Tag: SMU

At 40, Prof David Lo has been inducted into the 2023 class of ACM Fellows, along with the inventor of the World Wide Web

Singapore Management University (SMU) is proud to announce that one of its faculty members from the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) has been honoured as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). David Lo is OUB Chair Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Information Systems & Technology Cluster at SMU’s SCIS.

ACM, the largest professional organisation for computing, is also renowned for issuing the Turing Award, the ’Nobel Prize in Computing’. Founded in 1947 and boasting a global membership of nearly 110,000, ACM is recognised for advancing computing as a science and profession, and ACM Fellows represent the most prestigious member grade, with new Fellows inducted annually.

Professor Lo, 40, is among the 68 new Fellows worldwide recently named by ACM for their transformative contributions to computing science and technology, and is the fourth academic in Singapore to receive this recognition. The 2023 class of ACM Fellows includes four past winners of the Turing Award (also known as Turing laureates), namely Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (who won the Turing Award in 2016); and Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun, pioneers of deep learning (who won the Turing Award in 2018).

Prof Lo said of this prestigious achievement, “I am deeply humbled by this recognition and sincerely grateful for the support of SMU SCIS, as well as my advisors, mentors, colleagues, students, trainees, and collaborators. I am excited to continue contributing to computing research, especially in the fields of software engineering, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, as a member of a vibrant group of researchers at SCIS and SMU.”

Dean of SCIS, Professor of Computer Science Pang Hwee Hwa, remarked, “The School is very proud of Prof Lo’s research leadership and his ground-breaking work in synergising artificial intelligence and software engineering. With his induction as an ACM Fellow, we look forward to him continuing to inspire his peers and his students towards more exciting innovations that put SMU on the world map.”

“The announcement each year that a new class of ACM Fellows has been selected is met with great excitement,” said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis in its press release. “ACM is proud to include nearly 110,000 computing professionals in our ranks and ACM Fellows represent just 1% of our entire global membership. This year’s inductees include the inventor of the World Wide Web, the ‘godfathers of AI’, and other colleagues whose contributions have all been important building blocks in forming the digital society that shapes our modern world.”

In the latest list of inductees for 2023, Prof Lo is one of four researchers from institutions and a tech giant in Asia to achieve this recognition – two of whom are from China while the third is from India.

The other 2023 ACM Fellows hail from global tech giants such as Meta, government agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, and institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University and Princeton University. Their contributions span the computing field, including algorithm design, computer graphics, cybersecurity, energy-efficient computing, mobile computing, software analytics, and web search, to name a few.

Prof Lo is focused on designing and implementing effective human-centred solutions for the intelligent systems-enabled future of work. “My goal is to enable humans and intelligent agents to collaborate effectively, safely, inclusively, and responsibly,” he said, “thereby contributing to societal betterment. My research delves into specific areas related to this overarching theme.”

Singapore may be one of the cleanest cities in the world, but the opposite applies to public toilets in her coffeeshops and hawker centres. The third national survey in seven years, and the first post-pandemic, the whimsically-named “Waterloo” was created and run by SMU Principal Lecturer of Statistics Rosie Ching and her 170 SMU undergraduates. Together, they carried out comprehensive on-site surveys of more than 2,200 public toilets at an excess of 100 hawker centres and 950 coffeeshops around Singapore, evaluating them on more than 100 variables including toilet bowl cleanliness, floor dryness, ventilation.

They found that post-pandemic coffeeshop toilets have stayed dirty and unchanged over the past seven years, staying significantly below the 50-mark of reasonably clean on the zero-to-100 Toilet Cleanliness Index (TCI), with the only bright spot showing hawker centre toilets cleaner than in 2020. Unisex toilets are the dirtiest at 36.14, a sharp decline from 42.89 in 2020. From 2016 to 2020 till now, these shared toilets remain the filthiest, suffering their lowest levels now, with a large majority located in coffeeshops.

Public perception of these toilets was measured using the Human Perception of Toilet Cleanliness (HPTCI) Index, where respondents rated their perception of public toilets on a scale of zero to 100: 100 being the most positive perception of toilet cleanliness, and zero the most negative.

Overall public perception of these toilets is that they are much dirtier than they should be, and no different from they were in 2020 and 2016. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 66.74% of Singaporeans think that public toilets in coffeeshops and hawker centres have “stayed just as dirty” to “are much dirtier now”, with only 22.18% saying they have improved. Additionally, 63% of citizens rate toilet-cleaning efforts from “mostly ineffective” to “completely ineffective”, with only 6% optimistic about the efficacy of national clean toilet campaigns.

Droves of photographic evidence show wet or oily floors, dirty or clogged sinks, overflowing bins and choked urinals. The in-depth investigation by Ms Ching revealed that the closer cooking facilities are to toilets in these hawker centres and coffee shops, the significantly dirtier the toilets. This was also observed in 2016 and 2020 and remains very strong in 2023, a major public health concern given the huge majority of workers in these premises use these toilets while handling food.
More than nine in ten of customers declared public toilets in need of major overhauling, rating them as “dirty”. More than 75% only use the toilets in these areas for small calls of nature, unchanged from 2020, but a much lower figure than in 2016. As for the big call of nature, almost 70% avoid using these toilets, a significantly higher avoidance rate than in 2020 and 2016.

Waterloo was done to educate students on applying statistics with social impact, helping the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), Public Hygiene Council (PHC), Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) and Restroom Association Singapore (RAS) in their national efforts to combat the decades-long problem of dirty toilets. Said student Nicole Beh, “I have had the privilege of being a student in Ms Rosie Ching’s Statistics class. We embarked on Waterloo, surveying over 90% of Singapore’s hawker centers and coffee shop toilets to raise awareness about public toilet hygiene. While we continue to make waves in improving the cleanliness of public toilets in Singapore, we hope for even greater improvements in the years to come through nationwide efforts. Ms. Ching has been our strongest pillar of support in achieving the impeccable success of Waterloo and has made learning Statistics more fun than ever.”

Said Ms Ching: “Having a clean toilet to use is a fundamental human right. Yet my treasured Waterloo student comrades and I have exposed yet again thousands of abysmal toilets, many in close proximity with kitchens and food-handling areas. We hope our findings will spur decisive and collective action to improve the state of public toilet hygiene, and protect food handlers and toilet cleaners who face the daily grim spectre of filthy toilets.”

For their commitment to Waterloo, Ms. Ching’s students won Singapore’s national LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Award for public sanitation in the community category. Ms Ching was given the Individual LOO Award for eight years of study of dirty public toilets, and was bestowed the World Toilet Organization Hall of Fame Award for her contributions to improving sanitation. In December 2023, Ms Ching was also awarded QS Reimagine Education’s global Gold Award for Blended and Presence Learning for the effects of creating and teaching Statistics For Social Impact.

Singapore Management University (SMU) is taking a significant step in its mission to foster knowledge-sharing and regional collaboration with the opening of its second Overseas Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. SMU Overseas Centre Bangkok (OCB) will serve to catalyse, facilitate and coordinate for SMU in Thailand by leveraging the university’s expertise and offerings, cultivating its local network and creating opportunities for new collaborations and partnerships between SMU and Thai institutions. It will also connect interested parties such as businesses, academia and potential students with the various programmes SMU has to offer.

This strategic move is part of SMU’s Vision 2025, through which it has committed to furthering growth in Asia by offering a deep understanding of Asia’s economy, polity and society that will contribute to the region’s social and economic development. It follows the successful launch of SMU’s first overseas centre in Jakarta in 2022. SMU plans to further strengthen its presence in the region with the opening of another overseas centre in Ho Chi Minh City next, advancing its “Growth in Asia” strategic priority.

“The selection of Thailand as the location for our second Overseas Centre is the result of both strategic intent and strong relationships with our Thai partners,” SMU President Professor Lily Kong said. “Thailand is a major economy in Southeast Asia and a rising player in shaping the future of Asia as a whole. We believe our presence in Thailand will allow us to contribute research and expertise in vital fields such as sustainability and digital transformation and our vision is aligned with Thailand’s aspirations for a sustainable and knowledge-driven future. SMU is committed to making a meaningful impact on local communities and economies in Asia through education, research, and innovation, and OCB is a testament to our dedication to knowledge-sharing and positive community impact in this dynamic region.”

To fulfil this role, SMU via OCB will collaborate with local partners in education and industry to bolster human capital development in Thailand and promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise. OCB will primarily focus on student exchanges, experiential learning, thought leadership events, executive development courses, post-graduate programmes and adult learning courses. These areas will facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration between both countries, with OCB acting as SMU’s “embassy” in Thailand, promoting the university’s values, knowledge base, culture, and interests in the region.

OCB will be led by Centre Director Ms Celine Kuok. Residing in Thailand since 2017, Ms Kuok brings a wealth of experience and a robust network within the higher education sector. Her extensive background in developing leadership programmes and a strong business acumen place her in a good position for OCB to make a positive impact on the local community and the region at large.