering, Microelectronics and
Senior Lecturers 1% (4) Associate Professors 50% (141)
Process & Systems Engineering. Also included is the Chemical Sciences Programme
Teaching Assistants*** 3% (7) (jointly with the Department of Chemistry) intended to prepare students for
postgraduate studies in the biomedical sciences
* Teaching and Research 2

The BEng programme in mechanical engineering includes specialisations in
** Includes Visiting Staff, Fellows, Senior Fellows, Associate Professorial Fellows, Aeronautical Engineering, Biomechanical Engineering, Energy & Thermal Process
Professorial Fellows, Professor (Joint) Engineering, Materials Engineering in Design, Mechatronics, Micro-Systems
*** Including Senior Tutor and Instructor Technology and Precision Engineering
6575-P48-64 60 4/26/05, 2:10 PM

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), pursue research in

the Department of - UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT INTAKE
• Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering AS AT ACADEMIC YEAR 2004/2005
• Electrical & Computer Engineering
ENGINEERING ACADEMIC YEAR 2004/2005
• Industrial & Systems Engineering
PROGRAMMES Male Female Total
Full-time BEng Programmes
• Mechanical Engineering
Bioengineering 9 30 39
Master of Engineering (MEng), pursue Chemical Engineering 162 96 258
research in the Department or under Initiative - Civil Engineering 17 10 27
• Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Computer Engineering 95 10 105
• Electrical & Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering 195 64 259
• Industrial & Systems Engineering Engineering 380 84 464
• Materials Science & Engineering Environmental Engineering 17 13 30
• Mechanical Engineering
Industrial & Systems Engineering 22 27 49
• Nanoengineering
Mechanical Engineering 113 13 126
Master of Science (MSc) Part-time BTech Programmes 171 61 232
• Chemical Engineering Total 1181 408 1589
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Industrial & Systems Engineering UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT POPULATION
• Management of Technology BY YEAR AND BY PROGRAMME
• Mechatronics ENGINEERING YR1 YR2 YR3 Final Total
• Mechanical Engineering PROGRAMMES YR
• Safety, Health and Environmental Technology
Full-time Programmes
• Transportation Systems & Management
Bioengineering 39 49 41 - 129
Graduate Diploma Chemical Engineering 258 247 242 199 946
• Aviation Management Civil Engineering 27 186 130 209 552
• Maritime and Port Management
Computer Engineering 105 90 86 121 402
• Defence Technology and Systems
Electrical Engineering 259 500 403 521 1683
61
Joint PhD programmes with Engineering 464 - - - 464
• Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Environmental 30 41 31 44 146
Netherlands
Engineering
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(UIUC), USA Industrial & Systems 49 48 45 35 177
• Ecole Superieure d’Electricite (Supelec), France Engineering
Mechanical 126 363 276 402 1167
Joint MSc in
Engineering
• Chemical Engineering with University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA Total 1357 1524 1254 1531 5666
• Intelligent Transport Systems with Technische Part-time Programmes
Universitat Munchen (TUM), Germany Chemical Engineering 50 56 38 33 177
Electronics Engineering 107 109 55 71 342
Double Degree programmes with
• French Grandes Ecoles, France Mechanical Engineering 75 54 70 54 253
• Tsinghua University (TU), China – MSc in Total 232 219 163 158 772
Transportation Systems & Management (NUS)
and MSc (TU)
Singapore-MIT Alliance programmes
Dual Master’s Degree Programme with SMA1
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), • The Master of Science (SM) and PhD in Advanced
USA – MSc in Logistics & Supply Chain Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems
Management (NUS) and MSc in Industrial • The Master of Science (SM) and PhD in High
Engineering (Georgia Tech) Performance Computation for Engineered Systems
• Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey (NPS), • The Master of Science (SM) and PhD in Molecular
USA – MSc in Defence Technology and Engineering of Biological and Chemical Systems
Systems (NUS) and MSc (NPS) SMA2
• MIT Masters+NUS Masters/MIT Masters+PhD*/direct
Master of Technological Design in Ph.D. in Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano- Systems
• Embedded Systems • MIT Masters+NUS Masters/MIT Masters+PhD*/direct
• Mechatronics Ph.D. in Computational Engineering
• Rapid Product Development
*PhD degree awarded by either NUS or NTU depending on the university the
Singapore Thesis Advisor is attached to
6575-P48-64 61 4/26/05, 2:10 PM

DEGREES CONFERRED CLASS OF 2004
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
POPULATION BY GENDER
ENGINEERING Male Female Total

PROGRAMMES B Eng 63% (1575)
Full-time Programmes 4064 1602 5666 M Eng 12% (307)

PhD 4% (97)
Part-time Programmes 600 172 772
MSc 21% (541)
POSTGRADUATE STUDENT POPULATION

BY PROGRAMME AS OF SEPTEMBER 2004
Enrolment by Coursework
STUDENT PROFILE AS OF DECEMBER 2004
Programmes by Male Female Total
Coursework
Grad Dip.Aviation Mgt 6 6 12
Grad Dip Env Eng 0 1 1 Undergraduate (Part-time)
Grad Dip Maritime 2 2 4 9% (772)
Graduate 28% (2508)
& Port Mgt
Undergraduate (Full-time)
MSc (Chem Eng) 42 24 66 63% (5666)
MSc (Civil Eng) 69 17 86
MSc (Elect Eng) 153 32 185
MSc (Env Eng) 47 24 71
MSc (Ind & Sys Eng) 181 64 245
MSc (Mat'l Sc & Eng)
MSc (Mech Eng)
43
105
14
8
57
113
Research
MSc (Mechatronics) 34 10 44
RESEARCH REPUTATION/ACHIEVEMENTS
MSc (SHE) 21 18 39 • 274 editorial positions held with international journals,
MSc (Transp Sys & Mgt) 15 7 22 compared with 235 for entire Fiscal Year 2003
NUS-UIUC MSc 7 6 13 • Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ (SME, USA)
Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award
(Chem Eng)
62 Total for Coursework- 725 233 958
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Top-100
Most-Cited Article
based Programmes • Second place in the Humanoid category at Federation of
International Robot-Soccer Association’s (FIRA) Robot
Enrolment by Research World Cup 2004
• Institution of Electrical & Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE)
Programmes by Male Female Total Vehicular Technology Conference 2004-Fall Best Paper Award
Research • Society of Reliability Engineers’ Stan Ofsthun Award at the
2004 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium
MEng 490 160 650
• Far Eastern Economic Review Asian Innovation Awards
NUS-TU/e Joint PhD 13 4 17
2004 Gold Award
NUS-UIUC Joint PhD 5 2 7
PhD 666 210 876
RESEARCH FUNDING3
Total for Research- 1174 376 1550
based Programmes • Total of $31.18 million in research grants attracted, 31%
from Academic Research Fund (ARF) [provided by Ministry
Enrolment of Faculty of Education] and 69% from external sources - significant
increase (from Fiscal Year 2003) of 144% in ratio between
Programmes (All) Male Female Total grants secured from external sources and those from ARF
By Coursework 725 233 958 • Funding support from Agency for Science, Technology
By Research 1174 376 1550 and Research (A*STAR) increased by 16%, from Defence
Total for Faculty 1899 609 2508 Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and other
government agencies by 277% and from industry
and other sources by 145%, compared with whole of Fiscal
Year 2003
• Major funding received from external sources includes:
- $9.64 million from A*STAR for research in nano-
electronics;
- $2.66 million from Economic Development Board for
research in offshore engineering;
- $1.89 million from Infocomm Development Authority
for research in collaborative engineering; and
3
Funding figures shown are as at 31 December 2004 (i.e., 0.75
of a FY), unless otherwise indicated
6575-P48-64 62 4/26/05, 2:10 PM

- US$2.2 million from Jusung Engineering, largest

manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing
equipment in Korea
Strategic Partnerships
• Research funding for all on-going projects amounted to Joint Degrees
$124.52 million; 67% due to external grants • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA
• Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Netherlands
• Ecole Superieure d’Electricite (Supelec), France
RESEARCH OUTPUT • Technische Universitat München (TUM), Germany
• 1,037 research papers published in international refereed
Double/Dual Degrees
journals and 656 papers presented at conferences
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), USA
• Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey (NPS), USA
PATENTS AND COMMERCIALISATION • Tsinghua University (TU), China
• French Grandes Ecoles, France
• 52 patents filed for innovative engineering discoveries;
(Ecole Polytechnique (X); Ecole Centrale Paris
24 patents granted during same period
(ECP); Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees (ENPC);
• 6 technologies or products commercialised
Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris (ENSMP);
• 3 companies set up to commercially exploit research
Group des Ecoles des Telecommunications (GET);
results
Ecole Superieure d’Electricite (Supelec)
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
Partnership with Industry
• MOU signed for research collaboration with SIA Cargo TOTAL RESEARCH GRANTS AWARDED
in freighter network design and scheduling IN FY 2004-2005* ($31.18 MILLION)
• Firm commitment of support pledged from major
industry players such as Lloyd’s Register, Cooper Cameron,
Sembawang Corp and Keppel Corp for our newly-
launched Centre for Offshore Research & Engineering
Academic Research Fund 31% ($9.57 million)
External Grants 69% ($21.61 million)
Partnership with Affiliated National Research Institutes
• Joint research laboratories established between our *period reported (1 April 2004 – 31 December 2004)
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and
A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute; and
between our Department of Electrical & Computer
Engineering and A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research
TOTAL RESEARCH GRANTS FOR ALL ON-GOING
PROJECTS IN FY 2004-2005* 63
Partnership with Public Sector Organisations and
Overseas Institutions ($124.52 MILLION)
• Joint R&D fund with MPA established, funding up to
$1 million worth of projects per year for initial period of
three years, to support maritime, port and offshore
engineering research
Academic Research Fund 33% ($40.65 million)
• Joint research centre with University of British Columbia,
External Grants 67% ($83.87 million)
Canada established to promote research collaboration
in selected areas of applied science * period reported (1 April 2004 – 31 December 2004)
• MOU covering research collaboration and student
exchange with Norwegian University of Science &
Technology sealed
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS BY
CLASSIFICATION (%)
PUBLICATIONS FROM 1998 TO 2004
6575-P48-64 63 4/26/05, 2:10 PM

Income and Expenditure Statement

FISCAL YEAR (FY) ENDING 31 MARCH 2005
Faculty's Operating Budget for FY04/05 $ 79,400,000

Commitments brought forward from FY03/04 $ 1,640,923
Top-up budget $ 529,000
Expenditure on Manpower
Teaching Staff $ 44,947,752
Administrative Staff $ 2,444,267
Non-academic Staff $ 13,811,860
Research Staff $ 4,271,069
Casual Staff $ 105,961 $ 65,580,909
Other Operating Expenses

Academic Staff Conference $ 477,989
Advertisement - Local $ 43,957
Advertisement - Overseas $ 85,023
Allowance-Vacation Training Scheme $ 20,746
Computer Hardware - Maintenance $ 94,199
Computer Software - Maintenance $ 420,881
Computer Software $ 194,794
Computer Supplies $ 34,185
64 Consumables $ 276,859
Equipment - Maintenance $ 1,547,308
Honorarium $ 116,748
Hospitality Expenses - External Visitors $ 46,211
Other Professional fees $ 44,276
Other Services $ 110,713
Other Supplies $ 81,699
Postage & Telecommunication Charges $ 280,482
Renovations & Redecorations $ 904,091
Reports /Publications $ 191,874
Staff Arrivals/Departures $ 101,951
Staff Meetings $ 68,571
Staff Trainings $ 40,764
Staff Travel $ 207,327
Stationery & Office Supplies $ 209,045
Teaching Materials $ 2,182,183
Utilities $ 4,469,465
Web Page Design $ 47,060
Others $ 193,528 $ 12,491,929
Equipment / Fixed Asset $ 2,832,063

Expenditure for FY 04/05 $ (77,673,165)
Commitments brought forward to FY 05/06 $ (3,231,736)
Operating Surplus for FY 04/05 $ 665,022
6575-P48-64 64 4/26/05, 2:10 PM

A Vision For Tomorrow: Nus Faculty of Engineering

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NUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING