The idea to set up Singapore-MIT Alliance was first mooted in 1997. A year later, in November 1998, the Memorandum of Understanding for the Alliance was inked. The idea of collaboration between three premier universities located halfway across the globe from each other was truly a daring experiment that was unprecedented. The Alliance’s bold vision is to be a premier and unparalleled interactive distance educational and research enterprise that is internationally recognised. SMA aims to attract local top engineering and life sciences students and researchers, as well as those from the region.

The resounding success of that first phase paved the way for a second, more ambitious phase, dubbed SMA-2, launched in July 2005. The 10th anniversary of the Alliance was commemorated in January 2009. In this issue of SMA Connect, we take a quick look at how the Alliance has fared in the past decade.

SMA has impacted the world with education and research

Since inception, SMA has attracted a total of 853 Masters and 187 PhD students. We embarked on aggressive recruitment efforts in a bid to recruit top talents from the region including those from China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Those efforts included some 80 roadshows at universities, as well as participation in education fairs such as the China Education Expo in 2001. Our recruitment efforts to attract top talent to Singapore have paid off. Approximately three-quarters of our annual intake are recruited from overseas.

Aggressive recruitment roadshows overseas have paid off in attracting top talent

More than 780 students have graduated from SMA, many of whom stay on in Singapore to contribute to the local research, education and industrial arenas. According to a recent survey, almost two-thirds of our graduates who responded stay on in Singapore to contribute to our economy. Our graduates are in high demand by multinational corporations, universities, defence laboratories and research institutes. Some choose to define their own career paths by starting up their own companies both locally and overseas. Others who relocate overseas may also do so to pursue higher education or seek employment. The Alliance is glad that these graduates who are based overseas still maintain close links with their Singapore counterparts.

By attracting outstanding researchers to Singapore, the Alliance is a contributor to the critical mass of research talent locally. This has resulted in a prolific level of publishing and intellectual property. We have published some 1600 journal papers and filed 48 patents in the past ten years. The research highlights that SMA Connect features regularly are excellent examples of some of the significant research projects our researchers have embarked upon.

Even as we establish new frontiers in scientific research, we continue to forge links with industrial partners in order to stay relevant to industrial needs. The licensing of intellectual property rights to industry signify the industrial relevance of the research work done here in SMA. On top of licensing intellectual property rights, During the first 3 years of SMA-2, the Alliance had 470 internship projects and 31 collaborative research projects with various companies and research institutes.

To commemorate a successful ten years, SMA organised the 10th Anniversary Symposium and Dinner on 21 January 2009, where Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong graced the morning and evening sessions respectively as our Guests of Honour. The Memorandum of Understanding for another phase of collaboration between the three partner universities was also signed at the Symposium.

 
Committing to another phase of collaboration: the MOU was signed between NUS, NTU and MIT in January this year

SMA has indeed come a long way. Looking forward, we are committed to continuing our mission of building up human capital and making advances in science and engineering research.