Dell to train 11,000 students, mid-career professionals in AI skills by end-2026

SINGAPORE – With just a phone camera, lay rescuers can get real-time feedback from a first-aid app on whether their posture is optimal for cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the absence of trained professionals in a cardiac emergency.

Smarts embedded in the app study the arm positions and chest compressions to determine if the rescuers are pushing hard and fast enough to keep blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs while professional help is on the way.

The app, dubbed Project PrepARed, won the first prize in a student hackathon organised by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and Dell Technologies.

The winning team from NTU is part of Dell’s plan – announced on Aug 21 – to level up the artificial intelligence (AI) skills of about 11,000 students and mid-career professionals by the end of 2026.

“Nurturing an AI talent pool has always been a priority. Working closer with the wider tech community will be a continued focus,” said Mr Ng Nam Guan, senior director of Dell’s newly launched AI Innovation Hub.

The SCDF and Dell Lifesavers’ Innovation Challenge, which debuted in 2022, had seen good projects being presented, he said.

In 2023,

Singapore had announced plans to triple its pool of AI practitioners

to 15,000 by 2028. These are the data and machine-learning scientists and engineers who are the backbone of translating AI into real-world apps.

In July 2025, Singapore also revealed its ambition to

nurture an intrepid pool of AI users

to complement the data scientists and machine learning engineers. These super AI users include lawyers, accountants and doctors who would show their peers how to make better use of the technology.

The winning team from NTU are third-year students in the College of Computing and Data Science: Ms Nicole Ang, 21; Mr Russell Arvin, 24; Ms Celeste Ho, 21; Mr Teow Choon Ray, 23; and Ms Leanne Yeong, 21.

“The hackathon gives us the opportunity to transfer theoretical knowledge from the classroom to day-to-day tasks,” said Mr Teow, adding that his teammates are in discussions with SCDF on future plans for the app.

Since 2021, Dell has been gradually working with all five polytechnics and five autonomous universities here to incorporate AI engineering teaching in their curricula. Students learn skills to support the development of autonomous digital services, and AI technologies which drive autonomous vehicles.

Also since 2021, through its Global Innovation Hub, Dell has supported businesses here in digitalising and smartening up their processes. Projects include Singapore’s Tuas Port, which will become the world’s largest fully automated container terminal upon completion by 2040. Operations would be smartened up with 5G, AI and data-driven analytics. 

On Aug 21, Dell said that its undisclosed number of experts at the Asia Pacific & Japan AI Innovation Hub, a new arm of the Global Innovation Hub, will also help businesses create and test AI prototypes.

Mr Ng said that work on prototyping and test-bedding AI solutions began in the last quarter of 2024. To date, the Asia Pacific & Japan AI Innovation Hub has been involved in some 50 AI projects, including one in the energy sector to use chatbots for customer engagement and another one in the education sector to use AI cloud technology to enhance research capabilities.

AI was one of the key focus areas of

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s National Day Rally speech

on Aug 17.

PM Wong said that the Government would help all enterprises – especially small and medium-sized enterprises – harness AI effectively and use it to sharpen their competitive edge as AI would be a defining technology of this time.

Since 2024, more than 26 companies including American Express, Grab, Oracle and Prudential have set up AI centres of excellence in Singapore to drive the creation of AI solutions.