Past Projects

Team: Joshua Seetoh Dewei, Ethan Teo Yiteng, Foo Tun Shien, Chu Yao Quan

Microalgae –tiny floating plants that grow in bodies of water – are raised worldwide to provide high-  value nutritional supplements – both consumed whole or the specific nutrients extracted from them.  Globally, the microalgae market is expected to reach US$3.45 billion by 2025. A major challenge in  harvesting microalgae is concentrating the very dilute algae (<0.1% solids) into a paste (30% solids)  for further processing and sale. This “dewatering“ process is energy intensive and can cost US$1,000 or  more per tonne.

Manta has developed a clog-resistant filtration system – based on the manta ray’s feeding gills – that  can perform this dewatering at a very low cost and energy use. Our filter addresses problems faced by  conventional filters, like clogging, and thus ensures high flow-rates at a low operating cost. Manta filter  technology is a breakthrough in the algae harvesting process, and set to become an important part of the production of algae

PI: Antonio Helio Castro Neto

Team: Henrique Guimaraes Rosa, Siderache Andra

FiberTune has developed a tunable visible monolithic fiber laser. Benefiting from  potential and versatility of praseodymium-doped fluoride fibers, we are able to  provide a laser source that is tunable from green to red wavelengths, alignment-  free, stable and compact, making it perfect to fit even in labs with a small working  place. Our product is currently aimed for researchers in materials science and  bioimaging, but it also is a great for several microscopy applications, such as  deep-tissue imaging and medicine. We believe that we can introduce a laser that  is currently missing from the market, that could benefit many customers in  different ways, as well as open possibilities for researchers that did not have  access to such a technology beforehand. With our founders expertise, we are  confident that we can develop this laser and add extra features in future  prototypes to meet even more of the needs in the market.

PI: Asst Prof Soh Siow Ling and Wong Shin Yee

Team: Neriah Tan Yan Jie, Philicia Marvella Trisno, Lim Teng Shuen Ernest, Beatrice Luison

Our non-charging technology prevents electrostatic charge from generating at the source. This  approach does not require surfaces/materials to be conductive and can be made naturally non-  charging. Our current proprietary database of high-performance formulations resist charge against  a wide range of powders and can be customizable to suit specific needs of a wide range of  applications including electronics, powderised food and protein industry. Our materials are  resistant to heat (up to 110ºC), waterproof, food grade and non-toxic.

PI: Assoc Prof Aaron Danner

Team: Cao Yu, Zhong Jingyu

Electro-optic modulators form an integral part of the tele-communications ecosystem. These are  the devices which encode binary information for transmission along fibre optic cables, and are  used every time someone browses a website, makes a telephone call, or watches a show on  Netflix. The speed of the modulators is really important since this influences Internet data rates,  and modulators are a multi-billion dollar industry. The patented barium titanate will disrupt the  traditional role played by lithium niobate in these modulators by increasing the performance up to  50 times. This translates to a smaller form factor for the device size, lower operating voltage and  an order of magnitude higher modulation speed.

PI: Prof Wang Dan Wei

Team: Yufeng Yue, Haoyuan Zhang,  Chunyang Zhao, Jun Zhang, Mingxing Wen, Zhenyu Wu, Guohao Peng

Robot Eagle Eye developed a sensor suite that can be used in AI applications, in enhancing safety in hazardous environment and in areas where digital eye is needed. The system consists of multiple hardware sensors plus firmware/software, all on one platform. It can operate independently or as a subsystem. The product scans the environment, then transforms, calculates and interprets these information for decision-making. These are done in real time and without human intervention. Examples of typical jobs of this are object identification, 3D location, motion tracking, video analytics, collision avoidance etc. The system is currently ahead of competition by integrating multiple sensors with proprietary firmware/software which results in higher performance and accuracy. The team is ready to test their prototype at potential customers in the airport operations segment where safety is a key concern.

PI: Assoc Prof Dino Accoto

Team: Raghavendra Kulkarni Suhas, Li Yuhua, Seshadri Tanush, Lee Yee Sien, Tan Ting Hao

Robots have been making inroads in almost every aspect of many industries. But they have not been able to replicate the complexity, articulation and fluidity of human movements. This has limited their application in several areas and one such application is in footwear testing. To alleviate this, we present ASTRobot, a unique, articulated foot robot to conduct footwear testing. Manufacturers who have traditionally relied on human testers to validate their footwear for long-term performance, can now deploy ASTRobot and decrease the testing cycle time drastically! With our unique system and software, the footwear manufacturers now have access to data during these long-term tests that was previously absent. With such information, ASTRobot can empower the footwear manufacturers and open up paths to better business decisions. The realism of human footwear testers is married to the high operational efficiency of a robot in ASTRobot

PI: Assoc Prof Alessandro Romagnoli

Team: Antoni Gil Pujol, Eleonora Massaccesi, Baihaqie Bin Abdul Rahman, Keshav Peri, Anurag Mukherjee

During long periods of intense training and heat exposure, balancing and regulating the thermal state of the body is a significant challenge which is not solved to date. Scientific studies show that, core body temperature is effectively controlled when water with a temperature between 9-15 °C is consumed. The CoolBottle radically changes the way athletes have access to cold water. It relies on a new concept of cold thermal battery, “The Ice Nest technology”, which cools water down to the right temperature, anywhere and anytime without the need for electricity. It is a self-enclosed, lightweight, durable and portable unit that can connect to a traditional sport water bottle. It comes with no moving parts, weighs less than an apple and can remain cold for several hours thanks to an innovative design which makes it impermeable to heat. Our survey showed that two-thirds of athletes involved in endurance training purchase at least one bottle of cold water per session. This consumption contributes to millions of plastic bottles being disposed of every year. The CoolBottle will be an enabling solution to a sustainable world. CoolBottle. Cold Water, Anytime, Anywhere.

PI: Assoc Prof Alessandro Romagnoli

Team: Fadhel Ayachi, Jerry Chan, Bakytzhan Akhmetov, Lizhong Yang, Lee Chern Peng, Tan De Qing

Developed at NTU’s world leading Cold Energy Capture and Storage Facility, ColdBox uses advanced phase change materials and innovative mechanical design to store cold at lower temperatures than any other method. ColdBox can be used to harvest cold energy from the regasification of LNG or any other cryogenic liquid and deliver it into standard refrigeration systems, displacing electricity and saving cost. It can also be used to optimise the operation of refrigeration systems by enabling continuous operation at off-peak tariffs, storing the cold energy for peak loads, daytime loads, and special operations. ColdBox is easily scalable and can address the needs of various customers from small food chilling operations to large district cooling schemes. It can be configured in standard shipping containers to enable cold to be transported and it can be customised for special applications such as cooling of bus passengers. Considering the size and diversity of the global cooling market, ColdBox can be a significant component in the global cold economy.

PI: Asst Prof Mohamed Mostafa Sabry Aly

Team: Chong Kian Chee, Goh Puay Hiang, Myo Min Min Piang, Ahmed Zaky

Embedded A.I. Systems (eMASs) enables complex A.I. applications to run on battery-operated edge platforms, without degrading battery lifetime. This is enabled through innovations across the entire stack—from algorithms to nanoscale devices, by capitalising on >10 years of combined experience of our team. In particular, our algorithmic solution compresses A.I. models down to 2-bits, without degrading the application performance. Our hardware provides on-the-fly energy-efficient decompression units, a highly energy-efficient hardware accelerator dedicated for A.I. applications and high-density on-chip low-voltage and high-speed memory to accommodate large A.I. models. We integrate aggressive power management modules to further reduce the power consumption. The combined benefits can reach an order of magnitude, which is greater than the sum of each components separately. As a result, eMASs platforms can run the highly complicated deep learning workloads on battery operated systems, such as health tracking wearables, IoT sensor nodes, activity trackers and many more.

PI: Asst Prof Grzegorz Lisak

Team: Andrei Veksha, Santosh Pathak, Stephanie Wong Lok To, Wu Xinyi, Muhammad Zahin bin Mohamed Amrad, Niam Zhi En Paul

Our team developed a process increasing the profit margin of plastics recycling through the synthesis of high-value carbon nanotubes. At pyrolysis plants used for chemical plastics recycling, waste is first decomposed at high temperature, resulting in carbon black, oil and industrial gases being emitted. To produce carbon nanotubes, a reactor containing a catalyst is connected to the pyrolysis unit. The catalyst converts industrial gases into carbon nanotubes and combustible hydrogen-rich fuel. Carbon nanotubes are high-performance additives that significantly improve properties of various materials. For instance, they can be used to manufacture light-weight and mechanically-strong plastics, powerful batteries and smart textiles. The advantage of producing carbon nanotubes on top of conventional pyrolysis products is the high price of carbon nanotubes, increasing economic benefits of plastic-waste treatment. Furthermore, the process allows to convert industrial gases into solid carbon, thus, reducing carbon emissions.

PI: Ada Wang Huijuan

Team: Kelvin Zhuang Cunkai, Sanskar Deepak

Telemedicine has evolved from a novel concept to a booming business model with a global market size at 32.3 billion (USD, 2019) and a projection of 185.6 billion (USD, 2027). The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerates this trend, after the social distancing measures, individual safety concerns and the embracing of online medical consultation and diagnosis. Tele dermatology, as the most popular application of telemedicine, relies on the exchange of high quality medical information including images, videos etc. Thus, Team Bellesomics launched a smart DermZoom – a magnifying lens (25x), customised application (iOS & Android) and content-management system. This end-to-end solution enables HD magnified images collected for remote consultation; it also works as an intelligent assistant for dermatologists to provide professional feedback, e-triage, and standardised monitoring. LLP has been an inspiring journey for the team to validate, pivot, iterate and finally reach the right beachhead to further expand to mainstream market. To know Team Bellesomics and its efforts on personalised skincare, please visit www.bellesomics.com for more information.

PI: Assoc Prof Aravind Dasari

Team: Sheik Mohamed Anees, Swaroop Narayanan, Tan Chao Hui Serena, Tan Chun Ye, Chen Qing An

Timber has seen rising demand in recent years due to its contribution to reducing carbon footprint, among others. It is used in varied applications such as decking, cladding, furniture and increasingly, urban buildings. However, timber is very flammable. Hence, improving fire retardance of timber is critical to prevent life and economic losses. When timber ignites, a high amount of heat is released coupled with rapid flame spread. FYBER, our transparent fire-retardant coating for timber, is able to reduce the heat released and prevent flame spread. It is capable of obtaining Class 0 in the BS 476 part 6&7 Flame Spread Test. This is achieved by the intumescence concept whereby our novel combination of ingredients is able to accelerate charring as well as cause rapid expansion of the charred layer to more than 40 times of the coating thickness and therefore protect the underlying timber from pyrolysis. Furthermore, crucially, the transparency of our coating ensures that timber’s beauty is not compromised.

PI: Asst Prof Martial Duchamp

Team: Aaron David Mueller, Iyer Venkataraman Natarajan, Shubh Sethi, Edwin Julianto

Adaptive Optics (AO) is a set of technologies used to improve the imaging performance of optical systems by programmatically altering the phase to correct wave front distortions due to, for example, atmospheric conditions in the case of astronomical telescopes or lens aberrations in the case of retinal imaging. AO is a relatively mature technology, yet, despite the long list of analogous concepts between light optics and electron optics, a commercially available programmable phase plate for electron waves in transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) is still lacking. Such a programmable phase plate, AdaptiveTEM’s CONTRAST MEMS chip, can serve many purposes in an electron microscope, including as a more robust alternative to existing fixed phase plates for increasing contrast. Using the same platform, AdaptiveTEM’s INTENSE MEMS chip puts STEM probe aberration correction within reach for those with uncorrected TEMs, at a fraction of the cost.

PI: Prof Wang Dan Wei

Team: Ehsan Mihankhah, Dogan Kircali, Yang Huan, Prithviraj Ray, Teo Wei Min Patrick, Mohammed Adnan Azam

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an optical sensor for distance measurement, which is the indispensable sensor in the visual perception system of autonomous mobile robots and driverless ground and aerial vehicles. The existing commercial LiDARs have a limited Field of View (FoV). This shortcoming makes a single unit of these LiDARs incapable to see the entire immediate space around the robot or vehicle. A multiple-LiDAR set-up, for complete coverage, is costly (even costlier than the vehicle in many cases), and it is visually unpleasant. For the case of drones, of which 3D collision avoidance is their most basic and critical functionality, the limited space and onboard resources, and the complex geometry of the machine, makes it impossible to use the existing sensors for omnidirectional collision avoidance. Our patented distributed LiDAR technology incorporates optical fibers to deliver light to the desired spots over the surface of the vehicle, and therefore it enables omnidirectional vision. Besides distance, the sensor can sense the colour and the temperature.

PI: Prof Lin Weisi

Team: Chen Zhuo, R Gandharuban, Bryan Lim Yuqiang, Jerald Low

IRIS seeks to revolutionise the data transmission paradigm. Data communication in cloud-based visual analysis application at present is largely based on visual signals or ultimate features. Transmitting visual signals will lead to heavy computational burden on the cloud server end. On the other hand, transmitting ultimate features will allow companies to shift the computing load to edge devices but limits the range of features and insights that the organisation can extract. IRIS’s data transmission paradigm enhances traditional means of data transmission by allowing the transmission of intermediate deep learning features which can be generalised to a wide range of visual analysis tasks, thus allowing operations to save up to 99% computing load for cloud operations while maintaining a higher level of data security layer. During LLP journey, IRIS validated the value propositions and established the business model. They have also found several beachhead customers to start their business.

PI: Assoc Prof Ling Xing Yi

Team: Phang In Yee, Phan Quang Gia Chuong, Lee Hiang Kwee, Liu Wanrui

SenSERS develops sensitive, on-site molecular sensing solutions to rapidly identify and quantify contamination in industrial processes and products. This is made possible via an in-house plasmonic chip built using our uniquely-crafted silver nanocube to yield cutting-edge Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) performance. Our SERS chip comes with strong SERS-active areas to boost molecular Raman signal by at least 100 million times, significantly reducing the detection time and amount of sample required for an analysis. Our SenSERS chip exhibits excellent consistency within and among different plasmonic chips, a key attribute to accurately and reproducibly retrieve molecular vibrational fingerprints down to ultratrace ppb concentrations. Our SERS technology has utmost relevance and importance to food suppliers, manufacturers and outlets, providing them with an on-site and immediate screening method at high detection accuracy. These benefits greatly reduce turn-around time for quality control as compared to current lab-based analytical protocol.

Team: Hset Min Htet, Nyam Zheng You Charleston, Cho Yao Rong

Community is at the heart of what Socius does. Adult loneliness is a pervasive problem around the world, which has been only been exacerbated by the new norm of social distancing during the COVID-19 period. These challenging times made us realise the importance of genuine human connection. This is especially prevalent amongst young millennial professionals who are choosing a global career that takes them all around the world. Socius wants to create a global co-living community where you can feel right at home no matter where you are in the world. We not only provide full-service, hassle-free rooms in our beautiful co-living spaces, but also a community of international people you can be a part of. We leverage on technology to provide a consistent and quality Socius experience in all of our co-living spaces, including digital tenancy management, a member screening & matching process and a community rewards point system integrated in our one-stop mobile app. We harness technology to enhance the human experience. At Socius, you don’t just stay. You live.

PI: Assoc Prof Dong Zhili

Team: Li Yuanzhe, Lim Hong Hee Rachel, Tan Hui Min

OMG (Omni Multi-Goal) offers customised protective coating as well as coating-consultancy services for our customers. This is a unique and innovative anti-biofouling spray coating, which uses nano-scale biocide-free, antibacterial and photocatalytic agents to construct regular surface texture based on OMG’s patented polymer technology. The latest development of OMG coating creates an entirely new suite of product features with outstanding drag-resistance reduction, adjustable curing time, self-polishing effect, hydrophobic wettability, and enhanced mechanical performance (tensile & compression), flexibility, anti-fatigue, etc. It develops strong adhesion on commonly used materials, e.g. metal, (including titanium), plastic, wood, and concrete. It has good thermal stability, capable of long-term use under 120 ℃, and can withstand short-term thermal shock. This newly fabricated coating can effectively prevent the proliferation of fouling on the coated surface. There is no toxins-release from the coating itself even after long-time exposure which makes it eco-friendly. These physicochemical features provide niche opportunities for applications in construction, protection of industrial facilities, and marine structure. Moving ahead, we are looking for field tests and third-party product evaluations to bring the product to market.

Principal Investigator: Prof Guo Yong Xin
Member Members: Wang Cong, Wang Yumiao, Li Zhaohao

3D-Waves focuses on providing reliable, durable, and affordable Luneburg Lens products for various communication applications.
With patented lens technology, our product possesses superior antenna performances in terms of high gain (>20 dBi), broad bandwidth (X-/Ku-/Ka-band), wide scanning range (180°), and flexible polarisation matching ability (Linear/Circular-polarisation).
Compared to existing products, 3D-Waves’ antenna stands out with its unique advantages of being insensitive to feeding angles, robust against external forces and its low cost. All these merits enable communication devices to provide more stable and long-lasting service in various electrical and working environments.
Based on the electrical and economical strengths, our product is a promising candidate in 5G communication (base station antennas), automotive vehicles (radar sensor antennas), and WiFi & Indoor connectivity (WiGig). With 3D-Waves, our customers are able to access to the best multi-beam antenna technology with low cost.

Principal Investigators: Assoc Prof Yuen Chau, EPD & Dr Lim Hock Beng
Team Members: Vishal Choudhary, Anna Toh, Eileen Goh

Urban air pollution is a major problem in many cities globally. Prolonged exposure to particulate matter in the air is harmful to health. Government agencies and industries use expensive EPA-rated Air Quality Monitoring Systems with specialised and expensive instruments. However, the air quality data provided by agencies is based on delayed averages and is region-based. Thus, a cost-effective solution to provide accurate, real-time, and location-specific air quality data will address a significant gap worldwide.
The AirQ platform is an innovative and cost-effective solution for air quality and environmental monitoring. The AirQ device is portable, low-cost, and provides real-time and location-specific air quality data. It supports modern wireless data communication technologies including WiFi, 4G, Bluetooth, and LoRa. The real-time air quality data and alerts are provided via the AirQ Dashboard and Smartphone App. The AirQ solution can be used for schools and childcare centres, facilities management, clean rooms, and many other use cases.

Founder: Alexander Lim
Team Members: Chan Kim Koon, Fukai Juzo, Siow Eng Kian, Unni Navneet

Learnified aims to revolutionise the online tuition industry in Singapore by incorporating AI sensing technology into its platform. The cutting edge technology of AI will be used to determine students’ attentiveness and concentration levels in an online tuition class. Learnified will then provide meaningful feedback and recommendations backed by quantitative data and professional advice to the tutors and parents of the students.
The tutors benefit by studying the recommendations and implementing better engagement techniques with their students. This will further enable them to improve their rankings among the student and parent community, thereby increasing their earning potential.
The parents will know in real-time and with the data/recommendations provided after a tuition class, about their children’s focus level in the tuition class. Subsequently, parents will also be able to use the recommendations provided by our team of experts, which will potentially increase their children’s academic performance.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Slaven Garaj
Team Member: Dr Massimo Spina

Recognised since the 1950s, salinity gradient power is a major untapped source of energy arising from mixing salt water with fresh water. It has the potential to meet 10% of global energy needs with the benefit of zero-emissions and 24hrs/day reliability. The core of the technology is a membrane which translates any salinity gradient directly into electrical energy through a process called reverse electrodialysis. However it is not economically viable with currently available polymer-based membranes.
Our solution is a proprietary graphene-based membrane with far superior performance characteristics enabling higher W/sqm, and thus much lower membrane areas than current polymer-based solutions, enabling systems which require less space, with lower cost and easier maintenance. Blue Energy Harvester (B.E.H.) membrane technology can make salinity gradient power economically viable and price-competitive with more established renewable energy technologies like wind, but with the reliability of fossil fuel plants.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Karina, Gin Yew-Hoong
Team Members: Dr Te Shu Harn, Dr Kok Wai Kit Jerome, Li Han

Globally, aquaculture fish farms are an important source of food. However, pollution and climate change have increased bacterial infection and red tide events, leading to massive and sudden fish-kill events. Early warning systems can reduce such losses, but existing methods are either too slow or too cumbersome to implement.
Our solution automates the analysis and interpretation of results within a single, enclosed device. This approach reduces contamination while ensuring high sensitivity, accuracy, and repeatability of results. This DNA-based portable device can simultaneously detect different microbial species, providing convenient and real-time detection capability without the need for a laboratory set-up or for laboratory-trained personnel.
Our technology can be used in two ways:
(1) Detection of bacterial infection allows for swift removal of affected fish, preventing the spread of diseases
(2) Detection of toxic, bloom-forming species allows for early warning systems that increase the time of response, and greatly reduce fish losses.

Principal Investigator: Prof Brian G McAdoo
Team Members: Tom White, Andrew Kwan, Abhaya Gauchan

VR4DR combines user-generated VR/360/AV content with dynamic 3D maps to create immersive and interactive Virtual Reality World that can be explored and interrogated using a game engine interface.
As the use of drones, 360 degree photography and VR become increasingly accessible, content creators will be able to liberate their material from their phones and generic social media platforms. The VR4DR platform allows users to create immersive digital stories in a VR environment with computer enhanced 3D models accessible from any computer, mobile device or VR headset connected to the Internet. Interactive exploration of the VR World generates empathetic connections between content creators and audiences who will then make an emotional investment in the material.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Chew Chee Meng
Team Members: Dr Tan Yan Zhi, Rayner Tan Renyi

ReachBots aims to mitigate human deaths, risks and errors whilst improving work safety and productivity by providing a specialised robotic solution designed for hazardous confined-space operations.
Our wireless magnetic crawler is modular, compact in size, and able to have a gross weight of up to 20kg. Unlike conventional means where workers have to constantly deploy and re-deploy current commercially available robots on the target surface for operations; our unique patent-pending wheel system enables the crawler to transit seamlessly between horizontal, vertical and overhead ferromagnetic surfaces. This reduces the worker’s exposure to hazards in these areas, as they are now able to control the crawler from a safe location. At present, the crawler can only perform visual inspection. However, different devices can be mounted on depending on the desired application. Potential applications include cleaning of air-con (ACMV) and kitchen exhaust air-duct (KEAD), in-hull inspection for ships, storage tank inspection, etc.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Chen Po-Yen
Team Members: Wang Lijiao and Dr Shifali Chatrath

Protection against hazards, such as chemicals and fire, is essential in many industries and occupations. Classical protective clothing often relies on thick, heavy barrier layers that are not stretchable and offer little comfort. This can lead to severe limitations because of low flexibility and discomfort. In addition, some fire resistant materials are being banned or restricted as they can give off toxic fumes if they do degrade.
Pompeii Worm has created the next-generation protective barriers using two-dimensional (2D) materials. The products are ultrathin, ultralight, and possess high stretch-ability, while offering effective chemical and fire protection.
Pompeii Worm has two products. One is a stretchable chemical barrier based on graphene oxide. It protects against a wide spectrum of chemicals. The other is a stretchable nanoclay-based fire barrier, effective even above 1000 °C. Manufacturing these materials is highly scalable and cost-competitive to enable ease of incorporation into widely used protective gloves, clothing and coverings.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Jose C.V. Gomes
Team Members: Giulio Baldi and Philip Lim

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful imaging tool which can provide detailed and accurate data about materials crystallinity, purity and defects concentration. Currently available imaging systems make use mostly of two acquisition techniques: point-scan and line-scan. Although very precise, these techniques are incredibly time consuming. With our technology we aim to substantially decrease the time needed to carry out Raman measurements, hence creating a lot of opportunities for the use of Raman spectroscopy in industry applications.
Our technology (integrated in a microscope) makes use instead of wide-field imaging to gather full images of samples at different frequency intervals. This allows for the acquisition of only necessary information, thus saving time and resources. Our proposed value stands in the fact that for the same price tag of laboratory oriented Raman systems (350k SGD for a Witec Alpha 300R), we can provide an instrument as precise with the addition of scalability in speed up to 250 times faster, depending on the material under analysis.

Principal Investigator: Dr You Fang
Team Members: Dr Gu Xiaoqiong, Kong Xiaolu, Dr Yang Yi

SinGENE focuses on providing an automatic & machine-learning assisted bioinformatics analysis service to meet the high demands from customers who have limited resources to understand their next-generation sequencing (NGS) data.
With recent advancement, NGS raw data production is no longer constrained; instead, the huge challenge has transformed into translating the genetic codes and interpreting their biological meaning (Bioinformatics). SinGENE aims to enter this rapidly advancing field with special focus on the microbiome bioinformatics analysis, which is relatively restricted and undeveloped. With our newly developed analysis platform, in which different software tools are integrated into module-based frameworks and analysis can run automatically, our analysis time can be shortened to 1/3 of the current labour-based analysis approach. Furthermore, as machine-learning is incorporated, together with our 5-years accumulated microbiome database, the SinGENE platform provides high quality results. Customers can benefit from faster and better bioinformatics analysis service from the SinGENE platform.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Ang Kah Wee
Team Members: Dr Tan Wee Chong, Lee Youngkun, Nisim Shushan

Typically, the targeted selectivity of a conventional chemical sensor is functionalized into the device to be exclusive. Thus most of them can only be applied to measure a single type of gas or volatile organic compound (VOC). In large-scale sensing application for multiple types of gases, an integrated system with several conventional sensor units will suffer from space constraint and high power consumption issues. Maintenance cost will also be high as each unit would have a different calibration or lifetime.
In contrast, our sensor applies a material that is highly sensitive to light and a broad variety of gases and VOCs. Selectivity is functionalized through respective AI models developed by exhaustive machine-learning in real environment settings. By having software control over the selectivity of our sensor, new sensing capabilities can be added on demand in real-time without any change in the physical hardware, which is not currently available in a conventional sensor.

Principal Investigator: Dr Donny Lai
Team Members: Alexis A.C. Lacabane and Deeraj N. Nankani

Solar photovoltaics (PV) is a fast growing market with CAGR of 24%. In 2018, the total revenue from sales of solar cells, based on the global PV installation of 105 GW, is estimated to be USD 19 billion.
Currently, there is a global mega-trend to convert from standard BSF cell technology to the more advanced PERC cell technology (>10% relative efficiency gain), driven by both economics and geopolitical regulations. Many of the top ten PV cell manufacturers are in transition to upgrade to PERC technology which requires two expensive tools added to each BSF cell production line. However, many medium-sized BSF cell manufacturers also need to upgrade or risk falling behind the market.
Our Lean PERC Process, using a proprietary consumable, offers a cost-effective approach for these BSF cell manufacturers to upgrade to higher efficiency PERC cell technology without acquiring expensive laser tools, thereby reducing the overall capital cost and cost of production a simplified process flow.

Principal Investigator: Dr Rogerio Salloum
Team Members: Jackie Yin Ziqi and Yi Yanling

Vibrations in modern structures such as aircraft, robots and industrial machinery, constitute a real problem that can cause undesirable noise, diminished precision and even catastrophic failures. To reduce these harmful effects, passive absorbing materials are extensively used, but can no longer follow tight technical requirements and the increasing living standards of modern society. Unlike current technology, our Smart Vibration Absorber combines vibration technology, smart materials and integrated adaptive electronics that can be used to reduce vibrations within machines or mobile structures by resonance suppression and damping. It is based on solid-state electronic materials that replace the commonly used rubbers or fluid systems, which have a short lifespan and high maintenance costs. In this way, a high vibration damping can be achieved in any frequency band and an automatic adjustment guarantees optimal performance at all times. Our goal is to contribute to the Industry 4.0 with highly precise, efficient and durable products, and with spaces with less disturbing noises.

Team: Han Phay

Lumin(ai)re is an advertising technology start-up incorporated in Singapore in August 2018. Using an AI-driven genetic algorithm, we identify creative taste of consumers both locally and regionally to increase online ad engagement with consumers, leading to higher ROI for businesses and brands. Since November 2018, we have partnered with A*STAR Singapore, I2R in developing next-gen capabilities for vision computing. We have also been shortlisted for the Echelon100 at the Echelon Asia Summit 2019, won the of the Vikingcubator 2019 pitch competition and been named an Honouree in the Brands for Good 2019 under the Community – Empowering Local Markets category. The Lean Launchpad programme has helped up identify a few key learnings such as refining our target audience within the B2B sector, establishing a better business model through pricing threshold and having a deeper understanding of our customers via face-to-face interviews. Moving forward, we hope to bring these learnings with us in our next stage of growth as we raise our seed round and gear up for regional expansion.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Justin Dauwels
Team: Ishaan Gupta, Dr Ravula Sugunakar Reddy

Vigti is the world’s first proprietary wide area monitoring system for the gas distribution pipeline network for identification, classification and localisation of anomalies such as leaks, bursts, water ingress. Vigti’s advanced underground pipeline monitoring capabilities is achieved by integrating data from a variety of sensors and delivering unified analytics to swiftly respond in case of anomalies through a complex AI-based algorithm thus saving time, money and preventing loss of life. During LLP, we learned many things which will be greatly helpful for us including revising BMC and VPC thoroughly, improving our technology presentation and calculating realistic TAM, SAM & SOM markets sizes. We identified various stake holders in the value chain, arrived at a suitable revenue model with thorough understanding on the benefits to various stake holders and incorporated the different perspectives like Insurance providers and regulatory bodies. Now we have identified our beach head.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Hirotaka Sato
Team: Zhan Jing, Chong Jian Rong, Wan Wei Yang

Our team invented a wet-treatment process that activates the entire surface of non-conductive substrate, which significantly reduces the cost of palladium usage in the catalyzation process by up to 90%. At the same time, the surface finish of end product is highly comparable to that of the industrial standard which uses 98% more palladium catalyst. Prior to the start of the 10-weeks LLP programme, our BMC remained in the early phase of hypothesis validation. As we went through the course of programme, interviews with quantitative and qualitative validation of our hypothesis pinpointed us in the direction of clearly identifying the beach head market for our invention. As our BMC and VPC became more refined, our perception of the market size also became crystal clear in a way of adopting our business model and framework to align closely with industrial standards, while ensuring the source of palladium catalyst remains environmentally viable.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Zhou Yan
Team: Zhao Yan, Steven Chua, Dr Geng Yikun, Dr Pramodh Vallam, Dr Santosh Pathak

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been widely accepted as an advanced wastewater treatment technology to meet stringent discharge standards. The global market growth rate is reported to be at 14.7% equating to $1.9 billion currently.
However, membrane fouling, which is a combination of pore blocking and biofilm-growing on the membrane surface has almost 60% of MBR operating cost that is directly related to biofouling. To overcome these issues, we propose a novel QQ microbial immobilisation strategy, which utilises powdered activated carbon for sludge modification and incorporates PAC with the QQ bacteria in alginate-PAC-QQ (APQ beads), for enhanced biofouling control. With the introduction, we can inhibit the formation of biofouling and minimize the OPEX up to 75%. After going through the LLP journey with interaction of different stakeholders from the market, we validated the pain points of customer and identified the potential sweet spot for our technology. We also developed the concept of APQ v2, which is a pivotal approach in commercialising this technology.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Chng Eng Siong
Team: Dr Xu Haihua, Lim Zhi Hao, Vu Thi Ly, Kyaw Zin Tun

Modeling long natural conversations is now possible with the advancement of deep learning. Modern challenges presented by mic type, room acoustics, mic-distance-to-mouth or domain lingo and an all-for-one speech engine remain out of reach. A speech engine tuned for telephones may fail when used in meeting recordings. In order to achieve high levels of accuracy in the industry, customisation is still key. Firstly, using our custom Singlish database, we have developed a speech recognition engine that is truly for Singaporeans. The localised speech engine consists of Singaporean slang, street names and lingo. Everything from a local chatbot to voice-based virtual assistant needs. Secondly, by leveraging on speech research and engineering expertise developed over the years, AI SpeechLab aims to streamline the previous cumbersome customisation process into a painless procedure. This quick and effortless customisation process means the SpeechLab can tap into the $400 million market of English speaking APAC population more efficiently.

Principal Investigator: Prof Lee Pooi See
Team Members: Halevi Oded, Zhou Xinran, Tan Wei Ming Alvin

Transparent conductors (TCs) have become an integral part of the technology market, integrated within smartphones and all touchscreen appliances. Furthermore, many emerging technologies, such as smart windows and transparent solar cells, require TCs to maintain their optoelectronic features. Currently, the common TC is Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), which has several disadvantages such as toxicity, brittleness and high fabrication temperatures. As the electronic market moves towards flexible and deformable components, these limitations withhold the ITO utilisation and require alternative materials that will enable device flexibility. Our technology focuses on a scalable, low-cost fabrication process of a transparent, flexible and waterproof conductor, based on silver nanowires. The deposition process is done at relatively low temperatures, which enables the use of a variety of polymers as substrates, and the conductive grid can be incorporated on flexible and stretchable materials. This technology will provide a solution in cases which require features not available by ITO, and push forward the deformable optoelectronic market.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Ng Kee Woei
Team Members: Chong Jun Jie, Dr Lim Meng Keong, Dr Mustafa, Dr Catarina, Tan Shao Jie

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) are widely used to strengthen structural elements such as columns, beams and walls. Besides conventional loading, FRPs are also used to strengthen structures against extreme loadings including blast loadings from explosions. Although effective and simple, the conventional application process of FRPs, however, is tedious, labour intensive and skill sensitive. FasRaP is a pre-fabricated, semi-cured FRP system which can be readily applied on-site without the need for additional mechanical fasteners. Analogous to the ‘double-sided’ tape, the novelty of FasRaP lies in having sticky FRP rolls that can be applied immediately on-site onto the structure to be reinforced. There is no need to apply any resin separately and thus this approach is not dependent on the experience and skill of the workers to achieve consistent finishing. This concept therefore promises an easy-to-apply FRP that will revolutionise FRP applications by eliminating the need for equipment and improving productivity.

Principal Investigator: Prof Shen Zexiang
Team Members: Frances Cai and Frank Peltner

We have developed a method to produce graphene materials with good consistency and high quality in kilogram/batch level. We aim to discover the commercial applications of various graphene materials and graphene-based composite materials in our group.
We have a focus on electric vehicles and energy storage applications with our expertise on graphene-based electrode materials developed by our group, which has already been verified by the world-leading super capacitor manufacturer Elbit Systems. Other applications will also be explored.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Aaron Danner
Team Members: Goh Chong Swee, Kuan Jun Ren, Mai Pham, Yeo Jun Han

Solar VTOL’s aim is to increase productivity and utility of drones by increasing their flight time. Current drones are limited by their flight time, which require the hassle of returning to a designated location for battery recharge. With solar VTOL’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing capability, the drone can provide additional capabilities for its customer with minimal manpower required. In a disaster relief scenario, our drone can be deployed within short notice to supply power to disaster zones facing power shortage due to damaged electrical infrastructure, for powering communication devices and various mission-critical equipment to improve life-saving and rescue efforts.

Principal Investigator: Prof Wang Chi Hwa
Team Members: Yao Zhiyi, Babu Cadiam Mohan, Alvin Salim

Our goal is to convert carbon waste to greener and valuable commercial products. Currently, industrial wastes are typically combusted at incineration plants and the resulting ashes sent to landfill. This practice raises issues such as potential toxicity to the environment, as well as the loss of valuable metals left in the waste. Therefore, from both economic and environmental standpoints, it is becoming increasingly important for the recovery of valuable metals from industrial waste and converts them to valuable products. In this project, we have developed an eco-friendly technology to extract vanadium and carbon based nano materials from oil refineries. The obtained nano-materials are to be used in massive scale production of products such as paints, tyres, and fire-retardant coatings.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Antonio H. Castro Neto
Team Members: Gavin Koon, Tan Jun You, Efthymios Vasileiou

2DMag has set a goal to become the one-stop shop for any type of magnetic sensing requirements by building a unique 2D material magnetic sensor. Currently, the magnetic sensor market is divided into smaller segments based on different technologies, each with its own performance advantages and constraints. However, demand for magnetic sensors is forecasted to grow strongly driven by the growing needs of the automotive and industrials usage. 2DMag used 2D layers of graphene to construct a 2D sensor with customizable dimensions, hundredfold sensitivity than existing sensors and an ultra-wide dynamic range to cover from low magnetic fields (0.1 mT) to very high ones (>10T).

Principal Investigators: Lu Zhenbo and Asst Prof Lau Gih Keong
Team Members: Chris Wong, Manuel Cigala, Shrestha Milan

AIsolux clear membrane screens create a quiet environment in urban cityscapes with its proprietary noise insulator/absorber and smart window system. Ideal for offices, meeting spaces, shopping malls, homes, and transportation centers. Our combined experience in research exceeds 15 years in acoustic metamaterials and smart window system designs. Within a 40mm array, AIsolux flexible metamaterial screen covers frequency ranging from 600Hz to 1000Hz, and it is further tuned by up to 50% to mitigate the lower frequency range. Together with the smart window feature, an electrical adjustment will ensure an opacity from 2% to 80% for protecting visual privacy. Easily installed, AIsolux is washable, UV resistant, and multi-functional to block sound and vision on demand.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, Dr. Chan Woei Leong
Team Members: Siddharth Sunil Jadhav, Lew Wan Peng

Inspired by the richness of nature flyers, HummingB is a palm-size tailless flapping wing drone, with its flapping wings for both propulsion and maneuvers. It exploits the benefits of unsteady aerodynamics unlike the conventional fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones. With its precise control, HummingB can agilely move in three axes of motion and hover in mid-air. It promises to be a one-of-its-kind tool in several applications; be it sparkling the creativity of enthusiasts, coaching younger minds about the nature-inspired aerial robotics and bio-inspiration, or automation in indoor agriculture.

Principal Investigator: Prof Joseph Chang
Team Members: Shu Wei, Juanda

The objective of ZES is to disrupt the high-reliability electronics industry – specifically, in hardware electronics and services in three domains:
(i) Space/Aerospace (Satellites, aircrafts, etc.),
(ii) High-Level Autonomous Vehicles (Levels 4/5), and
(iii) Commercially-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)-Electronics.

ZES has unambiguously identified six products (hardware and services) where there is real need and demand, and that are unmet/unavailable. The chronological order of ZES’s business is (i) → (ii) → (iii). ZES’s Vision is: ‘To be embedded in every Satellite and in every Autonomous Vehicle’. ZES’s Mission is: ‘Providing Strategic and Disruptive Hardware and Services for Space and Autonomous Vehicles’.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof Mohan Rajesh Elara
Team Members: Karthikeyan Elangovan, Nishaan Brahmananthan

Cebreo is a highly interactive app-enabled self-transformable spider-like smart toy capable of crawling and rolling. Unlike the conventional smart toys which are highly interactive or transformable with one type of locomotion, the goal of this team is to introduce a series of revolutionary highly interactive intelligent self-reconfigurable toys into the multi-billion dollar entertainment toy industry demonstrating multiple locomotion capabilities using its transformable nature. The team has planned to eventually release an educational version of the robot as well in the future to cater to the needs of the students due to the overwhelming response they have received so far from educational institutions.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Foong Shaohui
Team Members: Chua Tze Chong, Nguyen The Hung Stanley

Mapex is the future of drone combat and holographic light shows. It is a monocopter, which is a rotorcraft that uses a single rotating blade inspired by falling maple seeds. The control of Mapex is achieved by moving the servo controlled aileron periodically, causing it to tilt and subsequently move in the desired direction. With a LED strip attached to Mapex, its fast spinning rate creates a persistence of vision effect and a full circular image is generated to the human eye. Mapex is intended for the toy market, where we want to popularize and simplify battling drones for the masses.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Luo Sha
Team Members: Ng Zhen Ning, Yohanes Evangelista Yudhistira, Celeste Zeng, Lum Yi Chyi, Wilson Khoo

NuSpace’s goal is to provide a platform with affordable connectivity for IoT devices to transmit data back to its users from anywhere on Earth. This will be achieved with a constellation of nanosatellites providing global coverage. Leveraging on the team’s experience in designing, building and launching nanosatellites, NuSpace plans to transit this expertise into commercial applications starting with the IoT platform. By using nanosatellites, NuSpace can offer a solution at a fraction of existing costs without compromising on performance. By collaborating with data analysts, NuSpace will also offer insights based on the data that goes through the platform.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Neal Chung Tai-Shung,
Team Members: Cheng Zhenlei, Zhang Yu, Gao Jie, Susilo Japip, Hua Dan

We have developed nanofiltration hollow fiber membranes fabricated from a novel one-step co-extrusion process called I2PS. This I2PS membrane features an integrally formed protective skin to maintain the overall water purification efficiency during long term operations. It excels in the low pressure water filtration system, resulting in a reduced energy consumption compared with the high energy requirement in reverse osmosis (RO) systems.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof. Tong Yen Wah
Team Members: Dr. Tan Jun Rong, Dr. Arunmozhiarasi Armugam

The team Aquaporin is the first team to produce aquaporin Z (AQPz) protein, a transmembrane water channel, in Singapore and has developed the technology to produce the protein on large scale for commercial and industrial applications. AQPz embedded biomimetic membranes have been proven to be ideal for desalination, water purification and waste water treatment, food, beverage & dairy industries and pharmaceutical/ cosmetic industries, thus providing a platform for multiple markets utilising membranes of various sizes.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof. Adrian Wing Keung Law
Team Members: Dawn Pang, Tang Di, Dr. Li Tian

iRO is a compact and energy efficient module design including an internal energy recovery system for application of small scale seawater desalination with a capacity of around 100 m3/d. The most important advantage of iRO is its ability to reduce > 50% of energy consumption in small scale seawater desalination where energy recovery system is usually not installed. Applications so far investigated, range from remote island desalination, livestock vessels and cruise ships.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof. Tan Zhi Kuang
Team Members: Dr. Wong Ying-Chieh, Ng Jun De Andrew

Keeping up with the growing adoption of ultra-wide colour gamut Quantum Dot (QD) Enhanced Displays, our Perovskite Colour Enhancement Technology offers a propriety, cadmium-free, highly manufacturable and adaptable approach to address the current bottlenecks in incumbent QD technologies. Our technology is focused on being a highly scalable, cost-competitive fabrication and formulation to enable ease of coating on to commonly used industry substrates, such as PET/Glass/PMMA.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof. Raye Yeow Chen Hua
Team Members: Ahmed Khalil Khan, Liang Xinquan, Khin P. May, Kirthika Muthiah, Sankar Seramani

Space Bots is an initiative led by a group of engineers from various backgrounds to explore the potential of soft robotics in space. Soft robotics is a burgeoning field of robotics that utilizes soft materials such as textiles or 3-d printed materials to fabricate robots which are soft, compliant to its environment, flexible with multiple degrees of freedom and cost-effective.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Massimo Alioto
Team Members: Dr. Dihan Hasan, Mahmut Sami Yazici, Eunice Jing Jing Shen

The CO2 sensor is based on a new architecture that combines innovative infrared MEMS and built-in machine learning to operate at very low power (100X lower than conventional sensors). Typical need for indoor CO2 sensors is in Green Buildings to optimize the amount of external air that needs to be refreshed to maintain regulated air quality standards for the comfort of occupants.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Aravind Dasari
Team Members: Zope Indraneel Suhas, Ng Kok Wee, Siow Jun Yang Jonathan, Seah Geng Jie Dean

With increasing focus on construction productivity, aesthetics and design freedom for architects, usage of composite panels (mainly aluminium composite panels, ACPs) in building and construction sector is high. ACP market is projected to grow from US $5.95 Billion in 2016 to US $8.79 Billion by 2022. However, in the recent past, frequent reports of fire incidents associated with ACPs have plagued the industry worldwide. Our product with superior fire retardancy serves as a replacement to the core panel in ACPs.

Principal Investigator: Prof Chan Siew Hwa
Team Members: Zhang Lan, Li Qingsha, Miao Bin, Li Haiqian, Yu Junli, SunZhichao

Based on a report by Research and Markets, there will be over 22.2 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the roads by 2032. A robust and scalable hydrogen-fuellinginfrastructureis necessary to support this surge in demand.Current hydrogen fuellingstations are mostly stand-alone, on-site hydrogen generation system powered by renewable powers. The costs of these systems are prohibitive and there are large safety concerns with the use of high-pressured hydrogen storage tanks.
We developed an efficient ammoniacracking system (Acracker) to minimisehydrogen transportation, which offers substantialeconomic advan-tage.

Principal Investigator: Prof Lee Pooi See
Team Members: Tan Wei Ming Matthew, Chan Weijie Benjamin, Gong Xuefei, Gaw Sheng Long

Our technology comprises of a soft buckling actuator that avoids the use of rigid components. The actuator is dielectric elastomers, sandwiched between electrodes, which display a change in size and shape when an electric field is applied. Through the application of certain boundary conditions, it invokes an out of plane deflection at the electrode region. The device displays rapid sub-second response times with minimal loss in performance over time. It is soft and flexible allowing it to operate in various configurations and forms. Such a device can be used to provide haptic feedback in robotic systems or even pseudo-muscular motors for robotics.

Principal Investigator: Prof Ooi Kim Tiow
Team Members: Pradeep Shakya, Cheng Kai Xian, Lim Yeu De, Heng Kim Rui

Rotary vane machines are used in liquid pumping, gas compression and other applications. According to the Japanese Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration News (JARN), the annual production (2017-18) for positive displacement rotary compressors exceeded 188 million pieces and is growing at 31.3% annually. A large volume of materials, especially metal, is used every year to produce these rotary machines. The coupled-vane rotary machine provides an efficient, and a more environmentally sustainable solution. The coupled vanes cuts through the rotor, and hence allows the rotor to be as small as the motor shaft for the effective functioning of the machine.

Principal Investigator: Associate Prof Gwee Bah Hwee
Team Members: Chong Kwen Siong, Nay Aung Kyaw, Ne Kyaw Zwa Lwin, Shreedhar Aparna Rajugopal

We offer security technologies to mitigate hardware attacks, ranging from side-channel-attacks (SCAs), semi-invasive attacks to reverse engineering, on application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and embedded circuits. Our technologies include advanced encryption standard (AES) crypto accelerators and camouflage library cells. The AES crypto accelerators offer high SCA resistance such that the AES crypto accelerators’ power dissipation or electromagnetic emission will not easily revel the secret key. The camouflage library cells protect proprietary IPs against the semi-invasive attacks and reverse engineering, mitigating the risks of IP thefts and counterfeit ASICs.

Principal Investigator: Prof Hu Xiao
Team Members: Liang Yen Nan, Lua Shun Kuang, Qi Huiyuan, Jacob Lim Song Kiat

Natural disasters often result in a severe scarcity of safe drinking water in affected areas. Existing technologies provide some options of chemical treatment, filtration and solar disinfection, which requires large deployment time (circa 1-4 weeks) and are usually heavy.
NTU’s patented gel technology offers a cost-effective, efficient and easily deployable solution to purify water for drinking. The specially formulated gel, designed in a compressible package, absorbs contaminated water (e.g. water sources from rivers, streams, pond water) and makes it safe for consumption when squeezed out. This process can be replicated and the gel can treat up to 2 litres of contaminated water under 15s.

Principal Investigator: Jason Lai
Team Members: Dr Tong Chin Foong, Dr Hu Xiaolei, Robin Tanzania, Edwin Teo

We are creating the next generation wireless charging technology. Xnergy’s first product is BEYOND, a ready-to-market pilot product to serve Autonomous and Electric Vehicles (EV) platforms. Our core technology caters to a wide spectrum of wireless electric charging applications to improve the seamless experience of adopting electric powered platforms in the mobility, industrial and consumer sectors. Our unique 2.0 technology and design architecture are both scalable and customisable to existing Electricity sources to increase productivity, lower infrastructure deployment cost and ease of use.
Xnergy co-creates and advocates usage of electric-mobility. We seek industry partners and technology collaborators to drive this Industry 4.0 mission. We are in collaborative projects to co-develop our technology into the mobile robots and EVs to bring the benefits of Xnergy’s tech into mainstream utilization.

Principal Investigator: Prof Pooi See Lee
Team Members: Dr Kaushik Parida, Gao Dace, Ciou Jing Hao

We have developed a product, which can harvest energy upon application of mechanical force (including simple hand tapping, stretching or human motion). The device is stretchable and self-healable, and thus can be conformably attached to human skin. The device is capable of enduring high mechanical strain and deformations. The energy generated from mechanical impact can power electronic devices like watches, mobile phones, RFID sensors, touch sensors, and bio-integrated electronics. The device can be effectively used as a power source for wearable electronics. Among the wearable market segment, the device can be used in sportswear to power sports monitoring wearable gadgets. Additionally, the device can be used in green building, smart shoes, low power consumer electronics, etc.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof Tiong Lee Kong Robert
Team Members: Hou Zhaoqi, Shao Zhe, Wang longqi

Urban Dots Solution provides a one-stop environmental impact assessment package. The microclimate simulator which deploys a hybrid dynamic-statistical downscaling approach outperforms CFD-based simulation tool with much quicker simulation time (1:50) and comparable accuracy (10% – 30%). It is a one of a kind solution to evaluate urban heat island effect and building footprint, in terms of temperature, humidity (through precipitation) and wind.
It can be used by consultants in the construction industry to assess the environmental performance of individual buildings or even urban landscape. Other applications include urban greenery assessment, flood risk modelling and tree stability assessment. Currently, we are working with government agencies, such as URA, BCA and NEA to explore its full functionality and potential applications. It also covers important aspects /criteria of Green Mark issued by BCA.

Principal Investigator: Albert Sutiono
Team Members: Loh Chi Jie, Daphne Ting Wan Qing

Siege Advanced Manufacturing is a 3D printing team that enables 3D printing for mass manufacturing using automation to allow 3D printing on a large scale, providing mass customisation as a new manufacturing option to many industries, revolutionising their operations and products.
Our solution will automate the end-to-end process from the time a customer uploads a file to the collection of a product print. This removes human intervention and human error and enables prints to start accurately and automatically, reducing any down time. The patented technology can be licensed out to other 3D printing companies in the future.
We have worked with organisations such as Agilent Technologies, Clarins, DP Architects, the National Museum of Singapore, Siix-AGT, SMRT and many more, to implement 3D printing as part of their manufacturing processes.

Principal Investigator: Prof Lam Yeng Ming
Team Members: Dr Zhang LiLing, Dr Nguyen Anh Chien, Dr Goh Chin Foo

Our nano-gel (‘RetenSol’) is a unique non-toxic formulation that serves as a wetting agent and dispersed ‘water bank’ that retains water when the ground is wet and does ‘smart’ water release when conditions become drier. The cycle is repeated with rainfall or intentional watering and can be repeatable over 12 months or more. In multiple trials, adding our formulation increased plant survival and lushness under drought environment, thus watering frequency could be reduced by half to save water cost, manpower and ancillary costs.
By modulating the effects of unpredictable rainfall, RetenSol also increases planting options and mitigates negative effects of climate change. Suitable for both fresh planting and mature plants with no requirements for soil churn, it does not cause localised ponding, algae growth or root rot.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof. Yang Hyunsoo
Team Member: Dr. Wu Yang

This is a game changing THz spectrometer with patented technologies that can screen for both explosives and drugs. It is a portable, all fiber based “click & run” machine that has the dynamic range of the up to 100 dB, and bandwidth spectrum range from 0.1 – 8 THz. We characterize these substances ahead of time and our Spectrometer can detect these signatures for Airports, Port of Entries and other application.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Hong Ming Hui
Team Members: Jet Chun Chion, Maria Ivon Climaco

Harnessing the combination of optical and material engineering, Phaos Nanoscope is capable of providing resolution that surpasses most of the conventional optical microscopy techniques typically limited to 200nm. Object with sub-100nm feature sizes can be imaged under Phaos Nanoscope. Hence, the Phaos Nanoscope technology can potentially address this technological gap and open up new research opportunities and market for enhanced imaging of biomedical and soft material in ambient environment.

Team Member: Nicholas Oh

Enlitho is a nanotechnology start-up company from SUTD which specialises in micro- and nanoscale fabrication. Introducing Plasmonic Nanotags- a customisable and ultra-high resolution print image capable of reaching 100,000 dots-per-inch (DPI) resolution and can also be designed to incorporate overt security features. With an increasing demand of personalisation products, coupled with developments in counterfeit technology, these Nanotags serve as multi-functional prints capable of tagging, branding and providing security to precious physical items which current personalisation technology cannot achieve.

Principal Investigator: Assoc Prof. Yong Ken Tye
Team Members: Abdul Rahman, Stephanie Yap

This project utilizes a surface functionalized optical microfiber sensor with a wide choice of chelating agent compound to adhere onto the extremely sensitive sensing region, which in turn, promotes high customizability of the sensor. These include fast response time and sampling rate for near real-time snapshots of the water quality state of risk, low power demand, compact, and requires no special additional equipment or analysis time for multi-element detection.

Principal Investigator: Asst Prof. Tan Swee Ching
Team Members: Dilip Krishna, Zhang Yaoxin

Ultra DRY is the first commercial application of a novel, super-hygroscopic gel developed by SweeLabs. Among the gel’s many properties are its ability to absorb up to 4x its own mass in water and to regenerate quickly and easily. Ultra DRY out-performs established desiccants such as silica gel and calcium chloride, market valued at over USD 300 million per annum. Applications so far investigated, range from keeping scientific instruments dry to preventing “container sweat” to room dehumidification as a means of reducing air-conditioning requirements.

Principal Investigators: Assoc Prof. Karina Gin
Team members: Dr. Genevieve Vergara, Dr. Le Thai Hoang, Dr. Goh Shin Giek

Can I Swim is a platform for collecting and disseminating information on illness risks associated with microbial pathogens in recreational waters. It streamlines the risk assessment process and enables the public and authorities to make informed decisions about recreational water quality, health and safety. Its simple user interface includes location, activity and pathogen selection tools which are customisable based on user needs.

Team members: Dr. Zhang Yi Zhong, Dr. Liang Conghui

EMMA is the world’s first massage assistive robot which aims to relieve the shortage of trained therapists in the TCM industry. The robot has a customised, fully rotatable 3D-printed massage tip, a 3D-stereoscopic camera for acupuncture points recognition and localization and a user-friendly interface and recommended guidelines for various sports injuries. AiTreat aims to build a cloud-based, artificial intelligent driven collaborative robotic system which can perform TCM check-ups, take TCM records and perform professional therapeutic massage under the TCM physician’s instruction.

Team members: Jim Gan, Raymond Yeong

Co-Space Robotics is a new robotic concept that combines and connects robotics in a real, physical space with a 3D virtual-reality world in cyber-space. Designed to integrate infocomm technology, digital game based learning with educational robotics to interest, excite and engage younger generations. It is an educational platform that is a fun and engaging way for young people to develop computational thinking skills and early training in programming and algorithm development.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Neal Chung Tai-Shung
Team members: Dr. Tang Yupan, Dr. Xiong Junying, Dr. Han Gang, Dr. Yong Wai Fen, Wan Chunfeng

The thin-film-composite (TFC) hollow fiber membrane features an ultrathin functional layer coated on a high strength polymeric porous support. This unique structure and its high strength renders the membrane to have high potential across many applications (i.e. concentration/purification in F&B industries, separation in pharmaceutical industries, and water treatment). Having been successfully developed and integrated into one inch modules, this product has already been applied in a pilot to showcase how it can effectively harvest clean energy from waste streams.

Team members: Grace Chia, Samuel Ong, Michelle Tan, Krishna Ramachandra

We have built an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) capable of carrying out active manipulation, passive surveying and data collection repeatedly and simply without the requirement for expert pilots. Using the inputs from a modular suite of sensors and actuators, we implement robust algorithms to enable way point navigation, computer vision, and acoustic localisation.

Principal Investigator: Prof Loh Kian Ping
Team Members: Chen Yunxuan, Nipun Batra, Eric Lim

Porous graphene oxide is a US patented (B2) material.

Principal Investigator : Dr. Yan Hong
Team members : Dr Gu Hai Wen, Feng Yang

Project description: A series of fluorine-free, solvent and water based hydrophobic coating materials have been developed. These high performance coatings exhibit robust properties such as contamination-resistant, anti-graffiti, water-repellent, anti-bacterial and are thus inherently self-cleaning. It also demonstrates excellent stability and durability in harsh conditions of strong acid, strong alkali, and mechanical abrasion.

Principal Investigators: Assoc. Prof. Li Zhi
Entrepreneurial Leads: Harine Kanagaraj, Tian Kaiyuan

Project description: We have developed a technological solution which can convert waste grease into biodiesel. Our technology utilises a recyclable biocatalyst process, which does not have any restriction on FFA content in the feedstock, thus allowing waste grease to be turned into a valuable energy source.

Principal Investigators: Asst. Prof Lefebvre Olivier
Entrepreneurial Leads: Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tam, Vivek Narayanan
Team members: Wang Zuxin, Xu Jianxiong

Project description: An electro-Fenton (EF) system generates the hydroxyl radical (•OH), a non-selective oxidant that can react very quickly with many biorecalcitrant industrial pollutants.  EF is the most potent of all advanced oxidation processes. It is a promising technology to treat nonbiodegradable wastewater.

Principal Investigators: Asst. Prof. Chew Jia Wei, Prof. Anthony Gordon Fane
Team members: Andy Cahyadi, Henry Tanudjaja, Aditya Anantharaman

Project description: Our novel Evapo-porometry instrument has several advantages over the Liquid Displacement Porometer, currently the leading lab instrument for pore size distribution measurement of membranes – (i) operation at ambient conditions (ii) applicability for membrane autopsies, and (iii) measurement of a wider range of pore sizes, which extends the applicability to more membrane-based processes.

Founder/CEO: David Pong
Entrepreneurial Leads: Jean Pierre Nshimyimana
Team members: Vincent Loka, Lim Chong Tee, Tan Zhi Yang

Project description: Fieldtrate Plus is a water filtration system that is specifically designed to cater to the lack of clean water in developing countries with a rising number of global disasters. It incorporates four main concepts – simplicity, portability, durability and affordability. Fieldtrate Plus’ core filtration technology is selected due to its proven durability in industrial settings.

Principal Investigators: Asst. Prof. Chew Jia Wei, Prof. William Kantz
Entrepreneurial Leads: Dr. Farhad Zamani, Dr. Amin Booshehri

Project description: Submerged hollow fibre and flat sheet membranes are used in a variety of applications such as membrane bioreactors. This invention exploits the inexpensive buoyant particles and foams, by a judicious manipulation of the module geometry, to scour the membrane surface repetitively thereby replacing aeration. Our innovative technology offers a hefty 75 % reduction in the cost (energy consumption) relative to the conventional aeration.

Principal Investigators: Dr. Su Jincai
Entrepreneurial Leads: Mao Lu
Team members: Ong Rui Chin, Lin Shuning Corliss, Mohd Abid Dhamiri Bin Atan, Wang Fan

Project description: The technology is a multi-bore hollow fiber membrane contactor for water deoxygenation. This novel membrane contactor is developed using a background IP from Prof. Chung Tai-Shung, NUS, ChBE, FOE. It offers larger contact area, faster deoxygenation rate, and better mechanical robustness compared with traditional single-bore hollow fiber membrane contactor.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Sam Lee
Team members: Chen Baisheng, Chen Jiaxin, Liu Junyi

Project description: Our invention provides a variable optical pathlength for industrial process monitoring. The variation adjustment is automatic without any manual interference. It also provides a flow through cell for spectroscopic measurements that is able to provide continuous measurements for on-line monitoring requiring minimal sample fluid volume.

Principal Investigators: Prof Lee Pooi See
Entrepreneurial Lead 1: Vipin Kumar, PhD student
Entrepreneurial Lead 2: Kenneth Ong, Vishnu Kumar
Team members: Li Tao

Project description: Miniaturized pump powered by piezoelectric effect that enables an efficient delivery of fluid transportation at a low power consumption. The pump size can be as small as a dollar coin with thin profile. The fluid delivery is stable and controlled flow rate can be achievable.

Principal Investigators: Tan Toon Cheng, Lisa Ribeiro
Team members: Laurene Kwek

Project description: The portable shower recycles the water and so extends the life span of a fixed amount of water, enabling a small amount of water to go a long way. As it is portable, the components will be light weight, and will be manually operated.

Principal Investigators: Francois Chin Po Shin
Entrepreneurial Leads: Albert Chai
Team members: Eric Toh

Project description: Our technology is designed to fulfill the increasing demand for bigger data pipes due to rich media contents and cloud computing. In addition, this technology has also been widely touted for wireless backhaul in small cell deployment for next generation cellular network.

Principal Investigators: Asst Prof Goh Yang Miang
Entrepreneurial Leads: Zhou Zhipeng, Research Fellow
Team members: Hoe Yee Pin, Wang Qiao, Mohamed Jawad Askar Ali

Project description: A web-based design support system to facilitate selection and design of fall arrest and travel restraint systems for building construction activities.

Principal Investigators: Prof Neal Chung
Entrepreneurial Lead 1: Dr Fu Feng Jiang (Research Fellow)
Entrepreneurial Lead 2: Divya Jain

Project description: Good drinking water quality is something that many of us take for granted. Low pressure RO membrane household device can help to protect the quality of your drinking water supply and remove the health risks.

Principal Investigators: Dr. Koh Sueda, Research Fellow
Entrepreneurial Leads: Thomas Wan Zilong

Project description: Sailing is not easy for beginners to learn, because controlling a sailboat is not intuitive. We propose a design direction for a sailing learning system using interactive media. SmartSail visualizes the subtle changes of the sail not only for the sailor but also for the trainer or spectators viewing from the land. In addition, SmartSail allows sailors to graduate from relying heavily on augmented feedback to attending more to other visual feedback that sailors use without altering the focus of their attention.

Principal Investigators: Assoc Prof Sibudjing Kawi
Entrepreneurial Leads: Yasotha Kathiraser
Team members: Usman Oemar, Ang Ming Li

Project description: Anti-Cokecat involves a facile preparation method for highly dispersed supported metal catalyst with anti-coking properties for CO2 reforming of natural gas/biogas to syngas and hydrogen.

Principal Investigators: Heisel Felix, Researcher
Entrepreneurial Leads: Mateusz Wielopolski, Post-doctoral Senior Researcher
Team members: Tobias Eberwein

Project description: BambooTech involves the development of a high-strength composite material, which employs renewable organic fibres such as bamboo as a resource and can be used as a reinforcement system in concrete and other structural applications. Compared to steel, BambooTech product is lighter, cheaper, renewable, CO2-binding and corrosion-free. These features make it suitable for interior and exterior structural applications.

Organisation: NTU, Dept of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Principal Investigators: Thomas Hongyi Xu
Team members: Dang Minh Nguyen

Project description: Over 50% of electronic failures are caused by thermal problems. Meta Heat addresses these problems by designing efficient heat dissipation devices that can protect sensitive electronic components from being affected by heat flux. It is the world’s first three-dimensional thermal invisibility cloak.

Principal Investigators: Assoc. Prof. Federico Lauro
Entrepreneurial Leads: Rachelle Lauro
Team members: Trent Goldsack, Wesley Goh

Project description: Self-contained sampling devices that will take an array of measurements in aquatic (both salt and fresh water) environments. These products will send all the macro-data via wifi/3D/iridium satellite uplink for data collection and distribution to the web-based community of subscribers. Subscribers will be able to login to a socially networked website and ‘see’ the level of pollution as reported by all networked devices.

Principal Investigators: Professor Sam Li Fong Yau
Entrepreneurial Leads: Divya Jain
Team members: Du Haijun, Lin Xuanhao, Guo Rui

Project description: T-Cat aims to save over a million dollars a year per factory that recycles wastewater and in the process discard water that is high in organic contamination, due to lack of treatment facility for tough organics. T-cat uses the patent pending TiO2 photocatalyst for treatment of organic wastewater, like reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate, for water reclamation.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Robert Marks
Entrepreneurial Leads: Low Yuen Kei Adarina, Research staff
Team members: Prima Dewi Sinawang, Indra Susanto, Maria Regina Hartono

Project description: An integration of screen-printed electrodes and lateral flow strips for a quantitative electrochemical detection of targeted water viruses. The lateral flow strip carries electroactive affinity nanobeads under capillary force with captured target viral components to functionalised microelectrodes, where they are immobilised and their presence enables a quantifiable electrical signal.

Principal Investigators: Ian Gibson
Entrepreneurial Leads: Jian Huei, Mohit, Edmund, Wei Jie

Project description: The Engineering Design & Innovation Centre wishes to provide a facility that will support innovative products through technology development. Central to this is 3D Printing, which combines with other platform technologies (like microntrollers, laser cutting, CNC and assembled parts) to create numerous products and business opportunities. We need to know how to offer this within the NUS environment and outreach to potential beneficiaries and with the best chances of success.

Principal Investigators: Timothy Michael Walsh, Head, Off-Grid PV Systems, SERIS
Entrepreneurial Lead 1: Yi Jinzhou
Entrepreneurial Lead 2: Divya Jain
Team members: Chai Jing, Srinath Nalluri, Khoo Yong Sheng, Jai Prakash

Project description: This integrated framing system will provide the role of both the frame and the junction box, streamline the production process for PV modules. This approach is unique because the current state-of-the-art of PV module manufacturing requires three separate components and processes (the busses, the frame and the junction box) all of which are incorporated into the integrated framing system. The parts consolidation and improved process flow will reduce manufacturing costs for PV module manufacturers.

Principal Investigators: Assoc. Prof Sam Li Fong Yau & Dr Koh Lee Chew, Senior Manager R&D Engineer
Entrepreneurial Leads: Lin Junyu, Chee Siang

Project description: The novel sensor is based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) coupled to Goos Hanchen (GH) effect, which allows the enhancement and direct measurement of GH shift. The novel sensor system will provide a new option for rapid, sensitive chemical and biochemical analysis, with many advantages over the current methods of heavy metals measurement in liquids. The product will allow monitoring with minimal interference from environment.

Principal Investigators: Tan Cheak Khan Willy
Entrepreneurial Leads: Daryl Chew, Sum
Team members: Tong Yu, Hazel

Project description: The process subjects Bombyx Mori (B.Mori) silkworms to a patented method and was scaled up and used to produce silk with increased strength (+49%), strain (+2.2%), breaking energy (+55.1%) and elastic modulus (+39%), when  compared to normal silk. The “enhanced silk” can be spun and reeled into yarn, and then woven into fabric using a variety of weaving patterns.