Learning Festival - Programme

Day 1 Programme - Tue, 11 Aug 2020

Smaller and Easier: Machine Learning on Embedded Things

0900hrs to 0950hrs (GMT+8)

Machine learning, meet things. Embedded machine learning is the blend of Machine Learning with Internet of Things and Edge Computing. This talk will cover recent topics in the Embedded Machine Learning field that have made it easier for anyone to deploy ML on small devices. We'll look at: TinyML, Edge Impulse, and Eloquent Arduino.

Speaker(s): Lisa Ong
Format: Talk + Demo

Live, Work, Play with Intelligent Robots

1000hrs to 1050hrs (GMT+8)

Intelligent robots will be part of our daily lives, as many businesses and nations are gearing towards automation to generate revenue, save lives and enhance their competitive edge. Their application range is almost unlimited, be it to improve factory production and logistical operations; to reduce/eliminate the amount of human involvement in transportation, to help housewives in their domestic work, to enhance security measures, to aid surgeons in the operation room, to increase entertainment options such as Robot Wrestling and Soccer, to aid in hotel room services and more. This session will give a summary of current interesting applications, futuristic applications that has not been widely adopted yet and relevant state-of-the-art technologies, ending off with a short demonstration on autonomous robots (particularly the TurtleBot3).

Speaker(s): Dr. Nicholas Ho
Format: Talk + Demo

From Human Intelligence to Machine Intelligence

1100hrs to 1150hrs (GMT+8)

This in an introductory talk to get ready for the AI era, and will talk about human intelligence, the model view of intelligence and machine/artificial intelligence. There will be some coverage of AI roots and subfields.

Speaker(s): Sam (Gu Zhan)
Format: Talk

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Stay Safe and Healthy with Computer Vision

1200hrs to 1250hrs (GMT+8)

Computer vision is a prominent subset of artificial intelligence that can analyse and make sense of image and video data. Dr Tian Jing, Senior Lecturer & Consultant, Artificial Intelligence Practice will expand on recent advanced computer vision developments and key use cases in the new normal, such as social distancing in surveillance, hand hygiene monitoring in healthcare and more. This talk will also demonstrate examples of practice module projects of Intelligent Sensing Systems Graduate Certificate, offered by NUS-ISS in the past semesters.

Speaker(s): Dr. Tian Jing
Format: Talk

Career Development Programmes for Future Artificial Intelligence Engineers (For Individuals)

1300hrs to 1350hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for the Artificial Intelligence Engineers of tomorrow, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape, an overview of all NUS-ISS career development scheme and pathways.
We will also deep dive into the specific programme modules in detail. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Sam (Gu Zhan)
Format: Talk

Talent Acquisition and Development in the New Normal

1400hrs to 1450hrs (GMT+8)

Digital transformation has disrupted various industries, job roles and skills. The entire workforce will need to undergo upskilling and reskilling to stay relevant and meet the changing needs of the businesses. COVID-19 has accelerated this change. In this session, we will share our Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP) and other job placement initiatives that can help your company in talent development and acquisition to support Digital Transformation. You will also learn from industry leaders who will share their experiences in navigating jobs and skills transition with upskilling their workforce for the future of work.

Speaker(s): Sharon Lau
Guest Speaker(s):
Dr Jaclyn Lee , CHRO of Singapore University of Technology & Design
Mr Mayank Parekh, CEO, Institute for Human Resource Professionals
Mr Lim Teck Yong, Head of Operations, HR at Shopee

Format: Talk + Panel

5G and IoT Security

1500hrs to 1550hrs (GMT+8)

5G has been projected as a catalyst in driving the adoption of AI, IoT and robotics. The security environment as we know in a pre-5G world is already relatively complex. Various discussions over its security concern are being raised, in anticipation of 5G especially in its use in IoT and autonomous systems.
The speaker intends to place the application of 5G in perspective of enterprise ecosystem. By breaking down the ecosystem into components, reviewing the concerns and requirements, the resolution and implementation of security controls could be mapped into respective roles, such as telco engineer, IoT developer, security professional and enterprise architect. Bringing us to a shared responsibility model, the key to creating a more secure 5G and IoT environment.

Speaker(s): Ng Kok Leong, Dr. Nicholas Ho
Format: Talk

AI Governance – The Responsible Use of AI

1600hrs to 1650hrs (GMT+8)

Contemporary AI engenders hopes and fears – hopes of harnessing AI for productivity growth and innovation – fears of mass unemployment and conflict between humankind and an artificial super-intelligence. Before we let AI drive our hopes and fears, we need to understand what it is and what it is not. Then we need to understand how to implement AI in an ethical and responsible manner. Only then can we harness the power of AI to our benefit.

Speaker(s): Nicholas Tan, Dr. Brian Ang
Format: Talk

AI and Cybersecurity - Food for Thought

1700hrs to 1750hrs (GMT+8)

“AI is the new electricity” proclaims Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain. Just as we need to know how to safely harness electricity, we also need to know how to securely employ AI to power our businesses. In some scenarios, the security of AI systems can impact human safety. On the flip side, AI can also be misused by cyber-adversaries and so we need to understand how to counter them.

This talk will provide food for thought in 3 areas:

Security of AI systems
Use of AI in cybersecurity
Malicious use of AI

Speaker(s): Angela Huang, Dr. Tian Jing
Format: Talk

Professional Conversion Programme Bridging Course (for Individuals)

1800hrs to 1850hrs (GMT+8)

NUS-ISS Career Services team is partnering with e2i to pilot an initiative to identify complimentary bridging courses to a targeted pool of Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) candidates. Candidates will be required to complete the identified bridging courses to build up fundamental skills required to fulfil the respective PCP entry requirements. This platform can potentially accumulate a pool of curated candidates for better match with PCP employers. The programme is applicable for the NUS-ISS PCP in Data Analysts and Full Stack Software Developer.

Speaker(s): Winston Wong
Guest Speaker(s):
Joe Leong, Specialist, Financial & Professional Services, e2i
Format: Talk

Day 2 Programme - Wed, 12 Aug 2020

Redefining Talent Pathway for Digital Age

0900hrs to 0950hrs (GMT+8)

Digitalisation has impacted the value of different skills in many industries. The search for digital talent to implement all kinds of enterprises' digital business strategies have been a constant challenge and a delicate balance between cost and value. Since Artificial Intelligence and Automation are certain to play important roles in our workforce, every organisation is looking at how to fully optimise the potential of human and machines working together to unleash new value for the businesses. This talk will cover topics on impact of Digitalisation on Skills, leverage on the Diversity in Digital Talent Pools, Job Redefined To Unleash New Value and redesign Talent Strategy for Digital Age.

Speaker(s): Sharon Lau
Format: Talk

Your Data Science Journey - Setting Up Analytics Units From Scratch

1000hrs to 1050hrs (GMT+8)

Leveraging the experience of setting up analytics units for various companies since 2000, Nirmal, Principal Lecturer & Consultant, Data Science Practice will cover the best practices of how a company should approach the set up phase of their data science journey. The talk would cover the various challenges involved, the options available and the step-by-step process involved. Real-life case studies will be used to illustrate what worked and what didn’t.

Speaker(s): Nirmal Raja Palaparthi
Format: Talk

The (Artistic + Scientific) Design of Data Storytelling

1100hrs to 1150hrs (GMT+8)

Digital transformation is here to stay and data driven storytelling has been adopted by organisations in order to gain competitive advantage with data and analytics. This empowers the data personnel (data analyst, data scientist, data storyteller) to carry out persuasive insights communication and effective presentation via data storytelling. The main focus of data storytelling is to explain, engage, and enlighten the target audience. Moreover, behind the scenes, it is the meeting point of artistic design and scientific design.

Speaker(s): Brandon Ng
Format: Talk

Career Development Programmes for Digital Business Analysts (for Individuals)

1200hrs to 1250hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for the Digital Change Agents of tomorrow, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape. We provide an overview of NUS-ISS career development schemes and pathways, and will also deep dive into the specific programme modules in detail. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Sharon Lau
Format: Talk

Leveraging Digitalisation for Transformation - A Digital Leadership Capstone Showcase

1300hrs to 1350hrs (GMT+8)

From a successful brick-and-mortar company to a digital one. How can a company determine business priorities and apply value strategies to inform management to transition to a digital ecosystem?
Presenting our very own students' capstone project, participants will learn from their experience on approaches taken to shift markets and lead new market segments and value proposition; understand how digitalisation extends the traditional business model and critically, what are the digital leadership take away from embarking the digital transformation journey that is more than a matter of superior technology.

Speaker(s): Tan Chi Siong
Guest Speaker(s):
Jacob Wong, Regional IT Manager, Groz-Beckert
Alfred Tam, Associate Director, Digital Transformation, Singtel
Alexander Ang, Vice President of L Catterton
Format: Talk + Demo

Digital Architecture – The Missing Link in Digital Transformation Success

1400hrs to 1450hrs (GMT+8)

Today, every business is a Digital Business. And Digital Architecture is the critical enabler of successful Organisation’s Digital Strategy and Transformation. Without Digital Architecture, most organisation’s Digital Transformation efforts will fail or may not derive the full benefits of their Digital Strategy. In this session, we will distil the essence of Digital Architecture best practices of successful organisations into a set of principles, framework and toolkit that participants can apply to their organisations to drive successful Digital Transformation.

Speaker(s): Tan Eng Tsze
Format: Talk

Importance of Coordination Among Key Stakeholders for Successful Analytical Projects

1500hrs to 1550hrs (GMT+8)

To succeed in a competitive environment, management must be aware of their organisation, the dynamic demands of their consumers, and the rapid pace of market disruptions and opportunities. Data analytics is critical to extract relevant insights to guide and assist decision making across business value chains. Many organisations have acknowledged the importance of analytics and setting up effective teams to capitalise on data driven decision making. The key challenges faced by organisations is to identify the right mix of stakeholders, define their roles and functioning mechanism to ensure success of the analytics projects. Business experts have observed that for meaningful results from any analytics projects, effective coordination among data experts, data scientists and business is an essential requirement.

Speaker(s): Rajnish Tuli
Guest Speaker(s):
Arunima, Head, International Research, Gojek
Thao, Head of Business Intelligence and Strategic Planning , Lazada Vietnam
Rajiv Singh, Chief Technology Officer, GRPS Labs
Format: Panel Discussion

Approximate "Now" is Better Than Accurate "Later"

1600hrs to 1650hrs (GMT+8)

How does Twitter track the top trending topics?
How does Amazon keep track of the top-selling items for the day?
How many cabs have been booked this month using your App?
Is the password that a new user is choosing a common/compromised password?

Modern web-scale systems process billions of transactions and generate terabytes of data every single day. In order to find answers to questions against this data, one would initiate a multi-minute query against a NoSQL datastore or kick off a batch job written in a distributed processing framework such as Spark or Flink. However, these jobs are throughput-heavy and not suited for realtime low-latency queries. However, you and your customers would like to have all this information "right now".

At the end of this talk, you'll realize that you can power these low-latency queries and with incredibly low memory footprint "IF" you are willing to accept answers that are, say, 96-99% accurate. This talk introduces some of the go-to probabilistic data structures that are used by organisations with large amounts of data - specifically Bloom filter, Count Min Sketch and HyperLogLog.

Speaker(s): Dr Suriya Priya Asaithambi
Guest Speaker(s):
Arun Manivannan, Lead Data Engineer, ThoughtWorks
Format: Talk

Career Development Programmes for Data Scientists and Data Analysts (for individuals)

1700hrs to 1750hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for future Data Science and Analytics Professionals, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape. We provide an overview of all NUS-ISS career development schemes and pathways.
We will also deep dive into the specific programme modules in detail. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Brandon Ng, Christine Cheong
Format: Talk

NUS-ISS-NCS Career Webinar "Invest your time in a company that invests in your future"

1800hrs to 1900hrs (GMT+8)

In its second edition, the NUS-ISS x NCS recruitment drive is your chance at an exciting career path ahead. Delivered in a revolutionary manner, your technology career at NCS’ kick-starts with the Nucleus Programme, a 5-year talent development programme that accelerates your career and sets you on your way to achieve a Master of Technology from the Institute of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore.

Take our successfully matched graduates from the recent virtual recruitment drive in May. Armed with their first degrees from different alma maters, Ahmad, Reuben and Ridhwan have a common aspiration aligned to NCS’ core value – to help governments and enterprises realise business value through the innovative use of technology.

Speaker(s): Philip Tan
Guest Speaker(s):
Gerard Koh, Head of Human Resources, NCS Group
Howie Sim, Vice President, Healthcare and Transport, Singtel
Format: Talk

Day 3 Programme - Thu, 13 Aug 2020

Excuse Me, Are You an Agile Coach?

0900hrs to 0950hrs (GMT+8)

Accelerating digitisation effort is a key phenomenon that is taking place around the world during the current pandemic and agility has become an integral part of realising this digitisation effort. Organisation wide agile adoption is no longer just replicating the agile practices at micro level across more teams. It requires the rewiring of the core organisation-wide processes to adopt both agile mindset and practices. Organisations need solid agile coaching and this coaching responsibility needs to be picked up organisation wide. Whoever that is taking up this responsibility will need to understand what true agile coaching entails (Hint: it is not just coaching).

Speaker(s): Aaron Chua
Format: Talk

A World of Platforms and Ecosystems

1000hrs to 1050hrs (GMT+8)

In the last decade, platforms have risen in importance and power in digital business. The digital ecosystems have been bubbling and in creation we have seen tremendous success in areas of finance and seemingly unlinked sectors and industries. What can we expect for the future? Join Ms Felicitas Seah, Principal Lecturer & Consultant of NUS-ISS' Digital Products & Platforms Practice this morning as she shares more about our interconnected world.

Speaker(s): Felicitas Seah
Guest Speaker(s):
Tan Su Lin, Chief of staff / Vice President, Operations, Carousell
Format: Talk

Re-Designing Your Customer Experience

1100hrs to 1150hrs (GMT+8)

In the age of rapid digitalisation and business transformation, knowing your customers in-depth and in real time, becomes a key game-changer. Providing a delightful customer experience (CX) is the end-goal that marketers pursue, but the journey can be challenging. This session discusses what it takes to re-design your customer experience and how you can get started.

Speaker(s): Lim Wee Khee
Format: Talk

Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Digital Product Managers (for Individuals)

1200hrs to 1250hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for future Digital Product Managers, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape, an overview of all NUS-ISS PCP programmes, career pathways and related salary information.

You will also deep dive into the specific PCP modules in detail and the eligibility criteria. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Daniel Boey
Format: Talk

Digital Product Delivery - When The Rubber Meets The Road!

1300hrs to 1350hrs (GMT+8)

You have committed a Product Vision and Roadmap to your organisation. How and where will you begin to execute your product roadmap? Have you ever heard the proverbial duck and chicken speak to each other? This session will provide key strategic alignment and cross-functional collaboration insights on how to work with product engineering, shape the tech stack and ensure a seamless product development and delivery.

Speaker(s): Richard Tan, Tan Liong Choon
Format: Talk

NUS-ISS Job Placement and Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP) (for Employers)

1400hrs to 1450hrs (GMT+8)

Get an indepth overview of all NUS-ISS PCP and job placement programmes, career pathways and requirements. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Winston Wong >
Format: Talk

Product Management's Role in Digital Transformation

1500hrs to 1550hrs (GMT+8)

Many companies try to transform their businesses in the new digital age as they face a paradigm shift in how to deliver value to their customers. The successful ones have moved from a project-driven operating model to a product-driven one by investing in developing product management capability that will lead cross-functional teams and create changes in business models in the new digital world. Come and learn how product management can help in the digital transformation journey for your organisation.

Speaker(s): Lee Boon Kee
Guest Speaker(s):
Tan Kok Yong, Director, Digital Transformation, EY Consulting
Format: Talk

User Experience (UX) and Digital Transformation : The Why, What, and How

1600hrs to 1650hrs (GMT+8)

The current health crisis has forced many brick and mortar businesses to move online and completely rethink the way they operate. However, successfully undergoing a digital transformation isn’t always easy. While most traditional companies are striving to remain relevant in the new reality, only some understand how User Experience (UX) design is crucial for receiving positive results from digital transformation. This talk dives into User Experience (UX) design and its influence and impact for organisations.

Speaker(s): Michael Tan
Format: Talk

root@csit:~#./future

1800hrs to 1850hrs (GMT+8)

Established in 2003, CSIT is an agency in the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) that conducts RD in infocomm and infosecurity technologies. With a strong focus in cyber security, data analytics and information technology, CSIT will be sharing their career talk on how they nurture technical talents in these areas to develop robust solutions for Singapore’s security needs. Come and find out more about career opportunities at CSIT!

Speaker(s): Philip Tan
Guest Speaker(s):
Alvin Huang, Group Director, Corporate Development & Services CSIT
Format: Talk

Day 4 Programme - Fri, 14 Aug 2020

The Frontier of Deep Learning in 2020 and Beyond

0900hrs to 0950hrs (GMT+8)

This talk will be a summary of the recent advances in deep learning research, current trends in the industry, and the opportunities that lie ahead.

We will discuss topics in research such as:

Transformers, GPT-3, BERT
Neural Architecture Search, Evolutionary Search
Distillation, self-learning
NeRF
Self-Attention

Also shifting industry trends such as:

The move to free data
Rising importance of 3D vision
Using synthetic data (Sim2Real)
Mobile vision & Federated Learning

Speaker(s): Dr. Barry Adrian Shepherd
Guest Speaker(s): Anubhav Ashok
Format: Talk

Towards a Reactive Game Engine

1000hrs to 1050hrs (GMT+8)

This session explores the behind-the-scene experience of building an interactive gaming platform composed from a medley of technologies. The session starts with exploring the design thinking principles essential for creating engaging customer experience. Functional constructs provide parallelism, scalability and statelessness for gaming platform. The session elaborates such a functional programming perspective using Java. It explains the next level of sophistication by implementing a reactive stack for stream data processing. It also details interactive aspects of reactive game kernels and android console. The session finally explains use of Python based machine learning extensions incorporated to provide insights on player’s profile and games difficulties and popularity level.

Speaker(s): Tan Cher Wah, Dr. Suriya Priya Asaithambi, Nguyen Tri Tin
Format: Talk

Unravel COVID-19 From a Systems Thinking Lens

1100hrs to 1150hrs (GMT+8)

COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the gaps in every countries' infrastructure and society. As we deal with one threat of the crisis, we are quickly overwhelmed by secondary consequences. The butterly effect of COVID-19 unveils the reality of system interdependence at multiple levels. Join us in understanding the complex nature of this interdependence through the lens of system thinking and discuss how might we manage this crisis together with fresh eyes.

Speaker(s): Goh Boon Nam, Brian Ng, Lee Lin Hui
Format: Talk

Career Development Programmes for Software Developers (Full-Stack) (for Individuals)

1200hrs to 1250hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for future Full-stack Software Developers, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape. We provide an overview of all career development schemes and pathways. We will also deep dive into the specific programme modules in detail and the eligibility criteria.
Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Kenneth Phang
Format: Talk

Career Development Programmes for Digital Health Practitioners (For Individuals)

1300hrs to 1350hrs (GMT+8)

Specially designed for future Digital Health Practitioners, this session is for individuals (PMEs) who wish to know more about the Industry Transformation Programme landscape. We provide an overview of all NUS-ISS career development schemes and pathways.
We will also deep dive into the specific programme modules in detail. Be guided through frequently asked questions related to the programmes and get your questions answered at our Q&A session.

Speaker(s): Brian Ng
Format: Talk

How COVID-19 is Accelerating Digital Transformation in Health and Social Care?

1400hrs to 1450hrs (GMT+8)

Without a doubt, COVID-19 has become the unexpected driver for digital transformation. It is accelerating the transformation, especially in the health and social care space, as we are forced to adapt to the new norm brought about by the crisis. Join us as we discuss the trends and what might be the new health and social care landscape in Singapore after 2020.

Speaker(s): Koh Wai Kin, Brian Ng, Lee Lin Hui
Format: Talk

Create a Thermal Camera With Python On a Raspberry Pi

1500hrs to 1550hrs (GMT+8)

Guided by Mr Kenneth Pang, Senior Lecturer & Consultant of NUS-ISS' Software Systems Practice, learn how to use Python and MicroPython through this interesting workshop to build a thermal sensor that will be activated on pre-trained faces.

Speaker(s): Kenneth Phang
Format: Talk + Demo

Learning Journeys from Singapore to the World

1600hrs to 1650hrs (GMT+8)

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in the global economies. It has also defined a new normal as to how we learn, develop talent to equip ourselves with the skills and competencies for Digital Economy and be better prepared for potential disruptions in the future. We believe an outcome-based learning approach is the fastest way to achieve this objective.
In this session, we will share our readiness to deliver learning journeys via digital platforms beyond Singapore.

In addition, we will also share our outcome-based learning journeys and applied research initiatives for public sector focus areas of digital government transformation, public service innovation, citizen engagement and smart nation.

Speaker(s): Ashok Kumar, Debashis Tarafdar
Format: Talk

Performance: Virtual Live Band

1800hrs to 1900hrs (GMT+8)

Let good music keep you in great spirits. Ending on a high note, chill out and enjoy the live music to round off NUS-ISS' Virtual Learning Festival 2020.

You've heard the dynamic duo play at Wala Wala and Timbre, now chill out with homegrown musicians,Jack and Rai as they serenade you with their mesmerising vocals and soulful melodies virtually.

Expect cover hits like Sunflower by Post Malone, Memories by Maroon 5 and surprise items, tune in at 6pm for your favourite tunes and live chats.
p.s: Bring your own mug!

In support of