SINGAPORE - Students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will soon have more opportunities to go on exchange programmes and undertake joint research with Britain’s Imperial College London, the two institutions said in a statement on Wednesday.
The institutions will also establish a research hub called the NTU-Imperial Health, Sustainability and Technology Hub as part of an agreement expanding the collaboration between them. The agreement was inked on Wednesday at NTU by its president, Professor Subra Suresh, and his Imperial College counterpart, Professor Hugh Brady, who is on his first visit to NTU.
The pair have been working together for some time, establishing the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine housed in NTU that officially opened on Aug 28, 2017.
Prof Louis Phee, vice-president for innovation and entrepreneurship and dean of the College of Engineering at NTU, said the institutions would be increasing mobility of students between them with more opportunities for undergraduate exchange programmes, allowing a wider group of NTU students to spend time at Imperial under joint programmes.
“Currently, Imperial is one of the partner universities for students in NTU’s Renaissance Engineering Programme, who get to spend a year of their study overseas. The expansion of joint research activities between NTU and Imperial that aim to tackle global challenges also allows NTU postgraduate students the opportunity to go on more research stints at Imperial,” added Prof Phee.
The new research hub will focus on collaborative research between the two institutions in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics for healthcare, healthy cities and pollution, energy and sustainability and infectious disease modelling, the joint statement said.
It will be housed in existing buildings in both universities.
Prof Suresh said NTU and Imperial enjoy a longstanding and close relationship, and that entering this new strategic partnership underscores the depth of cooperation between the two.
He said: “The NTU-Imperial research hub, established as part of our new partnership, will support both universities as we pursue research aimed at tackling some of humanity’s grand challenges.”
Prof Brady said the new research hub will help seed the most ambitious projects and ideas in healthcare, sustainability and technology.
He said: “From tackling pollution in our cities, to developing future transport and using AI to improve healthcare – the hub will enable UK and Singaporean scientists to work together for the benefit of society.”
