This is SMA’s 4th Annual Report since its inception in 2001. Mr Lim Hock San served as the Chairman of the Governing Board from 1 October 2000 to 30 September 2003. During his tenure, he provided the much needed leadership for paving the path for SMA to move on to the next phase. His contribution in the formative years of SMA will be particularly treasured and remembered by all of us. Thank you, Mr Lim. Two of the pioneer programmes launched in 1999, AMM&NS and HPCES, having achieved commendable heights in key performance indicators, will draw to a successful close in June 2004. We are witnessing the fruits of labour of well-honed competencies, enduring passion and resilience of the 222 AMM&NS and HPCES alumni. The culmination attained is best described in the example of SMA’s very first Ph.D. student in the AMM&NS programme. Prior to his graduation with the class of 2003, he was courted for the position of Assistant Professor with the School of Materials Engineering at NTU. He continues to develop his relationship with and contribute back to SMA by participating in research projects and being actively involved as an alumnus. SMA has truly come a full circle in that respect. I would also like to commend three more students, Meng Ying, a current AMM&NS Ph.D. student for having won the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award; Karthik Natarajan, one of the first Ph.D. graduates in the HPCES programme, for receiving an Honourable Mention in the George Nicholson Student Paper Competition at the INFORMS Annual Meeting; Teh Weng Hong, an AMM&NS graduate who received the Best Paper Award in the Annual Eurosensors Conference. There are currently four M.Eng. and thirty Ph.D. students from AMM&NS and HPCES who will be completing their studies by 2007. SMA’s ongoing ties with its academic and industry partners continue to provide a good forum for the exchange of information pertaining to research, education, training, innovation and technology applications. More is being done to leverage on the research expertise and resources as well as tap on the creative application and deployment of technology of each specialised industry, thereby strengthening the academia-industry and industry-industry relationships in the process. SMA held its 1st Partners Appreciation night in 2003 with generous industry sponsorship and the event was well attended by a good blend of participants from the academia, research institutes and industry. As SMA is rapidly advancing into SMA-2 next summer, we are aiming to forge even stronger ties with the alliance universities, research institutes and industry to place SMA-2 not only at the forefront of science and engineering education and research, but also make it the change agent to spearhead the best practices we have learned. Professor Andrew Nee Yeh Ching Co-Director (Singapore)