Project Titles /
Synopses 2016
NANYANG RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Overview of Project Titles 2016
Project
Code
ADM01
Category
Project Title
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Small Shrines to Small Gods in Singapore
ADM02
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Education and Cinematography
CEE01
Engineering
Downscaling Rainfall and Temperature Using Statistical Approaches
CEE02
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
The Impact of Low Oil Price on the Maritime Industry
EEE01
Engineering
Development of Defogging Algorithm for Image
EEE02
Engineering
Design and Development of a Cognitive Vacuum Cleaner
EEE03
Sciences
Seeing, Hearing, Touching, and Controlling your Brain Waves
EEE04
Engineering
Solar Irradiance Analysis
EEE05
Engineering
Gallium Nitride Transistors: The Up-and-Coming Semiconductor Technology
EEE06
Engineering
Active Microwave Absorbers
EEE07
Sciences
NAO Robot Based Home Automation for Internet Things
EEE08
Engineering
Development of Hybrid Mobile Application
EEE09
Engineering
Demonstration Kit for Battery-less RF Energy Harvesting Device
EEE10
Engineering
Localization of Cable Fault Based on Transmission Line Theory
EEE11
Engineering
Building Your Own Satellite 101 – CanSat (a Can-sized Miniature Satellite)
EEE12
Engineering
Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning
EEE13
Engineering
Carbon Nanotube Based Electronic Devices
EEE14
Sciences
Electrical and optical properties of CdSe quantum dot
EEE15
Engineering
Harnessing of Indoor Light Energy
EEE16
Engineering
EEE17
Engineering
HSS01
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Building a Full Function Computer from Modular Components
Efficient Communication Protocols With Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) for
Biomedical Implanted Devices in Patients.
Singapore and the Global Competition for Talent
HSS02
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Attracting Young Talents to Singapore
HSS03
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
HSS04
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
HSS05
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Education for Sustainability and Education of Sustainable Development
A Sociolinguistic Investigation of French, German, Italian and Spanish in
Singapore Shop Signs
Bilingual Development in Infancy
HSS06
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Assessing Social Attributes of Faces
HSS07
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
How the Brain Links Language Sounds With Senses: A Psycholinguistics Project
HSS08
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Cultural Diversity and Knowledge Production
HSS09
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Sources of Growth and the Long-Term Effects of Cultural Diffusion Barriers
MAE01
Engineering
Study of Contact-less Micro Blood Pressure Measuring Device
MAE02
Engineering
Organization of Medical Data as an Input for Machine Learning Processes
MAE03
Sciences
A Fast Way to Compute Least Square
MAE04
Sciences
A Fast Way to Compute Matrix Multiplication
MAE05
Engineering
Micro/nano Structure Formation Using Electrospinning Method
MAE06
Engineering
Ultrasound Erosion on Soft Tissue
MAE07
Engineering
Thermal Ablation by High-intensity Focused Ultrasound
MAE08
Sciences
Study of Advanced Sensors and Lighting Systems for Indoor Farming
Project
Code
Category
MAE09
Engineering
MSE01
Engineering
CYBORG BEETLE: Electrical Stimulation of Insect Muscles to Induce Desired
Motor Action And Behaviours
Energy Saving Smart Windows
MSE02
Sciences
How do Atoms Bond Together?
MSE03
Engineering
Transparent Ceramics as Solid State Phosphors
MSE04
Engineering
NIE01
Sciences
NIE02
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
NIE03
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Promoting Hydrogen Production from Water On Earth Abundance Metals
Searching for the Neuroscience Evidence on Learning and Memorisation from a
Sensitive Plant Mimosa Pudica
Exploring the Role that Game-Based Worlds and Immersive Environments
Potentially Play in Learning
Classrooms for Testing, Tuition Centres for Learning?
NIE04
Sciences
Development of Novel Light and Magnetic Field Sensitive Hydrogels
NIE05
Sciences
Integer Partitions
NIE06
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Effect of In-Games Advertisement on Attitude and Purchase Intention
NIE07
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
Technology Acceptance Model
NIE08
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
App Interventions in Class
NIE09
Sciences
Who is Faster, 4n or 2n, In Growth and Cell Fate Reprogramming?
NIE10
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
NIE11
Sciences
NIE12
Sciences
Virtual Performativity: Performing Identity in Video Games
Plasma based Sustainable Synthesis of Vertical Graphene and its Nitrogen
Functionalization
Sponge-Associated Bacteria as Sources of Potential Bioactive Natural Products
NIE13
Sciences
Lattices of Scott Closed Sets
NIE14
Sciences
Remediation of Polluted Water Using Sustainable Biomass
NIE15
Business, Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
SBS01
Sciences
SBS02
Sciences
SBS03
Sciences
SBS04
Sciences
SBS05
Sciences
SBS06
Sciences
Improving Graded Readers Using Linguistics
Characterization of the Organization and Connectivity of Neural Circuits Within
the Deep Cerebellum
Developing a High Throughput Screening Platform for Innate Immune
Regulators
Identify Novel Mechanisms of Progesterone Receptor Activation in Breast
Cancer
Rational Design of Human Protein HP1BP3 Inhibitors
Designing Non-toxic Endotoxin Binding Synthetic Peptides: Rational
Development of Anti-sepsis Drugs
The Effect of Dietary Lipids on Oxidative Stress in C. elegans
SCBE01
Engineering
Electro-catalyst Development
SCBE02
Engineering
Energy Material
SCBE03
Engineering
SCBE04
Engineering
SCBE05
Engineering
Microfluidic Preparation of Nanomedicine
Advancement of Two-Stage Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Membrane Bioreactor for
Energy Positive Sewage Treatment
Segregation of Particles in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed
SCE01
Engineering
A Scientometric Analysis of Cyber Security Literature
SCE02
Engineering
SPMS01
Engineering
SPMS02
Engineering
Multi-user Distributed Virtual Walkthrough
Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical
Applications
2D transport of Magnetic Microbeads on a Ferromagnetic Network Structure
SPMS03
Sciences
DNA Origami Assembled by DNA dendrimers for Drug Delivery
SPMS04
Sciences
Leidenfrost Effect on Ripples
Project Title
Project
Code
SPMS05
Category
Project Title
Sciences
Plasmonic Liquid Marbles As Ultrasensitive Food Toxin Sensors
SPMS06
Sciences
3D printing and Physics of Music
SPMS07
Sciences
A Proof the Johnson-Lindenstauss Lemma
NANYANG RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Project Titles / Synopses 2016
ENGINEERING
CEE01
Title
Downscaling Rainfall and Temperature Using Statistical Approaches
Description
For many climate change studies, scenarios of climate change derived directly
from Global Climate Model (GCM) output are of insufficient spatial and temporal
resolution. A number of methodologies have been developed for deriving more
detailed regional and site scenarios of climate change for impacts studies. Spatial
downscaling refers to the techniques used to derive finer resolution climate
information from coarser resolution GCM output. The fundamental bases of
spatial downscaling are the assumptions that it will be possible to determine
significant relationships between local and large-scale climate. This study will use
various techniques to do rainfall and temperature downscaling. In addition, the
short interval records of some weather variables (like rainfall) are limited due to
various reasons such as costly data procurement and complex geographical
conditions. Disaggregation methods are widely used to provide possible realization
of hourly data which are aggregated up to the given daily data. This study will also
use rainfall data to test and compare various temporal disaggregation tools. The
study outputs will be useful for helping generate high-resolution rainfall data for
hydrologic studies.
College / School
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Good Math, Physics, and computer
Other Requirements
Must have own laptop with Windows 7 installed.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE01
Title
Development of Defogging Algorithm for Image
Description
Most of the outdoor images suffer from contrast degradation caused by fog, which
are formed by small suspended particles like aerosols and water droplets.
Removing such unwanted visual degradation, often referred to as ‘defogging’ has
strong implications in many computer vision and image processing applications.
The foggy day image appearance is the combined result of attenuated scene
radiation and transmitted airlight, whose extents both depend on the scene depth.
Based on the observation that areas with dramatic colour changes tend to belong
to similar depth, a window variation mechanism can be used based on the
neighbourhood scene complexity and colour saturation rate to achieve an ideal
compromise between depth resolution and precision for images. The student
needs to have interest in image processing and its techniques.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Interest in image processing research
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE02
Title
Design and Development of a Cognitive Vacuum Cleaner
Description
Domestic robots are now a reality. There are many in-home and outdoor domestic
robots that are provided by several vendors. Vacuum cleaning and floor washing
robots are one of the popular in-home robots that are widely used in several
households. The robotic vacuum cleaner in the market is not capable of cleaning
wet floor and it will damage expensive fragile furniture when bumping on it.
Moreover, the robotic cleaner might fall off from the stairs as they do not edge
detection capability. In this project, a cogntive vacuun cleaner will be designed and
developed. A water absorption system will be built so that the robot is able to
clean wet floor in addition to its normal dry-floor cleaning capability. An, intelligent
sensing system will be incorporated so that obstacles can be sensed at a distance
so that it will not damage fragile furniture. In addition, a detection system will be
developed so as to detect edges and stairs so that it can be put on the roof and
table-tops for domestic cleaning works. More importantly, cognitive capabilities
will be incorporated in the vacuum cleaner so that the robot is able to have humanlike intelligence such as memorising the flooor are that has been cleaned.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Prior robotics knowledge will be an advantage.
Other Requirements
Be able to commit time for the project.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE04
Title
Solar Irradiance Analysis
Description
The project aims to perform a detailed analysis on the correlation between solar
irradiance and cloud coverage. Solar irradiance data can easily be collected using
a weather station. We also know that solar irradiance is dependent on the amount
of cloud in the sky, the thickness of the cloud and the direction of the sun, amongst
other things. In this project, we aim to study the correlation between the cloud
coverage with solar irradiance. Results from this analysis is useful for the
prediction of amount of solar energy available to be harvested, and the effects of
clouds on satellite communication links.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Data analysis, simple Matlab programming.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE05
Title
Gallium Nitride Transistors: The Up-and-Coming Semiconductor Technology
Description
Gallium Nitride (GaN) based transistors are very attractive for high-frequency and
high-power device applications due to its inherent material properties such as
wide band gap with high breakdown voltage and higher saturation electron
velocity. Hence, these transistors are very promising for the important building
blocks of many applications such as high-power switches, wireless
communications, satellite communications and sensors etc. In this project, thee
students will be exposed to the technology of GaN transistors, their applications
and they key device paramaters for application consideration. They will also learn
the useful and important basic operation, characterisation techniques and analysis
o GaN based transistors. This experience will prepare the students well for their
future studies in electronics engineering particularly in the areas of
semiconductors.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Basic Physics and Mathematics
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE06
Title
Active Microwave Absorbers
Description
Microwave absorbers have been extensively investigated over the past 7 decades
for widening the frequency range and reducing their thickness. However, most of
the previous studies were concentrated on the design of passive microwave
absorbers. The objective of this project is to study the feasibility of designing active
microwave absorbers that can be made extremely low profile. Both theoretical
simulations and experimental measurements will be involved in the project.
Dedicated students can get a lot of hands-on experience in this project.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE08
Title
Development of Hybrid Mobile Application
Description
HTML5 is the latest version of the HyperText Markup Language. It helps describe
the document's structure and allows documents to be cross-linked. Today the
language has grown, with an Alexa research stating that 34% of sites were using
HTML5 alone (discounting other versions of HTML such as HTML 4.0 or XHTML).
Further, HTML has gained two other partner systems that are closely associated
with and support it. These are CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - latest iteration CSS3)
helps HTML improve the document’s user interface by describing how it should
look. JavaScript then helps to build interactivity. The purpose of this project is to
develop a moble application for interactive teaching and learning.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE09
Title
Demonstration Kit for Battery-less RF Energy Harvesting Device
Description
Low-power battery-less devices have been attracting much attention recently. The
power consumption of these devices is so low that they can operate by harvesting
energy from the environment and without the need of battery. Various energy
harvesting units can be incorporated to such devices to convert different sources
of natural energy sources (light, EM wave and motion) into DC power. This project
aims to develop a demonstration kit by combining the commercial available energy
harvesting sensor platforms with the self-developed RF energy harvesting unit
developed from the previous projects. The student will survey the commercial
energy harvesting sensor nodes / platforms available on the market, choose a
proper product, test and study the functionality of the device. The device is to be
combined with the self-developed RF energy harvesting unit and the performance
of the whole setup will be characterized and evaluated. The student will have
opportunities to be exposed to the related programming software as well as RF
measurement instrument.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Students must like hands on work.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE10
Title
Localization of Cable Fault Based on Transmission Line Theory
Description
Any cable fault in a power cable connecting between a substation to a residential
building can disrupt the power supply for the household. To localize the fault will
facilitate efficient repair of the cable. This project will allow the student to model
a power cable as a transmission line and based on the transmission line theory, to
develop a practical algorithm to locate the exact point of cable fault. This will
enhance the student appreciation of using fundamental theory to solve a practical
problem in our daily lives.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Keen interest in hands on experiments.
Other Requirements
Students must have Physics background.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE11
Title
Building Your Own Satellite 101 – CanSat (a Can-sized Miniature Satellite)
Description
A CanSat is a special form of a miniature satellite packing all the electronics into
standard aluminium can. All the sub-systems based on satellite architecture will be
put inside a can with a total weight limit of 400-500 grams. To make the objectives
feasible for the student to achieve, given the constraint on project duration and
relevant knowledge, the student will be given a set of starter kit to work on. He /
She is required to work on both the hardware and software parts of the CanSat
under proper guidance. He / She is required to build a CanSat, perform various
tests on it. If the basic objectives are reached ahead of time, we can proceed to
add more payloads into the CanSat to make equip it with more appealing
functionalities, such as GPS to identify the exact location of the CanSat and / or
Camera to provide the scenes from a bird’s eye view. In this project, the student
will be learning and practicing engineering approach to solve a problem, project
management skills in making timeline and milestones, hands-on skills of hardware
assembly and software programming.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Willingness to do hand-on engineering experiment is necessary.
Basic C/C++ programming skills would be helpful.
Previous experience with Arduino microprocessor would be very useful.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE12
Title
Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning
Description
Advances in information and communications technologies make possible various
technology-enhanced teaching and learning platforms, such as Coursera, Edx and
Udacity, which have generated an unprecedented level of interest and attention,
reaching out to million of people worldwide. In this project, we will review various
technology-enabled teaching and learning applications to assist teachers in their
teaching and support students in their learning. We shall also investigate and
employ efficient methods to model and analyse students' learning data for
interesting patterns, collerations and relations, and apply the findings to help
teachers to better understand their students’ learning progress and to allow
students to be more actively engaged in their learning process. This project is
suitable for students with strong interest in learning and data analysis. Interest in
computer programming or human behaviour is certainly a plus.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Interest in information technologies, learning sciences, computer programming, or
human behaviour is certainly a plus.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE13
Title
Carbon Nanotube Based Electronic Devices
Description
Next generation electronic circuits, displays, and many other applications would
require a high flexibility. Silicon based devices suffer from drawbacks of hightemperature processing. Organic thin film transistors, as a replacement for
amorphous silicon based thin film transistors (TFTs) in low-end applications, have
yielded several impressive demonstrations for applications as large-scale
integrated circuits, flexible displays, sensor sheets and other systems. In all cases,
however, the carrier mobilities of the organic TFTs are quite low, typically ~1
cm^2V^-1s^-1. In contrast, carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film transistors are readily
suitable for a flexible circuitry with the outstanding advantages of high mobility
and low operating voltage over widely explored organic and polymer-based
materials. In this project, thin CNT films will be obtained using solution-based
filtration or chemical vapor deposition growth. Electrical and optical
characterizations will be carried out. CNT based field effect transistors will be
developed.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Elementary Physics for Secondary 4 or above
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE15
Title
Harnessing of Indoor Light Energy
Description
There has been very strong interest and attention in the past few years focused on
the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT refers to a network of physical objects,
embedded, with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which
enables these objects to collect and exchange data. It allows remote sensing and
control across network infrastructure, creates opportunities for more direct
integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and
resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit.
[1] One of the challenges in the IoT technology is the provision of energy for the
sensing, electronics, communication, etc. It is important that the deployed devices
are autonomous, that is, able to harness environmental energy and be selfsufficient so that there is no need to provide and replace batteries. Among the
various sources of energy that can be harnessed from an indoor environment, light
energy has been shown to be one of the most efficiency and widely available. In
this project, the student will study and understand the harnessing of light energy
in an indoor environment. The scope will include the analysis of the different types
of artificial light sources and their intensities and emission spectra. The student
will also analyze the performance of commercial solar cells using different
materials and assess their suitability for harnessing of light energy in an indoor
environment.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
No pre-requisites. Students should preferably have interest in Physics and study of
renewable energy
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE16
Title
Building a Full Function Computer from Modular Components
Description
The digital computer we use everyday are purchased from the various
manufacturers as sealed boxes. As a result, we are often not familiar with what is
inside. The smartphone which is really a hand held computer is similarly sealed up
and we do not know the electronic processes taking place inside. The computer
and the smartphone are both digital computing systems. They have a
microprocessor, main memory, secondary memory, input output peripherals. One
of the essential preipheral is a display. In this project, the student will use the latest
Raspberry Pi computer with a 900 MHz processor to build up a computer from
scratch. This computer will run on a Linux operating system. The first objective is
to build up the computer so it can function like any other computer (run programs,
connect to the internet). When this is completed, the next task is to use this
computer to monitor temperature through a temperature sensor. The project will
show the student the basics of a computer system through a hands on learning
exercise and how a piece of hardware that we must use everyday really works.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Basic understanding of computers and use of circuit boards.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
EEE17
Title
Efficient Communication Protocols With Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) for
Biomedical Implanted Devices in Patients.
Description
Recent advances implementation of miniaturized embedded systems is not limited
to sensors but to biomedical applications. With implanted Micro-systems for
monitoring human biological signals (e.g. ECG, EEG) or actuating devices
(pacemakers, drug injection) are in the market. However, it is not convenient and
difficult to extract the battery that powers these medical devices and security
issues privacy of the data remains a challenge. Wireless power transfer is an
attractive option as it allows the full exploitation of such systems. Magnetic or
inductive coupling at radio frequencies for wireless power and data transfer is a
widely acknowledged solution for low power devices. The project aims to provide
the most robust and cost effective secure solution. This project would be suitable
for self-motivated students interested in hardware measurement software design
for real life problems.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Electricity and soldering skills.
Other Requirements
Knowledge of 3D printing would be useful.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE01
Title
Study of Contact-less Micro Blood Pressure Measuring Device
Description
Measuring Blood Pressure (BP) with a traditional sphygmomanometer requires
technical expertise. In developed countries, automatic inflate/deflate oscillometry
based BP machine is the most commonly used measurement tool. But, an
inflatable cuff surrounding the arm or finger can measure blood pressure
intermittently, but cannot do this continuously because venous occlusion prevents
blood flow return. Approaches using pulse wave transit time (PWTT) permit
continuous measurement, but only if the patient is calibrated in advance at two
different pressures. Hence the key technical challenge is to develop a system for
quickly measuring BP non-invasively, unconsciously and continuously, transmitting
it to a central station. This work is to develop a mathematical thermal modelling
of the human body parts (from where BP to be sensed), with consideration of fluid
dynamics of blood flow and the surrounding environmental effects, and hence, will
perform numerical simulation on the same. On the parallel ground, a state of art
work is required to be done for fabrication of the imaging sensor at micro level and
hence, its standardization with the invasive data on blood pressure. In all, this
project is to further develop the algorithm and provide some additional
preliminary data to correlate the kin temperature with the inner BP.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Hardworking, image processing, good Maths
Other Requirements
innovative
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE02
Title
Organization of Medical Data as an Input for Machine Learning Processes
Description
Aim of the project: A computational method (machine learning) is being used to
develop a diagnostic tool for a vascular disease. This will have implications for
clinicians to better diagnose the patient’s condition so that suitable surgical care
can be delivered.
Procedure: As part of a research project, a large amount of patient data will be
available in the form of various parameters of each patient. This may be up to 30
in number for each patient. It is envisioned to have about 200 patients worth of
data as input to the machine learning method in the proper format. It is important
for the data to be input in a particular format, so that the diagnostic tool may
predict the statistical distribution accurately.
Requirement: There is a need for a data entry specialist to manage the large
amount of data that is available through the concerned hospital.
Responsibilities: The person needs to accurately manage the various parameters
of each patient. Presentation and maintenance of data in the prescribed format so
that it may be used for the machine learning method.
The person must be familiar / proficient with tools such as MS Excel or any other
data management system.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
MS Excel
Other Requirements
Hardworking, deep learning, big data mining
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE05
Title
Micro / nano Structure Formation Using Electrospinning Method
Description
The student will be trained to understand the mechanism of electrospinning,
design micro / nano structures for biological, engineerng or optical applications
based on personal interests, optimize electrospinning process and characterize the
micro / nano structure.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Literature search, experimental design.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE06
Title
Ultrasound Erosion on Soft Tissue
Description
High-intensity focused ultrasound has been applied succesffuly in our laboratory
to erode soft tissue noninvasively. In order to further improve this technology,
ultrasound parameters should be optimized. In this study, ultrasound intensity,
pulse duration, pulse repetition rate, total exposure time, focal location, driving
frequency and tissue stiffness will be studied for the maximum erosion volume.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Experimental skill and ability to process data.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE07
Title
Thermal Ablation by High-intensity Focused Ultrasound
Description
In this project, novel strategies of thermal ablation using high-intensity focused
ultrasound (HIFU) will be investigated in order to enhance the treatment efficiency
to cancer/tumor. The underlying mechanisms, such as bubble cavitation, will be
monitored during the sonication and the relationship to the outcome will be
found.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
Experiment skills and data analysis
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MAE09
Title
CYBORG BEETLE: Electrical Stimulation of Insect Muscles to Induce Desired Motor
Action and Behaviours
Description
1) Anatomy to map out the leg and flight muscles
2) Implantation of wire electrodes into the muscle of interest
3) Electrical stimulation to induce desired motion (muscle contraction)
4) Develop stimulation protocols and sequences to control beetle waking and flight
5) Test (4) using a radio control system 1) Anatomy to map out the leg and flight
muscles
[References]
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/CorpComms2/Documents/2015/03_Mar/AsiaOne_1503
18_NTU%20and%20UC%20Berkeley%20develop%20remote%20controlled%20be
atle.pdf
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2815%29000834?cc=y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNmSh8tElnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSCLBG9KeX4
Or google "Cyborg Beetle' or 'Cyborg Insect’
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
No specific knowledge and skills but strong interest and self-motivation are
required. Good time management.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MSE01
Title
Energy Saving Smart Windows
Description
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) presents a first order phase transition from an insulating
state to a metallic state at the critical temperature (Tc) around 68 °C. This
transition is accompanied by a sharp change in the optical transmittance in the
infrared (IR) region. Specifically, it allows IR transmission at temperatures below
Tc, but is highly reflective to IR light at temperatures above Tc. The transmission
of visible light is nearly unaffected during the phase transition. VO2 thin films are
thus excellent materials for technological applications smart windows to cool
down the house during summer and warm up the house during winter.
College / School
School of Materials Science & Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Good analytical capability
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MSE03
Title
Transparent Ceramics as Solid State Phosphors
Description
Oxide-based solid phosphors have been acknowledged to be the irreplaceable
candidate for next generation white light sources, with ultra-high brightness,
higher power and stronger thermal stability. This project is aimed to develop
transparent ceramics that can be used as solid phosphors for potential applications
in white light sources. By participating this projects, students will be trained to gain
knowledge in materials science and engineering in general and ceramic processing
in particular.
College / School
School of Materials Science & Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Chemistry, Physics
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
MSE04
Title
Promoting Hydrogen Production from Water on Earth Abundance Metals
Description
The urgent need for clean and renewable energy has stimulated a considerable
interest in developing solar hydrogen technologies, either by combining
photovoltaics with water electrolyzers or by constructing photoelectochemical
cells (PEC). In both cases highly efficient electrodes / catalysts are required to
achieve high efficiencies of energy conversion to hydrogen. Electrolyzers and PEC
systems consist of two electrodes: anode where the oxygen evolving reaction
(OER) occurs and cathode where the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is
achieved. For the best systems the electrodes / catalysts are required to work in
aqueous solutions at neutral or near-to-neutral pH with a small overpotential
requirement, high catalytic rate (high exchange current density), and low Tafel
slope. Moreover, for a cost-effective large scale technology, these systems should
be made of components of earth-abundant and non-toxic elements.
Unfortunately, these desirable criteria are difficult to achieve. For example, Pt
shows the best performance for HER, but its high cost and non-abundance hinders
its application for the development of scalable solar hydrogen technologies. Over
the last decade, significant advances have been achieved in designing efficient
alternatives to Pt for HER based on first-row transition metals such as iron, cobalt,
nickel. Besides these earth-abundant elements, copper is an attractive low cost
metal and relatively less harmful to the environment compared with elements like
cobalt and nickel. However, the major challenges remain in earth abundance
metals. These metals are low cost, but in nature not good catalysts for HER. This
project is an effort to explore the nature of metals and modification approaches
to enhance the HER on cheap metals. The aim is to find low cost alternatives to Pt.
College / School
School of Materials Science & Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Having basic knowledge in Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Materials
Science
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCBE01
Title
Electrocatalyst Development
Description
Fuel cells are recognized as efficient, green energy conversion technology，and
can directly convert chemical energy to electrical energy, which has high energy
conversion efficiency, low pollution, and fuel diversification. In this project,
electrocatalysts will be synthesized and characterized.
College / School
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Chemistry
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCBE02
Title
Energy Material
Description
Nowadays, portable electronic devices are becoming much more multifunctional
and developing in the trend of being thin, lightweight, flexible and even rollup, in
order to meet the rapid growing modern market demands. In this project, energy
materials will be synthesized and characterized.
College / School
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Chemistry
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCBE03
Title
Microfluidic Preparation of Nanomedicine
Description
This project involves 100% experiment involving microfluidic preparation of
amorphous drug nanoparticle complex aimed at enhancing the bioavailability of
poorly soluble drugs.
College / School
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Basic Chemistry laboratory skills
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCBE04
Title
Advancement of Two-Stage Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Membrane Bioreactor for
Energy Positive Sewage Treatment
Description
The overall goal of this research is to develop a staged anaerobic fluidized
membrane bioreactor (SAF-MBR) system for treating wastewater. Our current
work focuses on the solid-liquid fluidization in the anaerobic fluidized membrane
bioreactor (AFMBR). The optimization of membrane fouling control via the
manipulation of hydrodynamics will be investigated.
College / School
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCBE05
Title
Segregation of Particles in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed
Description
Fluidized beds represent important industrial operations. Because the particles in
bubbling fluidized beds are often not monodisperse, the different particle sizes
segregate according to species. The objective of the current work is to
experimentally determine the impact of the width of the distribution on the
degree of segregation.
College / School
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCE01
Title
A Scientometric Analysis of Cyber Security Literature
Description
The increasing concerns of cyber security have driven the popularity and rapid
development of cyber security research. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of
cyber security research, it becomes increasingly important to understand the
overall structure, status and future in that filed. This project proposes to a
scientometric approach to study the cyber security literatures including research
articles and news page. We hope to get an empirical study on the evolution and
insights on cyber security in Singapore and worldwide. The student(s) are expected
to:
1) crawl and download relevant research articles and news by using an automated
tool,
2) analyse the interplay of related subtopics using keyword and other features, and
3) publish the analysis and results for future research.
A similar study has been conducted for cloud computing:
http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/transactions/tcc/pdfs/tcc2014030
266.pdf,
http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/transactions/tcc/pdfs/tcc2014030
266.pdf.
We will follow their methodology.
College / School
School of Computer Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basically no. But preferably, if you are interested to learn a script language (like
Python).
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SCE02
Title
Multi-user Distributed Virtual Walkthrough
Description
A Multi-user walkthrough allows users at different geographical locations to share
information and interact within a common virtual environment via a local network
or through the Internet. This project designs and implements a multi-user
walkthrough with basic Physics simulations.
College / School
School of Computer Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Required: Programming skills (C++, Java, or other similar high-level languages)
Preferred: Direct3D, OpenGL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SPMS01
Title
Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical
Applications
Description
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) have shown great potential for various biomedical
applications due to their ability to interact with an external field. In this work,
alternative approach for MNP synthesis is carried out by a combination of
compositionally modulated NiFe nanowire growth and differential chemical
etching. The versatility of the proposed synthesis method is demonstrated by its
ability to easily create MNPs of various compositions and sizes. Micromagnetic
studies have predicted that cylindrical MNPs above a threshold thickness of 300
nm are able to form a triple-vortex magnetic configuration in addition to the wellstudied single vortex state. The triple-vortex configuration is a stable state that
requires an external field excitation of at least 140 mT to collapse back into the
single-vortex ground state. The magnetic frustration caused by the three magnetic
vortices residing in the structure also results in a remnant magnetization at least
five times stronger than in the single vortex state. As a result, a greater magnetic
torque can be actuated on a triple-vortex MNP which is potentially useful for
various magnetic torque-based biomedical applications, like magnetomechanical
cell destruction. The light transmissivity dynamics under an alternating pulsed
magnetic field will be carried out. The specific loss power measurements of our
surface-coated MNPs under a high frequency alternating magnetic field as a
function of MNP size and composition will be investigated
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Some Chemistry background is helpful.
Other Requirements
Only for those interested in the research of Engineering Physics.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
ENGINEERING
SPMS02
Title
2D transport of Magnetic Microbeads on a Ferromagnetic Network Structure
Description
Domain wall is a transition region between two different orientation
magnetizations. When an external energy, e.g. magnetic field or electrical current,
is applied to a structured magnetic thin film domain wall propagates to complete
magnetization switching process. In this project, we study the field strength
generated from the domain wall and utilize its mobility to drive a magnetic
microparticles. The domain wall velocity is estimated to reach 100 m/s and hence
such a high speed driving force has potential to be exploited for device
applications. The project student will learn techniques of nanofabrication to make
sample device. Extensive measurements using microscope, electronic control of
magnetic field and video imaging will be carried.
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Good electronics skill is helpful.
Other Requirements
Only for those interested in the research of Engineering Physics.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
EEE03
Title
Seeing, Hearing, Touching, and Controlling your Brain Waves
Description
The human brain is arguably one of the most complex systems in the Universe.
Nowadays, various technologies exist to record brain waves, e.g.,
electroencephalograms (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Despite the impressive advancements in brain imaging, interpreting brain waves
remains an enormous challenge: brain imaging data are often complex and vast; it
is often hard to see the forest through the trees. In this project, we will explore the
use of computer graphics, sound and music, haptics, and combinations thereof, as
means of representing and analysing multichannel brain waves. Such a virtualreality (VR) representation of brain waves has several applications of high
potential. For example, it may be used for therapeutics, to treat sleeping and
attention deficit disorders.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Some experience in Computer Programming would be helpful
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
EEE07
Title
NAO Robot Based Home Automation for Internet Things
Description
NAO is a well-developed robot for academic reserach integrated platform with
multi-sensors mainly for PC communication, we intended to develop the robot
with an integrated interface for Android and iOS phones such that the robot can
perform an automatic role for home automation and service. There are a number
of rich applications developed for NAO robots at research universities like MIT and
Stanford for examples. You will have a chance to access the latest human robot
hard/soft ware in our research lab of EEE, NTU. See more information about the
NAO at https://www.aldebaran.com.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
The key is to use c++ program for the NAO robot automation function to speed up
its operation. This NAO based integrated automation system can play a supervision
role as compared to other distributed sensors based system like Nest and other
conventional Smart Home systems in term of improved reliability and flexibility for
system integration and maintenance.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
EEE14
Title
Electrical and Optical Properties of CdSe Quantum Dot
Description
CdSe quantum dots have been received great attention due to their photonic
application such as LED and laser. In this project, we will apply the 8-band k.p
method to simulate the enegry levels, wavefunctions, optical transition matrix
elements and optical gain spectra. The results will be helpful to understand the
experimental results.
College / School
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Need good Physics and Math background. PC programing is a plus.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
MAE03
Title
A Fast Way to Compute Least Square
Description
The method of least squares is a mathematical/statistical technique to determine
the best fit theoretical curve to experimental data. Directly applying the
mathematical definition of least square gives an algorithm that takes time on the
order of n to determine the best fit curve to n points. The scope of this project is
to develop a fast way to compute least square.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
MAE04
Title
A Fast Way to Compute Matrix Multiplication
Description
Matrix multiplication is a mathematical operation that takes a pair of matrices to
generate a new matrix. Directly applying the mathematical definition of matrix
multiplication gives an algorithm that takes time on the order of nmp to multiply
an n x m matrix by an m x p matrix. The scope of this project is to develop a fast
way to compute matrix multiplication.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
MAE08
Title
Study of Advanced Sensors and Lighting Systems for Indoor Farming
Description
Introduction
Indoor farming has gained tractions over the past few years in Singapore. Plants
are grown using aeroponic technology using the LED lighting with suitable
wavelength for additional food supply within confined area.
Objective
Proof-of-concept for aeroponic plant growth within confined area with energy
efficient LED indoor lighting and advanced sensors for monitoring
Project Description
The objective of this proof-of-concept project is to study the possibility of
improving the vegetable plant growth for self-sustainable food supply in confined
area like factory floor with LED indoor lighting.  The energy-efficient LED
lamps are increasing being used for indoor lighting. The lighting can be fully utilized
for growing leafy plants in for food as well as decorative purpose in confined
environment. The plant will also act as indoor air quality control for reducing the
CO2 level and other air-borne volatile organic chemicals and the generation of
oxygen by the LED light induced photosynthesis.  This project is to study the
effect of using the combination of LED lamps of different wavelength to achieve
these goals for enhanced plant growth in a confined area. Students will install the
LED lamps inside a model confined area for the aeroponic growth of plants using
nutrient in water and without the need to use soil.
Deliverables
Technology for efficient air control and plant growth for food supply within
confined area using indoor lighting.
College / School
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
A team with different members having basic knowledge of electrical/electronic for
LED lamps, biological plant growth and monitoring.
Other Requirements
Good electronics and biological experiences
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
MSE02
Title
How do Atoms Bond Together?
Description
The world around us is made of atoms. The nature of the atoms (or most of them)
is to bond together forming small groups, which we call compounds or molecules.
Atoms are very small; one cubic millimetre contains many billions of atoms. They
can be arranged in neat layers and pyramids like oranges or grapefruits on a village
market stall. Such an arranged form made of atoms is very valuable for solid state
physics and has its own name, which is crystal. In this project, the student will learn
the correlation between structure and bonding using the Bond Valence Sum
Theory. Making use of the database of bond lengths, students will learn to
determine valency of metals with simulation based experiments. This project aims
to teach students on how different valence states relate to the different functions
each protein have, paramount to many industries around the world, such as the
biochemical engineering and pharmaceutical industries. Students will compute the
valency of metal-ligands and do a write-up on proteins of their choice.
College / School
School of Materials Science & Engineering
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE01
Title
Searching for the Neuroscience Evidence on Learning and Memorisation from a
Sensitive Plant Mimosa Pudica
Description
Are you curious about how we think, learn and act? Are you passionate about life
science but may be scared of bloody scenes? Are you a lover of the natural greenery?
Taking advantage of a unique thigmonastic plant, Mimosa Pudica, we are unraveling
the mysterious neuroscience in plants.
In animals neurobiology or behavioral study has been widely conducted. In contrast
the notion that plants show intelligent behaviors is gaining popularity only in recent
years. Plants are immobile and cannot escape from adverse environment, thus the
sensing of environmental variables and the consequent adaptive responses are
critical to plant's survival. During this adaptation the information sensing, processing,
and the response constitute the core loop in neuroscience. We are interest in the
plant capacity to memorize and organize learned behavioral responses.
Mimosa Pudica as a sensitive plant is widely known for its ability to close leaflets when
stimulated (known as thigmonastic response). The leaf-closing mechanism is a
defensive move to evade predation by exposing its prickly hairs. The mimosa’s ability
to close its leaflets due to stimulus arises from changing the turgor pressure of the
cells. Upon stimulus potassium ions are rapidly moved out of the cell together with
water, which reduces the turgor pressure. This generates an action potential and
affects neighboring cells to lose turgor pressure as well. Post stimulus potassium ions
re-enter the cells and the cells return to their original turgor pressure by rehydration.
In this project we will observe thigmonastic responses when applying single versus
repeat physical disturbances from (1) finger touch; (2) simulated wind; (3) microwave;
(4) fire; and (5) electric current. Analytical methods in learning research will be
employed to build up models and draw conclusions in plant neuroscience. It will be
an interdisciplinary project involving plant biology, neuroscience, physics, and
computational modeling.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basic knowledge of Statistics
Other Requirements
Strong interest in bench work
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE04
Title
Development of Novel Light and Magnetic Field Sensitive Hydrogels
Description
This project involves the design and development of novel hydrogels that responds
to stimuli such as light and magnetic field. These materials can be used for targeted
applications.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Good Chemistry lab skills, computer and mathematical knowledge.
Other Requirements
Commitment to the project is essential. Initiative, motivation, and regular
attendance is a must.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE05
Title
Integer Partitions
Description
The number of partitions of an integer n is the number of ways one can write n as a
sum of nonincreasing positive integers. For example, since 4 = 3+1 = 2+2 = 2+1+1 =
1+1+1+1, there are 5 partitions of the integer 4. The simplicity of the definition belies
the richness of the subject. In this project, the student will begin by learning the basic
results and techniques of the theory of partitions. Depending on the amount of
progress, the student may be tasked to work on certain open problems.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
This is a pure Mathematics research project. There are no formal pre-requisites. The
student is expected to work independently.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE09
Title
Who is Faster, 4n or 2n, in Growth and Cell Fate Reprogramming?
Description
Development involves a process of defining cell fates by confining gene expression
patterns. When a zygote develops into an adult, the stem cells differentiate into
different tissue cells. The developmental processes are possible to be reverted by
cell fate reprogramming, either by artificially inducing pluripotent stem cells, or by
spontaneous biological processes including the production of germ cells or
regeneration. Cell fate establishment relies on specific gene expression patterns in
which certain sets of genes are on and the rest are off. The transcription status of
each gene is largely regulated by epigenetic mechanisms involving DNA
methylation, histone modification, histone variant replacement and nucleosome
positioning. Most of such epigenetic modifications are reversible. When a cell fate
is reprogrammed, the epigenetics marks on each allele from both chromosomes
have to be reset. Tetraploid (4n) organisms have doubled chromosome number as
that from diploids (2n), and in most of cases tetraploids show advantages in
development and growth evidenced by larger size. But in term of reprogramming
cell fate, it is reasonable to speculate that it would be more difficult in tetraploid
due to more chromosome copies. In contrast to mammals, plant developmental
scheme is much more flexible. Plants have impressive abilities to regenerate
damaged parts by reprogramming the cell fate at wounding sites. In this project
we take advantages of wound-induced plant regeneration as a good model to
understand cell fate reprogramming by comparing regeneration rate of 4n and 2n
plants, and subsequent influence on growth. Expression levels of selected
candidate genes for tissue identities, epigenetic machineries, cell proliferation and
growth will be investigated.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
Strong interest in bench work
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE11
Title
Plasma based Sustainable Synthesis of Vertical Graphene and its Nitrogen
Functionalization
Description
In recent years, many research works on the influence of nitrogen on graphene
has emerged due to the interest in nitrogen-doped graphene (N-graphene). Ngraphene shows different properties from primeval graphene and is very suitable
for semiconductor devices, batteries, sensors and ultracapacitors. The proposed
NRP project aims to synthesize nitrogen functionalized vertical graphene (N-VG)
on nickel foam and silicon substrates using radio frequency plasma enhanced
chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) system. To make the method sustainable
and environmentally friendly we plan to use essential oil of M. Alternefolia
(commonly known as Tea Tree oil) or Pelargonium graveolens (Geranium oil) as
carbon precursor as both can be introduced into RF-PECVD vacuum system just
like gas as they evaporate easily under vacuum conditions. Two different
environmental friendly green plasma approaches will tried:
(i) direct synthesis of N-VG by simultaneous use of nitrogen containing gas/vapors
and hydrogen gas along with natural precursor as carbon source in RF-PECVD
system and
(ii) in-direct synthesis of N-VG by first synthesizing VG by using natural precursor
and hydrogen gas alone in RF-PECVD system and then exposing it to nitrogen
plasma at different RF power, discharge duration and nitrogen flow rate.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Experimental bent of mind with good hand-on skills
Other Requirements
Only motivated student with ability to work hard and able to commit to work twice
a week at NIE (Saturday can be one of the days) for most of the weeks.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE12
Title
Sponge-Associated Bacteria as Sources of Potential Bioactive Natural Products
Description
Marine invertebrates, such as sponges and corals, are sources of novel bioactive
natural products with potential for development as drugs and biochemical tools.
In most cases, microorganisms are known to be the biosynthetic source of these
invertebrate-derived compounds. The overall objectives of the project involve the
isolation and phylogenetic analysis of sponge-derived bacteria, screening of the
bacterial extracts for biological activities as well as preliminary chemical profiling
of the bioactive extracts. Samples of sponge species, Xestospongia will be collected
for the isolation of bacterial symbionts. Various marine culture media will be used
for small scale culturing of marine bacteria for DNA extraction as well as biological
testing of bacterial extracts. Phylogenetic analysis of the bacterial symbionts will
be based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and comparison for homology using the
BLAST database. In addition, the bacterial genome will be screened for the
presence of natural products biosynthetic machinery, namely the polyketide
synthase (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters. Screening of
bacterial extracts will be performed using the brine shrimp toxicity as well as
antibacterial assays. The chemical profile of extracts with significant biological
activities will be analysed using vacuum flash chromatography and 1D NMR
spectroscopy.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basic techniques in Microbiology and Molecular Biology.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE13
Title
Lattices of Scott Closed Sets
Description
The Scott topology is by far the most important topology prominently featured in
the study of non-Hausdorff spaces and denotational semantics of functional
programming languages. Every topology can be encoded as a lattice of its open
sets, and dually its lattice of closed sets. By a result of S. Papert, a distributive
complete lattice is the lattice of closed sets of some topology if and only if it is joindense. For the Scott topology, there is still no complete understanding of the
situation, i.e., which complete lattices are the lattices of Scott closed sets of a
poset? This project invites the student to study the structural properties of the
lattices of Scott closed sets, with the aim of solving the open problem of
completely characterising them.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Good reasoning skills with abstract concepts
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
NIE14
Title
Remediation of Polluted Water Using Sustainable Biomass
Description
Due to extensive anthropogenic activities, industrial and municipal discharges have
led to water pollution in which is one of the main factors leading to fresh water
depletion. Remediation of polluted water has become critical to ensure the
accessibility of clean and safe water for the world population. However, the current
available technologies for removing contaminants from water streams are generally
costly and beyond the reach of many developing countries. Hence there is continuous
effort to seek effective and low cost remediation methods. This project aims to
investigate the effectiveness of low-cost and environmental-friendly biomass-based
sorbents to remove pollutants from aqueous solutions.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Competent in General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry or Environmental Chemistry.
Other Requirements
Strong commitment and interest in the project / research work.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS01
Title
Characterization of the Organization and Connectivity of Neural Circuits Within the
Deep Cerebellum
Description
Our lab aims to identify and characterize factors that direct the assembly and
maintenance of neural circuits, and to understand how the organization of these
circuits controls specific behaviors. These general issues are examined through the
analysis of circuits in the cerebellum important for coordination, movement and
motor learning. The lab is exploring mechanisms underlying the development and
function of cerebellar circuits using genetics, imaging, and behavioral approaches.
There is growing evidence that in addition to the importance of the cerebellum in
motor and classical conditioning functions, the cerebellum contributes to cognitive
and motivational processes. Studies have shown that cerebellar networks are
critical in spatial learning and coordinate the acquisition of exploration strategies
independent of motor execution of the task. Human imaging studies demonstrate
that the observation of movements performed by others, imagination of actions,
and actual execution of motor performances involve neural circuits in the
cerebellum. Experiments in rodents demonstrate that lesions in the cerebellum
results in the inability of animals to learn a spatial task through observation and
deficits in pleasure and purposive motivation. However, these studies have relied
on cerebellectomy (removing half of the cerebellum) or lesion of a large portion of
the cerebellum (deep cerebellar nuclei) so that the precise region or specific neural
circuits involved in these behaviors have not yet been determined. Using various
anterograde and retrograde tracing strategies and optogenetics, we plan to
explore the local circuitry and connectivity of the deep cerebellar nuclei because
neurons in these nuclei project to the rostral cerebral cortex (via the thalamus)
that links the cerebellum to frontal/prefrontal motivational and cognitive
functioning. A better understanding of the organization and connectivity of the
deep cerebellum may provide insight to the etiology and treatment of neurological
disorders linked to the cerebellum such as autism.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Molecular Biology and neuroscience knowledge preferred.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS02
Title
Developing a High Throughput Screening Platform for Innate Immune Regulators
Description
The innate immune system are not only critical for cytosolic defense against
infection, they are also essential for activation of effective adaptive immune
responses. Recent studies of a collection of innate immune receptors revealed
how defects in innate immune systems leads to auto-immune diseases, which is
the emerging burden for an ageing developed economy. Key to address this issue
would be identifying new regulators to harness innate immunity.
In this NRP project, motivated attachment students will participate in developing
a novel high throughput screening assay to select chemical entities which have the
potentials to regulate innate immune responses, in the presence or in the absence
of infection. The students will be required to understand and apply basic lab
techniques, including molecular biology clonings, cell culture, fluorescent scanner
/ fluorescent plate reader, electrophoresis, etc.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basic Biochemistry
Basic Cell Biology
Math
Other Requirements
Time commitment: At least 45 hours of lab work for 6 weeks during summer
semester break.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS03
Title
Identify Novel Mechanisms of Progesterone Receptor Activation in Breast Cancer
Description
Progesterone is emerging as a primary driver of adult mammary stem cell
expansion and breast carcinogenesis. Yet, clinical trials of anti-progestin therapy
for breast cancer have showed no significant benefit. This apparent paradox
reflects complex mechanism of progesterone receptor action. In order to uncover
effective therapeutic strategies targeting PR in breast cancer, this project is set to
identify and characterize molecular signals critical for progesterone receptor
activation. The techniques used in this study will include cell culture,
immunoprecipitation and Western blotting analysis.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Cell culture, Western blotting analysis
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS04
Title
Rational Design of Human Protein HP1BP3 Inhibitors
Description
Recently it is found that human protein HP1BP3 plays a critical role in the tumor
cell proliferation [1]. Hence, limiting the interaction of it with linker DNA at its
binding sites would be a promising way to inhibit the tumor proliferation. In this
project small molecule candidates which can bind HP1BP3 strongly will be
predicted through molecular dynamics simulations and virtual screening [2].
1. Dutta, B., Ren, Y., Hao, P., Sim, K. H., Cheow, E., Adav, S., ... & Sze, S. K.
(2014). Profiling of the chromatin-associated proteome identifies HP1BP3 as
a novel regulator of cell cycle progression. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics,
13(9), 2183-2197.
2. Yaw Awuni and Yuguang Mu (2015), Molecules, 20, 5152-5164.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Biology H1/2/3
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS05
Title
Designing Non-toxic Endotoxin Binding Synthetic Peptides: Rational Development
of Anti-sepsis Drugs
Description
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), structural component of gram-negative bacterial outer
membrane, elicits a wide range of toxic effects, hence called endotoxin, in a variety
of organisms with human among the most susceptible species. The release of LPS
into systemic circulation, which occurs commonly as a consequence of major
gram-negative bacterial infections, induces host inflammatory responses releasing
tissue damaging level of cytokines and clotting-promoting tissue factors leading to
the pathophysiological consequence of septic shock. Sepsis mediated mortality has
been estimated to be 0.1-0.3 millions / year in the United States alone. To-date,
no specific therapy has been developed to overcome sepsis. Use of conventional
antibiotics, can actually be harmful because they can stimulate release of LPS.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop drug against sepsis. The structurally
conserved amphiphilic lipid moiety of LPS, termed lipid A represents the toxic
centre of endotoxin. A possible therapeutic option, therefore, is the sequestration
or removal of LPS that can be accomplished with molecules like peptides that
strongly bind lipid A or LPS, preventing its recognition by host innate immune
defense machinery. The first step towards rational design of anti-endotoxin
peptides would be a comprehensive understanding of LPS: peptide recognition at
atomic level. We have designed a novel peptide scaffold, termed b-boomerang,
showing LPS neutralization and antimicrobial activities (Journal of Biological
Chemistry, (2009), 284, 21991-22004). This structural scaffold has potential for the
development of non-toxic antiendotoxic molecules for therapeutic use. In this
project, disulfide linked lipo-peptide designed analogs will be studied for their
interactions with LPS by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and
other optical methods (CD and Fluorescence). The activity of the peptides will be
evaluation by antimicrobial assays, LAL assays and lysis of red blood cell.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Basic Biochemistry
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SBS06
Title
The Effect of Dietary Lipids on Oxidative Stress in C. elegans
Description
Aging is a biological process that is accelerated by the damaging action of free
radicals and other reactive species, denoted as reactive oxygen species (ROS). As
production of ROS is linked to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases,
neutralizing ROS excess may prevent neurodegeneration in aging population.
Neuronal membranes are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) which is a
major source of ROS through lipid peroxidation. The student will explore the role
of different sources of dietary lipids to protect the nematode C. elegans challenged
to oxidative stress. Dietary lipids such as Crisco, palmitate, oleate,
docosahexaenoic acid, trans fats, lard will be added to the worm normal diet. To
enhance the protective effect toward ROS, antioxidant will be added to selected
dietary lipids. Oxidative stress will be monitored by fluorescence microscopy using
transgenic worm Pgst-4::GST-NLS. Quantitative data will be compared between
the different dietary conditions. This should lead to recommend a type of diet that
might slow down or prevent the development of neurodegenerative diseases.
College / School
School of Biological Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
The candidate must be highly motivated to carry out this project. He / She should
be meticulous in his / her work and pay great attention to details. The student
must be keen to learn advanced concepts in genetic and cell biology.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SPMS03
Title
DNA Origami Assembled by DNA dendrimers for Drug Delivery
Description
DNA origami is a family of nanostructures folded by deoxynucleotide oligomers.
With define 3D structure, uniform size, low cytotoxicity, long circulation time and
high biocompatibility, DNA origami are more superior than traditional
nanoplatform composed of inorganic metals and/or organic polymers. this project
aims at building up DNA origami with define cubic and polyhedron strucutre by
using synthetic DNA dendrimers. The application of using these origami as drug
carrier for aptamer-based specific targeting of cancer cells will be further explored.
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Student applying for this project should have some background in Chemistry and
Biological Chemistry.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SPMS04
Title
Leidenfrost Effect on Ripples
Description
The Leidenfrost effect describes the levitation of a droplet above a sufficiently hot
surface. The classical example is the seemingly frictionless motion of water
droplets in hot pots and pans. There the droplet is hovering on a thin layer of
vapor, very similar to a hovercraft vehicle. The vapor has a low heat conductivity
and therefore isolates the hot surface from the drop although the surface is at a
temperature much higher than boiling temperature. Ripples on a liquid surface
can be generated by oscillating a container vertically which is covered with a thin
layer of liquid. Then standing waves develop forming interesting regular and
chaotic patterns. These waves are named after Faraday, who was the first to study
these surface waves (Wiki article on Faraday waves). The pattern, wavelength and
oscillation frequency is a function of the container shape, driving frequency, and
oscillation amplitude. I suggest an experiment where you study the Leidenfrost
effect on a rippled liquid surface and try if you can control the motion of the
droplet by varying amplitude or frequency of the oscillation frequency. The liquid
creating the ripples will be an oil heated above the Leidenfrost temperature, while
the droplet may conveniently be water.
Some Details: You will design and construct the setup and conduct the
experiments. A hands-on personality is looked for who is willing to learn and
explore in a university lab environment. You must have an interest in research and
DIY, not afraid of electronics or learning new things, and be very curious.
Postgraduate students of my group will guide you. Please contact me via email if
you have questions.
More information is available here:
Leidenfrost effect on a ratchet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS0c05WQ_js
Faraday waves on a thin layer of water https://vimeo.com/81774771
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Interest in experiments, hands-on character, self-driven / motivated. Can be single
student or a pair.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SPMS05
Title
Plasmonic liquid marbles as ultrasensitive food toxin sensors
Description
In this project, we will explore the use of nanoparticle-based liquid marble for
ultrasensitive detection of food toxins. Liquid marble is a robust microstructure
encapsulated with a very small volume (3 µL) analyte molecule. We will use liquid
marble as a miniature and substrate-less surface-enhanced Raman scattering
(SERS) platform for multiplex, quantitative and ultratrace molecular detection
across aqueous and organic phases. Through this project, student will learn the
following topics: synthesis of metallic nanoparticles in the size range of ~100 nm,
tuning the surface functional groups of the metallic nanoparticles, assembly of
metallic nanoparticles into liquid marbles, using Raman spectroscopy for the
detection of food toxins.
Students involving in this project will be able to experience a cross-disciplinary
research fields, including nanotechnology, chemistry, materials science, analytical
chemistry.
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SPMS06
Title
3D printing and Physics of Music
Description
This is a project for students who are interested in learning about sound
production and acoustics of musical instruments. The supervisor will work with the
student(s) to design a project of interest related to their musical instrument(s). In
some cases, it will involve 3D printing. Past projects included 3D printing
instrument parts to enhance or alter the sound of the instruments.
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Strong foundation in Maths and Physics.
Mastery in at least one musical instrument.
Other Requirements
Also available to work on project in Jun, Nov and Dec 2016.
Intention to continue to pursue Science or Engineering degree.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
SCIENCES
SPMS07
Title
A Proof the Johnson-Lindenstauss Lemma
Description
Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma states that a small set of points in a highdimensional space can be embedded into a space of lower dimension in such a
way that distances between the points are almost preserved. The map used for
the embedding can be made Lipschitz. This lemma in pure mathematics turned out
to be very useful in theoretical computer science. In this project, we will study a
simplified proof of the lemma. The students are also encouraged to find a further
simplified proof.
College / School
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Vector spaces: projection, inner product, distance
Probability: Gaussian distribution, expectation, joint distribution
Calculus: Integration
Counting Principles: Permutation and Combination
Other Requirements
Independent and motivated. Able to think abstractly.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
ADM01
Title
Small Shrines to Small Gods in Singapore
Description
This research project documents and interprets small shrines to diverse deities that
are hidden in the urban and jungle environments of Singapore. Found along
roadsides, along railway tracks, in bus stands, at car parks, in construction sites, at
factories, at hawker stands, and at shopping malls, these shrines reveal alternative
narratives about the sacred in contrast to those found in the larger more established
temples in Singapore that are often highlighted in heritage and scholarly book
projects. Although at times makeshift in their aesthetics or locations, these small
shrines have become permanent features of the Singapore built and sacred
landscapes with strong oral histories attached to them.
College / School
School of Art, Design & Media
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Student's Workload & Responsibilities:
Student can choose to work on a type of shrine or on a group of shrines to a particular
deity. Student could even focus on one shrine such as the bus stand shrine in the
Jurong Bus Interchange, or the Tree shrine in Jurong West, or the two shrines on the
NTU campus, or a shrine in their neighbourhood. Student will document the shrine
and any associated religious festivals or rituals. Student will need to know a local
language to conduct oral history interviews. Alongside this primary research, student
will engage in secondary research, using the NTU library system. Student will also
journal their research experiences. Student will write a 10-page research paper in
consultation with supervisor.
Other Requirements
Student needs to know one of the local languages: Malay, Tamil, or a Chinese dialect.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
ADM02
Title
Education and Cinematography
Description
The ongoing conversation within IMAGO, the European federation of
Cinematographers. http://www.imago.org/index.php/education.html. The research
will be conducted by writing reports of conferences and posting articles on the blog
of the educational committee regarding the following topic (can be expanded):
“With 16 mm film vanishing many of us see an important momentum of
professionalization of films students fade away. The first contact with a professional
film camera and its demand for a proper learning of the basics of cinematography,
such as camera position and perspective, framing, camera movement, exposure
control, color reproduction. With the turn to digital cameras and mostly prosumer or
consumer technology and menu fuzziness, a bunch of digital options and poor
ergonomics often spoil this elementary learning process. There have been many
conferences and papers about this topic by CILECT member schools, here to mention
the international conference “Cinematography in Progress” November 27th to 29th
2014 in Brussels, the Conference of GEECT at La Femis February 25th/26th 2013, the
survey “Slow fade to black? The Future of Celluloid Acquisition in Film Schools” by
Nicholas Oughton, Griffith Film School, Sydney 2013, and the international
symposium “How to teach cinematography, nowadays?” at the HFF Munich in April
2012, chairman Jean-Paul Jarry, 3iS, France hosted in Munich at HFF. Now listening to
advices from cinematographers and film teachers, ARRI offers to develop a digital
camera solution especially targeting film schools and universities (only). ARRI calls it
EDC-16; «Educational Digital Camera 16 mm»."
https://educationimago.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/arri-edc-educational-digitalcamera-16-mm/
College / School
School of Art, Design & Media
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Writing skills
Good command of English
Other Requirements
Interest in fiction film
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
CEE02
Title
The Impact of Low Oil Price on the Maritime Industry
Description
The recent dramatic decline in crude oil prices has impacted many industries and
economies. Looking at this from the Maritime Studies Programme of NTU, what is
relevant is its impact on the maritime industry which includes shipping companies (in
the different markets like container, tanker, dry bulk and offshore), shipyards (ship
builders and repairers), and suppliers of fuel to ships. Singapore as a major maritime
centre is also affected. This project aims to establish the impact of falling oil prices on
the key sectors of the maritime industry, and to see how industry is responding.
College / School
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Preferably some knowledge of Economics and Business. Students should have an
interest in the subject, and the communications skills to interact with and interview
people in industry. Having an outgoing personality would also be useful.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS01
Title
Singapore and the Global Competition for Talent
Description
Singapore is certainly not alone in its efforts to attract the "best-and-brightest"from
abroad. We know that many countries have developed a variety of policies to attract
and retain global talents who can bring multiple benefits to the host country (cf.
Lowell 2005; Cerna 2014). Highly-skilled and highly-educated individuals are very
mobile in a globalised world where professional opportunities are not geographically
bound (Cerna and Chou 2014). They are attracted to destinations by economic, social
and cultural factors, especially higher salaries, but also professional and social
networks, language abilities, cultural affinities and immigration policies (McHale and
Rogers 2008). The underlying assumption and belief among most governments
engaged in the "war on talent" (Ng 2010) is that, if the "right" package can be designed
and offered, the "right" talents would come. In this project, we investigate the
motivations prompting foreign academics to come and research in Singaporean
universities, and the factors that convince them to stay or maintain close connections
with Singapore once they leave. Put differently, we seek to open the "black-box" of
recruitment packages and identify the factors they consider most and least attractive.
Guiding the research in this project are the questions: Which factors (e.g. social,
economic, academic networks, industry collaboration) are crucial for attracting
international talents to Singapore? And which factors are essential for them to
maintain a link with local knowledge producers and users? We know that Singapore
has made great efforts to attract the best-and-brightest from abroad by liberalising
its migration policy, offering attractive salaries and benefit packages, as well as
providing profes- sional opportunities in a diverse and welcoming multilingual society.
But which factor is most relevant in a foreign scientist's decision to come and work
actively in Singapore? Is this factor consistent across nationality groups, age groups
and gender? To identify this, we will investigate the motivations for international
academics to relo- cate to Singapore and to stay beyond the length of a few years (i.e.
three to five years, which is the average length of expatriate stay in the city-state).
Most importantly, for those academics who have left or with plans to leave, we will
identify the factor(s) that would motivate them to retain the collaborative networks
they have developed with Singaporean colleagues.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Students who are interested in and have a working knowledge of policy developments
in Singapore. Students who are keen to learn the basics of academic research
(literature review and administering surveys).
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS02
Title
Attracting Young Talents to Singapore
Description
Singapore is engaged in the global competition for the best and brightest minds. This
project is interested in exploring the mobility trajectory of junior scholars, the PhD
and Postdoctoral fellows who came to Singapore to embark on the first stages of their
research and academic career. Similar to the project Singapore and the global
competition for talent, the following research questions will guide this project: Which
factors (e.g. social, economic, academic networks, industry collaboration) are crucial
for attracting international young talents to Singapore? And which factors are
essential for them to maintain a link with local knowledge producers and users? We
know that Singapore has made great efforts to attract the best-and-brightest from
abroad by liberalising its migration policy, offering attractive salaries and benefit
packages, as well as providing professional opportunities in a diverse and welcoming
multilingual society. But which factor is most relevant in a junior foreign scientist's
decision to come and work actively in Singapore? Is this factor consistent across
nationality groups, age groups, and gender? To identify this, we will investigate the
motivations for young international scholars and scientists to re-locate to Singapore.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
NIL
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS03
Title
Education for Sustainability and Education of Sustainable Development
Description
This project aims to examine how junior college and high school students perceive
sustainability and sustainable development, to identify how they have gotten such
perception, to compare their perception and understanding to UN’s definition
of Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Education of Sustainable Developoment (ESD)
and to distinguish the universial aspects of sustainability or sustainable development
from the contextual or local aspect of sustainability. It employs surveys, interviews
and literature reviews as the research methodology.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Data analytical skill
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS04
Title
A Sociolinguistic Investigation of French, German, Italian and Spanish in Singapore
Shop Signs
Description
This study is a first step in investigating the recurrent forms and patterns of French,
German, Italian and Spanish as used in commercial shop signs across different
business sectors in Singapore. It seeks to uncover the users’ motivations behind the
use of French, German, Italian and Spanish here via surveys. Apart from the four
official languages and their various spoken dialects, Singapore is host to a variety of
other minority languages (Gordon 2005). French, German, Italian and Spanish are
another case in point. Apart from its economic value, the popularity of French,
German, Italian and Spanish seems to be due to its positive associations with high
culture, haute couture and elegant life-style. These associations appear to be
increasingly exploited in commercial signs across the island.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Interest in European languages
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS05
Title
Bilingual Development in Infancy
Description
Children develop sophisticated language skills very fast within the first years of their
life. These skills are the foundation of all they will learn later in their life. How do they
do it? Join us at the LEAP Lab to get some insight into the fun world of
psycholinguistics research. We assess infants and toddlers' ability to learn from
sequences of sounds and shapes. In this set up, the baby will be seated comfortably
on his/her parent's lap and presented with a short puppet show in a novel language
that contains either grammatical (e.g. ba gu ra) or ungrammatical sentences (e.g., gu
ba ra). By monitoring whether the baby looks at the images or is temporarily
disinterested, we can infer what types of sound sequences are associated with the
images they prefer and this preference is used as an indirect measure of language
learning. We also invite parents to narrate a short story from to their child (aged 6-36
months) from a wordless picture book. We transcribe the audio recording of the
session to assess whether the quality of spoken language heard by a child is mediated
by parental socio-economic status and degree of bilingualism in the household. The
participating NRP student(s) will be involved in the coordination of recruitment of
infant populations, data collection, data entry and analysis. This project will appeal to
students who are eager to engage in real behavioral research and have an interest in
both linguistics and psychology.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Interest in experimental research with infant populations; ability to work in a team as
well as independently.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS06
Title
Assessing Social Attributes of Faces
Description
We tend to make inference about a person's trait or attributes based on the images
of faces. For example, we judge trustworthiness, attractiveness, dominance or
threats, base on the face images, though the accuracy of such judgment is under
debate. It has been shown that our judgment of trustworthiness can be built within
the first 100ms after seeing the face. There have been extensive studies evaluating
such social dimensions of the faces. However, there are still quite a few questions
remained to be answered. In particular, what are the most important factors in
assessing facial attractiveness? How does the previous exposure to attractive or
unattractive faces affect our judgment of subsequently presented faces? Does happy
face appear more attractive than neutral or sad face? We will investigate these
questions in the project. To answer the first question we will use the bubbles
technique - apply small masks on faces to reveal partial face. To answer the second
and third questions we will use visual adaptation technique, known as the
psychophysicist's microelectrode, to see the short-term plasticity of our facial
attribute judgment
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Good at Math, and willing to learn Photoshop and MATLAB.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS07
Title
How the Brain Links Language Sounds With Senses: A Psycholinguistics Project
Description
There is a growing consensus that certain sounds 'go better' with certain shapes across
the languages of the world. To use a classic example, imagine two shapes you have never
seen before (one curvy, one spiky), and two words you have never heard before ('takete',
and 'maluma'). When asked, the majority of people agree that maluma is a better match
for the curvy shape, and takete, for the spiky one, even though the chances of making this
selection are 50:50. Why is this the case?
One theory is that cross-wired connections between different brain areas are responsible
for the effect. For example, connections between visual cortex (which processes sight) and
the auditory cortex (which processes hearing) may provide signals about whether a
particular kind of image is 'in tune with' a particular kind of sound. Although this theory
provides a possible mechanism for the effect, what we don't yet know is *why* certain
kinds of shapes are better matches for certain kinds of sounds: Why is it that the /i/ sound
in "feet" is pointy, and not the /u/ sound in "shoe"? Is it that the visual shape of our lips
(round lips for "o") influences the kinds of shape we expect to match the sound? Or is it a
more abstract property of the sound wave (a combination of frequency formants)?
Furthermore, at this stage it is difficult to tell when these 'matches' between vision and
audition develop: are we born with them? Or do we learn them as we acquire language?
To help us understand these cross-modal perceptions, this project will involve creating
norms for the kinds of object properties which 'go with' different kinds of sounds in the
languages of Singapore. Student investigators will conduct experiments investigating
Singaporean's preferences for different sound-shape correspondences and / or conduct
simple cognitive games, which will provide evidence about the patterns of linguistic sound
symbolism in the languages of Singapore. Students will be expected to survey around 100
participants, or run cognitive tests on 40 participants. After beginning the project, student
investigators will be able to work with a set of surveys, preference tests or cognitive tasks
designed by the project supervisor. The language background of the participants will be
monitored and / or controlled depending on the particular part of the project which is
selected. The project has some flexibility, depending on the language
background/interests of the student investigators. Example adaptations: What shapes or
textures go with tones for different dialects of Chinese? What shapes or textures go with
the special 'retroflex' sounds of Tamil/Hindi (e.g., the 'dh' sound)? How do language
sounds 'go with' human motions, or mouth gestures? How well do friends versus strangers
use meaningless sounds to 'communicate' when they can't use words? This project would
suit students with an interest in language and / or linguistics, and students with an interest
in scientific investigation of the way the mind works. The project will involve collection of
language data, and analysis of the results, to be written up in the style of a scientific journal
article. Students can make suggestions and adapt the details of this project via discussion
with the Supervisor, taking into account students’ particular interests and
expertise (for example, mother-tongue or community heritage languages).
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific
Knowledge
No prior knowledge of Linguistics or Psychology is required - A short training course will
be provided.
Other
Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS08
Title
Cultural Diversity and Knowledge Production
Description
Although the importance of culture for innovation has been well-recognized in other
disciplines such as marketing, management, sociology and psychology, it has received
relatively little attention in economics. In principle, individual’s beliefs, values,
and norms of behaviour can stimulate or retard the innovation of new ideas.
Understanding the sources of cultural formation is important since cultures are
accumulated experiences which shape perceptions that may affect decision making
in favour of tradition or innovation due to the presence of a high level of mistrust.
Countries endowed with a high level of cultural diversity may experience difficulties
in diffusing ideas. Consequently, a lower ability in adapting and imitating new
inventions will reduce innovative production, thus significantly hampering
technological deepening. This hypothesis has so far not been tested in the literature.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basic knowledge in Economics, some statistical analysis skills such as OLS regressions,
and a passion for understanding why economic performance differs widely across
countries.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
0
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
HSS09
Title
Sources of Growth and the Long-term Effects of Cultural Diffusion Barriers
Description
This project aims to address the issue that cultural diffusion barriers can have
ambiguous effects on income. Spolaore and Wacziarg (2009) provide empirical
evidence showing that countries that experience higher cultural diffusion barriers
tend to have lower levels of income. However, the effect of these barriers on
economic development may not necessarily be unambiguous and homogenous across
countries. Countries which enjoy a low level of cultural diffusion barriers can, in
principle, achieve a higher level of factor accumulation due to higher cultural
assimilation. Human capital, for instance, can be more consistently passed on from
one generation to another due to lower discrepancies in parental traits. They,
however, are likely to suffer from a lower ability in developing new ideas, which slows
technological progress and delays their economic take-offs. The net effect of cultural
diffusion barriers on economic growth will therefore depend on the relative strength
of these two forces.
College / School
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
Basic knowledge in Economics, some statistical analysis skills such as OLS regressions,
and a passion for understanding why economic performance differs widely across
countries.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE02
Title
Exploring the Role that Game-Based Worlds and Immersive Environments
Potentially Play in Learning
Description
Since 2009, lesson units have been carried out in a number of schools with the aim
of developing an understanding about how game-based worlds and immersive
environments can be leveraged for learning; these lesson units have been used in
a variety of subjects, such as Geography, Literature, and Design & Technology. If
you are interested in thinking about such worlds and environments, and / or about
maker culture, with a view to designing more authentic learning experiences, we
welcome your participation in this project, which is likely to be sufficiently flexible
to support your own particular areas of interest. You will be working as part of a
team of designers and software developers as we help build teacher-capacity in
curriculum and pedagogy.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
A healthy interest in collaborative learning. Interest in maker culture, game-design
and learning through games is a plus.
Other Requirements
Participation in this project will likely involve site visits to schools around
Singapore.
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE03
Title
Classrooms for Testing, Tuition Centres for Learning?
Description
Is it really possible for Singaporean teachers to provide quality in-depth learning in
the classrooms, while at the same time, manage examination expectations? Is it true
that students are only able to learn at their own pace in tuition centres? So deeper
learning can only happen outside schools? The challenge for Singaporean students
and teachers to attend to the requirements of high-stake examinations is very real.
But does that mean that our students can only ‘learn properly’ outside Singaporean
school/classrooms (at tuition centres or to perhaps even venture overseas as many
percieve schools here are teaching and teaching too much too fast?). This research
proposal invites student researchers to examine and compare the nature of student
learning that takes place in classroom and tuition settings (or any non-mainstream
Singaporean schools). The findings may suggest how is it possible (requiring particular
‘new generational’ values, wisdom, courage and perhaps even neurological
processing) for Singaporean teachers to provide a more ‘holistic diet’ of formative and
summative-oriented assessment practices within a high-stakes testing classroom
environment. A deeper question will be whether the current high-stake examinations
are causing more harm than good for our students in terms of their life-long learning
aspirations.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
No specific knowledge / skills required.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE06
Title
Effect of In-Games Advertisement on Attitude and Purchase Intention
Description
The aim of this research is to examine whether there is a change in attitude and
purchase intention when respondents are exposed to brands appearing in sports
video games. Respondents will be tasked to play a console racing game. After the
game, respondents will complete a survey to examine whether there is any difference
in attitude and purchase intention towards brands that appear in the game.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
1) Have an interest in sports sponsorship and racing console games (PS platform)
2) Able to recruit up to 30 respondents to play console games
3) Able to conduct statistical tests i.e. t-tests
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE07
Title
Technology Acceptance Model
Description
This project looks into the integration of Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) in education. While ICT is ubiquitous in our personal and professional lives, its
integration in education has been subjected to heavy debate due to the praise about
the benefits it offers students but also the concerns regarding the digital divide, lack of
evidence-based practices, and privacy, among others. The integration of ICT in
education is subjected to multiple factors, with one of the most significant factors being
teachers' attitudes towards adopting of new technologies for teaching and learning.
The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is chosen to examine the adoption of new
technologies in education. The TAM constitutes of four key constructs which is used
to explain how a user's beliefs and attitudes will affect their technology usage (Phan &
Daim, 2011). While the TAM is receiving more attention as a model for understanding
technology usage in education, the focus is more towards general teaching. There is a
gap in understanding for the different content areas in education, such as
mathematics, sciences, humanities, and so on. There is a need to explore this gap
because there is variability in content areas both philosophically (i.e. epistemology, the
scope of knowledge) and pedagogically (i.e. way of teaching). Research has also
reported that teachers of science, business education and elementary school use
technology most frequently in their classrooms, while mathematics teachers, social
science teachers, and English language teachers are least affable to using ICT
(Hennessy, et al., 2005; Jimoyiannis & Komis, 2007; Kahveci, et al., 2011; Korte &
Husing, 2007). Part of the reason for this disparity seems to be differences in national
curriculum policy and the emphasis that is placed on ICT integration into different
content areas (IEA, 2006; Carstens & Pelgrum, 2009; Jimoyiannis & Komis, 2007).
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
Candidates should
- Search for relevant journal articles and draft out literature reviews
- Assist with additional duties relating to the literature review
- Possess a good command of English
- Possess critical thinking skills
Other Requirements
Personal attributes:
- self-driven
- a team player
- have good time and project management
- interpersonal skills
- friendly and like to smile
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE08
Title
App Interventions in Class
Description
This project looks into the development of a mobile app for classroom usage. The
project employs a single-case design in which we will access the effectiveness of
the introduction of the mobile app as a method of pedagogical delivery over
traditional methods. The particular case we will look into is developing a mobile
app for a particular school with a smaller sample size.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Pair
Specific Knowledge
Candidates should possess empirical research skills, such as conducting literature
reviews, collecting and analyzing data, preparing materials for submission to
grants.
Other Requirements
Personal attributes:
- self-driven
- objective
- organized
- flexible with schedules
- team player
- friendly and love to smile
BACK TO TA
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE10
Title
Virtual Performativity: Performing Identity in Video Games
Description
The project will be an intersection between performance theory (concepts of
performativity as articulated by J.L. Austin and Judith Butler) and digital gaming.
Performativity, adopted in this project, adheres more closely to concepts articulated
by Judith Butler in which identity are acts / actions rehearsed, repeated and reified,
performed in the mode of belief. These performative acts / actions shape and become
shaped by hegemonic social conventions and ideologies seen through the "reiterative
power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains. The
aim of this research project is to consider how virtual identities are constructed by
such hegemonic social conventions: are virtual identities, seen in the embodiment of
avatars and digital icons, considered as alter(ed) / alternative resistance to such
hegemonic social constructions or do they reify and reinforce real-life
performativites? Considering how immersive virtual environments are commonplace
and characteristic of many video games available in the market today, the project
should explore specific virtual environments particularly in immersive 3D games
where the levels of verisimilitude dissipate the boundary between the virtual and the
real; these boundaries are continually challenged and broken down as visual and
virtual technology improve radically. In such borders of the 'digital' and 'corporeal',
creating and designing an avatar, and not merely selecting from a prescribed list, have
also become commonplace in many award-winning games such as Bioware's Mass
Effect trilogy or Dragon Age series and the ever popular SIMS. As such, the rapidly
changing 'identity-scape' of contemporary video games, with autonomy granted to
the gamer to shape and create an avatar, yields interesting questions about how this
player projects a 'Self' in virtual environments. Do gamers create 'alter-egos' of
themselves or do they seek to present an 'authentic' self in an other 'reality'? What is
this 'digital double' that is created and how is the gamer connected emotionally,
psychhologically and telematically to the avatar? How are gender, racial, ethnic and
cultural identities performed in such virtual spaces? Does virtual reality allow for a
reconsideration and renegotiation of social relations, ethics and politics (as evident in
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). In short, the project encourages
research in how identity is construed, created, negotiated and performed in virtual
3D computer game environments. While this question is recognisably broad, the
research project need not engage in macro terms and could focus on one specific area
of virtual performativity. The project can be approached in a variety of ways but it is
preferable that philosophical, sociological and qualititative approaches be employed.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual
Specific Knowledge
The student must possess a strong capacity for writing and expression and have the
necessary reading and comprehension skills for engaging aspects of cultural and
performance theory.
Knowledge and keen interest in the field of digital gaming (video, computer, console)
and network gaming would certainly be a necessary prerequisite.
He / She must also have access to immersive video games (1st or 3rd person RolePlaying Games, shooters, etc.) in addition to extensive experience in inhabiting such
digital, virtual spaces.
Belonging to a dedicated community of gamers, real or virtual, would be an added
bonus since that would facilitate the ease of qualitative data collection.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
BUSINESS, HUMANITIES, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
NIE15
Title
Improving Graded Readers Using Linguistics
Description
This project will introduce students to corpus linguistics and research with the
potential to increase the rapidity of language acquisition in school children. Students
in this project will be part of an interrelated research group, where they individually,
or in coordination with others, collect material from different school year levels, such
as books, worksheets, and grammar / vocabulary activities. Students will then conduct
a project based on their data that uses linguistic science to explore the vocabulary
and grammar that studenta re exposed to at the different years levels. We will
discover how this information might be used to improve graded reading material used
in schools.
College / School
National Institute of Education
Target Group
Secondary 4 / Year 4 / Year 5 / JC1
Group Size
Individual / Pair
Specific Knowledge
An interest in the English Language.
A working knowledge of grammar.
An interest in curriculum and reading.
Other Requirements
NIL
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS