Jin

If there’ one thing from an NUS canteen stall that Jin Zhe could eat for the rest of his life, it’d be the dry ‘ban mian’ from the BiZ canteen. Most people may be surprised to learn that Jin’s command of Mandarin isn’t the greatest, even though he was born in China, grew up in Singapore, and went through the Singapore education system and National Service. If he were stranded on a deserted island for eternity, he’d like to have a compound bow for hunting, a journal, and Wilson the volleyball for companionship. He is averse to small talk and the word ‘entrepreneur’ (despite being the founder of a startup). He discovered his weakness for American food while away at NOC and is a self-professed pizza and junk food fiend. He thinks that we could really, really improve the printing system at SoC and hopes that someone will build an app for their FYP that will show users their print quota and queue, instead of us wasting paper, printing cover pages for every print job. Any takers?

Describe your SoC experience.

I was a Computer Science major with a focus area in Information Retrieval. I’ve just graduated and it took me a total of 5 years if we also count in the 1 year for NOC.

My journey at SoC wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. I had a really tough time picking up programming in the beginning as it was such a drastic switch from what I’m used to learning in 12 years of public education. I remember being completely gutted and utterly embarrassed when I received C+’s for both my CS1010 and CS1231 in my first semester. Till this day I still get a tinge of guilt when I think about it because I feel I’ve let down Mr. Aaron Tan and Prof. Bressan. After the disaster of a first semester, I took it upon myself to do whatever it takes to improve. It would take me 3 years and countless hours of practice to eventually love, embrace and appreciate the world of programming and Computer Science.

One of the most challenging aspects of being in the field of CS is keeping up with the times. The democratization of the internet, growth of smartphones and advancements in hardware within the last decade had really propelled technological progress at jaw-dropping speeds. Software engineering paradigms are shifting, new machine learning techniques are developed by the likes of Google and Facebook. Due to this phenomenon, many outsiders feel that a CS education is losing its relevance because it doesn’t cater for the shifting landscapes of technology. That misconception couldn’t be any farther from the truth. Applications and methods of application change, however fundamentals never change and the value of a CS education in SoC is that it imparts strong fundamentals. I actually wrote a Medium article in April to discuss this issue. 

The craziest thing I did was willing ‘tanking’ most of my projects, except for rare a few which I happen to get star players on my side. In college and in the workplace, there will always be an unequal distribution of contributions from the people you work with. You can’t change them and neither can you change the system. However you are in control of how much you can gain from the projects. For the projects where I did most of the work, I was also the one in the team who learnt the most.

I’d definitely wished to have been more involved with the SoC community. I had been a geeky, hermit for the most part of my time here and so have only made a handful of friends from my classes.

In my third year, I went onboard the NUS College in Silicon Valley and became a full-time software engineering intern at a tech startup. It was there that I realized the importance of working on real world projects. To quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” That really applies to software engineering as taking part in real-world projects and shipping production-grade code is a great opportunity to apply our knowledge in the industry. Iteration cycles at startups can get pretty intense and there was at least one day a week where I had to put in about 15 hours of work. I dare say that the hours I clocked churning code can put investment bankers to shame. It was a lot of hard work but what my internship gave me was a ton of practice and immense confidence as a programmer.

Returning from NOC, I found a renewed sense of optimism and enthusiasm. I no longer looked at my assignments with reluctance and fear. In fact I looked forward to problem sets, assignments as I thoroughly enjoyed solving them. Accomplishing them gave me a sense of achievement I hadn’t experienced before. As I progressed in my CS curriculum, I also realized that it was a lot more than just coding, algorithms, data structures and software engineering. I was introduced to entire fields in computer graphics, artificial intelligence, information retrieval, computer security and many more which were all extremely interesting. Despite being more demanding, I found the last 2 years in SoC being much more enjoyable than the first 2. One could certainly say that college ended on a high note for me. I actually enjoyed my FYP the most because it was self-proposed and it also eventually turned into my startup! How cool is that! 

I must say my experience in SoC is something most students can relate to. The most defining moment for me as an undergraduate actually happened while being on the NOC programme when I was at a dinner party and a Venture Capitalist whom I was with turned to me and asked “what is your goal in life? What gets you out of bed every morning?” My pursuit to the answer of that question would eventually bring me to realize my passion in utilizing technology to make this world a better place. So I’d say what set my student experience apart from most is actually NOC, which for me was pretty life-changing.

Which faculty members made impressions on you?

SoC truly has an exceptional group of professors and staff which makes me proud to be part of this family. It would be impossible to exhaustively name everyone here so I’ll just attempt to mention those who come to mind, not in any particular order whatsoever. 

I’m truly grateful towards Dr. Steven Halim for believing in me and taking up the project as my supervisor. Hadn’t it been for his support, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today. His algorithms classes are also world-class and comes with a top-notch algorithmic visualization website (VisuAlgo) to aid learning. Mr. Aaron Tan is someone almost every SoC freshman will have the opportunity to take classes under. His enthusiasm is simply infectious and he also goes above and beyond to make classes engaging and interesting for students. When lecturers are passionate about teaching, it really shows in their classes and Aaron is exemplary of that. Dr. Alan Cheng taught me Computer Graphics and his assignments were some of the most fun and engaging ones I’ve ever done in NUS. Prof. Ng Teck Khim is a wonderful lecturer at Computer Vision in CS and has a knack of breaking down complex ideas into really simple concepts. I took Information Retrieval under Prof. Kan Min-Yen and had thoroughly enjoyed his classes, assignments as well as his dry wit. Prof. Leong Hon Wai was the one who really pushed us to maturity in our algorithmic journey. Prof. Wong Weng Fai taught me Computer Organization and I will always remember his detailed PowerPoint animations on MIPS architecture. Dr. Bimlesh Wadhwa taught me for all my software engineering courses and she is the without a doubt one of the kindest and most caring lecturers around. 

For those who didn’t make the list, please forgive me, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t make an impact on my SoC life, it just means that I wasn’t able to load everything into memory all at once.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date? 

My most significant achievement to date is being able to build a production-grade social network entirely by myself. It was an end-to-end implementation which covered UI design, frontend development, backend development, database, caching, server load balancing, web security and scalable architectures. I really learnt A LOT from the one year working on it. The project is called Mooder and it is the startup that I am working on right now. I’d like to cheekily think that I have outdone Zuckerberg because Mooder is definitely more advanced that the first version of Facebook, but to Zuck’s credit, web development in the early 2000s is vastly different from what is today; I had it much easier with the embarrassing array of tools and knowledge that web developers enjoy today. Do check out the platform at www.mooder.com! 

As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt famously said, “Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality.” Human emotions is something very primal and it’s ironic that it has been almost swept under the rug during the digital revolution of our time. 

I am a very heavy user of social media and I do believe it is the single most defining technology in this decade. It has become such an integral part of our lives! It redefined the way we connect to people, changed the way we consume information and brought new ways to how we project ourselves to others. However as social networks continue to evolve, there is a void being left behind and that is emotions and empathy. To paint a bleak picture, Facebook has evolved into a platform for content sharing and self-assertions, Instagram and Snapchat are starting to become the center stage for the vainglorious, twitter became a one-way channel for celebrities and politicians to project their views and opinions onto others and the list goes on. In 2010, a Stanford research paper published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin showed that Facebook makes people sadder because users mostly post about overly positive emotions and it harbors the illusion that everyone around us are leading way better lives than us such that when we experience negative emotions, we think that we are alone in our sorrows. The conclusion of that study proposed that if we could share our negative emotions as much as our positive ones, we could be way happier people. That is what Mooder sets out to accomplish: to create an environment where users would feel welcome to share any emotion they experience and connect with other users who feel the same. Empathy has always been the cornerstone for authentic human relationships but we have yet to see mechanisms online which facilitate that. 

I first proposed the FYP idea to Dr. Steven Halim and was very fortunate that he agreed to be my project supervisor. I then acquired SoC’s Validating Startup Concept (VaSCo) grant last July followed by getting into SoC’s incubator The Furnace in December. In February I was accepted onto AliCloud Startup program 2016 and then in April I went onboard Mediacorp’s Mediapreneur programme which also provided additional funding for the startup. It all started out from a FYP project! This journey so far was made possible by a lot of people, my friends, family and professors. The SoC Entrepreneurship committee has also provided tremendous support, encouragement and mentorship, for which I am extremely grateful! 

It is A LOT of hard work. I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to run a company and I don’t think there’s anything that can be done to prepare oneself for something quite like this. I have an office under The Furnace at I-Cube which has been my home for the past 8 months because I literally stay there on weekdays. Every single day is spent working and ironically one of the few things that keep me sane throughout this time is actually Mooder. For anyone reading this, feel free to drop by I-Cube #03-31 to say hi!

What did you want to be when you were younger?

I wanted to be an artist and I have been really wieldy with a pencil for as long as I could remember. My strength was in drawing portraits and in secondary school my art teacher told me I was pretty talented (humble brag) and suggested that I go to an art school. Well I decided against that because pursuing art as a career was a pretty risky move and more so making that decision at the age of 16. So I pretty much gave that idea up and haven’t practiced drawing ever since. You know when you make a hard decision like that, you really can’t look back anymore. I might return to it someday, maybe when I retire.

What advice would you give a prospective SoC student?

1. Be patient with your learning. Coming from the public education system, a lot of us will have this conditioned expectation to grasp something within a couple of months and if we don’t, we think we’re not fit for it. That couldn’t be any further away from the truth. It took me 3 years to get comfortable with coding. What computing had taught me was that if you stayed on a challenge long and hard enough, you will almost certainly overcome it. Just don’t apply that during exams! 

2. Go for internships, ideally one at a big company followed by one at a startup. Internships at big companies teach you industry best practices and production-grade standards, while internships at startups provide you with incredible control over your responsibilities and lots of room to experiment. Both will prove to be great learning experiences 

3. Work on your own projects. Passion is not given, it is cultivated and grown. A software engineer without a pet project is like a novelist without a genre. 

4. Do not rush to graduate. The more time you spend on learning, the more appreciation you get to develop, the more concepts you get to internalize and most importantly, the more opportunities you get. Staying in school longer could mean that you have more time to work on personal projects or going for more internships.

What are your future plans?

My focus now is entirely on my startup and I seek to grow it as much as I possibly can. Oh my mom is also urging me to get a girlfriend, maybe I’ll start to make some plans for that too!

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I am a huge fan of combat arts and have trained in various systems including Krav Maga, Muay Thai, Boxing, Brazilian Jujitsu and Olympic freestyle wrestling. These days I don’t have time commit to regular classes at a gym and so I pretty much train by myself in school.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

6 years ago I declined the offer to study CS in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s college of engineering. I chose to enroll in NUS instead. You know after all these years, the biggest lesson I learnt is that decisions are rarely right or wrong in and of themselves, it’s what you make of them and where you allow them to take you that ultimately define their worth. In my attempt to justify my decision, I made sure I’d be the best that I can be with the opportunities that I can get. My stint in NUS had brought me great friendships, blessed me with amazing professors and wonderful mentors, led me to Silicon Valley, to Stanford and eventually to founding my own tech company. I’m not so certain that I could be in the same position today had I gone to Illinois. 

While I may not have been the valedictorian for my batch, I too would like to leave with a message to the graduation cohort of 2016: You are only as decisive as you are willing to fly with your decisions, so fly, and never look back!

Ru Hong

Seah Ru Hong will be receiving his Master of Computing in Computer Science degree this July. The thing he enjoys most about being a student here is the immense relief of completing a particularly difficult assignment. He’s an ‘East-side’ guy and loves the convenience of the East-West MRT line, when it’s actually working. He also did his Bachelor’s degree with us from 2003 to 2007, and can claim to have been a student of both the IS and CS departments.

What do you do now?

I co-founded my company QQstay. QQstay is a website that helps people find reliable property agents through customer reviews. I’m the only software engineer on the team and I developed the website. 

For many, property is the biggest purchase of a lifetime and you want to entrust this important deal to someone reliable. Advertisements of property agents are very common, and yet, finding a reliable property agent is not as easy as it should be. Very often, we rely on our friends’ recommendations to engage a property agent. What if we can bring those recommendations online? Hence, we created QQstay, a community where people can share reviews of property agents in Singapore. 

We believe that customer reviews can also help property agents. Positive reviews attract more customers and constructive feedback help agents to level up their service. It is a win-win situation. No one can deny the influence of online reviews on purchase decisions. Nowadays, we don’t book an overseas vacation until we have read a TripAdvisor review. We want to bring the same effect to the property agent profession. 

Currently, I am working to add other service providers to the QQstay community, such as renovation contractors, electricians and plumbers.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date? 

I was the regional winner of the Google Cloud Developer Challenge 2013. It was during this time when I started to learn website development on the Google Cloud Platform. The Google Cloud Platform is powerful, easy to setup and affordable. When our QQstay website was in the prototype stage, I did not have to pay a single cent for using Google’s cloud. That’s because the Google Cloud Platform is free to use so long as your application lives within its basic resource quotas. There are no limited time trials. That’s ideal for entrepreneurs like me who need to quickly iterate on prototyping, without having to worry about splurging on experiments. 

I reinvested the prize money of US$20,000 into my start-up QQstay. Google also disbursed an additional grant of US$18,000 to SoC as I was representing the school.

What was your academic path before coming to NUS Computing?

I enrolled in NUS through the ‘A’ levels route. SoC was my first choice even though I did not read ‘A’ level Computing. I was very curious about computers and the Internet as I spend a lot of time on these media (still do).  

Which NUS Computing faculty members made impressions on you? 

Several teaching staff have impressed me with their patience and dedication. Particularly, I want to thank Mr Aaron Tan, Prof Chua Tat Seng, Prof Yu Haifeng, Prof Ng Teck Khim, Prof Chan Chee Yong, Prof Heng Cheng Suang and Prof Tan Kian Lee. Last but not least, I want to thank Dr. Sharon Tan for her referral to help me gain admission to the MComp programme.

I also want to thank the school committee that decided to teach Java to freshmen many years ago. The Java programming language has been my steady workhorse throughout my career and I still use Java extensively at work now. The Java ecosystem is so mature that I can always find a tool I need without having to reinvent the wheel. 

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

That I got my Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems (E-commerce) but I pursued a Master’s degree in Computer Science. Moving to a more technical career is off the beaten track in Singapore. But I was determined to pursue a technical career out of passion, even though sometimes I feel like I am swimming against the tide. I hope that, one day, engineering and management would be equally viable career paths in Singapore, just like the top software houses in the US. 

I must confess that I was one of those ‘kiasu’ students when I was an undergrad. I was obsessed with my grades, so I felt insecure when I entered SoC with zero programming background. I remembered that I totally flunked an interview for a vacation job because I did not know how to create a database table in Microsoft Access! Thanks to SoC’s dedicated teaching team, not only did my confidence in programming grow but I fell in love with it. Even though I find the technical parts interesting, I hesitated to risk my grades by reading more Computer Science modules, which have a reputation of being really hard.   

So when I came back to do my Master’s, I gave myself a new goal; and that is to learn as much as I can. I wanted to take all the interesting modules, no matter how intimidating they may seem. The course requires 10 modules, out of which at least 5 must be in Computer Science. I took 9 CS modules. I have very humble grades but I’m satisfied with what I have learnt.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not studying or working?

To satisfy my own curiosity, I like to do data visualizations in my spare time. I have a side project SG Charts that showcases public data ranging from salary, COE prices to dengue clusters. Recently I read two great books that I would like to share with everyone: Peter Siebel’s Coders At Work and Brad Stone’s The Everything Store. 

Quick-fire! Most annoying word? 

When people ask you to “revert” to emails

Guilty pleasures?

I have only just discovered the Game of Thrones books and I recently finished A Clash of Kings. I can’t resist a good tiramisu, which is hard to find in Singapore!

Brandon

Brandon Chew, who is by this Editor’s estimation, a fashion-conscious young man, thinks Korean sweatpants are the best fashion trend and that Crocs are the worst. His pet peeve is when towel-free people leave sweat all over gym equipment benches after working out. For fun, he likes to indulge in a good, high-level game of DOTA2, read a book or travel. He also dreams of schools where little rabbits are allowed to do nothing but run all day. Brandon has just completed his third year of our Computer Science programme.

Brandon with Dendi at The International 4, Seattle, USA.

Describe your SoC experience. 

[I enjoy] meeting like-minded people and being able to build value-adding products rather than solving meaningless coding problems. [What I find most challenging is] doing coding assignments/modules which I have absolutely no interest/aptitude. *Ahem* CS1231 CS3230. [What I find most interesting, however, is] disruptive innovation.

Which faculty made impressions on you?

Aaron - regular Facebook musings always keeps my brain working 

Steven Halim - likes to make his modules competitive, which ups the difficulty one notch. Achievement unlocked if you get an A for his modules. Nevertheless, very passionate about whatever he's teaching.

Is there anything you would have done differently during your time here?

I definitely wouldn't have traded the first 2 years where I basically went yolo with school. Totally didn't study, failed a lot of modules while doing professional gaming. It made me fearless of failure and I had a lot of unforgettable experiences. The people I met during those 2 years also changed my life. 

I would've started my entrepreneurial journey earlier. I love disruptive innovation and I hope I can change the world with the ideas I have in mind.

What do you think makes your student experience different than that of any other student?

I played Dota 2 professionally. I'm proud about taking the path less travelled.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date?

Being able to travel around the world to play Dota 2 professionally has got to be the most challenging yet rewarding experience I've had to date. Nothing beats doing what you love and are good at. I chose to pursue it because I'm no respecter of rules and the Singapore education system is one of them. I've been playing Dota for 13 years now. I started in Dota 1 where I just played a lot and got to know the Singapore community. Teamed up with a few dudes and played a few tournaments. For those who know the scene, we always placed behind Scythe.SG and XtC which was a big enough feat back then. I took a hiatus because of army but when I came back I found the same few people I played with and the rest is history. I've been to places I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to go to without Dota. Sure we had to work really hard with daily training sessions which could last into the wee hours of the night, for up to 5 years, but it was all worth it. 

[One of the highlights was] my experience as a spectator at TI5 (The International 5). I was fortunate to have a friend playing in MVP.Phoenix so I basically got everything free minus the air ticket. Sitting in the VIP booth was amazing. Free flow drinks and buffet. Awesome panoramic view of Key Arena. Soaking in an atmosphere of diehard Dota 2 fans. The entire experience is just too amazing. After party was amazinger talking to basically all the personalities and players and getting to know their stories, too bad it was short-lived because I was stupid enough to schedule my flight at 2am that night. I will continue to go to TIs probably till the day I die and hopefully participate in one myself :D

What did you want to be when you were younger? Is that still an interest of yours?

So let me put it this way. What do you think of this life? Go to school get good grades, get into university. Graduate and become a doctor/banker/lawyer. Earn money, get married have kids, watch them grow up, retire and die peacefully. Is that a life worth living? To me, no, that's boring as heck. This quote says it all: 

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for – and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool – for love – for your dreams – for the adventure of being alive." - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

I'm a huge rebel with a strong personality. But at the same time I'm a devout Christian. Don't know whether that will surprise people. Haha

What are your future plans?

Go back to Dota 2 after university. Do a startup. Currently looking to kickstart one of my projects called GymRats. It’s basically a Hungrygowhere/TripAdvisor for gyms and fitness centres in Singapore but with a lot more to it. You can check it out at http://gymrats.sg/

Francis

Francis Yeoh is, in his words, ‘a true blue Singaporean, born and raised here, served NS, likes durian, kway chap, yong tau foo and chili crab’. He did, however, spend seven years in England and one in Boston ‘collecting a few pieces of paper’. His guilty pleasure is having beef jerky with beer at the end of a hot day. He thinks that the most interesting recent development in technology is the drone because there are just so many application possibilities. Francis chairs the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Committee at SoC.

Francis and his wife Karol at Machu Picchu, Peru

What are you working on and why are you passionate about it?

My work in the last 30 years or so has always revolved around research, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, whether as a research scientist, research institute director, start-up CEO, venture investor, government policy maker, or university professor.  

I have lived through Singapore’s incredible transformation from third world to first and saw how the country cleverly transitioned from a labour intensive economy in the 60s to the sophisticated knowledge-based metropolis that it is today, thanks to the hard work, foresight and resilience of our founding leaders and pioneer generation. Moving ahead in an increasingly complex and inter-connected world, I believe Singapore has to develop a thriving entrepreneurial wing to the economy, to complement the FDI (foreign direct investment) led strategy that had served us well in the 70s and 80s but is no longer adequate for the future. A robust economy should have both large corporations for stability and resilience as well as numerous fast-growing startups, for agility, dynamism and renewal. This is why in my past work in government, whether in the National Science and Technology Board (now A*STAR) or the National Research Foundation, I had pushed for the development of an eco-system that will support the entrepreneurial community of startups, venture capital, angel investors and supporting services. The universities have an important role to play in supplying innovative technologies and the entrepreneurs that are the central players in such an eco-system.  

SoC, as a top-ranked computer science school can and should certainly play a key role. SoC could produce graduates who are not just technically competent but also possess drive and resourcefulness, and a desire to experience the intensity and pace of the startup world rather than take up a safe job with a large corporation or government agency.  

What a few SoC colleagues and I hope to do here is to educate and equip SoC students with the entrepreneurial skills needed to work in a tech start-up and to encourage and guide them in the first steps of their entrepreneurial journey and help connect them to the local startup eco-system.  

Describe your SoC experience. 

What I find enriching is the opportunity to interact with bright, driven young people, both in my class (IS3251: Principles of Technology Entrepreneurship) and in the SoC incubator for start-up companies. Contrary to popular perceptions that millennials are slackers, easily distracted multi-taskers, self-serving day-dreamers, etc., I have come across many who are sensible, determined, idealistic and yet very down to earth. It is a delight to be able to encourage and guide intelligent self-driven young people to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.    

I would advise students to build strong technical skills – great software skills are very valuable and in high demand, especially in the start-up community. It is far easier to pick up business skills than technical skills later in life.  

I would also advise students to join a tech start-up early in their working life, rather than go the tried and tested (and boring) route of working for an MNC or government. There isn’t a better time than now to be part of the exciting entrepreneurial community in Singapore – the environment is very conducive, funding is quite abundant, and, there’s a thriving multi-national community of entrepreneurs operating in Singapore. For the young graduate, there are rich intense and valuable learning experiences and opportunities galore! Even if the start-up eventually fails (as many will), the value remains. Many entrepreneurs describe their start-up experiences as transformational in developing independence, perseverance and character.     

What is the one thing you would change about SoC?

As professorial fellow, I spend about half time at SoC so I would not know the School enough to suggest changes. One thing I do notice, however, is the way faculty offices are configured – long corridors with offices on either side, mostly closed. I imagine a professor could spend days, even weeks, within his closed office without interacting with anyone unless he consciously seeks to do so. For creative ideas to be seeded and nurtured, and for innovation to flourish, human interaction is key. Much has been written about the value of water cooler conversations and other serendipitous encounters that give birth to great ideas in research labs. Having offices sited in square clusters, with (open) doors facing inwards would immediately raise the interaction level manifold and increase the likelihood of developing breakthrough ideas. Of course, there are constraints imposed by the existing building architecture but I believe more emphasis could be given to build greater interaction among the faculty into the daily routine.     

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

I am pretty bad in recognizing faces, at least some faces. There were embarrassing occasions when I failed to acknowledge someone I saw in the street whom I’d met several times before, in the same week.  My image processing algorithm just couldn’t handle certain data sets! While usually efficient and well organized (I think!), I do have periods of unbelievable absent-minded lapses. One day returning from an overseas trip, I tried in vain to open my suitcase when I reached home. It took a while for me to realize that the key didn’t fit and yes, it wasn’t my bag – the luggage was not even same the brand and model! Thankfully, after driving back to the airport, I was able to retrieve the correct luggage and hand over the piece I took home by mistake to an anxious lady at the baggage claim. Everyone had a good laugh and my wife had a great story to entertain her friends with.  

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I enjoy working with and mentoring start-ups. When not doing that, I read a lot (non-fiction mainly), tinker with the piano and travel. My wife and I have a long bucket list of travel destinations. We want to see as many places as we can while our legs are still strong and we can endure 30-hour flights, extremes of weather and days of trekking.  

Quick-Fire! The one trait an entrepreneur must have?

Undying optimism.

The most common problem you see start-ups facing?

Not focusing narrowly enough, trying to build something to please too many different customer groups and ending up pleasing nobody.

Three ultimate dinner party guests?

Warren Buffet (but I can’t afford the going rate for lunch!)

Peter Drucker – great, insightful, down-to-earth teacher

Philip Yancey – modern day Christian philosopher with deep honest views about the world

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Progressive Nishanth

Nishanth Sudharsanam studied Computer Engineering and graduated in 2012. Before moving to Singapore and leaving the country for the first time at age 16, he lived in Chennai, India. He reads a lot of non-fiction, biographies and biopics to get more perspective on life, is a fan of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, enjoys south Indian classical music, cooking, and staring at the wall and day dreaming (but he calls it "assimilation" to make himself feel better). The man also deserves a ginormous award for his response to the quick-fire question, ‘Worst fashion trend?’ – he said ‘Heels’. *mic drop*

What do you do now? 

I founded Klinify, a healthcare start-up. Our vision is to unlock medical data and use it to save lives. The most popular and sadly, the most usable tool for managing patient records right now is paper. Data locked away in paper folders isn’t very useful. So, the first step is to ease the workflow of doctors by giving them better tools to manage patient data. The next step would be to help them use the data to drive healthcare forward.

As a computer engineer, I was shocked by the inefficiency in the healthcare system, and I wanted to fix it. At first sight it seems like doctors are tech-averse, but that's not so. They use and operate some pretty hi-tech machinery. They are however busy people operating in a high stress environment, so they have a strong preference for systems that get out of their way and allow them to focus on their practice. The tools available to manage patient records are too clunky, so they keep reverting to paper.

I felt this was very fixable with modern tablets and text-recognition technology, and the lack of usable data is greatly holding back data-backed innovation in healthcare. [I think in the next decade, this field will result in] better, smarter and more accessible healthcare, and computer aided diagnoses.

Klinify definitely [is my most significant achievement to date]. The whole process of starting from scratch, identifying a problem, a potential solution, selling it, and the convincing others to join you for the ride (be it investors or colleagues) has been quite a journey and I feel good when I look back at how far we have come and how much I have learnt. It is a very incomplete achievement though. There is a long way to go before I [will] feel a sense of pride at what we have accomplished.

Describe your SoC experience.

I like math and computer science, so the modules were obviously fun. The environment at SoC is casual, and had a feel of self-initiated learning as opposed to strictly imposed curriculum. There was lot of room to explore and play around, so it was a great atmosphere to be in.

[What I found most interesting and useful was] the focus on learning reusable concepts, like algorithms, architecture instead of programming languages, specific implementations. It helped me start thinking in terms of systems, processes and algorithm as opposed to one-off fixes. It is a very practical skill that extends far beyond computing, and I believe I honed that skill at SoC.

[The one thing I would have done differently during my time here would be to have] picked specific modules, perhaps one per semester and gone all out to gain really in-depth knowledge about it. 

What is the one thing you would change about SoC?

CS1101C seems to have the effect of making most non-programming (typically non-SoC) students develop a strong aversion to programming, which makes me sad, because many of these are smart people scarred by that one intense experience. Given that programming is such an important skill these days, part of me wonders if the initiation could have been gentler. Perhaps focussed less on C and more on the concepts behind it?

Which faculty members made impressions on you?

Wow, that's a long list, because I enjoyed most of my modules. The most prominent were probably -

Profs Juzar Motiwalla, Martin Henz, and Pete Kellock for their guidance and genuine support, even when they knew we had no clue what we were doing initially.

Prof Ben Leong, for introducing me into SoC with that awesome scheme module that remains among my best at SoC.

Profs Wong Weng Fai and Lee Wee Sun, for the ATAP that led to my FYP and the SPC programme respectively. They helped me explore my interest in Comp. Sci. research. Something I hope to get back to someday.

Prof Damith for an extremely useful software engineering course, the importance of which I failed to appreciate until 1 year after graduation when I had to maintain and collaborate on a project that was becoming a little too large for me to hack my way through.

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

I was extremely interested in becoming a quantitative analyst in an investment bank in the first couple of years of university. I did a minor in financial maths, an internship in Credit Suisse, finished my CFA level 1 and also signed up for level 2. And then the start-up bug bit me, and investment banking began to seem a little boring. I'd still like to finish my CFA sometime, more for fun though than to become a banker.

Quick-Fire: Most interesting use of or development in technology this year?

HP's The Machine sounds very interesting. Practical experiments in Quantum teleportation have started to validate theory, which is huuge!

Pet peeve?

So often I see the loudest - not the soundest argument wins.

Three ultimate dinner party guests 

Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates (I’d just serve food and listen to them talk to each other)

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Tang Zhichao & STOB

Computer Engineering graduate Tang Zhichao was born in Nanjing, China, and moved to Singapore when he was 16 to do high school here, and eventually became Singaporean. He started his company STOB with a fellow SoC alumnus, Deddy Marzuki. Zhichao takes (guilty) pleasure in implementing things that he thinks are useful, but that others haven't considered. When he isn't working, he enjoys reading, travelling, watching movies, hanging out with friends and playing snooker.

What do you do now? 

I am the co-founder and the CEO of STOB Pte. Ltd. I enjoy my work very much - since we are start-up, there are very few employees, so I mainly take care of business planning, marketing, project management and coordinate the product development between customers and our engineering team. I travel quite often to meet customers, source factories for OEM and find partner companies to work together. It provides me wider vision of what we are doing.  

My first job inspired me to do this - I was a technical engineer in one of the control system, building automation company, I loved the products they had and wanted to make it better.  

I am working on developing a new concept smart home system. It allows me to learn more skills and also apply more skills I learnt. [With this type of technology,] people can live a more efficient, safer and greener world.

Describe your SoC experience.

It was very busy and competitive when studied in SoC, but it gave me a very solid foundation in both computing and non-computing skill sets. Furthermore, I met many talented students and nice professors during the study in SoC - two of my partners of the startup company I am working with were SoC mates.

Which faculty members made impressions on you? 

A/P Wong Weng Fai, who was my HYP adviser - he encouraged me during the research work of my HYP projects and most importantly, he inspired me on the choices in my life and career. 

What do you think made your student experience different than that of any other student?

I already set my goal in my life when I was studying in SoC, and I am still following my goal now.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date?

I designed and programmed the control systems for the hotel and EXPO in Marina Bay. That inspired me to set up a company 5 years later. 

Quick-fire! Most interesting development in technology this year?

Nest learning thermostat - simply smart. 

Favourite sport?

I like to play snooker and pool.

Pet peeve?

People calling my phone while I am sleeping.

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Renaissance Pete

Intrepid explorer Adjunct Professor Pete Kellock has been to many amazing places – Patagonia, Cuba, Guatemala, North Korea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Svalbard (in the high arctic) and the highlands of New Guinea, to name a few. At the same time, he loves major cities like Rome, Manhattan and Sydney. He was once a freelance horn player who played in hundreds of live concerts, as well as founder and CEO of a successful company. Despite getting in front of audiences and classes countless times, and doing quite a few radio and TV interviews, Pete still gets nervous any time he has to stand up in public or face a mike and camera. He says that many professional musicians and performers confess the same and believes that the nerves aren’t all bad – they can help keep you on your toes and motivate you to prepare well. 

Pete (left), Terence Swee (middle) and Phil Morgan - the core of the team that built muvee - on their annual adventure. Here they were having loads of fun shooting video off the edge of the Grand Canyon using a camera-mounted, radio-controlled quadcopter.

Where did you grow up?

In the far north of Scotland. I spent my first 10 years in the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of the UK. Its climate is raw, wet and extremely windy, but it compensates with some impressive scenery: huge sea-cliffs with crashing waves and thousands of sea-birds. It also has perhaps the most amazing stone-age archaeology in Northern Europe. At an early age I had freedom that most kids can only dream of: by the age of about six I would sometimes wander off for hours, walking miles from home on my own or with friends.

What do you do now? 

At this point I have a few facets to my life. One is helping young entrepreneurs, through mentoring, giving talks and teaching. I do this part-time in NUS, SMU and ad-hoc engagements elsewhere. Another facet is writing weird electronic music. My PhD is in electronic music (I have undergrad degrees in physics/maths and in music) and writing music has been a passion in several periods of my life. Yet another facet is travel: I've always been passionate about seeing the world and I carve out chunks of time for trips to places I haven't visited before. 

I have the wonderful privilege that at this point in my life I don't need to do anything for the sake of money. I value the freedom that it gives me more than anything. It's not that I'm terribly rich - some of my friends have a lot more money - but I care far more about having "free" time, and control over my time, than I do about most of the stuff money buys or about having a high-status job. I never had much interest in the whole concept of career and have gone through my life pretty much following whatever I found interesting and fun at the time.

I'm also extremely lucky that my wife feels the same - neither of us cares much about stuff or status. She's a wonderful Singaporean woman I've been married to for 20 years.

Recently I've taken on a more intense mentorship role with a number of startups including some in SoC. That's fun because I get a chance to know the teams better and can give them more in-depth help.

I also recently completed 2 electronic music projects, one that I had been working on off and on for 4 years. I'm currently "clearing my feet" with various small personal projects and then plan to embark on another big electronic music project that will take me years. This one is going to involve coding, which I've done lots of in my life, but not much in the last decade. It'll be fun getting back into code!

As well as writing music, I see myself as a lifelong student of music. I sometimes get lost for half a day exploring some corner of music that I want to learn more about, often using a combination of Spotify and YouTube to find recordings, plus Wikipedia or other online sources to read up. Sometimes I download scores of music and pore over them or pick apart their harmonies at the piano. This week - in response to a comment made by a friend at a dinner party on Saturday - I spent a few hours exploring the music of the Renaissance composer, lutenist, nobleman and murderer(!), Carlos Gesualdo. But my tastes range across a very wide spectrum of music, from Rock to Indian Classical Music to Contemporary Experimental Music. Last week I was listening to and learning about an incredibly soulful wind instrument from Armenia called the duduk.  

Describe your SoC experience. 

It includes both mentoring and a bit of teaching. I enjoy both equally. I wouldn't like to be a full-time teacher (I did that for a few years of my life), but in small doses teaching is fun. The only thing that isn't much fun - I think most University staff anywhere in the world would agree - is marking assignments!

Mentoring is one of those things that involves a lot of chemistry between you and the mentees. There are ways in which all start-ups are very similar. But there are other ways in which every start-up is unique: different products, domains and technologies, different critical success factors, different types of people in the teams. Sometimes the fit is great and I can see I'm making a big difference to the team, other times I'm scratching my head wondering how best to help them (and sometimes how to get them to listen to me!)  When it's working well it's both valuable and great fun.

There are a few students I've met in the course of mentoring in SoC where, within the first couple of minutes of meeting them, I could see they have all the makings of a successful entrepreneur. And I'm seeing more and more young people like that in SoC, NUS and elsewhere in Singapore. It's quite a specific profile: great "EQ" (people skills), very smart in a down-to-earth practical way (not necessarily much of an academic achiever), confident and opinionated but not too cocky (i.e. willing to listen), unwilling to take "no" for an answer but charming and creative rather than aggressive in how they pursue the answer they want, and other such qualities. A specific example would be Krishanthan Surendran, the founder of one of our start-ups, Klinify which recently raised several hundred thousand dollars.

I think we still have some way to go to make the local student culture deeply entrepreneurial, akin to say Stanford in the US. I'd like to see that happen. But we're moving in that direction, and accelerating the progress: the SoC entrepreneurship team has grown a bit (it's now Juzar Motiwalla, Benjamin Lian, Francis Yeoh, Wong Weng Fai and myself), we're doing more in-depth hands-on work with our start-up incubatees, we’re offering more courses and funding schemes, etc... so we're getting there!

What is the craziest thing that has happened to you in your time at SoC? 

Last summer Prof Martin Henz and I rented a yacht in the Greek islands with an old school friend of mine as skipper and the three of us had some excellent adventures. 

The most acute one was when we had sudden engine failure in the middle of the harbor of the famous island Santorini. The whole point of a sailing yacht is to sail and we had a lot of amazing sailing, but normally you use the engine to navigate within harbors or when laying anchor. This engine failure happened in the worst possible place: lots of other boats around and strong unpredictable gusts of winds from all directions. Somehow we managed to avoid a collision or running into the rocks, but we realized we couldn't anchor or berth in Santorini, so we had to do a 3-hour sail back to another island where we could anchor. 

Thanks to the excellent skills of the two experienced yachtsmen - Martin and my other friend - we got the anchor down under sail in a significant swell just outside the area where it was breaking on the beach. Then, after another 3 hours or so crawling around the engine compartment we managed to replace a damaged impeller and carry on our trip. It’s slightly miraculous that we got through it unscathed. For example, if the anchor had drifted at the wrong moment we would have ended up in the crashing surf, perhaps writing off a yacht worth a half a million dollars or so. We just happened to have a spare impeller for the engine and I just happened to carry a little screwdriver when I travel which was essential to open the impeller casing: a whole series of lucky breaks.  

The culprit behind the whole adventure turned out to be a plastic bag that had got stuck in our cooling water intake causing the engine to overheat.

The only sad thing about this is that it means we didn't manage to land on Santorini, a place I've always wanted to visit. But we did spend time on another island called Amorgos which is perhaps just as gorgeous but gets far fewer visitors. Overall it was an amazing trip.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date? 

My biggest claim to fame so far is that I founded muvee Technologies. muvee started at the end of 1999 as a research team in Kent Ridge Digital Labs (KRDL), the precursor of I2R. The founding team that spun off from KRDL consisted of 3 Singaporeans (Terence Swee, Lo Sheng & Mafrudy bin Rubani), 2 Indians (Sarat Venugopal & Sachin Jain), an Englishman (Phil Morgan) a Canadian (Gerry Beauregard) and a Scotsman (me). I led it as CEO for its first 6 years, taking it from start-up, through venture-capital funding to a profitable company generating over S$12m annual revenue. 

muvee has many "feathers in its cap": it pioneered automatic video editing which has become a whole new category of software, its software has been shipped globally in partnerships with Sony, HP, Nokia, Nikon, LG and other big players, it has generated close to $60 million in revenue for Singapore from overseas sources thus creating about 500 man-years of local employment... and many other fine things. I believe it may have shipped more copies than any other software developed in Singapore: literally hundreds of millions... which sounds like a wild claim until you realize that, for example, for a few years muvee's software engine was on the CD-ROM shipping with every Sony camcorder and many of their cameras worldwide. The deals with HP, Nokia, Nikon, LG were of similar scale. 

Creating a successful start-up is a 24x7 activity usually stretching over many years. The founding team put in plenty of 100-hour weeks; in our first couple of years if any of us left the office before about 7 or 8pm we'd say "Sorry guys - I'm having a half day". Like most start-up CEOs I was involved in numerous areas: business development, deal-making, marketing, fund-raising, hiring & inspiring, financial planning & control, corporate governance, general management, etc. And I was probably more involved than most CEOs in the product and technology, from product definition (settling feature sets, user experience, etc.) to core technology R&D and patenting. muvee has about 20 patents; I was involved at the invention stage in all of them and in many cases I led the work (with our patent attorney) of countering the objections of examiners until they were granted. It was an amazing adventure. Creating a revolutionary product and bringing it to market is one of life's toughest challenges, but also one of the most rewarding. You learn more about all sorts of things - including yourself - than from any other journey.

Unfortunately one thing muvee hasn't achieved so far is to make the founders or investors rich! It's now under the excellent leadership of my friend and co-founder Terence Swee, so with luck that might still happen. But even if it doesn't, I believe we have much to be proud of. In Steve Jobs's phrase, we made a ding in the Universe (albeit much smaller than the dings Steve made!). And I'm proud that most of the founding team have remained firm friends - rather unusual after the long, harsh, bumpy journey that is a start-up. A few of us including Terence and myself get together every year and climb a mountain or take a major trek together somewhere in the world: in Indonesia, Nepal and the US so far. 

Quick-fire! If you could eat only three food items for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Papadum, Crêpe Suzette and beer (it used to be considered a food in the UK). And we need protein so can I squeeze in fillet steak too?

Three things you can’t live without?

Music, wild deserted places, and my wonderful wife Pearl - not necessarily in that order. ;)

Three ultimate dinner party guests

Laurie Anderson (American singer, musician, story-teller, multi-media artist), Thucydides (ancient Greek writer, author of the History of the Peloponnesian War), and Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Driving Mr. Lee

Adrian Lee Chee Full and Paul Tan Wen Jie are the founders of Drive.sg. These local boys graduated from SoC with degrees in Computer Engineering (Adrian) and Information Systems (Paul) about three and a half years ago. When asked about their worst experience with public transportation, they chose the feather-ruffle-less route of declining to respond. Because Paul was too busy, in this interview, we get to hear from the one half of the team who enjoys climbing and crawling around the top of buildings, and reading anything that the web throws at him.

Adrian (left) & Paul at their office in the SoC Incubation Centre

What do you do now? 

Paul is the Co-founder (Technical Development) and I am the Co-founder (Business Development). The nature of the start-up requires us to don multiple job hats so there are non-obvious responsibilities too. Paul is also our HR manager, CFO, Accountant, and De-bugger, and I am our PR, SysAdmin, Intern Herder and ‘Bugger’. 

What we found to be really useful for job segregation was to divide tasks into internal and external affairs. He would do the 'internal' and I would do the 'external'.

What inspired you to do this?

We wanted to start a car rental business ourselves. Once we sat down to do the numbers, we realised that we just don’t have enough capital to start one. Instead, we decided to put our tech skills to good use and help 'improve' the car rental industry in Singapore. Why? Back when we started, Google and Facebook were common online services that everyone used. Yet, for car rentals, consumers had to look up Yellow Pages and Newspapers. That is when we thought it would be a good idea to aggregate all these car rental businesses and put them online. 

Two years plus down the road, we have some kind of a solution to fix that (above), so we are dedicating our effort to look at improving land transport in the region. For example, we think it is ridiculous how transport is done in Singapore. If you needed to get from A to B, you would either take public transport or buy a car. Why don't more people consider car rental, car sharing or car leasing? Our goal is to improve that situation. 

A little part of us is still amazed how two guys can have a tiny impact on the lives of others and that pushes us work hard. The world is changing every moment. Housing, finance, jobs, are being redefined in ways we never thought possible. It is amazing how the last decade was all about having "information right at our fingertips" and now, the new era of democratized business is upon us. Today is the world where business is done at the “you-and-I” level instead of big giant faceless businesses. Think Kickstarter for small-business-world-customers, think AirBnB for short-term stay, think Kiva for micro-loans, think Task Rabbit for freelancing. 

While we are not comparing ourselves to the [aforementioned] greats, we believe we can help the land transport scene to really catch up to the information era and change how people think of land transport locally and regionally.

Describe your SoC experience.

Filled with happy memories of a lot of talking and laughing with friends (with the occasion swears at the computer screen). Without a doubt, we had the best time being part of the Computing Club. Paul was the EVP and I was the club President. The committee was made up of by some of the best individuals that we had ever worked with. The work was it owns reward. [However,] in my opinion, it was really tough to prove to the student body that the Computing Club cared for them and acted in their best interest. I guess over time, by reaching out to one student at a time, that opinion changed slightly for the better.

[The staff and faculty members that made the biggest impressions on me were] Ms. Toh [Mui Kiat] and Prof. Khoo (then Vice-Dean for Undergraduates). Add the number of work hours both Paul and I put into our start-up every month and we can't even match half of what they put in for the students in one week. That is genuine care for student and love of work, right there.

If only students think of NUS as less of a certification centre and more of a place for limitless opportunities. Love chess? There is a group for them. Love religion talk? There is a group for that. Love origami? I am sure there is a group for that. Want to represent NUS in some competition in Oslo? I am sure that is happening sometime this year.

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

Being an introvert, I hate crowds and I must present with 101% confidence to large audiences all the time. Boo.

Quick-fire! Worst movie you’ve seen this year?

It is a toss-up between Non-Stop with star Liam Neeson or Robocop by the new guy Joel Kinnaman. The first movie is predictable and the genre is overdone. The second movie just killed Robocop for me because it is supposed to be R not PG13. The rating change meant removing the darker side of the show and that stinks.

Most interesting use of or development in technology this year?

I am inclined to say Bitcoin or Wearable Tech or IoT but that is so predictable. Instead, I will go with the increased reach of Internet with the commoditisation of cheap Android boxes. It is amazing that everyone can pick up some cheap tablet and start to access the Internet (+Apps). All ages, all income categories, all regions, all demographics can now have instant access to knowledge!

Best design?

I am going to say Singapore. Extremely well thought through but so very tiny...

Three ultimate dinner party guests?

Adrian: Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Sim Wong Hoo (I would say it is a toss-up between Mr. Sim and Elon Musk for the third choice).

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Insta-Ali

When he's not studying or working, Ali Aljunied hangs out with his 'working-adult' friends at a local joint in Kembangan or watches that next Naruto filler. He is, in his words, 'a dinosaur of a Year 5 CS student' who may feel out of place sometimes, but he still totally rocked it at #NUSOpenDay2014, with his immensely popular live hashtag printing service, Tagronauts, drawing people from all the different events and halls across UTown that day to the SoC booth!

What are you working on and why are you passionate about it?

I would not consider it working, cause, well, it’s more of a side-project - Tagronauts. You could say I’m passionate about Tagronauts cause it’s something I made on my own, from scratch. I hacked a program to be able to automatically print Instagram photographs. Since I'm in Computing, obviously it had to be THE best Instagram printing service in Singapore, and it is. Really. 

After showcasing it around (big props to the NOC and NHouse RA's), people were really impressed by it. And after some thought, it could be the next big thing in the events industry, or at least until the fad dies.

Describe your SoC experience.

My SoC experience was (past tense cause like I’m graduating, finally, I hope) a pretty an intense, very rewarding roller-coaster ride. My favourite thing about SoC are the professors. They are like soooo friendly and extremely patient! (especially my FYP profs, Prof. Wynne Hsu and Prof. Lee Mong Li. And they are always together so much so they are like BFFs!)  

I think Prof. Ben Leong and Prof. Wei Tsang Ooi made a huge impressions on me. Prof. Ben obviously cause...well...he's Prof. Ben. If you are a Year 1 student, you CANNOT graduate without taking at least one of his modules. You'll understand why when you do! For Prof. Ooi, he has this way of teaching that just makes you feel like he is really interested in teaching you something, which gives you that warm fuzzy feeling in lecture and consultations. Their lessons are really enjoyable in very different ways. 

I think the non-academic staff are very supportive of the students (big props to External Relations Team!). They always look for student feedback and trying to improve things in-line with the latest trends among students. 

Oh, [I also like] the fact that SoC is fully air-conditioned. And we have awesome labs. And awesome equipment. And the print quota. And the many lockers. And that awesome sofa in the basement. 

If there was something I would have done differently during my time here, maybe I would have studied smarter and harder in Year 1? But that would change since there’s no more grading system in Year 1. So jealous. 

I stay in Pasir Ris, and the halls/residences are pretty expensive. I typically take the last bus home cause once I reach home after the gruelling travel, productivity is zero. So I'd do my work till then. For most part of my semesters during year 2 and year 4 (I went to NOC Silicon Valley in Year 3), I'd sleep in computing (remember the sofa?) and shower in iCube. It just doesn’t make sense to travel 1.5hrs, to go home, to take a shower, and sleep, and only to wake up 5-6hrs later, having to rush and travel for another 1.5hrs, for that morning lecture, which I'd most probably be late for anyway. So I slept in school. For free. Well, not really free since I’m paying tuition fees. Heh.

What do you count as your most significant achievements to date? 

Tagronauts of course! Oh and that networked multiplayer game project I did for CS4243 Networked and Mobile Gaming. During STePs, I had two students (specifically these two) who were so engrossed by the game. If any of you two are reading this, yes, you made my heart melt. <3 

Tagronauts happened one night, in my room, some months back when I was bored and broke and I felt I was wasting my life playing games. I had to learn how to make a desktop application from scratch, and boy did that take a lot of patience, perseverance and time. But once you get the hang of it, adding a button or a checkbox for options suddenly seems to be so much fun, even if it’s just to print to console. haha. 

I pestered my friends to tag old photos and upload new photos for me to test the system. And my darling younger brother who taught me WPF and the custom controls and helped me compile a setup file so that I could install the software on other computers. And lent me his laptop cause my laptop's LCD screen wasn’t and still isn’t working when I had showcases. And helped me fix dependencies with the DLLs. <3 Muhammad. (He applied for SoC too!)

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

That I slept in school. And that my surname is actually Aljunied, and not cause I stay in Aljunied. And that I’m actually the descendent of one of the forefathers of Singapore, Syed Sharif Omar bin Ali Aljunied. If you are interested you can watch a video about my grandfather’s road (pun intended). 

What advice would you give a prospective SoC student?

It will be a tough journey at the start. But once you brave the storm, you'll be reaping in the sweet, sweet rewards of having a computing background. It’s all perseverance in computing. I came in with zero computing experience, and it was a huge struggle. But it will definitely pay off (and it has for me) especially when Facebook buys your app/software for a few billion dollars.

Also, if you are in Computing, definitely sign up for NOC Silicon Valley. Why you ask?

Cause this.

That’s why.

I also wrote a little blog post called Musing of the 1st NUS Intern in Ensuant about my NOC internship back in 2012 and I have this Awesome Album is Awesome I compiled during my stint in NOC Silicon Valley.

Ali and Elmo striking the pose in front of Radio City Music Hall, New York.

What are your future plans?

Send out my resumes to the cool and hip places to work in Silicon Valley and see who wants me. Heh.

Quick-Fire! Most interesting development in technology this year?

Facebook buying WhatsApp for 19 billion definitely.

Singapore’s best kept secret?

Tagronauts - Live Hashtag Printing.

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

ViSenze’s Li Guangda

Li Guangda, who hails from the coastal city of Tianjin in northern China, completed his PhD at SoC in 2011. He is now the Chief Technology Officer at ViSenze, a start-up he co-founded with Professor Chua Tat-Seng. As you will glean, he is a very busy man and yet still managed to find the time to share his experiences with us.

What do you do now? 

I am the CTO and a co-founder of ViSenze. We build visual search and recognition platform, with the focus on building scalability, latency and performance robustness in a highly distributed, multi-component AWS architecture serving hundreds of millions of queries each day.

What are you working on and why are you passionate about it?

I believe visual search using image as input is another pillar of search engine besides the ordinary text and speech input. And that’s what we do. We are helping companies and developers to power their own products and applications by using of our visual search and recognition platform.

What effect do you think your area of work will have on the world in the next decade?

More and more people will use mobile phone camera to interact with the physical world and look for information. ViSenze is developing this technology.

Briefly describe your experience as a SoC student.

When I was doing academic research, I enjoyed the feeling of pushing boundaries of technologies. But now, since I work more on practical problems, I am happier to see my products being used by real people every day. My favourite thing about studying at SoC was that I really made a lot of friends, whom I still meet up with very often after graduation.

Which faculty members made impressions on you?

My supervisor, Professor Chua Tat-Seng, who is also a co-founder of ViSenze. He guided me throughout my PhD and gave me enough freedom to try new directions and make mistakes. He is a natural leader who influences me much. I have also learned a lot from him about critical, innovative and independent thinking.

Is there anything you would have done differently during your time here?

I should have travelled to more places. I hardly went to any place for holiday since the company was founded due to the busy schedule.

If there is one thing you would change about SoC, what would it be?

There are quite a lot interesting small and medium size high-tech companies in Singapore. But based on my experience so far, many students have only heard about the big names like banks and listed companies, and very few would show interest in SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises). Maybe it’s because most SMEs don’t market themselves well enough but I think SoC should have more intro sessions about the local tech scene and encourage students to join the local high-tech industry. Fresh graduates will develop their professional skills very quickly by working on real large-scale application and practicing the stat-of-art software development methodology. In addition, there are local tech companies, like us, willing to offer attractive remuneration package and also a promising career path.

What do you count as your most significant achievements to date? 

During my last year of PhD study, I planned to commercialize my PhD research. Switching from thinking academically to that of a real business perspective was one of the challenges I was faced with. It was a tough process but I am quite lucky to get through it. Of course there is still a lot to learn every day but I enjoy what I’m doing now. I am very proud that ViSenze is attracting more talented fresh graduates and alumni from NUS who will be joining us this year.

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg