Speech by Professor Subra Suresh, President & Distinguished University Professor at NTU Convocation 2021

 

Speech by

 

Professor Subra Suresh

President & Distinguished University Professor,

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

 

NTU Convocation 2021

 

Nanyang Auditorium

 

Madam Chancellor and President of the Republic of Singapore,

Pro-Chancellors,

Chair and Members of the NTU Board of Trustees,

Honorary Doctorate Degree Recipients, 

NTU faculty and staff,

Class of 2021, parents, family members, and friends, joining us in person and online.

 

A very warm welcome to all of you. 

We gather here today to honour you, the Class of 2021.

Along with you, we are delighted to celebrate this proud moment with your family, friends, faculty, and loved ones. 

Class of 2021, you have been extraordinarily impressive in not just what you have achieved but how you have earned your degree. 

You attended more online lessons than in the classroom last year. 

Your life became challenging, and at times, it was frustrating for you, and seemed very unfair, and even absurd. 

Your unshakable resolve and concern for one another during the COVID-19 pandemic have been remarkable to watch. 

NTU undergraduate students, including members of the Class of 2021, volunteered to deliver meals to fellow students serving quarantine or SHN, and deliver welfare packs to international students who could not leave Singapore last year.

But even as COVID-19 restricted your movement and travel, you innovated in new ways. 

You interned and researched virtually. 

You participated in global exchanges digitally and made new friends around the world. 

Even as the pandemic forced many of you to lead isolated lives, you built a close-knit community here on the NTU campus, your home away from home. 

I am also deeply grateful to our entire NTU staff and the leadership team, who have worked tirelessly not only to enable this convocation ceremony, but also to make your work and education possible during the global pandemic.

More than 1,800 employees participated in the leave donation programme last year by contributing about 20,000 annual leave days.  This translated to more than $10 million to fund programmes to help our students in need during these challenging times.

I thank them sincerely for their spirit of service.

Today's in-person ceremonies and the 43 ceremonies to follow in the next two weeks reflect this resilient OneNTU spirit. 

Yes, the word I would use to describe this OneNTU spirit is:  resilience.

In Sanskrit, widely regarded as the world’s oldest language, the word for resilience is:  Aadhathi Shakthi.  आततिशक्ति.   Shakthi implies power and vigor.

The English word resilience has its roots in the latin verb resilire, which means to “recoil” or “spring back”. 

The term resilience is commonly used in physics, engineering and materials science to describe properties of materials which can actually be measured.  As a mechanical engineer and materials scientist, I have spent decades researching and measuring these properties in both engineered and biological materials.  These properties include:  strength, elasticity, ductility, toughness, all of which have specific meaning in engineering design.  In the human context, the term resilience captures all of these characteristics, in unique ways.

Resilience is also an important term in psychology and medicine. Dr Kenneth Ginsburg, paediatrician and human development expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadephia, proposes that there are 7 components that make up being resilient – competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control.

Resilience has also been a topic of poetry.  The late American poet and writer, Maya Angelou, invoked the spirit of resilience in her poem, Still I’ll rise:

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Class of 2021, you are graduating at a defining moment in history.

At NTU, we celebrate this year our 30th-anniversary as Nanyang Technological University. 

To mark this historic occasion, the University has planned a rich array of special events throughout the year. 

They will showcase how far we have come and yet demonstrate how our journey has only just begun! 

Our theme is therefore titled: 30 years of Momentum. Pioneers Always.

I am pleased to launch the 30th-anniversary celebrations today with a special letter read virtually by the Minister of Education, Mr. Chan Chun Sing. 

The letter will be uploaded to a digital time capsule.

Later this year, the digital time capsule will be sealed with 30 items that represent our lives and times. 

It is designed to be opened twenty years from now, in 2041, on our 50^th Anniversary! 

The Class of 2041 may marvel at how we thrived at a time when we were most tested in our history.

Class of 2021, I invite you back on campus in November of this year for a rare NTU 30th anniversary exhibition.

It will highlight NTU's remarkable journey from its beginnings as Nanyang University 'Nantah', to the establishment of Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), and finally to the founding of NTU in July 1991 and its spectacular growth leading up to this moment in time.

We will also launch a book titled "NTU 30 Perspectives". 

It will spotlight the perspectives and contributions of individuals who have worked hard to shape our university. 

We look forward to welcoming you, our newest batch of alumni, back on 4^th December 2021 for the Alumni Homecoming Day.

In January 2022, we will launch our first-ever NTU Service Week.

In February, a Virtual Run will follow to raise bursary funds to help bright and needy students with their education.

Finally, as part of our 30th-anniversary celebrations, we will see the new Academic Block South or ABS building open in the first quarter of 2022. As Asia’s largest wooden building with a Green Mark Platinum Certification, it will also embody our strong commitment to sustainability.

Much has been planned with great passion by our OneNTU team.

Our celebrations begin today. 

NTU is home to a critical mass of the finest global talent and infrastructure in the key intellectual disciplines shaping the 4th Industrial Revolution. 

In the last few years, the University has seen a rapid ascent in local and global standing.

Today, several NTU academic programs are considered by independent global entities as being the best in the world.  Eight of NTU's subjects are also placed in the global Top 10. 

Early this year, the University launched a bold and ambitious 5-year strategic plan, NTU 2025. 

It has been shaped by key university stakeholders and lays a roadmap to address four of the global grand challenges facing our world today. 

They include: 

• Mitigating our impact on the environment
• Harnessing the science, art, and technology of learning
• The fourth industrial revolution and its connection to human behavior and humanity
• Responding to the needs of healthy living and aging

We are well on our way in the execution of NTU 2025.  Here are a few critical ways in which we are accomplishing this.  

First, starting this academic year, all freshmen and future undergraduate students will benefit from a Common Interdisciplinary Core Curriculum that better prepares them for real-world skills, including digital literacy, communication and inquiry, ethics, and service to humanity.

Second, NTU will accelerate our efforts to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.

Third, NTU will expand our collaboration with multinational as well as small and medium size companies to accelerate the global impact of our scholarly discoveries for the benefit of industry and society. 

Fourth, we will create new initiatives and inter-school and inter-college opportunities to support our NTU faculty to realise breakthrough innovations that have societal impact and economic value. 

Fifth, NTU as a university is taking strategic steps to become a global leader in Sustainability and to nurture the OneNTU spirit. 

We have also set an ambitious goal to reduce the net energy utilization, water consumption and waste generation for the whole campus by 50 percent by early 2026, compared to the baseline levels of 2011 for each category. 

Class of 2021, I invite you to join us in this extraordinary journey articulated in our vision for NTU 2025. 

For your path ahead, you may find inspiration in the three distinguished individuals who will be conferred an Honorary doctorate today. 

Ms. Chew Gek Khim, Mr. Koh Boon Hwee, and Mr. Eddie Teo Chan Seng. 

You have now joined more than 250,000 NTU alumni in over 150 countries, making impactful contributions in every field of human endeavor. 

I am sure that the resilience that has characterized your journey through NTU until now will continue to serve you well in the future.

I offer you my congratulations and best wishes for the journey ahead. I look forward to watching with great interest all that you will accomplish.  I also hope to see you on future occasions as you continue to engage with, and contribute to, NTU as our proud alumni.

Thank you.