Dean's Message

Welcome to the NUS School of Computing (SoC) website.

We hope that you will enjoy your cyber visit to the most established university-level centre of computing learning and research in Singapore.

SoC was established as a faculty within the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1998, but our history spans 33 years – when we were the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) in the Faculty of Science, and before that, as the Department of Computer Science in the Singapore University-Nanyang University Joint Campus days.

Over the years, growing as an integral part of NUS, we have extended our focus beyond teaching into high impact research as well. Indeed, SoC has done the University proud with its research efforts and scholarly pursuits, contributing to the placement of NUS as the world’s 10th best in technology, and Asia’s second¹.

The fruit of our labour is evident in the real world – some of our technologies are made available to the wider academic and research community on the open source platform, others have spun off viable high-tech businesses², some are being deployed in various industry sectors, from logistics to biomedicine, and yet others are in the process of being patented.

Not resting on our laurels, we endeavour to keep up our momentum in research activities by seeking to play an active role both internationally and locally in a sustained manner. In our established areas of strength, we seek to provide leadership. In new and evolving areas, much could be achieved through synergy among partners with complementary strengths.

To that end, we seek to forge closer collaboration with various research institutes and industry. We welcome discussions on new partnership or sponsorship possibilities, and are ready to explore new avenues of working with industry towards the next technological breakthroughs for the benefit of both industry and the wider community.

In education, we seek to offer students both quality and choice, as well as resonance between classroom learning and real-world demands.

As an example of meeting real-world demands, from AY2008/9, SoC students majoring in Information Systems may opt for the new Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) specialisation. We have designed the curriculum for this specialisation in collaboration with IBM, with the support of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). It is targeted at industry’s growing need for infocomm professionals who are technically competent and who possess a broad knowledge of domain areas as well as a strong service orientation.

For students who are seeking more than a basic degree and more of enterprise-related knowledge, we have launched the Double Degree Programmes in Computing and Business Administration. Offered from AY2008/9 and in conjunction with NUS Business Schools, students in these programmes may major in Business Administration or Accountancy, in addition to Computing.

For those interested in graphics, we offer the Double Degree Programme in Interactive Digital Media with Carnegie Mellon University in the US. For the mathematically inclined, we have the Double Degree Programmes in Computer Science and Mathematics/Applied Mathematics, offered in conjunction with NUS Faculty of Science. We intend to build on this momentum, to seek out new partners and develop even more additional double and concurrent degree programmes.

Also building on the existing momentum, we will be seeking certification for more of our programmes. As it is, we have already gained recognition by ABET, the US-based accreditation agency, for our bachelor degree programmes in Computer Science and Information Systems. Looking beyond curriculum, we are working to provide more opportunities for students to learn outside the classroom with more varied internship opportunities.

By pursuing these myriad ways of enriching the learning experience of our students, we hope to be grooming future IT professionals who are not only able to meet job market needs, but also able to serve as the vanguard for new technological developments. Casting our eyes on the more immediate needs of existing IT professionals who wish to upgrade themselves, we are looking into organising executive programmes.

Our sustained efforts in enriching the learning experience of our students have yielded good results so far. Recent examples include a winner from among our undergraduates of the IT Youth Award 2008, and the IT Young Professional 2008 from among our alumni³. Others are winners in their chosen areas of dedicated service⁴. Yet others have become promising technopreneurs even before they graduate⁵.

We encourage active participation from our students, alumni and staff in the life of the School. To mark the start of the AY2008/9, we have established an SoC presence in Wikipedia⁶, and we encourage alumni, students and staff alike to literally pen the School’s history and profile in cyberspace.

A host of exciting possibilities await at NUS School of Computing. Our website offers the first glimpse into them. We wish you an enjoyable stay at our website, and welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Kindly send your queries to corpcomm@comp.nus.edu.sg, and my staff will ensure that the appropriate party attends to your needs.


OOI Beng Chin
Professor and Dean
NUS School of Computing
Personal webpage: www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ooibc