WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE

DR AKSHAY KUMAR RATHORE AS THE WINNER OF

THE 2013 IEEE IAS ANDREW W. SMITH OUTSTANDING YOUNG

MEMBER AWARD.

DOUBLE DEGREE PROGRAMME (DDP)

GRADUATE MR HAN YI CHOU WAS THE VALEDICTORIAN

AT THE COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES FOR ELECTRICAL &

COMPUTER ENGINEERING (ECE) GRADUATES AS WELL AS FOR

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

THE NUS UAV RESEARCH TEAM

WON THE OVERALL CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2011 AND 2013, EACH YEAR WALKING

AWAY WITH A CASH PRIZE OF $10,000 AND AN IPAD FOR

EACH TEAM MEMBER.

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THE ROBOT FISH WILL BE FEATURED AT THE IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS, A TOP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS, IN TOKYO FROM 3–7 NOVEMBER 2013.

HERE COMES ROBOCARP, FIRST ROBOT FISH WITH AUTONOMOUS 3-D MOVEMENTS IN ASIA

A BI-ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERINGISSN 2010-1651 SEPTEMBER 2013 ISSUE 7

Editorial Team Assoc Prof Dipti Srinivasan Assoc Prof Xiang Cheng Assoc Prof Marc Andre Armand Assoc Prof Ng Chun Sum Ms Eunice Wong

Photography Mr Abdul Jalil Bin Din

Advisors Prof Chua Kee Chaing Assoc Prof Tham Chen Khong

CONTENTSDEPARTMENT 01 Dr Akshay Rathore Wins IEEE

IAS Society Award

ECE Faculty Won Teaching Awards

02 New Appointments and Promotions

03 Getting to know Assoc Prof Alioto, Assoc Prof Sikdar and Dr Das

RESEARCH05 Here Comes RoboCarp, the First

Robot Fish with Autonomous 3D Movements in Asia

06 eGuardian – the Next Generation Health Monitoring System for Eldercare

07 Development of Autonomous Indoor UAVs for Annual SAFMC

08 Empowering ECE Students with Cutting-edge Skills in Nanoelectronics

09 ECE Professors Won Big Grants in the Recent Round of NRF CRP

ALUMNI10 Double Degree Programme

Student is Valedictorian for Both Electrical & Computer Engineering and Biz Ad

STUDENT11 Graduate Student Achievements

13 ECE Freshmen Party 2013

14 Internship and FYP at Rolls-Royce

15 DCP Teams Shine at Startup@Singapore, with their Biomedical Innovations

16 ECE Graduation Night 2013

17 Engineering for the Community

18 “Signal Processing for the 21st Century” Workshop

ANNOUNCEMENT18 Coming Soon: First-Ever NUS

ECE Golf & Dinner!

HoD SPEAKS...

Prof Chua Kee Chaing Head, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, NUS

We are now a few weeks into the new academic year 2013/14 and I would like to warmly welcome a few new colleagues to the Department. Assoc Profs Massimo Alioto and Biplab Sikdar, and Drs Pritam Das and Rajesh Panicker have joined as faculty members while Miss Melissa Lam has come onboard as an administrative staff member. Following tradition first started last year, we also welcomed new students to our BEng(EE) and BEng(CEG) programs with our 2013 Freshmen Party. A large number of freshmen, faculty colleagues and new exchange students attended the picnic style event at UTown’s Town Green on 13 August, making the event a very successful first encounter between freshmen and their academic advisors. Then on 31 August, we welcomed home many alumni and their families in this year’s edition of our Annual Alumni Homecoming event, which was also held in UTown and received very enthusiastic response from our alumni. My heartfelt thanks to all colleagues and students who planned and organized the two parties.

The Department continues to do well in both research and teaching. Over the last six months, our colleagues have done extremely well to secure five large NRF CRP grants in the areas of nanoscale imaging, spintronics, neuroengineering and power grid stability. In addition, we received a large grant from the new NRF Office for Space Technology and Industry (OSTIn) to develop a micro-satellite with a hyper-spectral imaging payload for earth observation applications. Dr Michael Hochberg, who joined us a year ago, was recently awarded an NRF Fellowship. In teaching, three of our colleagues, Assoc Prof Aaron Danner, Dr Soh Wee Seng and Prof Adekunle Adeyeye, were conferred NUS’ Annual Teaching Excellence Awards (ATEA), placing them amongst the top few percent of excellent teachers in NUS. Prof Lee Tong Heng, a multiple times ATEA recipient, was conferred the 2013 Asian Control Association Wook Hyun Kwon Education Prize, the highest recognition for educational contribution by the Association. Finally, as reported in this issue, many of our students, both undergraduate and graduate, have also done us proud by winning prestigious awards for their project work and/or research.

Other developments that have taken place in the last six months which have not been reported in this issue of EConnEct include the following:

Freshmen Tay Hock Boon Marcus, Mohamed Faruq bin Mohamed Rasid and Chandini Manoharan were awarded this year’s ECE Scholarships. We will feature them in the next issue of EConnEct.

The Department’s Outreach team produced a new ECE Outreach Video which has received good response on YouTube. The video can be viewed here: http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/outreach/videos/

Over the last six months, our colleagues have done

extremely well to secure five large NRF CRP grants in the areas of nanoscale imaging, spintronics, neuroengineering

and power grid stability.

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Prof Lee Tong Heng was awarded the prestigious Wook Hyun Kwon Education Prize by Asian Control Association (ACA) for his outstanding contributions on education in control theory and applications across the Asia-Oceania region. He was honoured for his contributions to the engineering profession, the control industry, the

university arena and for the impact on society at large.

Prof Adekunle Olusola Adeyeye, Assoc Prof Aaron James Danner and Dr Soh Wee Seng received the university’s Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) for the extraordinary efforts that they have put in teaching their students.

Prof Adekunle is a passionate teacher who believes that the best way for students to learn engineering concepts is through an interactive teaching style that demands their participation and challenges their abilities. He teaches electrical engineering concepts by bridging the gap between theory and the real world, such that students also gain a

fundamental understanding of various core electrical engineering principles via experimentation, exploration and problem solving.

Assoc Prof Danner was awarded the Annual Teaching Excellence Award for his efforts in providing students a classroom with ‘live’ demonstrations and on-the-spot performance feedback (especially when it comes to presentations). He feels that the classroom is a place where education can be best achieved as a collaborative effort,

and where students greatly value feedback, especially critical feedback, which students can use to enhance their learning. He not only uses various teaching methods, but also explains the methodology he uses to students in his classes, so that they understand exactly why he teaches the way he does.

Dr Soh is passionate about imparting knowledge to students. He constantly looks out for pedagogical strategies and technologies that enhance student learning. He believes that students are more engaged in the learning process when they can see ‘live’ demonstrations of the concepts in action. He also tries to ask

students questions that stimulate critical thinking, which in turn reinforces their understanding of the concepts.

Dr Rathore is an expert in Power Electronics and has worked on the design and development of novel power electronics systems and innovative modulation techniques for various applications including renewable energy and transportation. Currently, he is developing novel snubberless bi-directional high-frequency soft-switching current-fed

technologies to achieve a high voltage conversion ratio and high efficiency at low voltage and high currents under wide variations of source voltage and output power.

Together with his graduate student Pan Xuewei, he has also developed a 100 kHz 1 kW high density modular bi-directional current-fed dual active bridge (CF-DAB) converter controlled by Xilinx FPGA. His invention achieved soft-switching of all semiconductor devices and high efficiency over wide variations in source voltage and output power, which is crucial to renewable energy and battery applications. The converter is suitable for deep discharge batteries, and is a potential candidate for future electric transportation systems, UPS, renewable inverters, storage, etc.

DR AKSHAY RATHORE WINS IEEE IAS SOCIETY AWARDWe are proud to announce Dr Akshay Kumar Rathore as the winner of the 2013 IEEE IAS Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Award. This accolade is an IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) award given to recognise the outstanding achievements and contributions to the profession by an IAS member who is less than 35 years of age. Dr Rathore will receive $1,000, a plaque as well as travel expenses to attend the IAS Annual Meeting cum Presidents’ Banquet, to be held on 10 October 2013 in Orlando, Florida, where he will receive the award.

In collaboration with his postdoctoral research fellow Dr Prasanna Rajagopal, he designed and developed a 100 kHz 1 kW high density high step-up bi-directional current-fed half bridge (CFHB) converter controlled by Cypress PSoC 5. These converters have shown excellent performance for low voltage and high currents with a large boost ratio as compared to traditional voltage-fed systems. Dr Rathore is presently designing three-phase current-fed converters for high power applications.

Bi-directional Soft-switching Current-fed Dual Active Bridge Converter

ECE FACULTY WON TEACHING AWARDS

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FACULTY PROMOTIONS DR ASHRAF ALI BIN MOHAMED KASSIM – promotion to Full Professor on 1 July 2012

DR AARON JAMES DANNER – promotion to Associate Professor with tenure on 1 July 2013

DR YAN SHUICHENG - promotion to Associate Professor with tenure on 1 January 2013

NEW APPOINTMENTSWe extend a warm welcome to the following new members of our ECE family.

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS

DR MASSIMO BRUNO ALIOTO joined the ECE Department as Associate Professor with tenure on 1 July 2013. Dr Alioto received the Laurea (M.Sc.) degree in Electronics Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Catania (Italy) in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Prior to joining NUS, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Electronics at the University of Siena, Italy and a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Dr Alioto’s primary research interests include ultra-low power VLSI, self-powered and wireless nodes, near-threshold circuits for green computing, error-aware and widely-scalable VLSI circuits and circuit techniques for emerging technologies.

DR BIPLAB SIKDAR joined the ECE Department as Associate Professor with tenure on 1 July 2013. Dr Sikdar received the B. Tech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from North Eastern Hill University, India in 1996; M. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India in 1998; and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA in 2001. Prior to joining NUS, he was a tenured Associate Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA. Dr Sikdar’s research interests include wireless MAC protocols, transport protocols, network security and queuing theory.

DR PRITAM DAS joined the ECE Department as Assistant Professor on 19 August 2013. Dr Das received the B. Eng. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Burdwan, India; and the M.E. Sc. degree and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 2005 and 2010, respectively. Prior to joining NUS, he took on a position at Murata Power Solutions, Markham, Ontario, Canada as a Research and Design Engineer. There, he was involved in the research and development of high power AC-DC and DC-DC Converters conforming to 80Plus.Org Platinum efficiency standards for IT and telecom applications. Dr Das’ research interests include power electronic converters for solar, electric vehicle, IT/telecom and novel lighting applications.

DR RAJESH CHANDRASEKHARA PANICKER joined the ECE Department as a Lecturer on 1 July 2013. Dr Panicker received the B. Eng. degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from University of Kerala, India in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2012. Prior to joining NUS as a Lecturer, he was a Research Fellow at the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU); and before that, he was a Teaching Assistant in ECE Department, NUS from 2010 to 2012. Dr Panicker’s research interests include biomedical circuits and systems, embedded systems, signal processing and pattern recognition.

DR LIU JIANG, JIMMY joined the ECE Department as Adjunct Assistant Professor on 1 April 2013. He received the B.E degree in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology, China in 1988; and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees both in Computer Science from NUS in 1992 and 2004, respectively. Dr Liu is currently a Program Manager at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), A*STAR. He is also Adjunct Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute and the Singapore General Hospital. Dr Liu’s research area is in medical imaging with particular research interests in ocular imaging, computer-aided diagnosis and computer-aided surgery.

ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS

MS LAM WAI LING, MELISSA, joined the ECE Department as a Management Assistant Officer (Research and Graduate Programs) on 10 June 2013.

NEW APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS

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We speak to our three newest faculty members – Assoc Prof Bruno Alioto, Assoc Prof Biplab Sikdar and Dr Pritam Das – to find out what they think of Singapore and the research culture here.

GETTING TO KNOW ASSOC PROF ALIOTO, ASSOC PROF SIKDAR AND DR DAS

Q - Tell us about yourself.

I was born about 40 years ago in Italy to a middle-class family. As I grew up, I cultivated many interests including technology, music, scouting and hiking. Probably the most distinctive feature of my character is curiosity beyond any limit. My parents still remind me that I was constantly (and iteratively) asking “why” about anything I stumbled

into. I have to say that they were patient enough with me, and they let me explore freely the things that I found interesting.

Curiosity kept growing over the years, and I still remember the thrill that I had when I saw a friend of mine designing and building a loudspeaker filter. It was so exciting to see that he understood how it worked, and he could build it to change the sound as he wished! So, I decided that day that I would be an engineer. I was twelve.

So far, thrill has driven my life choices, as the pleasure to learn new things and use them to make a difference makes life great and more meaningful. Curiosity has led me to interesting diversions in my life path, such as my recent four-year stay in the US (Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Portland), and now Singapore. In this part of my journey, I was very lucky in knowing exceptionally creative and open-minded people, as well as very good friends, who have inspired me to develop a broader perspective on life and how we should live it. And I keep being blessed, sharing life day by day with my wife Daniela and our son Marco. I think you would enjoy meeting them.

Q - What are your research interests?

My main expertise is in energy-efficient “green” integrated circuit design, mainly for mobile and ubiquitous circuits and systems (from smartphones to tiny sensing/processing systems). I am excited about the possibility of improving quality of life for many people by making available extremely compact (from cm to mm scale) and inexpensive integrated systems with a long battery lifetime.

Integrated circuits naturally fit this vision, since they are typically shipped in very large volumes and they tend to be inexpensive. And exceptional energy efficiency (“green”, indeed) is the premise for dramatically shrinking the battery size and extending its lifetime towards perpetual operation (as in the case of environmentally powered systems).

ASSOC PROF BRUNO ALIOTO From the user’s perspective, green circuits naturally become part of our life, as they do not interfere with our routine either spatially (they are tiny), or temporally (the battery needs to be changed rarely or never). If you are interested, you can find details on my vision on my webpage (just google “green-ic” and “Massimo Alioto”).

Q - What are your hobbies and dreams?

My main hobbies are music, hiking and a bit of sailing. I have been playing drums since I was seven, and I have professionally played with many jazz bands, from trios to big bands. Trios give you the freedom to continuously create music on the spot, while playing drums in a big band offers the exciting possibility of “kicking” the band. Right now I am getting goosebumps thinking how exciting is to go from a “mezzo forte” dynamic to “fortissimo” and see that tens of musicians are growing their sound accordingly and, yes, it’s still all Italian names in music! If you are curious, you can just google my name or go to Youtube and check out a couple of records that I recently contributed to.

Hiking is something that I like doing with my friends, and sailing is something that I am learning. Having the chance to sail all the year around is certainly a nice feature of Singapore.

Dreams? Certainly I would like to have a really strong impact on the environments in which I live, from family to community, academia and ultimately society. For me, research, music or thinking are just tools to pursue this ultimate dream.

Q - What is your personal view on the Department, and what contribution would you like to give?

In my life, I have been lucky enough to work with some of the very best people in the world in my field. I continuously feel the responsibility to give back what I have learned by doing really impactful research, really useful to many people. This is one of my main goals here at ECE. The nice thing about our profession is that you can always make a strong impact in different ways, such as mentoring students and teaching at your best, maybe in unconventional ways or targeting large masses of students (as people do in massive open online courses (MOOC) these days).

I think that being part of ECE here at NUS will accelerate the pursuit of these goals, as there are several opportunities to collaborate with many outstanding and passionate colleagues, and attract the best Asian students (they are currently the driving force in Western universities…). Among the positive trends that I see here, the good and yet improving ranking is a sign of the potential of ECE. Through the effort of all ECE faculties in nurturing excellence, this can certainly create a positive feedback that sustains high student quality and ranking.

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Q - How is Singapore different from the places you have been?

I think of Singapore as a country that is “western” in terms of development and infrastructure but “eastern” in terms of culture and traditions. The rich mix of ethnic backgrounds of its residents is another interesting facet of Singapore. Another thing that I find remarkable is the amount of greenery on the island considering it is the second most densely populated country in the world. Finally, it is difficult to picture Singapore without thinking about its food.

Q - What are your hobbies?

My hobbies are watching cricket, Bollywood movies, listening to songs, cooking and sleeping.

Q - Where do your research interests lie?

My basic research area is in high-frequency power conversion. I am involved in the research on power converters for IT/telecom rectifiers conforming to 80plus.

org efficiency standards, microinverters for PV applications, cost-effective power converters for LED lighting applications, power converters for plug-in electric vehicles with V2G and G2V capabilities, etc. In a nutshell, I aim to implement new power converters for emerging green technology applications that can be commercially exploited.

Q - How do you feel about the current research climate in Singapore?

Singapore is conducive to high-level research owing to its dynamic business-friendly environment with abundant funding opportunities and industrial collaborations.

Q - What do you hope to accomplish in the Department?

I want to set up a regional power electronics research centre in NUS that will be dedicated to the research and development of power converters for green technology such as PV, Wind, Electric Vehicles, etc. It is planned that students and engineers working in the proposed lab will deliver prototypes that can be commercially exploited by the industry. The lab would have the basic facilities of CAD of new power converters, PCB manufacturing and populating, clean room for making new power devices, Hi-pot testing, EMI EMC lab for power converters, manufacturing and testing of magnetic components, testing of bench prototypes as per specific industrial testing procedures, mechanical package designing for power converters, etc.

Q - What is/are your favourite place(s)/food in Singapore?

To date I have yet to be able to venture out to many places in Singapore, as my stay here is relatively short so far.

Q - What would you wish to see in the coming year and beyond?

In the coming year, I see myself doing the ground work for the proposed power electronics research centre and slowly inching towards realising some of my ideas into bench prototypes along with my Ph.D. students. I also intend to start getting grants and developing infrastructure on my own and with other professors in ECE to realise my goal of setting up a regional power electronics research centre for green technology.

Here at ECE, I am working to contribute to such growth and to its international visibility while bringing innovation and attracting the necessary resources to make that happen. Ultimately, I would like to have fun with the students in making that impact while helping them learn what truly matters: how to fly on their own.

DR PRITAM DAS

Q - Tell us about yourself.

I was born in Calcutta, India. My childhood was spent all over India since my father worked in the Indian military. I obtained my undergraduate degree in electronics and communication engineering from North Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India, the master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, in

Kanpur, India and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, USA. After my doctorate, I continued at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a faculty member, first as an assistant and then as an associate professor. I have also held visiting professor positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, Kansai University in Osaka, Japan, and University of Sydney in Australia.

Q - What are your research interests?

My research interests are broadly in the area of computer networks, both in the wired and wireless domains. In particular, the areas I am working on are: developing protocols for large scale computer networks, solutions for “green” networks, network security, and medium access control protocols for wireless networks. I am also interested in the performance evaluation of computer networks, and traffic modelling in both wired and wireless networks. Quite a bit of my research is collaborative and I partner with researchers in both academia and industry. My research has been funded in the past by the National Science Foundation of USA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) of USA, Intel Corporation, WiMAX Forum, and the Research Council of Norway.

Q - What are your dreams & hobbies?

I am very interested in sports. I was an active soccer player till a knee injury ended my “career”. These days I follow cycling, American college football, and soccer. I have also started on distance running and I will be participating in the Singapore Stanchart marathon in December.

Q - How do you feel about the current research climate in Singapore?

Singapore has a vibrant research environment. It has dedicated research institutions for various emerging areas in science and technology that are complemented by research intensive universities. It is now moving towards the worldwide trend of large-scale, interdisciplinary research. An interesting facet of the research landscape here is the presence of bodies such as the Economic Development Board that promote research with direct impact on the industry.

ASSOC PROF BIPLAB SIKDAR

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An NUS Electrical & Computer Engineering team led by Prof Xu Jianxin has developed a robot fish that mimics the movements of carp. This robot can be programmed to perform specific functions such as exploring nooks and corners of wreckages or sunken cities in underwater archaeology, which are difficult for divers or traditional AUVs to access. Other applications include military activities, pipeline leakage detection and the laying of communication cables.

During his final year, Mr Fan Lupeng, worked with Dr Ren Qinyuan, Research Fellow, on the project, which won the High Achievement Award at the Faculty’s 27th Innovation and Research Award. The robot fish will also be featured at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, a top international conference on intelligent robots, in Tokyo from 3–7 November 2013.

Said Prof Xu: “Currently, robot fish capable of 2D movements are common. However, these models are not able to dive into the water. But our model is capable of 3D movements, meaning it can dive and float, using its fins like a real fish. Compared to traditional AUVs, they are certainly more mobile, with greater maneuverability. If used for military purposes, fish robots would definitely be more difficult for the enemy to detect.”

Their “fish” can dive suddenly and to the precise depth intended. Approximately one-and-a-half metres in length and weighing 10 kg, it can dive to a depth of 1.8 metres. Some challenges the team encountered include waterproofing the fish’s body, its motor and the control box. The fins and tails also have to be flexible and the team decided to use very fine (1 mm) acrylic board for these. Buoyancy and balance is maintained by attaching plastic foam to both sides of the robot. For the diving mechanism, their robot fish is equipped with an internal ballast system to change its density.

Mr Fan, who studied the movements of real life carp for three months, said: “We chose to study carp because most fish swim like them. There is no literature at all on designing a mathematical model on the locomotion of fish and so we had to start from scratch. We used a camera to capture all the possible movements of carp and then converted the data mathematically so that we could transfer the locomotion of real carp to our robot using different actuators.”

Dr Ren added: “Some fish can achieve an almost 180 degree turning in a small turning radius by bending their body, but traditional underwater vehicles have a much larger turning radius. Hence, it is quite a feat for us to achieve this movement in our robot fish.”

HERE COMES ROBOCARP, THE FIRST ROBOT FISH WITH AUTONOMOUS 3D MOVEMENTS IN ASIA

Prof Xu Jianxin (centre) with Dr Ren Qinyuan (far right) and lab technologist, Mr Zhang Heng Wei (far left) watching the RoboCarp

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Essentially, eGuardian embodies a wireless infrastructure that provides a wireless link between eG-WDs and caregivers. Inter-device communication is enabled by Zig-Bee, which is a low-cost, low-power and secure wireless mesh network standard. Zig-Bee is also multi-hop, self- organising and self-healing. This means, if an existing route is broken, a route discovery will be initiated automatically and a new route will be established. Using Zig-Bee, eGuardian can be configured to cover a single household or an entire village/community area. The architecture is designed to be configurable for integration with other initiatives designed to aid the ageing demography, such as the use of long-range Wi-Fi in HDB and the proliferation of home-based health hubs for telehealth applications.

An example of the deployment is illustrated in Figure 2.

eGuardian can be used to summon help and automatically detect accidental falls, as well as monitor simple activities such as walking, casual movements and inactivity. The system is simple and low cost, yet capable of alerting caregivers at critical moments. In addition, eGuardian’s scalability allows sharing of a single system among multiple seniors.

There are three main components that collectively constitute a complete eGuardian monitoring system:

• eGuardianWearableDevices(eG-WD)

• eGuardianRouters(eG-R)

• eGuardianBaseStations(eG-B)

An eG-WD is a low-power miniature controller that monitors motion activities. A senior citizen wearing the device can be monitored for falls and inactivity. The device is powered by a small coin battery.

In the event of a valid fall incident or a period of inactivity being detected, an alert message is broadcast to the nearest eG-R. This router will route the alert message to the eG-B, which, through its GSM modem, will notify the caregivers via Short Message Services (SMS).

Figure 1 shows the system architecture of eGuardian.

eGUARDIAN – THE NEXT GENERATION HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM FOR ELDERCAREAssoc Prof Tan Kok Kiong, Dr Yuan Jian and Mr Yeoh Wui Keat have recently developed a remote elderly heath monitoring system called eGuardian. eGuardian is a low-cost, scalable home/community-based health monitoring and alert system for vulnerable senior citizens. It aims to transform eldercare into a collaborative effort mainly involving people who know and care about the elderly and the problems they face. eGuardian combines advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN), hardware miniaturisation, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, mobile computing and machine learning.

Figure 2 – Example of eGuardian deployment

Figure 1 - eGuardian Infrastructure

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DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMOUS INDOOR UAVS FOR ANNUAL SAFMCThe NUS UAV Research Team, led by Prof Ben M. Chen and Prof Lee Tong Heng, has frequently participated in the Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition (SAFMC), which has been jointly organised by DSO National Laboratories and Singapore Science Centre since its inception in 2009. Final Year Project (FYP) students joining the NUS ECE UAV research group have the chance to showcase their research achievements through participation in Category D of the competition, which caters to semi-autonomous/fully autonomous UAVs.

In Category D, participants are required to design and build a small flying machine that is capable of completing a series of tasks in complex environments. For the first few years of the SAFMC, the flight missions usually involved autonomous take-off, following coloured tracks on the ground, flying through doors or windows, dropping a small payload at a targeted location and autonomous landing. But over the years, the solutions have been largely refined and made more intelligent by FYP students in subsequent batches. Innovations now include the design of more robust flight control laws for controlling the platform with accurate position tracking and porting the off-line vision processing algorithm onto the on-board avionics of the UAV, as well as status observation and command uploading through the Apple iPad Ground Control Station (GCS).

For each year that the NUS team has taken part in the competition, it has won awards and honours. In 2009, the team won the Best Theory Award and, in the following year, it clinched the Best Performance Award. It won the Overall Championship in 2011 and 2013, each year walking away with a cash prize of $10,000 and an iPad for each team member. In 2013, a second NUS Team was formed to compete in Category E for unconventional flying aircraft for the first time. The hybrid platform showcased, which is capable of taking off and landing vertically and transiting to a fixed-wing mode for high-speed cruise flights, won the Most Creative Award with a cash prize of $2,000.

In 2012, the competition missions in Category D were designed to be more challenging and the coloured tracks were removed from the competition setup. As such, a more general and practical indoor navigation solution was required to control the UAV to finish various tasks in a dual-room environment. Challenging tasks included flying through small windows with wind disturbance generated by fans, payload releasing with even more demanding accuracy, and avoidance of indoor obstacles like chairs and tables. To tackle the new competition missions, two main changes were applied to the previous solutions. First of all, instead of using the old coaxial helicopter platform, a quadrotor UAV was constructed so that greater payload could be ensured and it was less vulnerable to wind disturbances. The second major change was the involvement of scanning laser range finder sensors on board, which were used to build a real-time 3D map for the indoor environment. One useful application of this technical solution was to perform post-disaster search and rescue missions by utilizing small- sized UAVs.

SAFMC 2013 – Fully Autonomous Category Overall Champion Award

SAFMC 2013 – Unconventional Category Most Creative Award

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EMPOWERING ECE STUDENTS WITH CUTTING-EDGE SKILLS IN NANOELECTRONICSElectronic products evolve at a very fast pace, and are now pervasively used in our daily lives. Vast improvements in electronic devices are made possible by rapid advances in nanoelectronics or semiconductor chip technology. A breakthrough in semiconductor technology will have an immense impact on the world, simply because it could improve all electronic-containing devices when adopted worldwide!

However, conducting high-impact research in the highly competitive world of semiconductor technology is not an easy task in the university. Not only is it compulsory to have a leading-edge research facility with advanced nanofabrication equipment, there must also be leading experts who are knowledgeable about the key challenges faced in the semiconductor industry as well as the directions to pursue for potential breakthroughs. At the NUS ECE Department, a team of faculty experts work together at the Silicon Nano Device Laboratory (SNDL), which houses advanced semiconductor processing tools.

The research team at SNDL is currently led by Dr Yeo Yee Chia, and has about 30 Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows as well as eight undergraduate students working together on high-impact research problems in nanoelectronics.

Many brilliant inventions have come from this group, including the use of a carbon-containing silicon material to create strain in a transistor, thereby dramatically improving the speed or reducing the power consumption of electronics. This pioneering and seminal work at NUS was further pursued by many other semiconductor companies.

In the last few years, the team has been actively researching high-mobility channel materials for logic transistors, using materials such as germanium, germanium-tin and indium gallium arsenide. Such materials would enable the reduction of supply voltage used in electronics, thereby leading to an immense reduction in power consumption, making electronics greener. Recently, a Ph.D. student, Mr Goh Kian Hui, realised the world’s smallest indium gallium arsenide transistor, which has a channel length of only six nanometres. Another Ph.D. student, Ms Cheng Ran, developed strained germanium nanowire transistors with very good electrical performance. Both students will unveil their breakthroughs at the prestigious International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) in December 2013 in Washington DC, USA.

Many generations of graduate students have been trained at the SNDL. They are now successful technology leaders and managers in many local research institutes as well as international semiconductor companies such as Globalfoundries, Samsung Electronics, IBM, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, etc.

If you are an ECE undergraduate with a passion for nanoelectronics, or a prospective graduate student, do consider joining us on this exciting journey to explore the frontiers of nanoelectronics.

Ms Cheng Ran (left) and Mr Goh Kian Hui (right) in the cleanroom, operating an ultra-high vacuum chemical vapour deposition system

Kian Hui (left), Ran (center), and Dr Yeo (right) having a discussion next to a characterization system for nano-transistors

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Another team, led by Assoc Prof Hong Ming Hui, will work on “Development of Super-resolution and High-sensitivity Optical Nanoscopes”. Optical microscopy is extensively applied in our daily lives as well as our industries and research, such as to study the dynamic transport between biological cells, disease prevention and optical

properties of functional devices and structures. In this research project, the ultimate goal is to resolve 20 nm spatial resolution in optical images as the specimens are placed in ambient air. These super-resolution nanoscopes will not only be used as an investigation tool to observe the molecular or electromagnetic interactions at 20 nm scale, but also to provide promising access to manipulate and locate nano-objects to make novel functional nano-devices.

Assoc Prof Dipti Srinivasan and Dr Thomas Reindl (Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore) received a CRP grant for their project “Power grid stability with an increasing share of intermittent renewables (such as solar PV) in Singapore”. The goal of this research is to analyse the Singapore Power grid in its entirety

with respect to its suitability for a share of up to 30% of its energy supply from intermittent generation, to identify and address the potential for optimisation in system design, components and system management, and to develop suitable innovative solutions for the required operations management, as well as for balancing demand and supply during times of intermittency.

Dr Daniel Pickard received a CRP grant for his project “Fundamental Limits and Applications of the Atomic Level Ion Source: (Angstrom Level Imaging and Quantum Foundry)”. The main research focus of Dr Pickard’s team has been the development and application of advanced imaging techniques for nano-technology and

the exploration of novel contrast mechanisms. A major thrust of this research is the development of new ways to image plasmonic and nano-photonic structures.

ECE PROFESSORS WON BIG GRANTS IN THE RECENT ROUND OF NRF CRPFive research teams from the ECE Department were recently awarded big grants by the National Research Foundation (NRF) under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP) Funding Scheme. The CRP awards support leading-edge science and technology research that have high potential economic and societal impact.

The team led by Prof Nitish Thakor won the CRP grant for its project on “Peripheral Nerve Prostheses – A Paradigm Shift in Restoring Dexterous Limb Function”. The overarching goal of the project is to produce a paradigm shift in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries by developing an implanted peripheral nerve prosthesis.

This will involve the use of a stable nerve-electrode interface to record, amplify, digitize, and decode nerve signals, which will then be relayed to electrodes implanted in the muscles that will evoke an appropriate muscle contraction. This strategy seeks to simplify surgery, bypass the prolonged nerve regeneration time, prevent muscle atrophy and allow for immediate restoration of distant muscles and hand dexterity. The aim is to demonstrate functional recovery in animal models, produce clinical demonstrations in human patients and partner with industry to enable successful technology transfer.

The team led by Prof Adekunle Olusola Adeyeye won the CRP grant for its project on “Pure Spin Current and Spin Wave Devices”. Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has long been the key driver for microelectronics. The team will explore new ideas and alternative technologies in order to create novel

computing devices capable of replacing or enhancing the functionality of CMOS technology. In addition to the study of fundamental physics, at the end of this project, the research team will fabricate prototype devices, which allow information transmission and processing to be carried by either spin waves or pure spin current. These devices, which feature high-speed, low-power consumption, and quantum capability, will have profound impact on the future electronics industry.

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He graduated twice this year – and was a valedictorian twice over. Double Degree Programme (DDP) graduate Mr Han Yi Chou was the valedictorian at the Commencement ceremonies for Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) graduates as well as for Business Administration. He has gone down in NUS Engineering’s history as the first graduate to be selected as valedictorian by both schools.

Excelling in both disciplines, as well as in CCA, Yi Chou collected a host of medals at Commencement – the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal (for best graduand throughout the course of study), the IES Gold Medal (for top graduating student in Engineering), the NTUC Income Prize, the DBS Medal, and the NUSS Medal for Outstanding Achievement (awarded by NUS Business School).

Said a modest Yi Chou shortly before graduation, “I enrolled in the DDP because I believed it would give me the greatest exposure, flexibility and options by the time I graduate. Furthermore, I believed that the Engineering and Business schools would offer me different kinds of education and university experience. Thus, I went for such a mix. I chose ECE in part because I preferred the type of knowledge that I would pick up over the course of my studies. I like physics matters that deal with electricity and I feel that ECE is most aligned to my interest. Also, I believe that ECE offers me greater opportunities after graduation as compared to other engineering disciplines.”

Talking about his formula for success, Yi Chou says that it was very important to plan ahead for the modules he wanted to take. It also involved diligently listening and taking down notes during lectures, doing the assigned tutorials, and not being afraid to ask professors, tutors or friends should he not understand.

He added: “I also think what helped was that I took on a lighter workload at the start of my university life. Only when I found that I could cope, did I take on additional modules and take part in other activities in school. My main motivation is always to better myself.”

DOUBLE DEGREE PROGRAMME STUDENT IS VALEDICTORIAN FOR BOTH ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING AND BIZ AD

Being at NUS has been an enriching experience. Recounting his most memorable moments in campus, he said: “It was spending almost a week in my lab working on my final-year project (FYP). I brought only a few sets of clothes to change into, had a sleeping bag to spend the nights in and showered in the toilets at the University’s Sports & Recreation Centre!”

His FYP was to design a nano-satellite – just 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm – for a payload to investigate the ionosphere. “I was fortunate enough to work in a team of brilliant students and under the guidance of professors and advisers from DSO National Laboratories. I went through the whole concept development phase and planning phase for the project,” he recalled.

Yi Chou starts work in the consulting field this September. Looking ahead, he said: “I am definitely considering further studies in the next few years, preferably in another country so that I get exposed to a different education system and campus life.”

Yi Chou on the Student Exchange Programme. Studying overseas for his graduate degree is very much in his pipeline, as he likes being exposed to different education systems

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TChunlei Zhan, a Ph.D student, received the Best Student Paper Award at the 2013 International Symposium on VLSI Technology, Systems and Applications in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in April 2013. His award winning work, “(110)-Oriented Germanium-Tin (Ge0.97Sn0.03) P-channel MOSFETs”, presented the first demonstration of germanium-tin (GeSn) P-channel MOSFETs fabricated on the (110) surface.

Transistors are the basic building blocks of integrated circuits, which are commonly used in almost all electronic products, for example in computers, cameras, smartphones, etc. As the dimension of silicon-based CMOS transistors is aggressively reduced, challenges associated with high off-state leakage current and high standby power consumption would arise. Meeting these challenges requires advanced device architectures or novel materials for achieving high speed logic at reduced supply voltage in the future. Recent technologies such as strain engineering, high-k metal gate, and multi-gate architecture have successfully

extended Si channel CMOS technology along the road map.

Beyond the 11-nm technology node, the introduction of high mobility channels such as germanium-tin holds promise for the realization of high-speed and low-power logic applications. Chunlei presented a P-channel MOSFET with (110) surface orientation showing enhancement in drive current and speed. The transistor design involved the use of germanium-tin, a novel material at the time. This work shows promise for possible adoption in future technology needs.

Chunlei is supervised by Dr Yeo Yee-Chia from the ECE Department.

Krishnanand K.R., a Ph.D. student, received the Best Student Paper Award in the 4th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence at Harbin, China in June 2013. His award winning work, “Optimal Power Flow Solution Using Self-Evolving Brain-Storming Inclusive Teaching-Learning-Based Algorithm”, presented a new hybrid self-evolving algorithm to find power flow optimality in electrical networks.

The highly non-linear optimal power flow problem described in the work focuses on the minimisation of the fuel costs of the thermal units while maintaining voltage stability at each of the load buses. There are various restrictions on acceptable voltage levels, capacitance levels of shunt compensation devices and transformer taps which make the problem highly complex and non-linear. The proposed hybrid algorithm is a combination of the learning principles from the Brain Storming Optimization algorithm and the Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization algorithm,

along with a self-evolving principle applied to its control parameter. The strategies used in this hybrid algorithm make it self-adaptive in performing searches over a multi-dimensional problem domain.

Krishnanand is supervised by Assoc Prof Sanjib K. Panda from the ECE Department. He is part of the SinBerBEST program carried out by Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS), which is a collaboration between University of California, Berkeley, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

GRADUATE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS(110)-Oriented Germanium-Tin (Ge0.97Sn0.03) P-channel MOSFETs

Application of Heuristic Optimisation in Electrical Networks

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Pramod Kumar Pisharady, a recently graduated PhD student, received the Best Student Paper Award 2012 (Silver prize) by the Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence Association (PREMIA) for his work “Attention Based Detection and Recognition of Hand Postures Against Complex Backgrounds” which appears in the International Journal of Computer Vision.

This paper addresses the complex background problem in multi-class hand posture recognition using a novel Bayesian model of visual attention. Feature based visual attention using a combination of high level (shape, texture) and low level (color) image features is implemented. The shape and texture features are extracted from a skin similarity map, using a computational model of the ventral stream of the visual cortex. The color features used are the discretized chrominance components in HSI and YCbCr color spaces, and the skin similarity map. Hand regions in images are detected

using a saliency map created using the attention model. Hand postures are classified using shape and texture features, with a support vector machine classifier. The paper also contributed a new 10 class complex background hand posture dataset, namely, the NUS hand posture dataset-II (http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/stfpage/elepv/NUS-HandSet/). Experimental results using this dataset show that the proposed algorithm has a person independent performance, and is reliable against variations in hand sizes and backgrounds, including complex, skin colored backgrounds. The proposed algorithm can be extended for other vision based pattern recognition tasks and has potential applications in the development of new generation human computer interaction systems.

Pramod’s doctoral research was supervised by Assoc Prof Prahlad Vadakkepat and Assoc Prof Loh Ai Poh from the ECE Department.

Detection and Recognition of Hand Postures against Complex Backgrounds

Weili Yan, a Ph.D. student, received the ASME-ISPS Division Conference Scholarship in the 23rd ASME Annual Conference on Information Storage and Process Systems held in Santa Clara, CA, USA, on 24 and 25 June 2013.

His winning entry, “Identification of Critical Resonant Modes Above the Nyquist Frequency Using Multirate Inputs”, presented a novel two-step parametric approach to identify critical mechanical resonant modes above the Nyquist frequency, which are undetectable due to the limits of sampling and aliasing imposed by Shannon’s Sampling Theorem. With the proposed method, the positioning accuracies of next-generation, high-performance mechatronics may be further improved. As compared to measurement using analog sensors, the proposed method can be potentially implemented to identify mechanical resonances at arbitrarily high frequencies, when the input sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter is sufficiently high.

Weili is jointly supervised by Dr Pang Chee Khiang, Justin from the ECE Department, and Dr Du Chunling from Data Storage Institute (DSI), A*STAR. His research focuses on identification and control of mechanical resonances above the Nyquist frequencies in high-performance mechatronic systems.

Identification of Critical Resonant Modes Above the Nyquist Frequency Using Multirate Inputs

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The enjoyable evening was filled with a series of entertaining programmes. The activities started off with a game of Wacko as an ice breaker, allowing people to get to know each other. Running after and hitting each other with a balloon quickly broke barriers between strangers; the participants seemed more relaxed after the game.

This year’s party took the form of a picnic-cum-outdoor chill-out concert. While enjoying their pizzas, satay and various other yummy treats, the audience was entertained by a variety of performances on stage. DJ Yang kept the music pumping all through the night, while awesome sets by the NUS Chinese Society Chinese Orchestra and ENEC.E, an acoustic rock band, created a cool ambience for the party. In addition, Assoc Prof Marc Armand gave a surprise rock and neoclassical guitar performance and a group of ECE professors sang the ‘ECE Freshmen Song’ to the tune of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.

It was a perfect night for all to have loads of fun and mingle with each other. For the freshmen, it was a fantastic start to their NUS ECE journey!

ECE FRESHMEN PARTY 2013The ECE Freshmen Party for 2013’s incoming freshmen was held on 13 August 2013 at Town Green, University Town. Despite the threat of rain, over 250 freshmen, senior buddies, exchange students as well as faculty members joined in the special evening. This event was specially organised by ECE Student Life to welcome the freshmen and promote interaction between faculty members and students. It was a meaningful occasion for the freshmen to be introduced to their academic advisors.

Dr Sahoo Sanjib Kumar and his advisees

ECE Freshmen Party 2013

Surprise rock and neoclassical guitar performance by Assoc Prof Marc Armand

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INTERNSHIP AND FYP AT ROLLS-ROYCEAndrew Tang Chun Kit, a final year EE undergraduate student, shares his experience as an intern and FYP student at Rolls-Royce Singapore.

You have done a 6-month internship at Rolls-Royce Singapore and have embarked on your FYP over there. Why did you make this decision?

While contemplating my future career path, I found myself at the crossroads on whether to take some time off school for a 6-month internship or to listen to hearsay from friends that you hardly learn anything valuable from an internship. In the end, I decided to apply for an internship in order to make an informed career path decision upon graduation. However, it was a difficult choice to make. I was torn between three internship opportunities, all coming at different times. And one of them was an NUS Overseas College (NOC) opportunity in India. After many sleepless nights, I was still unable to make a decision.

Hence, I decided to look for help and advice. First, I went to the NUS Career Centre to look for their career guide, and spoke to family members, friends, lecturers and lastly my academic advisor. Upon listening to their advice and suggestions, I decided to give myself some quiet time. In this still state of mind, and with much identity and goal searching, I came to a decision. I knew exactly what I had to do and I have no regrets joining this six-month internship followed by a fast-track FYP.

The advice I would give is simply to search inside yourself by learning to trust your instincts and use your intuitive sense to guide you. Once you have made up your mind, the last question is to ask yourself whether you would later regret and feel sorry about it. To sum up, let me share with you a quote from Abraham Lincoln, “Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

Can you kindly tell us more about your internship experience?

A wonderful experience! Interning at Rolls-Royce was rather daunting initially. I knew I was in for a steep learning curve as I knew little on how an aircraft or even an electric generator works. Thankfully, everyone in the team and department was very kind and patient. My supervisors provided constant guidance and suggestions. In addition, they gave me the independence to explore all possibilities and full ownership of the project. In short, I felt a great sense of satisfaction and pride in the things I did.

Did you gain any valuable skills from the internship? And what are they?

I learnt that communicating my ideas to my supervisors and colleagues is very important. It all depends on how well I express them during meetings and discussions. I also learnt how to write a proper technical report for my project at the end of my internship.

Andrew Tang Chun Kit (left) with colleagues at Universal Studios Singapore for a team building event

What is your greatest accomplishment at Rolls-Royce Singapore?

As I was given full ownership of and independence in the project, I learnt how to be more responsible and disciplined. There were times when I found it difficult to get out of bed; however, upon realising that I was responsible for the project and answerable to my supervisors, I immediately found my motivation to catapult myself out of bed. Moreover, being involved in a real life engineering problem, I had the joy of contributing my effort and solution to the puzzle. Besides, I also had the opportunity to interact with senior management and technical people, such as Prof Ric Parker, Director of Research & Technology of Rolls-Royce, and Mr Kevin Daffey, Head of Electrical, Power and Control Systems (EPACS) of Rolls-Royce.

What are some of the challenges you have faced at work? And how did you handle them?

Honestly, there were times I felt discouraged when I encountered unfamiliar approaches and concepts. I knew I was confronted by topics I have not learnt in university before. I realised then that, besides asking the experts there in the department, I still needed to actively engage in independent learning via various channels.

How did you manage your module planning while on your 6-month internship and FYP? What advice will you give on this?

Honestly, I did not plan for this as I originally only applied for a six-month internship. After all, it was a new initiative designed by the department I was attached to. As we know, all roads lead to Rome, but one thing I must emphasise is to enjoy what you do, because after all, you would be spending close to a year working on an FYP!

Was it worthwhile taking this time out from university?

Definitely! It was rather refreshing to take some time off from attending lectures to immerse myself in a dynamic and diverse working environment. This exposure has led me to develop and hone myself professionally. For instance, I learnt how to ask and frame beneficial questions, visualise and ideate the big picture of a problem, and share ideas and communicate with more experienced people. Although you are going to miss attending classes and have less time with your friends in school, on the other hand, you will meet more people and make new friends!

Will you recommend your course mates to take up an internship? And why?

Honestly, it depends on individual goals and aims. However, I feel that an internship exposes us to other aspects of university life by experiencing what working life is like. And, most importantly, it gives us the opportunity to understand how professional engineers work, interact and communicate within a multi-national team. This, I believe, is what we do not learn a lot of in school. And that is what I think is the most important! In short, this internship experience opened my eyes to the working life of an engineer and it has certainly enriched me both personally and professionally. Hence, if your study schedule permits, do consider taking up this unique internship followed by a fast-track FYP programme. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me in one way or another.

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Though they did not emerge as winners, they were among the top 28 teams in the finals – out of 467 teams. The team also won the Merit Award (Design) in the National Assistive and Rehabilitative Technologies Challenge 2013, and their invention was judged the Best Project in the NUS School of Computing Term-End Project Showcase 2013 for Interactive Design.

Both teams have already established startups to develop their products further for commercialization.

Design-Centric Programme (DCP) students have once again proven that they have what it takes to come up with workable but simple-to-use solutions for real world problems.

The team, comprising ECE student Alfred Chua, and Mechanical Engineering students Eric Chan and Tan Lee Chaw, designed a portable device aimed at helping stroke patients regain the strength and use of their hands even at home. The device won the Award of Excellence (Design) at the National Assistive & Rehabilitation Technology Students Challenge 2013, securing them a spot in the i-CREATe Student Design Challenge held in Korea this August. It also garnered the top prize of $15,000 at the recent Startup@Singapore exhibition.

DCP TEAMS SHINE AT STARTUP@SINGAPORE, WITH THEIR BIOMEDICAL INNOVATIONS

Alfred Chua (right) with the winning prototype and Eric Chan holding the Startup@Singapore trophy. Another team member, Tan Lee Chaw is not in the picture.

From left, Shambavi Krishnamurthi, Rahul Rajeev and Nguyen Vo

The ezmon smart watch

Their novel rehab device (QikRehab), the size of a mineral water bottle, is light and simple to use. When linked to a laptop, it sends data on the patients’ progress to their doctors and physiotherapists. QikRehab also comes with games to help patients track their own rehabilitative developments in an engaging way. For example, they gain points when they perform prescribed activities on the device – such as pressing a button or screwing on a cap.

Another team also shone at Startup@Singapore. Comprising three third-year Computer Engineering students, Shambavi Krishnamurthi, Rahul Rajeev and Nguyen Vo, the team designed a smart watch to measure vital signs such as heart rate, body temperature, activity and blood glucose.

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The night began with the first public screening of the new ECE Department outreach video, followed by a welcome address by Head of Department, Prof Chua Kee Chaing, who congratulated all graduates and their parents. Mr Chua Sin Chew from the Office of Alumni Relations encouraged the graduates to be active alumni while Mr Lee Kim Huat from the NUS ECE Alumni Committee exhorted them to come back to serve in the committee. Meanwhile, Mr Ahmad Tashrif from the Engineering Alumni of Singapore introduced the graduates to their activities. Kicking off the evening’s entertainment was a game of “Remembering ECE”, which was met with enthusiastic participation from the audience. The game involved identifying places on campus from sections of their photographs.

Immediately after the game, salsa music came blasting from the speakers as Dr and Mrs Akash Kumar made a grand entrance and danced wildly to the delight of the audience. Next came a spellbinding performance of ‘I Will Survive’ by the group ‘Dr Machine’, a four-piece band consisting of bass, guitar, drums, and keyboard. Afterwards, recent graduate Dr Ganesh Neelekanta Iyer took us down memory lane, sharing his journey as an M.Sc. and Ph.D. student in the Department which lasted over six years. This was followed by a mesmerising piano performance of ‘River Flows in You’ by Mr Lin Xuzheng.

The highlight of the night was the creative rendition of Gaudeamus Igitur, a popular song sung mainly at university graduation ceremonies, by the Department’s professors. The lyrics were rewritten into a light-hearted composition with the message to the graduates: now armed with ECE knowledge, go forth, succeed and remember that you are ECE and NUS alumni.

ECE GRADUATION NIGHT 2013Nearly 300 graduating students and their families, as well as ECE staff members, attended the ECE Department’s fourth Graduation Night, which took place on 10 July 2013. Graduation is a time of fond memories made over the past few years in the University; of exams taken and friends made. It is also the time for the bittersweet realisation that this phase of life is coming to an end. A group of third- and fourth-year undergraduates put together a programme that took us down memory lane, reliving the good old days on campus.

The party at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House The bartenders mixing something special for the occasion

The emcees Miss Geraldine Tay and Mr Chinab Chugh

The band “Dr Machine” belting out the song “I Will Survive”

Dr and Mrs Akash Kumar in the forward/backward motion of their salsa dance

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Engineering for the Community is an engineering-focused research community project jointly organised by the West Zone Centre of Excellence for Science & Technology, River Valley High School and the ECE Department at NUS, with support from the Southwest CDC. According to the project co-ordinator, Assoc Prof Arthur Tay, there are about 40 Year 3/4 and JC1 students from Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, Hwa Chong Institution and River Valley High School participating in the project this year.

The aim of the project is to have participants engage the community to investigate the problems faced by needy individuals and families. Through house visits and research on real situations, the students identify pertinent problems that can be alleviated through electronics-focused solutions. One of the places that the students visited was the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities Senior Activity Centre at Boon Lay.

Under the guidance of professors from the Department, the students brainstormed and designed innovative electronics devices based on the needs they had identified. Some interesting ideas presented by them include a low-cost wearable device for indoor location tracking of elderly persons in a day-care centre and an energy-efficient fan system for HDB void decks. Students whose projects are selected will work in labs within the Department to develop their prototype during the school holidays this December.

The students also obtained an insight into the fascinating field of ECE at an electronics workshop organised by the Department, where they learnt and experimented with different electronics devices.

Wrapping up the evening was a group photo-taking session to create a memento out of the fleeting moment. To all who were present, it was an unforgettable night.

Mr Lin Xuzheng mesmerising the audience on the piano with “River Flows in You”

Dr Ganesh Neelekanta Iyer sharing his experience in the ECE Department as an M.Sc. and Ph.D. student

A creative rendition of Gaudeamus Igitur by ECE professors

ENGINEERING FOR THE COMMUNITY

Students participating in an electronics workshop held at the ECE Department

Students at the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities Senior Activity Centre

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If you have any comments on this issue or would like to contribute an article for subsequent ones, please e-mail to e.connect@nus.edu.sg.

COMING SOON: FIRST-EVER NUS ECE GOLF & DINNER!The first-ever Annual NUS ECE Golf & Dinner event will be held at the Keppel Club on Friday, 28 February 2014. Organised by the NUS ECE Alumni Committee, the event will bring alumni and staff together for a day on the green. All proceeds from the golf tournament and dinner will go towards the FIBRES Bursary. An initiative started by the committee to help full-time ECE undergraduates, the bursary provides financial support to those who do not qualify for bursaries under current means testing criteria. More information about the event will be released as the date approaches, so stay tuned!

“SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY” WORKSHOPOn 27 May 2013, the ECE Department organised a one-day workshop to reach out to pre-university students interested in signal processing, multimedia systems and human vision. A group of 59 students from National Junior College, Hwa Chong Institution, Victoria Junior College and NUS High School attended the workshop, where they learnt about the theories and applications of visual signal processing, interacted with ECE professors and researchers, conducted exploratory experiments related to signal processing and had fun playing visual games.

The workshop included a series of activities for participants. Besides lectures that introduced the motivation, methods and applications of signal processing, students also had a chance to visit two labs – the Vision & Machine Learning Lab and the Vision & Interactive Media Lab – to interact with researchers and gain hands-on experience with a variety of tools. These included an eye tracking device and stereo glasses, as well as augmented reality and image processing techniques. During the lunch session, the students interacted with ECE professors Assoc Prof Cheong Loong Fah and Dr Tan Ping, whose research areas are in visual signal processing. Towards the end of the workshop, in a students’ reflection session, participants gave group presentations on the role signal processing plays in improving society and people’s lives. Each student was then presented with a certificate of participation.

The workshop was a fun and enjoyable way for the participants to learn about the basics as well as cutting-edge research in signal processing.

A big and jovial group at the ECE “Signal Processing for the 21st Century” workshop on 27 May 2013

Workshop participants vying to answer a question posed by Dr Yen Shih-Cheng during the workshop

A workshop participant trying out the Magic Closet interactive demonstration at the ECE Department’s Vision & Machine Learning Lab

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