Singapore Management University

Not every moment of play is time wasted. In a Straits Times commentary, SMU Vice President (Partnerships and Engagement) and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology Lim Sun Sun explores how short bursts of mobile gaming can provide a mental reset, a sense of achievement and social connection. The key is to play deliberately — and recognise when engagement becomes excess. Read her perspective on why mobile gaming need not be a guilty pleasure: https://sgsmu.com/4yLCivD

SMU Executive MBA enters the global Top 50! Our EMBA has climbed nine places to 46th worldwide in the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2026. The programme also ranks 9th globally for International Course Experience, up 18 places, recognising its international learning opportunities. Read more: https://sgsmu.com/4zqeflM

AI adoption is moving quickly. The question for higher education is how institutions can keep pace responsibly. At the inaugural Digital Education Council APAC Regional Leadership Summit hosted by SMU, leaders from across the region came together to examine the capabilities, governance and institutional changes needed for the AI era. Explore the priorities shaping responsible AI leadership in higher education: https://sgsmu.com/47UGlty

🎓 AI fluency goes beyond knowing how to use the tools. It also means understanding when and why to use them. At the Milken Institute Asia Summit 2026, SMU Provost Professor Alan Chan explored why universities need to develop AI fluency alongside human-centred capabilities, and help students cultivate sound habits of mind for lifelong learning. ▶️ Watch the panel discussion: https://bit.ly/4yLBsiv

What helps talent flourish beyond talent itself? Olympic freestyle skiing champion Eileen Gu joined SMU President Professor Lily Kong at the Karim Family Foundation Inspiring Women Leadership Series for a conversation on resilience, learning, self-belief and defining success on one’s own terms. Explore the takeaways from their conversation: https://sgsmu.com/4rXZRP7

"Creativity isn't just about the final product. It's about the process of exploration." Assistant Professor Thivya Kandappu from the SMU School of Computing and Information Systems developed MOTUS, an AI system that helps novice digital artists build the motor skills and confidence needed for genuine creative expression. Read the full story: https://sgsmu.com/4ifIPsv

COE premiums have eased, but affordability remains a bigger question. On Money FM 89.3’s The Big Story, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship Terence Fan from the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business examines what is driving COE prices, how upcoming policy changes could affect the market, and what car buyers should watch next. Listen to the interview: https://bit.ly/3UcXL1t

"In mental illness, the focus is often on the 'I'. But when we shift towards 'We', it becomes mental wellness."   This World Mental Health Day, meet Michelle Koay, Head of the Mrs Wong Kwok Leong Student Wellness Centre at SMU. She shares why student well-being is about more than self-care, it's about looking out for one another, and why no one has to navigate it alone.   Watch the video on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.   Also, are you looking for a balanced and sustainable university experience? Find out more about SMU Mental Health Week, happening from 22 to 23 October: https://sgsmu.com/3TPZUA4

How should Primary 1 registration balance parents’ aspirations with fairer access? In a CNA commentary, SMU Assistant Professor of Sociology Jacqueline Ho and her co-authors examine recent changes to the registration framework—and why further reform requires a broader conversation about individual competitiveness, collective values and social mixing. Read the full commentary: https://sgsmu.com/4jK45Yx

What happens when a probability question on a school exam changes someone's future? For SMU School of Economics undergraduate Lucius Li, it sparked a passion for mathematics and led him to major in Actuarial Science. This journey resulted in a third-place finish at the 2026 WorldQuant International Quant Championship, alongside his teammate Mark Bosco from the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business, in a competition with over 156,000 global participants. Discover more about their journey: https://sgsmu.com/4AKnyOW

Genuine integration of knowledge doesn't begin with agreement, but with productive confusion, that's the view of Professor Elvin Lim, Dean of SMU College of Integrative Studies, on what real interdisciplinary collaboration demands. It's the thinking behind CIS's new partnership with Planet+ and Columbia University's Centre on Sustainable Investment to advance applied climate education. Read the full story: https://sgsmu.com/4zidxqE

SMU alumnus Jeremy Lee (BSc (IS), Class of 2018), founder of SimplyGood, is reimagining homecare to be more eco-friendly and sustainable.   In this Faces of SMU feature, he reflects on critical thinking, perseverance and what it takes to build sustainable impact that scales.   Watch the video on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.

Questions around green finance, ageing societies and the future of work are creating new opportunities for universities across Asia and Europe to collaborate. During recent engagements in Glasgow and London, SMU Provost Professor Alan Chan met partners from across the region. Highlights included three new research collaborations with the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as conversations with leaders from 40 partner universities across 19 countries. Read the full story here: https://sgsmu.com/4y1EWfC

While leading AI governance at a major bank, Dr Brindha Priyadarshini Jeyaraman (Doctor of Engineering, Class of 2025) saw a gap between compliance and engineering. She founded Aethryx, supported by SMU's Business Innovations Generator, to close it with real-time AI governance. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4hM1NFP

An unexpected setback. A year's delay. Still made the Dean's List. Meet Boonridh Lim (Master of Professional Accounting, Class of 2026; Bachelor of Business Management, Class of 2012), who returned to SMU to deepen his expertise in accounting, finance and data analysis, and stayed the course despite an unforeseen challenge along the way. Watch the video on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube to find out more.

From pandemic-era challenge to enterprise solution: an SMU–IBM research collaboration has won the Most Scalable Collaboration award at the SICC Awards 2026. The teams developed a model that helped IBM’s procurement planners balance supplier risk, cost and resilience. Its initial deployment generated US$1.8 million in savings within a year, with projected annual savings of US$35 million across IBM Infrastructure. Now integrated into IBM’s watsonx Supply Chain 360 solution, the work shows how research can move from an urgent problem towards wider application. Read the full story: https://sgsmu.com/47zwrxr

An unexpected setback. A year's delay. Still made the Dean's List. Meet Boonridh Lim (Master of Professional Accounting, Class of 2026; Bachelor of Business Management, Class of 2012), who returned to SMU to deepen his expertise in accounting, finance and data analysis, and stayed the course despite an unforeseen challenge along the way. Watch the video on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube to find out more.

SMU Arts Fest 2026 turned Singapore's timeless legends into living stories, with 400 performers bringing shadow puppetry, dance, theatre and music to life across three weeks at the city campus. Watch the highlights video here: https://bit.ly/4ddz77l Read the full story here: https://sgsmu.com/4iU2YoU

Can AI companions ease loneliness, or deepen inequality? A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour, led by Assistant Professor of Learning Analytics Zhang Qiyang from the SMU College of Integrative Studies, finds that the answer depends on who uses them and how they're designed and governed. Read the full media release: https://sgsmu.com/4yr2yLK

How can organisations make the most of AI while continuing to lead with sound judgement? At yesterday’s SMU Visionary Series, Professor Lim Sun Sun, SMU Vice President (Partnerships & Engagement), moderated “The AI Shift: Redefining Business, Technology and Leadership” with leaders from BlackRock, Enterprise Singapore and GIC. The panel explored how AI is changing innovation, investment and decision-making — and why trust, governance and human judgement remain important as organisations adopt the technology. A look back at the conversation, in photos.