Wee Hur + SUTD Sustainability & Awareness Night

On 20 March, Wee Hur Holdings and SUTD co-organised the Wee Hur + SUTD Sustainability & Awareness Night to connect industry partners to SUTD faculty and student start-ups and facilitate future collaborations that marry long-term investment goals with sustainability and AI. The event revealed a strong interest in sustainability and AI development in Singapore, with a turnout from 51 companies from a variety of industries, notably engineering and finance.

In his welcome speech, Mr Goh Wee Ping, Chief Investment Officer of Wee Hur Holdings, told the guests that he “genuinely wanted Wee Hur’s network of friends to know SUTD better” and is “equally pleased to mention that Wee Hur is also considering to be a strong supporter of SUTD”. His support stems from his belief that “SUTD is in a position to posture Singapore to compete with the rest of the world in uncovering better technologies and solutions” that can tackle current and future environmental and societal challenges.

The evening saw enthusiastic responses to the plans and projects presented by SUTD leadership, faculty, and graduates. Professor Tai Lee Siang, Deputy President and Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer (CIEO), spoke about SUTD’s commitment to advancing sustainability research and initiatives, and that sustainability has always been a cornerstone of the SUTD curriculum.

Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar’s Assistant Professor Peter Ortner and Assistant Professor Immanuel Koh presented on their respective brain children that support the future of architecture — Net Zero Futures Lab and the Design Brain. The Net Zero Futures Lab is an interdisciplinary group that develops digital tools and design processes that enable architectural projects to achieve net zero energy, while the Design Brain is an AI platform that enriches the way architectural designs are created and realised.

Associate Professor Mohan Rajesh Elara from the Engineering Product Development (EPD) pillar shared on reconfigurable robots and their application in areas such as education, industrial and commercial cleaning, logistics, and building inspection. He also touched on the recent RoboRoarZ Singapore 2025, an annual robotics competition for pre-university students hosted by SUTD, which cultivates creativity and collaboration with the use of Smorphi, a reconfigurable robotic platform.

Following a round of networking, student start-ups Smoodee and Seaforms took the stage to share their motivations and start-up journeys. Both start-ups are centred around sustainability, but in very different ways. Smoodee co-founder, Sharryl Seto (CSD, Class of 2024), explained that Smoodee tackles Singapore’s significant food waste and nutritional deficits in the general population. Ugly fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be disposed are saved and freeze-dried into powder, which becomes a smoothie when mixed with water or other liquids. Smoodee is thus a convenient way to achieve nutritional goals while making consumption more sustainable.

On the other hand, Seaforms tackles environmental sustainability head-on. Co-founders, Julius Ang (EPD, Class of 2022) and Dino Chia (EPD, Class of 2022), shared their mission to restore coral reefs and marine ecosystems with an electric reef system they developed from existing models. The electric reef systems create a calcium-rich environment which helps corals to grow back and faster, which has implications for the livelihoods of coastal communities, marine biodiversity, and coastal protection. So far, Seaforms has seen success in deploying the electric reef systems to multiple locations in the region.

SUTD would like to thank Wee Hur Holdings and guests for the enthusiasm shown towards our work in sustainability and AI.