Wrap Up of Industrial Seminar Series for Semester 2, AY23/24

The industrial seminar series of semester 2, AY23/24, continued with the format of 5 standalone seminars and 2 “code-shared” seminars (with the course SP2401/2 – Science & Technology Industry Insights), featuring a large array of industries that included the Clinical Research, Biotechnology and Bio-pharmaceuticals, Research, Maritime, Energy and Semiconductor sectors, catering to mathematical sciences and life and physical sciences students at the Faculty.

The clinical research organization (CRO) industry, critical in the development and clinical trials of  pharmaceutical drugs and treatments, is a sector that is compatible and appealing to students pursuing life sciences degrees, including life sciences, pharmacy and pharmaceutical science, and yet might not have been familiar to some of these students yet. Two pre-eminent examples of the CRO sector, ICON PLC and Fortrea, were featured this semester to afford our students an introduction to the key streams in clinical research, with a closer look at clinical operations and the trials of rare and pediatric diseases’ pharmaceutical interventions. 

Another industrial cluster featured prominently this term, and catering to life and physical science students, is the biotechnology and bio-pharmaceuticals clustered, represented by three firms: GenScript, Moderna and Illumina. GenScript, which recently unveiled their much enlarged manufacturing facility at Kallang, pitched to the students their value-add services to speed up discoveries in life sciences, including their gene synthesis service and protein optimization service. Moderna, now a household brand name owing to their groundbreaking work in the  development of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine, and which has just set up their representation in Singapore, shared a few exciting developments in their mRNA therapeutics pipeline. Illumina, which provides nex-Gen sequencing platform that is a critical linchpin in the advancement of precision medicine, wowed the students with the power of deep-sequencing in unlocking genetic basis of human diseases.

The public research sector was represented this semester by HTX, the Home Team Science and Technology Agency, who featured two of recent NUS graduates who now work in HTX’s CBRNE Centre of Expertise  and Biometrics & Profiling Centre of Expertise, two areas that are highly attractive to science graduates, elucidated and inspired the attendees on how Sci&Tech training enabled them to excel in their life as an engineer at HTX.

The invited employer PSA, world’s biggest transhipment port operator and a jewel of the Singapore economy, elaborated on the use of data science in their daily operations in a seminar that was specifically catered to the group of science students pursuing mathematical sciences degrees.

Schneider Electric, a leading player in sustainability and green energy business, highlighted to the group of mainly physical sciences students how they help the clients achieve sustainability goals from strategy to execution, and the important role they played in the Singapore Green Plan.

The semiconductor industry, an industry which is gaining traction with chemistry and physics students in particular, was represented by GlobalFoundries (GF) this semester, who has recently completed the expansion of their manufacturing footprint in Singapore with a new Woodlands campus, instilled in the attendees the critical role that foundries plays in the global microchips ecosystem, and highlighted key roles where science students could excel at GF.

The industrial seminar series will continue in the new academic year. Keep a look out for announcements from the Science Dean’s office for another round of exciting industrially-relevant discourses.