Wrap-Up: Industrial Seminars, AY24/25 Semester 2

The industrial seminar series, now well established to include 5 standalone seminars per semester, plus another 2 “code-shared” seminars with the Science and Technology Industry Insights class I/II (SP2401/2), continues this semester to bring to our Science students representatives from key industrial sectors which they may consider to launch their careers in.

The series kicked off highlighting the consultancy services sector, and featured not just any consultancy services companies, but Bain and Company, a global-leading marquee consulting firm. And to cater to the interest of the swathe of science students interested in sustainability-related careers, the talk focused on Bain’s sustainability practice, with the two Bain speakers using case studies to highlight how Bain impacted sustainability through clients, partnerships and events, including, for example, how Bain helped a leading provider of climate accounting software set up its Asia base in Singapore.

The next two seminars featured the healthcare sector and the defense R&D sector, represented by the Singapore Clinical Research Institute (SCRI) and the DSO National Laboratories. SCRI, a subsidiary of the MOH Holdings, aims to develop enhanced resources and capabilities to foster intellectual and scientific leadership in the field of clinical research. And a key avenue is to bring awareness and training to the job of clinical research coordinators (CRC), a profession at the forefront of medical breakthroughs. With three CRC speakers in attendance, the seminar opened this job opportunity to many of the attending students studying life and physical sciences majors. The DSO National Laboratoires seminar, taking place on the heels of the SCRI seminar, complemented nicely with defense R&D roles suitable for mathematical sciences students, with five researchers and scientists in attendance, all of whom are NUS Science or College of Design and Engineering alumni, affording students a peek into the various R&D roles at DSO, including research in the material sciences, cryptography, information security, radiochemistry and physics areas.

Given the intention to highlight the omnipresence of data science in a plethora of industrial sectors, CMA CGM, a global-leading multi-national shipping and logistics company headquartered in France, was brought in to enlighten students on how data science is shaping the future of the maritime industry, and in particular, in the arenas of decision-making, safety and sustainability. Catering to students who study data science and analytics, the company also brought in VR sets for the attendees to visualize port operations!

The last stand-alone industrial seminar featured the booming cryptocurrency sector,  inviting  Wintermute, a leading global algorithmic trading firm in digital assets, and featured two speakers who are graduates from the NUS Business School and School of Computing, and who have now joined Wintermute as business development professional and algorithmic trader, respectively. Together, the speakers regaled students, mainly from mathematical sciences and computing background, the day-to-day life at Wintermute, exciting the students with current internship and full-time opportunities at Wintermute, which is expanding their footprint in Singapore.

An additional two seminars, featuring four employers, were run as part of the Science and Technology Industry Insights course, catering to life and physical sciences students. The first of the two seminars featured WuXi XDC, a contract research and manufacturing company specializing in the creation and manufacturing of bioconjugates, a critical class of pharmaceutical agents, and Givaudan, a B2B leader in the flavor and fragrance industry. Together, these representatives presented the attractions of their respective industries to cohorts of science students reading majors such as life sciences, chemistry and food science and technology. The second of the two seminars featured the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry, represented by Ferrero, and the Consumer Healthcare Products industry, exemplified by Haleon, two hugely relatable companies to our students as the makers of some of the most widely consumed snacks like Kinder Bueno and daily hygiene products like Sensodyne.

The industrial seminar series will resume in the next academic year.

Student attendee asks questions on Bain’s sustainability practices during the 22 Jan session.

Student attendee tries on the VR set during the CMA CGM seminar on 20 Feb.

A panel discussion with 5 DSO National Laboratories scientists and researchers during the 12 Feb industrial seminar.

Darren Chia (NUS Business, ’24), Business Development executive at Wintermute, introduces the company to the students at the 26 March seminar.