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BEAT DISTRACTIONS, RETAIN MEMORY
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05
ECE faculty among the
world’s most highly cited researchers
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NUS, DSO Launch Satellite Technology and
Research centre (STAR)
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NUS researchers have uncovered new insights into the brain’s ability to retain working memory despite distractions, such as when we are interrupted mid-task or when we receive new information.
Building up the 99.co Startup
– ECE alumnus, Mr Darius Cheung
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A BI-ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING, NUS ISSN 2010-1651 JUNE 2018 ISSUE 16
Editorial Team Assoc Prof Ho Weng Khuen Assoc Prof Ho Ghim Wei Ms Eunice Wong
Photography Mr Abdul Jalil Bin Din
Advisors Prof John Thong Assoc Prof Arthur Tay
CONTENTSDEPARTMENT 01 ECE Faculty among the World’s
Most Highly Cited Researchers
Appointment to Dean’s Chair in Engineering
02 Duo Honoured with Elevation to IEEE Fellows
03 Young Outstanding Innovator Honour
Staff Updates
04 ECE Annual Social Event 2018
RESEARCH05 Beat Distractions, Retain Memory
06 ECE Invention for Ultra-small Smart Vision Systems and IoT Applications
07 Lighting the Way for Cancer Treatment
08 NUS, DSO Launch Satellite Technology and Research Centre (STAR)
Singapore Space Symposium 2017
10 ECE Breakthrough in Topological Insulator-based Devices for Modern Spintronic Applications
ALUMNI12 Building up the 99.co Startup
13 Alumni Reunion CNY Festive Dinner Celebration 2018
STUDENT14 My NOC Silicon Valley Experience
15 Journey into the Heart of Innovation
16 Meeting Challenges Head-on
17 An Enriching and Fulfilling Journey
18 Student Achievements in IMAV Competition 2017
CubeSat Development
HoD SPEAKS...
Much of the modern world that we live in is shaped by the discipline of electrical and computer engineering (ECE). Prospective students considering engineering as a degree program often ask what ECE is all about. It is not so easy to provide an answer in a nutshell, as technologies encompassed by ECE are not only very diverse but are also so pervasive that they are sometimes taken for granted. Think about electricity that is supplied at the flip of a switch, communication systems and computer networks that form the backbone of the Internet, mobile devices that have become indispensable to most, modern vehicles equipped with (semi-)autonomy enabled by an array of sensors and considerable computation, intelligent robots in manufacturing, and smart buildings to name but a few. Less apparent are applications in the biomedical field – think of medical imaging technologies such as CT and MRI that have revolutionized noninvasive diagnoses, bioelectronic devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants, and many more emerging technologies that have the potential to significantly improve the quality of life. The diversity of ECE is reflected in the research undertaken by our faculty and in this issue we have examples straddling from neuroscience and applications in cancer treatment, to deep learning and emerging devices exploiting exotic physics.
ECE’s venture into space technology development, which started some 7 years back and led to the launch of the Galassia and Kent-Ridge 1 satellites in 2015, is taking a step forward with the launch of the NUS-DSO Satellite Technology And Research center (STAR), which will focus on research and development of technologies for small satellites flying in formations or constellations (pg 8). STAR plays an important role in the education and training of undergraduate students for Singapore’s space industry (pg 18).
Beyond the academics, what makes a program great as opposed to just being good is the experience afforded by the many opportunities in NUS to explore beyond the classroom setting. The NUS Overseas College (NOC) experience, for example, is unforgettable for those who had undertaken the NOC program, and has steered the path of not a few alumni towards entrepreneurship, including Mr Darius Cheung, the founder the CEO of 99.co. Darius and 4 of our current students share their stories and experiences in this issue (pg 12-17), stories which I am sure you will enjoy reading.
What makes a program great as opposed
to just being good is the experience afforded by the many opportunities
in NUS.
Prof John Thong Head, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, NUS
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APPOINTMENT TO DEAN’S CHAIR IN ENGINEERING
Assoc Prof Qiu Chengwei has been appointed as Dean’s Chair in the Faculty of Engineering from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020.
The Dean’s Chair appointment is in recognition of Assoc Prof Qiu’s outstanding and impactful scholarly accomplishments.
Assoc Prof Qiu was the recipient of several honours: the SUMMA Graduate Fellowship in Advanced Electromagnetics in 2005, IEEE AP-S Graduate Research Award in 2006, URSI Young Scientist Award in 2008, NUS Young Investigator Award in 2011, MIT TR35@Singapore Award in 2012, Young Scientist Award by the Singapore National Academy of Science in 2013, and Faculty Young Research Award in NUS 2013.
His research interests are in the areas of electromagnetic wave theory of transformation optic metamaterials, light-matter interaction, and nanophotonics. He has published over 150 papers in well-known scientific journals such as Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Light: Science & Applications and Advanced Functional Materials.
Assoc Prof Qiu’s research has been widely featured by media, such as Science Magazine, The Straits Times, MIT Technology Reviews, SPIE Newsroom, A&EN, etc. He has given a number of keynote lectures and many Invited Talks at international conferences. In addition, Assoc Prof Qiu has been serving as Associate Editor for various journals such as EPJ, Scientific Reports, and as Topical Editor for JOSA B. Assoc Prof Qiu has also served as General Chair and TPC Chair at several conferences.
ECE FACULTY AMONG THE WORLD’S MOST HIGHLY CITED RESEARCHERSThree ECE faculty members have been named among the world’s most highly cited researchers in the latest 2017 Highly Cited Researcher report published by Clarivate Analytics.
More information can be found at: http://news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/worlds-most-impactful-researchers http://news.nus.edu.sg/press-releases/2017-highly-cited-researchers https://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/researches/six-nus-engineering-professors-are-2017s-
highly-cited-researchers/
Congratulations to Prof Ge Shuzhi Sam, Prof Lim Teng Joon and Assoc Prof Zhang Rui from ECE Department who are among the six researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and among the 13 researchers from NUS mentioned in the 2017 report.
Two ECE faculty members, Prof Ge and Assoc Prof Zhang, who were listed in the 2016 report are among the top again in 2017.
HIGHLY CITED RESEARCHERS FROM ECE DEPARTMENT
Professor Ge Shuzhi, SamScientific Area: Engineering
Professor Lim Teng JoonScientific Area: Computer Science
Associate Professor Zhang RuiScientific Area: Computer Science
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DUO HONOURED WITH ELEVATION TO IEEE FELLOWSCongratulations to two ECE faculty members who have been elevated to IEEE Fellows since January 2018.
With more than 423,000 members in over 160 countries, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical professional organisation for the advancement of technology.
The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon persons with outstanding records of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognised by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement.
ASSOC PROF GUO YONGXIN
Assoc Prof Guo Yongxin was conferred the IEEE Fellow accolade for his contributions to wideband printed antennas. His research areas cover small and wideband antennas, wireless power, and MMIC modelling and designs. Not only
has he authored/co-authored more than 400 technical journal and conference papers with Google Scholar citation of more than 6,200 times and H-index of 44, but Assoc Prof Guo’s research work has also had a long-lasting impact on wireless communications, engineering in medicine, and Internet of Things.
Assoc Prof Guo’s contribution to IEEE includes having served as a General Chair of IEEE IMWS-AMP 2015 and IEEE IMWS-Bio 2013. Prof Guo has also been serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwave in Medicine and Biology (JERM), and the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.
“I am truly humbled and excited to have been elevated to IEEE Fellow. It is an honour. I have been fortunate to have met and worked with many talented students, post-doctoral fellows, researchers and collaborators. All my achievements would not have been possible if not for their support and contributions. I would also like to express my appreciation for the support from fellow colleagues, staff from the ECE department and also the Faculty and University,” said Assoc Prof Guo.
ASSOC PROF MEHUL MOTANI
For his outstanding record of accomplishments and contributions to information theory, wireless communications and sensor networks, Assoc Prof Mehul Motani was awarded the IEEE Fellow honour.
Assoc Prof Motani has made significant contributions to fundamental problems in network information theory, the design and optimisation of novel wireless networking algorithms, and more recently, deep learning for healthcare applications. He has also contributed to IEEE in numerous capacities, including serving as the Secretary of the IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors, and as an Associate Editor for both the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and the IEEE Transactions on Communications.
The lasting impact of his research is evident from the more than 5,600 citations to his publications and their influence on the theory and practice of modern engineering systems.
“I am thrilled and honoured to be elevated to IEEE Fellow. I especially want to thank and recognise my super-talented research students and collaborators, some of whom are the most creative and brilliant people I have met. Their dedication to knowledge and research is unparalleled. I also want to thank my colleagues for the advice and support they have given me throughout the years,” said Assoc Prof Motani.
He added, “I would like to thank too my family for their tremendous support, my wife for her virtually infinite tolerance and patience, and my kids for their boundless enthusiasm.”
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YOUNG OUTSTANDING INNOVATOR HONOUR ECE Department’s Dr Feng Jiashi has been conferred the honour of being named one of 10 young outstanding innovators
from the Asia Pacific region (Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan) on MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35” Asia 2018 list. Dr Feng gave a presentation at the EmTech Asia conference on emerging technologies held in Singapore from 30 to 31 January 2018 as a regional winner.
With this achievement, Dr Feng qualifies as a candidate for the global “Innovators under 35” list.
The global winners would be recognised at the EmTech MIT conference to be held in the fall of 2018 in Boston, US.
With his work on machine learning/deep learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence, Dr Feng has been gaining a reputation as a trailblazer in his field of research and in leading the next generation of technological breakthroughs. His dynamic neural networks enable computers and robots to grow gradual learning abilities in sensing and understanding the visual world.
In particular, Dr Feng developed the technique for building an artificial neural network with brain-like plasticity. This technique models the development process of the human brain that has the ability to produce new neural connections upon learning new knowledge. With Dr Feng’s technique, the network architecture can evolve upon receiving new knowledge about the environment. The neural network is able to grow smoothly in size and complexity to a more sophisticated version that can learn, master and integrate new knowledge.
Dr Feng’s technique develops neural networks by identifying and pruning redundant neurons and connections within them to enhance their compactness. At the same time, the artificial neural network is able to introduce new neurons and establish new connections to store new knowledge. In practice, such a technique helps deep learning practitioners to get rid of the tedious work of handcrafting network architectures for different applications. The model has since been applied for object recognition and fine-grained image understanding.
Dr Feng’s homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/ jshfeng/home. More information can be found at: https://www.innovatorsunder35.com/regions/asia/ and https://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/researches/nus-engineering-researchers-on-the-innovators-under-35-asia-2018-list/.
STAFF UPDATESAPPOINTMENT
We welcome Dr Benjamin Tee to ECE. Dr Tee is on a courtesy joint appointment with ECE, and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering where he is a President’s Assistant Professor.
Dr Tee graduated with Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.Sc (EE) from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. His current research focus is on developing high-performance flexible and stretchable sensor platform technologies for emerging autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems and Internet of Things applications. Dr Tee enjoys multi-disciplinary research and aims to integrate fundamental knowledge in material science, nano-electronics and biology to develop multi-scale artificial sensory devices inspired by natural systems. Besides hiking and jogging, Dr Tee is interested in visiting the New Seven Wonders of the World.
PROMOTIONS• Assoc Prof Tan Kok Kiong to Professor,
effective 1 January 2018• Dr Vincent Tan to Associate Professor,
effective 1 January 2018• Mr Yan Wai Linn to Lab Tech 1• Mr Ho Fook Mun to Lab Tech 2• Ms Habeebunnisa d/o Mohamed Ellias
to Lab Tech 4• Ms Nurshaheeda Binte Mohd Isa to MAO 3
TRANSFERWe welcome Ms Murne Abdul Molek, who transferred from SCALE to the Department as MAO 3.
RETIREMENTWe thank Mrs Ho Chiow Mooi née Chong (Lab Tech) for her dedicated service to the Department. She retired from service on 1 December 2017.
FAREWELLThe Department is saddened by the demise of Prof Xu Jianxin on 7 February 2018. Our deepest sympathy goes to his family. We miss him dearly. Rest in peace, Prof Xu.
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ECE ANNUAL SOCIAL EVENT 2018In the late morning of 2 March 2018, the ECE Department gathered at the Civil Service Club in Bukit Batok for their annual social event.
Participating staff were treated to a sumptuous buffet lunch followed by a lucky draw. ECE staff also participated in two fun-filled activities for everyone to let off some steam, with soap making and bowling.
Sporting talents of staff members were on show in the bowling lanes. Congratulations to our ECE bowling champion, Mr Thomas Ang, who fell more than 800 pins! Assoc Prof Chor Eng Fong deserves special mention for joining staff in the bowling alley to promote an active lifestyle and work-life balance.
As for the soap-making workshop, we had a great turnout of 40 people. Members were divided into groups, and were given a set of raw materials. By pouring the melted soap into flowery moulds and painting them using a range of food colouring, many artistic soaps were crafted. Some were simple and elegant, while others were a la Picasso by the expressive choice of colours. We made soap that resembled yummy jelly served on plates!
A competition was then set to challenge everyone’s creativity. Each group had to showcase a festival using soap and stationery. Since it was Yuan Xiao, many of us chose themes related to Chinese New Year. The competition was intense. Groups fought for the limited decorative resources available at the front counter and the half-empty pot of melted soap. After an hour of hard labour, six eye-catching artworks were presented to the audience. It was a tough decision for our judge, Assoc Prof Chor, to decide the winners.
All in all, we had a great time, and more importantly, we brought home many exotic soaps for our loved ones!
Our happy diners
The professional soap maker giving guidance to the participants
ECE Head of Department Prof John Thong and other ECE professors enjoying the event
Colorful ingredients and props for the soap making competition
Sumptuous buffet lunch awaiting!
A photo for the album before starting the event
Congrats to our lucky draw winnersAll set to give our best shot!
Arrays of colourful handmade soaps
The creative team behind the “Happy” entry
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NUS researchers have uncovered new insights into the brain’s ability to retain working memory despite distractions, such as when we are interrupted mid-task or when we receive new information. Their findings paint a picture contrary to conventional understanding of how the brain works, suggesting a mechanism for small populations of neurons to flexibly store different types of information, instead of remaining unchanged by disruptions. The research was published online in Nature Neuroscience on 9 October 2017.
BEAT DISTRACTIONS, RETAIN MEMORY
Working memory is a type of short-term memory that stores and manages information required for everyday cognitive tasks such as reasoning and language comprehension. It operates over a short time-frame, enabling us to focus despite distractions. Working memory is maintained by the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and is used when we engage in tasks such as recalling a phone number to dial or doing mental sums.
Previously, it was thought that neural activity in the prefrontal cortex is unchanged and unaffected by distractions, allowing for information to be retained.
The NUS study – led by Assistant Professor Yen Shih-Cheng from ECE, and Assistant Professor Camilo Libedinsky from NUS Psychology – showed that it is quite the opposite. Their findings suggest that distractions in fact alter the activity of the neurons, but the brain is able to retain information by reorganising the information within the same population of neurons. The “code” by which the neurons use to maintain memory information morphs into a different one in the presence of a distraction.
“Our study could potentially provide inspiration for new types of computer architectures and learning rules used in artificial neural networks modelled after the brain.”
— Asst Prof Yen Shih-Cheng
The NUS study suggests a mechanism for neurons to flexibly store information, allowing the brain to retain working memory despite distractions
The NUS team (from left) Asst Prof Libedinsky, Research Fellows Dr Roger Herikstad and Ms Aishwarya Parthasarathy, and Asst Prof Yen
The implications and potential from the findings are wide-ranging, from applications in artificial intelligence to neuropsychiatric research that tackles cognitive conditions.
“Our study could potentially provide inspiration for new types of computer architectures and learning rules used in artificial neural networks modelled after the brain. This could potentially enhance the neural network’s ability to store information flexibly using fewer resources, and to exhibit greater resilience in retaining information in these networks – for instance, in the presence of new incoming information or disruption to the activity,” said Asst Prof Yen.
Asst Prof Libedinsky also considered the results of the study within the context of abnormal brain function, where the neurons fail to reorganise when memory is disturbed. “Patients with Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and dementia show declines in working memory. We could like to explore whether the mechanisms we uncovered could help explain these memory deficits,” he said.
Next, the team plans to investigate the conditions that trigger neurons to reorganise the information in the prefrontal cortex, how the information is reorganised and how this may affect other parts of the brain.
This article was first published on 1 November 2017 in NUS News at http://news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/beat-distractions-retain-memory
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ECE INVENTION FOR ULTRA-SMALL SMART VISION SYSTEMS AND IOT APPLICATIONSUsing 20 times less power than existing chips, the novel video feature extractor is able to reduce the size of untethered vision systems down to the millimetre range.
ECE researchers have developed a novel microchip, named EQSCALE, which can capture visual details from video frames at extremely low power consumption.
The video feature extractor uses 20 times less power than existing best-in-class chips, thus requiring a 20-time smaller battery. It is able to reduce the size of smart vision systems down to the millimetre range. For example, it can be powered continuously by a millimetre-sized solar cell without the need for a battery replacement.
Led by ECE’s Assoc Prof Massimo Alioto, the team’s discovery is a major step forward in developing millimetre-sized smart cameras with near-perpetual lifespan. It will also pave the way for cost-effective Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as ubiquitous safety surveillance in airports and key infrastructure, building energy management, workplace safety, and elderly care.
“IoT is a fast-growing technology wave that uses massively distributed sensors to make our environment smarter and human-centric. Vision electronic systems with long lifetimes are currently not feasible for IoT applications due to their high power consumption and large size. Our team has addressed these challenges through our tiny EQSCALE chip and we have shown that ubiquitous and always-on smart cameras are viable. We hope that this new capability will not only accelerate the ambitious aim of embedding the sense of sight in IoT, but also advance the realisation of Singapore’s Smart Nation vision,” said Assoc Prof Alioto.
A tiny vision processing chip that works non-stopA video feature extractor captures visual details taken by a smart camera and turns them into a much smaller set of points of interest and edges for further analysis. Video feature extraction is the basis of any computer vision system that automatically detects, classifies and tracks objects in the visual scene. It needs to be performed on every single frame continuously, thus defining the minimum power of a smart vision system and therefore the minimum system size.
The power consumption of previous state-of-the-art chips for feature extraction ranges from various milliwatts to hundreds of milliwatts which is the average power consumption of a smartwatch and a smartphone, respectively. To enable near-perpetual operation, devices can be powered by solar cells that harvest energy from natural lighting in living spaces. However, such devices would require solar cells the size of a centimetre scale or even larger, thus posing a fundamental limit to the miniaturisation of such vision systems. Shrinking solar cells down to the millimetre scale requires the reduction of the power consumption to much less than one milliwatt.
The ECE team’s microchip, EQSCALE, can perform continuous feature extraction at 0.2 milliwatts, 20 times lower in power consumption than any existing technology. This translates into a major advancement in the level of miniaturisation for smart vision systems. The novel feature extractor is smaller than a millimetre on each side and can be powered continuously by a solar cell that is only a few millimetres in size.
Assoc Prof Alioto explained, “This technological breakthrough is achieved through the concept of energy-quality scaling where the trade-off between energy consumption and quality in the extraction of features is adjusted. Our breakthrough mimics the dynamic change in the level of attention with which humans observe the visual scene by processing the change with different levels of detail and quality depending on the task at hand. Energy-quality scaling allows correct object recognition even when a substantial number of points of interests are missed due to the degraded quality of the target.”
Next stepsThe development of EQSCALE is a crucial step towards the future demonstration of millimetre-sized vision systems that can operate indefinitely. The ECE team is looking into developing a miniaturised computer vision system that comprises smart cameras equipped with vision capabilities enabled by the microchip, and a machine-learning engine that comprehends the visual scene.
The ultimate goal of the ECE team is to enable massively distributed vision systems for wide-area and ubiquitous visual monitoring that vastly exceeds the traditional concept of cameras.
This story is adapted from the press release published on 18 January 2018 in NUS News http://news.nus.edu.sg/ press-releases/EQSCALE-vision-processing-microchip
ECE’s Assoc Prof Massimo Alioto and his team developed a tiny vision processing chip, EQSCALE, which uses 20 times less power than existing technology
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LIGHTING THE WAY FOR CANCER TREATMENTWhile photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a powerful light-induced cancer treatment, its application has largely been limited to surface cancers due to its inability to penetrate deeper than a centimeter of tissue.
A new approach developed by NUS researchers will soon change that by wirelessly delivering doses of light into deeper regions of the body to activate light-sensitive drugs, potentially enabling the use of PDT in treating a wider range of cancers such as those of the brain and liver.
PDT is a more precise approach to cancer therapy that is also less toxic. In PDT, a light-sensitive drug, known as a photosensitiser, is triggered by a specific light wavelength to produce a form of oxygen that kills nearby cancer cells. PDT also shrinks or destroys tumours by damaging blood vessels in the tumour and starving cancer cells of essential nutrients. It could also activate the immune system to attack tumour cells.
Led by Professor Zhang Yong from NUS Biomedical Engineering and Assistant Professor John Ho from NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering, the NUS team created a tiny 15mm3 wireless device — the size of a peppercorn and weighing a mere 30mg — that can be easily implanted in the body, thus allowing PDT to go deeper and target the inner organs. The team was able to activate photosensitive molecules through thick tissues of more than 3cm, typically inaccessible by direct illumination.
The findings of the study were published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 29 January.
Asst Prof Ho explained the novelty of their approach. “Powered wirelessly, the tiny implantable device delivers doses of light over long time scales in a programmable and repeatable manner.
Asst Prof Ho (left) and Prof Zhang, with their miniature implantable device seen on top of the microscope slide
This could potentially enable the therapies to be tailored by the clinician during the course of treatment,” he said.
“Our approach of light delivery will provide significant advantages for treating cancers with PDT in previously inaccessible regions,” added Asst Prof Ho, who is also a Principal Investigator at the Biomedical Institute for Global Health Research and Technology at NUS.
The innovative technology also enables ongoing treatment to prevent reoccurrence of a cancer without additional surgery.
Prof Zhang said, “The application of the technology can also be extended to many other light-based therapies, such as photothermal therapy, that face the common problem of limited penetration depth. We hope to bring these capabilities from bench to bedside to provide new opportunities to shine light on human diseases.”
The team is looking into minimally invasive techniques for implanting their device, as well as integrating sensors to monitor treatment response in real-time. They are also working on developing nanosystems for targeted delivery of photosensitisers.
This article was first published on 1 February 2018 in NUS News at https://news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/lighting-way-cancer-treatment
Book launch by Assoc Prof Massimo Alioto
Assoc Prof Alioto has released the very first book on silicon chip design for IoT, thus driving change by uncovering the technical innovation that will fuel IoT applications.
Entitled “Enabling the Internet of Things – from Integrated Circuits to Integrated Systems”, published by Springer, the book was released at the prestigious ISSCC 2017 conference in San Francisco, US, and has been available to the public since November 2017.
The book is the natural follow-up to the research activities carried out in the area of ultra-low power chip design for IoT as a crucial enabler of miniaturised smart sensing systems with decade-long battery lifetime. It gives the first comprehensive view on integrated circuit and system design for IoT. The book also features a vision on how IoT will evolve based on the analysis of technological and economic trends, and offers insights into the state of the art design of IoT nodes and sensors, from circuits to architectures, packaging and system demonstrations.
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SINGAPORE SPACE SYMPOSIUM 2017The fourth edition of the Singapore Space Symposium was successfully held on 27 September 2017 at the Faculty of Engineering. Jointly organised by ECE Department and EDB, the symposium was well attended by more than 350 people, mainly from the space industry.
STAR is supported by Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), and helmed by Professor Low Kay Soon from ECE Department.
Located at the Singapore Wind Tunnel Facility on the NUS Kent Ridge campus, STAR will train undergraduates and graduate students to meet the manpower needs of Singapore’s space industry.
https://news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/spurring-satellite-research
https://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/researches/star-sets-to-promote-space-technology-education-research-and-commercialisation/
NUS, DSO LAUNCH SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH CENTRE (STAR)The Faculty of Engineering and the DSO National Laboratories jointly launched the Satellite Technology and Research centre (STAR) on 25 January 2018 to promote space technology.
The new centre will focus on the development of cutting-edge capabilities in distributed satellite systems, in particular, the flying of multiple small satellites in formation or constellation.
The launch of STAR was reported in the following media
Capital 95.8FM
SpaceTech Asia
OpenGov
Satnews Daily
World Industrial Reporter
Tech Explorist
NUS News
NUS Twitter
NUS LinkedIn
The Edge Singapore
The venue for the symposium, Lecture Theatre 6, saw a good turn-out for the presentations
From left: Prof Low Kay Soon, Prof Chua Kee Chaing (Dean of Engineering), Prof Ho Teck Hua (NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost) and Mr Cheong Chee Hoo (CEO of DSO) at the launch
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Lunch time networking session
Animated discussion by the panellists during the panel discussion on bridging the “Valley of Death” between research discovery and industrial applications
To kick off the symposium, Prof Chua Kee Chiang, Dean of Engineering, gave the opening address, followed by the keynote speech by Mr Beh Kian Teik, EDB’s Assistant Managing Director. Besides promoting research and development activities on satellites, the full-day symposium aimed to foster collaboration on satellite technologies between public institutions and industries.
A total of 15 presentations covering a wide range of topics were made by companies such as ST Electronics, THALES Alenia Space, Airbus Defence & Space, DigitalGlobe, and by researchers from NUS, NTU and A*STAR. The chief engineer of ST Electronics, Mr Koh Wee Eng, presented the building of the satellite team and facilities leading to the completion of Singapore’s first commercial satellite named TeLEOS-1 in December 2015.
Prof Low Kay Soon, Director of Satellite Technology and Research centre (STAR) from ECE Department, presented the new trend in satellite technology in the industry which favours miniaturised satellites with weights of between 5 and 20kg flying in a fleet numbering between tens and hundreds.
There were also presentations on a new laser-based technique to perform radiation study, quantum technology for secured communication, and low-cost sounding rocket launch. In addition, the symposium featured 13 poster presentations, exhibits from companies and a panel discussion on bridging the “Valley of Death” between research discovery and industrial applications.
The poster session held outside Lecture Theatre 6 attracted much attentionE
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Employing novel quantum matter: Topological insulators
Topological insulators are electronic materials that have a bulk band gap like an ordinary insulator but can still support conducting states on their surface. Such insulators possess both a strong spin-orbit coupling and spin-momentum-locked topological surface states (TSS) on which the electron momentum and spin polarisation directions are strongly locked.
“Due to spin-momentum-locked properties, as charge current flows in the TSS, all electron spins will be fully polarised in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the moving electron. Therefore, a very highly efficient spin current generation and a giant SOT efficiency are expected in topological insulators,” explained Dr Zhu Dapeng, who is a co-first author of the study and a Research Fellow at ECE Department.
Taking advantage of TSS is crucial to realise high performance topological insulator-based SOT devices. However, in typical topological insulators such as Bi2Se3, the parasitic bulk states and two dimensional electron gas can contaminate and/or wash out the high SOT efficiency in TSS. In order to overcome this, the research team has identified the TSS-dominated SOT effect in ultrathin Bi2Se3 films (≤ 8 nm), exhibiting a large SOT efficiency up to 1.75 at room temperature which is much larger than the values of ~0.01–0.3 in conventional heavy metals.
ECE BREAKTHROUGH IN TOPOLOGICAL INSULATOR-BASED DEVICES FOR MODERN SPINTRONIC APPLICATIONSKudos to ECE’s achievement of room temperature spin-orbit torque-driven magnetisation switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures. This finding has promising applications in low power consumption and high integration density memories and logic devices.
The current induced magnetisation switching by spin-orbit torque (SOT) is an important ingredient for modern non-volatile magnetic devices such as magnetic random access memories and logic devices required for high-performance data storage and computing. Hence, researchers around the world are constantly searching for novel ways to reduce high switching current densities in order to achieve highly efficient SOT-driven magnetisation switching. ECE researchers have attained this significant breakthrough.
Led by ECE’s Assoc Prof Yang Hyunsoo, the research team has, for the first time, successfully demonstrated room temperature magnetisation switching driven by giant SOT in topological insulator/conventional ferromagnet (Bi2Se3/NiFe) heterostructures with an extremely low current density that can address the issue of scalability and high power consumption needed in modern spintronic devices.
Assoc Prof Yang said, “Our findings can solve the fundamental obstacle of a high switching current in present heavy metal based SOT applications. This is a big step towards room temperature topological insulator based spintronic device applications with ultralow power dissipation and high integration density. We believe our work will greatly invigorate topological insulator-based global research activities from diverse disciplines.”
The ECE researchers behind the major breakthrough in spintronics research
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High performance topological insulator-based devices for data storage and computing
In traditional heavy metal (such as Pt or Ta)/ferromagnet SOT devices, the current density required for the magnetisation switching is still high, in the order of ~107–108 A/cm2, which hinders their use in high performance SOT applications.
The ECE team demonstrated the highly efficient current induced magnetisation switching at room temperature using a topological insulator Bi2Se3 (8 nm), which can be grown on a wafer scale using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), with a conventional 3D ferromagnet NiFe (6 nm), which is widely utilised in various industries.
“Our work successfully presents a significant reduction of switching current density for the magnetisation switching by utilising the giant SOT effect in Bi2Se3. The value is about 6×105 A/cm2 which is almost two orders of magnitude smaller than that of heavy metals. This is a major milestone for the ultralow power consumption and high integration density SOT device applications. Moreover, our devices work robustly at room temperature which exceeds the limit of ultralow working temperature in previous TI device,” said Dr Wang Yi who is the other co-first author of the study.
“Our magnetisation switching scheme does not require an assistive magnetic field. This makes the topological insulator/ferromagnet material systems easy to integrate into the well-established industrial technology for magnetic devices,” added Assoc Prof Yang.
Moving forward
Assoc Prof Yang and his team are currently conducting experiments to further decrease the switching current by further refining the materials and structures of the systems. In addition, they are planning to incorporate and test the technology in core magnetic memory devices. Moving forward, the team hopes to work with industry partners to further explore various applications with its novel material systems.
The ECE team’s research work was supported by A*STAR’s Pharos Programme on Topological Insulators. The study finding was published in the scientific journal, Nature Communications [1], on 8 November 2017.
[1] Nature Communications 8, 1364 (2017)
This story is adapted from the press release first published on 28 November 2017 in NUS News http://news.nus.edu.sg/press-releases/topological_insulators_SOT
ECE’s spintronics milestone has promising applications in low power consumption and high integration density memories and logic devices
Assoc Prof Yang’s research was also featured in the following online media
AZO Materials, 29 November 2017
Silicon Valley Microelectronics, 29 November 2017
News Today, 29 November 2017
Nanowerk, 28 November 2017
Science Daily, 28 November 2017
Phys.Org, 28 November 2017
I-Connect007, 28 November 2017
Brightsurf, 28 November 2017
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BUILDING UP THE 99.CO STARTUP In this issue, we are proud to feature one of our distinguished alumni, Mr Darius Cheung, Founder and CEO of 99.co.
What year did you graduate from ECE?
I graduated with a B.Eng. in 2004.
Did you enjoy the years you spent at ECE?
I had a really great albeit pretty tough time during my undergraduate days. Engineering was sheer hardcore work, very challenging but also very enjoyable and fulfilling. I discovered my strength gravitated more towards programming languages such as C and Assembly then, and found my interest in applied engineering-related work rather than in basic research.
I am an alumnus of NUS Overseas College (NOC), and a member of the NUS IEEE Society and NUS Entrepreneurship Association.
How did your experience in ECE motivate you in starting a startup?
I have NUS to thank for helping me find my calling in the startup scene. My gratitude goes to both NUS Enterprise (NOC and Startup@Singapore) and the Department. The latter gave me a window to look into the amazing things that are building blocks of our modern world, such as transistor and radio waves, without which we would not have computers and phones. It was an important milestone for me, and boosted my confidence and interest to create something of my own. Once I knew how to break things down into basic building blocks, it helped me to figure out what I could build.
Electrical engineering was an important “brain gym” as it trained my mental muscles on how I think logically about the world. Even today I find myself analysing many real world situations, for example, business models or HR functions, as control systems, how to design feedback loops, what should be open or closed loops, or what divergent oscillation situations are, etc.
What was your final year project (FYP)?
It was a speech recognition project, what you would think of today as something like Siri that worked if you were to dial into Starhub using a smart response system. My FYP was under Assoc Prof Hari K Garg who was an indispensable part of my journey. He was not only technically sound, a good professor but also my inspiration. If I recall correctly, he was onto his second company when I was there. He encouraged me to synthesise what I was learning, researching and building to think about real world applications directly.
What was the motivation behind starting 99.co?
I was trying to look for a place to rent in Singapore and I hated
the experience. Duplicate, false listings were all over the marketplace and made it impossible to find a home efficiently. All my friends and I ended up wasting time looking at units we would have ruled out if we had known more about them. I was frustrated and frankly quite surprised by how complex the process was in a country as advanced as Singapore. Why was it so difficult to find accurate, transparent data when it comes to making one of life’s biggest decisions? I thought this was clearly something we can do better.
What are the common pitfalls that plaque startups today?
It may be the temptation to chase after many big ideas concurrently. From my experience, it is better to focus on one issue at a time. Another common pitfall is focusing too much on raising large amounts of money instead of building a better product.
What measures did 99.co take to overcome these pitfalls?
We pay attention to the customers, find out what their problems are, and from there we endeavour to solve these issues.
The 99.co team, currently 45-strong, has people who are passionate about making the home-seeking journey a more enjoyable one
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ECE Head of Department, Prof John Thong, giving his welcome address
Doing the traditional tossing of the Yu Sheng dish for good luck
Every happy occasion deserves a toast!
What is 99.co’s position in the industry today?
We entered the market as a challenger to the incumbent and I’m proud to say that we are now the largest property portal in Singapore with the most number of residential listings. Not only that, we’ve also established a strong foothold in Indonesia, recently acquiring UrbanIndo, Indonesia’s largest property portal.
On the product front, I’m also excited to share that we have also launched commercial listings on our portal.
You may refer to www.99.co for more details.
What would you say to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Be courageous. Do not be afraid to wet your feet. Instead of reading startup news, spend your time wisely to truly understand your customer needs and focus on solving them.
Any takeaway for ECE students?
Be patient and gain knowledge in your engineering study. You may not fully appreciate the full spectrum of your education today, but surely you will down the road in life. You will come to realize that it is worth your while to really do well in your engineering studies. If you are asking the question “would I ever actually use this?” the answer is “yes”! You are training your brain muscles on how to think. You may never actually lift weights for a living in life, but certainly the same muscles built up would be your foundation, whether your actual passion is going to be in basketball, dance or other pursuits.
And know that time waits for no one, it does not does not rollback. It is virtually impossible or extremely difficult to revert and be good at engineering and mathematics, once you depart from it. Therefore do seize your learning opportunity well and carpe diem!
ALUMNI REUNION CNY FESTIVE DINNER CELEBRATION 2018ECE organised a Chinese New Year Alumni Reunion Dinner Celebration on 9 February 2018 to usher in the lunar new year. The event was held at the Suntec City Guild House branch of NUSS The Graduate Club amid much cheer.
Together with ECE Head of Department, Prof John Thong, and professors, alumni members enjoyed the traditional Chinese dinner and festive celebration.
A mainstay of the alumni events calendar, the annual gathering is always a great opportunity to not only reunite with fellow alumni and old friends but also make new friends and contacts.
A toast to Alumni Reunion 2018!
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MY NOC SILICON VALLEY EXPERIENCEBy Jeston Teo Zhe Hao (Year 4 Computer Engineering)
I decided to enrol in the NOC Silicon Valley programme because I wanted to explore entrepreneurship and broaden my technical expertise through a rigorous internship programme. After a series of intense technical interviews, I landed a software engineering position with Razer, a market leader in gaming hardware and peripherals.
My time at Razer exposed me to the rigours of engineering. As a member of a small R&D team in the San Francisco office, there was plenty which I needed to learn by myself through white papers or spec sheets. The assignments given to me were typically open-ended in nature which I appreciated immensely as they were challenging and satisfying to complete. The ability to self-learn was also greatly emphasized. Some of the work I did for Razer included writing an internal binary flashing tool for Android, implementing additional functions to existing hardware and automating development workflows to shorten software iteration cycles.
Outside of work, entrepreneurship-related classes were held at Block71 in San Francisco where I was exposed to different idea validation methodology and business models. Besides weekly sharing by local and Singaporean entrepreneurs, there was learning through the use of startup case studies. Hackathons were also a weekly affair in the first few months of the programme where the knowledge picked up from Block71 could be put to good use. Hackathons provided a fun platform to network with people with similar interests and to level up one’s technical skills.
Of course, NOC was not all work with no play. I attended the Consumer Electronics Show as an exhibitor with TinyMOS, a Singaporean start-up building the world’s smallest astronomy camera. It was truly an eye-opening experience to speak to so many tech start-up founders; learning about their journey and the multiple setbacks they endured over the years. Thanks to TinyMOS’s connections with the astronomy circle, I also had the wonderful opportunity of witnessing a SpaceX launch in person. It was the Falcon9 rocket carrying telecommunication satellites from Iridium Communications. Despite being miles away from the launch pad, the raw power of the booster rockets could be felt distinctly and it was definitely an experience I would not forget anytime soon.
TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE
Two ECE undergrads recently took on the challenge of spending a year in the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Programme at the renowned Silicon Valley in San Francisco.
Electrical Engineering’s Yee Yao Cheng and Computer Engineering’s Jeston Teo share with E-ConnEct their enriching experiences to learn about innovation and entrepreneurship.
Me, Lih Wei, Grey and Ashprit; moments after being conferred the Best of Android award at the Consumer Electronics Show competition held in January 2017
Above: Setting up for the Falcon9 launch. Vandenberg Air Force Base sits just over the hills in the background.
Right: The Falcon9 launch
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My third year of undergraduate student life was a totally different experience from that of most of my peers. Instead of embarking on Student Exchange Programmes or doing local Industrial Attachments (IA) with Multinational Corporations (MNCs), I went on the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Programme which brought me to the other side of the world, into the heart of innovation and
the centre of the dotcom boom, the famed Silicon Valley in California, US.
The NOC Programme was first started in 2002 with the intention of teaching students more about innovation and entrepreneurship. Students were immersed in the start-up experience by doing a full-time internship with a start-up company while managing part-time studies with a partner university.
It has since come a long way and currently features NOC Colleges to 10 different locations around the world such as Silicon Valley, New York, Shanghai, Beijing, Stockholm, Israel, Munich, Toronto, Lausanne and Singapore.
My choice of Silicon Valley was not by chance or a coincidence. Entrepreneurship has always intrigued me. Seeing how great minds like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have revolutionised the internet and technological age, shaped the world around them with their visions and beliefs, I was naturally drawn to the Valley and hoped to glean insights as to what drives these entrepreneurial and visionary leaders.
The culture in the Valley and the experience of working in a start-up was exactly like the stories I have heard, and more. I was taken out of my comfort zone and thrown into a totally new environment. Spoonfeeding did not exist in start-ups. Although I had the luxury of a patient supervisor to explain the technicalities of the product of my company, I had to delve deeper on my own to understand its complexities. Sure enough, Google became my best go-to for answers.
Like all start-ups, my company was always in a constant battle against its burn rate, racing to secure more funding from investors. It came as no surprise when my CEO and CTO were constantly breathing down our necks (my supervisor’s and mine) for updates on the new Internet of Things (IoT) product that we were working on. Being able to stay at the forefront of the Indoor Air Quality market my company was targeting required constant improvement of our service and pushing out of new products that were deemed sufficiently unique and differentiated from the competitors’. My work on building a new portable air quality monitoring system had to go through many phases and reiterations (ideation, prototyping, testing and refinement) before it could be pushed out.
I also had the privilege to attend part-time entrepreneurship classes at Stanford University. Many guest speakers such as Bob Tinker, and more notably Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, were invited to share their personal stories of setbacks and the secrets behind their success. Subsequent tutorial classes to discuss some of the points raised by the speakers further strengthened my learning. To say the least, classes at Stanford were immensely thought-provoking and an eye-opener for me!
Me (left) with team mates, thrilled with our win at the Hackathon
During my spare time outside of work and classes, I was fortunate to be able to attend many different activities such as networking events on entrepreneurship organised in the Bay Area, exhibitions on sensors and electronics including big industry players such as STMicroelectronics and Sensirion, a tour of the Facebook Campus in Menlo Park and, more notably, participate in a hackathon organised by Stanford University.
The hackathon allowed me to put what I had learnt during my internship to good use by hacking together an IoT probe for earthquake rescuers. Our innovative idea got us into the top eight hackathon finalists, out of the hundreds of competing teams. Although we did not win the grand prize, we eventually won the award for the Best Overall Integration and use of Microsoft Technology. Our prize was a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for every single one of us!
My year-long stint at the Valley would not have been complete without some travelling. I was able to embark on long road trips and visit places such as New York, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park. The unique memories and experiences forged during every single moment of my year-long stint in the Valley would definitely be etched in my mind for a long time to come.
I would like to thank NUS Overseas College for giving me the amazing opportunity to revel in my once-in-a-lifetime experience. The NOC Programme has not only given me a new perspective but also a greater understanding of entrepreneurship.
“The world is a playground and life is pushing my swing.”
JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF INNOVATIONBy Yee Yao Cheng (’18, Electrical Engineering)
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.”
View of San Francisco at dusk
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MEETING CHALLENGES HEAD-ONBy Jeremiah Yeo (Year 3, Electrical Engineering and Business Admin)
AY2015/16 was a very exciting start for me at NUS when I joined a highly ranked and sought-after programme in electrical engineering.
I was seeking a robust education in a STEM discipline that has direct relevance to a broad spectrum of technologies that we have all come to depend on today, such as wireless communications and networks, microelectronics, semiconductors, robotics, energy systems and medical technology. At the same time, I wanted to complement my training with knowledge in accounting, corporate finance, investment, marketing, management, strategy and entrepreneurship. NUS offered an excellent opportunity that enabled me to pursue a double-degree in electrical engineering and business.
The DDP learning journey so far has been very rigorous and demanding but also extremely exciting and rewarding for me. Beyond gaining technical knowledge and competency in two complementary disciplines, I have also acquired valuable hands-on and innovation experience in the lab, and useful communication, interpersonal and team-building skills through seminars, case studies and project presentations. This multi-disciplinary training should prove invaluable and equip me well for my future career, whether in engineering, entrepreneurship, private equity or venture capital.
In fact, I have already had the opportunity to put into practice what I have learnt so far by completing several training and internship programmes during my term breaks.
These include the EDB Emerging Leaders Program, an internship at the National University Health System to support its intelligent information system project and two internships at Deloitte Singapore in the mergers and acquisitions transaction services department. I am now looking forward to my forthcoming internship at Temasek International.
As a former national sailor and gold medallist at the 2015 SEA Games, I am passionate about sailing. Both the Engineering Faculty and ECE Department were most supportive of my endeavour to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics when I had to take leave of absence for overseas competitions. I have since channelled my efforts into co-founding, together with my brother, Jonathan Yeo (Year 1 NUS Medicine) and a few other keen
sailors from the NUS Sailing Varsity Team. With the support of the Office of Students Affairs and the Sports & Recreation Centre, the varsity team became a reality in May 2017 and I was appointed vice-captain. The team’s goal is to develop sailing as a competitive sport on campus and put NUS on the world map of inter-varsity competitions. This has been a most gratifying team-building experience for me personally and represents my way of giving back to both the sport and NUS.
The DDP journey continues for me as I push on. I am grateful to NUS for all the opportunities that have come my way so far. I expect much hard work and many challenges ahead, and I remain fully committed to meeting these challenges head-on and achieving my goals.
DOUBLE THE JOYNUS offers the Double Degree Programme (DDP) that allows students to graduate with two different degrees in two disciplines from the same faculty or school, or two different faculties or schools in NUS.
Engineering students can choose from two DDPs, one with the NUS Business School and another with the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.
Two ECE students who chose the DDP, Electrical Engineering’s Jeremiah Yeo and Ng Jer Shyuan share with E-ConnEct their learning journeys to achieve their double degrees.
Photo taken for the Viewbook 2018-2019 (Photo credit @nusadmissions)
Trying on the Google Glass at Google’s new Asia Pacific HQ opening event.
At the 2015 SEA Games
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AN ENRICHING AND FULFILLING JOURNEYBy Ng Jer Shyuan (Year 4, Electrical Engineering and Economics)
NUS students are offered the opportunity to participate in a number of diverse special programmes as the university aims to broaden the learning experience of students and lay the foundation for a lifetime of careers. Braving the cold at the Alberta
Legislature Building, Canada
I was also given the privilege to participate in a Student Exchange Programme (SEP) at the University of Alberta, Canada. I was able to successfully map some of the engineering and economics modules at the partner university. Being immersed in a totally different culture and learning environment, I not only welcomed new ways to learn but I also gained new perspectives. I was amazed by some of the educational experiments that were conducted and realized that sometimes diverting myself away from conventionality could open new perspectives and provide inspiring findings.
Overall, I felt that my university experiences have broadened my horizon and really helped me grow into a more balanced individual. Being a student on DDP does not necessarily compromise one’s opportunities to participate in other meaningful programmes. I am realizing my potential to make a difference to people’s lives, be it in engineering or economics. Five years is a long journey but also a fulfilling one.
I am truly grateful for the learning opportunities that have provided me with varied insights into different industries.
Given the variety of options, I chose to embark on DDP in Electrical Engineering and Economics because I felt it would provide me with a broad education and make my university experience more vibrant and enriching. I could also pursue my interests and knowledge in depth in these two different fields.
There is no doubt that a DDP student has a heavier workload than a normal student but I thought that a double degree could be done with proper time management and module planning. I always ensure that I plan ahead so that I can fulfil my graduation requirements of both degrees and be able to graduate on time. In fact, the programmes offered by the university are carefully designed to ensure that the graduation requirements of B.Eng. (Electrical Engineering) programme are not compromised.
Of course there were times when I felt that the programme was too demanding. However, the learning process and the involvement in engineering projects allowed me to discover something new each time and also develop and grow my technical skills. The engineering modules have provided me with a strong foundation and understanding of engineering concepts which helped me in the development of a mobile application in my Final Year Project. The knowledge of Economics complements my engineering skills to help me understand how the financial market works. I also learned how consumers and firms make decisions that are optimal to them based on micro-economics models which will affect the demand and supply of a new innovated product.
Besides that, DDP did not compromise my ability to participate in the University Town College Programme (UTCP). UTCP was a great platform to make friends from other faculties and discuss meaningful topics from different points of view over meals. It allowed me to gain a deeper insight into current and pressing issues. The programme emphasis on multidisciplinary learning and active small-group learning supported assimilation and synthesis of cross-disciplinary knowledge by facilitating multi-perspectival thinking. I also made friends through sporting activities such as the Inter-College Games (ICG). Being a team member representing College of Alice and Peter Tan in Chess ICG enabled me to learn from friends while spending time together. Staying together with my neighbourhood friends helped me to develop strong and long-lasting friendships.
On a trip to Jasper National Park located in the Canadian Rockies
At the Community Engagement Festival
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STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS IN IMAV COMPETITION 2017Congratulations to ECE’s UAV team who achieved top awards in both the outdoor and indoor categories at the 2017 International Micro Air Vehicles (IMAV) Competition.
Held from 18 to 21 September 2017 in Toulouse, France, the competitions attracted international participation.
CUBESAT DEVELOPMENTThe NUS Satellite Technology and Research Centre (STAR) has an undergraduate programme track on CubeSat programmes that focuses on student-centric satellite development. STAR shares with E-ConnEct two recent CubeSat developments.
Balloon-SatA system with flight control, power management, signal process and communication features developed by students, the Balloon-Sat was successfully launched using a balloon to test its functions.
Indoor Competition: The indoor competition involves a mission in which the UAV has to navigate a series of obstacles to reach a target casualty. By scanning the QR code at the target, a second UAV is then supposed to deliver and drop the correct medicine payload to the casualty.
Outdoor Competition: The outdoor competition requires several UAVs working together to complete tasks such as aerial mapping, target detection and identification, storage inspection and cooperative carrying.
Student projects
Galassia 1 is the first NUS CubeSat mainly developed by undergraduate students. Since its successful launch in space on 16 December 2015, the Galassia 1 has been working well in space.
Galassia 2 is currently under development by our undergraduate students and research engineers. It will be used for Earth remote sensing and crop monitoring.
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If you have any comments on this issue or would like to contribute an article for subsequent ones, please email [email protected].
