M.I.T. Settles In for Long Haul in Singapore

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/world/asia/mit-settles-in-for-long-haul-in-singapore.html

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Singapore — On a sultry day in Singapore’s Chinese Garden, Daniel Hastings, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took his first ride in a driverless golf cart, one of myriad innovations M.I.T. is driving for this island nation as it prepares for a future of explosive growth.

“M.I.T. is in Singapore for the long term,” said Professor Hastings, director of the Singapore-M.I.T. Alliance for Research and Technology, or Smart. His team of professors manages five new labs, paid for by the Singapore government (M.I.T. continues to pay faculty salaries during the academic year). “We have stable five-year funding to handle significant urban problems. We like the model; it works for us.”

M.I.T.’s point person in the future mobility lab, Prof. Emilio Frazzoli, has just returned from Boston, where he spends 80 percent of his time, to meet with local officials and apply for a five-year contract renewal. On his team are 40 Ph.D. and post-doc researchers, a third from M.I.T.

“Singapore has the political will to innovate,” he said, referring to its plan to be the world’s first “smart nation.” The city-state wants to blanket the island with a host of sensors, including a potential “killer app” for shared driverless cars. “Massachusetts doesn’t allow us to test driverless cars. This is our living test bed.”

In one of the labs, where another Smart group investigates environmental problems and is already on its second contract, Prof. Nicholas Patrikalakis of M.I.T. said he too found Singapore a better fit for his research. His team builds stingray-like robots that collect data to fight ocean algae; test beds are right off the coast. “This lab was specially built for us with totally new, state-of-the-art equipment,” he said. “That doesn’t happen in Boston.”

Other Smart labs help tackle infectious diseases, such as dengue fever, as well as drug screening and power consumption. All are housed in a gleaming new tower called Create — Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise — on the campus of the National University of Singapore.

Joining M.I.T. at Create are 10 other world-class universities from Britain, China, France, Germany, Israel and Switzerland. But M.I.T.’s footprint is the oldest and largest.

“When these programs naturally end, we will do others,” said Kiang Wee Lim, executive director of Create, an entity under the prime minister’s office. Create receives an undisclosed chunk of an ever-growing tranche of government research money, which is projected to increase 25 percent next year to an annual 4 billion Singapore dollars, or about $3.1 billion. “We have an open talent policy for research,” he said, “and we actually have a queue of M.I.T. professors willing to work with our students. That’s the acid test.”

Professor Hastings concurred. Smart has no trouble attracting top research scientists from around the world. “Singapore’s stature is increasing year by year,” he said, noting that M.I.T. has engaged in collaborations with the city-state for 15 years. “Every project is collaborative with faculty and students from N.U.S. and N.T.U.,” he said, referring to the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

Indeed, a main reason for bringing M.I.T. to Singapore was to produce world-class local talent, especially homegrown entrepreneurs.

Apart from the labs, a Smart innovation center helps turn research into commercial start-ups by offering grants and expert advice. Of 13 companies it has helped launch, 10 remain viable. Another 27 are still incubating.

A noted star is Visenti, a start-up that markets water grid platforms with sensors to detect water leaks. Visenti landed its first contract with Singapore’s public utility; Australia and Hong Kong utilities have also signed up.

Smart, however, is not the biggest M.I.T. project in Singapore. A few blocks away, the Singapore University of Technology and Design, opened in 2012, represents M.I.T.’s most ambitious education effort since its founding 150 years ago.

“Our hope is to be M.I.T. 2.0 in an Asian context,” said Prof. Thomas Magnanti, S.U.T.D.’s president and former dean of M.I.T.’s School of Engineering. The school offers four core programs, one in architecture and three in engineering, all paid for by the Singapore government.

Some 100 M.I.T. professors, about 10 percent of the university’s faculty, are involved, though only 10 professors come to Singapore for substantial periods during the year.

Together, they develop 90 percent of the curriculum, train faculty and welcome the top 30 students for a summer at M.I.T. A research arm — International Design Center — has also been co-located on both campuses, partly to inspire potential entrepreneurs. So far, it has helped spawn seven registered start-ups in Singapore.

Unlike their Yale counterparts, the M.I.T. faculty has not publicly complained about limits to academic freedom in Singapore, Professor Magnanti said. While conceding that not all professors think alike, he said all activities have been vetted to garner support. “S.U.T.D. helps M.I.T. achieve its mission,” he said, “to create knowledge and educate students to improve the world.”

“We are constantly experimenting with different modes of instruction,” he continued, adding that S.U.T.D. was already a world leader in “cohort-based” teaching. Students — 80 percent Singaporean, 60 percent male — do not typically sit in lectures. They learn by working in teams with professors who act more as coaches than instructors.

In a basic design class, seven teams work on different group projects as two professors and a teaching assistant move from one to another offering advice. The atmosphere is convivial and relaxed, yet focused, and sometimes intense.

This month, one team of seven students, united after a “speed dating” session, was brainstorming about how to redesign a sanitary disposal bin for women’s toilets. With less than five weeks left, the team sketched its design on a whiteboard, listing pointers gleaned from a survey of female students about what needed fixing.

“We are given 500 Singapore dollars to build the machine and make a video about it,” said Amos Choo, 20, explaining that the group would look for certain parts in hardware shops before using school machines, such as 3-D printers, laser cutters or waterjet cutters, to build a prototype.

The bell rang and the team headed to the campus hawker center, a food court, for lunch. After choosing meals from a handful of stalls, they sat together to discuss what sets S.U.T.D. apart from other Singapore universities.

“The teaching here is very different,” said Inez Ow. “It’s not a passive learning approach.” She applauded the strong school pride, patient teachers and collaborative students, as well as the unofficial motto: “Don’t say we didn’t invite you.”

Franklin Anariba, a chemistry lecturer who joined S.U.T.D. after teaching at California Polytechnic State University, stopped at the table to offer a perspective. “The vision is why I came,” said Dr. Anariba, who has a Ph.D. in molecular device fabrication. “The merger of design and engineering got my attention.”

His biggest challenge in “freshmore” year — a 12-month hybrid of freshman and sophomore years — is getting students to interact. He tries to set a tone where students feel safe to voice an opinion or ask a question without fearing repercussions.

“From a faculty perspective, there is room for growth,” Dr. Anariba said. “The students are committed. I want to teach them and they want to learn.”

Come January, S.U.T.D. moves to an even bigger new campus near Changi Airport, built to eventually accommodate 1,000 students annually. “Our goal is to create one of the world’s great universities,” Professor Magnani said. “We want S.U.T.D. on the list with Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford.”