Join USP alum Fairoz Ahmad (Sociology + USP, Class of 2008) for a sharing session on his new book titled “Interpreter of Winds” – read more at USP Achievements. This session will be moderated by USP faculty member Dr Lai Ah Eng. Everyone is invited!

The QR Centre is hosting a talk by USP faculty Dr Miguel Escobar Varela, entitled “Digital Humanities and The Data-driven Analysis of Indonesian Theatre”. Join this interesting session as Dr Varela shares about his work, offering an exciting look into the application of quantitative tools in the humanities. This includes how methods ranging from network analysis, computational linguistics and geospatial analysis can be used to look at Indonesian theatre from a different angle.

Join The Sessions as they invite US Embassy Singapore Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, former US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak, and USP faculty Dr Quek Ser Hwee for a chat and lively discussion with USP students on US-Singapore relations.

Organised by The Cinnamon Conversation and initiated by students, this is a series of informal and relaxed conversations with invited guests. This week, we will have with us Mr Baey Yam Keng, Member of Parliament, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Transport, and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Join Mr Baey for a chat and lively discussion on prospects of youth, life as a politician and the local arts scene.

In this session organised by USP-FASS peer mentors, participants will get to know and chat with several “books” to learn about their internship experiences in various industries – public sector, local arts scene, media, consulting, marketing and many more. Alfred Lim (USP Career Services) will also share on upcoming career workshops, as well as how you can maximise your internship exposure.

As USP students, we have the prerogative to understand what intellectualism truly means and its place in our world today. How important is it, really? How much does academic excellence define an intellectual, and is intellectualism a quality that should be attributed to USP as a community and to its individuals? How has the definition and perception of ‘intellectualism’ changed over the years? Join us as we discuss these questions with USP graduates from all walks of life to gleam insight to where intellectualism has brought them and where it has failed to bring them, so we may learn to steward intellectual capacity meaningfully!

Organised by the Cinnamon Conversation and initiated by students, they invite the co-founders of Our Grandfather Story (OGS) to share anything from media, creative storytelling to managing a business. OGS is a digital video publisher featuring stories such as those of local childhood treats (and where they came from) and stories about heritage and traditions in Singapore.

Organised by USP students, there will be music and spoken word live performance, featuring USP Livecore and USP students who are excited to share some spicy tunes, stories, and poems. 

Join The Sessions for their final event of the semester as they invite Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development, for a chat and lively discussion with USP students on Singapore’s social policy and approach to inequality.

The Sessions invites Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for a chat and lively discussion with USP students on Singapore’s bilateral relations with the major powers and our immediate neighbours, as well as how we can navigate turbulent waters of world politics today.

USP Visiting Professor, Prof Willerboordse, will be conducting two talks on Bitcoin. We strongly encouraged USP community to join these interesting sessions. Mon, 22 Oct (2nd talk) > Bitcoin: Chaining the World Block by Block Following the 1st talk on 15 Oct, this talk explains in reasonable detail how bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology work. The objective is to discuss the technological ingredients that go into the blockchain, its most well-known implementation – bitcoin – and the possible ramications for the wider financial industry. Read the abstract HERE.

USP Visiting Professor, Prof Willerboordse, will be conducting two talks on Bitcoin. We strongly encouraged USP community to join these interesting sessions. 1st talk: Why Polar Bears Hate Bitcoin This talk gives an overview of Bitcoin, how it works and the possibly ground-breakingte chnology it is based on, and explains why, if polar bears would know about them, they’d really dislike them. Technical details will be discussed in the second talk on 22 Oct.  Read the abstract HERE.

USPolymath will be having its second session for the semester. The line-up ranges from bringing awareness about a niche industry, providing fitness inspiration pro-tips, and re-examining your deepest heartfelt convictions. USPolymath is a platform for speakers to present about any topic they are passionate about using the Pecha Kucha format (20 slides x 20 seconds each).

The Cinnamon Conversation team has organised a session for students to explore USP International Programmes including short-term programmes and long-term programmes as well as NUS Overseas College. Using the Human Library format, the aim is to provide informal, free-form sharing sessions where individuals can ‘hop in and out of conversations’.

USPolymath will be having its first session for the semester. The line-up ranges from dealing with uncertainty to analysing the addictive factors of your favourite go-to songs to sharing the history of RAG. USPolymath is a platform for speakers to present about any topic they are passionate about using the Pecha Kucha format (20 slides x 20 seconds each).

Join The Sessions as they invite Mr Tommaso Demarie, Co-founder and CEO at Entropica Labs, for a chat and lively debate with USP students on Quantum Computing – one of the popular fields in engineering now. Quantum Computing has a wide array of real-world applications from online security to climate change prediction, artificial intelligence, and even traffic optimatisation. In particular, they will discuss about what Quantum Computing is, how computing models have changed with our understanding of physics, and it’s many multidisciplinary applications. No background knowledge is needed as there will be an introductory lecture by Mr Demarie.

The USP Ambassadors team will be sharing in detail what it means to be a USP Ambassador, including event timeline and its training sessions, mini projects, and application details. Application to be a USP Ambassador opens from 21 Aug to 28 Aug. Application details will be sent separately via email, so keep a lookout.

The terms “Harmony” and “Social Cohesiveness” are often used interchangeably, but they mean differently. Join The Sessions as it invites Mr Viswa Sadasivan, CEO of Strategic Moves, for a lively debate with USP students on the correlation between these two ideas. Whilst harmony has benefitted society in terms of stability and economic growth, continued stress on this can and will erode the trust between Singaporean communities. Faults could appear along racial and socio-economic lines amongst others. We would need to find appropriate ways to deepen public trust and acceptance (beyond tolerance), without necessarily eroding the harmony we have achieved over the years.

Are you interested in understanding how your passion can be used for meaningful advocacy? Ever wondered what does it take to sustain a social enterprise? Or even, how does one cope with mental illnesses? Love, USP has invited Ms Zhong Pei Rong, founder of Bakery Wellness to join us for a meaningful conversation addressing these questions. Do come on down and sign up via bit.ly/bakerywellness :) there will be cookies and all are invited!

USPolymath is a ground-up platform for USP students to showcase their ideas in an intimate setting. Speakers wlll present in a ‘Pecha Kucha’ format (20 slides x 20 seconds) about any topic they are passionate about. Join this session tonight at the USP Chatterbox as USP students present on a range of topics. “Character Development IRL - Liminal Spaces!” - Jaymee Justiniano “A Defense of Pessimism in the Face of Our Inevitable Deaths” - Zhang Yiyue “How to Get Away with Murder” - Cheah Wenjie “Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Society’s Reasonable Burden?” - Chester Su Check out USPolymath archive for past sessions!

Ever googled “blockchain” to find pages full of technical jargon or conflicting stances? Dabbling in cryptocurrency or feel lost when your friends are talking about their investments? Perhaps just curious to learn about blockchain while bingeing on eclairs? The Sessions will be holding a discussion on "Blockchain and Cryptocurrency" to increase awareness of the technology, its opportunities and inevitabilities. The conversation will be led by these USP alums and student: • David Tan is a software developer who is guardedly excited about crypto and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is currently exploring the possible use of technology to improve our mental and physical health. • Tomithy Too works with ST Telemedia as a seeker and investor in technology companies in AI, Cybersecurity and Cloud. He also dabbles in areas like crypto and angel investing. • Zhai Yunjie is a Year 4, Psychology + USP student who was a blockchain analyst in Intrepid Ventures, which invests in and builds blockchain-based entities.

In this session under The Rector’s Programme, students can get to engage with A/P Simon Tay from NUS Law on the topic of “Environment and Transboundary Effects – How Should We Care?”. Prof Tay was formerly the Chairman of the National Environment Agency of Singapore, a Nominated Member of Parliament (focusing on Civil Society, Environment and Human Rights), Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (an independent think tank), and Eminent Expert to the International Advisory Panel on Transboundary Pollution and on the National Climate Change Network.

Volunteering internationally is rarely just about doing good or being responsible to the "Third World". USP alum Prof Sin Harng Luh, now working in the NUS Department of Geography, has written critical articles questioning the role of voluntourism in encouraging performed dependencies, and in the inherently biased power structures in the host-volunteer relationships. Yet, rarely would she tell people not to volunteer - in fact, she often strongly encourage volunteering. Why? Come find out at our first Sessions event of the year! Sign up here: tinyurl.com/tourismsession

In this session, meet our four USP alums who are contributors to the 2017 and 2018’s The Birthday Book. They are: Christopher Chok (History + USP, Class of 2014) — “Always Becoming”, 2017 Edition Justin Daniel Pereira (Sociology + USP, Class of 2015) — “Meritocracy and the new Narrative”, 2017 Edition Varun Soni (Engineering Science + USP, Class of 2015) — The Birthday Book 2018 contributor Goh Wei Leong (Business + LKYSPP + USP, Class of 2017) — The Birthday Book 2018 contributor They will share their thoughts on Singapore’s future and discuss about the stories you would like to share about tomorrow’s Singapore.

USP writer-in-residence Miriam Bird Greenberg invites a Zimbabwean advocate for refugee rights, Innocent Mutanga, who is also a former asylum seeker to share his own experience navigating the refugee process in Hong Kong. All are welcome, do join Miriam and her guest speaker for this session!

USP Adjunct Professor Dr Mustafa Izzuddin has invited the Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam as a distinguished guest speaker for his module, “UCV2209: The Heterogeneous Indians of Contemporary Singapore”. In this session, Minister Shanmugam will be addressing the topic “Should Singapore Matter? Challenges and Opportunities of a Small State in a Complex World”. All are welcome, so come join this session for a lively discussion with our minister!

USP faculty Dr Pamela Pun, who teaches the Sciences and Technologies module “UPC2210 - Energy in Singapore: Is Technology the Answer?”, has invited Mr Chee Hong Tat, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Health and Communications and Information, to speak to USP students. Mr Chee has an interesting background in the Energy Market Authority prior to entering politics. Facilitated by The Sessions, there will be breakout sessions to discuss and bounce off ideas with Mr Chee and fellow participants. We look forward to active participation from the USP community.

As part of this week’s Mental Health week, NUS Mental Health Wing is organising a night of open conversations and heartfelt sharing by professionals with USP students about youth mental health issues. This event is supported by USP and NUS Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme.

All students are welcome to join Miriam in the series of poetry workshop to explore: • What is the “responsibility of the poet”? • How do poetry and the arts fit into a social justice framework? • What are the ways fieldwork can inform and enrich creative writing and academic scholarship? • What less tangible “ways of knowing “ can poetry offer that other fields do not

Enrich your learning repertoire outside the classroom, share ideas, philosophy on education and research through close interaction with USP Fellows at the upcoming tea session! For the list of USP Fellows, click here.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping, a former journalist detained under the ISA turned an entrepreneur who founded the Singapore Management University and the Banyan Tree Group, will be speaking at this dialogue session on Alternate Views in Singapore together with USP Rector Ms Euleen Goh. The Sessions team invites all USP students and staff to come discuss topics such as Freedom of Speech in Singapore, Social Media Journalism, Fake News and others.

Last August, six members of the USP community contributed to "The Birthday Book", a collection of 51 essays presented as a gift from young and passionate Singaporeans to the nation on its 51st birthday. In this session, they will be sharing their thoughts on their essays with the USP community. Copies of the book will also be on sale. The session will be moderated by USP faculty A/P Barbara Ryan.

The Sessions is a platform for individuals in USP to host discussions with distinguished speakers, exchange ideas and opinions about issues that they were concerned with/interested in.  Join The Sessions at their inaugural session to revive USP’s Interfaith! Share your journey through your faith with fellow USP students through the topic - What Does Your Faith Say About Interfaith? All are welcome.

Conversations@8 is a series of informal gatherings of USP alumni and students. In this session, USP alumni, Marvin Kang and Low Yee Loong will share on their initiatives at The Apprenticeship Collective (TAC). TAC volunteers work with schools in Singapore to create opportunities that allow students to learn the basics of particular professions from volunteer mentors (with day jobs!) who are currently working in the field. They help students explore and investigate different futures, different paths - to discover and define their purpose, passions and interests. Maybe you 'd like to volunteer as a mentor or as a coordinator? Or perhaps you'd like to chat and see if there's anything you'd like to do. Join us for the evening and find out where you can fit in!

USPolymath aims to set the stage for the continuation of a greater USP culture of intellectual sharing and interesting conversations, regardless of batch or background...this session will be another series of firsts, first freshie speaker (Eunice), in addition to our first exchange speaker (David). Topics for the night include: “What on earth is blockchain?” by Zheng Weihan “Plato’s Cave: Why We’re Still Trapped” by David Louis Chaim Blanga “Maybe it’s this world that’s crazy, not you” by Eunice Lim Chian Hwee “Pokémon Go!” by Ryan Paul Augustine Lim Complimentary freshly brewed Rooibos Tea, caffeine free!

This is part of the series of “Dinner Conversations” aimed at encouraging USP students to explore new horizons of work by interacting with USP Fellows over dinner. Each session will consist of one Fellow and three to five students. For this week, Prof Chong Chi Tat and Prof Lai Choy Heng will each interact closely with a group of USP students on an interesting topic. Find out more about their topic conversations here.

This is part of the series of “Dinner Conversations” aimed at encouraging USP students to explore new horizons of work by interacting with USP Fellows over dinner. Each session will consist of one Fellow and three to five students. For the upcoming week, A/P John Holbo and A/P Luke O’Sullivan (below) will interact closely with a group of USP students on an interesting topic. Find out more about their topic conversations here. You may wish to contact Lee Koon at uspalk@nus.edu.sg for more details.