A Message From the Dean

In 2024, I had the honour of joining NTU Singapore as the Dean of the College of Engineering. The College of Engineering at NTU Singapore is one of the largest in the world, with over 9,500 undergraduates, 4,500 graduate students, and around 300 faculty members.

Having grown up in the USA in Chicago, joining NTU was an incredible experience. The college brings together talent from the East and West to educate the next generation of engineering leaders. It also fosters an environment that empowers our community to discover and invent while working to solve society’s challenges.

Education, in all forms, is the foundational mission of the College of Engineering. Classic education is when a professor lectures students on ideas and concepts, the type commonly found in university halls. At NTU Singapore, we are developing new pedagogical concepts to teach our students, as well as implement new technologies that enhance the learning experience. We strive to ensure our students are prepared to tackle real world challenges.

Education can also come in the form of global teaching. Discovering new concepts and ideas through research can reshape our world. Imagine if we never discovered mRNA and lipid nanoparticles - how would we have dealt with the last pandemic? Imagine if we had never discovered the flow of electricity - how would we design electrical chips to power our smartphones and computers? Researchers at NTU Singapore strive to create new fundamental knowledge and apply it to make bridges, buildings, drugs, diagnostics, electrical chips, computer hardware, robots, solar cells, batteries, materials, and catalysts. All these advances create a more liveable, sustainable, and enjoyable world.

Finally, education is a key part of the translation pipeline – the transformation of ideas and discoveries into something tangible and applicable. Commercial translation is what links our work to the public, serving as the means to bridge the abstract nature of knowledge and science, transforming it into concrete, meaningful, and often life-changing outcomes.