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In This Issue1 NTU President’s Message

2 At A Glance

4 Cover Story

Sustaining Future Societies

8 Insight

Tissue-Inspired Engineering: Nature’s Design Principles To Develop Bio-Inspired Technologies

Big Data On A Small Island: Sparse Graphical Models For Highly Efficient Data Analysis

Enemy At The Gate: Making Sense Of Pathogen-Host Interactions During Virus Maturation

Bio-Inspired Materials Science: Translating Biological Design Into Eco-Friendly Materials

“Beyond The Invisible”: The Emerging Technology Of Transformation Optics

18 In Focus

Exploring The Future Of Urban Electromobility

Using Augmented Reality For Anatomical Education

Lien Aid And Lien Environmental Fellowships: NTU’s Philanthropic Arms To Battle Poverty And Poor Health In Asia

24 Discoveries

28 Faces and Events

Immunology And Infectious Diseases Pioneer: Professor Dermot Kelleher

One Of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People: Professor Stephan Schuster

32 Conversations

Sustainability Pioneer: Professor Alexander Zehnder

1

NTU President’s Message

We Have Only One Planet Earth and it is facing increasing environmental and ecological

challenges. Universities as leading institutions in the discovery and transfer of scientific knowledge have a

special responsibility to address global sustainability issues.

NTU, with one of the world’s largest engineering colleges and to date S$1 billion (US$800 million) of

competitive funding in sustainability research, is well poised to lead in many exciting research areas that

will have the greatest impact on our planet.

Sustainable Earth is one of the university’s five interdisciplinary research thrusts, the other four being

healthcare, new media, innovation and to be a knowledge hub of the East and West.

But it is not just in research. Environmental stewardship and the culture of sustainability are also the

guiding principles of NTU’s campus and its development. New buildings and landscaping projects utilise,

showcase and test-bed green technologies and enable on-going research. For example, a stream with

an integrated bio-swale is being designed as part of a construction project for a new undergraduate

residence hall. It will serve as an analytical tool and test-bed for research and education in water

purification processes.

In this issue of PUSHING FRONTIERS, we highlight projects across the broad scope of sustainability

research at NTU, ranging from nature-inspired engineering and materials science to large data modelling

of environmental issues and natural events and new insights in viral threats. Other reports focus on

urban electromobility, new technologies in medical education and philanthropic endeavours to transfer

knowledge and technologies in sustainability issues to disadvantaged communities in Asia.

I hope that this glimpse into the broad spectrum of NTU's efforts and activities in sustainability will inspire

new and fruitful collaborations with our friends and partners in academia and industry to support us in our

combined drive towards a more sustainable planet.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 2

Visiting Prof Chad Mirkin

Renowned nanoscience expert and Lee

Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor Prof Chad

Mirkin was conferred an honorary NTU

degree of Doctor of Engineering by the

Chancellor of NTU, President of Singapore

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam. Prof Mirkin, who is Rathmann

Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, USA, and a

member of United States President Barack Obama's Council

of Advisors on Science and Technology, is listed by Thomson

Reuters as the most cited chemist in the world.

Emeritus Prof Lim Chong Yah

Distinguished Singaporean economist Prof

Lim Chong Yah, the Albert Winsemius Chair

Professor of Economics and former Director

of the Economic Growth Centre at NTU

and Founding Chairman of the National

Wages Council for 29 years, has been conferred the title of

Emeritus Professor by NTU in recognition of his contributions

to research, education and public service.

Team AchievementsSpecial Issue of Advanced Materials: Materials Research

at Nanyang Technological University

NTU's advanced materials research has been featured in

a special edition of Advanced

Materials, one of the highest-

ranking journals for Materials

Science and Engineering. The

issue contains contributions on

multidisciplinary research activities

from the Schools of Materials

Science and Engineering, Electrical

and Electronic Engineering,

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Chemical and

Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering

and Physical and Mathematical Sciences as well as various

collaborators.

The Honour RollAmbassador Barry Desker

Ambassador Barry Desker, Dean of S.

Rajaratnam School of International Studies

(RSIS) at NTU, received an honorary

degree of Doctor of Letters from the

University of Warwick, UK, in recognition

of his contributions to public life in Singapore, East Asia and

globally, his scholarship and academic leadership as well as

his support and commitment to collaborative projects with the

University of Warwick.

Assoc Prof Louis Phee

and Asst Prof David Lou

Assoc Prof Louis Phee

from NTU's School

of Mechanical and

Aerospace Engineering

received the Singapore President’s Technology Award 2012

presented by President Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam. Assoc Prof

Louis Phee was awarded together with Prof Lawrence Ho

from the National University Hospital for developing the

world’s first robotic flexible endoscopy system for minimally

invasive surgeries.

Asst Prof David Lou from the School of Chemical and

Biomedical Engineering was one of three recipients of the

Young Scientist Award.

Visiting Prof Michael Grätzel

Prof Michael Grätzel, Chairman of the

Scientific Advisory Board of the Energy

Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and

advisor of NTU’s Centre for Nanostructured

Photosystems and the Solar Fuels Lab,

has won the 2012 Albert Einstein World Award of Science

for his invention and further development of Dye Solar Cell

technology.

At A Glance

3

Large grants for researchers from the School

of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Asst Prof Lew Wen Siang from the School of Physical and

Mathematical Sciences has been awarded funds of S$6.9

million (US$5.6 million) under the 9th National Research

Foundation Competitive Research Programme for his research

proposal “Non-volatile magnetic logic and memory integrated

circuit devices”.

A team of researchers from the Schools of Humanities and

Social Sciences (HSS) and Art, Design and Media, led by

Asst Prof Alexander Coupe, has been awarded an Academic

Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 2 grant of around S$530,000

(US$433,000) from the Ministry of Education. The grant will

fund a documentation project involving four endangered

languages from north‐east India, northern Thailand, southern

peninsular Malaysia and eastern Indonesia. A computer

simulation study on youth violence and delinquency in

Singapore, led by Assoc Prof Rebecca Ang from the HSS,

received an AcRF Tier 2 research grant of around S$360,000

(US$294,000).

• Global neuroscience research will be boosted through a new

global programme for neuroscience research jointly funded by

NTU and the University of Warwick, UK. The first professors

under the Warwick-NTU Neuroscience Research@Singapore

programme, based at the Biopolis biomedicine hub, are Prof

Ayumu Tashiro and Prof Albert Chen, who will advance

research in the development and mapping of neural circuitry

and the understanding and therapy of neural degenerative

diseases. A joint PhD in neuroscience is also currently being

developed.

• NTU’s new Advanced Biofilm

Imaging Facility will push

knowledge of microbial biofilms

and their impacts on natural

and human environments and

public health to a new level.

Opened at the Singapore

Centre on Environmental Life

Sciences Engineering (SCELSE)

in partnership with Carl Zeiss,

the new facility will use Zeiss'

high-resolution, high-sensitivity

laser scanning confocal systems

and other imaging equipment customised for research to better

understand bacterial interactions in different environments.

• Several new international collaborations will further strengthen

NTU's research in energy and water. Tie-ups with the Austrian

New Research Centres, Collaborations and Programmes

NTU President Prof Bertil Andersson at the opening of the ADM Gallery at NTU's School of Art, Design and Media that will work closely with the new CCA.

Institute of Technology (AIT) and crystalsol GmbH, an

Austrian company that specialises in renewable energy, aim to

develop innovative and green buildings, printable and flexible

solar cells and joint PhD programmes. Research on Dye

Solar Cells will be expanded through a partnership with the

Australian energy firm Dyesol.

• A new Research Collaboration Agreement between NTU,

DHI and Suez Environnement, Europe's second largest

water utility, will advance efforts to make used water treatment

energy-neutral.

• Through the new Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), NTU

will spearhead education, research and exhibition of Southeast

Asian contemporary art in Singapore. Established by NTU's

School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) and housed at Gillman

Barracks, an iconic international destination for contemporary

art in Singapore, the CCA will feature an Art Research Centre,

an Artist in Residence Programme and an Exhibition Centre.

Prof Yehuda Cohen, Deputy Director at SCELSE, explaining advanced research techniques using Zeiss microscopes.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 4

In the near future, more than two-thirds of the world population

will live in cities. Future metropolises will face huge challenges

to meet the basic needs of providing shelter, water and food,

infrastructure and transportation as well as ensuring public health.

Furthermore, cities will need to balance social and economic

challenges with local, regional and global environmental issues.

With more than five million people, Singapore, a thriving

metropolis, aims for sustainable growth through synergistic

developments in energy-efficient urban infrastructure and water,

waste and land management.

NTU in Singapore is already establishing itself as a global leader

in sustainability research, building on its strengths in engineering,

science and business. Under the umbrella of the Sustainable

Earth Peak, one of the university’s five strategic thrusts, there

are research projects addressing key global issues – clean water

and public health, alternative energies, clean technologies, urban

systems, geological concerns and disaster preparedness – with an

emphasis on sustainable metropolises.

Clean Water For All

An ample water supply is required for sustainable living. Water

issues tackled at NTU include water resource management,

purification, reclamation, and wastewater management.

These efforts are spearheaded at NTU by the Nanyang Environment

and Water Research Institute (NEWRI).

“NEWRI is an ecosystem of eight coordinated units, with

some 400 researchers who advance investigative work in

water treatment, purification and reclamation, urban and

industrial wastewater, and wastes management,” says

Prof Ng Wun Jern, its executive director.

Sustaining Future SocietiesWith more than S$1 billion (US$800 million) in research funding for

sustainability research, NTU is a world leader in this area, bringing

together the interdisciplinary expertise and tools needed to address

complex issues arising from rapid urbanisation, such as the

sustainable use of resources and geological concerns.

Cover Story

Photo Credit: Andjohan

5

“Through multi- and transdisciplinary interactions,

NEWRI provides a contiguous value chain that involves

research, translation, development and application

of innovative and practical environmental solutions

relevant to industry and community. This ensures new

technologies and concepts from the lab become full-

scale industrial applications,” Prof Ng adds.

Over at the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences

Engineering (SCELSE), an autonomous national Research

Centre of Excellence at NTU, water-associated microbial biofilms

present in natural and urban environments are the topic of

research.

“SCELSE strives to understand, control and harness

the manifold biological properties of microbial biofilms,”

says SCELSE Director Prof Staffan Kjelleberg. “We aim to

develop the means to destroy harmful biofilms such

as those emerging in hospital environments or on

membranes used in water treatment plants, as well

as engineer beneficial biofilms for applications in

bioremediation and wastewater treatment,”

Prof Kjelleberg adds.

SCELSE's research provides novel information on microbial

communities that can be applied to wastewater treatment.

Its approach complements that of NEWRI's Advanced

Environmental Biotechnology Centre, which takes molecular and

microbiological understanding through bioprocess development

and onward to the level of large-scale industrial water,

wastewater and wastes applications.

Understanding the life cycle of microbial pathogens between the

environment and human hosts is another area of focus. Drawing

on expertise from the School of Biological Sciences, Lee Kong

Chian School of Medicine and SCELSE, this research will help

prepare for and prevent epidemics and pandemics caused by

infectious diseases, a threat to global hubs such as Singapore.

Energy Research And Clean Technologies

Energy research in all its facets is advanced at the Energy

Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the engineering and

science colleges.

“Energy efficiency solutions for residential and industrial

sectors are one of our key areas of research,” says

Prof Subodh Mhaisalkar, Executive Director of ERI@N.

“We promote relevant energy solutions and policies for

the future in a multidisciplinary environment in which

scientists, engineers and social scientists interact. The

translation of these research outcomes into industry

applications is important,” he adds.

Partnerships with multinational as well as local industry leaders

advance renewable energy research that focuses on wind, marine

tidal streams and waves, as well as solar energy for multiple uses.

At the Centre for Nanostructured Photosystems under ERI@N

and the Schools of Materials Science and Engineering and

Physical and Mathematical Sciences, researchers are hard at work

developing highly-efficient, low-cost dye solar cell technology

under the guidance of Prof Michael Grätzel, the inventor of

dye-sensitised solar cells. This involves mimicking light energy-

capturing and energy production processes in plants to provide

new, integrated solar photovoltaic and solar fuel solutions.

Using “artificial leaf technology” pioneered by NTU President

Prof Bertil Andersson, an internationally renowned biochemist,

PUSHING FRONTIERS 6

scientists at Asia’s first Solar Fuels Lab are harnessing solar

energy to produce hydrogen fuel to reduce our dependence on

crude oil. At the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering,

researchers are also devising ways to produce hydrogen

cheaply as part of research to develop efficient and inexpensive

photocatalyst systems.

Wind energy technologies take centre stage at a joint materials

research centre with global wind energy giant Gamesa. Under

the Joint Industry Programme in Offshore Renewables, ERI@N

collaborates with world-leading companies and research partners

to construct efficient and cost-effective offshore wind turbines

and other sea-based power generation systems, advances that are

especially valuable for land-scarce countries such as Singapore.

Next-generation fuel cells, energy storage systems such as

batteries and supercapacitors, and new technologies to reduce

energy consumption in electronics are being developed at ERI@N

and several of NTU's schools and centres.

“Green” electronics such as microchips and power-saving

chipsets have been built at VIRTUS, IC Design Centre of

Excellence. A test-bed set up by NTU and Toshiba on NTU's

campus is exploring ways to reduce the power consumption

of data centres in tropical settings.

“Data centres, essential for our IT-intensive tele-

communications, data transmission and financial sectors,

represent one of the highest levels of energy utilisation

in Singapore,” Prof Mhaisalkar says. “Our joint cooling

solutions will significantly reduce the energy used in

modern data centres. I believe that similar approaches

and solutions will be adopted for use quite readily in

our push to develop “green” and more energy-efficient

buildings.”

In the area of urban electromobility, including advanced battery

materials and technologies, and new types of electric vehicles

and infrastructure concepts, NTU researchers are working with

those from TUM CREATE, a collaboration between NTU and

Germany's Technical University Munich (TUM) under the National

Research Foundation’s (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence

And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme. Under

another CREATE programme, NTU is working with the University

of California, Berkeley, through the Singapore-Berkeley Initiative

for Sustainable Energy to harvest solar energy for the generation

of electricity and liquid fuels.

Carbon emissions as a major driver of global climate change

are addressed at the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Reduction

in Chemical Technology, a CREATE partnership involving the

University of Cambridge that aims to reduce the carbon footprint

of Singapore's industrial-scale chemical, refining and power

generation processes.

The reduction of carbon emissions is also on the agenda of

researchers at the School of Computer Engineering seeking to

replace carbon-intensive activities with information technology for

applications such as smart logistics, energy-aware buildings and

more efficient energy grids. Through its Maritime Clean Energy

Research Programme, ERI@N also promotes carbon-neutral and

efficient energy solutions and clean fuels for ships and ports.

Sustainable Urban Systems

Resource recovery, remediation and reclamation of contaminated

land are of great importance to crowded metropolises such as

Singapore. With its communal and industry partners, NEWRI

researchers have worked on technologies for the conversion of

waste into new materials and the remediation and reclamation of

land from landfills and other contaminated sites. Other initiatives

address global warming and carbon reclamation through

generating energy from urban biomass, communal and industrial

sewage sludge, and agricultural residues.

Cover Story

7

Innovations such as the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet, invented by

researchers from NEWRI's Residues & Resource Reclamation

Centre, not only save water but also allow resources to be

recovered at lower costs. A two-chamber system in the new toilet

bowl separates liquid and solid wastes. The liquid waste can be

diverted to a processing facility to recover fertiliser components

such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, while the solid

waste can be converted into biogas in bioreactors.

Remanufacturing is another way to save resources. The Advanced

Remanufacturing & Technology Centre (ARTC), a joint effort of

NTU with Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology & Research

and major industry partners, is advancing production-ready

technologies in repair and restoration, surface enhancement and

product verification.

“At ARTC, we aim to develop technologies for remanu-

facturing that turn end-of-life products into as-good-as-

new ones through sustainable processes. The goal is to

develop technologies and processes that can be readily

adopted by industry,” says ARTC Collaboration Director

Assoc Prof David Butler from NTU's School of Mechanical and

Aerospace Engineering.

To enlarge the usable space in land-scarce Singapore, NTU's

Nanyang Centre for Underground Space is exploring how

underground space can be used for urban purposes such as car

parks, offices or recreational facilities, and for industrial purposes

such as oil and gas storage, warehouses and plants, in addition to

military uses.

Smart, Green Buildings

Smart buildings are the way forward for sustainable energy

consumption. Research on such intelligent, low-energy

buildings is the concern of the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global

Environmental Sustainability, a collaboration with NTU that focuses

on meeting the needs of future cities.

Together with its partners, ERI@N is developing smart lighting

grids that combine LED lights with wireless sensors to achieve

energy savings of up to 45 per cent. These smart lighting grids

are being test-bedded at Singapore's CleanTech Park adjacent to

NTU, together with other “green” building technologies such as

harvesting systems for solar energy and rainwater.

All major construction across the

university’s campuses is guided

by sustainability principles

emphasising energy efficiency.

Several buildings, including the

iconic School of Art, Design and

Media building, have already been

recognised with top awards for the

innovative use of sustainability

features.

Geological Concerns And Resilience Against

Catastrophes

Singapore's proximity to geologically dynamic regions in and

around Southeast Asia makes it a natural hub for research on

earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Furthermore, the

low-lying city is vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as

changes in sea level, temperature, precipitation or storm patterns.

The Earth Observatory of Singapore, an autonomous national

Research Centre of Excellence at NTU, plays a leading role in the

region to advance knowledge on geohazards and climate change to

make the world a safer and more sustainable place to live.

Securing sustainable societies is also a core mission of the Centre

for Non-Traditional Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of

International Studies (RSIS), a top-ranked autonomous think tank

within NTU that produces policy-relevant analyses in environmental

security, natural disasters, climate change, energy and food, as well

as health security such as pandemic preparedness.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 8

The phrases “nature-inspired” and “biomimetic approach” have often been used to describe research that

is motivated by natural systems. Tissue-inspired engineering (TIE) draws its inspiration from the ways cells

as the consummate engineers of the body’s architecture and organisation integrate biochemical, physical

and environmental cues to communicate between different tissues and organs. Distinct from classical

tissue engineering that aims to restore, replace or improve biological functions using a combination of

cells, scaffolds/biomaterials and biological signals, TIE is about understanding tissue function, structure

and properties using engineering techniques and principles. Engineered biomimetic 3D environments at

micro- and nano-levels allow the study of cell-cell and cell-material interactions and aid in the repopulation

of specific cell types and thus in tissue healing processes. These engineered tissues are of direct clinical

relevance in regenerative medicine, drug efficacy testing, understanding of disease progression and

treatment of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity as well as in patient-specific studies.

TIE is highly multidisciplinary (Fig 1), requiring close collaborations between biologists, material

scientists and nanotechnologists. While the biologists’ role is to understand cell-cell and cell-matrix

interactions within a tissue and the intracellular molecular circuitries, the material scientists create the

appropriate microenvironment for the cells enabling them to perform their engineering duties, and the

nanotechnologists develop materials on a nanoscale level that are instructive (i.e. influence cell behaviour)

and interactive (i.e. responsive to cellular cues).

In collaboration with Tan Tock Seng Hospital, National

University Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s

Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, National Skin

Centre and National Cancer Centre Singapore, the

team aims at developing TIE tools and solutions

to face real-life clinical problems and to advance

personalised healthcare.

Next Generation Skin Substitutes: A Multi-

Modal Solution For Diabetic Wound Healing

Normal wound healing proceeds via a continuum of

events, including acute inflammation, proliferation and

maturation phases, which are altered in the diabetic

state. Diabetic ulcers are characterised by an

accumulation of devitalised tissue, increased/prolonged inflammation, poor angiogenesis and deficiencies

in the extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Chronic diabetic wounds show elevated levels of proteolytic

activities culminating in a corrupt ECM that cannot support healing. Thus, wound-healing strategies

targeted at replacing the dysfunctional ECM would be highly beneficial.

The TIE team designs ECM-based scaffolds that closely mimic the components of normal ECM and the

anisotropic properties of skin. Antimicrobial and enhanced wound healing properties support the growth

of the various cell types in the different tissue layers of the skin (Fig 2). Additional features such as pH

sensitive materials that release drugs in response to pH changes in infected wounds allow for interactions

with the microenvironment.

Nature’s Design Principles To Develop Bio-Inspired Technologies

Tissue-Inspired Engineering

By Cleo Choong, Timothy Tan and Andrew Tan

Fig 1: A decoupage of TIE illustrating various engineer-ing platforms and tools used to study the interactions between cells and materials aimed at providing solu-tions for various biomedical problems such as wound healing and vascularisation.

Insight

The projects are led jointly by Asst Prof Cleo Choong Swee Neo from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Asst Prof Timothy Tan

Thatt Yang from the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, and Asst Prof Andrew

Tan Nguan Soon, recipient of NTU’s Nanyang Award in Research Excellence 2011, from the

School of Biological Sciences.

Presentations on the projects won three awards at the 2nd International Symposium

of Materials on Regenerative Medicine 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan. Parts of this research were

published in Cell Death Differ (2011), 18: 1120-1129; J Biol Chem (2010),

285(43): 32999-33009 (highlighted in www.bioportfolio.com and Vascular Biology

Publications Alert); and J Cell Biol (2009), 184: 817-831 (highlighted in J Cell Biol’s

“In Focus“ (2009), 184: 767, and on the cover page). Funding support came from the National Medical Research Council,

the NTU-National Healthcare Group Innovation Seed and collaborations with

Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble

9

Fig 2: Improved stratification of epidermis in 3D organotypic skin culture (OTC) maintained in serum-free defined medium. Immuno-fluorescence staining of involucrin (green), a protein marker for terminal differentiation of epidermis, of a 2-week old OTC. Human skin biopsy was used for comparison. Dotted white lines show the epidermal-dermal junction.

Fig 3: Bone regeneration. A 3D hydrogel, encompassing mesoporous particles loaded with cell differentiation-stimulating ECM proteins, can be injected into implanted scaffolds at bone defect sites.

Fig 4: Waste-to-resource strategies: Isolation of stem cells and ECM from clinical waste materials such as fat graft and lipoaspirate.

Dynamic Scaffolds: Injectable Porous Scaffolds For Post-Implantation Bone Regeneration

Bony defects requiring bone replacements pose major challenges to reconstructive surgeons. An alternative

to bone autografts and allografts are synthetic materials such as metals and ceramics that provide strong

mechanical support. However, metal implants poorly integrate with neighbouring tissues and can fail due to

infection or fatigue loading. Hence, tremendous efforts have been devoted to the development of tissue-

compatible and biodegradable scaffolds. To successfully regenerate tissue, scaffold degradation rates that

depend on scaffold composition and prevailing physical, chemical and biological conditions should match

tissue growth rates. However, tissue growth rates can vary significantly among tissue types and individuals

due to differences in age, diet and lifestyle-related factors.

The TIE team is designing porous scaffold systems that enable post-implantation alteration of the pore

structure in vivo through minimally invasive means (e.g. via injection) or external stimulation (e.g.

light-triggered mechanisms), resulting in structures with larger pores and higher porosity that enhance

new tissue and vasculature formation (Fig 3). TIE developed strategies that allow adjustments of the

post-implantation scaffold structure to the tissue’s growth rate or the patient’s recovery rate open up huge

potentials in personalised tissue engineering.

Bone Regeneration Through 3D Architecture-Directed Stem Cell

Differentiation And Electrical Stimulation

Directed differentiation of stem cells into ECM has traditionally employed cocktails

of ECM proteins. However, due to the short half-life of the proteins, either multiple

injections or a controlled release system are required to achieve full stem cell

differentiation. On the other hand, electrical stimulation of cells has been shown to

increase cell proliferation, induce angiogenic and osteogenic factors and improve tissue

healing.

To integrate electrical properties, the TIE team is coupling electrically conductive materials such as

graphene-polymer composites with biochemical and mechano-biological approaches in injectable

bioactive 3D constructs that aid in bone stem cell differentiation and regeneration.

Green Processing And Waste-To-Resource Strategies

Resource resilient materials such as biological waste products and environment-friendly processing

methods are used to create scaffolds for tissue regeneration and other useful materials for various

biomedical applications. Cells and ECM material are isolated from clinical waste in form of both

lipoaspirate and fat grafts (Fig 4). Collagen gained from fish-scales, a waste product from the fish

processing industry, is used to fabricate collagen-based wound dressings. Abundantly available natural

materials such as ovalbumin (gained

from chicken eggs) and alginate (from

seaweed) are used to create injectable

microcarriers and as encapsulation

material. The material properties of

these biocompatible matrices can

be further tuned to improve entry of

nutrients and oxygen and disposal of

toxic metabolites and carbon dioxide,

and to enhance shielding against the

patients’ immune defence systems.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 10

Sparse Graphical Models For Highly Efficient Data Analysis

Big Data On A Small Island

By Justin Dauwels

Nowadays, huge volumes of data are being generated every split second: bank transactions, Tweets, web

browsing histories, GPS logs, environmental recordings, surveillance camera footage, invasive and non-

invasive physiological recordings, etc. With this abundance of data, a new challenge arises: How to extract

relevant information and make inferences from terabytes of data in a short amount of time? Inference in

graphical models that provide a statistical framework to encapsulate our knowledge of a system is a fruitful

approach to handling large volumes of noisy and incomplete data. With carefully chosen assumptions (e.g.,

independence of selected random variables), graphical models

can be used to derive highly efficient data analysis techniques.

Our research group has developed novel types of graphical

models, with applications to modelling of urban traffic

networks, clinical neuroscience, environmental monitoring

and beyond, covering themes across NTU's five Peaks of

Excellence.

Prediction Of Urban Traffic Speed

As cities grow, so do the problems they face, and Singapore

is no exception. As in most large cities, traffic jams are quite

common in Singapore, especially at rush hour. By appropriately guiding drivers, traffic jams may potentially

be avoided or at least limited. The research team has developed novel and robust algorithms to predict

urban traffic speed in real-time, up to one hour in advance (see Fig 1). Its predictions are 95% accurate for

highways, and 85% to 90% for small roads. Currently the team is designing route guidance schemes that

utilise the predictions to optimise routes in real-time.

Modelling Of Extreme Events

Extreme events such as heat waves, windstorms, floods, hurricanes (see Fig 2), and earthquakes often have

a devastating impact on society.

Statistical models may help to assess the likelihood of such extreme events and the dependency of extreme

events across space, and may be useful to quantify the risks associated with certain infrastructures and

facilities exposed to extreme conditions.

The research team has invented a new class of spatial extreme models, in collaboration with Shell

Technology Centre Thornton (UK). The idea is to describe the extreme phenomena at each individual

location by extreme-value marginal distributions, and to capture the spatial structure of extreme events

through sparse and structured graphical models, which “tie” the marginal distributions together. These

models can be applied to large data sets, e.g., temperature distribution of an entire continent, in order to

compute the probability of extreme events at a given location, and are useful to design infrastructures such

as oilrigs or nuclear power plants.

Automated Localisation Of Seizure Focal Points From Electroencephalography (EEG)

For approximately 30% of epilepsy patients, seizures are poorly controlled with medications alone. Those

patients may be successfully treated by surgically removing the brain area(s) where the seizures originate;

Insight

Asst Prof Justin Dauwels from NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is also affiliated with NTU's VALENS Centre

of Excellence for Bio-Instrumentation, Devices and Signal Processing, INFINITUS,

Infocomm Centre of Excellence, and EXQUISITUS, Centre for E-City.

The described research projects were presented (in corresponding order) at

the Proc. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Hilton, Anchorage,

AK, USA, Sept 16-19, 2012; Proc. Fusion 2012 - 15th International Conference on

Information Fusion, July 09–12, 2012, Singapore, receiving a Best Paper Award;

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2011), 22-27 May, 2011, Prague,

Czech Republic, pp.745–748; and the 4th International Workshop on Spoken Dialog

System IWSDS 2012, November 28-30, 2012, Paris, France.

Fig 1. Predicted congestion between

the districts of Outram and Changi

in Singapore.

11

it is obviously crucial to accurately localise the seizure onset zone. To this end, one must often resort

to semi-chronic invasive recordings of cortical activity, since non-invasive methods are frequently not

conclusive. Currently neurologists rely heavily on seizures to determine the seizure focus. Since most

patients have seizures infrequently, the invasive recordings must usually continue for days or weeks, until

enough seizures are obtained; this procedure is costly, uncomfortable, and not without risk of side effects.

The objective is to be able to determine the seizure focus from short invasive recordings in the operating

room, made before resection of the seizure focus, and to drastically shorten the hospitalisation of epilepsy

patients, from several weeks to a few days.

In collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (USA), the research

team has applied signal processing techniques to invasive semi-chronic recordings between seizures, in

order to extract signatures of the seizure focus, such as high-frequency oscillations and spikes. Specifically

designed statistical decision algorithms (see Fig 3) leverage those different signatures to determine the

seizure focus in an automated fashion. In future work, these algorithms will be applied to short invasive

recordings made in the operating room.

Real-Time Sociofeedback

People have distinct individual characteristics, such as personality, status, intelligence, maturity, and

language. All these aspects in different combinations result in individual speaking mannerisms. In

collaboration with Prof Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann and Prof Daniel Thalmann from NTU’s Institute for

Media Innovation, Prof Martin Constable from the School of Arts, Design and Media, and Dr Shoko

Dauwels from the Nanyang Business School, the research team has invented systems that can provide

real-time and retrospective feedback about social behaviour in conversations, helping speakers to adjust

their talking mannerisms to each other.

The algorithms analyse audio- and video signals in real-time, and compute a variety of statistics, which can

be visualised in a Graphical User Interface for real-time monitoring of conversations. The system has been

integrated in the voice-over-internet software application Skype, providing real-time sociofeedback during

online discussions. For retrospective feedback, the team has designed game-like animations that visualise

the highlights of a conversation in an automated fashion (see Fig 4). This approach can visualise the

many complex threads of information in a manner that is relatively intuitive for participants to review and

comprehend. These sociofeedback systems may help to boost the effectiveness of job interviews, group

discussions, coaching, teaching, or public speaking.

Fig 2. Measured maximum wave height during a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fig 3. Top: Location of the surface electrodes; actual and predicted seizure foci are marked in blue and red respectively (overlapping).

Bottom: Relative power (dimensionless) of the EEG at each electrode in the frequency band 1–5Hz, where an increase of relative power can be noticed at the electrodes inside the seizure foci.

Fig 4. Retrospective feedback about a conversation in the form of animations. In this example, flames indicate excessive interruptions.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 12

Making Sense Of Pathogen-Host Interactions During Virus Maturation

Enemy At The Gate

By Richard Sugrue

Every year a large proportion of the world’s population succumbs to virus infections of the respiratory

tract. The outcomes of these infections are largely determined by molecular interactions between the

virus and host that manifest in a range of phenomena, from virus transmission to virus pathogenicity. My

research team focuses on the molecular interactions between virus and host cell during the process of virus

maturation. In the past, this important stage of virus replication has been the target of several successful

antivirus strategies such as retrovirus protease inhibitors and influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitors.

Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV): Significant Health Concerns Locally

And Globally

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is responsible for globally approximately 64 million infections

and 160,000 deaths each year and the predominant cause of lower respiratory tract (LRT) virus infection

in young children. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV), a virus closely related to RSV and only discovered

in 2002, typically infects older children, leading to generally less severe disease symptoms. In Singapore,

RSV and HMPV infections pose important health concerns. A study, led by our team in collaboration with

Singapore's KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) and DSO National Laboratories, estimated that

both RSV and HMPV infections together account for approximately 17 % of children hospitalised at KKH

with virus related respiratory tract infections. Other high-risk groups for severe RSV and HMPV infections

include the elderly and adults with impaired immune systems. The lack of effective vaccines and the limited

availability of cost-effective therapeutics aggravate this clinical scenario.

RSV Infection, Particle Formation And Transmission To Other Cells

During RSV infection, two distinct virus structures – inclusion bodies and virus filaments (Fig 1) – are

formed. Inclusion bodies, made up of aggregates of proteins, are associated with virus gene replication and

transcription and thus reproduction of virus particle components. Virus filaments, forming on the surface

of infected cells, are the sites where mature virus particles are assembled and subsequently transmitted

to other cells. Our current studies on HMPV maturation indicate that the mechanisms of virus particle

maturation are similar to those of RSV and thus conserved in these viruses.

The main focus of our studies is towards a better understanding of virus filaments formation and RSV

particle assembly. Several host cell proteins that are usually associated with cell membranes or scaffolding,

e.g. caveolin-1 and actin (Fig 2), were detected in the envelopes of purified RSV particles. Further research

showed that virus assembly takes place at complex cell membrane structures composed of specialised lipid

membrane structures (lipid-raft microdomains) that are stabilised by actin. In addition, activation of several

small GTPases, enzymes that play a role in regulating actin structure, is also required for RSV filament

formation. Current work is in progress to characterise the interactions between the virus and cell proteins

and to elucidate the cell signal networks that lead to virus assembly and facilitate intercellular transmission

of RSV particles.

Infected Macrophages Do Not Produce Virus Particles But Induce Inflammation

Lung macrophages are proposed to play an important role in the early clinical response to RSV infection.

In contrast to cell types that are permissive to RSV infection, RSV infection of macrophages results

in a phenomenon known as 'abortive infection'. Although virus infection of macrophages leads to the

expression of several virus proteins and formation of inclusion bodies (Fig 4), infectious virus particles are

Fig 1. The association of virus filaments and inclusion bodies in RSV infected

cells. A 3D projection of an image obtained by confocal microscopy

showing an inclusion body (IB) and associated virus filaments (VF).

Insight

Assoc Prof Richard Sugrue is the Head of the Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology Division

at NTU's School of Biological Sciences. The described projects are collaborations

with Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), DSO National Laboratories, KK Children's and Women's Hospital (KKH), and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research

and Technology Interdisciplinary Research Group (SMART-IRG) on Infectious Diseases.

Funding support came from the National Medical Research Council, Defence Science

and Technology Agency (DSTA), NTU and the National Research Foundation.

13

Fig 2. Immunofluorescence confocal microscopy showing the association of F-actin and Caveolin-1 with virus structures in RSV-infected cells.

(A) Left: cellular protein F-actin stained in blue; middle: viral N protein stained in red; right: merging of both images: overlap of the staining of cellular F-actin and viral N protein (purple) indicates that both types of proteins are found within the virus filament (VF).

(B) The cellular membrane protein Caveolin-1 (red) and the viral F protein (green) are both located within the virus filament (VF) in the merged image.

Fig 3. RSV-infected lung macrophages were stained for RSV (green) and a cell protein (red) and visualised by fluorescence scanning confocal microscopy at magnification x100. The white arrow highlights the presence of virus inclusion bodies.

not produced. However, infection with RSV induces strong and sustained activation of cytokines, a category

of signalling molecules, which promote systemic inflammation.

The research team aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that impair virus particle formation in

these cells and to decipher the processes that lead to inflammation. Since RSV is harmful to cells of the

immune system, a greater understanding of these processes will advance the development of therapeutics

to mitigate the strong inflammation that is associated with severe RSV infections.

Avian And Human Influenza Virus

According to estimates of the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/), seasonal influenza accounts

for approximately 0.2 billion infections and 500,000 deaths each year. Although seasonal influenza virus

infects primarily humans and is typically transmitted from person to person via aerosols, influenza viruses

can also be transmitted as zoonotic infections from avian species or swine. The research team aims to

understand the molecular mechanisms that allow avian viruses to become adapted to mammalian hosts.

Adaptation has been the driver in all past influenza pandemics, and will most likely be the major factor in

future influenza pandemics.

The team uses model viruses of human and avian origin such as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI)

viruses of H5N2 and H9N2 subtype, isolated from live broiler ducks that were detected by the Agri-Food

and Veterinary Authority of Singapore when imported into Singapore, and pH1N1 viruses that were isolated

from patients in Singapore during the influenza pandemic in 2009. These viruses have been completely

characterised at the genetic level and their biological properties were established in several cell types.

Infection of human airway cells with the LPAI virus isolates (H5N2 and H9N2) leads to inflammatory

responses not seen with viruses adapted to laboratories such as the H1N1/WSN and H1N1/PR8 isolates

that are commonly used to examine influenza virus replication. In addition, the LPAI viruses were not able

to reproduce, assemble and transmit virus particles. Further examination of the biological properties of

LPAI viruses and human influenza virus isolates will provide a clearer understanding of species adaptation.

Fig 4. Virus assembly in H9N2 virus-infected cell cultures is impaired. Cell cultures infected with either H1N1/WSN lab-adapted viruses or H9N2 virus isolates were stained for viral N protein and viewed using a fluorescence microscope. The nuclei are highlighted (white arrows). Staining of most cells infected with lab-adapted virus H1N1/WSN show generalised cell staining indicating virus assembly has taken place. In contrast, cells infected with the H9N2 virus show only brightly stained nuclei, indicating that the virus N protein is not transported from the cell nucleus to the sites of virus assembly at the cell surface. Insets show the staining pattern at higher magnification.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 14

Translating Biological Design Into Eco-Friendly Materials

Bio-Inspired Materials Science

By Paul A. Guerette, Ondrej Zvarec, Vitali Lipik

and Ali Miserez

Bio-inspired engineering has attracted considerable research interest in the past decade, though nature as

a source of inspiration for scientists is not new. For instance, in the mid 20th century, zoologists exhibited

a keen interest in understanding topics such as insect flight physiology that eventually led to identification

and in-lab replication of the key material (called resilin) for insect flight. In the past two decades, materials

scientists and chemists have extensively studied a wide range of biological materials, from soft to hard

tissues, and this growing interest has led to remarkable progress in linking the intriguing properties of

biological materials to their structure and chemistry. In addition, tremendous advances in molecular and

genetic engineering technologies and instrumentation now allow affordable high-throughput genetic

sequencing of a vast and diverse array of biological systems and materials.

The research team at NTU's Biological and Biomimetic Materials Laboratory (BBML) aims at elucidating

the molecular, structural and functional relationships of unique natural materials in a synergistic approach

that combines techniques such as protein and genetic sequencing, structure-property relationships at the

nano-scale, recombinant protein expression and self-assembly, as well as chemical functionalisation and

polymer synthesis (Fig 1). Many of our model systems are marine organisms from Singapore's intertidal

zone, which contains hundreds of intriguing species. Conveniently accessible, these organisms include

mussels, marine snails, cephalopods and stomatopods (Fig 2).

Core research focuses on understanding how robust multi-functional materials are being fabricated under

benign environmental conditions, i.e. without the need for high temperatures, high pressures or harsh

chemicals. The biological tissues of the study organisms – produced from natural chemicals in the

aqueous milieus of tropical oceans under conditions of low temperatures and pressures and thus without

much energetic input – can provide invaluable lessons in sustainability and “green chemistry”. Ultimately,

the aim of the BBML researchers is to mimic such chemistry, following two approaches: One approach

attempts to completely reproduce model materials using genetic engineering strategies. The second

approach aims at replicating the key physico-chemical interactions discovered in model systems using

polymer chemistry and functionalisation approaches.

Molecular Biomimetics: From Genotype To Phenotype

A complete approach to biomimetics requires detailed knowledge of primary protein sequence design and

processing conditions. One of the cornerstones of the BBML involves the identification and sequencing of

genes that encode key structural proteins of high-performance biomaterials. Examples include (1) squid

sucker teeth, which are robust materials found in the tentacles of squid that perform grappling functions

(Fig 2A, Fig 3); (2) squid beaks, which exhibit extreme hardness and impressive wear resistance

Fig 1. Four types of model systems are studied at BBML: (1) wear-resistant tissues and materials that do not contain a hard mineral phase; (2) water-resistant natural glues secreted by mussels and other marine molluscs; (3) bioelastomeric materials made of intermediate-filament (IF) protein types; (4) ultra-high damage resistant biomineralised structures.

These biological materials are studied by combining expertise in Materials Science (materials structure- properties relationships) and Life Sciences (biochemistry / sequencing of protein-based materials). Translation into synthesis of biomimetic materials is carried out by genetic engineering as well as polymer chemistry approaches.

Insight

Asst Prof Ali Miserez is a Nanyang Assistant Professor at the Schools of

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Biological Sciences (SBS) and Head

of the Biological and Biomimetic Materials Laboratory (BBML). Dr Paul A. Guerette and Dr Vitali Lipik are Senior Research

Fellows and Dr Ondrej Zvarec is a Research Fellow, all at MSE.

Model Systems

1. Structural unmineralised hard tissues

2. Water-resistant adhesives and glues

3. Bioelastomers and IF-based materials

4. Biomineralised structures with ultra-high damage resistance

Toolkit And Expertise

Structure/ properties from the macro- down to the molecular scale

Biochemistry/ sequencing of biological materials and extra-cellular tissues

Translation into biomimetic synthesis and application of bio-inspired materials

15

(see Fig 3); (3) marine snail egg cases, which feature elastomeric materials with unique shock absorbing

properties (Fig 2B); and (4) mussel byssal materials, which are made of self-healing fibers and water-resistant

adhesives.

In collaboration with scientists from the Molecular Engineering Lab at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology

and Research (A*STAR), the research team uses state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing technology combined

with proteomics tools to reveal the primary sequences, designs and processing mechanisms of these diverse

materials. With the genes and protein sequences in hand, novel proteins can be designed and engineered in high

amounts using recombinant protein expression tools. These recombinant proteins are then purified, assembled

and/or processed further into high-performance fibres, films, adhesives and bulk materials that mimic the

structural as well as biophysical and mechanical properties of these remarkable native materials (Fig 3).

Materials Synthesis: Utilising Key Physical-Chemical Principles

In parallel to genetic and protein-engineering strategies, the team is employing powerful reductionist approaches

in the biomimicry of model systems. Based on a fundamental understanding of the key biological and chemical

processes and principles that are responsible for the unique characteristics of natural materials, chemists at the

BBML are replicating these principles by tailoring the physico-chemical behaviour of natural polymers through

highly controlled chemical modification processes.

The major goal is to combine biomimetic principles gathered from various model systems into one material.

As an example, squids employ controlled dehydration in order to gradually strengthen the tissue of their beak

from soft to hard by diffusing hydrophobic proteins and chemicals into a hydrophilic polysaccharide network.

This controlled desolvation can be utilised to create strong hydrogel materials that are chemically resistant,

biocompatible, and orders of magnitude stiffer than currently available hydrogels. In parallel, mimetic peptidic

domains are synthesised based on sequences discovered in the generated genetic databases and incorporated into

chemically modified polymer matrices. This approach aims at the complete mimicry of the structural phenomena

observed in the model systems. In the near future, this multifaceted approach will enable the engineering of

materials that are truly self-healing and multi-functional for possible applications in regenerative medicine.

Fig 2. Model systems. (A) Sucker ring teeth are fully proteinaceous yet robust materials that line the tentacles of squid, and are self-assembled only through weak interactions between the constitutive proteins. (B) The ability of marine snails' elastomeric egg case membranes to absorb mechanical shock is unmatched in synthetic elastomers. (C) Stomatopods have evolved remarkable “dactyl clubs”, which they use to shatter the shells of molluscs with impact forces up to 500 N (500 kg·m/s2). (D) Sandcastle worms construct a tubular protective casing using water-resistant glue. This highly versatile polypeptidic glue can stick together diverse solid materials (here glass beads and egg shell fragments). BBML scientists are synthesising polypeptides that closely resemble the native glue to produce adhesives for biomedical applications.

Fig 3. Advanced bioinspired materials. In the "Biological approach" genes encoding proteins of model systems provide templates for novel protein designs. Recombinant proteins are assembled into high-performance fibres, films, adhesives and bulk materials. In the "Synthetic approach" polymer scaffolds are chemically modified to incorporate additional functionality and chemically cross-linked with peptides or inorganic particles to mimic chemical interactions observed in model materials in order to yield designed biomimetic materials (e.g. biocompatible hydrogel films or adhesives).

Advanced Bioinspired Materials

Synthetic Approach

Chemical SynthesisSquid Beak Chemical Crosslinking Biomimetic MaterialSquid Sucker Teeth Next-Gen Sequencing Recombinant Culture Biomimetic Material

Biological Approach

PUSHING FRONTIERS 16

The Emerging Technology of Transformation Optics

"Beyond The Invisible"

By Baile Zhang, Hongyi Xu, and Handong Sun

Historically, most optical/electromagnetic devices were developed based on the following ‘material-

oriented’ procedure

Material –––––> Function

in which the specific properties of a material need to be studied thoroughly before any desired function

utilising this material can be thought of. For example, a magnifying lens was possible only after the

refraction properties of glass had been thoroughly studied in history.

Transformation optics, a recently emerging field in optical and material sciences, describes materials as

effectively warping the optical space in a way analogous to how gravity warps space and time as described

in the general theory of relativity. This geometrical description bridges the barrier between ‘material’ and

‘function’ in principles of optical device design and generates an inverse design procedure as follows:

Material <––––– Function

Insight

Asst Prof Baile Zhang, Asst Prof Handong Sun and graduate student Hongyi Xu are from

NTU's School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Centre for Disruptive Photonic

Technologies. The authors are thankful for the support and discussions with Prof George

Barbastathis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and the Singapore-

MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre).

Asst Prof Baile Zhang was named in 2012 by MIT's Technology Review as one of the

world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35 for his work on the ‘invisible cloak’.

More details can be found in the following publications: Physical Review Letters (2011) 106, 033901; Light: Science & Applications

(2012) 1, e32; DOI:10.1038/lsa.2012.32; and Scientific Reports (2012) 2, 784.

Once the desired optical function has been described geometrically, the required warping of space for that

function is realised by changing the properties of the materials. Inverse design becomes extremely exciting

when it is combined with artificially nano-built versatile materials, or ‘meta-materials’, whose optical

properties can – in principle – be engineered almost at will. This revolutionary combination opens the door

to many unprecedented optical functions, including 'invisibility cloaking', a concept that has been capturing

people's imagination in science fiction stories but has not previously been thought possible.

Challenge And Opportunity

Despite the great potential of applying the inverse design procedure to meta-materials, there is still a long

way to go before every design can be translated into practical use, especially if working with wavelengths

in the visible and infrared spectrum. Thus, the immaturity of nano-built meta-materials has put the inverse

design procedure in an awkward predicament: direct application of the inverse design typically results in

material specifications that require heroic nanofabrication efforts and are difficult to reproduce to that extent

needed to establish a true technological revolution with global impact. So, does that mean the technology

of transformation optics including 'invisibility cloaking' is merely a castle in the air at this stage?

In fact, our research team, in collaboration with Prof George Barbastathis from the US Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT), has found a way to solve this predicament. The team developed a novel

methodology, utilising technical advantages from both the novel inverse design and the traditional forward

Fig 1. A pink paper roll becomes transparent and invisible in an

area that is covered by a calcite crystal 'cloak'.

17

Fig 2. Operating principle of the 'invisibility cloak'. (a) An unobstructed light path between a light source and an observer. (b) An obstacle blocks the light path and casts an observable shadow, revealing the existence of the obstacle. (c) The 'cloak' can guide light around the obstacle and back to its original path without imposing any phase delay. From the viewing point of the observer the obstacle is invisible.

Fig 3. Propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (a) on a flat metal/dielectric interface; (b) around a corner of 90 degrees, resulting in strong scattering; and (c) around a corner of 90 degrees that is covered by a curved electromag-netic space constructed with layered glass/air media (denoted with letter C), which suppresses scattering.

design, to overcome the boundary between meta-materials and natural materials. The new method can be

illustrated as a design procedure loop:

Material –-––––> Function

Creating The 'Invisibility Cloak'

The creation of a macroscopic 'invisibility cloak' provided the first direct test for the novel methodology.

By using natural optical materials, which were not conceivable under the inverse design procedure, the

research team succeeded in yielding the desired transformation optics functions.

The conceptual 'invisibility cloak' device can render an object invisible by guiding light rays around

an object in the same way as water streams around a stone in a brook. Whereas previously designed

'invisibility cloaks' only work at the micro-scale, the research team successfully constructed an 'invisibility

cloak' in visible light using a special construct made of natural calcite crystals (Fig 1).

The operating principle of 'cloaking' an object is explained in Fig 2. An observer can see all the light

emitted from a light source and reasonably concludes that the space in between is free of objects. If an

obstacle blocks the light path it is detectable through the diversion of the light rays resulting in a shadow.

However, if a 'cloak' can guide the light rays around the obstacle and return them to their original trajectory,

the obstacle is 'invisible' to the observer. Key to implementing the new principle at macroscopic scales

and in manifold applications is the wide availability of calcite crystals that are used to form the 'invisibility

cloak'.

Keeping Surface Plasmons In Line

Beyond cloaking, the novel technology can be applied to many problems with profound impact. For

example, how to maintain Moore’s Law (a computing term that states that the processing power for

computers will double every two years) is a big challenge faced by the global semiconductor industry.

Plasmonic circuits that allow data transmission through metallic elements with resonance offer the

potential to combine the superior technical properties of photonics (e.g. high speed) with electronics (e.g.

sub-wavelength size) at the nano-scale and thus provide a promising solution to maintain Moore’s Law.

However, while electrons flowing in copper wires are almost unaffected by the environment outside the

wires, the routing and manipulation of surface plasmons (the coherent electron oscillations that exist at the

interface between metal and dielectric) is fundamentally flawed by their loss due to scattering when they

encounter obstacles or changes to their path such as sharp bending corners (cf. Fig 3a and b). Thus it is

very desirable to make routing and manipulation 'invisible' to surface plasmons. Recent research of our

team showed that the problem of surface plasmon loss through scattering could be overcome. Creation

of a curved electromagnetic space out of layered dielectric materials, which possess similar properties

as calcite, allows the guiding of surface plasmons around corners as if they are still propagating on flat

surfaces (Fig 3c).

Transformation optics provides a new concept in the design of various types of optical materials. Integration

of this new concept into a broader regime of optics on macro- as well as nano-scales could considerably

advance a current cutting-edge scientific frontier towards practical industrial applications. The captivating

idea of inversing the design flow from ‘function’ to ‘material’ has inspired the imagination in the past few

years. However, integration of the direction from ‘material’ to ‘function’ into the creation of new designs is

of equal importance at this stage. As commented in an introductory article in Science (2010, vol. 330, pg.

1622), the idea of transformation optics is so beautiful that it would seem a profligate waste of inspiration if

it didn’t lead to something useful.”

<–––––

PUSHING FRONTIERS 18

Fig 1. Electric taxi design study.

The rapid increase in global road traffic that entails extensive

emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon-dioxide urgently

demands new solutions in low or zero-emission transportation

systems and vehicles. TUM CREATE, a major research project driven

by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and Germany's

Technical University Munich (TUM) and sponsored under the

Singapore National Research Foundation's CREATE (Campus for

Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise) programme, has

taken on the challenge to establish a new paradigm in electromobility

for urban environments. TUM CREATE is spearheading the

development of unique solutions for tropical megacities that will place

Singapore in a pole position for test-bedding, creation and export

of novel key technologies in electric vehicles and transportation

systems.

A comprehensive concept for electric vehicle transportation in tropical

metropolises needs to integrate tailored solutions from many diverse

disciplines, ranging from materials research to vehicle construction

and infrastructure, while taking into account the specific climatic

requirements of tropical cities. Led by renowned scientists from NTU

and TUM, interdisciplinary teams of chemists, physicists, computer

scientists and mechanical, electric and civil engineers are exploring

new materials and advanced battery technologies as well as new

concepts in vehicle design and construction, computer systems for

simulation and modelling, vehicle control and communication, and

energy- and vehicle-related infrastructure. Strong links to key local

and international industry players such as Bosch and Singapore

Power will help advance solutions in energy management or urban

infrastructure, for instance, solar-powered parking lots or high-speed

and wireless battery charging technologies.

B y N i c o l a W i t t e k i n d t

Exploring The Future Of Urban Electromobility

Many of the developed solutions will be integrated and showcased

in TUM CREATE's pilot project, an electric-powered taxi. Since taxis

cover a lot of mileage and run all day, a change made to the taxi

population will bring the greatest impact on Singapore’s future era of

electromobility.

Purpose-built for the tropical megacity, the electric taxi will offer

comfortable access and ample space for passengers and their luggage,

and provide a pleasant workplace for the driver.

Rolling Test Stands With Unique Character

“Our vision is to design a car with a specific form that

reflects its designated use as a taxi. Thus it will gain a

unique character – similar to the London taxi – making it

immediately recognisable,” says Prof Ulrich Stimming, Professor

of Technical Physics at TUM, Visiting Professor at NTU and Scientific

Advisor and Principal Investigator at TUM CREATE.

A particular challenge of the tropical conditions that are typical for

Singapore is the need for constant operation of air-conditioning

systems. To satisfy the energy demands of simultaneous driving and

air-conditioning operations, Prof Stimming's team is developing a

small fuel cell operating on bioethanol that will serve as an auxiliary

power source for the air-conditioning system.

In addition, new materials, designs and technologies such as

absorption dehumidification to separate air dehumidification and

actual cooling processes aim to reduce cooling demands to levels

below 1 kilowatt. Furthermore, future prototypes may feature

photovoltaic cells embedded in the vehicle's roof or other surfaces to

supply electricity for air-conditioning systems.

In Focus

“Electromobility in megacities goes beyond

the electric car and scales from molecules to

the megacity itself. TUM CREATE’s research

covers topics from new battery materials to

urban transportation infrastructure.” – Prof Subodh Mhaisalkar, Executive Director of ERI@N and Co-Scientific Director of TUM CREATE.

19

The first electric taxi prototypes, anticipated for 2014, will serve

as rolling test stands to advance technological developments. The

long-term objective is to develop a marketable solution for electric-

powered taxis as part of an integrative concept for electromobility in

megacities.

Drawing The Driving Force From The Sun

Exemplifying NTU's efforts in clean energy car technologies is

also a series of solar cars that have been designed and built by an

interdisciplinary team of students from the School of Mechanical and

Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and several other engineering schools

at NTU. Under the supervision of Assoc Prof Ng Heong Wah, four

solar cars (Nanyang Ventures I, II, III and V) successfully participated

in international solar car race challenges such as the Shell Eco

Marathon Europe (2009) and Asia (2010, winning the Solar Grand

Prize, and 2011), and the World Solar Challenge in 2009 and 2011.

The design and construction of the solar cars encompassed solar

cell engineering, CAD vehicle design, lightweight carbon composite

fabrication, vehicle electronics and battery packaging, making the

cars so effective that Nanyang Venture III was able to travel for 522

km on just 1 kWh, while Nanyang Venture V can reach a top speed

of 70 km/hour powered by sunlight alone.

Electric Vehicles For All Facets Of Urban Street Life

Students from the MAE in collaboration with ERI@N under the

supervision of Assoc Prof Ng Heong Wah are designing a Battery

Electric Vehicle (BEV) for the transportation of up to four passengers

in urban environments. The BEV aims at a driving range of up to

80 kilometres on a single charge and serves as a test-bed for future

alternative energy sources such as hydrogen fuel-cells and new

battery technologies.

Future travellers will be able to traverse a city quickly, safely and

comfortably with the Multi-Purpose Scooter (MPS), a TUM

CREATE project being carried out at NTU's Innovation@MAE Lab.

Fig 2. Solar car Nanyang Venture V successfully travelled 2283 km in the 2011 World Solar Challenge, Australia.

“The project aims to create a mobility solution to combat

increasingly congested roads in megacities, like those in

Southeast Asia,” says Stephan Schickram. The German PhD

candidate from TUM CREATE is the project’s lead and was pivotal in

starting the project in August 2012.

The two-wheeled compact transportation system, with a width of only

0.7 m specifically designed to navigate congested urban streets, will

be able to transport a passenger comfortably seated and secured in an

enclosed crash-protected compartment. This removable cabin can be

switched to other purpose-built modules to suit different needs – from

transporting light cargo to setting up a mobile kitchen.

“It can start off as a premium product to transport business

people through the congestions in the city, complete with

weather protection and even air-conditioning,” Schickram says.

“Then, we can explore other modules for different purposes.”

Powered by lithium ion batteries and with a targeted top speed of 45

km/hour and a range of approximately 80 km, the economical and

environmentally-friendly MPS can be charged at any wall power socket

en route. As an alternative to the fuel-powered auto rickshaws – or

Tuk-Tuks – of many Asian cities, the compact electric two-wheeler can

serve as taxi, goods transporter or as mobile stand for street vendors

and hawkers.

Fig 3. Left: Wooden mock-up of the BEV to test driver-vehicle interaction (ergonomics, human interface) and vehicle components before construction of the actual 'frame on wheel' vehicle.

Right: Model of the plug-in BEV.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 20

B y D i n e s h K u m a r

Using Augmented Reality For Anatomical Education

Anatomy is an important area for medicine and a vital part of a basic

medical education. For new medical schools such as the Lee Kong

Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) at NTU, ensuring that

students develop a strong knowledge base in anatomy is essential.

One of the main challenges in anatomical education for medical

students is the difficulty to investigate in depth the layered structures

of the human body. In addition, two-dimensional (2D) illustrations

such as those found in textbooks do not offer the possibility to view

anatomical structures from different angles.

Rapid developments in the field of medical imaging in recent years

now present new opportunities for students to visualise and explore

the structure of the human body. In particular, the use of augmented

reality (AR) technology will drastically improve the ways students are

taught anatomy.

The use of technology for teaching and learning is a unique and

distinguishing characteristic of the medical curriculum of the

LKCMedicine. NTU's new medical school that will welcome its first

cohort of students in summer 2013 has aligned its mode of teaching

medicine to the ways the tech-savvy students of this millennium take

in information.

Thus, at LKCMedicine, the majority of learning materials such as

the contents of lectures will be available electronically. All students

will be issued iPads containing their timetable, assessments and an

extensive e-learning portfolio.

The goal of the technology-based teaching mode of LKCMedicine is to

encourage students to take ownership of their learning. As most of the

curriculum contents will be uploaded onto their iPads, students will be

able to view the material anytime and anywhere. For example, students

will be able to view videos of practical procedures on their way to the

hospital wards where they will subsequently witness those procedures

done in a real-life clinical setting. This will enable medical students to

refer to learning contents wherever they are and hence optimise their

use of time.

The School, in collaboration with Fraunhofer Interactive Digital

Media@NTU (Fraunhofer IDM@NTU), a research centre for visual

computing, has developed an interactive learning application that

enables students to manipulate three-dimensional (3D) representations

of the human anatomy on the iPad. The new application overlays

the real world such as anatomical models with pertinent additional

information in the form of text, images, videos and animations that

helps to strongly enhance the learning experience (Fig 1, 2).

Fig 1. Capturing data from a real-world object.

Fig 2. Labelling of anatomical details overlaying a real-world picture on an iPad.

In Focus

21

This method of anatomy study using AR technology provides a

holistic approach towards learning by integrating new and interactive

digital media with more traditional learning tools such as textbooks

and anatomical models, thus enriching the students' experience.

Fraunhofer IDM@NTU Director, Prof Wolfgang Mueller-Wittig, says,

“Using this augmented method, students are immersed in

a highly interactive and proactive learning environment.

And when students are engaged, they are stimulated

to learn more. This is one of the many prototypes at

Fraunhofer IDM@NTU aimed at creating innovative learning

environments using AR technology.”

In addition, and in contrast to traditional 2D learning materials, the

new application will allow students to view the human anatomy at any

magnification and depth. By enabling the user to magnify, drag and

rotate specific organs or body parts he or she wants to learn more

about, this new technology greatly improves learning about human

anatomy.

Installed on students' iPads, the AR application lets them grab

contents by pointing to real-world objects, for instance posters, that

have been pre-designed to correspond with the iPads (Fig 3, 4). The

interaction will trigger the appearance of learning materials such as

slides and videos on the iPads.

The implementation of technology-enhanced learning not only allows

for individually enriched customised learning through the adoption

of state-of-the-art AR applications, but also extends the pedagogical

experience beyond the classroom.

Students will be able to use this application in a variety of formal

and informal learning environments such as within the medical

school, the polyclinics and hospital teaching spaces. For example,

posters detailing anatomy structures will be strategically placed in

the hospital teaching spaces and students will be able to download

learning materials by pointing to specific segments of the poster.

Anatomical education requires students to capture a large amount of

information in order to understand the workings of organ systems.

The ability to download all relevant information from real-world

objects such as posters provided in the teaching spaces will facilitate

effective learning and substantially reduce the need for students to

extensively research other resources for anatomical information.

However, it is important to note that this application has so far been

developed as a supplementary learning tool. The application will

not be a substitute for practical sessions as those give students the

opportunity to view various human anatomy structures in real life

and first-hand. Much of the practical sessions will also take place in

conjunction with radiologists and surgeons at the school and in the

context of team-based learning events.

Nevertheless, digital tools have become essential learning and

teaching tools in medical education today as the volume and

complexity of medical information have increased in recent years.

Thus, it is important to deliver contents in fresh, fascinating and

effective ways so that students are able to absorb, retain and apply

that information with ease.

The education of tomorrow has to suit students’ preferred learning

methods to pique and maintain their interest. In line with this, the

teaching of anatomy at LKCMedicine is geared towards raising future

generations of highly qualified doctors.

Asst Prof Dinesh Kumar is Lead for Anatomy Teaching and Head of Examinations (Phase 1) at the LKCMedicine. Fraunhofer IDM@NTU, a joint research centre between NTU and Europe's largest institution for applied research, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, advances solutions for Interactive Digital Media (IDM) and visual computing in science and engineering.

Fig 4. Asst Prof Dinesh Kumar demonstrating the augmented reality tool to a prospective student.

Fig 3. Interaction with a poster triggers the appearance of explanatory slides and videos.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 22

Around four million people – half of them in Asia – die every year

from diseases associated with contaminated drinking water and

inadequate sanitation. Clean water is not only essential for public

health but also for economic and societal development.

Lien Foundation-NTU Environmental Endeavour (EE2), a partnership

between NTU and the Singapore-based philanthropic Lien

Foundation, has taken up the battle against poverty and economic

stagnation caused by the lack of safe drinking water. As a member

of NTU's Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI)

ecosystem, EE2 draws from NTU's and NEWRI's expertise in

engineering, water technologies and business.

EE2 follows a three-pronged approach to meeting challenges in

clean water and sanitation: The Lien Environmental Fellowship

(LEF), the Lien Student Programme that engages students through

participation in EE2 projects, and the Lien Alliance for International

Development (Lien AID) that implements projects benefiting

disadvantaged communities.

Funding And Support For Innovative On-Site Solutions

The LEF programme provides funding to academics in Asia to

foster and implement innovative ideas and education in water and

sanitation issues.

B y N i c o l a W i t t e k i n d t

Lien Aid And Lien Environmental Fellowships NTU’s Philanthropic Arms To Battle Poverty And Poor Health In Asia

LEF Fellows are mentored through leading scientists at NEWRI on

conceptualisation, testing and implementation of on-site solutions that

benefit their home communities.

Since the beginning of the programme in 2010, seven LEF projects in

six countries – Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal

– received funding under EE2. Research efforts focus on constructed

wetlands for wastewater treatment and waste management in urban and

rural areas.

Preserving A World Heritage Lake For Future Generations

The first project, awarded by LEF to Dr Shameen Jinadasa from the

University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, tackles water pollution in Kandy

Lake and Mid Canal in Sri Lanka. The lake and canal next to the city

of Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage site, are heavily polluted due to

increasing urbanisation and inadequate waste management.

In an initial step, a pilot-scale floating wetland with water treatment

properties was installed in the lake (Fig 2). Several Environmental

Engineering students – participants of NTU's Lien Student Programme

– supported the project by assessing water quality, conducting surveys,

and developing a school environmental education programme.

Sustaining The Intha Community At Inle Lake, Myanmar

In the face of tourism growth at Inle Lake, an ASEAN heritage site, Dr

Khin Lay Swe from the Yezin Agricultural University (YAU) mooted

the idea to develop clean water and sanitation systems at Myanmar’s

second largest lake (Fig 1).

Fig 2. Floating wetlands on Kandy Lake.

In Focus

Fig 1. Young Intha on Inle Lake. Decline in the traditional and unique mode of Intha fishing, in which Intha men use only one leg to row the boat, is partly due to lake pollution.

Fig 1. Young Intha on Inle Lake. Decline in the traditional and unique mode of Intha fishing, in which Intha men use only one leg to row the boat, is partly due to lake pollution.

23

Students from NTU and YAU assessed water quality and educated the

lake dwellers on the need for clean water. On-going plans to support

sustainable uses of the lake include encouraging organic farming at

the floating market gardens and advising appropriate management of

waste dyes in the weaving factories.

Lien AID: Implementing Technologies And Community Self-Management Strategies

Since 2006, Lien AID has been developing innovative and

sustainable water and sanitation solutions based on appropriate

technologies, on-the-ground support and knowledge transfer. Its

approach consists of assessing the local communities' needs and

exploring ways in which simple technologies can be integrated

affordably and effectively to local conditions to ensure sustainable

and rapidly scalable programmes. All projects have a strong element

of community involvement to nurture a sense of project ownership

and ensure local continuation. Lien AID's projects currently focus on

drought mitigation, water quality, the healthcare sector and marketing

approaches in Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

Water For Floating Communities

Tonlé Sap in Kampong Chnang Province, Cambodia, is the largest

freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, designated as a UNESCO biosphere

in 1997 for its rich biodiversity. As part of a large lake-river system,

the lake is drained by the Tonlé Sap River during the dry season and

refilled during monsoon season with nutrient-rich waters from the

Mekong that provide for rich fish breeding grounds and extend the

lake's area by more than five-fold. An estimated one million people

live in floating villages on the lake. Direct defecation into the water

(human and animal discharge), sewage and emissions from motorised

boats lead to heavy pollution of the lake. Nonetheless, families

continue to drink directly from the lake, resulting in a high prevalence

of water-related diseases such as diarrhoea.

Lien AID’s project aims at providing treated drinking water to residents

of floating communities. The construction of floating water treatment

and bottling plants – the first with a 8,000 litre per day capacity was

completed in Chnok Trou Commune – is complemented by training of

local entrepreneurs in business, management and marketing to implement

commune-led plant operation. UV radiation of the raw water renders

treated drinking water that is bottled and sold at prices that are affordable

to the families and at the same time sustain plant maintenance costs

(Fig 3). Operation and maintenance guidelines as well as on-going

monitoring by Lien AID ensure sustainability of the enterprise that today

encompasses three water treatment plants and is currently scaled up to

finally reach 23 communities.

“At Lien AID, achieving sustainability is our topmost priority.

Our Tonlé Sap Project is an excellent example of our

commitment to sustainable development and poverty

alleviation through the implementation of technologies and

entrepreneurship,” explains Lien AID’s CEO Koh Lian Hock.

Tackling Arsenic Contamination Of Groundwater And Drinking Water

Ingestion of the odour- and tasteless water contaminant arsenic over a

period of time can cause arsenicosis, a medical condition with symptoms

such as skin thickening and discolouration, partial paralysis, blindness or

cancers of several organs (World Health Organisation, 2011).

In Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam, Lien AID developed low-cost house-

hold water filters and piloted three models of arsenic-removal units in 64

households to improve the quality of drinking water (Fig 4). To ensure

sustainability, Lien AID also developed and disseminated educational

materials on arsenic removal options and the impact of arsenic on

human health.

A widespread problem, some rural schools across Cambodia and Vietnam

continue to use arsenic-contaminated tube-wells. In consultation with

Assoc Prof Lim Teik Thye from NTU's School of Civil and Environmental

Engineering, Lien AID is currently looking into improving these schools’

access to drinking water, either through arsenic removal or through

harnessing alternative water sources.

Fig 4. Left: Vietnamese woman with skin discolouration due to use of arsenic contaminated water. Right: Household water filters for arsenic removal.

Fig 3. Bottling radiation-treated drinking water on Tonlé Sap Lake.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 24

Pilot Study Mitigates Concerns About Quantum Dots Used In Tumour TargetingCutting out the right amount of tissue when removing a tumour poses major challenges to surgeons and

can decide the fates and remaining lifespans of cancer patients. Previous studies in culture cells and

rodents have shown the high potential of quantum dots, one type of semiconductor nanocrystals, in the

targeting, imaging and identification of tumour tissues. However, concerns about potential toxicity of the

heavy metal constituents of quantum dots have prevented their use in medical imaging and diagnostics so

far. A new study, led by Asst Prof Yong Ken-Tye from NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, and ChangChun

University of Science and Technology, Jilin, PR China, and the University of Buffalo, NY, USA, now may aid

to mitigate these concerns. The pilot study showed that rhesus macaques, injected once with phospholipid

micelle-encapsulated cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide, and zinc sulfide quantum dots did not exhibit

any evidence of toxicity as evaluated in multiple organ systems over a period of 90 days. However, since

elevated levels of cadmium and selenium were still found in organs such as the liver, spleen and kidneys

after the testing period, the authors suggest further long-term studies to determine ultimate toxicity risks.

Yet, the study strongly raises hopes that in future quantum dots can be widely used in tumour targeting and

bioimaging and in other biomedical and clinical fields.

The article "A pilot study in non-human primates shows no adverse response to intravenous injection of

quantum dots" was published online in Nature Nanotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2012.74.

Heterostructures: A New Class Of Materials For Computer Memory

A decade-long race for new atomically engineered materials for electronics and computer devices that

allow for much higher computational speeds and memory capacities in combination with lower energy

consumption appears to be won. The breakthrough study, led by Assoc Prof Christos Panagopoulos

from NTU's School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in collaboration with researchers from

universities in Greece, USA and Korea, describes the emergence of properties such as ferroelectricity

and magnetoelectricity in thin film heterostructures comprised of stacks of antiferromagnetic and non-

ferroelectric insulator components. The ability to induce tunable polarised regions in asymmetric layered

structures – orienting in positions corresponding to zero or one – when applying an electric or magnetic

field opens up countless possibilities to use these heterostructures for fast computation and non-volatile

Random Access Memory (RAM) applications.

The study "Tunable ferroelectricity in artificial tri-layer superlattices comprised of non-ferroic components"

was published in Nature Communications. 3:1064 (2012); DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2061. More information

can be found on the website http://phyne.spms.ntu.edu.sg/

Discoveries

25

Historic Climatic Events Drove Evolution Of Polar Bears

Polar bears evolved as a distinct species up to five million years ago, about four and a half million years

earlier than previously estimated, suggests an international study co-led by Prof Stephan Schuster, a

professor at Penn State University (PSU) and a research scientist at NTU, Prof Charlotte Lindqvist of the

University at Buffalo and Prof Webb Miller of PSU. The research study that compared whole genomes of

twenty-seven contemporary polar, brown and black bears, in addition to a 130,000- to 110,000-year old

polar bear specimen, revealed that the size of the polar bear population fluctuated with climate change over

the last one million years, demonstrating a strong decline in population size and genetic diversity during the

last 500,000 years. The genetic data showed evidence that polar and brown bears intermittently interbred,

most likely during periods of warming. Inferring from the past to recent global warming, the scientists

predict future mixing and interbreeding of the two species due to forced changes in the range and lifestyle

of polar bears.

The study "Polar and brown bear genomes reveal ancient admixture and demographic footprints of past

climate change" was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2012); DOI:10.1073/pnas.1210506109

A One-Step, Environmentally-Friendly Method For The Synthesis Of High-Quality Ultrathin Metal Sulphide Nanocrystals

Ultrathin nanomaterials such as graphene and ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals have many attractive

properties due to their exceptionally small sizes of only one or two crystal units (less than 5 nm) in at least

one dimension and the resultant quantum size effects. Promising applications of ultrathin nanostructures

include sensors, catalyst supports, environmental remediation, and lithium-ion batteries. Assoc Prof

Zhang Hua and his team from NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering report a simple and

general method for the large-scale synthesis of uniform ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals. The method

encompasses a simple one-step process that is environmentally-friendly, uses inexpensive reagents and

allows synthesis of different kinds of high-quality ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals with various

compositions and phases at large scale and with high yields. The proof-of-concept study demonstrates

fabrication of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries that exhibit large capacities and good cycling stability.

The study "A general method for the large-scale synthesis of uniform ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals"

was published in Nature Communications (2012) 3:1177, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2181. Assoc Prof Zhang

Hua received one of the two inaugural Small Young Innovator Awards 2012 “for important contributions to

novel low-dimensional nanomaterials”. The Small Young Innovator Awards are conferred on outstanding

scientists or engineers in nanoscience and nanotechnology below the age of 45 by Wiley-VCH, the

publisher of the nanotechnology journal Small. Assoc Prof Zhang is also the recipient of NTU's 2011

Nanyang Award for "Research Excellence in Materials Technology".

Picture credit: Terry Debruyne,U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Public domain image.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 26

Social Cloud TV, A New Multi-Screen Mobile And Social TV Experience

A new human-computer interaction technology enables seamless migration of online videos, movies or TV

programmes across multiple screens, from TV to laptop, smartphone or tablet. Moreover, the innovation by

Asst Prof Wen Yonggang and his team from the Centre for Multimedia and Network Technology (CeMNet)

at NTU's School of Computer Engineering is a cloud-based social TV platform that allows the sharing of

current media contents between users and, simultaneously, social interactions regarding these contents.

Thus, using social network platforms, videos or shows can be watched together with friends or family

who are someplace else and discussed via video chat, voice or text messages. Key technologies include a

Cloud-Assist Social TV Framework, Cloud-based Media Transcoding, Content Delivery as a Service, and

Session Migration.

Assoc Prof Miao Chun Yan from NTU's School of Computer Engineering, who is conducting research on

infusing intelligent agents into interactive new media, says "With the development of increasingly powerful

cloud computing based content delivery platforms, TV is moving inevitably from traditional media to

Internet-based media. Social cloud TV will one day be a part of our life."

The research has gained widespread interest in the digital media industry. A start-up company will help

to further develop and commercialise the innovative multi-screen mobile social TV experience that is

expected to be on the market by the end of 2014.

Memshield: An Innovative Low-Cost Water Monitoring System

NTU's spin-off company MINT (Membrane Instruments

and Technology) is commercialising a system that will

help water treatment plants save up to two-thirds of

their water monitoring operation costs. The new 3-in-1

system, developed by Dr Adrian Yeo, a Research

Fellow at the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre

under NTU's School of Civil and Environmental

Engineering and founder and CEO of MINT, is able to

(1) monitor water quality and identify the presence of

bacteria or other contaminants, (2) detect the presence

of broken membrane filters, and (3) pinpoint a broken

filter with an accuracy of 1 in 100,000 filters. All three

crucial processes, required for compliance of water

treatment plants using membrane technology with

international standards, are integrated into one system

in a single device called Memshield.

Discoveries

27

A New Way Of Delivering Anti-Scarring Treatment For Post-Surgical Glaucoma Patients

The success of glaucoma surgery is often jeopardised by post-operative scarring, a risk affecting up to one

in three operated Asian patients. Scarring is treated via injection of the drug 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) into

the eye, a procedure that is repeated several times during the weeks of wound healing as the drug is only

effective for a few hours after injection. In a joint effort, Prof Subbu Venkatraman, Chair of NTU's School of

Materials Science and Engineering, and Assoc Prof Tina Wong, adjunct professor at NTU and Head of the

Ocular Therapeutics and Drug Delivery Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute, developed

a system in which 5-FU is nano-encapsulated in a gel composed of hyaluronic acid, enabling gradual drug

release over several days after injection. Patients treated with the new gel required fewer drug injections

and showed improved post-operative outcomes with reduced risks of ocular infection and

sight-threatening complications. Ongoing research aims to prolong and define drug release so that

ultimately a single injection at the time of glaucoma surgery will suffice to suppress scarring.

The study "Randomised controlled trial of a sustained delivery formulation of 5-Fluorouracil for the

treatment of failing blebs" was published in Ophthalmology, 119(2), 314-320 (2012).

Bio-Inspired Artificial Fish-Like MEMS Sensors

Inspired by the sensory organs in the lateral line of the Mexican Blind Cave Fish Astyanax mexicanus fasciatus, Assoc Prof Miao Jianmin and his team from NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering have invented sensory devices able to sense changes in air or water flow that can locate and

identify nearby objects through 3D imaging and mapping of surroundings. Novel biomimetic materials

with mechanical properties close to those of fish cupula were employed to fabricate biomimetic

fish-like cupulas on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) haircell sensors using a combination of

electrospinning and hydrogel drop-casting processes. Sensors with hydrogel encapsulated nanofibrils

showed enhanced performance compared to naked haircell sensors.

Arrays of MEMS strain gauge sensors using LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) as diaphragm will be employed

for underwater sensing, together with another type of MEMS sensors – piezoelectric water pressure

sensors – that are able to perform passive fish-like underwater sensing without the need for electrical

power. In collaboration with Prof Michael Triantafyllou from the Centre for Environmental Sensing and

Modeling (CENSAM) under the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), a research

centre funded by the National Research Foundation, the highly sensitive sensors will be adopted for use in

autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to replace the current spectrum of expensive, energy-intensive or

invasive sensory equipment such as underwater cameras, acoustic navigation and sonars. AUVs equipped

with the new sensors and additional chemical or biological sensors can be used for environmental sensing

to monitor water quality and detect environmental pollution, or for defence purposes – such as the

detection of submarines – as the new sensors are not invasive and thus are not traceable themselves.

The research will be presented at the 26th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical

Systems, 2013, in Taipei, Taiwan.

PUSHING FRONTIERS 28

Immunology And Infectious Diseases Pioneer

Professor Dermot KelleherJuggling many hats in his eminent career is Prof Dermot Kelleher, a global expert in

immunology and infectious diseases with over 30 years of research, teaching and medical

leadership experience.

He is the Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, and the new Dean

of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, founded in 2010 by NTU and Imperial College

London to train doctors to meet Singapore's future healthcare needs.

As the new Dean of NTU’s pioneering medical school, Prof Kelleher will build on the

foundations laid by the Founding Dean, Prof Stephen Smith.

The school will enrol its first students in 2013 and Prof Kelleher is all ready to lead the next

phase of its development. He says: “The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine has ambitious

goals to redefine both medical education and research. Hundreds of people at Imperial, NTU

and in partner healthcare organisations have already contributed to its development, creating

a curriculum and infrastructure that will offer students an exceptional medical education.

It will be a privilege to work with this dedicated team to set the direction for the School’s

research strategy and prepare to begin training a generation of outstanding doctors to serve

Singapore.”

The accomplished Irish professor has over 250 publications and 14 patents to his name,

and is the founding member and director of spin-out biomedical solution companies such

Faces

PUSHING FRONTIERS 28

29

as Opsona Therapeutics and Cellix. He was the

Chairman of the Eurolife Consortium of European

Medical Schools and is a Fellow of the Academy of

Medical Sciences, Royal College of Physicians of

Ireland, Royal College of Physicians (London) and

the American Gastroenterology Association.

An esteemed medical pioneer, Prof Kelleher has

studied the immune response to leading causes of

infectious diseases. His work is often translated

into new diagnostics and treatments for patients.

He is a key person behind a pioneering method

that draws on nanotechnology to barcode antibody

molecules – a significant invention that could

be used to diagnose health disorders like blood

cancers. 

As one of Ireland's foremost medical leaders,

Prof Kelleher helped to start the Dublin Molecular

Medicine Centre in 2002. Now known as Molecular

Medicine Ireland, the non-profit company spurs

healthcare improvements through the development

of diagnostics and therapies.

Prof Kelleher graduated from Trinity College

Dublin in 1978 and completed specialist training

in gastroenterology. He later received a Fogarty

Scholarship for a research fellowship at University

of California, San Diego. He returned to Trinity and

was appointed Head of its School of Medicine and

Vice-Provost for Medical Affairs in 2006. Under his

tenure, the medical school saw several innovative

reforms, including the establishment of a new five-

year programme leading to bachelor’s degrees in

medicine, surgery and obstetrics.

Prof Kelleher was awarded the 2011 Conway

Medal by the Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

His research has been featured in highly-rated

publications and academic journals such as Nature

Immunology, Nature Methods and Nature Genetics.

EVENTS5th International Science Youth Forum (ISYF) 2013@Singapore with Nobel Laureates: Breaking Through

Organised by Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at NTU and Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore

20 – 24 January 2013

Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore

Website: http://isyf.hci.edu.sg/

Global Young Scientists Summit@one-north (GYSS@one-north) 2013: Advancing Science, Creating Technologies For a Better World

Organised by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore

20 – 25 January 2013

One-north, University Town, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore

Website: http://gyss-one-north.sg/

School on Modern Topics in Condensed Matter Physics

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies at NTU, the Graphene Research Centre at NUS, and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy

28 January – 8 February 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

2nd Complexity Conference: A Crude Look at the Whole

Organised by NTU's Complexity Programme

4 – 6 March 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

International Workshop on Determination of the Fundamental Parameters of QCD

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies, NTU

18 – 21 March 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

PUSHING FRONTIERS 30

One Of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People

Professor Stephan SchusterBringing the woolly mammoth back to life and seeing it roam the earth again may sound too

“Jurassic Park” to be true. But for many scientists, it’s not a matter of if, but when.

The first step has already been taken.

Geneticist Prof Stephan Schuster earned international repute when he co-led the Mammoth

Genome Project team at Pennsylvania State University, successfully piecing together 85

per cent of the mammoth’s DNA sequence in 2008 using clumps of hair from the remains of

several of the giant critters.

It is more than just about resurrecting Ice Age creatures. Having learnt that the mammoths

became less genetically diverse before eventually dying off, Prof Schuster said this meant

endangered species today could be helped by using gene testing to identify good matches

for breeding in order to preserve the species’ genetic diversity.

Prof Schuster’s achievement in deciphering the DNA of the mammoths was recognised as one

of the “Top 10 Scientific Discoveries” of 2008 by TIME magazine. It also earned him a place

in TIME’s list of the “100 Most Influential People” in 2009.

Faces

PUSHING FRONTIERS 30

31

Prof Schuster, who pioneered the application

of next-generation sequencing to a wide

spectrum of topics in biology including

microbial genomics, evolutionary genomics,

and metagenomics, joined the Singapore Centre

on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering

(SCELSE) in 2011.

NTU is leading the development of the 

SCELSE, a key national research endeavour

that aims to harness micro-organisms to solve

various water and environmental issues. The

centre, identified as Singapore’s fifth Research

Centre of Excellence by the National Research

Foundation and the Ministry of Education, has

won S$120 million in government grants. 

The Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular

Biology at Penn State University is one of the

three cluster leaders at SCELSE, where he

is leveraging the expertise and resources at

the Schuster Lab to unearth new findings in

the areas of genomics, bioinformatics, and

advanced sequencing technologies.

Prof Schuster feels it is possible to open a

window to the past by studying animals that

are long gone at the same level of genetic

detail as when examining living species

today. The lessons being learnt from studying

extinct species can help us to understand the

processes that are driving endangered species

towards possible extinction.

EVENTS1st IAS-CERN Workshop on Particle Physics and Cosmology - Status, Implications and Technology

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies, NTU, and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), Switzerland

25 – 27 March 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

Data Visualisation and Data Analytics for Decision Making (Martime Industry)

Co-organised by Fraunhofer IDM@NTU, Maritime Institute @ NTU and Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI)

2 May 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference: Thinking: Time for a Rethink?

Co-organised by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, and the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education (NIE), NTU

3 – 5 June 2013

National Institute of Eduction, NTU, Singapore

Conference in Honour of Rudy Marcus’ 90th Birthday

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies, NTU

22 – 24 July 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

Conference in Honour of Freeman Dyson's 90th Birthday

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies, NTU

26 – 29 August 2013

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

The 8th Joint Meeting of Chinese Physicists Worldwide (OCPA8)

Organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies, NTU

23 – 27 June 2014

Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU, Singapore

PUSHING FRONTIERS 32

Sustainability Pioneer

Professor Alexander ZehnderProf Alexander Zehnder chairs NTU's Sustainable Earth Peak of

Excellence and is the Director of the Sustainable Earth Office,

Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of NTU's Singapore Centre

on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), Nanyang

Visiting Professor at NTU's School of Biological Sciences and a

member of NTU's Board of Trustees. He is also the Scientific Director

of Water Resources at Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment

Solutions in Edmonton, Canada, and President and Founder of Triple Z

Ltd, a consulting company in water and telecommunication.

What are the common misperceptions about sustainability?

One misperception is that sustainability concerns only nature. Nature has gone through many

catastrophes in history and always recovered. Sustainability is actually for us humans to

safeguard our survival. Another misperception is that sustainability means cutting back on what

is dear to us to protect the earth's resources. This is actually the “green concept”. In reality,

sustainability is about keeping our way of life but using our resources more respectfully and

efficiently through innovation, creativity and imagination.

You are one of the “founding fathers” of the concept of the "2000 Watt Society".

What is this concept about?

The "2000 Watt Society" concept was developed as a quantitative yardstick for achieving

a more sustainable society. The idea behind the "2000 Watt Society" is to organise our

communities in such a way that every person on the planet can use an energy equivalent of

2000 watts, which corresponds to an annual consumption of 17,520 kWh or 1,700 litres of

gasoline. The "2000 Watt Society" concept has already been adopted by many institutions

and communities worldwide as a planning tool.

Where are the main challenges for sustainable societies?

The first big challenge is the efficient and sustainable handling of resources like water and

energy. Solutions for satisfying basic needs in energy, water, food, shelter, and other areas will

come through technology, and NTU is the place to develop such technologies.

The second big challenge is security – how to build future societies that interact peacefully

and share a common development. NTU is very well situated, with its research centres and

the National Institute of Education, to develop concepts and solutions for sharing resources

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efficiently and peacefully, and to bring this philosophy into the

education of our children.

Why do you think NTU should focus research efforts on

sustainable metropolises?

Singapore is a metropolis and NTU as its technological

university is a natural place to develop sustainable solutions

for it. Cities are the engines of the future. Technologically,

economically and in the ways societies are developing, cities

are the places that generate progress. Cities do function

relatively similarly around the world. Solutions developed here

will largely also work elsewhere. With NTU's major research

institutes in sustainability and its strength in engineering,

the university can bring substantial contributions to the

development of sustainable metropolises.

What specific aspects of sustainability research do you

think NTU should focus on?

NTU is already excellent in developing new water

technologies. In energy research, it is also a global player.

These are two very strong pillars. Civil engineers can

contribute dramatically to resource effectiveness. Humanities

and social sciences can help to design sustainable and

secure societies.

Solving all critical issues around mobility is a truly inter- and

transdisciplinary challenge. These issues cannot be easily

resolved with advances in technology alone. The human

passion for mobility is deeply rooted in all of us and drastically

influences our lifestyles. Easing the resource stress induced

by our need to get around freely and easily calls for innovative

concepts, different approaches in designing metropolises, and

new ways to manage complex city systems.

What is NTU's role in the context of Singapore's

ambitions in sustainable development and growth?

NTU can be an important engine to push Singapore's

economic growth in sustainability through developments in

marketable solutions. Another important role could emerge

through sustainability ideas developed by NTU's social

scientists and its Nanyang Business School. Learning

from successful entrepreneurial universities such as the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford University,

NTU can become Asia’s leading entrepreneurial university.

Last but not least, NTU's campus development programme

enables it to showcase and test-bed sustainable solutions and

this is very educational for its students.

What is the Singapore Centre on Environmental

Life Sciences Engineering’s contribution to NTU’s

sustainability efforts?

SCELSE at NTU works on microbial biofilms that often colonise

the interfaces between nature and technical devices, such

as prosthetics, ship hulls and water treatment plants. A main

role of SCELSE is to understand how sometimes detrimental

interactions occurring at these interfaces can be turned to

benefits. SCELSE aims to understand how these complex

communities of millions of individual organisms function and

interact. Learning from these highly adaptive ecosystems

that have evolved over hundreds of millions of years could

give valuable clues on how future cities can become more

productive and better places to live.

What motivates you in your career and how did you

become a global expert on sustainability issues?

I am a microbiologist trained as a chemist and have been

working in water- and energy-related issues for 40 years.

About 30 years ago, it became evident that all concerns

regarding water, air, energy, food and other areas are not

separate issues but strongly interlinked. The concept of

sustainability, first used by forestry for more than 150 years,

was extended by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 to all

other resources and their interdependencies.

Sustainability became a unifying concept. My initial work on

sustainability was obviously in the water and energy sectors

and later the food sector. Since the necessary changes were

difficult to implement without capital, I also concentrated on

the financial sector. This work eventually contributed to the

development of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

With the tremendous knowledge and expertise across the

campus, I am convinced that the combined effort of the NTU

community can make this university a sustainability leader

and a major driver of Singapore’s growth as a technology and

sustainability hub.

NTU President Prof Bertil Andersson at the signing of the International Sustainable Campus Network charter, with NTU Provost Prof Freddy Boey and Prof Alexander Zehnder in attendance.

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