The Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has announced that the Talent Programme (ATP), which supports excellent master’s and undergraduate graduates who want to pursue doctoral degrees in artificial intelligence and related subjects, would continue for the fourth year.
The ATP in NTU sponsors Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents to study postgraduate degrees in computer science fields at NTU Singapore while completing an enterprise R&D project. New applications will be admitted for the program’s first and second semesters in August 2022 and January 2023, respectively. The program gives students the chance to work at one or more of the sponsor’s research institutions, such as a Joint Research Institute, and earn invaluable experience (JRI). A minimum of one NTU supervisor and one co-supervisor from the industrial sponsor serve as mentors for each Ph.D. candidate.
In order to support Singapore’s ambitious Smart Nation program and its industrial transformation, the JRI was founded with the primary goal of concentrating on human-centered research and the development of new computer technologies. We intend to nurture emerging talent who will lead the digital economy in the future by hosting the ATP 2 students at JRI, says Professor Lam Khin Yong, senior vice president for research at NTU.
The Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP) of the Singapore Economic Development Board, which seeks to provide postgraduate students with training that is applicable to the workplace in partnership with various business partners and institutions of higher learning, is a sponsor of ATP. The JRI received almost 2500 applications for the IPP Ph.D. Program; 65 Singaporeans and SPRs were selected. The initiative aims to assist Singapore in realizing this potential because there is unimaginable potential for digital technology to offer new value to businesses and society. The city-state wants to make technology more inclusive and available to everyone, whether they reside in Singapore or somewhere else.
In addition to working with actual business intelligence and technologies, students are closely supervised and assisted by mentors who are leading academics in respective domains, such as visual AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), edge computing, and autonomous driving. By creating solutions that can be applied in real-world use situations, NTU Singapore aims to make a difference rather than only undertaking theoretical research. The student’s learning curve for bringing concepts into reality has been greatly accelerated by working with mentors who are all motivated by putting theory into practice.
Participants in the ATP program, both past, and present, have the opportunity to realize their ideas under the guidance of their mentors. For instance, students have advanced projects involving autonomous driving, building digital twins of data centers that can simulate wind flow and temperature changes to aid research into efficient cooling techniques, and using machine learning and medical imaging analysis to forecast the likelihood of dementia and Parkinson’s disease in elderly people.
Additionally, the IPP students and staff from JRI have begun over 70 translational research initiatives, which “translate” academic discoveries into real-world applications. These projects total over 140 research papers. The JRI aims to play a significant role in enabling new breakthroughs and solutions to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the United Nations by utilizing AI and cloud technology. The JRI will expand the scope of its research initiatives in the future to achieve sustainable development.