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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.