Developing a smart and sustainable campus in Singapore
Singapore intends to become a “Smart Nation” through the use of smarter technologies and sustainable means to enhance the quality of life of its inhabitants. Universities are also increasingly seen as places of innovation of new smart and sustainable technologies, provincializing ideas and debates; serving as a testbed for local experimentation. Hence, to determine the status of developing Singapore universities as smart and sustainable campuses, this paper first discusses the role of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative in relation to the development of smart and sustainable universities in Singapore. In particular, NTU’s development as a smart and sustainable campus. Secondly, a conceptual framework is developed to assess NTU as a smart and sustainable campus by understanding the prevailing dimensions of the smart city discourse. Through a detailed survey and ethnographic field study method conducted on NTU Campus, the study finds that the university has been rapidly deploying smart technologies to enhance students’ learning environment and university residents’ everyday quality of living through technology and sustainability initiatives. This paper contributes meaningfully to the development of smart campuses worldwide and brings an Asian university perspective to the existing research on smart and sustainable campuses.
Pandemic in a smart city: Singapore’s COVID-19 management through technology & society
On 23 January 2020, Singapore announced its first COVID-19 case, becoming one of the first countries to be affected by the virus outside China. The government acted swiftly, closed its borders, introduced circuit-breaking measures, and deployed public health and medical expertise in tackling the virus. Both technology and human resources were used extensively for contact tracing, quarantining, and pathogenic management. While all these measures helped in a successful containment initially, the second wave of COVID-19 cases emerged at the foreign worker dormitories, affecting thousands of workers. Singapore’s approach in tackling the situation shifted rapidly and began to involve civil society organizations and individuals in the fight against the virus. In this paper, we argue that while state-led technologies such asTraceTogether and Safe Entry helped in the techno-governance of bodies on the move, bottom-up digital solutions, and innovative engagement of individuals are equally crucial in building a smart and resilient Singapore.