On 17 January 2006, the 6th SMA Annual Symposium took place at the
University Cultural Centre, NUS. Themed the ‘Technology Revolution of
the Global Economy’, the symposium sought to broaden the boundaries
of knowledge in the engineering sciences; to envision the future of
science, technology and research in Singapore, Asia and beyond.
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Guest-of-Honour Dr Tony Tan opened the symposium. Dr Tan is the
Chairman of both the Singapore National Research Foundation and
International Academic Advisory Panel, as well as Deputy Chairman
of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. In his keynote
address, he spoke of SMA’s role in the achievement of Singapore’s
R&D standards:
“NUS and NTU have benefited much from the collaboration with MIT
on the SMA-1 and SMA-2 programmes to uplift the standard of
research at our universities. I am confident that SMA will continue to
progress well and make a significant contribution to the development
of Singapore’s human and intellectual capital.”
There were many other distinguished guests amongst the more than
300 participants. They included leaders of the three partner universities:
Professor Shih Choon Fong, President of NUS, Dr. Su Guaning,
President of NTU and Professor Rafael Reif, Provost of MIT. Two
notable speakers Dr Alex Matter, Director of the Novartis Institute for
Tropical Diseases and Mr Fong Saik Hay, President of Singapore
Technologies Dynamics and Chief Technology Officer of Singapore
Technologies Engineering spoke on ‘New Approaches in the Fight
against Tropical Diseases’ and ’Technology Revolution of the Global
Economy—the Excitement, the Possibilities and the Challenges’
respectively.
After the speeches in the morning, the symposium moved across
campus to Prince George’s Park Residences for an intense three hours
of intellectual exchange. In numerous parallel sessions conducted by
the SMA-1 and SMA-2 programmes, research was shared between
academics, students, industry professionals and guests. It was a
showcase of the valuable work made possible through SMA.
In all, the 6th SMA Annual Symposium celebrated SMA’s development
in the past year. It acknowledged the conclusion of the final two
SMA-1 programmes—Molecular Engineering of Biological and
Chemical Systems (MEBCS) and Computer Science (CS)—in June 2006
and the start of SMA-2. It served as an excellent summary of SMA’s
achievements.
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