T oday’s supercomputers can perform a mind-boggling 10 quadrillion calculations per second, but they still can’t match the cognitive capacity of the human brain: An experiment on one of the world’s fastest super-

computers in 2013 was able to mimic only 1% of 1 second’s worth of human brain activity—and even that took 40 minutes. The massive amount of hardware and power required to pro-cess complex information is one major roadblock in develop-ing artificial intelligence. Comparatively, “the human brain con-sumes about 20 watts of power and is only about 1 liter in size,” explains Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Taking a cue from the hu-man brain in which the left and right parts work in symphony to process information, what if engineers could increase the inter-connections between a computer’s central processing unit and its memory? “We could potentially reduce the power required and the time it takes to compute,” says Kwong, “That is cogni-tive computing. . . and it’s coming.”

Developing such enabling technology is a cornerstone of IME and represents only one way that A*STAR aims to make a name for itself in the realm of groundbreaking science—it is also how A*STAR is strengthening Singapore’s future economy. Over 15 years ago, the government declared science and technology to be an essential pillar of the nation’s economic growth. Singapore

has no natural resources. With a small population of only 5.5 mil-lion, it faces tough competition from neighboring countries to attract foreign investment. It was for these reasons that the gov-ernment implemented an ambitious plan to capitalize on human knowledge, its most valuable asset.

A*STAR’s predecessor, the National Science and Technology Board, was set up in 1991 to develop Singapore into a research hub in selected fields of science and technology, and thus make the nation more competitive globally. Early on, planners realized that truly innovative research is interdisciplinary. To be able to cross-pollinate ideas quickly, different research institutes should be located close to one another. The opening of Fusionopolis Two in fall 2015 marked another milestone in the development of Singapore’s research and development hub for physical sci-ences and engineering. Fusionopolis One and Two, together with Biopolis—the nation’s hub for biomedical sciences—com-prise 650,000 square meters of office and laboratory space across 19 buildings, and are designed for both the public and private sectors to conduct activities in research, innovation, and enterprise.

“These campuses provide some of the best infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities for research. They also create a very conducive environment for spontaneous collaborations across the disciplines along the innovation-value chain and between the public and private sectors,” says Lim Chuan Poh, A*STAR’s chairman.

Since Singapore’s first National Technology Plan was imple-mented in 1991, the government has invested nearly S$42 bil-lion (US$29 billion at today’s rates) on research and innovation. The funding’s purpose has been not only to boost basic re-search, but also to support mission-oriented research that would feed back into the country’s economy in terms of job growth, exportable technology, and increased entrepreneurship. The investment has paid off so far. Over the last 10 years, the num-ber of research scientists and engineers across both the public and private sectors has increased from a base of 15,600 in 2002 to 32,800 in 2014.

To capitalize on this momentum, early this year Prime Minis-ter Lee Hsien Loong, chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), announced an 18% increase in the nation’s 2016–2020 research budget over the previous five-year

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Singapore’s path to prosperityScience and technology continue to be a cornerstone of Sin-gapore’s economy. Over the years the country has built a solid infrastructure to create a truly interdisciplinary research environ-ment, becoming a hub for innovative research. An 18% boost in the country’s research budget over the next five years is a clear nod to the success of this commitment and will continue to so-lidify Singapore’s prominence as a global leader in science and technology innovation.

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budget—1% of the country’s gross domestic product, and a per-centage on par with that of other industrialized countries. The S$19 billion (US$13.5 billion) in funding includes a budget in-crease of more than 50% for emerging research, innovation, and enterprise activities. One key difference in the current budget, however, is the priority placed on four technology domains in which Singapore has either developed a competitive advantage or meets a national need: Advanced Manufacturing and Engi-neering, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Services and Digital Economy, and Urban Solutions and Sustainability.

Interdisciplinary collaboration yields resultsA*STAR has been successful in meeting the nation’s research

agenda because it has been able to build research capabilities ahead of industry trends, says Lim. For example, A*STAR is al-ready building a strong capacity in fields that will contribute to what World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab has dubbed the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” brought on by a range of new technologies that will “fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds.”

The cognitive computing project now underway at IME, for example, could revolutionize not only research but also industry and society in the form of intelligent robots and devices that

improve health. To move the re-search forward, physical proximity is a huge advantage, says Kwong.

In addition to IME, the newly christened Fusionopolis Two also houses the following A*STAR re-search institutes: the Data Storage Institute, the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, and the Singapore Institute of Manufactur-ing Technology.

IME is working in collabora-tion with A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), where scientists are charged with devel-oping the software that would be required for cognitive computing to succeed. I2R is located in Fusio-nopolis One, just across a bridge from Fusionopolis Two, where IME is housed. “Instead of writing an e-mail or making a phone call, we can just sit down together and hash out ideas,” says Kwong.

IME’s cognitive computing project will also require materials for new technology and innovations in data management. The meeting of minds fostered by institutes housed together makes it easier to move such ideas forward, says Kwong. Even a casual encounter in the elevator can spark a conversation about an idea that may have languished had it required more formal routes of communication. “We are duplicating the old Bell Labs model [of nurturing innovation through collaboration],” Kwong adds.

The proximity to industry that Fusionopolis affords also en-sures that innovation is translated into the economy. Industry brings prototyping and optimization expertise, says Kwong. “They have the know-how to seamlessly transfer technology to the local manufacturing infrastructure, which is how you translate R&D into the economy.” Two institutes located in Fusionopolis One have already established 19 joint labs with industry since 2008. A*STAR hopes that the additional institutes now located in the adjacent building will forge even more joint research to develop and bring to market the enabling technologies of the future in key areas such as advanced materials, silicon photonics, data center storage technologies, and nanofabrication.

“Being ahead of international industry trends will stand Sin-gapore in good stead to adapt to the evolving global economy and to stay competitive and differentiated,” says Lim. “Going forward, A*STAR will continue to place strategic bets on prom-ising new areas of research and innovation to pave the way for Singapore’s future.”

The Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre

Cognitive computing is an example of the type of early stage, goal-oriented research that A*STAR will fund. However,

Biopolis and Fusionopolis, creating an environment for interdisciplinary public-private collaborations (clockwise from top left: Biopolis, Fusionopolis Two, Fusionopolis One).

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its primary role is “to bridge the gap between academia and industry,” says Lim. “This requires us not only to work closely with the private sector to co-innovate, but also to look further ahead to invest in research that will position Singapore well for the future,” he adds.

Manufacturing has been a pillar of Singapore’s economy, contributing about 20% to the nation’s gross domestic prod-uct. From 2004 to 2014, the sector has grown in productivity by 3.0% annually, outpacing the national average of 0.7%. To further fortify the nation’s prominence as a leader in manu-facturing technology, A*STAR officially opened the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) in January 2015, with the aim to “create bridges between public and pri-vate organizations to work together in solving manufacturing issues,” says David Low, chief executive officer of ARTC.

Modeled on similar advanced manufacturing research centers in the United Kingdom, ARTC operates primarily through com-pany membership. Each private member must pay an annual fee. In return, companies receive ARTC’s research expertise, industrial space, and equipment to test out innovative ideas that improve or create new manufacturing processes. “ARTC aspires to be a catalyst for technical solutions and for creating business opportunities,” says Low.

There are now 35 participating industry members, although nonmembers are also welcome to approach ARTC. The S$400,000 (US$285,000) annual membership fee for founding and Tier 1 members is hefty and the bar to qualify for membership is high, Low says, but members have priority access to ARTC brain capital, resources, and facilities. Members also get more out of the relationship because they tend to be more committed to solving specific issues. And because Singapore has a reputation for protecting and respecting intellectual property, corporate members can openly discuss ideas freely, without concern that trade secrets will be revealed.

Rolls-Royce, for example, is an ARTC founding member. The company is a major manufacturer of airplane engines. A gas turbine engine has a typical lifespan of about 25 years. Without a repair process, Rolls-Royce would have to replace many parts over an engine’s lifetime, which costs money not just in materials but also in energy and in the man-hours required to manufac-ture them, Low explains.

Singapore is the largest aerospace maintenance, repair, and overhaul country in Asia, says Low. Rolls-Royce and its joint venture employ approximately 2,500 people in Singapore. So working with ARTC to improve the repair and maintenance process made practical sense. One of the 35 joint projects seeks to replace a chemical cleaning process with a dry-ice blasting method. The new method is less expensive than replacing or recycling parts and is more environmentally friendly.

For this project, ARTC brought in AmpTec Industrial Heating, a local manufacturer of dry-ice cleaning equipment. The clean-ing process is carried out by a sophisticated robot supplied by ABB Singapore—a multinational manufacturer of power and automation technologies. ARTC integrated the dry-ice clean-ing equipment with the robot, programming the robotic path as well as developing the key parameters for the cleaning pro-cess. Collaborating companies can benefit hugely, says Low. “If a project is successful, ARTC already has the suppliers ready and simply hands over the process. It bridges a gap and has-tens the time to market, which accelerates economic growth for Singapore.”

New biomedical initiativesAlthough research projects in computing and manufacturing

are focused on developing enabling tools and objects, part of the nation’s research strategy is also intended to improve quality of life at home. One key goal highlighted under the Health and Biomedical Sciences research domain is to support research that “advances the health of the people of Singapore.” At Biopolis—a 13-building research campus adjacent to Fusionopolis that provides space for both public and private sponsored biomedical research—an A*STAR initiative launched in 2013 is already making progress toward that goal. The Personalized OMIC Lattice for Advanced Research and Improving Stratification (POLARIS) initiative has as its principal goal to implement genomic medicine. Thought leaders around the world have pointed to molecular medicine as playing an ever-increasing role in improving health care outcomes.

“We made a strategic decision to identify the barriers,” says Patrick Tan, program director of POLARIS. Although funded by A*STAR, the initiative is actually a multiparty collaboration among hospitals, regulatory agencies, and universities, says Tan. The barriers can be bureaucratic, administrative, or logistical, he adds.

One project, for example, aims to study how next-generation sequencing could replace conventional genotyping methods for tuberculosis detection and potentially enable more rapid detection of drug-resistant strains. Another project involves creating a next-generation cancer-sequencing panel that could be used as a diagnostic tool. The key research findings coming

out of these two projects, however, will be those showing how to speed up and deliver genomic tests to the clinic, says Tan. In other words, the research is not only about discovery but also about implemen-tation. Consequently, PO-LARIS also works closely with Singapore’s Ministry of Health.

Still another project will potentially translate a research discovery into knowledge that could specifically help the local population. In 2012, a team that included researchers from Duke-NUS (National University of Singapore) Graduate Medical School

ARTC helps companies advance manufacturing practices through technology.

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in Singapore, A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore, Singa-pore General Hospital, and the National Cancer Centre Singa-pore discovered a common variation in the BIM gene in people of East-Asian descent that contributes to some cancer patients’ failure to benefit from tyrosine-kinase inhibitor drugs. The re-search also pointed to a combination therapy that may be able to override drug resistance. The research clearly has clinical implications: POLARIS has developed a genomic test that can screen for the mutation.

To aid the transfer of diagnostic tests to the clinic, A*STAR also launched the Diagnostics Development (DxD) Hub in 2014, a national initiative that brings together clinicians, re-searchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and industry profession-als with the objective of quickly transforming intellectual prop-erty into clinically validated and marketable diagnostic devic-es. The DxD Hub is located in Biopolis and is led by A*STAR’s commercialization division, Exploit Technologies.

Also in 2014, A*STAR, Nanyang Technological University, and the National Healthcare Group signed a memorandum agree-ing to commit at least S$100 million (US$71.3 million) toward the new Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS). The collaboration will leverage the expertise of scientists, clini-cians, and engineers to develop innovative technology solu-tions to improve outcomes for stroke patients. The strategy employs clinical robotics and biomechanics as well as comput-er games as tools to aid rehabilitation. Researchers at A*STAR’s I2R have developed a noninvasive technology, which works by building a direct interface between the human brain and the computer. Traditionally, stroke rehabilitation exercises involve human-to-human interaction between a therapist and patient. The ArtsBCI (Advanced rehabilitation therapy for stroke based on Brain-Computer Interface) technology uses a robotic ma-chine to move a patient’s arm, activated by electrical signals picked up by an electroencephalogram (EEG) netting. Clinical trials conducted at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National Neuroscience Institute demonstrated its use in helping stroke patients regain various degrees of mobility.

“A*STAR has played a critical role in connecting various research players thus far,” says Lim. Going forward, it will inten-sify its role “as convener and orchestrator of nationwide pro-

grams to foster greater collaboration and integration between academia, the clinical community, and industry, so as to trans-late research into innovative medicines, medical devices, and value-based healthcare.”

The investment pays offSingapore’s gross domestic expenditure on research,

innovation, and enterprise has grown from S$3.4 billion (US$2.4 billion) in 2002 to S$8.5 billion (US$6.06 billion) in 2014—a testament to the nation’s growth strategy. “From a predominantly physical science and engineering research focus, we now have strong multidisciplinary capabilities in both the biomedical sciences and physical sciences and engineering,” says Lim.

Other indicators also point to success: Singapore now has vibrant startup clusters such as the JTC LaunchPad @ one-north, located adjacent to Fusionopolis One, which will house about 750 startups by 2017, up from 500 in 2015 and 250 when it first began in 2011. A*STAR has also spawned about 60 startups from its research institutes since 2011. The translation of research and technology into potentially tangible benefits or advances for society has landed the nation high rankings in several international economic indicators. Singapore was ranked seventh in INSEAD Business School’s Global Innovation Index 2015, and was recently ranked the world’s second-most competitive economy in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2015–2016—a position it has held for five years consecutively. Singapore was also ranked the second-highest Asia-Pacific economy within the subcategory of innovation.

Singapore’s ability to achieve its goals within a relatively short time is a reflection of “strong government commitment sustained over the last few funding cycles,” says Lim. Also con-tributing to its success is the nation’s (and hence the research community’s) small size, which makes it easier for all parties to engage and work together to shape the research landscape, he adds. “This spirit of cooperation and collaboration for economic impact and societal benefits will be even more criti-cal going forward in a much more challenging and uncertain global environment.”

POLARIS translates genomics into clinical therapies for Singapore and beyond. Technology helps stroke patients regain mobility.