Singapore–MIT Alliance
Opening Address Introduction
Professor Robert A. BROWN – Provost, MIT
Provost BROWN welcomed guests, speakers, faculty, and students to the 4th Annual SMA Symposium, held in Singapore on January 19th and 20th, 2004. The Provost spoke of his excitement at having everyone brought together to hear of the advances and accomplishments of SMA, and introduced the first speaker, Mr. Frank Lavin, the US Ambassador to Singapore . In introducing the Ambassador, Provost BROWN praised Mr. Lavin’s service to the United States across three Presidential administrations.
View video »
Opening Address
Mr. Frank L. LAVIN – US Ambassador to Singapore
Ambassador LAVIN began his address by thanking the many distinguished guests and attendees who were in the audience at the Symposium – especially those from the Boston area who had made the long trip. LAVIN talked of how he had the chance to meet with several members of the SMA-MIT Faculty the previous evening at a small reception, and how that had afforded him the opportunity to discuss with them about what he termed a “marvelous program”. He said SMA struck him as a simple but important premise – to connect the very best of MIT with the best of Singapore .
The Ambassador went on to address the movement that he has seen in SMA. In his eyes, the SMA collaboration has moved away from the traditional “citadel model”, where all aspects of education are based in one hub location, to a newer “distributive model”, which is based more upon the ideas that are transmitted than the physical location and proximity of the parties involved. For this reason, the Ambassador thought “global linkages” was a good choice for a theme for the 2004 SMA Symposium, as information and education continue to become more widely distributed. LAVIN believes that this newer distributive model will allow those who are trying to move ahead to harness that much more of what information is out there.
Ambassador LAVIN closed by touching upon the challenges that now faces SMA as it moves forward over the next five years – the tasks of enriching an existing program and dealing with longer-term educational policy and commercial questions. But for now, the Ambassador offered his congratulations for a splendid start to NUS, NTU, and MIT.
View video »
Keynote Address Introduction
Professor Choon Fong SHIH – President, NUS
President SHIH welcomed the many varied guests to the SMA Symposium by noting that “since its inception, SMA has transcended physical and cultural boundaries… and has bridged minds and ideas across continents”. The President spoke of his desire to celebrate and reaffirm the success of SMA to date and across the next few years, and introduced the day’s keynote speaker, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, acting Minister for Education for Singapore . In introducing Minister Shanmugaratnam, President SHIH commended his many accomplishments for the nation of Singapore in the educational arena.
View video »
| Keynote Address
Mr. Tharman SHANMUGARATNAM – Acting Minister of Education,
Singapore
Minister SHANMUGARATNAM began his keynote address by thanking SMA for inviting him to inaugurate the 4th Annual Symposium. He described SMA as an important plank in Singapore’s strategies to develop scientific and engineering talent – one that has drawn in and nurtured top-flight students, both local and foreign, to this opportunity.
The first main notion of SHANMUGARATNAM’s address was that education will be a key differentiator in the new world. We live in an increasingly complex world, one defined by opportunity but also uncertainty. SHANMUGARATNAM sees education as the key to creating new value and thriving on change – for Singapore , he views education as the key for the nation to stay relevant and make a mark in the new global marketplace.
The Minister next made the observation that science and technology have been, and will be, one of the key competitive strengths of Singapore. Scholastic achievement in the country is among the highest in the world. For SHANMUGARATNAM, the biggest challenge for the future lies in moving from an educational system that has produced high averages to one that produces high peaks. For this to happen, the Minister sees a need to move to an academic system that promotes flexibility and a diversity of educational pathways. Examples of new types of pathways are seen not just with SMA but also with developments such as the new NUS Math and Sciences School, the expansion and growth of NTU and SMA, and the potential entry of a fourth, private university in Singapore.
SHANMUGARATNAM then addressed four key underlying priorities that will shape how students learn in the Singaporean educational system in the future. These priorities are: encouraging the young to pursue their passions; encouraging students to question things as they learn; placing greater emphasis on developing a multi-disciplinary approach to learning; and instilling in students the ability to collaborate and to work in teams. This final priority is particularly reflective of the collaborative nature of the SMA program, as the Minister notes that “the frontiers of knowledge, in almost all fields of scientific endeavor, are being pushed through teams and clusters of researchers”.
After describing the educational priorities Singapore must address, the Minister discussed one such means of accomplishing these goals – the significance of international collaboration. Recounting how Singapore is more open to global talent than any other Asian city, SHANMUGARATNAM stated that this gives the country a great advantage in scientific research. It is the Minister’s belief that “global partnerships and exchange are no longer just an advantage, but are an essential for their vitality”. For any forward-looking university tasked with generating new knowledge, SHANMUGARATNAM believes that some form of international collaboration is a prerequisite.
The Minister closed by looking toward the second phase of SMA, and how SMA-2 will address the priorities which he had laid out. He sees SMA poised for a higher level of partnership, one that will only be deepened with the offer of dual degrees and the greater involvement of research and industry. SHANMUGARATNAM perceives SMA-2 as an opportunity that will excite Singaporean students, act as a magnet for overseas talent, and multiply to have a greater impact on Singapore’s national research landscape. From the Minister’s vantage point, SMA’s success will soon be measured by the meeting of minds among faculty, researchers, students, and industry – and he is confident this will happen.
View video »
| SMA Message – The Singapore
outlook
Professor Andrew NEE Yeh Ching – SMA Co-Director, Singapore
Professor NEE opened his message by saying he was “indeed delighted to see so many participants from different sides of the region converge at this annual event”. The SMA co-director spoke of commemorating both the end of an era – this is the final year of two SMA academic programmes – but also of the birth of the new, ambitious SMA-2 phase.
NEE focused on the direction and meaning of SMA-2, which will be characterized by programs with greater collaboration in teaching and research, as well as the more active participation of Singapore industry. With the implementation of the new dual Master’s and dual doctorate degrees, NEE envisions grooming an even higher-caliber of researchers and scientists, who will be ideally prepared when they advance into the workforce. And just as importantly, he believes that the new SMA-2 programmes will equip SMA students with a distinctive edge over their competitors.
From NEE’s vantage point, however, it is crucial not to forget the role of outstanding students in the success that SMA has enjoyed. Highlighting the quality of the SMA scholars, the co-director took additional time to specifically mention the achievements of two students: Mr. Chee Lip Gan, the first PhD graduate of SMA who is now an Assistant Professor at NTU; and Mr. Weng Hong Teh, whose paper bested 458 others to earn top honors at the prestigious Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems conference. NEE opined that with more talents like Mr. Gan and Mr. Teh coming to Singapore in the future, SMA will be able to achieve greater success and further elevate its current academic standing.
In closing, Professor NEE thanked all who have played a part in shaping SMA to where it stands at this point, as an internationally-acclaimed distance learning programme. With his final words, NEE looked to the future – both to the exciting new chapter of SMA-2, and also to two days of enlightening and engaging plenary and technical parallel sessions.
View video »
SMA Message – The MIT outlook
Professor Steven LERMAN – SMA Deputy Co-Director, MIT
Professor LERMAN added his own warm welcome to the distinguished guests and attendees at the Symposium, describing the 2004 Symposium “an important milestone”. Alternately reflecting on what the first four years have brought to SMA, and what the next few years will convey to the programme, LERMAN touched on some of the important tasks that are now done routinely in SMA, and are perhaps taken for granted.
In LERMAN’s mind, what has been accomplished through SMA can be viewed from at least three different perspectives: the technological, the educational, and the institutional. Looking first from a technical viewpoint – perhaps the most daunting initial hurdle for the universities to cross – LERMAN talked of SMA’s everyday uses of the internet for class and interaction that were unthinkable only a few years before. LERMAN, who is also the director of the MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, remarked that it is both phenomenal and symbolic that we have “so quickly moved from being a little bit awed by the technology to becoming impatient when it doesn’t work perfectly”.
In the educational perspective, LERMAN stressed the importance of what is being done in the classroom. He pointed out that the success of SMA has demonstrated that “education at a distance” need not be overlooked as a valuable technique in higher education. Finishing his three points with the institutional domain, LERMAN remarked on how SMA has created a new model in which students and faculty work together in ways that blur the boundaries between the respective institutions. Much as Ambassador Lavin had pointed out, LERMAN sees this model as one that can strengthen SMA’s participants by bringing them together in strategic cooperation – a deviation from the norm of today’s largely independent higher education system.
LERMAN wrapped up his address by looking to the future that SMA-2 will bring. The deputy co-director sees the next five years as exciting ones, both for the new students and what they will accomplish, but also for the transformation of even more educational tasks from what is now considered extraordinary into what we will come to see as routine.
View video »
| Tribute to Professor Kwok Hong LEE
At the start of the second session of Day 1 of the SMA Symposium, a special tribute was held for Associate Professor Kwok Hong Lee, who tragically passed away on August 13, 2003. This solemn service featured three SMA colleagues sharing their personal memories of Professor Lee with the Symposium audience.
Associate Professor Boo Cheong KHOO – Singapore
NUS Associate Professor Boo Cheong KHOO was the first to recollect the time that he had spent with Professor Lee. Although their paths did not initially cross much during their early years together on the Faculty at NUS, KHOO recalled that due to the SMA program they had eventually grown close and spent many late nights working together.
Professor KHOO specifically spoke of three occasions that he thought illustrated the best in his former colleague. KHOO felt these events – a bus trip to the MIT campus in 1999, a road show in Vietnam in March 2003, and a day spent working on an SMA-2 white paper in August 2003 – served to illustrate the upbeat, devoted nature that Lee possessed. KHOO professed admiration for Lee’s style in teaching and interacting with his undergraduate students, and he closed by reiterating that he hoped the spirit and the dedication that Professor Lee possessed as an educator and as a researcher would live on.
View video »
Professor Jacob K. WHITE – MIT
MIT Professor Jacob WHITE was next to offer his memories of his colleague in the HPCES program. WHITE recalled how he and “K.H.” had become close within minutes during their first conversation at an organizational meeting in 1999 – talking about fast-integral solvers and basis functions instead of following the true agenda of that meeting. WHITE said that the duo shared a number of interests, both in their chosen field of study, but also in teaching techniques such as the use of animation.
Professor WHITE, who co-supervised two students with his NUS colleague, offered a telling example of Lee’s dedication to his students. During a course that the two were co-teaching, WHITE was confounded by the fact that none of the SMA students ever seemed to have questions at the end of his lectures. It was not until much later that he discovered that Lee had been teaching an additional recitation for the class, on his own time, throughout the semester. Through actions like this, WHITE said it was easy to see how scrupulous and detailed Professor Lee was toward his work, and to his students.
View video »
Mr. Melvyn SIM – SMA Alumni
Mr. Melvyn SIM shared his thoughts on Professor Lee from a student perspective. A 2000 graduate of what was the initial intake for the SMA-HPCES program, SIM remembered K.H. as a well-articulated lecturer who was easy to approach. The SMA alumnus credited Lee with encouraging him to go into academia after graduation; and SIM spoke of how the NUS professor was an inspiration to him, as he entered into the same field of education and research.
View video »
Distinguished Speaker Introduction
Dr. Edison Liu – Executive Director, Genome Institute of
Singapore
“SMA has become family, and it shows the maturation of SMA that everyone has been brought together today,” were the introductory words offered by Dr. Edison LIU, the Executive Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore. Dr. LIU introduced Dr. Eric Lander, the founder and director of the Center for Genome Research at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge. Dr. LIU praised Dr. Lander as “the embodiment of the future of genetic sciences” – a scientist who has made many contributions to the underpinnings of the genome and has bridged deep conceptual goals in his research.
View video »
| Distinguished Speaker
Professor Eric S. Lander – Founder and Director, Whitehead
Institute Center for Genome Research;
Professor of Biology, MIT
“Beyond the Human Genome Project”
One of the most accomplished researchers in the field of genetics, MIT Professor and Whitehead Fellow Dr. Eric LANDER delivered a 40 minute interactive talk on his research and his thoughts on the ongoing transformation in the world of biology. LANDER covered six distinct areas in his lecture: the systematic approach to disease, the Human Genome Project, comparing genomes, human genetic variation, classifying cancers, and integrating information. The latter topic was an overriding theme of the talk for LANDER, who was a Professor of Managerial Economics at the Harvard Business School prior to moving to Whitehead and becoming a leader in the field of genetics.
Throughout the first five topics, the LANDER often used examples from DNA sequencing to illustrate his approaches and ideas to the audience. LANDER moved quickly between topics, from a brief description of how a chromosome walking technique was used to isolate the Cystic Fibrosis gene, to an explanation of the process by which the human genome was transcribed, to the genetic similarities shared by a human and a mouse, and beyond. Several times, LANDER admitted that there were questions to which he and his field of research had no answers; but at the end of each of the sections of his talk, the MIT Professor outlined his ambitious goals for future study.
Entertaining an audience of scholars from a variety of scientific disciplines, Professor LANDER dealt not solely with biology, but also with the added value and significance that computers hold in research. With computers now capable of housing and digesting enormous amounts of information, tasks such as the Human Genome Project that began in painstaking slow fashion have accelerated exponentially. Over 99 percent of the human genome is now known; millions of genetic variations that help with disease prevention have been identified; cancers can be identified and classified within seconds; and a single small card can show an individual’s entire DNA coding.
These advances led to Professor LANDER’s sixth, and probably most important, lecture topic – the vital task of bringing information together. Using Cox disease as an example, and recounting how a search for a pattern was solved not with lab work but instead with computer-based research, LANDER expressed his belief that science must invest heavily in comprehensive tools such as databases if information is to be properly integrated. For LANDER, the need to be super smart is not as necessary as having a systematic approach to problem solving and information sharing, as genetics shows.
Using his final topic as a segue to his closing thoughts, Professor LANDER talked about what this all means for Singapore, which in the past has not played a large role in genetic research. There is a massive amount of knowledge currently being generated in the world of science, and this, of course, has great implications for industry. In LANDER’s eyes, the investments being made in Singapore’s Genome Institute are important ones, and alliances and consortiums like SMA are what are needed, as the nation moves to position itself among the best in Asia and the world, in scientific research and study.
View video »
|
Copyright © 2003-2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Questions & comments about this site to webmaster