Celeste

Celeste Ang loves soccer, is an Arsenal fan and thinks it is time NUS gets a new soccer field with artificial turf. If you want to annoy Celeste, use your phone while you talk to her, and say “whatever”, “k” or “anything”. People may not know she’s a klutz - she has dropped her sister’s iPhone into some Bak Kut Teh soup, tripped over a tanning bed while chasing a Frisbee and broke her ceiling light while making her bed. She’s currently in her first year of the Business Analytics programme.

Where did you grow up?

Singapore. I grew up in the Upper Thomson area, back when it was an ulu place with nothing much to do, shop or eat. Right now it’s quite a hip place with lots of nice food like Meng’s Kitchen, Udders, Habitat Coffee, etc. but I have since moved away. I still go there regularly for meals though! Especially after crashing my juniors’ soccer training at RJ. :)

I studied at Nanyang Primary School, followed by RGS and then RI(JC). I’d say my most memorable years were in RGS, because I got so much out of my 4 years there. It was fun because we didn’t have to face the pressure-cooker called O levels (because of the IP programme). Orchard Road was nearby so we could just walk over for meals or to hang out! And I also got the opportunity to represent the school (and Singapore) on a fun-filled trip to the US where we participated in a Community Problem-Solving competition, and participated in a home stay programme!

Describe your SoC experience.

It's been fun and challenging!

It's been awesome getting to know the SoC community during FSC, FOW, RAG (where I was a makeup artist), IFGs and during lessons too. The experiences I've had playing orientation games, bonding with my OGs, battling it out with my IFG teammates, mugging in school, scrambling to finish missions in CS1010S before deadlines, having suppers, steamboat parties .. all these are priceless to me and I'm grateful to have gained some amazing friends along the way.

Studies wise, programming mods have been challenging because I'm new to programming. But I relish a challenge and it's cool and actually quite fun, especially in CS1010S! I’m looking forward to completing CS1020 though, because that means no more programming mods :P

So far, I'm still adapting to life in uni and SoC but I've been enjoying myself! I enjoy spending time with my friends, doing things such as playing foosball, having meals together, being involved in computing activities such as camps, IFGs, ice skating, etc.

A friend recently commented that I seem to enjoy joining a lot of ‘boliao’ stuff and I think she’s probably right!

I like to do things that interest me and make my campus life more interesting, even though that may seem like a waste of time to others. The NUS Soccer team, IFGs, FSC Orientation Committee and Open Day Computing Ambassador – these are just some things I have done/ will be doing because I want to and I’m passionate about them! I feel that whether or not you have time for such stuff is all about balance and effort. If these things are important enough to you, you will put in the effort to make time for it.

[Some of the people here who have made impressions on me are:] Prof Ben Leong, because CS1010S drove me crazy! Haven’t really interacted with him much because I was under the TA Khanh (who also left an impression on me because he was really patient and always willing to help!!) but how often is it that a mod can be so painful and fun at the same time?

As for the seniors, it’s impossible to name them all, but they’ve been really helpful in helping me and the other freshies settle into life in SoC! The OGLs, camp helpers, IFG seniors, BA seniors.. etc. you know who you all are :)

Two seniors I’d like to mention in particular:

Andrew Kzk, who always goes out of his way to help others.

Michelle Tee, who’s really helpful and nice too (do not be fooled by her resting b*tch face! :P) and has helped me out so much and given me so much useful advice

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

When I was younger, my ambition was to be an actress! I watched a lot of TV then. My family bonds by watching Channel 8 dramas while eating fruits after dinner :)

Later on, I wanted to be a forensic scientist because I read a lot of crime novels (e.g. books by James Patterson, Katy Reiches, Stephen King) and watched crimes dramas like Bones, CSI, Sherlock etc.

But I never really pursued those dreams because they’re not realistic (at least in Singapore) and when I discovered my interest in Business, Analytics and Entrepreneurship, I decided that those were more realistic career options!

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

Winning RJ Soccer Girls’ first ever Championship title back when I was in J1.

I loved playing in the RJ team because my teammates and coaches were all so passionate and driven. We had two major goals when I first joined, to win the championship and to beat VJC! Reason being, our team had very humble roots. We started just a few years back with hardly any training space and equipment (these resources were largely taken up by the bigger CCAs like rugby and soccer boys), but with the efforts of some amazing alumni and coaches, we got more attention from the school and got more funding and resources. However for years we kept missing out on the title because the favourites VJC kept winning. We wanted the title so badly because we wanted to repay the alumni and coaches for all their efforts.

On 8^th May 2012 (my entire team remembers the date by heart because it meant so much to us, haha!), we beat MJC in the finals at Jalan Besar Stadium to win the title!

We didn’t have to beat VJC (the overwhelming favourites) to get the title because MJC beat them in the semis. This meant that we were the underdogs in the finals. Undaunted, we played a tactical and defensive game, and won by a goal scored during a counterattack in injury time. It was like a dream come true!

[Besides] my teammates and coaches, [we also had] the alumni who came down for trainings to help out sometimes, and came to support us for our matches! RJ Soccer Girls is really a tight-knitted community. Even though I’ve ‘retired’ from the team, and uni life is hectic, I try to make it a point to go back for the occasional training to help out the juniors, keep in contact with the coaches and play football with my batchmates!

According to Ash, you’re a very skilled soccer player and you played soccer and basketball in the IFG 2014/2015. Tell us a bit about your passion for sports.

I wasn’t really an athlete from the start; when I was younger, I was quite fat, and was more ‘artsy’, taking art classes and representing the school in Chinese Calligraphy. But my dad forced me to join Track & Field, because he was disappointed at how his athletic genes didn't really get passed down to his first 2 daughters, haha! I represented the school in hurdles, and that’s when I grew to love sports. I fell in love with soccer after watching it on TV and playing soccer after trainings and during PE lessons, but RGS didn’t have a soccer team, so I picked the next best option – basketball. And when I came to RI(JC), the natural choice for me was, of course, soccer! I love how the game is unpredictable, fun, beautiful and requires both individual skills and teamwork.

I used to run a lot too. I got started when my sister’s friend, who was supposed to run a half marathon with her, pangsehed her. She offered her bib to me for free 2 days before the event, and I thought, why not? That was such a #YOLO moment; it was crazy trying to run a half marathon with NO training at all! But since then, I was hooked! Ran 3 more half marathons, and a participated in a few other running events. However, since my JC running buddy enlisted, I’ve been finding it tough motivating myself to run regularly again :P

IFGs were really fun last sem! It was a hectic first-half of the semester because I was training every day because of IFGs and SuniG (soccer) training, but the experiences I gained and the friends I made, made it worth it :) Wanted to get gold with the soccer girls (both IFG and SuniG), but ended up with silver for both. Well, that’s life. You win some and lose some.

I think the best thing about sports is that you forge amazing friendships with your teammates. You know you can trust and rely on someone when you get through tough training sessions together, and fight alongside one another in competitions. Sports has also built up my character, and made me a better person (I think/hope)!

Celeste and her sister at their older sister's wedding

Quick-Fire! Worst item design?

Don’t know. Sorry I don’t take note of such stuff haha. Oh, do fashion choices count? I don’t like it when people dress in clashing prints, show off way too much skin, or wear ill-fitting clothes. Too loose isn’t that bad but way too tight is just.. ugh. I still remember those days in JC where some guys altered the pants till they were WAY too tight and made their underwear very visible (because the pants were white) – such an eyesore!

Guilty pleasures?

Lying in bed and watching Ellen.

Eating all kinds of desserts and chocolates.

Indulging in good hawker food! It’s strange and funny how many of my friends ask me for food recommendations because they think I know where all the good food is! Among my favourite hawker food are hokkien mee, sambal stingray and fried oysters.

Three ultimate dinner party guests?

Thierry Henry (favourite soccer player), Steve Jobs (genius entrepreneur) and Ryan Gosling (eye candy)!

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

Andrew

When Andrew Koh isn’t busy with uni work, he’s usually gaming and ‘building stuff’. If he had to eat one thing from an NUS canteen stall for the rest of his life it would be the wanton noodles from the Science canteen’s ‘popular noodle stall’. He also hates awkward silences and people finding out his worst fears. Andrew is currently in his third year of his Computer Science programme, focussing on software engineering.

at the IFG Reversi semi-finals

Describe your SoC experience. 

I like helping others (those who need help), although it is quite tiring and taxing. To always reflect and improve yourself with each happening is most challenging, for it’s always easier to stay within my comfort zone. The most interesting thing is to meet new people, for you will always learn and hear new experiences, and wonder why they know the other people you know!

[I am currently working on the] Razer Nabu Challenge! It is an interesting addition to the current market of smart ware, with capabilities to gamify our environment! Life may never be the same again!

Previously I was the Alumni Relations Director, as part of the 16th Management Committee of the Students' Computing Club. It may not be very known as it is still a relatively new position in the committee. What I attempted to do besides continue the tradition of an SoC Graduation Night, was to spark off mentorship possibilities with our very own alumni (besides having our academic mentor), as our alumni are part of the reason why SoC is Number 1 in Asia. [I got to do everything], from meeting and knowing the pioneers who paved the way for future generations, and chances to learn and develop industry skills alongside with the academic theories.

So many [faculty and students have made impressions on me]! From the start the 3 professors were Prof Khoo Siau Cheng, Prof Tan Sun Teck, and Prof Aaron Tan. And a friend Ervin Kwan Fu Sheng. They kick-started my learning journey in NUS by inspiring programming I haven’t actually learnt (you know, from polytechnic, thinking that programming is chicken feet).

Thereafter, I had some “internal crisis”, or rather the “what the hell am I here for... etc.” – I was seeking to transfer to Information Systems instead, and thankfully I had so much help from the community in SoC. From informal and casual chats with some professors (the above mentioned) and some of the seniors, Prof Anand Ramchand, to consulting my academic mentor Prof Tan Chew Lim, I made my decision to stay in CS. Mr Desmond Teo (our SoC career guide) helped a lot with my decision by sharing insights to future careers that we might have.

[If there was one thing I would change about NUS, it would be] the paper chase! As much as I cannot deny that the degree can really help with opening many doors of opportunities, I believe that what makes us computing would be our craft, or the ability to handle code (like instead of just taking modules to graduate, hack, code, and try).

What is the funniest or craziest thing that you did or that has happened during your time here? 

Craziest: I attempted to take a 5xxx module when I was year 2, and I'm pretty sure the prerequisites changed for it. Don't recommend for people not prepared for the change of pace in learning.

Funniest: Having to explain Halloween and Christmas, their interchangeability ever year. (25 Dec = 31 Oct)

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

I happened to be part of a research paper (IJSER 2011 if I remember correctly) of a type of Android Application, when it android was still new. It was my final year project in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and I thought it sounded interesting! I think it still does. It was not easy, and took a few months of trial and error to create a prototype, but I had a lot of help from an Ngee Ann alumnus who acted as an industry mentor and my partner, who built the hardware for the entire system while I built the android side.

What did you want to be when you were younger and is it still an interest of yours?

In the past I kept saying I want to sail the seven seas, and be a sailor. But that was because I needed an answer to answer all the pesky what-do-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up type of questions... and no, it is no longer an interest of mine.

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

I started (with friend and strangers) a tech start-up after a hackathon! 

What are your future plans?

To change the world. There's much to change, and I think I happen to be in the right place to do so (information & knowledge control).

Quick-Fire! Guilty pleasure?

Saying "chill" and "relax" to calm myself down.

Three ultimate dinner party guests?

 Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, and any Atheist.

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

Lusi

Yang Lusi’s worst fear is bad luck and she finds it annoying when people say ‘whatever’. Most people would be surprised to learn that only 14 people out of the 1.4 billion people in China share her name and she’s proud of her unique name even if most people do not know how to write her name correctly in Chinese. One day, after she retires, she would like to open a coffee shop and a hotpot restaurant, but for now, her goals are to become a professor and to travel to Korea.

 

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Chongqing (CQ), a municipality in Southwest of China. Hotpot was invented there. When it comes to CQ, people mostly talk about its hot (spicy) food and hot weather in summer (indeed, sometimes the temperature even reaches 40 Centigrade ☺).  But more importantly, Chongqing has the hottest girls in China. In my mind, our personalities are like what we eat: HOT! You will be overwhelmed with our warm heart and our passion. If you interact with people from Chongqing, you will also find they are straightforward and having diversities of minds. 

What are you studying at SoC?

I am in the 3rd year of my PhD in major of Information Systems. My research interest lies in crowd-based innovation and entrepreneurship. The current study I am working on helps to build theory on entrepreneurial learning on IT-enabled crowdfunding. My research provides practical insights for entrepreneurs to design experiences to promote entrepreneurial success. In the long run, my work will also provide actionable items for effective design of crowd-based platforms to energize innovation. 

What was your academic path before coming to SoC?

Before coming to NUS, I got my bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Sichuan University. In the eyes of most people, it is probably not a mainstream major among women. As I remember, there were only 40 women (out of around 300 students) in my batch. Although I have liked mathematics and logic since childhood, frankly speaking my first year in undergrad was far from easy because of my limited background knowledge in some of the seemingly “basic” classes in computing, like C programming. So, what I did was to be dedicated to my classes. Through diligent studies, I was very excited to be able to become one of the best students in this major. I love my major. It exposes me to the latest technological innovations. The best part was, I enjoyed the feeling of working with my teammates during projects. We struggled to think about our ideas. We stayed up late to debug for the program. We practiced again, again and again for our project presentations. But when we achieved success in the end, I have to say, the feeling was awesome!! Finally, all of my teammates (four in total) graduated with first-class honors.  

During my last year of undergrad, I applied to work in the machine intelligence lab in my university and gradually started to know academic research. For my final year project, I undertook a project to create a medical image processing platform. The goal of that project was to provide an program for doctors so that they can choose the appropriate segmentation, registration or three-dimensional visualization algorithms they want; as well as to provide a flexible toolkit of united interface for the engineers. Meanwhile, I got to know from my FYP advisor about the opportunity for doing PhD in School of Computing at NUS. I was very excited. Since my first year in undergrad, I was dreaming of studying abroad, to interact with people from diverse cultures and to work with them. Two months after I submit my application, I was so glad SoC gave me this opportunity. That’s the beginning of my current life… 

Why are you doing a PhD?

After I started my PhD journey, so many people have asked me the same question. I was asked this question in the interview when I applied for PhD here. To be honest, I do not think we need to find a reason to start a PhD. It seems like this decision is not like what a normal person would make, even though I do admit every PhD student has her/his own uniqueness (in other words, or his own version of “weirdo”, haha…). For me, if I have to find a reason, I would say it is because of “feeling”. I believe I am destined to do this PhD. Sounds irrational? Actually I think I am a rational person, most of the time (nobody is totally rational). Making a decision is like a coin toss. The moment you flip the coin, one of your subselves has made the decision for you. In my opinion, not every person has the chance to choose to do a PhD. Since you have the opportunity, why not?

Like most PhD students, my PhD journey in SoC is not easy.  I remember, in my first year, someone told me, doing a PhD is like getting on a five-year bus ride. Our choices of different buses decide our outcomes after five years. Have to say, finding the right bus (i.e, the research domain you like) to ride is hard, especially for first year student without much academic experience. The route of exploring topics is like a trial-and-error learning process. In my first two years of PhD, I explored several research directions and started to do some preliminary research. Finally, I decided on my research domain - ICT-enabled entrepreneurship and innovation, especially on crowdfunding. Yes, the feeling of finding a right topic is like falling in love with Mr. Right. It deserves the time and effort. I do love one saying from my advisor Professor Hahn: research is the process of re-searching. Now, I do enjoy the journey of exploring and the process of learning. 

After five semesters studying, I am starting to realize that what matters in this journey are not only what we learn during classes, but also the “capability to learn” and the “entrepreneurial attitude” towards work/life. In my opinion, doing a PhD is like being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is our attitude, and it determines how to think and act. We are our own bosses, converting ideas into work. And we need to shoulder the responsibility for our own decisions. After five years, we should be experts in our research domains. 

I really like a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people”. Exactly, the final purpose of working hard is not to surpass others, but to step into the world of great-minded people. That is true! I love every second of thinking about problems and discussing ideas with my professors and colleagues. 

The next time another person asks me “why do you do a PhD”, maybe I still will not have the exact answer. But there is one thing I can be sure of: if I could go back to two years ago, I would make the same decision without hesitation ☺

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

In my spare time,… 

I love dancing and listening to music, especially Kpop and street jazz.  

I like singing. But need to find friends to sing with me in Singapore!

I need shopping, like skin care products. 

I enjoy chatting with friends. This makes me excited~

Quick-Fire! What do you do during Chinese New Year?

Be grateful for my 2014 and plan for my awesome coming year. Most importantly, (enjoy) nice chatting!

If you had to eat only one item from one of the NUS canteen stalls for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Yong Tau Foo at arts canteen ☺ 

Guilty pleasure?

Shopping? ☺

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

Lynnette

Lynnette Ng studies computer science and uses her skills to help build underwater robots. If there was one thing she would change about SoC, it would be to add a pool table like this one to the student lounge. I think she should just build it with some of you. Who’s in? 

Where did you grow up?

I studied in NUS High School. Surprisingly, I did not do any computing subjects nor did I touch a computer much. One day I received an email about an SoC outreach camp and decided to check it out. It introduced JC students to simple concepts like the history of computing and simple Scratch programming. So I realised computing is fun and I decided to study computer science.  

Describe your experience as a SoC student.

SoC is ‘pressurizing’ fun. The modules are challenging and the projects are usually not easy. But once I start working on it, I enjoy it more. We work until late at night, sometimes overnight, but when I see the completed product, the sense of satisfaction is amazing because I’ve just made something from nothing. 

Which faculty members made impressions on you? 

All the faculty members are awesome in their own special way. That’s why I love SoC. During the exam period, Prof Gary Tan came to the student lounge to distribute food vouchers and play foosball with us. Prof Leong Hon Wai gives out coffee awards, so if you do well in his class, he’ll treat you to a coffee (can be exchanged for other drinks). 

Prof Ben Leong is the funniest. Ben Leong’s Lonely Hearts Club solves a very real and pressing problem in SoC (and in Singapore), to help the Singapore Government meet their 6.9 million population KPI. If you need some help or advice, I’m sure he’ll be glad to help :). 

What is the craziest thing that you did or that happened when you were a student here? 

On Halloween (2014), Sarah Tan and I decided to do something crazy! We had the idea a few days before when the SoC page advertised a Halloween profile picture contest. Well, we needed a break from the crazy semester, and we wanted to make people happy. So us being us, we came up with the Sarah-Lynnette cause. So we borrowed paint and cardboard from the Computing Club, and painted ANDROIDS!

The next day, on Halloween, we went around SoC dressed as Android KitKat and Android Lollipop to hand out… yes, kitkats and lollipops! Although the costume was bulky and hot, we enjoyed ourselves, and we did feel very happy when we brought smiles to those who were furiously coding, and crashed a few Profs’ meetings. Best of all, we gave out almost all the kitkats and lollipops, and some people gave us sweets in return! I’m also very thankful for all our friends who supported us through painting, cutting cardboard, walking around with us, and even laughing at us and giving us those ‘face-palms’. 

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

Winning the Google Anita Borg Scholarship. I heard about it during the Orbital Liftoff and upon my friends’ persuasion, I decided to try for it. This scholarship included a 5-day sponsored trip to Google Japan where I met many outstanding women who were studying computer science. It was the time where I really started to appreciate what I have in SoC, after I heard stories from the other women. In Singapore, I am not denied a chance for tertiary education, while some of the Indian and Vietnamese girls had to fight hard and even agree to arranged marriages to study computer science. Studying CS does not make me any less of a woman to the community, nor do any faculty or students question my ability to perform because I am a female. No doubt I do enjoy special privileges, like gentlemen will open doors for me or offer to buy me lunch, but I am thankful that unlike an Australian awardee, I do not have to work extremely hard or enforce my views to get heard. Although I always say that I won the award because I’m female, but really, I won it because I truly love computing. 

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

My childhood dream is to build a rocket to go to space. 

What do you enjoy doing when you are not studying? 

I draw. I like to draw architecture and buildings. I like to draw them with a lot of details. I usually do ink drawings, but sometimes I try different mediums too. Once in a while, my friends will commission me to draw cover art for his music. Each time he does, it’s a challenge. I’ve got to listen to his music and understand how it fits into the title, then make the art depict his intentions. Usually I get it wrong the first two times, then I keep trying and eventually am able to colour his music through my art. 

Best movie you’ve seen this year?

Penguins of Madagascar. I watched it as a late night movie on the last day of my exams. It’s a silly movie with totally random scenes, but it was a great way of relaxing after a stressful exam season. I laughed from the start to the end because the penguins are immeasurably cute!

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

Kristina

Kristina Egorova can’t stand uncertainty and noisy construction work but can’t live without friends, wifi, and her ultimate guilty pleasure, travelling over the weekend! She’s currently in the third year of her PhD programme and is the graduate student representative for the Department of Information Systems.

Where did you grow up?

I was born and grew up in a very small, but interesting place – a tiny small town of Visaginas, Lithuania. Back in the days, the town had just 30,000 inhabitants, there were people from about 10 different nationalities working and living together. So from the very young age, I was exposed to the multicultural and multi-religious society. We had to learn Russian, Lithuanian and English or German, and some of us could choose Polish or Tatar, based on family background and preferences. We celebrated Christmas twice – first, we did it in December with Catholics, and second – in January with Orthodox people. I believe it shaped my future since it is relatively easy for me to pick up some words from new languages and I am very curious about different cultural traditions.

When I was 17, my family moved to Russia, and I discovered that even though I was Russian, I spoke with a funny “Baltic” accent and used slightly different expressions, but it disappeared in 4 months. After graduating from high school I moved again to Saint Petersburg for my undergraduate studies. In “classic” Russian universities, there are no bachelor and master degrees; instead, we have a “specialist” diploma and to get it, you have to study for five and half years and write a substantial final year project. I graduated with a degree in Information Security and, for the project, I focused on extending the software cost model COCOMO in order to fit in the security requirements of one of the Russian state security standards.

Three months after graduating from University, I got to know about National University of Singapore and research scholarships and opportunities from a Russian social networking site, which looks very similar to Facebook. It caught my attention and I dropped a long email with questions to Pavel Korshunov, who was a PhD candidate at the department of Computer Science at the time. He answered all the questions, and encouraged me to apply and pursue a degree from School of Computing. It took me almost a year to get to Singapore, and… 

What are you studying at SoC?

…here at SoC I continue the exploration of various aspects of Information Security – currently I am a PhD student at the Department of Information Systems and I have just started my 3rd year of study. My research interest is in the individual decision making in the context of Information Security and Privacy, and I seek the answers for the questions like: “Why do we violate security rules and regulations, even being aware about the consequences?” or “Why do our good intentions rarely lead to actions: e.g. why do we think about being careful online, but rarely do it, and click on suspicious links?”, and, on another hand, I’m interested in the criminological aspects of information related offences. With the answers, I hope to make our world a bit safer, especially given the persuasion of information technology and early age of exposure to it.

Why are you doing a PhD?

I have decided to apply for PhD because at some point I discovered that my current job and future career opportunities were not challenging anymore: I used to work as a technical writer, business analyst and project manager for several small and medium IT companies in Saint Petersburg, and it was a bit predictable and started to get boring. My last job was a bit more exciting, since we were creating a large-scale e-learning system, which had social networking sites features and was used by 30,000 schools, 5,000,000 school kids, 600,000 teachers and 2,000,000 parents in different regions in Russia. I had developed a reporting subsystem before joining the IS department in January 2013.

After two years of studies, reading and struggling, I realize I made the right choice, since I really enjoy thinking about research questions, looking for another angle, reading the literature and discussing the matter with colleagues and professors. After taking one of the NUS PhD-level courses, I learned about one very exciting thing – neuroplasticity: our brain physically changes with the changes in environment, behavior, thinking, and emotions. I believe it is amazing, and I feel I have changed a lot thanks to PhD training and exposure to the Singaporean mix of cultures, and food of course. The most important skill I have (almost) pursued is patience: in research, everything takes time, and you have to be patient and continue doing the subject you truly enjoy.

But to be honest, my first experience of Singapore was shocking: at the queue to Passport Check, I’ve discovered that I did not have the address of the hostel I had booked and asked my parents to send it to me over SMS. They sent a wrong address, and after climbing up and down the stairs of two wrong hostels I checked the emails and arrived to the right place, which was at Geylang area, and I did not know a single thing about it! In few days, I had to move to the Campus and a nice taxi driver did not how to get to College Avenue East and have never heard about University Town. Over time, I’ve learned how to get around with mobile apps for everything, and a Singlish dictionary book made my life much easier. Highly recommended to new students!

Anyway, this year I am a graduate student representative for the Information Systems department. Apart from the Welcome tea, which was held on January 8th, my task is to serve as an intermediary between students and the department, and I am willing to take questions, comments and suggestions from students and translate them as summarized opinion to the department. Privacy is guaranteed, as a researcher of privacy and security, I know it is important. So you can find me at Information Systems Research Lab 3, Facebook or drop me an email at kristina@comp.nus.edu.sg - please don’t be shy!

Outside of School of Computing, I love travelling (I actively participate at Couchsurfing and once hiked down the Grand Canyon), sending and receiving paper postcards (using www.postcrossing.com) and Brazilian martial art of Capoeira and social dancing.

I would like to use this opportunity to invite everyone for 2 dancing classes of Brazilian Forro, which I and dancing partner will be teaching this 2nd & 9th February at the PGPR Multipurpose Hall as part of the 100MIN Enrichment series of workshops.

Quick-Fire! Best movie you’ve seen this year?

Night at Museum 3

Worst experience with public transportation?

Public Bus ride from Probolingo to Surabaya – 4 hours in smoking (!) non-aircon bus with friendly curious locals, some random people selling food and playing guitar for money

Best hawker stall in Singapore?

Al Amaan @Clementi Road

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

Young Tau Fou Laksa, Malay Cofta and Laban

Three ultimate dinner party guests? 

Dan Ariely, Heng Swee Keat and James Hetfield

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

Steven

Dr. Steven Halim grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia and moved to Singapore to do his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at SoC. When that wasn’t quite enough, he stayed on to do his PhD, got his doctoral degree in 2010 and then landed a job here. He still looks young enough to be mistaken for one of the (postgraduate) students here and when he isn’t working, he enjoys ‘revisiting’ his childhood toys – Lego Technic and Mindstorms.

Steven and his family at Legoland, Malaysia

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

Currently, visualgo.net, which is a tool I built to help with the visualisation of data structures and algorithms through animation. It combines my passion of teaching algorithms and the visualization work that I did back in my PhD days. When more and more CS-based Universities pick up visualgo.net, I think it should reduce the usage of static PowerPoint (or even manual hand-drawn explanations) to explain the operations of basic data structures/algorithms. The online quiz side will also eliminate the need to ask trivial questions in final examinations anymore.

 
Describe your SoC experience. 

[The part I enjoy the most is] when I can make my student's jaw drops after explaining a certain cool concepts in class. [But the part I find the most challenging is] marking... I hate marking so much that I tried to write programs to automate the process :O.

I have been in SoC for 14 years now so there are many [people who have made impressions on me]. But if I have to choose one, I pick Associate Professor Tan Sun Teck who took me as part-time TAs for his CS1102 module in 2005-2008 period, collaborated in ICPC and IOI activities, and recommended me to stay on as Lecturer here.

I like computing so much and being in SoC is a natural fit. I’d probably suffer if I had picked another course of study for my Undergraduate degree.

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

Before 2008, I thought training a team that can qualify to ACM ICPC World Finals or get Gold medal in IOI was a super achievement (because I had never done so before as a student). Fast forward 6 years later, I have been to ACM ICPC World Finals 3 times (with our team), prepared a team that won an ACM ICPC Regional Contest 2 times, trained Singaporeans who brought home 4 IOI Gold medals, and all these are still ongoing. The core achievement is a system of training that ensures continuity of these (good) results. 

Currently my competitive programming training schedule is like this:
Jan-Apr: CS3233
Mar: National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI)
May: Asia Pacific Informatics Olympiad (APIO); ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals with NUS team 1
Jun: Singapore (SG) International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) Team Intensive Training
Jul: IOI with SG IOI team
Aug-Sep: Train and select new team members for NUS ICPC teams
Oct-Nov: Typical ACM ICPC Regional Season
Dec: SG NOI training
Then repeat for another year…

[I pursued all this] because I had never won any programming competition during my student days. The turning point seems to be 2011, when SoC decided to keep me as Lecturer here. With more job stability, I can setup that system of training. [It was] heavy work at the beginning to train the first few students. The senior ICPC+IOI students from 2008-2013 era now help me train the current batch of competitors (2014-15). The system is now good enough that I can step to the side and watch it run (and still produce good results).

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

My childhood dream was to be someone who speaks in front of many people and those people listen attentively to me. There are not many jobs in the world where I can do that. Being a lecturer is one such job and yes it is still my interest :).

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

NUS SoC will host the ACM ICPC Programming Regional Contest in Singapore in Sep and Dec 2015. I encourage SoCians, especially CS students [I am planning to have prizes for teams with female member(s)], to form teams of three and join this prestigious programming competition right here in NUS.

Quick-fire! New Year’s resolution?

Do some exercise each week.

Worst fear?

Cockroaches

Guilty pleasure?

Ice-cream

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

Nutty Tay

Tay Yang Shun is a 土生土长 Singaporean. If he had to eat one thing from an NUS food stall for the rest of his life, it’d be the Mee Pok from the Flavours@UTown chicken rice stall. Last year, he and his friends built Nutty Ninjas for their class project, and to won first prize for that module at the 3rd SoC Term Project Showcase (STePS). When he isn’t working or studying, he’s reading random tech, design or start-up related stuff on the web to keep up with the latest trends in technology and entrepreneurship. If you want to freak him out, dump him in a deep body of water – he finds the thought of not knowing what’s beneath him absolutely thrilling. If you’re wronged him and would like to make amends, chocolate and coke are your best bets. If all else fails, show up to Yang Shun’s dinner party with Prof Ben Leong, Jay Chou and Mark Zuckerberg, and you’ll be sweet. 

What are you studying at SoC? 

I'm a final year Computer Science with specializations in Interactive Media and Visual Computing (maybe). I'm actually in my fifth year because I started school in NUS as a Mechanical Engineering student. However, in my second year, I found myself spending most of my time on a CS module I was teaching (CS1020E) rather than on my own core Mechanical engineering modules. It was then that I realized that I should probably be in a course that I'm truly interested in. With the help of Dr Ang Chuan Heng who was my CS1020E lecturer, who wrote a recommendation letter for me, I managed to change course, yet still retaining my NUS scholarship! I was extremely grateful and thankful to Dr Ang and the school. 

Describe your SoC experience. 

I enjoy creating applications and websites as I like to build things and solve problems. There are many aspects involved: Software design, interface design, user experience design, etc. Being able to work on all these different aspects simultaneously is a challenge and the experience is very interesting and dynamic. 

Solving problems through technology: This was the main reason I changed course to Computer Science: I get to build stuff and solve problems. Many SoC modules are very hands-on and require students to code and create programs. I'm prefer hands-on activities over studying theories, hence I enjoy the way many of the CS modules are taught. Programming is a really powerful skill. After learning programming, I feel that I am empowered to solve problems that I wasn't able to if I didn't know programming. Among the useful things that I have built, there's a cleanliness records app for teachers to keep track of the cleanliness of their students' rooms, and also, NUSMods, which is used by NUS students to plan their timetables and look up module information. 

Teaching: I have tutored/will tutor the modules CS1010S, CS1020E, CS3216, CS3217, CP3101B, and these are modules that I am passionate about. I hope to influence my students with my passion and encourage them to explore beyond what is taught in class. In my opinion, teaching has multiple benefits: (i) In the tutorials that I teach, I code the solution on the spot and explain the thought process behind my approach. I have found this skill to be extremely relevant in technical interviews where I have to explain my approach of tackling a technical question to the interviewer as I code the solution out. (ii) Tutoring is a good way to meet other like-minded peers among the teaching team and collaborate on projects, be it school or external ones. (iii) A stable source of income to survive the semester. The renumeration isn't a lot, but it's sufficient. 

Working on NUSMods: Ever since Beng (founder of NUSMods) graduated in 2014, I have since taken over the responsibility of improving and working on NUSMods. Over the summer, Beng, Ashray Jain and I, worked on revamping NUSMods and added many more features to it. The most significant new feature was having dedicated module pages which served as wiki pages for NUS modules. Module-related information such as pre-requisites tree, module reviews, CORS bidding history, and timetable data can also be found. I enjoy building useful things that solves peoples’ problems, and NUSMods has given me an opportunity to do that, because it is being used by virtually the whole NUS student population. This keeps me motivated to keep working on it and making it better for the students of NUS. As part of my module project for CS3240, I have extended NUSMods to include friends' timetable saving and NUS venue directory features. Over the December break, I will be working with Chen Minqi on finalizing the features and testing them so that they can be pushed out by Jan 2015. 

Creating content for SoC modules: I'm currently preparing for CP3101B and CS3217 next semester, I'll be serving as a tutor for CP3101B and CS3217 under Dr Steven Halim and Prof Sim Khe Chai respectively. Soon, I'm currently in the midst of preparing materials for these two modules. I enjoy creating new materials for modules because it challenges me to design questions that are helpful towards students' learning. I also try to make the nature of the assignment interesting and relevant so that students will be motivated to work on them. 

Last semester, the 2048 game was extremely hot, and Prof Ben Leong had the idea of creating a programming assignment out of it. Hence I worked with Emmanuel Goh (who will be next semester's CS1010S Head Tutor) and we produced a 2048 problem set for students of CS1010FC and CS1010S. With some guidelines, CS1010FC and CS1010S students had to program the logic behind a 2048 game for their homework. Students were also encouraged to write a solver for the 2048 game as part of a contest. I recall my CS1010E days where I wrote a simple reversi game in C using an ASCII and command line interface and had a lot of fun doing it. I'm glad that there are such programming assignments these days that break the monotony of standard programming homework. 

This year alone, I went on 3 overseas trips and they were all sponsored by the overseas organizations. Facebook sponsored my trip to their HQ in Menlo Park for the Facebook Open Academy program, University of Pennsylvania sponsored part of my trip to Philadelphia for PennApps and NYU Shanghai sponsored by trip to Shanghai for HackShanghai. My respective module lecturers were understanding in allowing me to skip classes for these overseas pursuits. This semester, I spent two weeks overseas and as a result I had to rush to catch up on the work during and after my trips. I had a report for CS3240 due during my return flight from Doha, hence I was rushing to complete the report on the plane from Philadelphia to Doha. My MacBook's battery was running low but thankfully I managed to connect to the WiFi at Doha's airport and submitted my report on time before the battery went flat. It kind of felt like I was defusing a bomb >_< 

[Here are some of the things that I think make SoC different than other faculties.] I find that many students in SoC are innately passionate about their work, and willingly spend their weekends and free time exploring new technology and learning new things. I look forward to my classes as I’m innately interested in the content I’m being taught. 

We also have undergraduate tutors! I think this is something uniquely SoC (most other faculties require their tutors to be of at least Masters level). There was this semester where my friend was taking a module that I was tutoring and I was taking a module he was tutoring. It can get complicated sometimes, but at the same time, it makes life in SoC more interesting and fun. As tutors, we get to work with professors very closely to run the course. We also have post-exam chillax sessions with some drinks! (: 

And, I really think we have the best faculty staff around! Perhaps because of the nature of the course, many of the faculty staff are on Facebook where our profs share interesting posts (tech articles, Nala photos), and interact with the students. The faculty staff make an effort to know their students on a personal level - [these are a few] profs who made an impact on me and taught me some classes that I enjoyed: 

• Prof Ben Leong: I owe a lot of my achievements to Prof Ben; he gave me many opportunities to learn and I learnt a tremendous amount of skills (beyond CS) from him. Prof Ben is also extremely popular among the students – he even has a Fan Club!
• Dr Colin Tan: Dr Colin is very cool and personable, and has many interesting stories to share. He's very active on Facebook and shares many cat photos (only Nala). 
• Prof Ng Teck Khim: Extremely caring professor that takes the effort to know each and every of his students. He even goes the extra mile and specially gave make-up lessons to students who have missed his class. I have taken two modules (CS3218 and CS4243) under him. 
• Prof Zhao Shendong: Prof Zhao is very kind and has given me extensions for his assignments as I was overseas >_< 

Also, there's so much welfare for the students: interesting hacking contests, Halloween profile picture contests, and also Prof Gary Tan and Adele giving away meal vouchers during examination week. This makes us feel very taken care of (: 

What is the one thing you would change about NUS? 

I think more students should try programming! I would encourage everyone to take an introductory class (one of the CS1010-variants) and see if they enjoy it. Programming isn't something every student gets to try because Singapore's educational system doesn't include CS as one of the compulsory foundation subjects in secondary school. Many of my Science students from CS1010S who are extremely talented programmers, gained interested in CS after taking CS1010S. I think that if they got to try programming earlier, they might have chosen CS instead. Although, CS is not for everyone, but you won't know until you try it! Trying programming is extremely simple, all you need is your laptop! 

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

Prof Ben appointed me as Head Tutor for CS1010S in AY2013/14 Semester 1. In fact, it was my first time tutoring but he trusted me to take up such an important role. It was an eye-opening experience for me as I got to coordinate a course from start to the end. What made it "better" was that it was a new course, there were no materials to reuse and the teaching staff had to port the materials from Scheme to Python. There were also a lot of administrative issues to handle. 

People management has never been my forte but I got to hone those skills by being the Head Tutor. My approach was to get to know most of the people (staff and students) on a personal level outside the classroom. The motivation behind this was to better understand each individual's personality so that delegation of work could be more efficient and mismatch of interests could be prevented as much as possible. 

The process was painful and coupled with CS3216 (another painful module), I slept very little that semester. However, I was very glad with the outcome of the course and would deem it as a huge success. It left a deep impression in many students' hearts as the toughest, most painful, most time-consuming yet enjoyable freshmen module. In my teaching performance report, positive remarks from my students included: hardworking, responsible, approachable, caring, friendly, efficient, patient and nice. 

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

That I have been a student in 4 NUS faculties. In my first year of National Service, I was in Architecture, but I switched to Mech Engineering and Accountancy DDP in my second year of NS, and subsequently, CS. There is also an artistic side of me; I used to write Chinese Calligraphy and do some graphic designing. In 2012, my designs for the Welfare Diary and NUSSU Student Life Tee were selected to be used university-wide! 

Is there anything else you'd like to share? 

Recently I talked to a few people and found that they were in their course because their parents wanted them to study it because of the supposedly good prospects and not because they are interested in it. I think it's extremely pointless to study something that one has no interest in. In my opinion, extrinsic motivation such as money and prospects will fade off eventually. One has to be intrinsically motivated by what they are studying/doing. If you haven't found something that interests you, keep finding and trying new stuff! 

Quick-Fire! Pet peeves? 

So many! Where do I start…

• Chewing very loudly when eating. 
• Bad coding style. Students, please follow this Python style guide.
• Literally using acronyms in face-to-face conversations: “TBH”, “IMO”, “ASAP”. 
• Not pushing in chairs after leaving the seat. 
• "k", "kk" and "okok". These are common replies used by many people in instant messaging and it gets to my nerves. “Ok”, “okay”, “okie” sound much better as acknowledgement replies. "k" sounds rude and is a convo-killer, while "kk" and "okok" gives people the impression that they are getting impatient. 

All I want for Christmas is…? 

Time. Time is the only resource that money can’t buy. How nice would it be if I had 48 hours a day, I can sleep for 24 hours and still have 24 hours to do work.

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