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Karthik
Natarajan, a Ph.D. graduate under the HPCES
rogramme was given an Honourable Mention in
the George Nicholson Student Paper competition
at the INFORMS Annual Meeting held in Atlanta,
USA in October 2003. This annual award honours
up to six outstanding papers written by students
in the fields of operations research and management
science. The winners of this prestigious competition
are generally students from top graduate schools
such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia and Georgia
Tech. What made winning this award particularly
pleasing for Karthik was that it was the first
time in thirty years that a student from an
Asian school was among the prize winners. Putting
SMA on this global map made it extremely satisfying
for him. Details of the award are available
at: http:// www.informs.org/ Prizes/ NicholsonPrize.html.
An article on the award winners appeared in
the OR/MS Today December 2003 issue: http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/news/
informs/frinf1203nicholson .html
The paper was part of the work done for his doctorate thesis
titled “ Probabilistic Combinatorial Optimisation:
A Convex Programming |
Approach”.
The research work primarily focused on modelling
the notion of uncertain and incomplete data
in decision-making
problems. Such problems arise in applications in finance,
statistics and project management. In addition to having
developed the theory
and algorithms to solve such problems, it was hoped that
a user-friendly software could be developed in future.
“ The key factor that contributed to my winning the award was the exposure
and experience I gained from the SMA HPCES programme. Besides the extensive coursework,
I had the chance to work with my supervisors, Professor Dimitris Bertsimas from
MIT and Associate Professor Teo Chung Piaw from NUS. Their
drive and zest for quality research greatly influenced my
decision to pursue a doctorate with SMA. While they played
a crucial role in
honing my research interests, they also motivated me to participate
in the competition. I am thankful to SMA for providing me
with this
opportunity to undergo a rigorous graduate programme with
exposure to educational systems from two different time zones.” |
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Karthik receiving a certificate at the Nicholson Student Paper Competition
2003
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Zhao Jing was first admitted
to the NUS as an engineering Masters student in 1999
and due to her good performance and strong academic background,
she was recommended to join the SMA programme. Her Masters
thesis research results on growing thin films with texture
on the amorphous
substrate were a breakthrough in thin film growth area, which has vast
potential applications in the MEMS (Microelectronic and Mechanical Systems)
area. She has also published two papers in international journals and
presented two papers at international conferences during the course of
her study.
After graduating from SMA, Zhao Jing joined the Systems on Silicon Manufacturing
Co. Pte. Ltd. (SSMC), a joint venture between Philips, Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the Economic Development Board of Singapore
(EDB), as a Senior Engineer. She participates in technology transfer
and customisation projects, debugging and ramping up transferred processes
in SSMC on technically challenging issues. Her work focuses mainly on
less than 0.18 um technology.
Currently, she is in charge of CMOS18 Flash and EEPROM process qualification
and development in SSMC, which is a promising new technology with a worldwide
edge. Due to her outstanding contributions, she was presented with a
recognition award in achieving the COM18 Flash PAM/RFP milestone in SSMC.
This achievement has special meaning for her as currently, only SSMC
can make the Flash memory chips in Singapore.
During a short span of three years, she has earned three awards from
SSMC for her outstanding contributions and published two papers in authorised
international journals like IRPS (IEEE International Reliability Physics
Symposium). |
Zhao Jing’s
recognition award in achieving the COM18 Flash PAM/
RFP milestone in SSMC
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