Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore is strengthening its ties with Swedish institutions following a visit by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden to the campus. As part of a three-day state visit to Singapore, the King attended a luncheon and panel discussion at NTU, joined by the Swedish royal delegation, government officials, business leaders, and NTU faculty and management. Two Memoranda of Understanding(MoU) were signed between NTU and Swedish institutions during the visit to enhance cooperation in academia and research. This is the King's first visit to NTU, after His Royal Highness Prince Daniel of Sweden visited NTU in 2019 and explored NTU's medical technology innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.
NTU President Professor Ho Teck Hua said: “We are honoured to host King Carl XVI Gustaf on our campus today. NTU enjoys close relations with many Swedish institutions. Faculty from both countries take advantage of the numerous research collaborations and fellowships available to them while our undergraduates benefit from the many exchange opportunities provided by Swedish universities. We look forward to deepening our ties with Sweden as we enhance our research, academic, and industrial ties to meet the challenges of sustainability and artificial intelligence”.
NTU affirmed its collaboration with Swedish institutions through a series of joint initiatives that enhances academic, research and industrial ties.
NTU and Lund University signed a Memorandum of Understanding to boost research collaboration and inter-university educational opportunities. Both universities will identify new opportunities to collaborate in research areas such as materials science engineering, life sciences and sustainability. Aritificial intelligence (AI) is another major research area, especially within topics such as AI in the field of ageing, generative AI and computer science.
Graduate students from both universities, especially PhD students, will also have more opportunities for exchange programmes.
NTU’s Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and Swedish energy systems firm Anodox inked a research collaboration agreement on two projects to develop innovative and efficient energy storage solutions through cutting-edge immersion cooling technology.
The research collaboration taps on NTU’s expertise in advance power electronics system and Anodox’s specialisation in immersion cooling technique for energy storage systems.
By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and industry expertise, the joint research projects aim to develop more efficient batteries and energy storage solutions contributing to a more sustainable and resilient energy future.
The royal visit brought together industry, academia and government leaders from Singapore and Sweden to examine the impact and opportunities of AI at a panel discussion, a new area in which NTU and Sweden are deepening their research partnership.
The panellists, comprising Mr Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), a North European financial group; Ms Darja Isaksson, Director General of Swedish innovation agency Vinnova; Professor Erik Renström, Vice-Chancellor, Lund University; Dr Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of AI solutions firm and incubator Addo.ai; and Dr Ong Chen Hui, Assistant Chief Executive, BizTech Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), discussed the implications of AI on the future of education, business and the public sector.
Professor Luke Ong, Vice President (AI & Digital Economy) and Dean, College of Computing & Data Science, moderated the discussion.
Professor Bertil Andersson, a Swede, served as NTU President from 2011 to 2017, while Swedish banker and industrialist Mr Marcus Wallenberg received an honorary doctorate from NTU in 2022.
Both participated in the royal visit to NTU, which also included Ms Miriam Söderström, State Secretary to the Minister of Health Care and His Excellency Anders Fredrik Sjöberg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Singapore.
NTU Singapore offers joint PhD programmes with the leading universities of Sweden in several fields. These include biomedical science with Karolinska Institutet, materials and nanoscience engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, and integrated circuit design with Linköping University and electrical and electronic engineering, land and water resources engineering, transport science and building technology with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, among others.
NTU is very involved with several projects on the Wallenberg Autonomous Systems and Software Programme, Sweden's largest individual research initiative. NTU also partnered with Alice and Knut Wallenberg Foundation to start Wallenberg-NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2018. This fellowship supports outstanding young researchers from Singapore and around the world for research at NTU or one of the five Swedish universities participating in the programme.
