SMU School of Computing and Information Systems

🏆 Big win for Team SCIS! BSc (Software Engineering) students William Hansel and Wang Chongyu, alongside BSc (Computer Science) student Leow Yap Yong recently won 1st place in the Game Track at the Tencent Cloud “AI CAN DO IT” Hackathon Age Well Social Good Challenge (Singapore).

The team developed Project Memory Loop, a game designed to help players experience dementia through the daily life of Ah Hock as his condition progresses. The game consists of five scenes across three acts, with each scene illustrating different symptoms of dementia and encouraging greater awareness among younger generations who may support elderly individuals with dementia in the future.

Having won the Singapore Game Track, the team will be advancing to the Grand Final in Shenzhen, where they will compete against other teams at the Tencent Cloud hackathon.

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries, careers and society, Singapore Management University is introducing a new suite of courses in the new academic year where students can gain greater ownership of their learning, deeper understanding of the society they will serve, and the applied fluency to work with AI. Here is a sample list of undergraduate courses offered by SMU School of Computing and Information Systems:

• [SE201] AI-Driven Software Engineering
• [IS4001] Smart Building Analytics
• [IS4002] Financial Services AI Immersion Program
• [CS467] Open-Source Software Systems
• [CS447] IT Audit and Data Protection
• [CS448] Digital Forensics

BSc (Software Engineering) alumnus Neil Sharma is one of the 36 students from the first graduating class of the software engineering degree program introduced under the government's SkillsFuture Work-Study Programme (WSP). Neil shared that he realised that career development would only be successful if you had direct understanding and experience of the industry. While studying, Neil interned for a total of one year and noted that through the internship, he developed public relations skills to work with professionals of different ages and his confidence as a young professional. Neil said that in a rapidly changing technological landscape due to AI, continuous learning and the ability to adapt to changes are essential.

Source: https://www.tamilmurasu.com.sg/youth/industrial-experience-integrated-degree-education

Code, coffee and core memories! 💛 Let's reconnect with the SCIS family at the SMU Alumni Homecoming 2026! All SCIS alumni are welcome to register at https://eventregistration.smu.edu.sg/event/c994e85a-3a49-4a42-91e6-7326bb55a026/regProcessStep1:addc807b-7f95-4bcb-8905-7f1f2cfe7732?fbclid=IwY2xjawThDwZwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMVdsZXpCTDExbmpxcmhzNTRzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeQweUzFUmJbHP-jh7AMsyBJZTLEUwMtW-YJJwSdyYTHM1UZ9YewE9cGPvQZA_aem_5hv5UKu5gsjP2ChiHik1uw&rp=4d997149-9d89-479e-a1f5-9a9949e72a38

🎉 𝗦𝗠𝗨 𝗔𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗻𝗶 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸!

The best reunions always start with a simple question: "𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦... 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯?"

Come home to campus and reconnect with classmates and friends who made your SMU journey unforgettable. 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘜𝘗 over great conversations, relive your favourite memories, and meet fellow alumni from across different graduating classes as we celebrate the SMU community together.

🏆 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗨𝗣 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
Join our games trail where each School hosts a signature game booth. Take part, score points, and help your School climb the leaderboard to be the Homecoming Challenge champion.

Whether you graduated recently or years ago, this is your chance to reconnect, celebrate and be part of the growing SMU alumni community once again.

More event highlight details will be shared soon, so stay tuned and get ready to 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙐𝙋 @ 𝙎𝙈𝙐 𝘼𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙣𝙞 𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 2026!

👉 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄 at https://smu.sg/Homecoming26

More than a recognition, the 𝐙𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐧𝐢 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 is an invitation to shape impact by sharing wisdom grounded in experience, and an opportunity to encourage fellow faculty members to continue striving for excellence and lifelong growth as educators.

At the closing event of SMU Centre for Teaching Excellence's Faculty Teaching Forum (FTF) on 31 July 2026, Professor Robert Deng, the 𝘡𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘯𝘪 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 2025 award recipient, reflected on the highs, lows, and lessons from his two decades of experience at SMU. Titled 𝘈 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, the session drew well over 80 participants who came to hear his advice on building a meaningful career and tackling the challenges that lie ahead.

The key takeaways from Prof Deng’s sharing:

① The most impactful academic career emerges when teaching, research, and service are aligned.
② Invest in your students, peers and partners by creating opportunities for others to succeed.
③ Encourage students to ask unconventional yet impactful questions that challenge assumptions.
④ Young faculty must have a personal vision for how to make their mark; the established must remain intellectually curious and keep building expertise.
⑤ Your work is not simply to adapt to change, but to shape change and make an impact on society.

His reflections were a timely reminder of the pivotal role educators play in shaping minds and communities, and in making a meaningful difference to society.

We are most grateful to the SMU faculty and management who made time to join our new faculty for the closing segment of CTE's FTF orientation programme. Our special thanks go to colleagues from National Chengchi University for their collaboration and support in promoting teaching excellence.

When commenting on the consequence and hidden costs of AI-enabled learning in Singapore, SMU Professor of Information Systems (Education) and Vice Provost (Education Strategy and Innovations) Venky Shankararaman puts the risk plainly, “We will not graduate thinkers.” He describes a growing pattern at SMU where students are losing confidence not because they are failing, but because they have begun to believe AI does everything better than they can. To guard against this over-reliance on AI, Prof Shankararaman said that every programme at SMU first designates foundational courses where students demonstrate they can work independently of AI, such as writing a letter from a blank page given only context, or an accountant reading financial statements unaided. Building on this foundation, students apply AI within their discipline and articulate their human value-add. Prof Shankararaman said that the danger is not that students are using AI, it is that they are using it in a way that quietly bypasses the cognitive work that produces real understanding. “Learning happens in that friction. When we write something, we write a few pages, look at it, and it is crappy, and then we redo it. That struggle is very important in learning. If you do not go through that struggle and AI produces a nice output straight away, there is danger,” he added.

Read more at https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/learn-to-struggle-with-ai-to-fight-cognitive-decline

Learn to ‘struggle’ with AI to fight cognitive decline Bypassing this struggle, researchers warn, could cost students their critical thinking skills. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

🏆 First Place Victory! Team QAAA LAB took home first prize at the International Quantum Computing Hackathon for Social Good (QC4SG) on 28 July 2026. Shoutout to Year 2 BSc (Software Engineering) student Kayra Zalfa Alimaa (pictured third from right) and her team for developing a breakthrough solution using photonic quantum computing to predict near-term dengue outbreaks—enabling earlier response, faster interventions and saving lives!

Join us in extending our heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2026! 🎓