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NUS College of Design and Engineering To meet the needs of a rapidly-evolving & complex world, CDE has imagined & created a future-focused. MISSION
To inspire, innovate and transform.

Social Media Guidelines: tinyurl.com/CDE-Soc-Med-Guidelines VISION
A leading college uniting creative minds to build a better future.

An AI assistant that helps visually impaired users understand their surroundings, flag potential hazards and answer ques...
16/10/2026

An AI assistant that helps visually impaired users understand their surroundings, flag potential hazards and answer questions — all while processing their visual data on-device to preserve their privacy.

That is what Badrinath Sandhya (Electrical Engineering), Chan Zun Mun Terence (Computer Engineering) and Hsu Myat Noe (Computer Science) set out to build with EdgeSight, earning them a place among the Second Prize winners at the Intel Cup 2026 Undergraduate Embedded System Design Competition in Shanghai.

This year’s edition brought together 230 teams from 120 universities worldwide to develop a working system over three months around the theme of AI application and innovation.

With EdgeSight, a small camera observes the user’s surroundings, enabling the device to describe scenes, identify potential hazards, and respond to questions through voice. By processing this information on device rather than relying on the cloud, EdgeSight can respond quickly while keeping images of the user’s surroundings private.

Getting large AI models to work on an embedded platform meant navigating memory and computing constraints while keeping the system responsive. The team had to optimise the pipeline and decide what processing should happen at each stage.

They also considered how much information a user needs. Flagging every change could result in constant and unnecessary warnings, so the team developed reasoning and warning-suppression logic to distinguish ordinary changes from situations requiring attention.
Sitting at the intersection of hardware, embedded systems and AI, EdgeSight drew on the team’s varied backgrounds. Together, they approached EdgeSight as an integrated system, considering how each component affected the others.

Supervisor Dr Rajesh Panicker (Electrical and Computer Engineering) encouraged the team to go beyond demonstrating an AI model and build a functional system. For Sandhya, the project pushed her to move “from models on a laptop to something that works in real time on embedded hardware”. Across the team, the experience also reinforced AI’s potential to create meaningful social impact.

NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering NUS Computing

From picking up sailing at eight years old to representing Singapore on the world stage, Lee Wonn Kye (Mechanical Engine...
13/10/2026

From picking up sailing at eight years old to representing Singapore on the world stage, Lee Wonn Kye (Mechanical Engineering) has spent much of his life navigating the waters of competitive sailing.

Most recently, he led Singapore’s undergraduate team to a seventh-place finish at the 2026 (International University Sports Federation) FISU World University Sailing Championships in Split, Croatia, emerging as the top Asian and non-European team among 15 competing countries. Joining him were fellow NUS student Seraphina Low (Medicine), and NTU students Annika Chui (Civil Engineering) and Dylan Ng (Sports Science & Management).

Having first competed in the championships in 2024 as part of the NUS Sailing Varsity Team, Wonn Kye returned in 2026 as part of an inter-university team. The return felt surreal for him, having gone from the youngest member of the 2024 team to the oldest member and team leader in 2026.

Competing in the Melges 20 boat class, the team worked to figure out the intricacies of an unfamiliar boat while racing against top university sailors. “We trained hard and did the best preparation we could in the lead up, so going into the event I just wanted to trust the work we had put in,” he shared.

“I feel really proud of our team's performance as we showed resilience in continuing to adapt to the conditions, putting out our best race results in the final day of the competition.”

The championships left Wonn Kye motivated to improve, while the friendships forged with sailors from various cultures made the experience even more memorable. As he enters his final academic year, he hopes to continue competing and honing his skills.

For fellow CDE students balancing sporting ambitions alongside their studies, his advice is to make time for what matters. “I have no regrets, and these experiences have been important in shaping who I am.”

[Pic 3]: (From left to right) Dylan Ng, Seraphina Low, Annika Chui, Lee Wonn Kye.
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Entrepreneurship often involves not only building something new, but also adapting, learning and finding new ways to cre...
12/10/2026

Entrepreneurship often involves not only building something new, but also adapting, learning and finding new ways to create impact.

Jane Hia (Industrial Design ’07) began that journey with Kith Café, which she founded in 2009 after an exchange programme in Milan helped shape her interest in food and design. Her design background influenced everything from Kith’s open layouts to its modular furniture, while the realities of running a café pushed her to pick up an entirely new set of skills, from pricing and payroll to operations and logistics.

Over the years, Kith grew steadily to 12 outlets and a team of more than 80 full-time staff and about 100 part-timers. But like many businesses in the sector, it was eventually hit by rising manpower and ingredient costs, weaker consumer spending and shifting footfall patterns, leading to the closure of its final cafés earlier this year.

Today, Jane is drawing on what she learned from 17 years of building Kith to help other F&B operators navigate similar challenges. From operations and manpower planning to cost structures and workflows, she is now helping businesses make more grounded and sustainable decisions.

Jane said, “Hope is a double-edged sword. People hang on, thinking things will turn around. If the maths doesn’t change, there is no turnaround. I may have closed one chapter, but I still want to use what I’ve learnt to help others in the industry.”
nus

“Embrace the challenge, trust the process and believe in yourself!” That is Nadiah Ong Kia Hwee’s message to fellow CDE ...
09/10/2026

“Embrace the challenge, trust the process and believe in yourself!” That is Nadiah Ong Kia Hwee’s message to fellow CDE students pursuing their own sporting ambitions. An Environmental Engineering student and national women’s hockey player, Nadiah carried that same mindset onto the international stage at the 20th Asian Games Aichi–Nagoya 2026, where she was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity to represent Singapore.

For Nadiah, competing at Asia's pinnacle sporting event was an opportunity to test herself and see how far the team had come. The Singapore women's hockey team finished 10th at the Asian Games after going up against some of the world’s highest-ranked teams, including Japan and India, who had just returned from the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup.

“This experience has proven our potential and ability to compete with the world's best,” she shared. “We leave the Games with greater confidence and trust in ourselves.”

Pursuing sport at this level alongside her studies has not always been easy, but Nadiah believes the demands of both have shaped her along the way. “We grow to be more tenacious and disciplined with each experience,” she said.

She also credits her sporting journey to the people around her – her family and friends for their constant support and encouragement, her professors for their understanding, and her coaches and teammates for being alongside her throughout.

Well done Nadiah for flying the Singapore flag on the international stage!
cee



Photo credits: SpexSG/ Chanainut Thongratanachat and Asian Hockey Federation (AHF)

Applications are now open for Master’s programmes at the College of Design and Engineering, NUS.Earn a globally recognis...
08/10/2026

Applications are now open for Master’s programmes at the College of Design and Engineering, NUS.

Earn a globally recognised degree while living and learning in Singapore, a vibrant hub for technology, engineering and innovation. Learn from award-winning faculty who bring real-world insight and groundbreaking research into the classroom, and strengthen your job readiness through practical projects with industry.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗖𝗗𝗘?
• Choose from 28 Master’s programmes across Advanced Engineering and Technology, Architecture and Urban Solutions, Design and Innovation Management, Environment and Sustainability, and Supply Chain and Systems Engineering
• Go beyond a single discipline with electives across CDE departments
• Learn in a world-class research environment with access to advanced facilities. Study on a world-class campus with cutting-edge research facilities
•  
• Build a wider professional network with peers and alumni from diverse disciplines, industries and countries

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀
• Tuition rebates of over 40% for Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents and NUS alumni of all nationalities

𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗱
1 October 2026 – 28 February 2027

Scan the QR code or visit https://cde.nus.edu.sg/graduate/graduate-programmes-by-coursework/ to explore programme details, admission requirements, fees, scholarships and financial support.

Your next chapter starts here. Apply today.
 
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering NUS Mechanical Engineering NUS Biomedical Engineering Club NUS Civil and Environ Eng NUS Department of the Built Environment NUS Department of Architecture .nus NUS Industrial Systems Engineering & Management NUS MSE NUS Innovation & Design Programme

Observing coral reefs up close can risk disturbing the very ecosystems researchers seek to understand. Seeking a gentler...
08/10/2026

Observing coral reefs up close can risk disturbing the very ecosystems researchers seek to understand. Seeking a gentler alternative, Electrical Engineering students Navin Sivakumaran, Afham Shahril, Darrel Yu and Wallace Wee developed JellyBot, a jellyfish-inspired underwater robot named national runner-up for the 2026 James Dyson Award.

Developed as their final-year Innovation & Design project, JellyBot is designed as a quieter, less invasive way to monitor reefs than using divers and conventional remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Inspired by the pulsatile motion of jellyfish, its pneumatic system pumps air into chambers within its soft silicone tentacles, causing them to contract and return to their original shape when the air is released, thereby generating thrust without propellers.

The team also integrated sensing, onboard control, and visual observation capabilities, turning the biomimetic propulsion concept into a practical monitoring platform.

The team was co-supervised by Assoc Prof Lim Li Hong Idris (Engineering Design and Innovation Centre) and industry mentor Dr Wang Yuzhe, Senior Scientist at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, A*STAR.

Assoc Prof Lim commended the team’s approach: “The JellyBot team set out to solve a problem that demanded restraint as much as ingenuity, and their soft, jellyfish-inspired propulsion system is a thoughtful answer. This recognition reflects the rigour and care they brought to every stage of development.”

Reflecting on the accolade, the team shared, “Being recognised by the James Dyson Award is an incredible validation of the hard work and passion we poured into JellyBot. Seeing our idea resonate with the judges gives us greater confidence in the potential impact of our design.”

Next, the team hopes to test JellyBot in more realistic marine conditions, and improve its buoyancy, navigation, and endurance.

With a target cost of approximately S$1,000, compared to commercial ROVs that can cost between S$20,000 and S$60,000, JellyBot could make reef monitoring more accessible for local researchers and conservationists.

[Pic 1]: (From left to right) Afham Shahril, Darrel Yu, Wallace Wee and Navin Sivakumaran.
idp .ece.sg

“Such an interdisciplinary approach is the very thing CDE champions, and this experience showed us its value firsthand. ...
06/10/2026

“Such an interdisciplinary approach is the very thing CDE champions, and this experience showed us its value firsthand. I’m grateful to my teammates for making this possible, and to NUSX for the opportunity.” – Vaikesh Manimaran (Year 3, Mechanical Engineering), MAELSTROM Project Lead & Avionics Engineer

Congratulations to team MAELSTROM for taking the top prize at the inaugural Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon 2026 with its approach to a growing defence challenge: countering large-scale drone swarms quickly and cost-effectively.

Organised by NUSX, with the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH) and TUM Venture Labs as co-organisers, the hackathon brings together participants from Singapore and abroad to develop solutions to real-world defence challenges alongside industry experts and mentors.

The five-member MAELSTROM team includes Vaikesh Manimaran (Year 3, Mechanical Engineering), Sunith Sunil Mani (Year 3, Mechanical Engineering), Ding Yi He (Year 4, Computer Science), Joel Marc Tan (SUTD) and Solomon Lim (NUS High School. Together, the team developed a rocket-propelled anti-drone interceptor designed to reach speeds in the 1,000 km/h class. Designed with additive manufacturing in mind, both the interceptor and its propellant are intended to be 3D-printable, enabling rapid, lower-cost production at scale.

Bringing together expertise across avionics, optics, structures, propulsion and software, the team developed and tested its concept in just five weeks.

Vaikesh said, “Winning the Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon’s Grand Prize means a great deal to us … each teammate brought a different engineering perspective, and bringing those disciplines together was central to what we achieved.”

The Grand Prize comes with S$10,000, with MAELSTROM also in line for a possible S$100,000 incubation opportunity as the team explores taking the project further as a defence technology venture.


nith


For deaf and hard-of-hearing people, expressing what they want to say can be one challenge; conveying how they want to s...
06/10/2026

For deaf and hard-of-hearing people, expressing what they want to say can be one challenge; conveying how they want to say it can be another. Designed to support more expressive communication, EmotiMate, a project developed as part of the Engineering Design & Innovation programme, was named the national runner-up for the 2026 James Dyson Award.

Recognising that many existing communication tools help users convey words but not necessarily tone, emotion or intent, EmotiMate started as a year-long project involving Engineering Design & Innovation students Li Xincheng, Li Jialu and Zhang Jiayang.

During the project, interviews with a sign language teacher, deaf job seekers and frontline workers revealed a broader need for language-learning environments and context-aware support. These insights shaped EmotiMate into a system that turns short text into context-aware sentences and expressive speech.

Users enter a short message and select the situation and intended emotion. A camera-based facial-expression model detects emotion cues, and an AI language model combines these inputs to create a natural sentence. The message is then displayed as text and spoken aloud using text-to-speech with a matching tone.

Following feedback from over 50 testers, EmotiMate now supports long-term learning by recording chosen expressions, analysing their emotional meaning, and generating practice scenarios. Going forward, Xincheng, who submitted the project for the competition, plans to have more users try EmotiMate in everyday scenarios, using their feedback to further refine the system and understand how it can create meaningful real-world impact.

Xincheng shared that this recognition “validates the potential of inclusive design to go beyond basic accessibility and give users greater control over how they express themselves and how they are understood.” Supervisors Assoc Prof Loh Ai Poh, Assoc Prof Mark Philip De Lessio, and Dr Aleksandar Kostadinov, have commended the project’s human-centred approach, thoughtful use of AI and how it brings engineering and design together to create meaningful value for users.

“Students are challenged to look beyond the nature-culture binary and instead read the Ridge as a biocultural landscape ...
05/10/2026

“Students are challenged to look beyond the nature-culture binary and instead read the Ridge as a biocultural landscape where ecological systems and cultural practices have co-evolved.”

For Assoc Prof Lu Xiaoxuan (Landscape Architecture), this approach lies at the core of LAD3001, a studio that examines Singapore’s urban landscapes as biocultural archives, with a focus on the Ridge. Spanning the NUS campus and NParks-managed land, the Ridge forms part of the Southern Ridges, a corridor of parks and nature reserves in southern Singapore.

With support from University Campus Infrastructure (UCI) and NParks, students learnt about ongoing plans for the campus portion of the Ridge, management of the Ridge and traversed the Southern Ridges on a study trip. For Project 1, they worked in groups to create landscape transects using site data from Singapore Land Authority, visually mapping the Ridge across time to reveal the forces behind its transformation.

Yeo Mei Zhen, Heng Jun Kai, Enya Yeo, Justin Chew, Cai Zhenning and Jasmine Tham explored how plantation clearance, WWII combat damage and modern infrastructure have altered Kent Ridge’s terrain. Their project frames Kent Ridge as an adaptable novel ecosystem developing along a distinct evolutionary path.

Meanwhile, Paul Yee, Rachel Lim, Joey Hoe, Javin Yeo, Lim Jiin and Chan Ming Hao traced people's changing relationship with the Ridge through “Take, Hold and Heal”. These ideas chart its evolution from a landscape people extracted from, to one occupied and developed, and eventually regenerated and restored.

Alongside these group transects, each student developed individual plant and material sections to examine specific landscape conditions. Justin compared two case studies of forest recovery at Canterbury Road and The Singing Forest, while Paul explored plants within the Ridge as “living instruments” that register environmental conditions that might otherwise be overlooked.

These different scales of investigation encouraged students to engage with the Ridge as a living landscape – one shaped by layers of ecological and human change.

Led by Assoc Prof Xiaoxuan Lu, the studio’s teaching team includes Melissa Yip, Alfred Lee, and Varit Charoenveingvechkit, with support from teaching assistant Ziyuan Zhang.

[Pic 5]: (From left to right) Enya Yeo, Cai Zhenning, Heng Jun Kai, Yeo Mei Zhen, Jasmine Tham, and Justin Chew presenting their landscape transect.

[Pic 6]: (From left to right) Group photo of Paul Yee, Lim Jiin, Rachel Lim, Javin Yeo, Chan Ming Hao, and Joey Hoe.

Winding giraffes and hummingbirds took shape on canvas bags as CDE students let their imaginations bloom in a tote bag p...
02/10/2026

Winding giraffes and hummingbirds took shape on canvas bags as CDE students let their imaginations bloom in a tote bag painting session organised by the Office of Student Life and Wellness Ambassadors.

The session brought together 29 students for an afternoon of creativity and relaxation, with participants designing and painting their own canvas tote bags. Part of CDE’s ongoing efforts to support student wellbeing, the activity gave students an opportunity to unwind and recharge beyond the classroom.

From intricate illustrations to bold, colourful patterns, students explored their artistic side and made each tote their own.

For Wellness Ambassador Steffie Valencya Marcellyn (Biomedical Engineering), who helped lead the session, self-expression can also be a meaningful part of wellness.

“The atmosphere was really relaxed, and you could sense everyone’s creativity once they started painting,” she shared. “It was nice to see everyone being so focused on their own designs while also enjoying themselves.”

While many participants came with friends, the session also gave students a chance to connect with new people. Even simple exchanges, such as students complimenting one another’s tote bags, were especially heartening to Steffie.

“I hope everyone was able to enjoy and cherish the moment, whether they came with their friends or met someone new. I also hope this session gave them a chance to take their minds off school for a while, have fun, and leave with a little more happiness and a tote bag that reminds them of the experience.”
studentlife .studentwellness

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