URA-REDAS SPARK Challenge: Raising the Quality of the Built Environment

The URA-REDAS SPARK Challenge organised by the URA and Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore is a yearly competition that seeks ground-up innovation to raise the quality of the built environment by offering participants an opportunity to test and showcase their prototypes in commercial developments. This year, the contest challenges participants to boost people’s health and wellness for a higher quality of life within the built environment. For instance, the submitted design may:

  • Encourage people to be more active indoors and/or outdoors (physical wellness), or
  • Improve the sensorial experience of a shopping centre to lift people’s moods (emotional wellness), or
  • Provide a restorative environment for people to recharge (psychological wellness), or
  • Foster interaction among people to build connections with one another (social wellness)

Participants stand a chance to win $5000 to build and test their prototype in a shopping centre, and one winner will also be awarded $10,000 at the end of the competition! The registration and submission period starts on 14 November 2017 and ends on 7 February.

For more information, please click here.

FASS Geography Students Win at GENC 2016

The team (from left) Liu Weiting, Jiang Xiaoshuang Grace, Raqibah Binte Abdul Razak & Fatin Farzana Binte Mishwan
The team (from left) Liu Weiting, Jiang Xiaoshuang Grace, Raqibah Binte Abdul Razak & Fatin Farzana Binte Mishwan

FASS would like to congratulate the NUS team comprising of FASS Geography students, Liu Weiting, Jiang Xiaoshuang Grace, Raqibah Binte Abdul Razak and Fatin Farzana Binte Miswan, on winning the Grand Prize at the Geoscience Exhibition and Competition (GENC) organised by the University Technology Petronas! The Prize consisted of a Trophy, Certificates of recognition and a cash prize of RM1000.

The team of four geographers beat 26 other participating teams from universities in South East Asia, which is a commendable feat especially because the NUS team were exposed to geology through only one or two modules.

The competition, held on 19 and 20 July 2016, consisted of two parts: the first part was a team oral presentation and the second involved putting up an exhibition of a poster, related material evidences and videos on the same theme. The NUS team name was “SENTOSA 4G SECRETS” and their work was based on the rocks of Sentosa (the one and only rock outcrop in Singapore that is accessible to general public and exposed only at low tides).

International New York Times Writing Competition 2016

Students are invited to participate in the 2016 International New York Times (INYT) Asia Pacific Writing Competition, with the chance to have their writing published in the International New York Times.

Each year, the INYT invites secondary and tertiary students across Asia to submit a short piece on an important global issue. Entries are judged by an esteemed panel of New York Times editors and journalists, with the winning entries published in the INYT newspaper across Asia.

This year’s topic is “Global Youth” and the submission deadline is Friday 29 July, 2016. All secondary and undergraduate level students are invited to participate. Each student will receive a free 4-week subscription to NYTimes.com to assist them with their submission, along with a certificate recognising their participation in the competition.

 

Competition Details:

Topic: Global Youth

Submission deadline: 29 July 2016

All entries must be submitted via email through our canvas website:

https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/7GWRYR

 

Click here and here for more details.

IAEA 2016 International Essay Competition on Nuclear Security for Students and Early Career Professionals

The first IAEA International Essay Competition on Nuclear Security for Students and Early Career Professionals is now open for submissions.  We invite students and early career professionals, aged 35 years and under, to submit an innovative and original essay on the future of Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions.

3 winners will be presented with cash prizes of €2000 and a certificate signed by the Director General of the IAEA. In addition, all 3 winners will receive flight tickets, accommodation and daily living expenses to attend the International Conference in Vienna and to present their papers as a side event to the International Conference.

  • Submission Deadline: Friday 12 August, 2016 at 11:59pm, Vienna Time (CET)
  • Length: 2,500 words and under
  • Format: Word document, submission by email to NUSECessay2016@iaea.org. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for details.
  • Limit: One entry per person
  • Language: Any official language of the IAEA (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for details.

Please refer to the Announcement (in PDF) on the Conference Webpage for more details.

Invitation to Apply – SG100 See Future Video Competition

See Future EDM

Organised by Association for Public Affairs and the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) Council, the video competition invites submissions that highlight:

  • one best policy practice from Singapore’s past 50 years of history and
  • one best policy practice from an ASEAN country

The featured policies need to be specific and implementable. The video can be 2 – 6 minutes long.

Eligibility

  • The contest is open to citizens and permanent residents from the ASEAN countries residing anywhere in the world.
  • Participants are to be between ages 16 – 35 (as of 1 January 2016).
  • Groups must comprise at least 2 members (1 from Singapore, 1 from an ASEAN country)

Interested participants are to register their interest by 15 February 2016 and submit their entries by 18 March 2016.

Please refer to the following links for more details:

For enquiries, please email apa@nus.edu.sg.

Participate in the Future-Ready Singapore Essay Competition #1

Dear Students,

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy would like to invite you to participate in “Present(ing) Futures”, an exercise in crowdsourcing futures. “Present(ing) Futures” taps on the wisdom of the crowds to explore different aspects of the Singaporean condition, and to identify the possible, assess the probable, and articulate the preferred futures of the different issues we will have to face as a society.

You are required to contribute your ideas via an essay response to the following question:

“What are the limitations and challenges of Singapore’s economic growth model? And what reforms and transformations do you think are required to overcome those limitations and challenges, particularly in terms of productivity and innovation?”

Visit the following LINK for more details of the competition, along with the terms of conditions, entry form and a case study on productivity. Please feel free to contact Ms Hawyee Auyong (hawyee@nus.edu.sg) if you have any further queries about the challenge.

Up to five of the most commended essays will be offered a prize of S$2,000 each and could be published in an edited volume by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Textual Landscapes of Singapore Literary Challenge is Open! Win prizes worth $100!

SRN-Lit-Poster-Final_Small
The Singapore Research Nexus at FASS Research Division has launched Textual Landscapes of Singapore, a literary challenge that will showcase poetry and prose on Singapore by the NUS community. All you have to do to win one of 10 prizes worth S$100 (or one of 10 merit prizes worth $50) is write a poem or short prose piece inspired by this prompt:

Be it a familiar sight or a hidden gem of the urban unseen, an iconic place, space or neighbourhood, an architectural marvel, a uniquely Singaporean site of work or play, an eyecatching plant or creature in our natural terrain or built cityscape, write about Singapore!

More information, including the terms and conditions, can be found here.

The winning entries will be added to the SRN creative works repository, and published, along with new photographs from our SG Photobank, in a softcover A4 booklet that showcases SRN’s creative and photographic works. They will also be honoured at an awards ceremony-cum-SG Photobank launch event in 2016, exact date TBC.

Textual Landscapes of Singapore is open to all current NUS students, faculty, and staff as well as all NUS alumni. Submissions are open till 15 January 2016 (Friday), 12pm.

Got a question? Ask us at singaporeresearchnexus@gmail.com.