The City Exhibition organized by the Department of Architecture in the month of June was featured in the Knowledge Enterprise in its August 2006 issue. Our three Architecture students who clinched the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) Awards are also featured in the stories "Celebrating Inner and Outer Beauty" and "Thinking Out of the Box -- And Within".

Yang Bin obtained the 2nd prize in High Performance Challenge (HPC) and was presented the award on 4 April 2006. The work referred to the post-process and animation of PV-MV hybrid system.

Mr Alan Teo Hwee Loon, a MSc (Estate Management) student, garnered the 2005 ARES Journal Manuscript Prize for the best study published in the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management in 2004. His paper on "Delinquency Risk in Residential ARMs: A Hazard Function Approach” was published in the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, Vol. 10 No. 3. Alan’s study focuses on delinquency risk, which is a major area of concern to mortgage lenders and underwriters of Mortgage-backed Securities (MBS). Utilizing the hazard function approach, his paper provides an analysis of the characteristics and duration of delinquency risk of residential adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs).

At the 12th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES) Conference held on 22-25 January 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand, the paper by Assoc Prof Yu Shi Ming and Mr Chai Chee Hian [MSc (Estate Management) graduate] on “Obstruction of View and Its Impact on Residential Apartment Prices” was conferred the RICS Pacific Rim Property Research Journal Best Paper Award 2005.

Year 3 student Ong Poh Choo was awarded the NUS Alumni Student Exchange Award for her SEP at the University of Pennsylvania AY2005/06 Semester 2.

The Industrial Design team of Gabriel Tan and Wendy Chua (3rd Year) beat 3,000 over design students from 88 countries to become the first Asians to win the prestigious Design Lab Award at the International Electrolux Design Lab 2005 Competition held in Stockholm, Sweden. Their winning entry, Airwash, is about a waterless washing machine which uses negative ion, compressed air and deodorants to clean clothes. Airwash, according to household appliance producer Electrolux, was selected winner because of “its intuitive, ecological and beautiful design”.

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In the Red Dot Award, 5 of the 9 winning entries from Singapore in the Design Concept category came from students of NUS, Department of Architecture. Yong Jieyu’s (BAID AY04/05) amphibious Skid Scooter (final year project), was awarded the Red Dot:Luminary Prize, beating nine other Red Dot: Best of the Best winners. Cedric Tay (BAID AY04/05), Lin Wei Liang (BAID AY04/05), Xue Lishan Agnes (BAID AY04/05) and Lui Honfay (M Arch) were winners for the Red Dot label. The Red Dot Award Design Concept category attracted 638 participants from students to professionals from 40 countires worldwide. 58 entries won the Red Dot label with the top 10 winning the Red Dot: Best of the Best award.

The annual Red Dot Award ranks among the world’s largest design competitions with participations from 40 countries. Its prestigious status was acknowledged by Minister Lee Boon Yang at the 2nd Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum in Hong Kong, 15 November 04, when he paralleled the Red Dot in the design sector to the Oscars in the media sector and Venice Biennale in the arts sector.

Third-year industrial design student Gabriel Tan has won the first Asia Award of Bombay Sapphire Designer Glass Competition 2005 at the Tokyo Design Week, Japan. Gabriel’s Martini Slice, a martini glass without the usual curves, was the winner in the Singapore leg of the Competition. As the overall Asian champion, he will proceed to represent Asia to compete in the Global Award during the Salone del Mobile (world’s biggest design fair) in Milan, Italy in April 06. More details can be found at http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/news/0509/pdf/Martini-ST-24Sept-pL14.pdf

The Bombay Sapphire Designer Glass Competition is an annual event hosted by the British gin company Bacardi-Martini with the aim to achieve design excellence in a functional cocktail glass inspired by the Bombay Sapphire brand.

Department of Building's graduate student, Faisal Manzoor Arain, has won the prestigious Donald S. Barrie Award for 2005 of the PMI Educational Foundation. The Project Management Institute (PMI), based in the US, is the premier grouping of project managers. The competition for the award is held annually. Faisal was invited to present his paper, "Strategic management of variation orders for institutional buildings: Leveraging on information technology", and to receive the award, at the PMI Global Congress in Toronto, Canada on 10 September 2005. Faisal's research work is based on a joint project with the Ministry of Education. His supervisor and the Principal Investigator of the research project is Professor Low Sui Pheng.

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Our BAID alumna Ms Lee Yun Qin (AY03/04) has won the Bronze Prize (Chairman of Japan Design Foundation Prize) in the International Design Competition Osaka 2004. It was organised and sponsored by the Japan Design Foundation and is considered one of the top design competitions around the world. The Competition attracted 689 entries from up-and-coming young designers and planners from 44 countries. Her works can be found at : http://www.jdf.or.jp/eng/compe/pdf2004/2319-E.pdf.

Sharifah Sarah Bte Syed Mohamed Ashraf Shah, a Real Estate third year student, was awarded the DUO Scholarship by MFA for her student exchange programme (in AY 2005/06, Semester II)at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. The Asia-Europe Meeting's (ASEM) DUO Fellowship Fund aims to promote student exchanges between European and Asian ASEM member countries.

Two Real Estate third year students, Janice Ho and Quek Wei Ying were awarded the MTI-ABF Grant for their exchange programme (in AY 2005/06 Semester I) at the Shanghai Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University respectively. The objectives of the ABF programme for undergraduates aims to provide young Singaporeans with early exposure to, hands-on experience in the Chinese market; and to develop greater interest in, and understanding of, the Chinese market.

Toshiyuki Kita has selected 8 candidates from all applicants from the 5 design schools in Singapore for internship in his office in Japan. The good news is all 8 are from our BA (Industrial Design) programme. The young designers were selected based on the design quality of their final year thesis projects presented and their potentiality. The internship will be in October 2005 with DesignSingapore Council sponsoring their accommodation and airfare.

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