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NTU Singapore and AI company SenseTime set up Talent Programme

2019-09-30

SenseTime, a world-leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) today launched the SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme to nurture researchers working at the forefront of AI related fields such as deep learning and computer vision.


Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) under its Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP), the new tie-up will see selected PhD candidates earn their postgraduate degree at NTU while working on SenseTime’s research projects.


The research projects will address areas related to deep learning, an aspect of AI that is concerned with emulating the learning approach that humans use to gain certain types of knowledge, and computer vision, which involves computers identifying and processing images like human vision does, and then providing the appropriate output, action or analysis.


This is SenseTime’s first university talent programme in Singapore. Besides joint supervision from NTU and SenseTime, candidates may also get the opportunity to carry out research at SenseTime’s facilities in other cities beyond Singapore.


Founded in Hong Kong in 2014, SenseTime has developed a wide range of AI technologies such as face recognition, image recognition, object recognition, video analysis and autonomous driving. In 2018, SenseTime was entrusted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to establish the National Open Innovation Platform for Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence on Intelligent Vision, making the company the 5th national AI platform in China (along with Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent and iFLYTEK).


Mr Jeff Shi, Vice President of Strategy, SenseTime, said, “With our tremendous R&D and commercialisation experience in AI, we deeply understand that one key factor to success is talent. Through the SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme, SenseTime aims to cultivate a batch of local AI experts who would help drive the country forward in the AI era. Leveraging our expertise in AI, we hope not only to develop potential AI experts, but also to enrich the ecosystem in Singapore by advancing AI technology together with local communities as well as public and private sectors.”


NTU Singapore is recognised as a leading university in AI research, ranked second globally by Nikkei and Elsevier for having the most-cited research papers in AI and data science, after computer giant Microsoft. NTU is also part of the Global AI Academic Alliance, an initiative by SenseTime, which brings together top-notch universities worldwide to promote international collaboration in AI.


NTU Provost and Vice President (Academic) Professor Ling San said, “Artificial intelligence and digital technology play indispensable roles in the future economy. The SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme will give our PhD students a rigorous environment to learn and apply new knowledge and ideas. At the same time, they will also gain valuable skillsets from close interactions with the industrial mentors at SenseTime.”


The SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme is part of the Singapore Economic Development Board’s (EDB) Industrial Postgraduate Programme, an initiative to train postgraduate students in R&D through working on projects with companies in Singapore.


Mr Ang Chin Tah, Director of Infocomms and Media at EDB, said, “Singapore’s ambition is to be a world class centre for AI and tech innovation. We are proud to partner with SenseTime and NTU Singapore to launch this programme, which will build up a strong pipeline of local AI talent to tackle problem statements across healthcare, safety, finance, and smart cities.”


The four-year SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme is open to Singapore citizens and Singapore permanent residents.


Candidates will have to meet the university’s admission and academic requirements and would have obtained a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or other related areas.


Successful candidates will join SenseTime as full-time employees while pursuing full-time PhD studies at NTU.


The programme will support each candidate’s tuition fees for four years, as well as provide a monthly stipend of S$5,000. The candidate may also have the opportunity to work on SenseTime’s projects in other cities, in addition to financial support for conferences and other benefits.


Application for the SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme is open, and deadline for the August 2019 intake will be on 8 March 2019.


Interested applicants will need to submit their applications concurrently to NTU and SenseTime.


NTU admissions portal:


https://admissions.ntu.edu.sg/graduate/R-Programs/R-WhenYouApply/Pages/R-ApplyOnline.aspx


SenseTime-NTU Talent Programme email:


sensetime-ntu@ntu.edu.sg