Events

As cities confront climate change, urbanisation, and environmental degradation, sustainable development is increasingly urgent. Landscape performance, which evaluates how outdoor spaces function socially, environmentally, and economically, offers a valuable framework for building resilient, equitable, and livable cities. Grounded in ecosystem services science, it enables planners, designers, and policymakers to make informed decisions based on measurable outcomes rather than aesthetics or tradition. This presentation examines three case studies from the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation Program, where researchers, practitioners, users, and stakeholders assess long-term design impacts. Findings show how performance metrics inform planning—enhancing biodiversity, reducing runoff, and improving health and walkability—while also guiding integration into education and practice to promote environmental and community well-being.

Discussions on AI veer from comfort in its promises of abundance for all human lives, to discomfort that we will abandon all that makes us human. In this talk, we unpack this polarisation.

ISTD COIL Seminar by Tan Jiaqi – In this talk, some of the techniques that cybersecurity practitioners and researchers use today, and how the cybersecurity research that is done at DSO National Laboratories help to keep critical computers and software systems in Singapore safe from cyber-attacks will be shared.

ESD Distinguished Speaker Seminar by Thomas Magnanti – Hear how the founding president of SUTD designed our academic programmes and the approaches and culture that have guided him throughout these initiatives.

ISTD Seminar by Wang Dongxia – This talk presents our recent efforts to bridge gaps, ranging from human-aligned LLM safety/over-safety evaluation and enhancement, region-aware AI social value study, mechanism reliability investigation to downstream industrial applications, collectively advancing trustworthy deployable LLM-centric AI.

There will be two talks during this seminar by speakers from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and University of Sussex. Refreshments will be provided, so do register!

As Asia experiences rapid urbanization – home to over half of the world’s megacities and projected to account for 40% of global smart city investment by 2025 – governments and businesses are increasingly turning to smart city solutions to manage growth. These technologies offer opportunities to improve urban services but also raise important  concerns, including

ISTD COIL Seminar – Learn to build, run, and deploy your applications anywhere using containers. Through the 2 guest lectures & online learning course, you will be able to explain the fundamentals of Docker and containerisation.

This paper examines how people evaluate the creativity of AI-generated versus human-made artworks. Using commissioned works in three styles (charcoal animals, minimalist logos, and watercolor landscapes) researchers generated AI versions with Stable Diffusion. Participants rated each artwork’s creativity (0–10) and bid in auctions to assess monetary value. AI-generated landscapes were rated more creative and received higher bids. Creativity perceptions were influenced by detail, scene composition, and color use. Interestingly, visual errors did not reduce, and sometimes enhanced, creativity ratings. The study concludes that participants often preferred AI-generated art, particularly landscapes, due to their higher aesthetic appeal and creative presentation.

HASS Colloquium by Ryan Holroyd – This presentation will map the structure of Chinese maritime trade in Southeast Asia from about 1570, during the Ming dynasty. It will then compare this structure to the Chinese shipping network that was re-established after the Qing dynasty’s conquest of Taiwan and the legalisation of private maritime trade in 1684.