nanyang technological university case study

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Learning Hub / Heatherwick Studio

• Curated by ArchDaily
• Architects: Heatherwick Studio
• Area Area of this architecture project Area:  14000 m²
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2015
• Photographs Photographs: Hufton+Crow
• Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:   Jonite
• Lead Architect: CPG Consultants; Project Lead - Vivien Leong
• Mechanical & Electrical Engineer : Bescon Consulting Engineers Pte Ltd
• Environmental Performance : Green Mark Platinum
• Design Consultant : Heatherwick Studio , Ole Smith
• Main Contractor : Newcon Builders
• Sustainability Consultants : CPG Consultants Pte Ltd
• Civil:  TYLin International
• Structural Engineers:  TYLin International
• Country:  Singapore

Text description provided by the architects. The Learning Hub at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), designed by Heatherwick Studio and executed by lead architect CPG Consultants, is a new educational landmark for Singapore . As part of NTU’s redevelopment plan for the campus, the Learning Hub is designed to be a new multi-use building for its 33,000 students.

Instead of the traditional format of an educational building with miles of corridors linking box-like lecture rooms, the university asked for a unique design better suited to contemporary ways of learning. With the digital revolution allowing learning to take place almost anywhere, the most important function of this new university building was to be a place where students and professors from various disciplines could meet and interact with one other. The Learning Hub is envisioned to be a place where students might meet their future business partner or someone they would have an amazing idea with.

The outcome is a structure that interweaves both social and learning spaces to create a dynamic environment more conducive to casual and incidental interaction between students and professors. Twelve towers, each a stack of rounded tutorial rooms, taper inwards at their base around a generous public central atrium to provide fifty-six tutorial rooms without corners or obvious fronts or backs. The new-generation smart classrooms were conceived by NTU to support its new learning pedagogies that promote more interactive small group teaching and active learning. The flexible format of the rooms allows professors to configure them to better engage their students, and for students to more easily collaborate with each other.

The rooms in turn open onto the shared circulation space around the atrium, interspersed with open spaces and informal garden terraces, allowing students to be visually connected while also leaving space to linger, gather and pause. NTU Professor Kam Chan Hin, Senior Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education) says, “The new Learning Hub provides an exciting mix of learning, community and recreational spaces for NTU students, professors and researchers from various disciplines to gather and interact. By bringing people and their ideas together, NTU can spark future innovations and new knowledge that increasingly happen at the intersection of disciplines.”

Founder and Principal Thomas Heatherwick, Heatherwick Studio says, “Heatherwick Studio’s first major new building in Asia has offered us an extraordinary opportunity to rethink the traditional university building. In the information age the most important commodity on a campus is social space to meet and bump into and learn from each other. The Learning Hub is a collection of handmade concrete towers surrounding a central space that brings everyone together, interspersed with nooks, balconies and gardens for informal collaborative learning. We are honoured to have had the chance to work with this forward-thinking and ambitious academic institution to realise such an unusual project.”

Project lead Vivien Leong of CPG Consultants, the Lead Architect and Sustainability Consultants for the Learning Hub, says, “The most exciting aspect of this project is to see such an inspired design develop into a uniquely contextual and functional building through a highly collaborative process. Managing this project was no mean feat as we had… ...to ensure that our work complied with Singapore ’s rigorous building regulations and that it achieved the highest standards of sustainability, while working hard to retain the integrity of the original design and vision of NTU . The opportunity to challenge convention by introducing several first-of-its-kind environmentally friendly features and innovative solutions that embody the spirit of modern day learning has been a truly rewarding experience for us.” The combination of local building codes and high environmental aspirations meant that a concrete construction was necessary. The primary design challenge was how to make this humble material feel beautiful.

As a result, the concrete stair and elevator cores have been embedded with 700 specially commissioned drawings, three-dimensionally cast into the concrete, referencing everything from science to art and literature. Overlapping images, specially commissioned from illustrator Sara Fanelli, are deliberately ambiguous thought triggers, designed
to leave space for the imagination. The sixty one angled concrete columns have a distinctive undulating texture developed specially for the project. The curved facade panels are cast with a unique horizontal pattern, made
with ten cost-efficient adjustable silicone moulds, to create a complex three-dimensional texture. The result of the building’s various raw treatments of concrete is that the whole project appears to have been handmade from wet clay.

With year-round temperatures in Singapore between 25°C and 31°C it was important to maintain the students’ comfort whilst achieving a sustainable energy usage.

The building’s open and permeable atrium is naturally ventilated, maximising air circulation around the towers of tutorial rooms and allowing students to feel as cool as possible. Each room is cooled using silent convection, which does away with the need for energy-heavy air conditioning fans. The Learning Hub building was awarded Green Mark Platinum status by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore , the highest possible environmental standard for a building of this type.

In a digital age when many students have multiple communication devices and ready access to knowledge, the Learning Hub reasserts the role of an educational building in the 21st century. No longer a place for traditional classroom teaching to passive students, NTU’s new icon provides space for collaborative learning in a technology-rich setting. Opened till late, it will be a place for students to gather, where knowledge is shared, collaboration between disciplines takes place and where future leaders are nurtured.

Project gallery

Project location

Address: nanyang technological university, singapore 639798.

Materials and Tags

• Sustainability

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Nanyang Technological University, Singapore: Easing first-year students into campus life with onboarding information at their fingertips

About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

A research-intensive public university, NTU Singapore has 33,000 students. Ranked among the world’s top universities by QS, NTU has also been named the world’s top young university for the past seven years.

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Founded in 2006, OniGroup, a Google Cloud Premier Partner and business technology specialist, helps customers overcome business complexities with transformative solutions, from data analytics to location intelligence. From offices in London, Sydney, and Singapore, this award-winning Google Cloud Premier Partner serves customers in more than 50 countries.

NTU creates a multipurpose virtual assistant using Dialogflow Mega Agent on Google Cloud to improve student engagement for its virtual orientation and increase operational efficiency with automated processes.

Google cloud results.

• Delivers a smooth mobile experience for a successful virtual orientation
• Automates routine tasks such as FAQs and call center queries to save administrative time
• Improves navigation on campus with accurate information

Saves more than 300 hours of student query processing time

August 2020 marked the start of the academic year for students at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore , Singapore (NTU Singapore). When new students arrive on campus, they often have questions about campus life, from planning their curriculum to joining student clubs. In previous years, student volunteers shared helpful information with newcomers during orientation. But all this changed in 2020, as NTU had to move its student orientation online to minimize in-person interactions because of COVID-19.

The university decided to use a virtual assistant chatbot as a solution to onboard its 6,000 freshmen. Based on research by the Infocomm Media Development Authority in Singapore, all youth between the ages of 15 and 24 own smartphones. For this reason, NTU decided to focus on mobile as the main channel to provide an immersive orientation experience. With Lyon being the name of the university's mascot, NTU launched Ask Lyon, a virtual assistant on its web and mobile apps, to provide new students with the right resources, at any time, from anywhere.

“Within minutes of configuring a Dialogflow agent, the virtual assistant delivered accurate responses that we couldn’t achieve with another prototype virtual assistant. That gave us the confidence that Google Cloud is the right platform. Even our students found it easy to train and deploy the virtual assistant without any programming background.”

Ask Lyon, powered by Dialogflow , which is part of Contact Center AI on Google Cloud , is the brainchild of a diverse project team of staff and students. Acting like a mega call center agent, the virtual assistant uses Mega agents to handle different scenarios—from student orientation to queries on administrative matters—by responding to user requests in text format with the relevant information.

Project Lyon now provides NTU’s 30,000 students with rapid access to a myriad of related information to assist freshmen and undergraduates across the start of their journey with NTU. Project Lyon has also improved organizational productivity in reducing the service center queues by 25% and phone call inquiries by 62%. This has enabled staff resources that would have traditionally been required for repetitive student inquiries to provide services that are more sensitive and valuable to students.

“A partner needs to be bold, agile, and open to possibilities. In addition to technical support, Google Cloud and OniGroup helped us gain early access to the new Dialogflow feature, Mega Agent, that meets our current and future needs without investing in costly infrastructure.”

Expanding digital capabilities through collaboration

Before NTU created Ask Lyon, the team built a virtual assistant with in-house resources but was not satisfied with the result because it could not provide optimized and useful answers to the user’s questions. In comparison, Dialogflow, which powers Ask Lyon, uses natural language processing (NLP) technology to understand what users are asking and provide a relevant response. With the help of Google Cloud partner OniGroup and input from students, Ask Lyon went from idea to launch in three short months.

“Within minutes of configuring a Dialogflow agent, the virtual assistant delivered accurate responses that we couldn’t achieve with our prototype virtual assistant,” says Ng Kee Haur, Senior Assistant Director, Centre for IT Services at NTU. “That gave us the confidence that Google Cloud is the right platform. Even our communications students found it easy to train and deploy the virtual assistant without any programming background.”

Launched in August 2020, Ask Lyon was well received by NTU freshmen. Students interacted with the virtual assistant during the first month of orientation in more than 10,000 unique chat sessions to ask questions such as “How do I register for courses?” and “How do I apply for student loans?” By providing automated responses, the virtual assistant saves the student officers minutes to answer each question, in person or over the phone. The virtual assistant escalates questions that it can’t answer to conventional channels such as phone or email for follow-up.

“A partner needs to be bold, agile, and open to possibilities,” says Ng Kee Haur, Senior Assistant Director and Team Lead, Web and Mobile at NTU. “In addition to technical support, Google Cloud and OniGroup helped us gain early access to the new Mega Agent feature to build a virtual assistant that meets our current and future needs without investing in costly infrastructure.”

Darragh Murphy, Managing Director at OniGroup, says, "Our expertise and strategic consulting in working with passionate NTU staff and students demonstrated a strong cohesive student-centered focus, and we look forward to the continued success in working even closer across the next iterations of Project Lyon."

Improving student interaction with human experiences

A successful virtual assistant requires both programming and human intelligence. To create a virtual assistant that students love to use, NTU enlisted students from various backgrounds—business, computer science, communications, and linguistics undergraduates—to improve the conversation experience. These students provided training data as conversation data files so the virtual assistant can respond to common student queries with relevant answers and understand local nuances that are unique to NTU.

For example, Ask Lyon recognizes that halls, hostels, and residences all refer to student housing. If a freshman wants to know how much it costs to stay in a hostel, the virtual assistant provides hall rates and relevant information.

The students also taught the virtual assistant to understand Singlish, a Singapore slang that borrows from local languages, by adding training phrases on Dialogflow. If a user asks Ask Lyon to find out where to “dapao” food, the virtual assistant understands that “dapao” means takeaway and provides food recommendations.

“The virtual assistant project on Dialogflow allowed students to gain hands-on virtual assistant development experience by working alongside staff and peers,” says Vivienne Tan, Director, Enterprise IT, Centre for IT Services at NTU. “Such collaboration between staff and students creates a positive environment to attract prospective students.”

Expanding the power of AI for students and staff

As first-year students settle into the routine of campus life, Ask Lyon receives less orientation-related questions but continues to be a go-to source for administrative matters and more. Unlike bots that serve a single-purpose, Ask Lyon serves multiple purposes during students’ life cycles. Dialogflow’s Mega Agent feature enables NTU’s virtual assistant to process up to 20,000 intents. For example, the virtual assistant can answer students queries on academics, finance, and matters related to campus life.

“This virtual assistant project on Google Cloud exemplifies our smart campus vision to harness digital technologies to support better learning and living experiences on campus. We believe that with the use of cloud technologies, we can be more agile to provide student services in a seamless and convenient manner and will support other use cases in the future.”

Helping students navigate the campus with indoor wayfinding

In the next phase of Ask Lyon, the virtual assistant is to be integrated with NTU Maps, an indoor mapping and wayfinding solution built on Google Maps Platform to help users find their way around the NTU campus.

Sprawled across 200-hectares, NTU is the largest university campus in Singapore, with hundreds of buildings. NTU Maps have more than 4,000 points of interest included and will further improve the student and visitor experience.

For example, students can locate tutorial rooms and lecture theaters through Lyon so they aren't late for class. Based on the user’s shared location, the wayfinder will calculate the most efficient route by car, foot, or shuttle bus.

Attracting and engaging students with digital innovations

AI and machine learning applications are built on data, which means that the virtual assistant improves with the amount of data it ingests and its ability to analyze it.

“This virtual assistant project on Google Cloud exemplifies our Smart Campus vision to harness digital technologies to support better learning and living experiences on campus. We believe that with the use of Cloud technologies, we can be more agile to provide student services in a seamless and convenient manner and will support other use cases in the future,” says Vivienne.

Case Study: Nanyang Technological University’s Gaia, Singapore

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Photo: Steeltech Industries PTE Ltd

Gaia joins the timber times record breakers not just for sheer size, positive health and sustainability but because it proves wood construction is also doable in rain-soaked climates.  Singapore is one of the wettest places on Earth. Located near the equator, abundant daily rainfall and high humidity pose serious challenges. During this construction, Singapore experienced the most rainfall in 40 years! It’s safe to say Gaia is a water ingress and moisture management test case! 

If wood stays wet over extended periods, mould, cracking, or swelling can occur. Although wood is highly resilient and can even withstand being waterlogged, unlike many building materials, it’s best kept dry within a moisture content range of 11-15% during the transport, storage, construction, and in-service stages of a building to prevent such issues.   Wet weather isn’t typically an issue as contractors either erect a protective weather cover for dry storage and protection during assembly . Gaia is nearly the size of Windsor Castle, so a construction tent wasn’t feasible.   But, Sylva™ by Stora Enso delivered an efficient and scalable solution. Austrian millworkers flat-packed the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools of Sylva CLT Walls, Floors, Roofs and Stairs into 29 shipments. If each container was placed end-to-end, they’d stretch 2.8km long!  Each piece was put in the correct loading sequence, with trackable labels and ready to be assembled without being exposed to moisture for a moment longer than necessary.  

That may sound like a headache or the ultimate game of Tetris (depending on how you’re wired), but with Sylva it was easy. The entire delivery was completed in just 639 days between Sept 2019-June 2021 despite the pandemic and blocked Suez Canal – remember Evergreen?   How was that possible?   In the conception phase of Gaia project, Stora Enso worked closely with the project team. Using BIM (Building Information Modelling) , a digital 3D modelling tool, everyone involved could visualize the infrastructure and break it down into components. The Stora Enso Project Support Centre calculated how to machine cut 16m by 2.95m CLT with millimeter precision for maximum raw material optimisation, (a cost-saving and sustainability must for most developers). 

With BIM (Building Information Modelling), a digital 3D modelling tool, everyone involved could visualize the overall building infrastructure and break it down into individual components.

Prefab construction also known as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) lowered the construction time. From this ☝🏽 to this 👇🏽 in a third of the time had it been framed in concrete and steel.

• Axil 3000p+ BS to protect against insects and termites.
• End Grain Varnish to the narrow sides for protection from water ingress, stains, swelling and shrinking.
• All exterior vertical fins (the Sylva CLT columns you see on the exterior area) were double-side clad in larch for a beautiful visual surface and pre-coated for weather protection.
• Sylva CLT Floors were pre-fitted with metal inserts  to facilitate easy crane lifting. Sylva CLT Walls were fitted with steel plates and screws too so the crane operators could quickly and safely grip onto the installed metal anchors and slot them into position, again reducing time exposure to moisture. The lifting devices had the additional benefit of reducing accidents for contractors working at height because precise geometry in a factory-controlled setting optimally placed the devices for balancing. 

With Sylva, work site injuries are virtually eliminated. Heavy equipment for cutting are performed at ground level and coatings applied in well-lit, dry and well-ventilated conditions in Stora Enso's mills. Given falls from height are still the main cause of fatal accidents and injuries within the workplace; safety is one of the key reasons developers are switching to Sylva. Photo: Steeltech Industries PTE Ltd 

Since this project Stora Enso has invested 9 million EUR in a new coating line in their Ybbs sawmill in Austria to apply Hydrophobic Varnish and also offers a protective membrane – for the wood that could be exposed to water for extended periods on the construction site. It is a self-adhesive tape that makes the wood completely waterproof.   Building in the rain  A body of knowledge about building timber skyscrapers now exists but the science of building horizontally is still developing. Gaia informs us firsthand how design and construction decisions can improve moisture management at scale.   Gaia was built in nine sections, split over two segments (Levels 1-3 and Level 4-Roof /15 installation sections) to reduce moisture exposure of the 8 000 m² floor.

Render: Nanyang Technological University 

Within only a few short months, it was apparent that the exposed internal edges of each zone were vulnerable to water ingress.

Contractors started each day, sweeping off pools of water from the wood and would repeat after the afternoon showers. Industrial-sized vacuum cleaners were also used too. In total, they removed 3 300 mm of rain.

Project plans were adapted quickly. Levels 4,5 and 6 were built up in one go, preventing exposure to moisture and enabling swift waterproofing of the 50+ balconies, terraces, bridges and skylights.  The overall result is a state-of-the-art learning environment with exposed solid structural sustainable wood. The design look and feel supports the university’s highly interactive learning model, with 25 smart classrooms for technological advancement and interactive collaboration.

  Low carbon building achievements 

‘Stora Enso is extremely proud of our part in helping Singapore reach their ambitious net zero emissions by 2050,’ said Hope Chuah Technical Sales Engineer with Stora Enso. Singapore aims to reduce 60 million tonnes of climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO₂e) by 2030. 

Given the construction industry is responsible for nearly 40% of all climate-damaging emissions, one of the fastest ways for Singapore to reach their goal is by encouraging the use of sustainable construction ( wood is a natural carbon capture storage solution too ). Sylva by Stora Enso alone removed 5 845 tonnes of CO₂e from the atmosphere while the trees were growing and will store all of that safely in Gaia for the duration of the building’s lifecycle.

Gaia is 100% PEFC certified mass timber building: 7 673 m³ Sylva by Stora Enso and 6 000 m³ WiEHAG’s glued laminated timber (glulam). Transportation emitted 422 tonnes of greenhouse gases (wood is so light to transport).

Special thanks to Andreas Scholler, the Stora Enso project manager and David Kingham of Steeltech Industries PTE Ltd who provided the interview for this story and the photographs.

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Project Team: 

Stora Enso Partners:  Eurban Ltd until April 2020, thereafter Steeltech Industries PTE Ltd, Singapore and WiEHAG who delivered 6 000m³ of glued laminated timber (glulam)

Client/Developer:  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore    Design team:   

• Design architect: Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects; RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte) Ltd
• Local architect: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd 
• Structural engineer: Aurecon Pte Ltd 
• Mechanical and electrical engineer: Squire Mech Pte Ltd
• Quantity Surveyor: WT Partnership  

Main Contractor:  NewconBuilders Pte Ltd, Singapore  Mass Timber and Steel subcontractor (design, Supply and install):  Steeltech Industries PTE Ltd  Subcontractors proving installation support for Steeltech:  Woodtek (Taiwan), Savcon (Australia), Steel Ally (Singapore), Forest Road (Singapore)  Specialist timber engineer:  Eurban Ltd, UK   Fabrication modelling of timber:  Eurban Ltd, UK (until 07.2020), CadMakers, Canada (since 07.2020)

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Case Study Nanyang Technical University, Singapore 8 Pages

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Case Study NTU School of Art, Design and Media Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore

Design School for Future Designers A design school in Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is creating a stir with its unique architectural concept. One of the highlights of this building is its curved green roof. Curve Roof and Facade

Curved Green Roof Sunken Plaza Art and design schools conjure up images ings and comes across as a structure that Dr Timothy Seow, Managing Director of of creatively designed buildings. NTU’s grew from the ground. The main concern CPG-tss Studio, CPG Consultants, the new School of Art, Design and Media for the architects while designing the Lead Designer behind this project, says: (ADM) is no exception: only that it is more School of Art, Design and Media was to ”The idea was to make the architec- imaginatively designed than others. This make the building of this school different ture part...

Distinctive Architecture Mr. Hoong Bee Lok, Executive Vice Presi- most challenging aspect of the project dent, CPG Consultants and the Principal Architect for this project, says that the site for the project was a wooded area Conventionally, a green roof requires soil and they had wanted to retain the green as a growing medium and the extent of its characteristic of this site even after the coverage would impose heavy loads on woods had been removed to make way the building structure and foundations. On the onset, the architects have devised So in terms of design, the challenge an unique...

Unique Greening System Green roof in modern architecture

Intertwining Roof Forms People Involved: Owner: Nanyang Technological University Architects: CPG Consultants Pte Ltd Structural Engineers: CPG Consultants Pte Ltd Main Contractor: Teambuild Construction Pte Ltd Waterproofing Specialist: Elmich Pte Ltd Completion Date: June 2006

alwitra in brief: alwitra is a leading German manufacturer of comprehensive flat roof systems. The wide product range comprises the waterproofing membranes EVALON® and EVALASTIC® as well as aluminium profiles for roof edge trims and integrated details such as rainwater outlets, vents and rooflights. alwitra is a member of European Single-ply Waterproofing Association, Bruxelles, Belgium. The alwitra flat roof systems It took four months to complete the scapers have used additional bracings installation process, having had to face that they can be implemented two challenges: first to keep...

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Space & Light Studios: Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis and the Business of Yoga

By: Wei Hwa Chua, Wei Chern Chua, Beng Geok Wee

As yoga grew in popularity in Singapore, there were many new yoga studios set up in attempts to tap into this growing service industry. Space & Light Studios Pte Ltd was one of them. A small and…

• Length: 12 page(s)
• Publication Date: Apr 8, 2014
• Discipline: Accounting
• Product #: NTU060-PDF-ENG

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As yoga grew in popularity in Singapore, there were many new yoga studios set up in attempts to tap into this growing service industry. Space & Light Studios Pte Ltd was one of them. A small and medium enterprise set up in December 2012, it differentiated itself by offering yoga classes that emphasised on the optimal alignment of the body. This case study explores the entrepreneurial journey of the owners of Space & Light Studios and examines the viability of this yoga business utilising Cost-Volume-Profit analysis - a management accounting tool.

Learning Objectives

The main objective of this case study is to explore the application of management accounting in a small business setting. The benefits are: -For business owners, management accounting tools and techniques can contribute to a better understanding of their markets, customers and costs structures, and also the assumptions made about these. -Students learn about decision making in a given business context and how management accounting tools can help the decision making process. -Development of customised excel charts to facilitate the use of these management tools. This case uses the context of a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) start-up in the service industry to illustrate how Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) analysis, a management accounting tool, can be used to assess a company's performance and to make recommendations on how to improve performance. The issue of allocating costs to product service lines is also considered specifically in this case, to address the following issues: -To introduce CVP analysis as a tool for small business owners and entrepreneurs to facilitate their decision-making about pricing and product offerrings -To evaluate the viability of SLS's business by estimating its profitability. -To conduct a break-even analysis of SLS. -To analyse which product offered (i.e. type of yoga class) is the most profitable, by considering cost allocation to individual products. -To apply CVP analysis under various scenarios to examine the impact of pricing and product offering.

Apr 8, 2014

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ABCC at Nanyang Tech University

NTU060-PDF-ENG

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, usage of information resources by computer engineering students: a case study of nanyang technological university, singapore.

Online Information Review

ISSN : 1468-4527

Article publication date: 1 October 2002

This study investigates the information needs and information seeking behaviour of computer engineering undergraduate students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. The purpose was to investigate the types of information sources used by the students, their preferred information formats, the importance of and reasons for using certain information sources and the use of various electronic information sources. A questionnaire was distributed to 200 randomly selected students and 102 completed questionnaires were returned. The study found that printed materials were the most preferred information format among the students. The top five most preferred information sources, in the order of importance, were books, lecturers, the Internet, friends and manuals. Unexpectedly, the use of databases and electronic journals was quite low among the computer engineering students. The study recommends a promotional campaign for introducing electronic information sources to the library users.

• User studies
• Information retrieval

Majid, S. and Tee Tan, A. (2002), "Usage of information resources by computer engineering students: a case study of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore", Online Information Review , Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 318-325. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520210447886

Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited

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CC0006 Basics of Report Writing

Structure of a report (case study, literature review or survey).

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The information in the report has to be organised in the best possible way for the reader to understand the issue being investigated, analysis of the findings and recommendations or implications that relate directly to the findings. Given below are the main sections of a standard report. Click on each section heading to learn more about it.

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Example - Sea level rise in Singapore : Causes, Impact and Solution

The title page must also include group name, group members and their matriculation numbers.

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Usually, the abstract is written last, ie. after writing the other sections and you know the key points to draw out from these sections. Abstracts allow readers who may be interested in the report to decide whether it is relevant to their purposes.

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In the introduction, write about what motivates your project, what makes it interesting, what questions do you aim to answer by doing your project. The introduction lays the foundation for understanding the research problem and should be written in a way that leads the reader from the general subject area of the topic to the particular topic of research.

Literature Review

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Search the existing literature for information. Identify the data pertinent to your topic. Review, extract the relevant information for eg how the study was conducted and the findings. Summarise the information. Write what is already known about the topic and what do the sources that you have reviewed say. Identify conflicts in previous studies, open questions, or gaps that may exist. If you are doing

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Keep a record of the source details of any information you want to use in your report so that you can reference them accurately.

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Methodology is the approach that you take to gather data and arrive at the recommendation(s). Choose a method that is appropriate for the research topic and explain it in detail.

In this section, address the following: a) How the data was collected b) How it was analysed and c) Explain or justify why a particular method was chosen.

Usually, the methodology is written in the past tense and can be in the passive voice. Some examples of the different methods that you can use to gather data are given below. The data collected provides evidence to build your arguments. Collect data, integrate the findings and perspectives from different studies and add your own analysis of its feasibility.

• Explore the literature/news/internet sources to know the topic in depth
• Give a description of how you selected the literature for your project
• Compare the studies, and highlight the findings, gaps or limitations.
• An in-depth, detailed examination of specific cases within a real-world context.
• Enables you to examine the data within a specific context.
• Examine a well defined case to identify the essential factors, process and relationship.
• Write the case description, the context and the process involved.
• Make sense of the evidence in the case(s) to answer the research question
• Gather data from a predefined group of respondents by asking relevant questions
• Can be conducted in person or online
• Why you chose this method (questionnaires, focus group, experimental procedure, etc)
• How you carried out the survey. Include techniques and any equipment you used
• If there were participants in your research, who were they? How did you select them and how may were there?
• How the survey questions address the different aspects of the research question
• Analyse the technology / policy approaches by visiting the required sites
• Make a detailed report on its features and your understanding of it

Results and Analysis

• Present the results of the study. You may consider visualising the results in tables and graphs, graphics etc.
• Analyse the results to obtain answer to the research question.
• Provide an analysis of the technical and financial feasibility, social acceptability etc

Discussion, Limitation(s) and Implication(s)

• Discuss your interpretations of the analysis and the significance of your findings
• Explain any new understanding or insights that emerged as a result of your research
• Consider the different perspectives (social, economic and environmental)in the discussion
• Explain the limitation(s)
• Explain how could what you found be used to make a difference for sustainability

Conclusion and Recommendations

• Summarise the significance and outcome of the study highlighting the key points.
• Come up with alternatives and propose specific actions based on the alternatives
• Describe the result or improvement it would achieve
• Explain how it will be implemented

Recommendations should have an innovative approach and should be feasible. It should make a significant difference in solving the issue under discussion.

• List the sources you have referred to in your writing
• Use the recommended citation style consistently in your report

Appendix (if necessary/any)

Include any material relating to the report and research that does not fit in the body of the report, in the appendix. For example, you may include survey questionnaire and results in the appendix.

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IES case study: NTU EcoCampus, Singapore

IES delivered a 3D masterplanning and visualisation model, along with virtual testing and building performance optimisation, for Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s 250-hectare flagship EcoCampus

Delivered in two phases, the project used IES’ innovative ICL ( Intelligent Communities Lifecycle ) technology to provide high-level visualisation and analysis of testbed energy reduction technologies on site, before delving into detailed simulation and calibrated modelling of 21 campus buildings.

NTU firstly wanted to understand, at the campus level, which testbed solutions were performing the best, and to identify the optimum scale and location for their deployment.

The EcoCampus initiative covers the whole of NTU’s 200-hectare campus and the adjoining 50-hectare JTC Corporation CleanTech Business Park. There are over 200 buildings on site with a 1.1m m² floor area.

IES and NTU worked together on this project in a highly symbiotic and collaborative relationship. Through on-site and offsite support, IES provided access to its latest ICL technology, alongside associated high-level training and consulting. Meanwhile, NTU has given valuable technology feedback and provided a large-scale, real-life implementation opportunity.

Phase 1 of the project concentrated on creating a masterplanning (iCD) model of the EcoCampus, complete with energy signatures for each building on the campus.

The model was accurate to 91% for total energy consumption and 97% for chiller energy consumption. A corresponding online cloud-based Campus Information Model (iCIM) for communication and engagement with campus staff and students was also created and connected to the masterplanning model for automatic updates.

The masterplanning model was then used as a baseline to simulate and analyse testbed technologies, ranging from improved thermal performance of the building envelope to lighting sensors, chiller optimisation and smart plugs that turn equipment off out of hours.

Overall, these combined measures reduced energy consumption across the campus by 10%, saving $3.9M and 8.2kt of carbon.

IES’ expertise in the analysis of building performance became even more essential as the project moved into Phase 2 – the implementation phase of the project – where the best solutions from the Phase 1 testbed were chosen and applied.

Using real operational data from utilities and NTU’s Building Management Systems (BMS), IES were able to assess and identify opportunities to achieve optimal performance in existing buildings across the campus, using its innovative Ci2 (Collect, Investigate, Compare, Invest) process.

During the Collect and Investigate stage, building information was gathered and operational data imported into IES’ operational data management and analysis tool, iSCAN, to investigate issues/faults across a selection of 21 buildings on the NTU campus. This brought to attention issues including: low and high CO2 levels, unstable off-coil temperatures, lower than expected return air temperatures, faulty energy consumption meters, and staff offices and meeting rooms temperature setting issues.

Virtual models were then created in the IES Virtual Environment (VE) for each of the 21 buildings and calibrated using the operational data. These closely calibrated models established an accurate baseline for the existing buildings in operation, enabling IES to Compare and determine potential savings for a range of technologies in the Invest stage.

A selection of new technologies relating to building envelope, lighting and occupancy sensors, plug load management and high-performing optimised chillers were simulated using the calibrated models to determine potential savings. The results demonstrated that, if installed in the buildings, these technologies could achieve 31% average energy savings and a total cost saving of approximately $4.7m.

“The possibility to quickly assess energy saving options through innovative technologies across the campus was a great value addition from this collaboration with IES.” – Nilesh Y. Jadhav, programme director, EcoCampus @NTU.

To find out more about IES and their new ICL technology, visit www.iesve.com/icl

https://www.iesve.com/ntu-singapore

Integrated Environmental Solutions LTD

Tel: +44 (0)141 945 8500

[email protected]

www.iesve.com

Please note: this is a commercial profile.

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Peter Ayres, Lucie Beauvert, Einar Blixhavn, Erich Breuer, Ashley Clayton, James Darling, Jeronimo Garcia, Hayley Henry, Helen Lee, Shan Li, Dimitri Michas, Simon Ng, Juan Oyarbide, , Hannah Parker, Paul Robinson, Danai Sage

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