NUS and Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, have partnered to launch an innovation incubator programme to nurture Singapore’s data science talents in line with the country’s Smart Nation initiative.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by both parties at the Alibaba Cloud Summit-Infinity 2018 on 15 August. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister-in-Charge of the Smart Nation Initiative. Signing the MOU on behalf of NUS were Deans of NUS Business and NUS Computing Professor Bernard Yeung and Professor Mohan Kankanhalli respectively.
Under the MOU, NUS business analytics students will have the opportunity to intern at Alibaba Cloud. NUS and Alibaba Cloud will also co-organise innovation challenges, where NUS students can experiment with data to solve real-world problems.
“NUS is fully committed to developing local talents in the areas of big data and AI to advance Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative. Our partnership with Alibaba Cloud expands students’ horizons by giving them the opportunity to learn under mentors from Alibaba Cloud, and gain access to cutting-edge technological developments,” said Associate Professor James Pang, Co-Director, NUS Business Analytics Centre (BAC).
In addition, Alibaba Cloud will offer an education certification programme to students from the NUS Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) programme, which will equip students with the relevant skills and knowledge to apply technologies in big data, cloud computing, business analytics and artificial intelligence.
Researchers from BAC will also work closely with Alibaba Cloud to identify collaborative research projects that could push the frontiers of data science.
This is the University’s second major partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Earlier last year, NUS teamed up with Alibaba Cloud and EZ-Link to explore ways to harness data analytics for smoother commutes.
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