The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Google are embarking on a new strategic collaboration to accelerate applied artificial intelligence (AI) research and nurture skilled AI practitioners.
This collaboration reinforces Singapore’s ambition to be a global hub for AI innovation and talent, advances the national digital transformation agenda, and deepens industry-academia partnerships to strengthen the country’s research ecosystem, the duo said in a statement on Monday.
According to the statement, NUS and Google plan to establish a joint research and innovation center, bringing together resources and technology to pursue experimental or applied AI projects across diverse domains.
There are also plans for a rapid prototyping sandbox to be established and governed by the joint center to provide a controlled and flexible cloud-based environment, supported by Google Cloud’s power-efficient Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), for experimentation, testing, and validation of the solutions developed under each of the domains, before they are deployed or scaled in real-world settings.
Complementing the joint center, Google plans to establish an AI-focused talent development program at NUS.
This initiative aims to provide training opportunities and certification pathways in Google Cloud AI platforms and tools for NUS students and researchers to accelerate their applied AI research projects.
Additionally, Google intends to establish a Google-supported professorship at NUS to further promote faculty leadership in AI-related fields, foster even deeper collaboration between academia and industry, and contribute to cultivating the next generation of talent in AI and digital innovation.
“The joint center brings together NUS’s leadership in AI and multidisciplinary research and Google’s deep research expertise, advanced technologies and tools, as well as well-established pathways for research translation and deployment,” said Professor Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology).
According to her, a key pillar of this partnership is talent development — through endowed professorships, mentorship, training programs, and hands-on research projects.
“We are confident that our joint efforts with Google will nurture the next generation of AI scientists, engineers, and innovators equipped to tackle real-world challenges,
“Together, we are well-positioned to drive AI breakthroughs that will transform lives, reshape industries, and advance the future of education, healthcare, and beyond,” she added.
Meanwhile, Serene Sia, Country Director, Singapore and Malaysia, Google Cloud, said Google and NUS share a longstanding partnership, anchored on talent development and applying frontier technologies for public good.
These include an on-campus Google Developer Group to equip students with advanced software skills; Google Cloud as a pioneering industry partner of the NUS AI Institute; cultivating talent to tackle biomedical challenges with AI; producing the world’s first AI-powered legal journal podcast with NotebookLM, and a Google PhD Fellowship program to recognize exceptional work in computer science.
“Our new collaboration truly builds on those successes; it’s a significant step forward in Google’s commitment to bringing new capabilities for scientific discovery to Singapore,” she said.
According to her, NUS has consistently been at the forefront of Singapore’s RIE ecosystem, supporting Singapore’s transformation into a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy and society.
“By combining NUS’s world-class multidisciplinary research capabilities with Google’s world-class AI research and AI-optimized cloud infrastructure, this joint center is poised to steer safe and responsible AI development and accelerate scientific progress that transforms public health, learning experiences, and other vital fields,” she added.
Sea and OpenAI sign MOU to accelerate AI adoption in Southeast Asia