For the past year, The Bartlett's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) has been in discussions to set up a partnership with Singapore Management University.
On Wednesday 20 June, at a ceremony in London, an official agreement was signed by Professor Alan Penn, Dean of The Bartlett, and Professor Lily Kong, SMU Provost (also a UCL alumna, having gained her PhD from the Department of Geography).
The ceremony was attended by delegations from both CASA and SMU, and followed by a seminar in which researchers from both institutions presented summaries of their latest research to an audience of students and staff.
Towards a new 'dual degree' for SMU students
This important new relationship will see a handful of top-performing students from SMU’s Smart City Management and Technology BSc course coming to London every year to study on CASA’s Smart Cities and Urban Analytics MSc programme.
The BSc at SMU normally takes four years, but the brightest and best students will be awarded their undergraduate degree after three years in Singapore to enable them to come to London for their fourth year.
On completion of their Master’s degree at UCL, the students will obtain a special ‘dual degree’, making this a very significant partnership for both institutions, and giving the students a unique opportunity to experience two world-renowned learning environments.
Speaking after the signing, Dr Adam Dennett, Deputy Director of CASA and Course Director for the Smart Cities and Urban Analytics MSc, commented:
This is a very exciting partnership for CASA. The School of Information Systems at SMU carry out the kind of applied, urban-focused modelling and data analytics research that is very familiar to us here. I went to Singapore last year and witnessed first-hand the extremely high quality research and teaching carried out at SMU, and will look forward to welcoming a select group of graduates every year onto our Smart Cities and Urban Analytics MSc. We also look forward to future research collaborations with our new colleagues as the partnership develops.
CASA-SMU research seminar
The signing was followed by a joint seminar, during which researchers from both institutions presented their latest research. The topics ranged from chat-bot apps that encourage student participation to how real-time data visualisations can enhance our understanding of cities.
Speakers from SMU
- Dr Tan Kar Way – Innovative IT solutions for the Future of Business and Society
- Dr Michelle Cheong – Using AI and Telegram for teaching and learning
Speakers from CASA
- Dr Adam Dennett (Deputy Director, CASA; Course Director: Smart Cities and Urban Analytics MSc) – Introduction to the MSc programme
- Kira Kempińska – GPS 2.0: Engineering Next-Gen Location
- Richard Milton – QUANT: A Website for Spatial Interaction Modelling
- Elsa Arcaute – Hierarchies in urban systems: The case of the UK
- Flora Roumpani – Smart Urban: Sensors, OpenData, The Crowd and the Internet of Things
- Steven Gray – Enhancing Geospatial Data Collection and Visualisation via Custom Toolkits, Consumer Devices and Mass Participation
- Professor Duncan Wilson – Connected Environments
