Mr Richard Koh
Chief Technology and Security Officer, Microsoft
Mr Laurence Liew
Director, AISG
Industry Partners and Friends from Microsoft and AISG
ITE Colleagues and Students
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
The use of AI is growing across a wide variety of sectors from transportation, logistics, manufacturing and finance to education, healthcare, urban planning and management, safety and security. Countries around the world are investing heavily in AI research and development as well as the nurturing of AI talents with the aim of propelling and sustaining long-term economic growth and protecting national security. According to the Investment Monitor’s ranking, US leads in AI investment and talent and Singapore is ranked second with Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Finland and Germany closing in.
AI Horizontal and Vertical Competency
AI is both a horizontal competency cutting across different industry sectors as well as a vertical specialised competency. Since 2020, ITE requires all Year 1 students (14,000) to master baseline AI Competencies. They learn through AISG’s AI4E programme. We also include relevant AI applications and use cases in the different courses e.g. use of IoT, sensors, data analytics for predictive maintenance in facility management course, use of chatbot for customer service in business and hospitality courses.
For students intending to specialise in AI, we offer the AI Applications Higher Nitec course as well as Work-Study Dipoma in AI as well as collaborate with Microsoft to enable students to boost their AI credentials by achieving industry certifications such as Microsoft Certified Azure AI Fundamentals and Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate.
ITE is glad to have the strong support of Microsoft and AISG for the development of this AI training facility. This AI Lab is both a teaching facility and a hub for our staff and student to explore AI tools, develop AI applications and apply responsible AI principles and governance.
‘Movie-fication’ Pedagogy
I am particularly proud of my staff for developing the unique movie-based pedagogical approach. This approach triggers great motivation and keen desire among our students to learn AI more deeply. We use films like ‘Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘Matrix Revolution’ to discuss machine learning, the possibility of a battle between humans and machines and the unimaginable disastrous consequences of rogue elements in AI.
Students’ AI Projects
Our collaboration to deepen our students digital and AI competencies are already yielding good results. Today, we will see some applications which the students have developed using Microsoft’s Azure and AISG’s AI Bricks:
- Detection of Non-Returning of Utensils
This application detects non-returned utensils and alert diners in hawker centres. It uses pre-trained video and image analytics to detect diners and utensils using AI Bricks – Peeking Duck from AISG.
- Crowd Analysis in Exhibitions
This application monitors the different visitors at various exhibition booths to analyse which are the popular exhibits and the profile of people interested in each exhibit. The apps is also developed using AI Bricks - Peeking Duck.
- Digital Marketing in Instagram
Students developed an RPA application that sends digital marketing content to a list of recipients through Instagram. This is developed using open source RPA tool, TagUI from AISG.
- Video Analytics on Micro-Learning Content Videos
This is an AI-powered video analytics apps to extract insights from the audio and video recording of the lecturer’s online lesson with his/her learners. It is developed using Microsoft Azure.
- Content Moderation for Websites
This is an AI-powered solution for web administrators to identify and manage content that is potentially offensive, risky, or undesirable. It is developed using Microsoft Azure.
Conclusion
On behalf of ITE, I would like to thank Microsoft and AISG for your partnership to develop ITE students, optimise their potential and prepare them for exciting careers in the IT and AI industry.
Thank you.