INDUSTRIAL SEMINARS AY23/24: OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

The second half of semester 1, AY23/24, welcomed three new employers to the ongoing Industrial Seminar Series, following the footsteps of Accenture, WorldQuant, Symrise, Cargill, and IQVIA, which were featured in the first half of the semester.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), the national flag carrier, specially crafted a seminar on 24 October that caters to the mathematical sciences students, who were enthralled by how the hospitality industry was harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve productivity and create content and improve customer experience. The speaker, Xiao Zhibo, hails from Singapore Airlines’ growing data science division and leads SIA’s Generative AI progression. Leverage on open-sourced Generative AI platforms including ChatGTP, SIA is now able to promote a wide spread of promotional collaterals including visuals (both graphics and videos), audio and texts that can be readily adapted in a variety of campaigns on a variety of SIA digital platforms. Audience was wooed by just how real life-like the in-flight announcements were with AI-powered speech tools, and how with just the visual input of a new dish and a few descriptors, AI was able to produce a first cut of a new dish to be unveiled by the award-winning SIA in-flight dining service. Of course, limitations to the current Generative AI were discussed and students, during the Q&As, were directed to reflect on the impacts of AI on some roles in the creativity industry.

1 November’s seminar featured Mitsui Chemicals, one of the biggest chemicals companies in Japan, a component of the Nikkei, and a multi-national with business interests across the globe, including here in the Southeast Asia region. The two speakers, Patrick Ho, Senior Production Manager at Prime Evolue Singapore, a Mitsui Chemicals’ affiliate company, and Brendan Ng, Senior Manager for Sales, at Mitsui Chemicals, shared with the studentswhat a day in the life of a production engineer and a sales manager is like at the Mitsui Chemicals group. Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of their roles, especially to students who are not satisfied with repetitive work, is that their roles are never the same day in and day out, and a lot of quick thinking and resourcefulness are required to successfully discharge their work functions at Mitsui Chemicals. Of course, the frequent trips to the headquarters in Japan for both of them were another plus for the audience members, some of who either study Japanese, or have an affinity for Japanese culture.

The last seminar of the semester featured Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, one of the largest in France and one of the biggest private-held banks in the world. The content of the seminar revolved around sustainable financing, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of Science students as well as students from other faculties and schools, including the NUS Business School. Headlining the talk were two senior management from Natixis, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Senior Country Manager for Singapore, and Mr. Olivier Menard, Manager Director and Head of Green and Sustainable Hub, APAC. A short overview of Natixis was ably covered by Mr. Kumar, before Mr. Menard took over the remainder of the seminar to first lay out the case for urgent needs to avert global warming and how that would not only impact the banking industry but many industries. He then, through a combination of case studies and an outline of the various initiatives and products at Natixis, exemplified how Natixis approaches Sustainability and Transition Finance, including how Natixis helps transition brown industries to more sustainable endeavors through green financing, and innovative financial products such as sustainability-linked bonds that Natixis designed for the Air France – KLM group. The final portion of the seminar introduced Natixis’ ESG Index which consists of a basket of companies that meet certain sustainability criteria – a testament to Natixis’ continued innovation in the arena of green financing.

The Industrial Seminar Series will resume next semester, featuring companies that include HTX, Moderna and GlobalFoundries.