Geeking it out in the wild

Thursday, 25 May 2017

The New Paper Online

This was a report on Assistant Professor Andrew Quitmeyer from the Department of Communications and New Media at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who uses everyday technology to survive in some of the world’s most remote places. He will be featured in a new six-episode television series, Hacking the Wild, which premieres 31 May 2017 on Discovery Channel Southeast Asia. Asst Prof Quitmeyer is known as the world’s first digital survivalist, combining nature and technology to create gadgets that can help keep him alive. These innovations or “hacks” as he calls them include repelling devices, traps and even heating systems.

Click here to read the article.

Hacking the Wild premieres May 31at 9.55pm on Discovery Channel Southeast Asia.

The impact of crowdedness on housing prices (Opinion, Page A20)

Wednesday, 17 May 2017

The Straits Times

This was an article contribution by Dr Eric Fesselmeyer, Senior Lecturer, student Kwok Ci Yi, Jonathan, both from the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Dr Seah Kiat Ying from the Department of Real Estate at NUS School of Design and Environment as part of the monthly Ask: NUS Economists series. Addressing the impact of crowdedness on housing prices, they studied 11,913 transactions from 337 projects from 2002 to 2016 and found that an increase in localised density negatively affected prices: a 10 per cent increase in density caused a decrease in price per square foot by about 2 per cent. Their conclusion that crowdedness negatively impacts welfare carries important policy implications since almost all cities regulate density using measures such as plot ratio in Singapore.

Click here to read the article.

New award to boost social entrepreneurship initiatives in Asean region (8 May)

The Straits Times Online

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

It was reported that a new social entrepreneurship award was launched by the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Department of Social Work on 8 May to recognise individuals from social organisations and philanthropists who have made a positive difference for the disadvantaged – not just in Singapore, but in the ASEAN region. Known as the ASEAN Social Impact Award, the initiative is a partnership with the Ee Peng Liang Memorial Fund, Asia Philanthropy Circle and Ashoka Innovators for the Public, and is inspired by the charitable initiatives of the late Dr Ee Peng Liang, Singapore’s Father of Charity. The award is open to candidates of all ages and nationalities who work with marginalised groups in ASEAN and have made an impact in this area for at least three years.

NUS geographer Professor Henry Yeung conferred prestigious international award

Professor Henry Yeung, Co-Director of the Global Production Networks Centre at NUS, and economic geographer from the Department of Geography at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, has been conferred the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers [IBG]) Murchison Award 2017.

2017-0509-Prof Henry Yeung.jpg

Professor Henry Yeung

The award was conferred by the Council of the Society in recognition of Prof Yeung’s pioneering publications on globalisation, and will be presented to him by the Society’s President, Mr Nicholas Crane, at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Medals and Awards ceremony 2017 in London on 5 June 2017. The Murchison Award is the most senior accolade in the awards category to be presented at the ceremony; the other category being the medals category.

Sharing his thoughts about receiving the prestigious award, Prof Yeung said, “It gives me enormous pleasure to have my work, which is all done in Singapore, recognised by the Royal Geographical Society. This award will spur me on further to take on Anglo-American geography and social science in an increasingly post-colonial world of knowledge production. I hope this award paves the way for further decentering of such knowledge production, particularly in the fields of humanities and social sciences. This means the rise of new centres of knowledge production, for instance in Asia, that can capitalise on our own locations as sites of laboratories for new insights and thoughts.”

Professor Henry Yeung

Prof Henry Yeung graduated with B.A. First Class Honours in Geography from NUS in July 1992, and obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester in England in 1995. He returned to Singapore on 31 December 1995 to begin his career in the Department of Geography at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. An eminent economic geographer and a highly cited academic, Prof Yeung’s research interests include theories and the geography of transnational corporations, global production networks and global value chains, East Asian firms and developmental states in the global economy.

Throughout his career, Prof Yeung has been accorded many honours, including being ranked first in the list of top 50 human geographers in the Journal of Economic Geography (Vol. 10) in 2010, and being conferred a Fellowship with the Academy of Social Sciences in the UK in 2012, in recognition of his significant contributions to social science.

A leading authority in his field, Prof Yeung has published widely. His latest book with Cornell University Press, titled Strategic Coupling: East Asian Industrial Transformation on the New Global Economy (2016), examines economic development and state-firms relations in East Asia, focusing in particular on South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

About the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), and its Medals and Awards

Founded in 1830, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) is the UK’s learned society and professional body for geography. It is a world leader in advancing geography and supporting its practitioners in the UK and across the world. Since 1832, the Society’s medals and awards have recognised excellence in geographical research and fieldwork, teaching and public engagement. They are presented annually in recognition of those who have made outstanding achievements within the sphere of geography.

For more information about the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), please visit: http://www.rgs.org/HomePage.htm

NUS-led crowdsourcing project to map over 1,000 Chinese temples here (Top of the News, Page A6)

Monday, 8 May 2017

The Straits Times

In today’s edition of The Straits Times, it was reported that the Department of Chinese Studies at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is developing an interactive atlas of more than 1,000 Chinese temples in Singapore, dating back to the 19th century. The first such project here to consolidate such data is led by the Department’s Head, Professor Kenneth Dean with the aid of Senior Research Fellow Dr Hue Guan Thye from the same Department and the Department of Geography at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Using a crowdsourcing model, the project’s success will hinge largely on contribution from the public. It was mentioned that the geographic information system’s (GIS) first contributors are NUS undergraduates who studied 69 temples as part of a module called Everyday Life of Chinese Singaporeans: Past and Present. The project, named A Singapore Historical GIS Analysis: The transformation Of Chinese Institutions, has received about $700,000 in funding from the Ministry of Education. By the year end, Prof Dean and Dr Hue will launch a free mobile application developed by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering.

Click here to read the article.

Benefits, challenges and successful strategies for nurturing bilingual children (Page 29)

Lianhe Zaobao

Sunday, 7 May 2017

This was an article contribution by Associate Professor Leher Singh from the Department of Psychology at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which she discussed the importance of nurturing bilingual children and its challenges. She shared the latest research findings from the Infant and Child Language Centre at NUS which found that bilingual infants show advantages in learning new words and suggested some possible strategies that could be adopted to encourage bilingualism.

ISEAS and NUS researchers to conduct study on students of Islamic education system (Page 5)

Berita Harian

Friday, 5 May 2017

It was reported that Associate Professor Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman, Head of the Department of Malay Studies at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Dr Azhar Ibrahim, a lecturer from the same Department at NUS, as well as Dr Norshahril Saat, a Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, will conduct a study on students and graduates of the Islamic education system. The project, called Singapore Graduates of Islamic Studies: Their Roles and Impact in the Plural Society, aims to understand the challenges and concerns these students and graduates face, including issues in career development and misperceptions against them and their madrasah education. The project is one of the 12 projects to receive funding support from the Social Science Research Council and the grant is part of MOE’s $350 million initiative to boost social science research from 2016 to 2020.

$8.5m study to learn how pre­schoolers develop (Home, Pages B1 and B2)

Friday, 28 April 2017

The Straits Times

In today’s edition of The Straits Times, there was a report on a new $8.5 million national study which will help social scientists in their understanding of how Singaporean children develop in their early years. One of the 12 research projects funded by Social Science Research Council will involve about 5,000 families with children aged six and younger who will be surveyed in 2018 and in 2020 by Professor Jean Yeung from the Department of Sociology in the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The study will look at how factors such as early childcare, pre-school attendance, the use of technology and family stress can shape child development and family resilience. The council was set up in January 2016 to promote social science and humanities research.

Other NUS recipients of the grant includes Associate Professor Esther Goh from the Department of Social Work in NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for her $800,000 study on the effect of redistributive policies on low income families; Prof Ted Hoft from the Department of Political Science in NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for his study on identity relations in Singapore and its neighbourhood; Assoc Prof Liu Haoming from the Department of Economics in NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for his study on population ageing, old age labour and financial decisions in Singapore; Asst Prof Wang Wenru from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine for her study on the Salutogenic Healthy Ageing Programme Embracement (SHAPE) for elderly living alone; Prof Ivan Png from the Departments of Strategy & Policy and Economics for his study on the Service Productivity and Innovation Research Programme (SPIRE); and Prof David Taylor from the Department of Geography in NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for his study on sustainable governance of transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia.

Click here to read the article.