NTU scientists head out on month-long sea expedition to assess tsunami risk

NTU scientists head out on month-long sea expedition to assess tsunami risk

A team of scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will on Saturday embark on a month-long sea expedition that will help them assess tsunami risk and impact in a region off Indonesia.

The region west of Sumatra is considered by earth scientists to be a high-risk zone known to have produced tsunami-spawning earthquakes, including the one in December 2004 that claimed more than 230,000 lives in 14 countries.

About 10 scientists, including those from NTU's Earth Observatory of Singapore - one of the university's research institutes that studies geological phenomenon such as earthquakes - will be part of this expedition.

The research project is done in partnership with the Schmidt Ocean Institute on board its 83m-long research vessel Falkor, and is jointly led by NTU, Franceâs Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. The American non-profit Schmidt Ocean Institute focuses on oceanographic research.

~News courtesy of Straits Times~

NTU, NUS discourage selfies on stage as it prolongs convocation

NTU, NUS discourage selfies on stage as it prolongs convocation



NTU graduate Terence Heng (left) took a wefie with the presiding officer at his convocation ceremony last August.

WHEN Nanyang Technological University (NTU) communication studies graduate Terence Heng, 26, went on stage last August to collect his degree scroll, there was something else he wanted - a wefie with the presiding officer.

He pulled out his iPhone, fumbled with its buttons - almost dropping the device at one point - and snapped the shot.

"I didn't want the standard photograph," said Mr Heng, a social media executive, though he admitted that it had been embarrassing with so many people looking on and waiting for him.

This year, NTU and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are discouraging students from taking selfies and wefies on stage, a practice which started only in the last couple of years.

With more than 18,800 students graduating from both universities and 41 ceremonies between July and early August, such antics would not only be inappropriate but cause the ceremonies to drag on, the universities said.

NUS, which put up an online advisory this year on appropriate etiquette when collecting a degree, reminded students to "accord due respect to the presiding officer" by limiting contact to a handshake.

Several university students last year had surprised audiences with wefies on stage. Some like Ms Anisah Ahmad even snapped a selfie with presiding officers, such as President Tony Tan Keng Yam, in the background.

"I thought it would be quite cool to have a photo with the President," said the civil servant, 27, who graduated with a master's degree in public policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS last July. "Students have worked hard to get on that stage so, naturally, they would want to capture that moment."

On its website, NUS also said that with the large number of graduates at each ceremony, time could not be spared for such delays. Already, a typical graduation event for about 400 students could last two hours. Adding just 10 seconds more a student would stretch it to over three hours.

An NUS spokesman said the instructions are to ensure each ceremony will "run smoothly and in a timely manner, and be a positive and memorable experience".

At NTU, ushers will remind students before they collect their scrolls not to disrupt each session by taking pictures on stage.

Professor Kam Chan Hin, NTU's senior associate provost of undergraduate education, said some students may get a little carried away.

"While it is a celebration, decorum befitting this formal occasion should be exercised," he said.

"They should be considerate."

A spokesman for the Singapore Management University, which has 2,200 students graduating this year, said they get free photos taken by professional photographers.

"Any other camera with flash might spoil the professional photo, so the emcee will make an appropriate announcement at the start of the ceremony," she said.

Graduating students told The Straits Times that they recognise it is a formal occasion.

Though they understand why their peers would want to celebrate the end of their educational journey with a selfie or wefie, they should not delay the ceremony for everyone else, some said.

Said final-year NUS business student Lenard Lou, 25: "I think there are other ways to celebrate besides taking selfies on stage. But I believe there will be a few black sheep who would go ahead and do it anyway."

~News courtesy of Straits Times~

国大南大禁毕业生 上台领文凭时自拍

国大南大禁毕业生　上台领文凭时自拍



毕业生王裕权说，他去年毕业典礼上拿出手机，和当时颁发证书的导师自拍。（受访人提供）

今年的国大和南大毕业典礼，毕业生上台领文凭，禁止自拍，以免误时。

《海峡时报》报道，南洋理工大学和新加坡国立大学最近通知学生，表示今年毕业典礼禁止毕业生在台上自拍（Selfies)。

两所大学都表示，从接下来的7月至8月初，会举办共41场毕业典礼，将有1万8800名学生毕业，自拍行为不但不适合，而且会拉长典礼时间。

《联合晚报》

NTU eyes global campuses to help students thrive

NTU eyes global campuses to help students thrive

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) - recently named the fastest-rising young university in the world - is looking to set up satellite campuses in international research hubs to build a global mindset in its students.

Plans are under way to launch its first base in London by the end of this year to boost its research and teaching collaborations with British universities.

Other cities being considered over the next two to three years include San Francisco, Chicago, Stockholm and Shanghai.

NTU has already partnered Imperial College London in its joint medical school and its premier Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP).

Its other British partners include Cambridge in semiconductor and energy research, and Southampton University in photonics.

NTU's American partners include Northwestern University in Chicago and University of California, Berkeley in San Francisco, and its European partners include Linkoping University and Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

NTU president Bertil Andersson said these hubs will provide students with more opportunities for overseas experience, such as to study, do research, go on internships and take on community projects.

It will also facilitate collaborative projects by NTU professors, PhD students and researchers with their overseas counterparts.

Last year, 5,500 NTU undergraduates gained experience overseas. They included REP students who spent their third year at either Imperial or UC Berkeley, journalism students on overseas practicum and students working on humanitarian projects.

Professor Andersson said: "In a global marketplace, it's not good enough to prepare our students for jobs in Singapore.

"Increasingly, companies are looking for graduates whom they can send out of Singapore into the region or further away in uncharted territories to grow their businesses."

NTU provost Freddy Boey said to thrive in such an environment, graduates would need the "global mindset" - such as the flexibility and openness to other cultures, the ability to navigate cross-cultural issues and understanding of the nuances of operating in a different environment.

Citing the NTU-Northwestern Research Institute for Nanomedicine as an example, he said the two universities are bringing together their respective strengths in 3D printing and nanomolecular research to come up with a molecular 3D printer, to produce designer molecules and microscopic materials for use in healthcare.

Ng Ang Hui, 22, a final-year chemical engineering student, spent nine months at UC Berkeley before an internship at pharmaceutical company Baxter in the United States. Her higher-ups there were so impressed with her work that they recommended her for a second internship, this time with Baxter Singapore.

Ms Ng said: "I got to experience first-hand the workings of a global pharmaceutical company, but more importantly, how to thrive in a different and culturally diverse environment.

"These are things that one cannot learn in the classroom, only by being thrown into an unfamiliar foreign environment."

The London-based Times Higher Education magazine declared last month that NTU is the world's fastest-rising university under 50 years old, rising more than 108 places in its ranking in four years.

~News courtesy of My Paper~