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Role of AI in Singapore’s Smart Nation plan shared at SMU AI conference

Role of AI in Singapore’s Smart Nation plan shared at SMU AI conference

Earlier this month, Singapore Management University’s School
of Information Systems (SIS), in partnership with AI Singapore, hosted
its inaugural “Artificial Intelligence—Are You Ready?” conference at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium.

The conference brought together policymakers, academics and
leading industry experts from organisations which had implemented AI
technologies and solutions into their businesses, to discuss latest developments
in artificial intelligence (AI).

Credit: Singapore Management University

In her welcome address, SMU Provost Prof Lily Kong
highlighted how the roots of AI research in SMU started many years ago in its
various labs: its Living Analytics Research
Center
(LARC), LiveLabs Urban
Lifestyle Innovation Platform
and Fujitsu-SMU
Urban Computing and Engineering Corporate Lab
(UniCEN).

Commenting on the need for talent in Singapore’s
transformation towards a knowledge-based economy, Prof Kong announced the
official launch of an AI track at the postgraduate level, within SMU’s Master of IT in Business
(MITB)
 programme.

Developed in consultation with more than 20 industry
leaders, the newly created MITB AI Track provides an integrated approach of
melding AI methodologies into business domains.

Smart Nation & Digital Government

In his opening address, Mr Tan Kok Yam, Deputy Secretary, Smart Nation & Digital Government, Prime Minister’s Office, commented that “AI will not replace jobs, but tasks.”

Credit: Singapore Management University

Enabled by vast data and enhanced computational power, AI is now capable of enabling users to do much more than before. Mr Tan also said that “the potential to create value is tremendous, (as AI) allows for a lot of innovation”.

In regard to Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts, Mr Tan stated that a fundamental aim of Smart Nation was to harness technology to improve lives in concrete ways.

“Think of all the things that I can get machine learning and AI software to do – detecting anomalies in fraud or cybersecurity, assisting the domains of transport or urban planning. There are tons of applications for the government to provide services in a citizen-centric manner,” Mr Tan shared some of the potential applications of AI.

He continued outlined the key conditions for the effective application of AI, which include: compelling use cases, available data and relevant capabilities and skills.

In nurturing AI talents for the industry, Mr Tan called for close collaboration between industry, universities, government agencies and institutions to build skills and capabilities in AI and data science.

AI Singapore

In his keynote speech, Mr Laurence Liew, Director of AI
Industry Innovation of AI Singapore spoke on the ways that Singapore can ride the
AI wave, and on programmes which help accelerate the adoption of AI by
companies in Singapore.

Credit: Singapore Management University

He iterated that AI Singapore’s mission is to anchor deep
national capabilities in AI, making it a key pillar in support of Singapore’s
Smart Nation initiative so as to engender substantial social and economic
impacts.

In collaboration with universities, AI Singapore has
embarked on a number of projects which involved the implementation of AI
technologies and solutions to address practical challenges. The projects range
from usage of video analytics to determine a candidate’s progression in the job
interview process to applications for voice-to-text conversion for use by
consumers.

In regard to talent development, Mr Liew identified data
programming, application development and math/statistics as key skills required
of an AI engineer.

“An AI engineer needs to be able to make sense of data in
order to build applications and systems,” he commented.

SMU’s Master of IT in
Business programme

In recent years, with AI and automated analytics reshaping
business models and strategies, the demand for talent with skills such as data
science and machine learning, AI planning and automation, and research
translation and application are growing exponentially.

As announced by SMU Provost, a new AI Track is introduced
this year in SMU’s Master
of IT in Business (MITB)
 programme is the first-of-its-kind in
Southeast Asia and a direct response to growing technology trends and demand
for relevant talent.

Prof Dai Bing Tian, Assistant Professor of information
Systems (Education) and Director of MITB (AI) Programme shared more about the
new programme. He emphasised that in the development and application of AI, human
talent is in at the centre of all factors, including software, hardware,
application and data.

Prof Dai shared that the new AI track programme emphasises
on both machine learning and decision analytics, which allow students to build
their AI applications and solutions in the business domains they are interested.

In addition to machine learning and decision
analytics, students will also learn about research translation and application
skill, to enable them to apply cutting edge researches in their AI solutions

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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