the paradigm has shifted the world is
accelerating the science fiction of
yesterday is rapidly becoming the
science fiction’s of right now how do we
withstand the tectonic shifts in the
world around us how does a society
thrive where the world economy is
when information is moving at the speed
of light there are places that are ahead
of the curve city is building the tools
for tomorrow
[Music]
we want to create innovations that have
one day single pole can be
self-sustained in food production you
are looking at the development of
Singapore 40 years ahead of time this
city could be a model that wants to come
the future of the world lies in its
urban environments more than half the
world’s population live in cities and
that number is growing
this rapid influx of people creates
possibility but it also creates
how can the cities of today grow and
thrive to become the places we want to
creating sustainable manageable human
spaces in the world’s ever-expanding
cities is a challenge facing governments
across the globe and no one understands
the complexity of this challenge better
than the planners at Singapore’s Housing
and Development board the agency in
charge of creating living spaces for
about 80% of the resident households in
one of the most densely populated cities
I’m an architect by training and I also
have a master’s degree in planning so
since 2010 dr. Chang’s vision and
guidance has helped usher in a new era
of smart public housing for the HDB
allowing the city she loves to grow and
thrive despite significant challenges as
an island city state were only about
half the size of metropolitan London we
have to house 5.7 million people and we
have caused very land and resource
but having said that over the years we
have managed to develop Singapore in a
pretty sustainable way and we are one of
the most livable cities in Asia dr.
Cheung was a little girl Singapore was a
vastly different City
it had 1/3 of today’s population less
than 1% of the current GDP
and little to no infrastructure in just
over five decades though this tiny
city-state has undergone a remarkable
Singapore’s HDB has built a million
flats creating one of the most
successful public housing programs in
the world HDB is now looking to
high-tech innovative solutions to not
only provide enough living spaces for
Singapore citizens but also improved
quality of life for decades to come we
have very sophisticated computer models
that help the architect planner to
improve the environmental quality in the
town so for example the Singapore is in
the tropics so we want to encourage the
breezes to come true through computer
simulation you can actually position the
blocks and the public spaces in the
parks in such a way to help you achieve
this
Cinco does very long-term comprehensive
planning and that is very important you
are looking at the development of
Singapore 40 years ahead of time and
this is important because it ensures
that we have sufficient land safeguarded
to meet all our development needs
in such a land scarce nation the
question is often not what to build but
where to build Singapore’s Urban
Redevelopment Authority is in charge of
identifying the future needs of all
Singapore’s land
it’s the kind of challenge that draws in
I’m very much an urban person the city
is close to my heart and even more so
having worked in detail on the plans
over the last 2000 years for Andrew and
the URA sometimes that work means
creating land from nothing a process
known as land reclamation since
independence in 1965 Singapore has used
reclamation to increase its land mass by
one of the most striking examples of
this and perhaps a vision that cities
across the world may adopt is
Singapore’s Marina Bay a vast
engineering project that has been
[Music]
when I first started work with you RA
Marina Bay was just a vacant tract of
land it was only maybe 10 to 15 years
ago too
we actively started development of the
area Andrew was part of the team that
drew up the plan from Marina Bay and
translated it into reality it’s a
betterment dramatically increased the
footprint of Singapore but it was
designed with the needs of its citizens
in mind the traditional central business
district just comprises as office space
then is only used nine to five five days
a week so as we planned Marina Bay
we’ve always so looked to bring in
complementary uses so the idea here is
you create a mixed-use precinct there
the activities carry off 24/7 seven days
a week
to make the round-the-clock Marina Bay
model work the you are a needed
infrastructure in land scarce Singapore
that meant going underground using
precision designed layers of essential
services including water and electrical
tunnels pedestrian and commercial spaces
transportation infrastructure like
highways and subways and even
telecommunications super highways
these hidden underground systems have
been designed to meet the needs of
Singapore for the next 50 years but some
in Singapore are looking beyond that
already imagining the cities of the far
future I actually think that the future
of Singapore is not just about
increasing the density around
transportation nodes of activity I
actually think it’s about exploring air
rights as well Jason Pomeroy has grand
visions for his city the award-winning
architect of Singapore’s first
zero-carbon house the B house his
designs are pushing the boundaries of
how Singapore might look more than 50
years from now think about creating
structures over roads over motorways
topping up above existing structures the
rooftops today might be sky court sky
gardens of recreation if cities expand
upwards into the skies conventional
methods of Road transportation may no
longer be effective perhaps the future
of urban transportation will play a
major part in shaping the way we live
but then all of a sudden you’re going to
need to think about how to get people up
there you know if you were to
fast-forward 50 years from now we
already see drone technology becoming so
advanced why are we not sticking people
into those drones again a bit like Blade
Runner all of a sudden your sky courts
your sky guards even your private
terraces to your condo is actually a
landing platform for your own
personalized drone though the idea of
its flying to work may be decades away
drone technology is advancing rapidly
and could become integral to the
evolution of transportation in the
cities of tomorrow in Singapore the
government has thrown its support behind
an advanced program to test the limits
of drone capabilities in the world’s
rapidly expanding urban environments
skyways is Airbus’s project that is
exploring this urban air delivery domain
or basically cargo delivery with drones
project
the drone that we’re using is actually
fully customized were fully designed by
our team here in Singapore to ensure
maximum safety in the air the drones
have multiple aerospace-grade navigation
systems so that if one system
malfunctions you can rely on others to
[Music]
the packages that we can deliver by
design today is up to four kilograms
what we understand is that four
kilograms would cover perhaps about 80
85 percent of all the packages that are
a parcel deliveries that are done today
once the package has been delivered to
its slot the mailbox automatically sends
a personalized code to the customer so
they can pick up the package 24/7 just
like that also comes back
[Music]
in Airbus one of our visions is what we
call urban air mobility so flying taxis
for example the skyways is about
enabling the technology it’s about
looking and moving towards a future
where we have then a flying
Singapore innovators are imagining and
experimenting the what’s next for urban
travel drone technology may be the next
revolution liberating commuters from
their 2-dimensional travel but the
challenges facing all of our cities may
be more elemental than where we will
build and how to get around providing
food and water for the millions of
people that will pack into our urban
environments could be the biggest
[Music]
as urban populations rise the world will
face unprecedented challenges how to
house transport and most importantly
feed its people in the future as rural
populations decrease ensuring food
stability will be key and land scarce
Singapore it’s a challenge that is
already being confronted right now 93%
of produce is imported in to Singapore
and that’s because there just simply is
enough land to do farming practices
Benjamin Swan came to Singapore as an
engineer on the Marina Bay Sands project
but having fallen in love with the city
he recognized a challenge and an
opportunity
to help the nation towards its goal of
food sustainability Ben is developing a
new way to grow food not just in
Singapore but in any urban environment
sussan air is a controlled environment
agriculture farm we effectively
replicate what’s happening outside in
nature to grow impossible products in
impossible places Singapore is a
trailblazer in this technology having
opened the world’s first commercial
vertical farm in 2012
now sustained air through their patented
processes are able to grow produce
indoors without sunlight and without
soil what we actually have done is we’ve
come up with our own system here to
introduce the Seas directly into the
firm cues so what that does is ensures
we have 100% germination success this
broom has been specially designed to
take the plant from its initial
germination through to a mature state
where we can introduce into the mangrove
rooms these large-scale growing rooms
are astonishing feats of agricultural
technology the precision calibration of
the growing environment allows these
new-age farmers to optimize cultivation
at every stage in the plant’s growth we
control the air temperature the humidity
the light durations the light wavelength
we control the dissolved oxygen in the
water as well as a carbon dioxide
saturation there in these closely
monitored growing rooms sustained air is
creating food history
first ever Singaporean grown
strawberries actually growing three
varieties in this room what we’ve
learned through controlled environment
agriculture we can actually emphasize
certain characteristics to plants so
without using GMO we can make our kale
softer we can actually make it sweet a
lot of the Singaporeans don’t like their
products to be bitter so we took it into
our R&D lab and what we found was by
manipulating the air temperature and
humidity in the rest of the wavelength
of light and the growth cycles we were
able to create a spray product of a
growing scale
not only is this farm able to produce
vegetables perfectly calibrated for
Singaporeans but techniques could
provide vital farming areas for the
densely populated cities of the future
[Music]
traditional land farming grows produce
outside on a flat linear area sicinius
system grows food inside in any building
expanding Agriculture’s footprint up
so what vertical farming means for
places like Singapore that has very
little or has land scarcity is that we
can leverage buildings to grow products
and with the efficiency that we have
within our footprint we believe one day
that we could actually produce enough
produce indoors to stay in Singapore’s
map
[Music]
fresh available food will be a necessity
in our cities not only to feed citizens
as populations age and the incidence of
diabetes continues to rise across the
developed world Singapore like all
cities needs to encourage its citizens
to eat smart and well we wanted to
deploy food and beverages okay as a tool
to manage it could be health it could be
wellness it could be performance and of
course also for fitness as well believe
it or not these colorful sculptures are
edible
they are the creations of dr. Lehmann
why a scientists at Singapore
polytechnics food innovation and
resource center using the latest
breakthroughs in technology she is
creating food tailored to the exact
calorie and nutrition needs of
Singapore’s senior citizens we wanted to
look at personalized nutrition for a
target group to pull so what we started
off is basically looking at people with
different lifestyles or otherwise
looking at people with different health
conditions to realize her vision dr. Lee
collaborated with bioengineer mark Wang
to build a piece of wearable tech that
can monitor a person’s nutritional
requirements Orion developed here at
Sonoma Polytechnic is what we call the
inter sent system is a no-fun factor for
watch the app it’s pulling data from the
from the wearable so this data can be
fed to algorithms to compute specialized
individual nutrients that are customized
for the individual so a 3d printer could
then use this data and print out the
appropriate nutrient values suitable for
the individual dr. Lee’s system is one
of the first of its kind in Singapore
perhaps the world 2 pair wearable tech
with 3d printing to create food with
personalized nutritional values this
particular printer actually has a
beautiful way of allowing us to
customize nutrition so there should be
probably a chicken rice that is actually
high in calcium some de is actually good
for potassium and different types of
vitamins and minerals there is a custom
while still an experimental prototype
the potential is staggering this jelly
packs a punch with the necessary
nutrients for optimizing health and even
preventing diseases with greater sets of
data from each individual we can now
create a whole library or database and
identify trends by using machine
learning or using AI so that is
extremely powerful in the near future to
be able to predict potential health
issues and mitigate those health issues
through imaginative planning and
technological innovation Singapore is
finding new ways to house and feed its
growing population by perhaps one of the
biggest challenges facing any global
city will be ensuring a constant safe
supply of that most precious of
resources water Singapore currently uses
2 billion litres of water a day the most
efficient source of fresh water is rain
and to capitalize on this resource the
nation is criss-crossed with an
extensive network of rivers and canals
the channel every last precious drop of
rain into 17 storage reservoirs
[Music]
about two-thirds of Singapore is what
the catchment area that’s about 400 plus
square kilometers
so water that falls on a catchment area
we will find its way in to our drains
and canals which linked to one of our
reservoirs Singapore’s catchment system
is extensive and efficient but to
collect rainwater you need land and lots
of it
Singapore is a small island so we are
limited in terms of the catchment area
that we have and also now with the
changing weather patterns the quarter
coming from rain it’s a bit
unpredictable so we’ve moved on to more
weather is zilean water sources like
this alienation as the world warms every
city will need to find fresh solutions
to provide their citizens with clean
water in Singapore the Public Utilities
Board is already looking to the future
experimenting with new techniques to
push the water potential of the little
looking ahead our cities need to
overcome a variety of challenges rapid
urbanization will present problems of
growth housing and food sustainability
but none may be more crucial than the
Singapore currently imports about half
of its daily water requirement in the
next three decades though the aim is to
ensure water sustainability to do so
planners are looking to a resource
the island nation has in abundance see
I was called this a new toy really it’s
kind of a toy for us but seriously it’s
a plan that’s designed with robustness
reliability is fully automated you kid
son oversaw the construction of a brand
new state-of-the-art water facility the
twice desalination plant we’ve been
working on this project for the last
just over two years to get it from a
green field and up to the state that you
see right behind me a functional 13
million gallons per day desalination
plant the twice desalination plant is a
modern marvel of precision engineering
in land scarce Singapore its footprint
is a mere 100 meters by 300 meters
that’s roughly the size of three
football fields
this may seem large but it is a
relatively small footprint compared to
plants of its kind around the world
when we did the design in the
construction it was quite a challenge
that you got to make sure that they are
all stacked and arranged in a like a
Lego manner that it all fits nicely into
a puzzle and and if it forms the plant
what you see today despite its small
footprint the twice desalination plant
houses one of the world’s most powerful
technologies for producing fresh water
that’s actually the heart of the plan
where the salt in the seawater
gets separated or removed from the water
the white tubes in there is the reverse
osmosis membrane where Hilda water will
be pushed through the membrane this
high-tech process is a key part of
conventional water desalination is
energy intensive the electricity you
would need to disallow Nate enough water
for just one day of Singapore’s needs
could power a Singaporean household for
a thousand years to save energy and
reduce the cost of water desalination
the pob is now investing in new research
Evoque WA is a company working on the
desalination process of tomorrow
we are demonstrating our next IDI
technology for seawater desalination
[Music]
electrodialysis uses electricity to
remove salt from seawater pairs of
electrodes are placed in a stream of
salt water with one positive electrode
and one negative the positively charged
sodium ions are attracted to the
negative electrode and the negatively
charged chlorine ions are attracted to
the positive electrode this concentrates
the salt around the electrodes the
process is repeated until the water is
salt free now we are building a
demonstration plan with a capacity of
3,800 meter cube per day we have plans
to photosphere up this technology with a
capacity of 100,000 meter cube per day
Singapore’s innovations in housing food
and water are giving us a glimpse of how
a forward-thinking city might solve some
of the challenges it faces but these
solutions will come at a price fast
secure and thriving economies will be
essential for facing an uncertain future
and perhaps no nation understands this
better than Singapore the financial
sector is a very very critical sector
for Singapore almost 12% of our GDP
comes from the sector so you understand
how critical for us to ensure that this
sector is a vibrant sector it is
competitive it attracts the best
possible ideas as a chief FinTech
officer of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore sup Nando mohanty needs to
ensure that the nation sets a world
standard for the financial sector this
boils down to one thing
technology innovation most of the
services and financial sector are going
to be powered by technology in 2016
Singapore announced project Ubben a new
FinTech experiment using blockchain
technology traditionally banks keep a
record of all transactions on their own
centralized ledger which is susceptible
to manipulation by hackers but project
kuben keeps all records on a blockchain
this means that identical copies of the
ledger are kept on a distributed network
of computers around the world these
computers check in with each other to
ensure that their copy of the ledger is
correct and if one of the copies does
not match the others it is rejected and
replaced with a copy that the majority
of Ledger’s agree is correct
it’s a tamper with the blockchain to
steal money a hacker would need to hack
a majority of the computers on the
network simultaneously a virtual
impossibility
the real killer use case is cross border
transfer today text two to three days to
move money between two countries the
whole overseas transfer so if we can
apply a technology like blockchain it
may give us that opportunity to reduce
that time to do cross border transfer
and may also reduce the expensive way we
move money from a country to be
contributing Singapore has long been
known as a financial hub home to major
banks from around the world the project
urban Singapore has ensured that it will
stay ahead of the pack when it comes to
FinTech in a country short on natural
resources the motto is innovate or die
and Singapore has taken up that
challenge with a startup culture
catapulting the nation into the future
[Music]
you
[Applause]
ideas are one of the intangible
resources at power cities Singapore is
capitalized on the nation’s creative DNA
to support and usher in a new wave of
innovative companies one of the biggest
startup hubs is st engineering tech
incubator in O sparks we are focused on
solving salty urban challenges
particularly solutions in spa cities as
far as health tech medical technology is
a three hundred and fifty billion dollar
global industry one that thrives on the
latest ideas like Allen goes
revolutionary automated needle targeting
system with end system we are able to
automate the entire needle alignment
process making it very stressful for the
doctors we can align the needle to the
target at a fraction of the time it is
more accurate more than just a surgical
assistant Allen’s robot can actually
help train the next generation of
surgeons difficult for surges to be
expert in terms of puncture he has to
function more than 150 times while such
a device which is smart automated junior
surgeons probably just required about 40
to 50 puncture and they could be an
expert in a few of puncture
I know Sparks has also been key in
developing life-saving technologies to
solve global health problems my name is
Jerome I’m the head of engineering at
Ennis parks and I’m also the lead
engineer for a plasma mask so we
actually started the project development
into zero one three
when Singapore was hit with severe haste
during the 2013 Southeast Asian haze
crisis large-scale wildfires blanketed
the region in impenetrable smog
shattering all records and pollution
indexes stores sold out of high quality
air filtration masks
worse yet parents with this main to
learn that all masks on the market were
built for adults we actually went to do
a 3d facial scanning of more than 850
children and adults and then using an
algorithm that we developed in-house
proprietary
we came up with three sizes of master
fits children adults to the elderly
using thermal imaging the benefits of
these masks leap into focus we can see
that actually the mass itself stays
pretty much purple this is a quick way
to show that the ventilator is actually
effective in venting heat from the mask
while a vital part of Singapore’s
economy the tech scene is not just about
software or hardware at its core it is
about hardware providing for its
we want to create innovations that have
a real way impact so we take a very user
centered approach Singapore’s digital
economy is providing real tangible
benefits to people and some of its
brightest inventors are focusing on the
far future local startup transfer Phi
has developed a technology that could
change the way we think about
electricity – power transfer is
inherently being able to transfer power
wirelessly we using radiofrequency to be
able to transfer power in terms of the
construct behind it is electromagnetic
waves essentially our within a wave form
the custom-built transmitter converts
electrical current into electromagnetic
waves using a complex algorithm this
wave is modulated and focused into a
tight beam transmitted to an array of
antennas using radio frequency the
receiver harvests the radio frequency
waves and converts them to direct
current which is able to power
the system is ready now so the signal is
now generating I think now we are ready
[Music]
ta da ba da is on now I switch is on
without any any wires that it to it no
battery is nothing it’s all power
through air this simple demonstration
gives a hint of the enormous potential
of the system as the technology is
scaled up to further distances it could
revolutionize every industry that relies
on electricity creating the world’s
first long-range safe and efficient
there’s a lot of uses I mean it’s
ubiquitous technology I mean you can use
wireless power transfer distribution for
almost anything from consumer
electronics to medical devices to
offshore renewables to sensors you know
Singapore’s digital startups are
dreaming up ingenious new technology
proving that perhaps the greatest
resource will need in the future
in tomorrow’s super connected smart
cities every aspect of our lives could
be affected by the constantly changing
preparing the next generation for this
future is top of mind for most educators
of today in Singapore that preparation
starts early using tech tools to teach
children the building blocks of a
digital mindset including the most basic
skill needed for coding sequential
learning sequential learning it seems
easy for us doubts but it’s actually not
easy for them at all to know who comes
first and who comes next
all right children we’re going to move
over there
and then we’re gonna find your trial
ease then are we gonna put them in your
I feel that there’s a lot of skills that
they can gain from having the tech toys
as well
Melanie problem solving skills
communication skills language skills as
well and also they learn how to
problem-solve
sequential as well the play maker
program there are three tech toys the B
board is something that is very friendly
and very easy to operate because there’s
only a few buttons for the children to
use so for example we have the forward
and backward 10 11 10 right button
[Music]
people I would say it’s a little bit
high-end order thinking whereby children
will have to sequence the blocks as
pretty in order and they have to scan
the barcode so for kibo it won’t
function if they don’t start with a
begin block and any with the end block
so during that time children actually
get to do a trial and error to see
whether it works or not these tech toys
introduce children to advanced learning
concepts in doing so they are arming
future generations of Singaporeans with
the skills necessary for computer
programming and literacy without
exposing them to too much screen time
this dynamic new approach to education
is of critical importance for parents
helping to prepare their children for
the workplaces of the future I’ve got
three boys they are 12 Levin and
youngest Paul since I’m in the finance
line the current way to go is the
FinTech the concern for how my kids are
going to cope with the new change India
Korea Falls has always been there
[Music]
definitely I feel these tools will
actually help children to prepare the
workforce in the future because we
actually building the foundation for
example the foundation of language the
foundation of problem-solving the
foundation of communicating with people
tech literacy is not just a challenge
for newer generations
[Music]
as populations around the world image
that need to become digitally literate
cuts across all age brackets Singapore
is tackling this problem head-on with
proactive efforts to provide tech
education to all of its citizens
ensuring none are left offline
was any cookie father as a woman loudly
Bader Lana Lana
is she nice actually so campus an Indian
War Isaac awaiting at sinasu tea or tea
person who you just a Diwali mr. towns
journey to digital fluency came at a
clinic held by Singapore’s
info-communications Media Development
no boat on the reservation simply
retract ow
take a bow Iowa Jessica Whitman mission
FH analytical vasectomy wait at a tea
party for while companion Aryan using
the network a McCoy t new continuity
which decision today mama you same tag
we wrestled signal I want to saw do we
develop our chicken de Caen her much
chairman missions I even as generosity
even toe-to-toe colleano lesson you have
learned her income continued since we
can differ by her tenacity Tahoe
[Music]
Singapore’s focus on training all of its
citizens for the future is nurturing a
highly educated versatile and connected
population connectivity and community
will shape the world of tomorrow and in
Singapore that sense of community is
already revealing itself in new and
we are racing towards a future that will
be dominated by technology in the
decades to come dedicated citizens will
find ways to harness that technology to
make a positive impact enhancing lives
through creative innovation in Singapore
technology is already being created that
will care for the nation’s most
vulnerable we try to provide sleep
wellness for newborn babies and also
premature babies so what you do is that
you actually put a baby on it and after
you sleep for about minute we can give
you the breath calm and know how well
your baby is sleeping when a baby sleep
they have a lot of periodic breathing
that means they breathe and they be
stopped debrief and stop now this
happened to 2% of the newborn baby but
it happened to 60% for premature babies
[Music]
periodic breathing dramatically reduces
oxygen flow which can have a detrimental
effect on a baby’s growth and even their
cognitive development the breath optic
system uses fiber-optic technology to
help monitor this or Frank this project
I think one of the driving force of us
inventing this product but we cost 24
years ago I had a premature son at a
point in time I bought whatever is
available to try to monitor a baby and I
Chi for for one month
me and my wife didn’t sleep in the same
room because we took Chow our ship to
stay at a baby so we took turns to do
look after my son for fall for a while
so when we were able to use the optic
technology optic fiber technology to
create such a sensor we really know what
we want because I was in that position
with you when your son is okay now oh my
sighs perfecto
the spirit of using technological
ingenuity to improve lives has been
built into the city itself with green
corridors and protected parkland
keep in Singapore from becoming a
in its efforts conserve and protected
status as a city in a garden and Parks
is employing the power of technology so
one of the tools that we use is called
the SU by OLS app it’s a free citizen
science base at where everybody can
download and you could make hot boy
outside things that you see in Singapore
it could be at your park it could be in
a forest in Singapore and using this
data you can develop some conservation
or management strategies where we could
consider them heavy threats are for
Texas and green spaces the app is
empowering Singapore citizens to play a
meaningful role in the conservation and
protection of the city’s incredible
biodiversity
[Music]
those of us over there the other junk
awful and they’re like chickens about
yeah technically not chickens right
[Music]
walking home in the daytime whether you
should be working by the nighttime I’ll
be probably down on my couch and
watching television
I spend most of my time on the phone
not only is the citizen science program
healthy and parks maintain Singapore’s
rich ecosystem but also helping people
build connections with green spaces and
each other
Singapore is our schedule and so what we
need is to preserve what we have now and
using the technology we are able to
provide feedback to national paper on
the species that we still have a cell
phone as the modern world rapidly
marches towards urbanization our future
cities will face unprecedented pressures
innovation and technological
advancements will help bring pork down
to how we move how we work and how we
learn in Singapore that change is
already underway it feels like we are
part of building and creating a
Singapore that is vibrant safe and also
sustainable for the people now and also
for the future
if we can do it here in Singapore we can
literally do it anywhere in the world
and we are excited almost on a everyday
basis we are motivated by the fact that
we can make a difference I heard from
one Nobel Prize winner only a prepared
mind can see opportunity and we are
using this opportunity by getting us who
prepared
you seem a ho guys look kikuchi vermin
come father Logan is objective term has a tsunami it intended even funny
accelerating the science fiction of
yesterday is rapidly becoming the
science fiction’s of right now how do we
withstand the tectonic shifts in the
world around us how does a society
thrive where the world economy is
when information is moving at the speed
of light there are places that are ahead
of the curve city is building the tools
for tomorrow
[Music]
we want to create innovations that have
one day single pole can be
self-sustained in food production you
are looking at the development of
Singapore 40 years ahead of time this
city could be a model that wants to come
the future of the world lies in its
urban environments more than half the
world’s population live in cities and
that number is growing
this rapid influx of people creates
possibility but it also creates
how can the cities of today grow and
thrive to become the places we want to
creating sustainable manageable human
spaces in the world’s ever-expanding
cities is a challenge facing governments
across the globe and no one understands
the complexity of this challenge better
than the planners at Singapore’s Housing
and Development board the agency in
charge of creating living spaces for
about 80% of the resident households in
one of the most densely populated cities
I’m an architect by training and I also
have a master’s degree in planning so
since 2010 dr. Chang’s vision and
guidance has helped usher in a new era
of smart public housing for the HDB
allowing the city she loves to grow and
thrive despite significant challenges as
an island city state were only about
half the size of metropolitan London we
have to house 5.7 million people and we
have caused very land and resource
but having said that over the years we
have managed to develop Singapore in a
pretty sustainable way and we are one of
the most livable cities in Asia dr.
Cheung was a little girl Singapore was a
vastly different City
it had 1/3 of today’s population less
than 1% of the current GDP
and little to no infrastructure in just
over five decades though this tiny
city-state has undergone a remarkable
Singapore’s HDB has built a million
flats creating one of the most
successful public housing programs in
the world HDB is now looking to
high-tech innovative solutions to not
only provide enough living spaces for
Singapore citizens but also improved
quality of life for decades to come we
have very sophisticated computer models
that help the architect planner to
improve the environmental quality in the
town so for example the Singapore is in
the tropics so we want to encourage the
breezes to come true through computer
simulation you can actually position the
blocks and the public spaces in the
parks in such a way to help you achieve
this
Cinco does very long-term comprehensive
planning and that is very important you
are looking at the development of
Singapore 40 years ahead of time and
this is important because it ensures
that we have sufficient land safeguarded
to meet all our development needs
in such a land scarce nation the
question is often not what to build but
where to build Singapore’s Urban
Redevelopment Authority is in charge of
identifying the future needs of all
Singapore’s land
it’s the kind of challenge that draws in
I’m very much an urban person the city
is close to my heart and even more so
having worked in detail on the plans
over the last 2000 years for Andrew and
the URA sometimes that work means
creating land from nothing a process
known as land reclamation since
independence in 1965 Singapore has used
reclamation to increase its land mass by
one of the most striking examples of
this and perhaps a vision that cities
across the world may adopt is
Singapore’s Marina Bay a vast
engineering project that has been
[Music]
when I first started work with you RA
Marina Bay was just a vacant tract of
land it was only maybe 10 to 15 years
ago too
we actively started development of the
area Andrew was part of the team that
drew up the plan from Marina Bay and
translated it into reality it’s a
betterment dramatically increased the
footprint of Singapore but it was
designed with the needs of its citizens
in mind the traditional central business
district just comprises as office space
then is only used nine to five five days
a week so as we planned Marina Bay
we’ve always so looked to bring in
complementary uses so the idea here is
you create a mixed-use precinct there
the activities carry off 24/7 seven days
a week
to make the round-the-clock Marina Bay
model work the you are a needed
infrastructure in land scarce Singapore
that meant going underground using
precision designed layers of essential
services including water and electrical
tunnels pedestrian and commercial spaces
transportation infrastructure like
highways and subways and even
telecommunications super highways
these hidden underground systems have
been designed to meet the needs of
Singapore for the next 50 years but some
in Singapore are looking beyond that
already imagining the cities of the far
future I actually think that the future
of Singapore is not just about
increasing the density around
transportation nodes of activity I
actually think it’s about exploring air
rights as well Jason Pomeroy has grand
visions for his city the award-winning
architect of Singapore’s first
zero-carbon house the B house his
designs are pushing the boundaries of
how Singapore might look more than 50
years from now think about creating
structures over roads over motorways
topping up above existing structures the
rooftops today might be sky court sky
gardens of recreation if cities expand
upwards into the skies conventional
methods of Road transportation may no
longer be effective perhaps the future
of urban transportation will play a
major part in shaping the way we live
but then all of a sudden you’re going to
need to think about how to get people up
there you know if you were to
fast-forward 50 years from now we
already see drone technology becoming so
advanced why are we not sticking people
into those drones again a bit like Blade
Runner all of a sudden your sky courts
your sky guards even your private
terraces to your condo is actually a
landing platform for your own
personalized drone though the idea of
its flying to work may be decades away
drone technology is advancing rapidly
and could become integral to the
evolution of transportation in the
cities of tomorrow in Singapore the
government has thrown its support behind
an advanced program to test the limits
of drone capabilities in the world’s
rapidly expanding urban environments
skyways is Airbus’s project that is
exploring this urban air delivery domain
or basically cargo delivery with drones
project
the drone that we’re using is actually
fully customized were fully designed by
our team here in Singapore to ensure
maximum safety in the air the drones
have multiple aerospace-grade navigation
systems so that if one system
malfunctions you can rely on others to
[Music]
the packages that we can deliver by
design today is up to four kilograms
what we understand is that four
kilograms would cover perhaps about 80
85 percent of all the packages that are
a parcel deliveries that are done today
once the package has been delivered to
its slot the mailbox automatically sends
a personalized code to the customer so
they can pick up the package 24/7 just
like that also comes back
[Music]
in Airbus one of our visions is what we
call urban air mobility so flying taxis
for example the skyways is about
enabling the technology it’s about
looking and moving towards a future
where we have then a flying
Singapore innovators are imagining and
experimenting the what’s next for urban
travel drone technology may be the next
revolution liberating commuters from
their 2-dimensional travel but the
challenges facing all of our cities may
be more elemental than where we will
build and how to get around providing
food and water for the millions of
people that will pack into our urban
environments could be the biggest
[Music]
as urban populations rise the world will
face unprecedented challenges how to
house transport and most importantly
feed its people in the future as rural
populations decrease ensuring food
stability will be key and land scarce
Singapore it’s a challenge that is
already being confronted right now 93%
of produce is imported in to Singapore
and that’s because there just simply is
enough land to do farming practices
Benjamin Swan came to Singapore as an
engineer on the Marina Bay Sands project
but having fallen in love with the city
he recognized a challenge and an
opportunity
to help the nation towards its goal of
food sustainability Ben is developing a
new way to grow food not just in
Singapore but in any urban environment
sussan air is a controlled environment
agriculture farm we effectively
replicate what’s happening outside in
nature to grow impossible products in
impossible places Singapore is a
trailblazer in this technology having
opened the world’s first commercial
vertical farm in 2012
now sustained air through their patented
processes are able to grow produce
indoors without sunlight and without
soil what we actually have done is we’ve
come up with our own system here to
introduce the Seas directly into the
firm cues so what that does is ensures
we have 100% germination success this
broom has been specially designed to
take the plant from its initial
germination through to a mature state
where we can introduce into the mangrove
rooms these large-scale growing rooms
are astonishing feats of agricultural
technology the precision calibration of
the growing environment allows these
new-age farmers to optimize cultivation
at every stage in the plant’s growth we
control the air temperature the humidity
the light durations the light wavelength
we control the dissolved oxygen in the
water as well as a carbon dioxide
saturation there in these closely
monitored growing rooms sustained air is
creating food history
first ever Singaporean grown
strawberries actually growing three
varieties in this room what we’ve
learned through controlled environment
agriculture we can actually emphasize
certain characteristics to plants so
without using GMO we can make our kale
softer we can actually make it sweet a
lot of the Singaporeans don’t like their
products to be bitter so we took it into
our R&D lab and what we found was by
manipulating the air temperature and
humidity in the rest of the wavelength
of light and the growth cycles we were
able to create a spray product of a
growing scale
not only is this farm able to produce
vegetables perfectly calibrated for
Singaporeans but techniques could
provide vital farming areas for the
densely populated cities of the future
[Music]
traditional land farming grows produce
outside on a flat linear area sicinius
system grows food inside in any building
expanding Agriculture’s footprint up
so what vertical farming means for
places like Singapore that has very
little or has land scarcity is that we
can leverage buildings to grow products
and with the efficiency that we have
within our footprint we believe one day
that we could actually produce enough
produce indoors to stay in Singapore’s
map
[Music]
fresh available food will be a necessity
in our cities not only to feed citizens
as populations age and the incidence of
diabetes continues to rise across the
developed world Singapore like all
cities needs to encourage its citizens
to eat smart and well we wanted to
deploy food and beverages okay as a tool
to manage it could be health it could be
wellness it could be performance and of
course also for fitness as well believe
it or not these colorful sculptures are
edible
they are the creations of dr. Lehmann
why a scientists at Singapore
polytechnics food innovation and
resource center using the latest
breakthroughs in technology she is
creating food tailored to the exact
calorie and nutrition needs of
Singapore’s senior citizens we wanted to
look at personalized nutrition for a
target group to pull so what we started
off is basically looking at people with
different lifestyles or otherwise
looking at people with different health
conditions to realize her vision dr. Lee
collaborated with bioengineer mark Wang
to build a piece of wearable tech that
can monitor a person’s nutritional
requirements Orion developed here at
Sonoma Polytechnic is what we call the
inter sent system is a no-fun factor for
watch the app it’s pulling data from the
from the wearable so this data can be
fed to algorithms to compute specialized
individual nutrients that are customized
for the individual so a 3d printer could
then use this data and print out the
appropriate nutrient values suitable for
the individual dr. Lee’s system is one
of the first of its kind in Singapore
perhaps the world 2 pair wearable tech
with 3d printing to create food with
personalized nutritional values this
particular printer actually has a
beautiful way of allowing us to
customize nutrition so there should be
probably a chicken rice that is actually
high in calcium some de is actually good
for potassium and different types of
vitamins and minerals there is a custom
while still an experimental prototype
the potential is staggering this jelly
packs a punch with the necessary
nutrients for optimizing health and even
preventing diseases with greater sets of
data from each individual we can now
create a whole library or database and
identify trends by using machine
learning or using AI so that is
extremely powerful in the near future to
be able to predict potential health
issues and mitigate those health issues
through imaginative planning and
technological innovation Singapore is
finding new ways to house and feed its
growing population by perhaps one of the
biggest challenges facing any global
city will be ensuring a constant safe
supply of that most precious of
resources water Singapore currently uses
2 billion litres of water a day the most
efficient source of fresh water is rain
and to capitalize on this resource the
nation is criss-crossed with an
extensive network of rivers and canals
the channel every last precious drop of
rain into 17 storage reservoirs
[Music]
about two-thirds of Singapore is what
the catchment area that’s about 400 plus
square kilometers
so water that falls on a catchment area
we will find its way in to our drains
and canals which linked to one of our
reservoirs Singapore’s catchment system
is extensive and efficient but to
collect rainwater you need land and lots
of it
Singapore is a small island so we are
limited in terms of the catchment area
that we have and also now with the
changing weather patterns the quarter
coming from rain it’s a bit
unpredictable so we’ve moved on to more
weather is zilean water sources like
this alienation as the world warms every
city will need to find fresh solutions
to provide their citizens with clean
water in Singapore the Public Utilities
Board is already looking to the future
experimenting with new techniques to
push the water potential of the little
looking ahead our cities need to
overcome a variety of challenges rapid
urbanization will present problems of
growth housing and food sustainability
but none may be more crucial than the
Singapore currently imports about half
of its daily water requirement in the
next three decades though the aim is to
ensure water sustainability to do so
planners are looking to a resource
the island nation has in abundance see
I was called this a new toy really it’s
kind of a toy for us but seriously it’s
a plan that’s designed with robustness
reliability is fully automated you kid
son oversaw the construction of a brand
new state-of-the-art water facility the
twice desalination plant we’ve been
working on this project for the last
just over two years to get it from a
green field and up to the state that you
see right behind me a functional 13
million gallons per day desalination
plant the twice desalination plant is a
modern marvel of precision engineering
in land scarce Singapore its footprint
is a mere 100 meters by 300 meters
that’s roughly the size of three
football fields
this may seem large but it is a
relatively small footprint compared to
plants of its kind around the world
when we did the design in the
construction it was quite a challenge
that you got to make sure that they are
all stacked and arranged in a like a
Lego manner that it all fits nicely into
a puzzle and and if it forms the plant
what you see today despite its small
footprint the twice desalination plant
houses one of the world’s most powerful
technologies for producing fresh water
that’s actually the heart of the plan
where the salt in the seawater
gets separated or removed from the water
the white tubes in there is the reverse
osmosis membrane where Hilda water will
be pushed through the membrane this
high-tech process is a key part of
conventional water desalination is
energy intensive the electricity you
would need to disallow Nate enough water
for just one day of Singapore’s needs
could power a Singaporean household for
a thousand years to save energy and
reduce the cost of water desalination
the pob is now investing in new research
Evoque WA is a company working on the
desalination process of tomorrow
we are demonstrating our next IDI
technology for seawater desalination
[Music]
electrodialysis uses electricity to
remove salt from seawater pairs of
electrodes are placed in a stream of
salt water with one positive electrode
and one negative the positively charged
sodium ions are attracted to the
negative electrode and the negatively
charged chlorine ions are attracted to
the positive electrode this concentrates
the salt around the electrodes the
process is repeated until the water is
salt free now we are building a
demonstration plan with a capacity of
3,800 meter cube per day we have plans
to photosphere up this technology with a
capacity of 100,000 meter cube per day
Singapore’s innovations in housing food
and water are giving us a glimpse of how
a forward-thinking city might solve some
of the challenges it faces but these
solutions will come at a price fast
secure and thriving economies will be
essential for facing an uncertain future
and perhaps no nation understands this
better than Singapore the financial
sector is a very very critical sector
for Singapore almost 12% of our GDP
comes from the sector so you understand
how critical for us to ensure that this
sector is a vibrant sector it is
competitive it attracts the best
possible ideas as a chief FinTech
officer of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore sup Nando mohanty needs to
ensure that the nation sets a world
standard for the financial sector this
boils down to one thing
technology innovation most of the
services and financial sector are going
to be powered by technology in 2016
Singapore announced project Ubben a new
FinTech experiment using blockchain
technology traditionally banks keep a
record of all transactions on their own
centralized ledger which is susceptible
to manipulation by hackers but project
kuben keeps all records on a blockchain
this means that identical copies of the
ledger are kept on a distributed network
of computers around the world these
computers check in with each other to
ensure that their copy of the ledger is
correct and if one of the copies does
not match the others it is rejected and
replaced with a copy that the majority
of Ledger’s agree is correct
it’s a tamper with the blockchain to
steal money a hacker would need to hack
a majority of the computers on the
network simultaneously a virtual
impossibility
the real killer use case is cross border
transfer today text two to three days to
move money between two countries the
whole overseas transfer so if we can
apply a technology like blockchain it
may give us that opportunity to reduce
that time to do cross border transfer
and may also reduce the expensive way we
move money from a country to be
contributing Singapore has long been
known as a financial hub home to major
banks from around the world the project
urban Singapore has ensured that it will
stay ahead of the pack when it comes to
FinTech in a country short on natural
resources the motto is innovate or die
and Singapore has taken up that
challenge with a startup culture
catapulting the nation into the future
[Music]
you
[Applause]
ideas are one of the intangible
resources at power cities Singapore is
capitalized on the nation’s creative DNA
to support and usher in a new wave of
innovative companies one of the biggest
startup hubs is st engineering tech
incubator in O sparks we are focused on
solving salty urban challenges
particularly solutions in spa cities as
far as health tech medical technology is
a three hundred and fifty billion dollar
global industry one that thrives on the
latest ideas like Allen goes
revolutionary automated needle targeting
system with end system we are able to
automate the entire needle alignment
process making it very stressful for the
doctors we can align the needle to the
target at a fraction of the time it is
more accurate more than just a surgical
assistant Allen’s robot can actually
help train the next generation of
surgeons difficult for surges to be
expert in terms of puncture he has to
function more than 150 times while such
a device which is smart automated junior
surgeons probably just required about 40
to 50 puncture and they could be an
expert in a few of puncture
I know Sparks has also been key in
developing life-saving technologies to
solve global health problems my name is
Jerome I’m the head of engineering at
Ennis parks and I’m also the lead
engineer for a plasma mask so we
actually started the project development
into zero one three
when Singapore was hit with severe haste
during the 2013 Southeast Asian haze
crisis large-scale wildfires blanketed
the region in impenetrable smog
shattering all records and pollution
indexes stores sold out of high quality
air filtration masks
worse yet parents with this main to
learn that all masks on the market were
built for adults we actually went to do
a 3d facial scanning of more than 850
children and adults and then using an
algorithm that we developed in-house
proprietary
we came up with three sizes of master
fits children adults to the elderly
using thermal imaging the benefits of
these masks leap into focus we can see
that actually the mass itself stays
pretty much purple this is a quick way
to show that the ventilator is actually
effective in venting heat from the mask
while a vital part of Singapore’s
economy the tech scene is not just about
software or hardware at its core it is
about hardware providing for its
we want to create innovations that have
a real way impact so we take a very user
centered approach Singapore’s digital
economy is providing real tangible
benefits to people and some of its
brightest inventors are focusing on the
far future local startup transfer Phi
has developed a technology that could
change the way we think about
electricity – power transfer is
inherently being able to transfer power
wirelessly we using radiofrequency to be
able to transfer power in terms of the
construct behind it is electromagnetic
waves essentially our within a wave form
the custom-built transmitter converts
electrical current into electromagnetic
waves using a complex algorithm this
wave is modulated and focused into a
tight beam transmitted to an array of
antennas using radio frequency the
receiver harvests the radio frequency
waves and converts them to direct
current which is able to power
the system is ready now so the signal is
now generating I think now we are ready
[Music]
ta da ba da is on now I switch is on
without any any wires that it to it no
battery is nothing it’s all power
through air this simple demonstration
gives a hint of the enormous potential
of the system as the technology is
scaled up to further distances it could
revolutionize every industry that relies
on electricity creating the world’s
first long-range safe and efficient
there’s a lot of uses I mean it’s
ubiquitous technology I mean you can use
wireless power transfer distribution for
almost anything from consumer
electronics to medical devices to
offshore renewables to sensors you know
Singapore’s digital startups are
dreaming up ingenious new technology
proving that perhaps the greatest
resource will need in the future
in tomorrow’s super connected smart
cities every aspect of our lives could
be affected by the constantly changing
preparing the next generation for this
future is top of mind for most educators
of today in Singapore that preparation
starts early using tech tools to teach
children the building blocks of a
digital mindset including the most basic
skill needed for coding sequential
learning sequential learning it seems
easy for us doubts but it’s actually not
easy for them at all to know who comes
first and who comes next
all right children we’re going to move
over there
and then we’re gonna find your trial
ease then are we gonna put them in your
I feel that there’s a lot of skills that
they can gain from having the tech toys
as well
Melanie problem solving skills
communication skills language skills as
well and also they learn how to
problem-solve
sequential as well the play maker
program there are three tech toys the B
board is something that is very friendly
and very easy to operate because there’s
only a few buttons for the children to
use so for example we have the forward
and backward 10 11 10 right button
[Music]
people I would say it’s a little bit
high-end order thinking whereby children
will have to sequence the blocks as
pretty in order and they have to scan
the barcode so for kibo it won’t
function if they don’t start with a
begin block and any with the end block
so during that time children actually
get to do a trial and error to see
whether it works or not these tech toys
introduce children to advanced learning
concepts in doing so they are arming
future generations of Singaporeans with
the skills necessary for computer
programming and literacy without
exposing them to too much screen time
this dynamic new approach to education
is of critical importance for parents
helping to prepare their children for
the workplaces of the future I’ve got
three boys they are 12 Levin and
youngest Paul since I’m in the finance
line the current way to go is the
FinTech the concern for how my kids are
going to cope with the new change India
Korea Falls has always been there
[Music]
definitely I feel these tools will
actually help children to prepare the
workforce in the future because we
actually building the foundation for
example the foundation of language the
foundation of problem-solving the
foundation of communicating with people
tech literacy is not just a challenge
for newer generations
[Music]
as populations around the world image
that need to become digitally literate
cuts across all age brackets Singapore
is tackling this problem head-on with
proactive efforts to provide tech
education to all of its citizens
ensuring none are left offline
was any cookie father as a woman loudly
Bader Lana Lana
is she nice actually so campus an Indian
War Isaac awaiting at sinasu tea or tea
person who you just a Diwali mr. towns
journey to digital fluency came at a
clinic held by Singapore’s
info-communications Media Development
no boat on the reservation simply
retract ow
take a bow Iowa Jessica Whitman mission
FH analytical vasectomy wait at a tea
party for while companion Aryan using
the network a McCoy t new continuity
which decision today mama you same tag
we wrestled signal I want to saw do we
develop our chicken de Caen her much
chairman missions I even as generosity
even toe-to-toe colleano lesson you have
learned her income continued since we
can differ by her tenacity Tahoe
[Music]
Singapore’s focus on training all of its
citizens for the future is nurturing a
highly educated versatile and connected
population connectivity and community
will shape the world of tomorrow and in
Singapore that sense of community is
already revealing itself in new and
we are racing towards a future that will
be dominated by technology in the
decades to come dedicated citizens will
find ways to harness that technology to
make a positive impact enhancing lives
through creative innovation in Singapore
technology is already being created that
will care for the nation’s most
vulnerable we try to provide sleep
wellness for newborn babies and also
premature babies so what you do is that
you actually put a baby on it and after
you sleep for about minute we can give
you the breath calm and know how well
your baby is sleeping when a baby sleep
they have a lot of periodic breathing
that means they breathe and they be
stopped debrief and stop now this
happened to 2% of the newborn baby but
it happened to 60% for premature babies
[Music]
periodic breathing dramatically reduces
oxygen flow which can have a detrimental
effect on a baby’s growth and even their
cognitive development the breath optic
system uses fiber-optic technology to
help monitor this or Frank this project
I think one of the driving force of us
inventing this product but we cost 24
years ago I had a premature son at a
point in time I bought whatever is
available to try to monitor a baby and I
Chi for for one month
me and my wife didn’t sleep in the same
room because we took Chow our ship to
stay at a baby so we took turns to do
look after my son for fall for a while
so when we were able to use the optic
technology optic fiber technology to
create such a sensor we really know what
we want because I was in that position
with you when your son is okay now oh my
sighs perfecto
the spirit of using technological
ingenuity to improve lives has been
built into the city itself with green
corridors and protected parkland
keep in Singapore from becoming a
in its efforts conserve and protected
status as a city in a garden and Parks
is employing the power of technology so
one of the tools that we use is called
the SU by OLS app it’s a free citizen
science base at where everybody can
download and you could make hot boy
outside things that you see in Singapore
it could be at your park it could be in
a forest in Singapore and using this
data you can develop some conservation
or management strategies where we could
consider them heavy threats are for
Texas and green spaces the app is
empowering Singapore citizens to play a
meaningful role in the conservation and
protection of the city’s incredible
biodiversity
[Music]
those of us over there the other junk
awful and they’re like chickens about
yeah technically not chickens right
[Music]
walking home in the daytime whether you
should be working by the nighttime I’ll
be probably down on my couch and
watching television
I spend most of my time on the phone
not only is the citizen science program
healthy and parks maintain Singapore’s
rich ecosystem but also helping people
build connections with green spaces and
each other
Singapore is our schedule and so what we
need is to preserve what we have now and
using the technology we are able to
provide feedback to national paper on
the species that we still have a cell
phone as the modern world rapidly
marches towards urbanization our future
cities will face unprecedented pressures
innovation and technological
advancements will help bring pork down
to how we move how we work and how we
learn in Singapore that change is
already underway it feels like we are
part of building and creating a
Singapore that is vibrant safe and also
sustainable for the people now and also
for the future
if we can do it here in Singapore we can
literally do it anywhere in the world
and we are excited almost on a everyday
basis we are motivated by the fact that
we can make a difference I heard from
one Nobel Prize winner only a prepared
mind can see opportunity and we are
using this opportunity by getting us who
prepared
you seem a ho guys look kikuchi vermin
come father Logan is objective term has a tsunami it intended even funny
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