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The Singapore Institute of Technology, it's opening its doors for firms to tap into its infrastructure, collaborations, and student talent. This will help them test and develop innovations, be it in AI, cyber security, or even healthcare, gaining access to resources and expertise amid the wider Pongal Digital District where the university sits in. Students will also enjoy more internship and work opportunities.
Speaking at the opening of SIT's Pongul campus, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong says it can be an ecosystem for closer partnerships among companies, students, and the government. SIT is transforming this campus into a rich field of possibilities. Students and staff will have firsthand experience in seeing ideas move from lab to the marketplace. and companies can test out concepts here before refining and improving them and bringing them to a wider audience. Many of these innovations may start small within the campus, but they have the potential to be scaled up and deployed more widely across Singapore.
The Pongal Digital District will act as a precinct size test bid for SIT, making it easier to quickly scale up innovative ideas and allowing the university to trial projects in areas like AI and quantum safe cyber security. SIT is also partnering with the InfoCom Media Development Agency to refine safety standards for public robots. Our students don't just learn from the textbook but they can learn from doing things engaging with real systems whether it is the uh district cooling system or the micro grid that we have that powers the campus right the students can have access to real systems and real system data to work on our intention is not limited to just a campus now it extends to the entire precinct.
The University is also collaborating with Skills Future Singapore to roll out online skills assessments in areas like AI, problem solving and communication. This will allow organizations to better understand gaps in their worker skill sets and allow individuals to better identify the skills they need to develop. Companies like Global Telco Starhub will be among the first to implement these assessments to evaluate their workforce. So this is very powerful because it means that instead of only going for causes then you get your transcript or to a degree or qualification perhaps you could have learned a skill somewhere picked it up from informal learning or from book experience now you can have that skills validated and it can be now in your career skills passport as a record.
SIT is also setting up a new innovation as a service platform that allows me to tap into its facilities academic staff and students to help them develop market ready solutions. The university has collaborated with overseas partners in China to enhance research and student learning opportunities in robotics, maritime tech, and AI. And more work and internship opportunities are also in store for SIT's 11,000 students as the university prepares to welcome firms to set up shop on campus. Muhammad Bahaj with this report.
The size of about 13 football fields, the completed SIT Pongal campus is set to boost applied learning for its students. There are dedicated spaces for firms to set up offices. These include collaborations from businesses like Nvidia and OCBC. We have actually designated one out of 10 buildings for industry facing initiatives. Within this building, we can engage in applied research upscaling initiatives. But at the same time um the labs the the rest of the spaces within the campus are quite flexible. So uh we can actually you know uh use one of these uh research labs in the campus to collaborate with the industry uh as and when needed.
I'm here at the Pongul Heritage Trail which is at the heart of the SIT campus. It is about 400 m long with plans to expand to over three times next year. It connects nearby spaces and classrooms along with this building that will house firms and organizations creating a deeper connection between students, job opportunities and real world learning. Situated in the Pongol Digital District, SIT will also let its students tap new opportunities with companies in the area. That presence in the Pongo digital district give us that real advantage to be allowing that academic industry nexus to be strengthened and to really walk the talk of actually strengthened between university as well as an industry. We have got many firms that we are working with. Um Gtech is one that we work closely with and we get to know more about what they're doing as well. And then Nvidia of course when it comes to AI.
Students will also get to interact with advanced sustainability features within the campus. Eco-friendly features bring at least 40% of energy savings while a district cooling system also improves energy efficiency by a third. More social spaces have been carved in the campus to foster a deeper sense of community. The main thing was that the students really wanted a sense of home, a sense of belonging and identity. We realized that the informal spaces, the in between spaces for the in between times um was really important. They have pockets of uh study areas, resting points, lookout positions that people can just enjoy the campus and also for memories.
With academia and industry integrated within the campus, SIT will hope to create a vibrant learning environment for its students.