Volunteerism is an integral part of SMU’s DNA and staff and students alike actively engage in diverse types of community service. Staff from SMU’s Office of the Registrar found a meaningful way to build bonds with their colleagues last year when they accompanied seniors from an active ageing centre on an excursion.

SMU Professor David Lo has been honoured as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ACM Fellows represent the most prestigious member grade in ACM, the largest professional organisation for computing, which boasts a global membership of 110,000.

Creating sustainable cities demands large initial investments, but the benefits of these sustainable cities often take many years to materialise. This challenge was the inspiration behind the theme for the SMU City Dialogue session hosted on 18 January 2024.

SMU’s Industry Project-Based Experiential Learning (INDEX) programme, also referred to as SMU-X, won Gold and Silver at the prestigious international awards.

Creating sustainable cities demands large initial investments, but the benefits of these sustainable cities often take many years to materialise. This challenge was the inspiration behind the theme for the SMU City Dialogue session hosted on 18 January 2024.

The new SMU Urban Institute (UI) is dedicated to multi- and inter-disciplinary research on cities in Asia and was launched in response to trends that underscore a critical need to prioritise urban research. These include the rapid urbanisation of many Asian cities, and the need for policymakers to face increasingly complex and pressing challenges when it comes to balancing urban growth with the development of resilient and sustainable cities.

As a university, SMU has showed continued commitment to creating meaningful impact by engaging with the community and conducting research with direct societal impact. One of the most important considerations for multi-racial and multi-religious Singapore is to ensure that the diverse population lives harmoniously together – an area which overlaps with SMU Assistant Professor of Psychology Jacinth Tan’s research interests in social status and inequality.

From August to November 2023, SMU Libraries hosted artist Priyageetha Dia in its inaugural Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programme. She worked on research concerning the communist insurgency during the Malayan Emergency and the role of rubber plantations in the Cold War that was concurrently developing at about the same time.  “This area of study is not only historically rich but also complex, requiring a deep dive into various aspects of political, social, and economic narratives of that era,” she explains.

On 16 November 2023, the SMU Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) held a gathering to appreciate and celebrate the contributions of SMU’s alumni volunteers – just one of the many ways that the University’s alumni constantly step up to give back to the SMU Community. Giving the welcome address, Ms Florence Neo, director of Alumni Relations, thanked the alumni for their contribution in time, talent, ties, and testimonials to the SMU community.