Institutional Visitors Year 2003/2004

SMA recently launched the Alumni Tracking System to replace the manual tracking of its graduates over the past four years. This will enable the Administrative staff to expedite the process of updating the Alumni’s personal particulars and other relevant information. This online system is reliable and flexible, eradicating the tedious manual reporting.

With the use of the tracking system, SMA can now reach out to their alumni more effectively and systematically. At the same time, more consistent and accurate reports can be swiftly generated for the management and stakeholders’ review.

Singapore-MIT Alliance has launched its newly-redesigned website (www.sma.nus.edu.sg), offering end-users a whole new and more enjoyable surfing experience.

Introduced in mid January this year, the aesthetically-enhanced website aims to streamline the website content by moving the confidential information to a password-protected area, and serve as the key resource for prospective and current students, staff and members of the public in accessing information on SMA-related matters.

It is hoped that the revamped website offers users an upgraded experience to simplify the search for students, faculty, alumni or staff by location, year, program, etc. The website has also expanded its informational role with more features in the Industry and SMA Alumni sections. In addition, the Events section is reorganised and categorised in a way to speed up the search of related information on outreach seminars and current/past events.

January 2003 saw the soft launch of a pilot programme, the Special Student Scheme (SSS). Professional engineers and scientists from the industry can now enrol as special students in their preferred SMA modules.

This scheme serves the dual purpose of offering continuous training and development to the industry as well as enhancing productivity and providing a competitive edge. Through classroom interaction with both Singapore and MIT professors, SMA special students are able to update themselves on current theoretical and technical developments, innovations, concepts and methods in the relevant fields. Their presence in the classroom also provides SMA S.M students with an excellent opportunity to interact and network with industry experts.

In addition, their current industrial experience gives special students the edge of being able to recommend relevant topics that might eventually lead to the creation of collaborative projects of mutual interest.

The SSS saw its first intake in Spring 2003. Four Port of Authority (PSA) students were admitted in the High Performance Computation for Engineered Systems (HPCES) programme. All of them completed the module successfully!

As of Spring 2004, the scheme will be launched on a full scale. All five SMA programmes: Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems (AMM&NS), HPCES, Innovation in Manufacturing Systems and Technology (IMST), Molecular Engineering of Biological and Chemical Systems (MEBCS) and Computer Science (CS) will be offering the SSS.

Updated on 1 September 2004