DETAILS INSIDE - HEY! - Nanyang Technological University

THE NTU MAGAZINE
MAR–APR 2012
DETAILS INSIDE
NTU’S PROVOST HAS
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
HALL LIFE ROCKS,
SAY SOME KINGS AND QUEENS
SEE WHAT NTU SCHOOL THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR YOU
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Keep in touch!
We welcome your ideas,
views and contributions.
Email us at [email protected]
youtube.com/NTUsg
facebook.com/NTUsg
twitter.com/NTUsg
chief editor
Dr Vivien Chiong
editor
Eileen Tan
assistant editor
Christopher Ong
staff writers
Lester Kok
Michelle Chow
Siddiqua Ovais
Wang Meng Meng
contributors
Goh Wei Choon (Class of 2014)
Sanchita Shandilya (Class of 2015)
Sheere Ng (Class of 2009)
Editorial Consultant
Michael Chiang
design
Jennifer Tan
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2 FYI 4 FEATURE best food
forward The hungry student’s
guide to campus
yummies 6 Campus
Buzz What Say You?
NTU Kings and Queens
say why they love hall life
7 Let’s Talk LIFE BOEY NTU’s
Provost, Prof Freddy Boey, has been
there, done that 10 Cover Story SCHOOL DAZE
See what school awaits you with our NTU Open
House Special 30 What’s in Here? LIKE REAL A
virtual realm of possibilities at the Institute for
Media Innovation 32 FEATURE
BEAT THE MUNCH AND TRAVEL
CRUNCH Two student-made
Facebook games to the rescue
34 Hot Shots POLES APART
Communication students taste life in vastly
different cultures 36 Unplugged Hey, SATELLITE
PROF! Going to space with Assoc Prof Low Kay
Soon 39 Thinking Aloud THE ONE Finding a
soulmate in the
Renaissance
Engineering
Programme
40 My Space ASST
PROF KIMBERLY
ANN KLINE’S OFFICE
A programme for the intellectually
curious – that’s the new University Scholars
Programme, which starts this August
with 50 highly competitive places for
incoming freshmen. How do you groom
future leaders and innovators? Give
them the flexibility to customise a plan of
interdisciplinary studies that excites them,
with modules such as “The Great Ideas”,
“The Great Works” and “Classics of Social and
Political Thought”. Stretch them through
exposure to a range of courses, topics
and topical issues. Have the best faculty
mentors for them with learning and
research opportunities, and work and study
stints abroad. And let them pick the brains
of Nobel laureates and industry honchos.
Ready to sharpen your competitive edge?
WE ARE THE
TOP EARNERS
In the past, if you wanted to learn about the latest discoveries in particle physics
or cosmology, you would have to enrol in a summer or winter school, such as the
ones organised by the world-renowned European Organisation for Nuclear Research
(CERN) in Europe. Not anymore. This January, NTU brought a three-week winter school
to the doorstep of 120 young scholars and researchers from around the region, in
partnership with CERN. It will be held every two years and is an initiative of the
university’s Institute of Advanced Studies. The institute also recently co-organised
the International Science Youth Forum @ Singapore 2012. At panel discussions on
campus, top science students from the region interacted with Nobel laureates such
as 2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Prof Danny Shechtman.
Sixty NTU students danced their way through eight iconic spots on NTU’s campus in a
music video produced by Daniel Bob, a third-year student from the School of Art, Design
& Media. Filmed over two days, the dance was choreographed by nine students from the
MJ Hip Hop Dance Club to showcase the best of our lush 200-hectare grounds. Catch the
music video at www.youtube.com/NTUsg and look out for special guest dancers from the
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering.
Our students are landing plum jobs
even before graduation in a time of a
slowing economy. At NTU’s career fair
in February, 3,000 positions were up for
grabs from a record 221 organisations.
Actively hiring were big names like CocaCola Singapore, Merck and the Toshiba
Group. “When we ask these companies
For the fourth year running, the Nanyang Business School’s
MBA programme has been ranked among the world’s top 35
by the Financial Times. It has also been ranked Singapore’s
best by The Economist for eight straight years. More proof
that our MBA graduates are doing well: they earn the highest
average salaries compared to other Singapore MBA holders.
If topics like “How the Cold War shaped
Singapore’s early national defence policy”
intrigue you, apply for NTU’s new history
degree course at the School of Humanities
& Social Sciences. Instead of studying
history in the context of chronological
periods or by countries, you’ll look at
history from a global perspective. This
interdisciplinary tack also means you’ll
get a richer understanding of the world.
2
why they prefer to hire NTU graduates,
they tell us it’s because our students
are well-prepared for the workplace,”
says Mr Loh Pui Wah, Director of NTU’s
Career & Attachment Office. “But just as
importantly, our students have integrity
and a positive work attitude that
companies look for in new employees.”
H E Y ! m a r–a pr 2 0 1 2
The best way to get up to speed on best practices in public administration and
governance is to hear from the brains behind them. In December, former Singapore
ministers such as Mah Bow Tan, Yeo Cheow Tong and Yeo Ning Hong provided
first-hand insights at a new NTU executive training programme for Vietnam’s senior
government officials. The course provides a window into developments that have
shaped public administration in Singapore over the past four decades.
It’s not a scene from
medical drama Grey’s
Anatomy, but close enough.
Simulation education will be
a big part of the curriculum
at the soon-to-be-opened
Lee Kong Chian School of
Medicine, NTU’s new medical
school with Imperial College
London. For example,
undergraduates learning
to stitch up a wound can
“treat” an actor wearing a
silicone “wound” who may
cry in pain. This teaches
about doctor-patient
interaction. As part of
their initial training, the
students will also get to
experience working in an
operating theatre, using
a two-metre-tall portable
version of it. This “inflatable
igloo” can be pumped with
air in just three minutes
and it’s roomy enough for
12 people. When deflated,
it can be kept in your car
boot. How cool is that?
3
Feature
The hungry student’s guide to campus yummies
HEY! susses out what’s good to eat
on campus. Get in line...
Hong Kong street
by Sheere Ng and Christopher Ong
Craving BBQ pork doused in
something sweet? Students
seem to love the chops (S$4) at
Canteen 2’s Kallang Western
Barbeque. They drizzle it with
a heap of sweet garlic sauce.
The pork is lean, yet rather
tender, and carefully pounded
by the chef so it goes easy on
the jaws. You can see why
Makansutra and Channel U’s
Yummy King have rated this
stall highly when so much effort
goes into a plate of western
delight. You might want to mop
up every last bit of sauce!
Mee first!
Check email and Facebook while
waiting in this particular queue
at Food Connection (the North
Spine food court). It can really
snake at peak hour. A must-try at
the fishball noodles stall is the bak
chor mee (Hokkien for fishball
4
minced meat noodles, priced at
S$2.20). Think bouncy fishballs,
juicy stewed mushrooms and
freshly fried pork lard. The sambal
chilli is made of shrimp paste,
garlic, onions and candlenuts so it
is spicy, tangy and infused with a
smoky flavour. It’s no wonder the
cook said a good bowl of bak chor
mee is defined by its chilli paste.
Beef up
It’s easy to spot outsiders such
as office workers and soldiers
making a beeline for The Beef
House at Canteen 2. The popular
beef ball soup and deep-fried
egg combo goes for just S$3. To
make springy beef balls with a
smooth texture, the chef pounds
the meat instead of mincing it.
The fat is also removed to reduce
the “beefy” smell. With so much
effort required, you can see why
few stalls bother to make their
own beef balls these days.
Scoopz of
yummy ice-cream
Meaty treats
You’ll be spoilt for choice at the
Canteen B Nasi Padang (Malay
for rice with dishes) stall. It
offers at least 30 dishes daily,
including tofu (beancurd), fish,
meat and vegetables. The best
dishes are the meats (S$1.20) –
beef, chicken and mutton
– all cooked in gravy but with
different spices. The chicken
alone is done in several ways. A
good choice is the drumsticks in
sweet peanut sauce. If you tire of
rice, pair your favourite dishes
with a noodle staple like bihun
goreng or mi goreng. Be warned
though, the queue extends up
the stairs when the prime-time
crowd hits.
Lip-licking laksa
There are many varieties of laksa
with the gravy ranging from
watery to concentrated. The
one at the Café by the
Quad’s Asian Cuisine stall
(S$3 for a sizeable serving) falls
on the watery side, allowing
you to finish one whole bowl
without feeling like you’ve
had too much to eat. Still, the
gravy is appetising with the
distinctive taste of dried shrimp
and coconut milk, although
those who live to eat may be
disappointed by the absence of
cockles. What lurks beneath are
several large chunks of chicken
meat, making this dish quite
value for money.
photos: sheere ng, daniel hung
Wild wild Western
NTU’s very own Hong Kong
café is located at Canteen 1. At
the Wan Chai Hong Kong Tea
Room, you can tuck into all
manner of the classic eatery’s
signature dishes. One must-try
is the baked rice (S$5), which
has cheese that is savoury
but not overpowering, black
pepper sauce that is aromatic
but not too spicy, and rice with a
sweet essence of egg and butter.
Oh, and did we mention they
serve a good cup of yuanyang
(Mandarin for a coffee-and-tea
blend)? A scan of the lunch
crowd reveals it’s popular with
NTU faculty and staff trying to
beat the after-lunch slump. H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
The Scoopz ice-cream brand
has been a hit with eastdwellers since its first store
opened at Parkway Parade over
ten years ago. So when NTU
undergraduates and siblings
Jonathan and Jaeden Tan decided
to open a Scoopz outlet at
Canteen 1 last year, it drew
crowds. Office workers from all
over western Singapore have
been flocking there – sometimes
by the van loads – to try the wide
variety of over 20 flavours. The
handmade ice-cream is rich,
created from fresh ingredients
and, best of all, low-fat. Popular
flavours include durian and
avocado, and the price ranges
from S$2.90 for a single scoop to
S$9 for a take-home pack of 4.5
scoops. As an added sweetener,
NTU students get a 20-cent
discount off the menu price.
5
Campus Buzz
One of the unique features of campus
life is staying in a hall of residence.
With 16 halls dotting our 200-hectare
campus and places for all freshmen
who want to experience varsity life
to the fullest, there is never a dull
moment on campus. Christopher Ong
asked some Hall Kings and Queens:
What do you
like best
about staying
in your hall?
“I love how you just need
to walk out of your room
to be able to talk to the
whole block.”
Liew Ming Jia Arts, Hall 10
“How we study hard together and
play even harder. During the
inter-hall games, the whole hall
comes together as one to play,
compete and cheer.”
Richard Lesmana Engineering, Hall 13
“Nothing beats the friendships
that are forged through hall
activities that are organised by
the residents for the residents.”
Wilbert Tedja Business, Hall 10
“What I like most
about staying in a hall
is the companionship
and sense of
belonging. Frequent
hall activities also
never fail to cheer me
up when I am stressed
about school!”
Fiona Lim Science, Hall 13
6
“Hall life is like a ray of
sunshine on a busy day.”
Loh Min Zhen Science, Hall 1
“The best thing about staying in a
hall is that everything is just around
the corner: the track, the gym, the
pool and the canteen.”
Sufiyan Hadi Bin Armita Engineering, Hall 1
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Let’s Talk
Freddy’s boys: (top row, from
left) Assoc Prof Joachim Loo,
Mr Alfred Chia and
Dr Goh Chin Foo are just three
of Prof Boey’s former students
who have benefited from his
personal touch. Prof Boey
was Assoc Prof Loo’s PhD
supervisor and mentored Dr
Goh and Mr Chia all the way
from their undergraduate to
doctoral studies.
photo: dios vincoy jr
A taxi driver, a chicken delivery man, a factory worker
and a cleaner. An educator, a scientist, an inventor
and a serial technopreneur. Here is one man who has
been all these: NTU’s Provost, Prof Freddy Boey
by Wang Meng Meng
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
It begins with a spark.
That Eureka moment that
had Archimedes streaking down
the street after discovering the
principle of displacement. Or the
one that seized Sir Isaac Newton
after his chance encounter with
an apple.
For Prof Freddy Boey, his
journey into Big Science began
with the tiny toy cars and
helicopters that he dissected
with glee as a child.
“Back then, toys were
mechanical. I would open up
every toy I received to explore
the gears and to understand how
each one worked. The fun part
was putting everything back
together,” he says.
Today, after having authored
more than 300 research papers,
acquired 25 original patents and
won S$36 million in competitive
research grants, NTU’s Provost
wants to show that just about
anyone can unlock their
potential and achieve their
dreams.
His was not a privileged
H E Y ! ja n–f e b 2 0 1 2
7
Who would have thought he once spent a part of his
undergrad days earning pocket money by driving
taxis, working a forklift, waiting upon tables, being
part of an assembly line at a pump manufacturer,
cleaning pubs and even diving into the Australian
sea to harvest abalone.
Photo: JEAN QINGWEN LOO
upbringing. His family lived in
the kampung of Kolam Ayer in
Kallang, which has since been
bulldozed to make way for the
Pan-Island Expressway. There
was no proper flooring, only
sand in some parts of the house.
And life stank, quite literally,
with the former Geylang Bahru
rubbish dump just 100 metres
away.
“Poverty has its advantages,’’
the 55-year-old former Chair
of NTU’s School of Materials
Science & Engineering insists.
“You are forced to be
resourceful and resilient.
Kids like me had to fend for
ourselves. My family was poor
and I started working at the
age of eight or nine, collecting
copper wires to sell to the ragand-bone man. I also helped my
father, a mechanic, run errands
at his workshop, such as buying
coffee for his co-workers and
doing manual work.”
After school, the Sennett
Estate Primary School student
would fashion bags out of
paper, turning them out by the
hundreds and making a few
dollars a day, money which was
helpful in supporting his family
with eleven children.
At St Andrew’s School, he got
on the wrong side of his preuniversity physics teacher with
the questions he asked.
“I’ve always had this curiosity,
this tendency to question and
this desire to explore the known
and the unknown,” he says.
“After one scolding, I decided
8
to sit at the back of the class
and ignore his lessons. Instead,
I studied physics on my own.
I didn’t set out to become a
scientist but I had the traits of
one.”
Whilst his inquiring mind
helped him top the “A” Levels
at St Andrew’s School and
also his undergraduate class
at Monash University (which
recently honoured him with
the Distinguished Alumni of
the Year Award), the lack of
luxury in his life awakened
the entrepreneurial spirit in
him. Prof Boey went on to
file 25 original patents that
have resulted in five spin-off
companies over a prolific career
at NTU spanning 25 years.
Who would have thought
he once spent a part of his
undergrad days earning pocket
money by driving taxis, working
a forklift, waiting upon tables,
being part of an assembly line at
a pump manufacturer, cleaning
pubs and even diving into
the Australian sea to harvest
abalone.
Moving chickens Once, noticing
that there was a demand for
fresh chickens amongst the
Asian students at his campus, he
put his negotiation skills to the
test and wound up with a beatup Volkswagen Beetle for free.
“The engine didn’t work,” he
says with a hearty laugh.
“So, I coughed up AUD$250
to buy an old engine and used
my engineering knowledge
to revive it. I drove to a farm,
collected the chickens and
delivered them to the students
for the same price as the frozen
ones.”
Despite being a “Fred of all
trades”, he graduated top of his
Bachelor of Engineering class at
Monash.
Through the years, Prof
Boey has chalked up a string of
innovations, creating companies
to patent and license his various
biomedical products. However,
his first contraption, an
automated wrapping machine,
flopped. That was when he made
a solemn vow.
“I spent a lot of time on that
invention and wasted a lot of
money on it,” he explains.
“Even if 95 per cent of a
machine works, it’s still a failure
as long as five per cent of it
doesn’t. That was my first and
last failure. I learnt how to walk
away from something that wasn’t
worth it. That’s my golden rule.
When a great idea doesn’t get
commercialised, there’ll always
be more great ideas to explore.”
Since that setback, Prof Boey
has enjoyed a winning streak
when it comes to patenting and
licensing his creations. His list
runs long – a filament winding
machine that produces giant
composite pipes for sewage
treatment, the entry barrier
device at train stations, a
microdermabrasion machine
for skin doctors, even a carbon
fibre aircraft component for
Singapore’s fighter jets. It’s easy
to see why he is NTU’s “poster
Boey” for research, innovation
and enterprise, and exemplifies
the union of all three.
As with all journeys, there
are defining moments – events
and choices that can set you on a
new path.
“My sister died of lung cancer
in London in the Christmas of
2001,” Prof Boey reveals.
“When I found out about her
condition, I asked my doctor
friend for solutions. He said her
cancer couldn’t be operated on.
As an engineer, I asked myself:
why can’t we invent a device
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
that can anchor itself in her
lungs, emit radiation and kill the
cancer cells?”
Spurred on by the memory
of his late sister, Prof Boey went
on to work on life-saving stents
for the heart, the windpipe and
other parts of the body. His
first invention was a world first
– a fully biodegradable drugreleasing cardiovascular stent
that a Silicon Valley venture
capitalist put money in. He has
since developed another stent
that is undergoing human trials
in India this year.
A hole in his heart Danny Tan.
It is a name etched
in his memory.
Danny was his
final-year project
student from years
ago.
He says: “I
encouraged Danny
to look beyond
his horizons and
he did just that by
becoming one of
the first engineers
in the biomedical
field. He joined a
company called
Biosensors and
rose through the
ranks. He never
forgot NTU and
he contacted
me to talk
about donating
to the school
and mentoring
students.”
“Unfortunately,
the day before it
was announced
that he would be
Biosensors’ new
managing director
two years ago,
he attended a
company retreat in Batam and
was walking along the beach. A
wave came in and dragged him
out to sea. He drowned.”
Prof Boey, who also dedicates
his time to helping aboriginal
communities and orphans in
Thailand, Indonesia, China and
Malaysia, conducted Mr Tan’s
funeral service.
“All my students have ability,”
he says of his philosophy as an
educator. “They just need a push
so that their careers can take off
nicely.”
As Provost, Prof Boey
helps NTU realise its vision
of becoming a great global
university founded on science
and technology.
Whether it’s motivating
students or supporting faculty,
he believes in creating an
environment for success. As the
father of three daughters, a son,
a pet chihuahua and a golden
retriever named Elvis says: “I’d
“So, I coughed up AUD$250 to buy an
old engine and used my engineering
knowledge to revive it. I drove to a farm,
collected the chickens and delivered
them to the students for the same price
as the frozen ones.”
like to work towards making
NTU a place that is happy and
confident. There’s no point being
the best but joyless. I would have
achieved my aim if people feel
cheerful and don’t have to slog
like crazy. That matters to me
as much as winning research
grants.”
9
Cov
er
NTU Open
se Special
Hou
photo: joel low HAIR & MAKEUP: JOEY CHAN, 9008288
ture
Fea
School Daze
Are you a straight-A
student torn
between
business and
medicine? Love
writing but can’t
decide if you want
to be a journalist
or poet? Or
do you
need help
choosing
the right
engineering
course?
See what
school the
future holds for you
with our NTU Open
House special
by Christopher Ong and Lester Kok
ILLUSTRATIONS BY goh wei choon
11
NTU Open
se Special
Hou
Cov
er
ture
Fea
Away from the glare of the spotlight,
a former kampung (village) boy
goes about tracking the global
markets with dedication. He
knows that one move can
make the difference between
big losses and huge gains for
Singapore. There is no glamour
in Lim Chow Kiat’s job in the Government
of Singapore Investment Corporation but
he sees it as his mission to contribute to
Singapore’s financial future
Jonathan Chan,
Chye Nyit Fhen
and Heng Xue-Li
(champions, L’Oréal
Brandstorm
International Finals)
Lim Chow Kiat
(see side story)
Stefanie Sun
(pop superstar
who has sold
millions of albums)
You can be like him if you are the one who... clumsily bumps into
others on the street… because your head is buried in a copy of
the Financial Times. Your eyes light up when you see the words
Greek debt crisis, because where others fear the worst, you smell
an opportunity to pick up stocks on the cheap. Your friends face
the “difficult” choice of choosing between Manchester United and
Barcelona; you scoff because you have a far more critical decision
to make: Technicalist or Fundamentalist?
Your perfect match: the Nanyang Business School, with the region’s
most established accountancy programme and one of the top
business programmes in Asia.
Its students are highly sought-after in the financial world, with
many securing jobs with the “Big 4” accounting firms and MNCs by
the start of their third year. The school’s undergrads also regularly
shine in areas like management and marketing, winning prestigious
competitions such as last year’s McGill Management International
Case Competition in Montreal and the L’Oréal Brandstorm
International Finals in Paris.
Confirming its impressive pedigree, the school’s MBA programme
ranks among the top 35 in the world, according to the latest
Financial Times ranking, where its MBA graduates were also found
to have the highest average salary compared to other Singapore
MBA graduates. The Nanyang MBA has also been ranked by The
Economist as the best in Singapore for the last eight years.
12
s c h ool o f c h e m i c a l &
biomedical engineering
n a n y a n g b u s i n e s s s c h ool
“I did other courses
in law, statistics,
communication, IT
and organisational
behaviour, which
I have found to be
really useful. As I did
more management
work in the last 10
years, the things
I learnt as an
undergraduate
came in handy.”
The Government of Singapore
Investment Corporation (GIC) only hired
one person back in 1993 – a former
Malaysian kampung boy fresh out of
the Nanyang Business School. Nearly two decades and several
promotions later, in 2011, that
someone – Lim Chow Kiat – became the
President of GIC Asset Management,
handling the company’s public market
investments, at the relatively young
age of 40.
Fresh out of university with a First
Class Honours degree in Accountancy,
he had turned down higher-paying
positions to join GIC as he felt that it
offered better learning opportunities.
That decision paid off, with Chow
Kiat enjoying a truly global career
with the organisation. Besides his
work in Singapore, he has had an
“entrepreneurial experience” in New
York, where he helped form a team to
invest in credit assets, and a posting
in London, during which he ran the
company’s European operations.
The education he received in NTU
gave him the tools to succeed. Says
Chow Kiat: “One of the strengths of
the curriculum was that its scope went
beyond our core discipline.”
“Even though accountancy was
my major, I did other courses in law,
statistics, communication, IT and
organisational behaviour, which I have
found to be really useful. As I did more
management work in the last 10 years,
the things I learnt as an undergraduate
came in handy.”
“Without some of those
foundational courses, I would probably
have had to do a Master of Business
Administration to try and understand
the management issues that I
encounter at work.” H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Two young NTU professors are
leading the world on a killer
mission. Asst Profs Matthew
Chang and Poh Chueh Loo
have re-engineered a common
bacterium to kill a superbug that
can cause many illnesses.
Be part of a world-beating team
and make our lives better...
The power in you… You have
always been curious about life,
how it begins and why people get
sick. You often wonder if one day
you could be the one with the cure for cancer.
In school, you were always pushing the limits
in lab experiments, going beyond what the
textbooks teach. To satisfy your curiosity, you
have conducted more than one “unorthodox”
experiment.
Diagrams of processes come naturally to you.
You draw them when in doubt and they never
fail to help you make sense of what is happening in
a situation.
13
NTU Open
se Special
Hou
Cov
er
ture
Fea
s c h ool o f c i v i l &
e n v iron me n ta l e ngi n e er i ng
“Research means being at the forefront
of something new and exciting that
could potentially make our lives better.”
Then, why not consider the School of Chemical & Biomedical
Engineering, where you can learn how to turn common chemicals
into fuels using sunlight, be involved in a range of cutting-edge
techniques that allow you to manipulate things at a subatomic
level, and create biomedical devices and artificial organs or limbs
to give others a fighting chance. Here, you can use top-of-the-line
equipment (such as Transmission Electron Microscopes to create
nano-art) and even get a hands-on experience at the school’s
distillation towers, a smaller version of the petroleum refinery
plants used by companies like Shell and ExxonMobil.
Who says engineers can’t be
businessmen? Dr Adrian Yeo is
one who has made that switch. Today,
Dr Yeo is the proud owner of a S$2
million company that is making
a “green” impact and he thanks
his professors for supporting
him all the way, from changing his field of
research to starting his company. You can
start on this journey, too...
Does this sound familiar? As a toddler, you enjoyed making castles
out of Lego blocks. While growing up, you loved looking at majestic
skyscrapers and wondering how they were built.
Dr Adrian Yeo
(see side story)
Er Dr Lee Bee
Wah (Member
of Parliament;
President of
Singapore Table
Tennis Association)
Li Peng (PhD
student who
has published in
Nature journals
and commercialised
inventions)
Bernice Oh (First
Class Honours
student who is on
the NTU-Imperial
College London Joint
PhD Programme)
Liu Andong
(PhD fellow at
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology)
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These two young dons are leading the
world in the ways of bioengineering
bacteria. Last year, they managed to
re-engineer a common bacterium to kill
a superbug, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
which can cause a whole range of
infections in humans.
Both professors share a desire
to innovate for the betterment of
society. As Asst Prof Poh (left) puts
it: “Research means being at the
forefront of something new and
exciting that could potentially make
our lives better.” The NTU alumnus,
who graduated from the School of
Electrical & Electronic Engineering, says
seeing hospital patients suffer makes
him wonder how he can help them. To
this end, he is also developing new
biomedical systems, including medical
imaging technologies that can help to
improve the diagnosis and treatment
of lung cancer and other diseases. He
adds that teaching students at NTU “is
one way of imparting knowledge and
skills, and inspiring them to innovate
and engineer new technologies that
will improve healthcare”.
Asst Prof Chang, who graduated
from Seoul National University before
doing a PhD in the United States,
wants to pay it forward, having
received help from others when he was
younger. “Just as people have helped
me, I hope to help others through
my research.” He enjoys sharing his
passion with the next generation,
saying: “I am particularly proud
that Chueh Loo and I led teams of
undergraduates to medals at the 2008
and 2009 International Genetically
Engineered Machine competition
(where students have to design and
build biological systems), held at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
Er Chong Kee
Sen (Director of
Engineers 9000)
Whenever there is something in the house that needs assembling, like
a DIY display case or a new drawer cabinet, you eagerly offer your
services, installing it instantly.
You abhor how pollution mars the environment around you and have
always felt a deep connection to nature, to the extent that you often
volunteer in projects to clean up your surroundings.
The School of Civil & Environmental Engineering could be your perfect
match.
With the world looking to reduce its carbon footprint, being a civil
or environmental engineer is one of the most hands-on ways you can
help. From shaping the design and construction of green buildings
that consume less energy to finding cheaper ways of producing clean
drinking water, you can contribute to a sustainable future. And with
Planet Earth facing an increasing number of environmental challenges
like earthquakes and floods, you’re needed to help pioneer ways to
combat these threats. Get cracking in well-equipped laboratories and
workshops such as a geotechnics lab and a hydraulics lab.
If you prefer a life on the high seas, take up a degree in maritime
studies. This course will open doors for you to international shipping
lines as well as global ports, giving you the chance to travel around the
world, even sailing towards your dream job to be the captain of
a vessel.
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
A trip to tsunami-hit Aceh, Indonesia,
in December 2004, where he saw
children lugging buckets of water from
a communal well almost 2km from
their homes, moved Dr Adrian Yeo
into action. He invented a water filter
using a simple hand pump system for
the tsunami victims who did not have
access to clean water.
On his return to Singapore, the
PhD student made the decision to
switch his field of research to water
sanitation. His professors supported
him, encouraging him and helping
him look for funding to set up a
non-governmental organisation
– Water Initiative for Securing Health
– that brought safe drinking water
to the poor. Little wonder that Dr Yeo
describes NTU as “one of the few
places where professors take the time
and effort to support young people,
even if they are ‘just students’”.
Continuing his entrepreneurial
calling, he started a company,
Membrane Instruments and Technology,
a spin-off of NTU’s Singapore Membrane
Technology Centre. The company
markets an NTU-developed sensor that
can tell when the membranes used
during water purification become dirty
and therefore less efficient.
His efforts have not gone unnoticed
– in 2009, he was the first recipient of
the Don Quixote Fund Award, bagging
US$100,000 in funding, and the
following year, he won PUB’s Watermark
Award for setting a new benchmark in
his water-related endeavours.
Today, the First Class Honours civil
engineering graduate has achieved
commercial success – his three-year-old
company was valued at S$2 million at
the end of last year.
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s c h ool o f e l e c t r i c a l &
electronic engineering
s c h ool o f co m p u t e r e n g i n e e r i n g
join google
Well, the short answer is: Why
not! And there is a Singaporean
who has done it. Tan
Chade-Meng graduated
from NTU in 1995 and,
five years later, got a
prized job in Google –
the first Singaporean to
do so. Want to follow in
Chade-Meng’s footsteps?
First, join us on a mental
discovery of yourself
Who you are You speak multiple languages (read: C, C++, Java
and Python) and you have a love for writing (read: Javascript
and HTML). You wait with bated breath for the next release of
Windows, Android and Linux. You dream of becoming the next
millionaire by writing a killer app that allows you to retire before
30. Your idea of fame is to have your name on the leaderboard of
Angry Birds and a crisis to you is when your Internet connection
lags or your WIFI is lost.
Which school fits you? The Google man’s school, of course. The
School of Computer Engineering, where reality bytes. Powered
by state-of-the-art infrastructure – such as the impressive
Immersive Virtual Reality Display, a 2.66m-high, 150-degree
cylindrical screen – the school is dedicated to grooming forwardthinking leaders who can solve problems in our connected world.
The skills you’ll acquire here are valued by employers: more than
60 per cent of the school’s graduating students get two or more
job offers. And you’ll find yourself hot property in a range of
industries, from IT services and telecommunications to software
development, financial services, education and manufacturing.
Hesitate no more. This is it.
16
Tan Chade-Meng
(see side story)
Adrian Chye
(General Manager
and partner at
3D-animation
studio Mediafreaks
Pte Ltd)
Charanjit Singh
(one of the
developers of
Creately, which
was named one
of Asia’s 10 best
applications
in a SingTel
competition)
Fact: NTU has produced a graduate
who is researching world peace.
Shortly after earning his
honours degree in Computer
Engineering in 1995, Tan
Chade-Meng passed a
demanding qualification
test to become the first
Singaporean to join a certain
American Internet start-up in 2000.
Twelve years have passed
since he was hired by Google as
an engineer. Today, he is a
celebrity in his own
right, and with a most
unusual job title – Jolly
Good Fellow (Which
nobody can deny).
Known for his
humorous wisecracks,
Chade-Meng landed
this position when he
mused aloud that there
wasn’t a Jolly Good Fellow in Google
(there is a Google Fellow, the highest
rank for an engineer there).
The nickname stuck and this Jolly
Good Fellow has since become a tourist
attraction at Google’s headquarters,
posing for photos with big names like
Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Leonardo
DiCaprio.
Chade-Meng is also one of the
founding patrons of The Centre for
Compassion and Altruism Research and
Education at Stanford University, where
compassion is studied scientifically.
He has been giving generously
to NTU since 2007 and recently
established the Tan-Teo Scholarship,
in honour of his parents and in-laws,
with an endowed gift of S$250,000 to
the university. The scholarship, worth
S$10,000, is awarded annually to two
NTU students.
– Wang Meng Meng
With just S$1,000, Merry Riana
came from Indonesia to
study at NTU. On most
days, she had to survive
on instant noodles, bread
and biscuits. Fourteen
years later, Merry is a
millionaire, having started
a successful company that
gives motivational talks and
coaching courses. Like her, you
can think the unthinkable and
achieve the impossible
Journey back to your childhood… Do you remember the first time
you got curious about the magical remote control that changed TV
channels whenever you pressed a button? More likely than not, you
took it apart just to figure out what was inside it.
In primary school, your eyes lit up whenever you did the light bulb
experiment. You kept adding batteries to the circuit to make the bulb
glow brighter, and blowing a fuse hardly dampened your enthusiasm.
Physics in secondary school was probably a walk in the park. Circuit
diagrams, complex calculations and algorithms? No sweat.
These days, you can’t stop tinkering with electronics. And now that
you have succeeded in wiring your own calculator from scratch, you
hope that you can one day work on the circuitry of something far
grander – like that of a satellite.
At the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, you can wire
and rewire to your heart’s content, getting to the core of very smart
electronics or electric circuits. Perhaps get lost in a next-generation
3D sound system for 3D TV? Or build the brains of cancer-detecting
devices. The school houses the Satellite Research Centre, which
worked on NTU’s and Singapore’s first home-grown satellite and is
equipped with satellite design and engineering laboratories as well as
mission control ground station facilities.
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Nagarajan
Raghavan (recipient
of the IEEE Electron
Devices Society PhD
Student Fellowship
Award)
Merry Riana
(see side story)
Esther Tan
(first female diver
in the Singapore
navy’s elite diving
unit and Her
World’s Young
Woman Achiever
of the Year)
When Merry first arrived in Singapore
in 1998 to join the School of Electrical
& Electronic Engineering, she had only
S$1,000 and a small bag of clothes.
Leaving behind her family in Indonesia,
she survived on S$10 a week and relied
on bank loans. Her undergraduate days
consisted of “a constant repertoire of
instant noodles, bread and biscuits”.
There were even times when she had
to go without food.
After graduating in 2002, she
struck out on her own as a financial
consultant. In her first year, she put
in over 14 hours of work a day, seven
days a week. By the end of it, she had
earned S$200,000 and was able to
pay off her school fees of S$40,000
in one lump sum. Four years later,
aged only 26, she was a self-made
millionaire. Today, the 2006 winner of
the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni
Award runs her own company providing
motivational talks and coaching
services. She has also started several
non-profit initiatives.
While the Singapore Permanent
Resident advocates the entrepreneurial
path, she encourages students not
to give up their studies to start their
own businesses. She shares how NTU
cultivated in her a love for learning
and she speaks fondly of the time
she and her teammates placed third
for a best project award with their
creation of a fish tank-cleaning LEGO
robot called “Flubber”. For her, the key
concepts learnt as an undergraduate
and “juggling various activities” in
university were critical ingredients in
her initial success, and she continues
to draw on these experiences.
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This young man grew up at NTU – from
being an undergraduate to doing his PhD
to teaching. He can easily qualify as a son
of NTU. The sun is his speciality, and his
studies here aim to bring about many good
outcomes. Join Assoc Prof Joachim Loo and
his team and be at the forefront of many
more discoveries
The one with substance You have a keen sense of observation – you
notice the different properties of objects and how they behave. When
you were young, you tried creating your own unique materials. Do
you remember using a lighter to melt plastic? Or creating figurines
out of Blu-Tack mixed with some other goo?
Law Jia Yan
(who was accepted
to the prestigious
IEEE Magnetics
Society Summer
School last year)
Assoc Prof
Joachim Loo
(see side story)
Dr Jimmy Tang
(SPH Magazines’
Group Editor)
18
s c h ool o f m e c h a n i c a l & a e r o s p a c e e n g i n e e r i n g
s c h ool o f m a t e r i a l s s c i e n c e & e n g i n e e r i n g
You like touching different objects and you can appreciate textures.
You know the difference between iron, steel and the various types of
plastics. You can name their strengths and weaknesses.
When you look at objects like your iPhone, you wonder: “Can
we manufacture this – both the hardware and software – out of
better stuff?” You are indeed someone who believes in the power of
materials, and how they can be changed or improved to do more
amazing things – even creating completely new kinds of things.
Find the right stuff at the School of Materials Science & Engineering,
where your observation skills will be sharpened when you start using
high-tech instruments (such as a high-resolution microscope to
inspect nanoparticles). You can also learn from top researchers who
have helped to develop new time-release drugs that treat different
illnesses, or who have discovered that keratin in hair can speed up
healing when applied to cuts and burn wounds. Because materials
science touches on many different fields, don’t be surprised if you
find yourself mixing some chemistry with biology and physics.
Ask Assoc Prof Joachim Loo, 36,
where his roots lie and he will say
“NTU”. The young don is a trueblue NTU boy, having graduated
from the School of Materials
Science & Engineering in 2001 and
completed his doctoral studies at
the university too.
He says of his background in
engineering: “It taught me not to
view a problem as a dead-end, but
as a starting point to a solution.” He is well-known for his work
on solar fuels – a sort of artificial
photosynthesis where sunlight
is used to split water into
hydrogen and oxygen. He has also
ventured into the world of nanosized materials, which includes
nanotoxicology studies.
Assoc Prof Loo and his
research partner Asst Prof Ng Kee
Woei discovered that nano-sized
zinc oxide particles – found in
products such as sunscreens and
paints – could cause DNA damage
when they enter human cells,
which in turn could potentially
lead to cancerous tumours.
As a teacher and mentor,
Assoc Prof Loo hopes “to
positively impact the lives of
students so that they are inspired
to contribute to the industry and,
ultimately, back to society and
their alma mater”.
There is a robot in NTU that
is as tall as a human and can
walk up and down stairs. He
was brought to this world by a
professor and his students.
Be part of the team to find a
brother for NASH. First, let’s
plan a name for him. We have a
suggestion: SMASH. Join us on
exciting journeys like this... Transform! You’ve always loved cars, airplanes and Transformers
Philip Lim Feng
toys. You still fantasise about having your own robot to do your
bidding. You’ve got machines all figured out (well, usually)
and you understand that automation, mechanisation and
miniaturisation are the future, whether for mobility, production
lines, or even for recreation and learning.
(CEO of Exploit You are full of innovative ideas and there is no such thing as
Technologies, A*STAR) perfection to you. Instead, there is always something bigger (or
Bennett Neo smaller) and bolder, to outshine all others.
(Regional Director,
Singapore Cluster and
Cambodia, Asia Pacific Like a sculptor, you have the ability to visualise 3D objects from
Breweries) 2D drawings. Making these plans come alive gives you a real high.
Anand Somasundram
(Deputy General Explore the School of Mechanical &
Manager, Toyota Motor Aerospace Engineering, the birthplace of
Asia Pacific) Singapore’s tallest smart robot, home
to the world’s first flexible endoscope
with small robotic fingers, and where
innovative ideas turn into reality. Here,
aspiring engineers will get to experience
designing, building and maintaining modern
aircraft, automobiles and unmanned aerial
vehicles. If you need inspiration, step into the
school’s aircraft hangar. There’s a fighter jet,
along with helicopters, a flight simulator and
even a real Rolls-Royce jet engine. You can also
get inspiration at the Robotics Research Centre and
Innovation Lab, inhabited by robotic fish and turtles
and solar cars.
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
“Hi, I’m NASH, short for
NTU Advanced Smart Humanoid. You
may have read about me or seen me
in the local and foreign news. I was
born at the School of Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering. My ‘father’,
Assoc Prof Xie Ming, designed and
built me with the help of his students.
Apart from being taller than the
average Singaporean male at
1.8 metres, I’m perfectly
capable of remembering
my routes in school.
I can walk up and
down stairs, and in
time to come, hold
a conversation
with you. Know
what I’d really
like to do? Help people!
Perhaps I can
start by helping
you mail your
application form
to NTU...”
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Rub shoulders with professors from
Disney, Lucasfilm and Pixar. Dabble
with state-of-the-art tools inside
futuristic studios. Mix science and
art to create a new media avatar.
Before you say “cool!”, go back to your
childhood and your recent past and ask:
Clarence Lam
(winner at
international
Carl Zeiss Photo
Contest)
 Pow Ying Hern
(first Singaporean
student to win
the prestigious
international Red
Dot Concept Design
Award)
Nur Aisyah
Suhaimi (Very Short
Who am I? As a child, your favourite toy was a thick stack of A3 paper. International Film
You probably learnt to doodle before you said your first words.
In primary school, you carried loads
of colour pencils and jumped for joy
when Photoshop was born.
These days, you’re hooked on the colour
pixels in cartoon characters and
get “KO’ed” very quickly because you
can’t take your eyes off the in-game
scenery.
If that is you, the place you should
be looking at is the cool building that
stands out with its intertwining turf
roofs: the School of Art, Design & Media. 20
Festival Grand Prix
winner)
She’s worked at the School of
Cinematic Arts at the University of
Southern California, a place many
consider the Harvard of digital arts
training.
And Prof Vibeke Sorensen played
a key role there too, serving as the
Founding Chair of the Division of
Animation & Digital Arts.
So it’s no surprise that the digital
multimedia and animation specialist
brought her pioneering ways to
NTU when she was picked to take
over the reins at the university’s
School of Art, Design & Media back
in August 2009. There, she helped
start the Centre of Asian Art &
Design as its founding director.
As the Chair of Singapore’s first
professional art school and a key
contributor to NTU’s new media
drive, she is helping the nation’s
brightest creative talents reach
their full potential. She says: “Art
is necessary as an expression of
life, as well as for the creation of
dialogue. It should be as natural as
breathing.”
“The emphasis at NTU on
interdisciplinary collaborations is
inspiring and can help to catalyse
many new possibilities. The
students here are also creative,
hardworking and intelligent – it’s a
good combination.”
But Prof Sorensen is not just an
academic and administrator – she’s
also an internationally respected
artist whose work in experimental
new media spans over three
decades.
By combining art and science in
new ways, she gets people talking.
No wonder she has exhibited in
galleries and museums worldwide
including the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, DC, and the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. She has
also been a collaborator of Disney
and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration. Before coming
to NTU, she chaired the Department
of Media Study at the University at
Buffalo, New York.
… like Liu Xiaoyi did. He had a
dream to stage a classic play in
NTU and managed to put together
a sell-out show in just two months
without much
help. Find out
how…
But first, are you made this way?A passion for the arts burns deep
within you. An appreciation for culture shapes you. Language is
not just a means of communication, but poetry in motion when
wielded by you.
Shakespeare, Haruki Murakami and Freud are people you
admire. Aspects of the human condition and the workings of the
inner mind fascinate you. The past and how it holds great lessons
for the future intrigue you.
Your perfect match: the School of Humanities & Social Sciences.
Facilities like a creative drama studio and communication
and psychology laboratories get your juices flowing as you
synthesise knowledge from different spheres, from linguistics
to economics. For instance, if you take the new history degree
programme, you will learn about the history of science, technology,
medicine, business and the environment. If languages is your
thing, the Centre for Modern Languages will give you the means to
express yourself (Arabic, Spanish, anyone?).
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Germaine Ng
(student-owner of
Pitchstop Café & Bar
on campus)
Ewan Sou
and Jason Lee
(entrepreneurs
who founded deals
review website All
Deals Leak
Liu Xiaoyi (see
side story)
A few months after graduating from the
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
in 2010, Liu Xiaoyi was approached by
two of his juniors to help stage local
playwright Kuo Pao Kun’s classic play
The Coffin is too Big for the Hole.
The duo, Ng Yeow Tang and Tan Yong
An, wanted to do “one last big thing” in
NTU before they graduated. And Xiaoyi
readily agreed to help his fellow Chinese
majors, despite
knowing there wasn’t
a drama club at the
school.
With him
showing the way
as director, they
managed to recruit
over 20 students
and complete the
preparations for the
concert in less than
two months. The
result: three sold-out
performances at the
school’s Black Box
Theatre.
Xiaoyi’s big leap
of faith sums up his
passionate nature.
When asked why
he originally decided to pursue his
undergraduate studies at the school, the
theatre freelancer says simply that he
trusted his “impulse”. Already an active
member of Singapore’s theatre scene
before he came to NTU, he credits his
studies here with giving him “new tools
to create a more robust path to theatre
and life”.
Today, the 29-year-old is one of
Singapore’s best Chinese playwrights
and recently ran a play, 11, at the Kuo
Pao Kun Festival 2012. Impressively, he
also runs a guesthouse in Dali, a city in
Yunnan, China, and commutes regularly
to Singapore and Hong Kong for projects.
So, what keeps him going?
“To live in my own way and die as an
artist,” says Xiaoyi.
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s c h ool o f
b i olo g i c a l s c i e n c e s
How many can claim to have done that?
Joanne Peh can. She did an internship
with 8 Days, and then went on to
become a top actress with MediaCorp,
winning the best actress award for her
role in The Little Nyonya
Prof Daniela Rhodes has become a fan of NTU.
After having done her PhD in Cambridge
University under a Nobel laureate and taught
there, this structural biologist joined NTU because
it “is an ideal environment for study and research”.
She is world-famous for her work in chromosome
biology and wants to work with students on the
science of protein-DNA interactions. Are you game
to join her and her team?
Bits of these in you? Bits like these: a love for the written word, a
kaypoh (slang for “busybody”) personality, an interest in shooting
videos...
Then, like Joanne, you might want to start looking at the varied
Here, you can hone your budding journalistic skills writing
for the university’s very own student-run newspaper, The
Nanyang Chronicle; learn the ropes of production using
sophisticated facilities such as television production studios
and directing galleries; and get right down to work making
advertising copy sing.
Many local celebrities have been
featured in 8 Days, but how many
have written features for it?
MediaCorp A-lister Joanne Peh has
done both, having interned at the
magazine in 2005 as a communication
student. Seven years later, the actress
no longer writes the headlines, but
makes them. Indeed, just as her
alma mater went through a change
to become known as the Wee Kim
Wee School of Communication &
Information, so has the journalism
major made the transition from freshfaced ingénue to bona-fide star.
And she has done so despite
22
having had to balance her thenbudding acting career with her
studies at NTU. As Joanne had said
back then: “As superficial as it seems,
I do believe that good grades can get
you where you want to be. I want to
prove to myself that I can handle both
my work and my studies.”
In 2002, Joanne burst onto the
scene by winning the Miss Elegant
and Miss Personality titles at the Miss
Singapore Universe finals; today, she
is a Best Actress, having received the
accolade at the 2009 Star Awards
for her role in period-drama The
Little Nyonya, which has charmed
Joanne Peh
(see side story)
You have a passion for… living things and the
Chua Chin Hon
(The Straits Times’
US Bureau Chief)
curiosity to find out what makes them tick.
You are fascinated by how they interact and by
the process of evolution.
Gilbert Chan
(director of last year’s
hit movie 23:59)
international audiences. Oh, and she
has been consistently voted one of
the Awards’ Top 10 Most Popular
Female Artistes over the years. The achievement-oriented gogetter has also been feted by the
university for her accomplishments,
landing the Nanyang Outstanding
Young Alumni Award in 2006 – the
same year that she graduated among
fellow school and hall mates with a
Second Class Upper Honours degree
in Communication Studies. And the
respect is mutual, with Joanne having
once described her peers at the
school as “brilliant”.
Tay Yu Juan
(gold medallist
at World Wushu
Championships)
source: sHin min daily news © singapore press holdings. reproduced with permission
attractions of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication &
Information, named in honour of Singapore’s fourth president,
the late Mr Wee Kim Wee, an eminent journalist in his day.
Feng Shu
(selected by the
Scientific Review
Panel of the Council
for the Lindau Nobel
Laureate Meetings
to participate in
their 61st meeting)
Lu Chenning
(currently doing
her PhD at Harvard
University)
Remember how, while others spent their
weekends catching spiders or collecting
unique leaves and flowers, you spent yours
peering under microscopes to look at the
cellular structure of these?
You go beyond the superficial and your
constant drive to seek what goes on beneath
the surface of organisms is something that you
take pride in. You know that this world is full
of micro-organisms like bacteria and viruses
and you seek to harness their powers while
others shun them.
“One of my greatest
joys is to have a
hand in helping
young students
and researchers to
learn to think for
themselves and
become passionate
about science.”
Consider the School of Biological Sciences. This is where cures
are found. From growing plants that can produce biodiesel to
developing a test kit to predict heart attacks, the power to exploit and
manipulate living organisms for noble reasons is within your grasp.
The school has superstar professors who are experts in areas like
structural genomics and chromosome biology, and under whose
tutelage you will thrive.
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Not all researchers begin their
careers studying under the tutelage
of a good professor, and even
fewer are mentored by a Nobel
laureate. Prof Rhodes comes from
the University of Cambridge, where
she pursued her PhD in biochemistry
under the guidance of 1982 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry winner, Aaron Klug.
Upon graduating, she continued
her scientific career at the worldrenowned Medical Research Council
Laboratory of Molecular Biology in
Cambridge, then
headed by Prof Klug,
where she became
internationally
recognised for her
contributions to
chromosome biology,
such as how DNA
is packed into
chromosomes.
Today, as a
professor at NTU,
one of her greatest
joys is “to have
a hand in helping
young students and
researchers to learn to
think for themselves
and become
passionate about
science”. Prof Rhodes has nothing
but praise for the School of Biological
Sciences, saying that it “provides
an ideal environment for study and
research”. She adds: “There is a
strong will and commitment to do
the best possible job of teaching the
students.”
23
NTU Open
se Special
Hou
Cov
er
ture
Fea
l e e ko n g c h i a n s c h ool
of medicine
s c h ool o f p h y s i c a l &
m at h e m at ic a l scie n ce s
He is 88 and sparkles at the thought of
coming out with new discoveries. He is
the force behind the technology that led
to the development of solar cells and
batteries. To boot, he is a Nobel laureate.
A rare opportunity to sit at Prof Rudolph
Marcus’ feet and pick his brain is here Get physical, build chemistry...You are curious about the way the earth
Aaron Chiang
(inaugural
participant of the
Istana Internship
Programme)
Sunku Sai
Swaroop (child
prodigy who
graduated at 18)
Kyla Tan
(Miss Singapore
International 2010)
spins, and want to discover the reason for the existence of universal
quantities such as the charge of an electron or the speed of light.
You wonder how the heavens are formed and aspire to find out what
the vast cosmos has in store for mankind. Away from the heavens,
you are fascinated by rock formations and mountains carved out by
millennia of water and tectonic plate movements. It’s no surprise that
geography was one of your favourite subjects in school.
Whenever you discover the reasons or logic behind physical and
mathematical phenomena, you craft succinct equations to express
them, in the tradition of Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.
Do your best work at the School of Physical & Mathematical
Sciences, where you can explore subjects like quantum physics,
tectonics and green and medicinal chemistry. Here, you’ll put
into practice the age-old belief that great inventions usually begin
with a simple but complete formula, very much like how Sir Isaac
Newton described the law of gravity. With the school’s Division of
Earth Sciences part of NTU’s Earth Observatory of Singapore, you’ll
also get to rub shoulders with earth
scientists who are considered among
the world’s very best.
This is also where you can learn
how to bend light to create invisible
cloaks, develop sensors that detect the
smallest of bacteria, and analyse how
climate change is affecting our planet.
You can also be involved in the design
of drugs to help fight cancer.
Graduates of the school have gained
admission to top graduate schools around the world, including
Harvard University, London School of Economics, UC Berkeley and
University College London. Many are also recruited by marquee
employers such as Bloomberg, BP, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline and
Singapore Airlines.
24
This humble visiting professor is
actually the man behind the famous
theory of electron transfer, which
has influenced the development of
technology such as solar cells and
batteries.
Today, far from seeking
retirement at the age of 88, Prof
Rudolph A Marcus is still putting
his brain to work every single day
tackling mathematical problems.
In fact, the 1992 Nobel laureate in
Chemistry says there isn’t a minute
that goes by without him working
on his “hobby” of solving problems.
His ideas are awake at bedtime and
even in his dreams.
As a Nanyang Visiting Professor
at the School of Physical &
Mathematical Sciences, he makes it a
point to share his experiences with
undergraduates. He wants to inspire
them to improve society.
In fact, he often tells them that
the scientific discoveries of the
last century are not enough. We
are now facing new, challenging
problems like global climate change
and environmental pollution. These
will have to be tackled by the next
generation of bright sparks.
Say hello to the Senior Vice Dean of the
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
He is a writer of numerous scientific
papers, book chapters and a textbook
on respiratory medicine; one of the
top five Chest Physicians in the United
Kingdom according to The Times’ Top
Doctors list; and a man who wants
to make humility and service key
ingredients of medical training in
Singapore.
As one of the key persons driving
the efforts to get the school up and
running, Prof Partridge envisions it as
a place where students will learn the
science and the soft skills necessary to
be a doctor in Singapore.
The ageing population here means
that doctors will have to care for
elderly people who may have more than
one long-term illness. And that takes a
lot of compassion and work.
Having spent many years
researching into the most effective and
empathetic ways of caring for patients,
Prof Partridge knows what’s needed
to nurture competent doctors who
genuinely care for people.
“We’ve got really effective remedies.
We’ve got the science, the technology.
We’ve got the drugs, which massively
alter things. But I think we have
lost a little bit of the service side of
medicine,” he says. He notes that studies have shown
that when doctors involve patients and
listen to their fears and concerns and
to their goals and expectations, and
jointly decide with them the best way
forward, medicine becomes effective,
compassionate and cost-effective.
“Medicine, like other university
courses, is a lot of hard work,” says
Prof Partridge. “You’ll find it easier
if you’ve already had high academic
scientific achievements.”
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
Medicine has come a long way.
Drugs, remedies, facilities, technologies... but
what about the service?
Prof Martyn Partridge wants to bring the
smiles back to the profession as he and his
team prepare to open the Lee Kong Chian
School of Medicine at NTU.
Join the good professor on his mission to
create competent and caring doctors
You! Be among
the first to shine
at the Lee Kong
Chian School of
Medicine. The
inaugural intake
of 50 students
will be next year.
Is this you? Knowledge is power and you have the will to use it for good.
You’re brilliant, determined, super curious about the sciences, and
always thinking about ways to help people live happy, healthy lives.
When somebody gets ill, you wish you could take the pain away and
make that person happy again. And you believe that if you work hard
enough you will have the power to do just that.
The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine is the place for you. You’ll
learn medicine from some of the top doctors in the field and each
day at the school is guaranteed to inform and excite.
Formed through a partnership between NTU and Imperial College
London, one of the world’s top ten universities, the Lee Kong Chian
School of Medicine is Singapore’s newest medical school with a
cutting-edge method of teaching medicine.
Lessons will take the form of e-learning modules, simulations,
lectures, seminars, apprenticeships, and team-based and problembased learning exercises, all of which will make each day at med
school infinitely stimulating.
And all this is geared towards creating doctors who have an
excellent grasp of medical science and are able to translate this
knowledge into the kind of care that you and I would like to receive
from a doctor.
But it won’t all just be about molecules and cells and the etiology
of diseases. The school also wants to produce graduates who can
blend their scientific knowledge with technological know-how and
be able to lead and work within healthcare teams of the future.
– Richard Ramesh
25
NTU Open
se Special
Hou
Cov
er
ture
Fea
nat iona l i n st i t u t e of e duc at io n
Your passion, let’s say, is music. You also want to
share it with young minds. You have an even bigger
dream: to score the music for the lead song of a
movie. Benjamin Lim was such a Singaporean. He
realised all his dreams after he joined the National
Institute of Education. Like Benjamin, why not add
some beautiful music to your work and
life? Take this simple test...
Victoria Chan
(national sailor who
won Singapore’s
first-ever World
University Games
medal)
Benjamin Lim Yi
(see side story)
Sumiko Tan
(endurance
athlete who won
the Sundown
Ultramarathon)
26
Are you... someone who is really passionate about something and
wants to pass on that passion to young people? Someone who loves
spotting talent in others and helping them make the most of it?
Someone who wants to help the next generation hit greater heights
than the current one?
The National Institute of Education might just be the place for
you. With top-notch facilities like the most extensive education
library in the country, classrooms equipped to support 21st century
learning with interactive wall-to-wall LCD panels, and Olympicstandard sports training facilities, this is the place to realise your
dream of becoming a leader in education, whether as a top teacher
or future principal.
By day, Benjamin Lim is a full-time
Music Elective Programme teacher. By
night, he is the resident composer
and guitarist of up-and-coming group
The TENG Ensemble, which wowed
crowds at the Singapore Pavilion of
the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Did we mention that he is also an
award-winning performer of the sheng
(a classical Chinese mouth organ)? Or
that he composed the title theme for
the movie Forever, which played in
cinemas here last year?
The 27-year-old graduated from
the National Institute of Education
(NIE) with a Bachelor of Arts
(Education) in 2009. Despite being
a relative latecomer to music – only
picking it up when he was 15 – the
music major was the clear choice
for valedictorian at his graduation
ceremony and also the winner of
both the Association of Nanyang
University Graduates Gold Medal and
The NIE Award. Benjamin recalls his time at the
university fondly, saying: “The music
department and my mentors really
shaped the formative years of my
music training, especially in the field of
Western music, which I was new to.”
Most recently, in March, he
performed with his ensemble to a
sell-out crowd at the Esplanade.
A living example to his students,
he says: “The desire for continuous
learning and a fear of artistic
stagnation constantly drive me
to improve.”
Or $20 worth of McDonald’s vouchers
(20 sets to be given away)
Simply complete this questionnaire and let us have it by 25 March. You may fax the completed survey form to
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27
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28
4
no
What’s In Here?
by NTU). Designed and built
by Assoc Prof Gerald Seet,
MAVEN lets you move around
on a mobile platform at a human
walking speed, while establishing
your presence with the use of
an LED screen, speakers and a
microphone. It’s as good as being
there in person.
Try on clothes as fast as you can browse them. Attend
conferences and meetings without actually being there.
Play with pink dolphins without getting wet. Lester
Kok finds out how you can enter this virtual realm of
possibilities at NTU’s Institute for Media Innovation
u 3D Virtual Try-on
Shop but don’t drop. Just be
a virtual fashionista and try
on clothes with a few clicks
of the mouse. Developed by
the Director of the Institute
for Media Innovation, Prof
Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann,
a pioneer in virtual humanity,
the technology lets you see how
a garment will fit in real life.
This is done with the help of
your personal avatar, an exact
animated replica of your body
based on your measurements. As
your virtual counterpart moves,
observe how the garment drapes
over your body. Designers will
also like this invention as they
can save on creating physical
samples, thus
benefiting
from a
shorter
design cycle.
i Mobile
Animatronics
Telepresence
System
e Immersive Room
This state-of-the-art room lets
you interact with your virtual
environment in a truly life-like
fashion. For example, here you
can enter a watery world with
pink dolphins as part of a game
that teaches social skills. You
can also experience what it is
like to coordinate an evacuation
from a disaster zone. These
highly realistic interactions are
made possible with the help
of a motion capture system
30
that records your real-time
position. You’ll feel like you’re
right in the thick of the action,
thanks to the room’s 320-degree
seamless rounded screen that
blurs the line between virtual
and reality.
rest of us, she recognises faces
and gestures, remembers past
conversations and can even
chat with you. She is also able
to memorise and analyse your
habits and store the data in her
memory.
r Chloe
t MAVEN
The next time you walk into
NTU, you may be greeted by
Chloe, our very own virtual
receptionist. A virtual human
with facial expressions like the
In the near
future, if
you are ill
and in need
of urgent
medical
attention,
don’t be
alarmed if your physician
does not pay you a visit. An
animatronic avatar that captures
his likeness may show up instead.
The avatar can project a person’s
face on its head and copy his
or her head movements. You
basically see what it sees and
it mimics your facial gestures.
Future upgrades include movable
and controllable hands and legs,
potentially allowing doctors to
use the avatar as an intermediary.
You can now attend overseas
conferences without leaving the
comfort of your office, thanks
to MAVEN (short for Mobile
Avatar for Virtual Engagement
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
About the
Institute for
Media Innovation
This international
centre at NTU conducts
advanced research in
the multidisciplinary
field of interactive
digital media. Housed
here is the BeingThere
Centre, where
prototypes of advanced
3D communication
technologies are
being developed by
researchers from NTU,
the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology
Zurich in Switzerland
and University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
in the United States.
Such “telepresence”
and “telecollaboration”
systems create the
effect of “being there”
when one is actually
not. The work done
could revolutionise
human interaction
across space in sectors
such as travel, training
and healthcare. 31
Feature
NTU denizens pondering food and transport options can get
to know the campus better with these two original Facebook
games developed by engineering and humanities undergrads
by Christopher Ong
Unlike many of their peers who
spent the December holidays
playing computer games, 11
students from the engineering
and humanities colleges were
busy creating them.
Mainly in their first and
second year, together they put
in hundreds of hours under the
guidance of Assoc Prof Yow
Kin Choong from the School
of Computer Engineering
to develop two Facebook
games. The games can be
played through NTU’s official
Facebook fan page at
www.facebook.com/NTUsg,
which has a fan base of more
than 10,000.
Playing Food on Campus
and Getting Around NTU,
NTU students can learn more
about the myriad of food and
transport choices on campus in
an interactive way. In Food on
Campus, players direct hungry
students to canteen stalls,
matching them with the dishes
they are craving. Some of the
popular food places featured
include Café by the Quad,
Food Connection and the busy
stretch of fast food outlets at the
32
North Spine. In Getting Around
NTU, players have to ensure
that students waiting at the
key campus bus stops take the
right buses so they get to their
desired destinations.
Both games require players
to score a certain number of
points within a time frame in
order to clear a stage.
Art, Design & Media student
Nur Aida Binte Sa’ad, who
created the cute characters for
the Food on Campus game,
found dishes pleasing to her
palette during her food hunt.
She says: “I took many photos
for reference. I’ve never had to
look at menus in such detail
before!”
And she didn’t mind
sacrificing her holidays. “It
was interesting to learn how a
computer game is made.”
The students did everything
from scratch, contributing
in different ways. In fact,
they pooled their talents
into complementary areas
of game development, often
spontaneously. For instance,
Computer Engineering duo
Elysia Ong and Jolene Lim
THIS PAGE, TOP RIGHT:
Help these hungry souls
satiate their cravings as
quickly as you can.
“You learn to respect the
work of your teammates
in different fields when you
work on a project like this.”
ABOVE: The interdisciplinary
team behind the two
Facebook games.
FACING PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT:
Score points by moving
the students to the
right bus queues.
joined the project to hone their
programming skills but ended
up also composing the music
and sound effects for the games.
Jolene shares: “I remember
trying to come up with a lively
tune, and I thought of Mary
Had A Little Lamb, so I
modified the song!”
Fun aside, the occasion was
also a chance for the students to
discover the beauty of teamwork
H E Y ! m a r–a pr 2 0 1 2
and cross-discipline efforts.
Says Computer Engineering
undergrad Abhishek Ray, who
was the chief programmer for
Getting Around NTU: “I didn’t
work on the graphics, yet
graphics are the most important
part of a game. You learn
to respect the work of your
teammates in different fields
when you work on a project
like this.”
33
“Kim Jong-il and Kim
Il-sung are always in
the hearts and minds
of most people.”
– Annabelle Liang
“Kim Il-Sung has
been dead for over
17 years, yet I saw
women crying after
paying their respects
to him at the
Kumsusan Memorial
Palace and it was
quite mind-blowing.” – Lim Yi Han
“North Koreans living
in the capital city
have no lack. They
have food, some
amount of electricity,
and other creature
comforts that
Singaporeans can
identify with.”
– Danson Cheong
“The people here are very proud of their
Catalonian heritage.” – Ginger Chia
Twelve
public and
promotional
communication
students acted
as advertising
agencies vying for their client’s
business – in this case, the
Barcelona Tourism Bureau’s.
Their aim: to position Catalonia
– a not-so-regular European
holiday destination – as the place
to be for young professionals
seeking fun and adventure. “Come
on over to Catalonia, where the
best of Europe begins,” says one
campaign slogan.
Hot Shots
Photos: North Korea: Elizabeth Law and Wong Kang Wei; Spain: Nur Aini Binte Malik Fadjiar, Poh Wee Koon, Agnessa Chan and abadines valerie kristin laraya
INSET, FROM TOP:
“We were not
allowed to go onto
the streets on our
own unless we had
asked for permission
from our minders.”
– Lim Yi Han
One is known for its secrecy; the other for its easy-come-easy-go
nature. Two groups of students from the Wee Kim Wee School of
Communication & Information experienced the hermit nature
of North Korea and the warmth of Spain last year. They put their
creative skills to the test as marketers and roving reporters
respectively, returning with fresh knowledge of their field and an
appreciation for life in vastly different cultures. Both trips were
funded by the Wee Kim Wee Legacy Fund
by Siddiqua Ovais
Pyongyang,
North Korea
After visiting one of the world’s most secretive states,
16 journalism students returned to share their
first-hand experiences, writing for several major
newspapers, including contributing a seven-page
special report to The Straits Times’ Saturday Section.
“Through print ads and social media platforms, we formulated an entire campaign
challenging the audience to think about whether they are up for the experiences that
Catalonia can offer. It’s about going off the beaten track and getting away from the
run-of-the-mill experiences offered by group tours.” – Agnessa Chan
“I love the extremely beautiful architecture of the
buildings and monuments, especially Gaudi’s Sagrada
Familia, a Roman Catholic church that is still under
construction after 100 years.” – Agnessa Chan
MAIN PICTURE: “With numerous talented athletes, performers and artists among them, North Korean children have achieved
so much more than you or me. I stand in awe of the malleability and potential of the human spirit.” – Edwin Loh
34
H E Y ! M A R–A PR 2 0 1 2
35
Unplugged
Is there life in outer space? Wang Meng Meng
chats with Assoc Prof Low Kay Soon, NTU’s point
man when it comes to building satellites. Slated
to be launched into space next year, the Velox-I
(Velox is Latin for “swift”) will be Singapore’s first
student-built satellite in orbit
What are some common
misconceptions about
building a satellite? That we
build it just once. We actually
build it three times. First, an
engineering model is built to
test the satellite’s functionality.
Then comes the qualification
model with all the components
that are space-qualified and
tested under very harsh
environments. Finally, we build
the flight model, which is the
one orbiting in space.
You were instrumental in the
development of X-SAT, the first
made-in-Singapore satellite
launched into space, as one of the
team leaders collaborating with
DSO National Laboratories.
Can you tell us more about
the hard work that goes into
building a satellite? It took
quite an effort to set up the
infrastructure as well as train a
team of scientists and engineers
to work on its various parts. All
in 2003, I did not have any
knowledge of the field and we
had no previous blueprints to
refer to. I had to pick up the
fundamentals of space science,
like learning about the stars
and constellations and the
space environment. However,
my background was useful
for X-SAT’s satellite power
management system, which
requires solar energy, and I
had expertise in designing
the power converter and
battery charging system.
My knowledge of control
engineering and signal
processing was also useful for
X-SAT’s controls and sensors.
How was the launch of X-SAT
different from what you see in
the movies? Our satellite launch
was certainly much more
exciting! You are there, at the
launch control, watching your
“baby” go up into outer space
inside a rocket. It was very
“I was a curious student who liked to
experiment. Dismantling radios and
electronic gadgets were ‘games’ I played
during my primary school days.”
Shooting for the stars:
Assoc Prof Low with
(left) Lim Yee Siang
and Xing Yitong, who
both worked with him
on the Velox-I.
36
the sub-systems need to be very
well integrated. This requires
great teamwork and there is
no room for error. Once the
satellite is launched, there is no
way we can get into space to do
repair work should something
go wrong. Right now, I’m really
looking forward to the launch
of Velox, which will be the
first satellite built entirely by
students.
You learnt everything from
scratch. How did you do it?
I am primarily an electronics
engineer specialising in
power conversion and
energy management. I am
still working in this area,
researching in solar and
wind energy. When I was
first involved with X-SAT
emotional for the team. There
was anxiety over whether all the
hard work would pay off. When
the satellite finally entered its
targeted orbit, we felt really
great about sending a true-blue
Singaporean satellite into space.
What is your ultimate goal? I
want to motivate more students
and graduates to participate
in our satellite programme,
which is unique among tertiary
institutions here, and to involve
them in the actual development
of nano-satellites (satellites
weighing 1 to 50kg) that will
eventually orbit in space. I hope
we can demonstrate advanced
functionality with such nanosatellites and make an impact
with new applications that have
not been imagined before.
What were you like as a
student? I was a curious student
who liked to experiment.
Dismantling radios and
electronic gadgets were “games”
I played during my primary
school days. Quite often, I had
extra screws and nuts after reassembling the gadgets.
Apart from your work with
satellites, you also teach.
What makes a great professor?
I respect teachers who are very
knowledgeable. In primary
school, I was inspired to be a
teacher in a higher institution.
You are a poster boy for
NTU’s admissions campaign.
How did the photo shoot go?
I felt very pai seh (Hokkien
for embarrassed). I prefer
to keep a low profile. It was
a new experience for me
and I saw how professional
photographers look at the
smallest details.
Do you believe in UFOs and
extraterrestrials? The universe
is so large and it is unlikely
that only Earth has living
things. So, I believe there are
extraterrestrials.
Which resonates better with
you – “may the force be with
you” or “to infinity and
beyond”? Actually, my motto is
dream beyond the sky.
Do you encourage your
kids to pursue engineering
and technology, and build
satellites? My two teenagers
know what their dad is doing
and they have seen our
satellites at public exhibitions.
Though I encourage them to
do science and technology,
they have the freedom to
pursue what they like. I believe
you should study and work in a
field that you have passion for,
so you will excel and be happy.
What is the best part about
your job? The freedom to
conduct research according
to my interests and to explore
new things. This was not
possible when I worked in the
private sector. Seeing my exstudents becoming experts in
their fields or enjoying success
in their careers is also great.
37
Thinking Aloud
by Sanchita Shandilya
Sanchita Shandilya
gave up a place at
Cornell University
to pursue NTU’s
Renaissance
Engineering
Programme, an
exclusive course
for aspiring
engineering
leaders. She is an
active member of
the NTU Debate
Squad.
THE NTU MAGAZINE
MAR–APR 2012
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Selecting the ideal undergraduate
course is like picking your
perfect life partner: you
seek chemistry, attraction
and excitement. You want
it to be steady, but not too
predictable; challenging, but
not too difficult. You want it to
understand your insecurities,
share your interests and offer
memorable new experiences.
And most importantly, you
want to be madly in love with it.
With this shopping list of
requirements, I set out about a
year ago to find the “major” of
my dreams. I am not a romantic
at heart, so “love at first sight”
was out of the question.
After several incredibly long
courtships (read: interviews,
essays and applications to
over a dozen universities),
I deliberated for weeks over
which course to accept. I finally
decided to take my chances
with NTU’s Renaissance
Engineering Programme,
popularly known as “REP”.
I couldn’t resist the rare
opportunity to earn a Bachelor
of Engineering Science
and a Master of Science in
Technology Management in just
four-and-a-half years.
About a year on, I can say the
REP is indeed my soulmate.
I was seeking balance in life
and REP offered me exactly
that. It’s one of the few holistic
engineering programmes
worldwide that brings together
the best of both worlds: science
and humanities. In the first
semester alone, I completed a
mix of engineering, business
and arts modules.
In this relationship, I’m
evolving not just as a scholar,
but also as an individual,
thanks to workshops and camps
directed at building leadership
and character. Interacting with
fellow classmates, professors
and industrial mentors has
inspired me to pursue greater
ambitions in life, and to live up
to the faith vested in me.
However, it isn’t just REP
that has swept me off my feet.
I have been equally bewitched
by the charms of NTU’s campus
life. The diverse student
clubs, multinational student
play
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population, entrepreneurial
spirit and scenic beauty of NTU
make the university one of the
most scintillating campuses I
have visited. I am constantly
surprised by the exciting events
organised by my peers and it is
an absolute pleasure to immerse
myself in this culture.
Yet, no good relationship is
devoid of challenges, and I’ve
had my share of sleepless nights
of project work, deadlines
that spring out of nowhere,
and tense moments when the
realisation dawns that the
honeymoon phase is over. Do
I give up and leave at the first
sign of trouble? Of course
not. With the second semester
underway, I’m looking forward
to the real deal – to cherishing
new highs and lows of
university life and making this
relationship a grand success.
I hope my love for the
Renaissance Engineering
Programme does not prove to
be eternal. I need to be able
to fulfil all my commitments
towards it before my four-anda-half years are up!
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My money plant,
considered
auspicious!
The Japanese
woodblock print
my husband got
me from Tokyo
National Museum
Travel books
– I’m an avid
reader and
globetrotter
My yoga mat –
it helps keep me
in balance, both
spiritually and
physically
Teaching cards
that explain
the different
types of
microbes
My two precious
babies, Grendel
and Dulcey
(“Grendel is
named after the
monster from
Beowolf and
Dulcey is named
after the princess
in Don Quixote.”)
photo: dios vincoy jr
My home-cooked
lunch of salad
and Spanish
empanada
Asst Prof Kimberly Ann Kline’s Office
Together with her husband
and her precious pooches
Grendel and Dulcey, Asst Prof
Kimberly Ann Kline arrived
from the United States almost
five months ago after being
awarded the Singapore National
Research Foundation Fellowship.
It hasn’t taken her long to settle
down – she’s developed a fondness for
using cai xin and kang kong (popular local
vegetables) in her cooking. “I’m more of
a homebody, so I enjoy exploring recipes
with ingredients that can be found in
Singapore,” she says.
40
At work, she directs research studies
and mentors a group of Master’s
and PhD students at the Singapore
Centre on Environmental Life
Sciences Engineering. Once a biology
undergraduate, she specialised in
microbiology at graduate school and now
devotes her time to researching bacteria.
“I chose to study bacteria because it is a
major cause of disease and I believe in
finding better treatments for infectious
diseases.” The S$3 million five-year
fellowship from the National Research
Foundation allows her to do just that.
– Michelle Chow
n–f PR 2
e b 2 0 1 2
Mja
A R–A
H HE EY Y! !