NUS-IT-Report-Card-2021_PDF-3(FromCD)

2021 NUS IT REPORT CARD

CONTENTS

REFLECTIONS BY CITO

6. AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY

7. SNEAK PEEK

ABOUT OUR PROJECTS

1. AMID COVID

ABOUT US

2. EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION

8. OUR PEOPLE

3. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

9. OUR CULTURE

4. DIGITAL ENABLEMENT

10. OUR FUTURE

5. ADVANCED AND SECURE INFRASTRUCTURE

11. OUR LEADERS

REFLECTIONS BY CITO

"FOREWORD, FORWARD" - A LEAF FROM THE DESK OF CITO, MS TAN SHUI-MIN

It is hardly possible to find a single word to describe the year that had almost gone by. The local community watched in trepidation brought on by COVID-19 as the numbers mounted and witnessed the annus horribilis that continued into 2021. Yet, there were tailwinds from this that made us a stronger and better NUS. McKinsey’s findings showed that responses to the pandemic have accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by several years. We found testament in our institution, and saw over 60,000 mobile downloads on iOS and Android for uNivUS , 5,500 staff at our Digital Enablement workshops and “Learning IT with bITbIT”, 3900 users of Virtual Desktop , 8,000 students and alumni members on conNectUS, and the roll-out of more than 70 new solutions. 2021 is also the year where we set a new vision to build a Borderless University powered by Infinite Technology. This vision, crafted in alignment with NUS’, spurs us to enable NUS to extend its reach and influence globally via the digital realm. Constantly reminding ourselves to be agile, innovative, and to push boundaries, NUS IT remains committed to building a new digital for our Education, Research, and Administration.

interactive navigation to lead you to your destination through leveraging AR. At the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, students hone their core competencies and situational patient management, through Immersive Virtual Reality – Procedures (IVR-P) in a “Nursing VR” initiative that has been proven to save manpower and facility costs. Throughout 2021, staff of NUS IT provided Thought Leadership through their participation in conferences as guest speakers and panellists to lend valuable insights on today’s IT landscape from the perspective of a higher education institution. A few prominent line-ups of forums included the CIO ConnectGOV Summit 2021, Microsoft’s EduDay Webinar, Educause Annual Conference, and GovInsider. We brought our experience to the table and shared breakthroughs achieved in technological advancement for Higher Education with the aim of being a catalyst of growth for the industry. Competence and adeptness were extended to the NUS community through the Digital Enablement programme that sought to raise dexterity in new technology skills and tools for better work and business outcomes. Amongst students, our internship programmes have reached the broadest band of undergraduates spanning Arts, Design Engineering to Technology, imparting multi-disciplinary skills and bringing their learning to life. Internally, our culture speaks of agility, innovation and one that pushes boundaries. Efficient, helpful, responsive and reliable are as perceived in the perception survey, entrenched in the spirit of a cohesive team that perseveres and delivers. We celebrate our successes in the recognitions we received from CIO Academy, Medical Education Grand Innovation Challenge, Singapore Computer Society, Microsoft Power Apps Hackathon and Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2021, and we are delighted to honour our senior management and stakeholders for their unwavering support.

digital dexterity of the NUS community. In Response to COVID-19, we deployed AI and computer vision techniques to verify vaccination certification and ART results upload, which replaced the need for human intervention and provided a brand new user experience. We made use of WiFi to perform SafeEntry check-ins as one moved from one building to another on campus. Such seamless experience is unique to NUS because of our dexterous deployment of technology. In Education Transformation , we cliff-ed the edge of technology as NUS moved towards the integration of knowledge and skills across disciplines in an ever-dynamic landscape. The Undergraduate Admission System is exemplary of bringing the best of experience to those behind the scenes, engendering productivity improvements of 50% turnaround time for applicants’ data verification, and at the same time providing a simple and seamless encounter for 20,000 polytechnic and A-level students. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have often been said to bridge the digital and physical worlds, and they will continue to influence the way we take in and visualise information. NUS IT has been a front runner in this space, and works closely with our researchers and academic staff to create innovative pedagogies and improve campus life. In the near future, should you lose your way while looking for a room in NUS, Pathfinder will get you back on track with

Working from home most of the time this year has not stopped us from making technical breakthroughs, extending our thought leadership beyond NUS, and raising the

Finalist for CIO Academy Asia Women in IT Awards, Asia, 2021

MS TAN SHUI-MIN NUS CITO

SG100 Women in Tech

REFLECTIONS BY CITO

Borderless University. Infinite Technology.

VISION

MISSION

To catalyse NUS into the New Digital, for Education, Research and Administration through Technology and Innovation

1.

Amid COVID

Mouseover to discover more!

1.

2. ChemPOV Organic chemistry is widely considered to be one of the hardest branches in chemistry. In collaboration with NUS Chemistry, NUS IT developed an online digital chemistry board game design that allows for remote learning to combat the physical learning restraints from COVID-19. With a leader board and multiplayer system, Chemistry students can benefit from this innovative technology-enhanced teaching that exposes them to a new way of learning. Such healthy competition enriches their learning experience and reinforces their knowledge. ChemPOV was presented at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2021, the renowned showcase for the best thinking in higher education IT. Safe Sim Design With strict requirements from Building Construction Authority when entering construction sites due to COVID-19 and safety reasons, the Department of Building collaborated with NUS IT to develop a digital game to identify hazards and rectify construction design. Safe Sim Design was created to allow students to enter a construction site virtually to experience and practice detecting safety hazards. This innovative teaching method allows students to recognise and correct designs that may be unsafe or unsatisfactory. Through interactive education, their learning and engagement experiences are reformed. Combining learning with gamification, Safe Sim unleashes a synergy that empowers both teachers and learners.

Undergraduate Admission System 2.0 The Undergraduate Admission System 2 (UAS2) was a joint effort between NUS IT and the Office of Admissions to modernise admission, financial aid, and scholarship systems and improve applicants' engagement. Its main focus was to create a simple yet seamless application experience for Polytechnic and A-level applicants, allowing social media login and information to be pre populated. By streamlining the admissions systems into a consolidated admission system, staff can enjoy productivity improvements of 50% turnaround time and accuracy of applicants' data with the reduced time needed for verification. Today, more than 8200 Polytechnic and 12,700 A-Level applicants have benefitted from this initiative.

conNectUS conNectUS is a student-alumni community platform that allows its members to professionally socialise through events and forum discussions. Launched in July 2021, about 7,300 NUS alumni and students have since signed up with conNectUS. Since its inauguration, conNectUS has been creating opportunities for alumni to share industry insights, career advice and collaborate with graduating students. conNectUS also value adds through offering prospective graduates an understanding of the company's culture and the attributes that are important considerations for potential hires.

“The Office of Admissions (OAM) is highly appreciative of the close partnership as well as strong and dedicated support of NUS IT in the significant Admissions Modern isation project. NUS IT is always prompt to deal with the technical issues encountered, and it gives its best efforts in collaborating with OAM to develop an extensive IT system for undergraduate admissions.” ~ Dean Goh Say Song

Education Transformation

3.

Thought Leadership NUS IT has continued to cement its position in the industry by stepping up as thought leaders, inspiring action and pursuing innovation. Throughout 2021, leaders of NUS IT have participated in conferences as guest speakers and panellists to provide valuable insights on today’s IT landscape from the perspective of a higher education institution. A few prominent line-ups of forums included the CIO connectGOV Summit 2021, Microsoft’s EduDay Webinar, Educause Annual Conference and GovInsider. Our IT leaders brought their expertise to the table and shared breakthroughs achieved in technological advancement for Higher Education. From infrastructure to the digitalisation of the classroom learning experience, best practices, frameworks, and knowledge were shared with the aim of being a catalyst of growth for the industry.

4.

Achieving dexterity through Digital Enablement

Delivering cutting-edge IT solutions requires a digitally proficient workforce, skilled at using multiple digital tools. NUS IT introduced the Digital Enablement Programme in early January 2021 as part of its strategy to raise the digital dexterity of the NUS community through adopting digital tools. This initiative aims to equip the NUS community with the skills and mindset to embrace innovations and digitalisation efforts to re-design and transform their work for better business outcomes. NUS IT continually provides classes and workshops and as of October 2021, close to 5,500 staff were trained in Robotic Process Automation, Data Visualisation tools, Forms & Flow, Web Publishing, Electronic Signature, Survey, and Online-Collaboration.

Through the "Learning IT with bITbIT" series, 30-minute bite-size sharing sessions featuring tips for products, tools, and IT topics that are interesting and relevant to our community. They are packed into easy-to-understand sessions specially curated for the NUS audience.

4.

Achieving dexterity through Digital Enablement

Total staff trained in (as of October 2021)

RPA 416

Data Visualisation 125

Forms & Flow 1312

Web Publising 265

Qualtrics 1344

Learning IT with bITbIT 2372

DocuSign 1583

Miro 617

Advanced and Secure Infrastructure

5.

Enhancing cyber resiliency In April 2021, NUS IT conducted the first Executive Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise where top leadership in NUS participated in. The objective of the exercise were to rehearse responses in the event of a cyber-incident. Using the narrative of a massive ransomware attack affecting the entire University, participants were led through a series of escalating scenarios, and we solicited their responses and jointly derived action plans. Overall, the team exhibited a proactive approach in communications and impact analysis, and demonstrated a tight team-based collaboration.

NUS’ cybersecurity posture BitSight is the leading third-party cybersecurity benchmarking service that assesses an organisation’s cybersecurity posture from an unbiased external view. Its methodology involves measuring a host of security metrics and assigning scores based on a proprietary algorithm, and it is widely used by local government agencies. NUS reached an all-time high score of 700 in Sep 2021, compared to the education industry average of 640. NUS was also leading the pack when benchmarked against top local and global universities. This achievement stemmed from prioritising cybersecurity as a foundation principle, aligning our cybersecurity framework with the well-known industry standard by US NIST.

Advanced and Secure Infrastructure

5.

Upgrade of the NUS Border Firewall Between the NUS network and the world's Internet sits the Border Firewall that monitors all incoming and outgoing traffic. This gatekeeping functionality enables a substantial and reliable university network to grow and flourish. From 2019, Internet usage by the university increased by more than 50%, from approximately 10 Gbps to 17 Gbps —a number that will likely rise further due to heightened remote university application usage and cloud usage. In anticipation of this growth, the NUS Border Network and the Firewall have been upgraded to have a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, allowing NUS to achieve a secure and consistent internet user experience and enhanced online events and learning support. This upgrade came with a Next-Generation Firewall to provide better network insights and application visibility for further security assessment and automated defence. With this upgraded firewall hardware, the NUS community is poised to experience improved performance and enhanced security. Implementing the i4.0 Data Centre Network NUS hosts research initiatives that are highly strategic to Singapore’s research community. Research projects usually require large amounts of computing resources and involve huge quantities of data. To enhance security, research competence, and capacity, NUS IT has established a state-of-the-art High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence i4.0 Data Centre (HPC-AI DC) facility with the National Supercomputing Centre. This centre supports stakeholders such as A*STAR, NTU, SUTD, and aims to attract future research collaborators with NUS. Adopting superior End-of-Row architecture in network switches, cost savings and overall data centre infrastructure uptime will be augmented, along with security and reliability. With flexible, scalable, and powerful connectivity, research capabilities are heightened for the NUS community and beyond.

6. Augmented and Virtual Reality

VIRTUAL REALITY IN AGITATION MANAGEMENT (VRAM) (PSYCHOLOGY & MEDICINE) The Grand Prize winner of the Medical Education Grand Innovation Challenge, this initiative is started by the Department of Psychological Medicine, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, and NUS IT to enhance the learning of agitation management for students using VR. Learning how to manage a patient in a psychiatric clinical ward can be confusing. To add, learning agitation management while on the job can be tough for inexperienced students who are unsure of how to react to unexpected situations. This application will develop scenario-based experience on managing agitated patients in a psychiatric clinical ward using VR.

THE GOOD CITIZEN VIRTUAL REALITY FOR FIRST RESPONDERS (EMERGENCY & MEDICINE) Here is an application that utilises VR to emulate real-life emergency scenarios in a virtual environment providing a close-to life experience for learners. Traditionally, resuscitation procedures are learned by using a CPR dummy for individuals to practice. However, this method has its limitations where experiential learning is concerned. On top of that, situations, where students have to respond to patients experiencing mental distress, can be unpredictable and, in some cases, dangerous. This immersive 3D experience application developed by the Provost Office, Emergency Medicine Department NUHS and NUS IT teaches students to perform resuscitation procedures with an AED. As they are the first responders in mental distress situations, it is crucial to equip them with the skills to tackle such encounters.

Winner for CIO Academy INSPIRE Tech Awards - Best of Emerging Tech NURSING STUDIES WITH IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY (HEALTHCARE & NURSING) Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare industry. Most of the time, they are trained through time consuming and hands-on procedures. In this pandemic, it has become even more critical for them to be proficient in their work. Lacking real life experience, nursing students find difficulty in translating theory to practice. As a key project featured in EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2021, the Immersive Virtual Reality – Procedures (IVR-P) is the answer to this conundrum. It is a nursing practice simulation prototype that employs Oculus Quest 2 and allows its controllers to practice clinical lab sessions in an immersive 3D virtual environment. This collaboration with the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies empowers students with core competencies and situational patient management through remote learning and has proven to be effective in manpower and facility cost savings.

Gotten lost while looking for a room in an NUS building? Fret not! Pathfinder is a state-of-the-art mobile app that leverages AR technology and helps us find our way. Developed from the Unity 3D engine and AR Foundation, it engages the user in the most interactive way to help them navigate to desired destinations and points of interest within buildings on the NUS campus. Plans are in the pipeline to extend this application to the entire NUS campus, further enhancing the integration of lifestyle apps with emerging technology. PATHFINDER (LIFESTYLE & EMERGING TECH INTEGRATION)

Grand Prize winner for Medical Education Grand Innovation Challenge 2021

7.

uNivUS' What will the future uNivUS look like? In our pipeline, we can see

7.

3 Continuous Improvement, where the team will build on the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) developed within uNivUS to push out richer functionalities such as bus routing information, integration of class and exam timetable on the in-app Calendar, and provision of eye-friendly dark mode.

1 A seamless mobile users, as they transit from one persona to another, whether they are students now and alumni next, or prospective students turned lifelong learners, we’ve got them covered. experience for our uNivUS

2 Integration with departments and the NUS community, where uNivUS will incorporate new features such as Student Peer Support Chat, Job Opportunities and Event Aggregator to provide conveniences and accessibility to content and information that enriches the NUS experience. With the uNivUS’ mini-app framework in place, like-minded citizen developers who seek to contribute to the NUS community with their ideas can use the platform to publish their apps in uNivUS’ Explore function. This allows them to showcase their creativity and reach out to the uNivUS’ user base.

With these exciting new features to look forward to, NUS IT hopes to better serve the community in the coming years~

2022 roadmap

1 Implementing the Curriculum Management System (CMS) The Curriculum Management System is an online integrated platform that empowers educators by providing curriculum and module management capabilities on a unified portal across NUS systems and faculties. The platform acts as the single source of truth for all curriculum data and is the foundation that supports the Next Generation Student Information Systems, providing features such as the Academic Planner, Tracker, and Checker. This single touchpoint will be an important enabler for institutional transformation and agility, programme planning, and assessment, resulting in deeper engagement amongst the related parties. With assurance on the accuracy of curriculum data, CMS is projected to achieve significant annual savings through streamlined curriculum management.

3 Major Upgrade and Rollout of Network capabilities and services With the increased demand on NUS' network for performance, security, and agility to support our growth and transformation initiatives, it is imperative that NUS IT is prepared with sufficient network capabilities to rise to the needs of the university. With the Next-Generation Campus Network upgrade, we can expect agile service provisioning, enhanced performance throughout, and the implementation of an intelligent software-defined network (SDN). All this would drive and allow NUS to pursue the best-of-class university experience for learning and research. The upgraded network will deploy AI to auto remediate any issue that could cause disruptions. It will also feature a revamped architecture to ensure that our data is protected from intrusions. As the first institution in the region to implement SDN and Wi-Fi 6, the NUS network will now support a quadruple increase in speed and connection of wireless devices, providing a highly reliable wireless connection anywhere on campus.,With SDN, we can roll out network changes dynamically and automate network processes, configuration, and remediation procedures to drive network efficiency and agility towards a borderless campus.

7.

2 Implementation of the new Finance System 2.0 (FS2) In the coming year, we will see an upgrade of a powerful S4Hana Financial System which will bring consistent, simplified, scalable, and high-performing functionalities. These new capabilities will raise NUS’ digital agility to support the University’s growth and transformation initiatives. Staff will benefit from the revamped and accelerated turnaround, which will improve user experience, productivity, delivery time and empower its users with data insights that will bring value to NUS. Here is one initiative that integrates the latest and most modern industry solution with our platform!

A bIT about us

8.

Mouseover photo to discover m o r e !

Mr Gong Wei

Mr Ng Jun Da

Mr Kumar Sambhav

Mr Ang Leong Boon

OUR CULTURE

EMPOWERING AND ENABLING YOUR GROWTH AND SUCCESS

Our Culture, Our Way

9.

Here at NUS IT, we drive a forward-looking culture. We are always striving to improve, push boundaries and innovate. We value our people and we want them to reach their fullest potential. We empower everyone to take on challenges, be in charge of their career paths and reach the pinnacle in their respective specialisations. We embrace collaboration, open communication and knowledge sharing. We build camaraderie through events and activities that celebrate milestones and achievements. Aware that we are part of a bigger community, we believe in making giving-back to the University and the society integral to what we do. The strong, personal relationships fostered keeps us engaged and brings us together on a personal level with mutual trust and respect.

We care about their professional development and believe they can reach their highest potential. All staff are constantly encouraged and provided support for their learning needs, and to take ownership for their professional development. We will soon be kicking off our new progression pathways to introduce opportunities to be rotated across different teams, domains and technologies. With these new pathways, our staff will be exposed to different technologies and business domains, discovering new areas of strengths, domains and deepening their skills and learning agility in the process. We also organise employee-to-employee learning sessions, which enable our people to grow and develop by teaching others, as well as learning from their peers with first-hand experiences and knowledge. This ensures a comprehensive career growth and development plan for all at NUS IT where we upskill and learn from the best.

OUR PROFILE

Our people possess a clear passion for IT and are driven to excel. Apart from having deep knowledge and experience in IT, we are proactive and possesses a growth mindset. If you fathom yourself as an individual who thrives in a dynamic environment, breaks new grounds with innovative ideas, have a “can-do” attitude, and always seeks to make a difference, you’ll find yourself at home in NUS IT.

IT isn't just about technology (Being Socially Resposible)

9.

On 26 September 2021, The NUS IT Management Team took part in the RunNUS 2021 3km event hosted by the University's Students' Sports Club (NUSSSC), to raise funds for the Disabled People's Association (DPA) and Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC). Equipped with their running gear, sunblock, sunglasses, and lots of love and support from the entire department, the Management Team led the entire NUS IT to raise a solid $5,678 for charity.

RunNUS

Let's Do our bIT for CharITY

Willing Hearts Volunteerism

In the spirit of giving, volunteers from NUS IT gave their weekend on 21 November 2021 to help in the Willing Hearts Charity Soup Kitchen. They were tasked with the preparation of ingredients, packing of lunch boxes, cleaning and washing, and others to distribute the daily meals island wide. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our volunteers were split into morning and afternoon sessions, and those in the morning begin their day as early as 6.30 am! The NUS IT volunteers took the opportunity to meet new friends, bond, and work together in a non-IT setting. It was a fun-filled, refreshing, and meaningful day for everyone!

On the 11 November 2021, NUS IT launched the inaugural "Do your bIT for charITy" initiative which featured bITbIT (NUS IT's mascot) merchandise that included reusable masks, stickers, tote bags, and an NUS IT designed T-shirt. All proceeds from this charity initiative will go to NUS Bursaries.

Interns, IT’s Your Turn!

10.

CHUA SIM NEE

NG JUN HAO

HU CHENG SEA (VANESSA)

Being a "returning" intern with our department year after year, Sim Nee is no stranger to NUS IT. During her latest internship with us, she participated in the development of a Digital Trainer for NUS IT Service Desk. This project combined videos, quizzes, AI chat with trainer support, and post course assessment - all within a single platform to provide quality training to IT support personnel. Sim Nee's efforts have been key in providing better user experience and faster resolution for end users in NUS. She hopes to return to NUS IT as a full time staff after her graduation.

Jun Hao's role as an intern with NUS IT was to reduce the turnaround time required to provide network connectivity for authorised NUS Internet of Things (IoT) devices. With the proliferation of new devices, control systems, and sensors, these required steady connectivity to our NUS network to stream data back to servers for processing and storage purposes. With NUS network being properly secured meant that the connecting IoT devices needed to obtain permission from the authentication server before a connection to NUS network could be established. Jun Hao's project created a fully automated network solution for IoT devices to get authentication and connect to the NUS network securely with ease. "If I could use one word to describe my NUS IT internship experience, the word is enriching. The one trait NUS IT interns must possess is tenacity and one thing I've learnt is that we must be willing to learn and relearn new technologies."

Cheng Sea, an Electrical and Electronic Engineering undergraduate, had her internship with NUS IT recently. She was given the opportunity to revamp the front facing NUS IT's High Performance Computing (HPC)/ Artificial Intelligence (AI) website. Her job was to modernise and standardise the overall look of the website by updating its content, refreshing the layouts, and improving navigation to Research Computing services. She also designed and produced short video clips to introduce the Research Computing team and its services. Apart from the website, Cheng Sea made improvements to the HPC/AI newsletter and was instrumental in producing an appealing and informative HPC/AI web browsing experience for the audience. "My internship experience was challenging, exciting and engaging. I learned much about High Performance Computing. I also picked up new programming skills such as using commands to open test applications and servers on AWS cloud, as well as gained new experience with making webpages and WordPress plugins."w

"This internship experience has been enriching for me. In just 3 months with NUS IT, I managed to build a full-stack web application from scratch. I was given the opportunity to explore various types of frameworks and picked up the technical skills from there."

Teng Tat Wee Faculty & Research Systems

Tan Tzann Chang CITO’s Office

Tan Khon Han Digital Workspace

Tan Boon Leng Systems & Platform

Shariffa Salmah Almashur IT Administration

Rikky Purbojati High Performance Computing - AI

11.

Chris Kong IT Governance & Strategic Planning

Jeffery Wong IT Service Desk

Kong Yen Teck Student Systems

Nelson Wong IT Networks

Ong Chin Hwa Faculty & Research Systems

Pierre Alain Morel Applications Architecture

LEADERS UNITE (As at Nov 2021)

Chew Kia Meng HR & Finance Systems

Caren Chua IT Communications & Engagement

Ang Leong Boon IT Security

Adrian Lim Corporate Systems

Charlotte Goh Application

Ng Tiong Beng Infrastructure

Tan Shui-Min Chief IT Officer

Thank you!