Student Achievements 2023

Here are some of the accolades garnered by our students and alumni:

Global Essay Competition 2023 at the 52nd St. Gallen Symposium

Current SUTD Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) PhD student and alumna of the Master of Engineering - Innovation by Design programme (Class of 2021), Doreen Steven Mlote, was selected as one of the top 100 authors in the Global Essay Competition 2023. The competition is part of the 52nd St. Gallen Symposium which was held from 3 May to 5 May 2023 in Switzerland.

Doreen’s essay, titled ‘Built to Last or Built to Reuse – Creating a Sustainable Legacy Through the Necessary Transition from Designing for Building’s Durability to Designing for Disassembly and Adaptability’, describes a way that the building industry can contribute towards sustainability and environmental protection, and the necessary transition required for a net-zero promising future. Design for Disassembly and Adaptability is presented in the essay as a promising way to achieve a closed-loop material flow system for sustainable construction processes.

Conversations with representatives from Youth Achievement Awards.

As one of the top authors, Doreen was invited on a sponsored trip to participate at the Symposium with fellow Leaders of Tomorrow who represent the younger generation and are change makers in their respective fields.


The St. Gallen Symposium is a global platform for cross-generational dialogue and collaboration, which brings together leaders of today and tomorrow from business, politics, science and civil society to foster mutual understanding and joint action on the world’s most pressing issues and challenges.

Six SUTD Faculty, Alumni and Student in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Class of 2023

Six SUTD faculty, alumni and student join the 300 outstanding young trailblazers of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Class of 2023. They are:

• Assistant Professor Xiong Zehui from SUTD’s Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) Pillar;

• Engineering Product Development (EPD) alumni Eleora Teo Jia Yee (Class of 2019) and Johannes Brian Sunarko (Class of 2021);

• Computer Science and Design* (CSD) alumni Aravind Kandiah and Charles Wong (both Class of 2019); and

• EPD PhD student Denzel Lee.

Assistant Professor Xiong Zehui is recognised for his research in AI.

Under the category of Healthcare & Science, Assistant Prof Xiong is recognised for his research in Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science and wireless technology; while Eleora (Jia Yee) and Johannes, together with their co-founder Abel Teo, are featured for their med-tech startup Castomize.

Johannes (centre) and Eleora (right) are featured for their startup Castomize along with co-founder Abel Teo (left). (Image credit: forbes.com)


Co-founders Aravind and Charles are honoured under the category of Enterprise Technology for the achievements of their startup Bifrost AI in fields of generative AI and synthetic data.

Denzel Lee (left) with his co-founder Keechin Goh from Datature. (Image credit: Denzel Lee)

Also selected in the category of Enterprise Technology are Denzel Lee and his co-founder Keechin Goh, whose company Datature helps professionals without coding skills to build machine learning applications.

The Class of 2023 honourees were vetted and selected from over 4,000 candidates by the Forbes Asia team and a panel of independent, expert judges. In its eighth year, the 2023 list features a diverse set of young entrepreneurs and leaders who are championing innovations within their respective fields, with 20 countries and territories represented across the Asia-Pacific region.

* SUTD’s Computer Science and Design (CSD) degree programme was previously named Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) prior to 2020.

SUTD Athletes Win at 2023 SEA Games

Image credits: Team Singapore

Four SUTD alumni and students were part of Team Singapore at the 2023 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 5 to 17 May.

Jezamine Chua, Master of Architecture (M.Arch) alumna from Class of 2017, won the Bronze medal in Wrestling Women’s Freestyle Under 76kg. (Watch: Highlights of the match and interview)

Heather Lee Xuan Hui, Engineering Systems and Design (ESD) alumna from Class of 2022, was part of the women’s Water Polo team that took home the Silver medal. (Watch: Highlights of the water polo team’s win)

Foo Wenxin, ESD Junior, was part of the women’s Floorball team which emerged champions. (Read: Floorball: Singapore sweep aside Thailand to take third SEA Games women’s title)

Ong Jung Yi, current Freshmore student, won the Gold medal in Men’s Swimming 200m Butterfly. This is also his first Gold at the Games. (Watch: Singapore's Ong Jung Yi finally captures his 1st-ever 200m fly gold medal)

Silver and Best Green Innovation Awards at AYDA Awards

With her project ‘Living Building - A Hybrid Approach to Future Architecture’, Master of Architecture alumna (Class of 2022) Grace Teo Yu Cheng has won the Silver and Best Green Innovation awards in the Architecture category of the Nippon Paint AYDA Awards 2022.

In light of the climate crisis, Grace explores the integral use of plants complemented by artificial materials, in modular living systems for buildings to achieve a lower carbon footprint and reduce emissions. With plants playing a significant role in buildings, experience of spaces within is also altered with the potential to influence a low carbon lifestyle.


Inspired by her love for the outdoors and exploring nature trails, Grace hopes to bring such new spatial experiences into architecture through her designs.

The AYDA Awards (previously known as Asia Young Designer Awards) was first launched in 2008 as part of Nippon Paint’s vision to nurture the next generation of design talents, serving as a platform to inspire Architectural and Interior Design students to develop their skills through cross-learning and networking opportunities with key industry players and fellow peers in the region.

JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Singapore

SUTD alumna Pek Yun Ning (ESD, Class of 2019) has been awarded the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Singapore by Junior Chamber International (JCI), in the category of ‘Moral and/or Environmental Leadership’.

Yun Ning is currently Chairman, CEO and Founder of SGP Foods, dedicated to building Singapore’s food and climate resilience through development of proprietary technologies and processes.

JCI is a nonprofit organisation of young individuals committed to creating impact in their communities. The TOYP award recognises and highlights the leadership, contributions and achievements of the recipients in areas such as technological development, human rights and entrepreneurship.