Inspiring NTU: Mastery Beyond Boundaries

Dr Sng Hui Ying is Senior Lecturer of Economics in the School of Social Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She received her PhD (Economics) from NTU and her B.SocSci. (Hons) and M.SocSci. (Applied Economics) from the National University of Singapore. Her research areas include development economics, Singapore economy, and Southeast Asian economies. Prior to joining NTU, she was a broadcast journalist with MediaCorp News and a senior research officer with the Jurong Town Corporation. In 2002, she participated in a consultation project led by Professor Lim Chong Yah to advise the government of Mauritius on wage determination system and wage reform issues. She is the co-editor of the books Singapore and Asia in a Globalized World: Contemporary Economic Issues and Policies (2008), Singapore and Asia: Impact of the Global Financial Tsunami and other Economic Issues (2009) and Crisis Management and Public Policy: Singapore's Approach to Economic Resilience (2011). Her research monograph, Economic Growth and Transition: Econometric Analysis of Lim’s S-Curve Hypothesis, was published in 2010. She has also published in refereed journals such as Singapore Economic Review, World Economics and Journal of Economic Development and contributed to Regional Outlook: Southeast Asia published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Dr. Adams Wai-Kin Kong received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Currently, he is an associate professor at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and the director of Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence programme. His research works have been published in major AI conferences and journals. One of his papers was selected as a spotlight paper by IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and another one was selected as Honorable Mention by Pattern Recognition. He is listed in Stanford University's Top 2% Scientists’ Study. His PhD students received Best Student Paper Awards in The IEEE Fifth International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems (BTAS), 2012 and IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, 2013. In 2016, he received the best reviewer award from BTAS. In the summer of 2008, he served as an expert witness to the U.S. Department of Justice for the child sexual abuse case, United States v, Michael Pepe. He also serves as a consultant for other legal cases in Singapore and as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. In 2022, Dr. Kong was nominated for the MSc in Business Analytics Teacher of the Year Award and received faculty award from his school. His recent research interests include pattern recognition, deep learning and their applications on power systems, healthcare, and biometrics.

Programme Director, SMTC, NEWRI, NTU (2024 – Present) Deputy Director, SMTC, NEWRI, NTU (2015 – 2024) Associate Professor, School of CEE, NTU (2020 – Present) Assistant Professor, School of CEE, NTU (2014 – 2020) Senior Research Fellow (2011 – 2014) & Research Fellow (2008 – 2011), SMTC, NEWRI, NTU PhD, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2008) BEng (Chem. Eng.), University of New South Wales, Australia (1999)

Dr Xia is the Academic Director and Postgraduate & Undergraduate Programmes Lead at the NTU Entrepreneurship Academy (NTUpreneur). He oversees the Master of Science Technopreneurship and Innovation program (MSc TIP) and provides strategic direction to the management and operation of the MiE and SMiE programmes. Dr Xia’s professional expertise in entrepreneurship education spans across training, mentoring, leadership development, and project management in multicultural context. From 2004 to 2008, he served as Senior Assistant Director in the China Strategy Group (President’s Office) of NTU. He has won recognition for developing educational partnership with top international universities and institutions, for programmes or projects including NTU’s pioneering Global Immersion Program for undergraduates’ overseas study and industrial attachment as well as overseas entrepreneurship immersion and international venture competitions. In 2006 he received the NTU’s Nanyang Award for Teamwork. Prior to his two decades of experience in education, he worked in IT and real estate industries with project management experience in ERP outsourcing, knowledge management, asset valuation, and business M&A. Dr Xia actively participates in professional communities and social services. He is an Adjunct Professor of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He served as the President of International Council for Small Business (Singapore Chapter) from 2015 to 2017. He was frequently invited as one of the final-round judges for Singapore Prestige Brand Award competitions since 2015. With his extensive network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, policy makers, and educators in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Singapore and internationally, he has helped many entrepreneurs and startups in securing venture funding or strategizing business growth or international development. In 2019, he received the Commendation Medal (Education) on Singapore’s National Day, in recognition of his commitment, performance, and efficiency in education.

Dr. Fan Xiuyi is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and the School of Computer Science and Engineering (joint appointment). He obtained his BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Utah in the United States and his PhD degree from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. Before joining NTU, Dr. Fan worked at the University of Utah, the University of Sydney, Imperial College London, and Swansea University. His current research interest is in Explainable AI (XAI). Dr. Fan has a strong track record in developing XAI theories and applications. Specifically, he has developed explainable decision-making theories and applications, and has pioneered work in developing formal semantics for explanations. He has explored ways to introduce argumentation-based explanations to machine learning and developed the first argumentation-based explainable planning framework. He has also studied probabilistic satisfiability for the purpose of developing a probabilistic logic-based explainable machine learning method and its applications. Recently, he has been working on comparing and formally evaluating explainable AI methods, building a generic XAI software toolkit for medical applications, as well as understanding situations in which predictions cannot be trusted using XAI. Dr. Fan has published refereed papers at AI conferences and journals including AAMAS, IJCAI, AAAI, ICRA, ECAI, and AIJ. He was the recipient of the Welsh Crucible Leadership Programme Award, the Best Paper Award at IEEE ICSGAH, the first prize in the Health Innovation Technology Challenge, and the Rector’s Award Scholarship at Imperial College London. While working in the UK, he led projects using Explainable AI to Understand the Impacts of Non-pharmaceutical Control Measures on COVID-19 Transmission for Evidence-based Policy and Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on the International Economy via Currency Markets using Explainable AI, both funded by the Welsh Government.

Dr Murukeshan Vadakke Matham, is the program Director of MSc Smart Manufacturing at the school of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU Singapore. He serves as the Director of the Center for Optical and Laser Engineering (COLE), Deputy Director of The Photonics Institute (TPI), and is an Associate Professor of School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU Singapore. He leads a research group specializing in Biomedical Optics, Nanoscale Optics, Laser-based Micro and Nanoscale Fabrication, and Applied Optics for Metrology. Prof. Murukeshan has an extensive academic profile with over 28 years of professional experience, including 3 years of postdoctoral work and 25 years of teaching. He has published over 215 international journal papers and over 200 international conference proceedings/presentations, co-authored two books, and filed or awarded 26 patents and 16 innovation disclosures. To date, he has supervised 28 PhD students and 30 Master (MEng by research and Master of science in Engineering) students. He is also Associate Editor for Optical Engineering and the International Journal of Optomechatronics (IJO). He serves in international committees related to optics at different capacities. Prof. Murukeshan has received more than 25 prestigious international recognitions or awards. He is a Fellow of SPIE, Fellow of OPTICA (USA), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Optical Society of India.

Justus Teo • 20 years of Human Resource experience • 6 years full time Coaching (Career / Leadership / Performance) • Full-time Career Coach with NTU PACE supporting Data Analytics, UIUX and Digital Marketing Credentials: o Certified International Career Services Provider (CCSP) by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) o Professional Member of Career Development Association Singapore (CDAS) + Honorary Auditor o Accredited IAC Coach o Facilitator for Career Development (FCD) o Knowdell Career Adviser

Patrick Pun is currently a tenured Associate Professor, Assistant Chair (MSc Programmes), and the Programme Director of Master of Science in Financial Technology (MSc in FinTech) at School of Physical and Mathematics Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2018, Patrick founded the MSc in FinTech programme to cultivate the FinTech talents. The programme has been well-received in Asia. Prior to NTU, Patrick obtained his Ph.D. in Statistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2016. His Ph.D. thesis on “Robust Stochastic Control and High-Dimensional Statistics with Applications in Finance” won numerous awards, including Nicola Bruti Liberati Prize 2016 (Best Ph.D. Thesis in Quantitative Finance, worldwide) and the Young Scholars Thesis Award 2016 (Best Ph.D. Thesis from Faculty of Science, CUHK). His research paper on high-dimensional portfolio selection won Best Student Research Paper (First Place) in INFORMS Financial Section in 2015. Patrick also won Best Teaching Assistant Award in 2014. Patrick obtained his M.Phil. in Risk Management Science from CUHK in 2013 and obtained his B.Sc. in Statistics, from Nankai University in 2011. He also passed the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) qualification examinations in 2012. Patrick has strong research interests in Financial / Actuarial Mathematics, Big Data Analytics, and AI applications in Finance, as evidenced by his numerous top-tier publications in these fields. He has received several distinguished grants, namely from MOE, NRF, QEP, DSAIR, and NTU, to further his research work alongside his tertiary teaching responsibilities.