OASIS Other SMU Events

Conversational Understanding in the Open World: Intention Discovery, Structuring, and Defense

School of Computing and Information Systems Conversational understanding—inferring the intentions behind user utterances—constitutes the interpretive foundation of conversational AI. However, existing research predominantly operates under a closed-world assumption, where user needs are drawn from a predefined ontology and expressed through rigid semantic representations. This assumption proves increasingly restrictive in real-world conversations, where new user needs continually emerge, complex intentions involve rich contextual and affective semantics, and malicious intentions may be strategically concealed and refined over multiple turns. This dissertation advances conversational understanding in the open world along three interrelated directions: (1) intention discovery, which recognizes and characterizes emerging intents beyond predefined ontologies; (2) intention structuring, which represents fine-grained intentions through expressive yet consistent multi-aspect structures; and (3) intention defense, which safeguards conversational systems agains… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by LIANG Jinggui. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , LIANG Jinggui PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, LIANG Jinggui is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, supervised by Prof. LIAO Lizi. His research focuses on conversational understanding, LLM safety, and multi-agent systems. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UREJITE4ySlRUMU1HTTBDVTRYUlNSWjMwSS4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

Peer Group Analysis using Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models for Business Optimization

School of Computing and Information Systems Comparing similar entities, or peers, is central to decision-making over complex and restricted information, yet doing it reliably remains hard. It requires three linked capabilities: finding the right peers, matching up data that is organized differently across sources, and enabling analysis when the underlying data cannot be shared. This dissertation presents a unified framework addressing all three. First, a knowledge-graph-based exploration system finds meaningful peers by connecting specific entities through shared concepts, letting analysts zoom out to broader categories or zoom in to supporting evidence. Second, a matching approach uses large language models to reconcile differently structured data sources, handling complex real-world cases where simple similarity fails. Third, a privacy-safe framework generates realistic synthetic data guided only by summary statistics, so analysis can proceed without ever exposing real records. Together, these components turn peer analysis from isolated tasks into… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Defense by WANG Sha. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , WANG Sha PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, Sha's dissertation is focused on structured methods for analyzing and comparing complex, restricted datasets — combining data mining, knowledge graphs, and LLM-driven automation to make heterogeneous information easier to search, align, and share safely. Her research interests center on data mining and automation: building systems that reduce manual effort in data discovery, integration, and preparation,… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTacjffrphqhDrJfv1DjxSmNUNFE5MTgwRjlESjNZMEEzMVFQS1pIRTlWNS4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Meeting room 4.4, Level 4. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

AI-Driven Interactive Knowledge Synthesis and Explorable Learning

School of Computing and Information Systems Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed how people access information and learn, yet most AI systems remain largely text-centric, providing generated prose with limited support for visual synthesis and interactive exploration. This dissertation argues that AI should move beyond generating text to constructing interactive explanatory artifacts that combine generated content, visual structure, and user interaction to support deeper understanding. Such artifacts enable people to inspect, manipulate, and reason about complex information and concepts, whether synthesizing knowledge from multiple sources or learning abstract subjects such as mathematics. To investigate this vision, the dissertation presents three AI-driven systems spanning knowledge synthesis and mathematics education: Compendia, which transforms fragmented information from online documents into interactive visual data stories; MathVibe, which supports teacher–AI co-creation of mathematics explorable explanations; and EETutor, which dynamicall… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by VIDANA GAMAGE Manusha Imesh Karunathilaka. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , VIDANA GAMAGE Manusha Imesh Karunathilaka PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, Manusha Karunathilaka is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Singapore Management University. His research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, data visualization, and educational technologies. He is particularly interested in developing AI-driven interactive artifacts that support knowledge… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UOTcxQURGSkRORjdNUktMTElXU1RGNkVQWC4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

Principled Configuration Optimization for Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning of Foundation Models

School of Computing and Information Systems Full fine-tuning of large pre-trained models incurs prohibitive computational cost and risks catastrophic forgetting. Parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) addresses this by updating only a small set of additional parameters while keeping the pre-trained model frozen. Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) has emerged as the de facto PEFT method for both large language models and vision transformers. However, in current practice, LoRA is configured uniformly: the same adaptation at every network position, and the same treatment of every task and every class. This thesis formulates LoRA configuration as a constrained resource allocation problem: a fixed parameter budget distributed over the structure of the model and the distribution of the data. We establish that the optimal allocation is non-uniform, and that it can be derived from properties of the model and the data rather than found by search. Configuration alone moves accuracy between 8.1% and 91.1% at a fixed parameter budget, and principled non-uniform allocation… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by TIAN Zichen. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , TIAN Zichen PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, Zichen TIAN is a PhD candidate in the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, advised by Prof. Qianru Sun. He holds an M.Sc. from Nanyang Technological University and a B.Eng. from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. His research focuses on parameter-efficient adaptation of foundation models, systematically addressing robustness and scalability… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UMFVJUkdRN0tVSkdBTVROVEFMT05WTU5SQi4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

SMU EMBA 1-1 Consultation and Application Session

EMBA Infosessions RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/danielpang-smu/smu-emba-consultation-jul26. Event Details: Considering the SMU EMBA August 2026 intake? Speak to the Admissions Team in an exclusive 1-1 consultation to have an open conversation about what the SMU Executive MBA can offer - in broadening perspectives, strengthening networks, and deepening your impact. We will also help you navigate the application portal, as well as offer you an application fee waiver. After registering for a time slot, email us a copy of your CV and we will reach out with further information. Contact: emba.admissions@smu.edu.sg. Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Business. Audience: Prospective Student. Public. Professionals. Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM. Virtual / SMU Campus.

Towards User-Controllable Visual Media Generation and Editing

School of Computing and Information Systems Recent generative models have substantially advanced visual content creation, yet practical creative workflows require users to control generated content precisely, intuitively, and predictably. We investigate user-controllable visual media generation and editing across raster images and vector graphics through four progressively forms of control. First, we address identity–style entanglement in personalized image generation, enabling a character’s identity and artistic style to be learned and manipulated independently. Second, we introduce DragNoise, an interactive point-based image editing method that improves editing accuracy, semantic consistency, and computational efficiency. Third, we present DragSVG, which extends drag-based interaction to vector graphics and produces temporally coherent animations that follow user-defined trajectories while preserving the structure and editability of the original SVG. Finally, we propose DragPhysSVG, a framework for scene-aware physical animation that adapts physics-g… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by XU Chengshu. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , XU Chengshu PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, Chenshu XU is a PhD candidate in the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) at Singapore Management University (SMU). She is a member of Visual Understanding and Generation Lab (VUG) @ SMU supervised by Prof. HE Shengfeng. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Computer Vision and Computer Graphics. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UMTdXVUNIVUFOMktNQ0U1MDVMTzVXQjNaRS4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

Attribution Learning for Recommendation Systems

School of Computing and Information Systems Transformer-based models are now the dominant paradigm for recommendation, from classifiers that compare products based on their reviews to language models that generate recommendations from natural-language prompts. Their predictions, however, remain opaque, and attribution methods — the standard tool for explaining them — compute importance scores from a single input configuration, making them unstable under variations of the input that preserve its meaning. This dissertation studies two such variations in recommendation: reversing the order of two compared entities and paraphrasing the instruction prompt describing a user's history. We show that in both cases, semantically equivalent inputs yield inconsistent attributions, undermining the reliability of the explanations. We propose two solutions: a post-hoc explanation framework for comparison classifiers that guarantees identical attributions across input orders by construction and a training-time regularization framework that aligns item-level attributi… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by LE Thi Phuong. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , LE Thi Phuong PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, LE Thi Phuong is a PhD candidate at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, supervised by Prof. Hady W. Lauw. Her research focuses on interpretability and trustworthy explanations for Transformer-based recommendation and comparison models. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9URUtMMFBWMFg5V0hJQjY3RllHOFhFNUFRMi4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

SMU Mentoring Navigator 2026: Closing

Office of Alumni Relations Contact: zaccheng@smu.edu.sg. RSVP: . Type: Social & Networking. Subject: University Events. Audience: Alumni. Current Student. Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.

SMU Alumni Gathering in Ho Chi Minh City

Office of Alumni Relations Join fellow SMU alumni in Ho Chi Minh City for an evening of meaningful connections, lively conversations and warm fellowship over dinner. Whether you're a long-time resident or new to the city, this gathering is a great opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces, meet new alumni, and celebrate the shared SMU journey. Why you should be there: 🗣️Get the latest SMU updates from Florence Neo (Assoc Alum), Director, Office Alumni Relations; Yvonne Chan, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President; and Prasanthi Guda, Director, Dato’ Kho Hui Meng Career Centre. 🌏Expand your professional network 🚀Tap into alumni benefits and resources that support your professional growth. Contact: corinnekang@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Florence Neo (Assoc Alum), Director, Office Alumni Relations Yvonne Chan, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President Prasanthi Guda, Director, Dato’ Kho Hui Meng Career Centre. RSVP: . Type: Social & Networking. Subject: University Events. Audience: Alumni. Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM. Quan Bui Central 1B Ngô Văn Năm, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 70000, Vietnam.

Digital Assets and IP Disputes

SMU Law Academy Contact: smulawacademy@smu.edu.sg. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://registration.smu.edu.sg/RuntimeExternal/Runtime/Form/CRS.CourseRegistration/?CA=Technology%20%26%20Intelligent%20Systems&PRG=10432&MOD=24388&_ga=2.257687755.1965502871.1623058616-948450435.1616397375. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Training. Subject: Law. Audience: Professionals. Public. Practice Area: Intellectual Property. Training Levels: Foundation – No prior knowledge required. Thursday, July 30, 2026 – Friday, July 31, 2026. Singapore Management University. For more info visit law.smu.edu.sg.

"I like to use my brain": Neurodiversity in Software Engineering

School of Computing and Information Systems Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that describes variation in brain function among individuals, including conditions such as Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or dyslexia. Neurodivergent individuals can face substantial barriers in society due to their conditions, e.g. due to difficulties or differences in communication, reading or writing difficulties, or reduced attention span. While conditions included in the neurodiversity term have traditionally been considered as disabilities in medical terms, these individuals often exhibit strengths in comparison to neurotypical individuals, for instance high attention to detail or higher creativity. In ongoing research, we try to understand how neurodivergent individuals can be involved better in software engineering activities, what relevant strengths they exhibit, and how we can tailor software engineering methods to better support their needs and strengths. In this talk, I will give an overview of current research o… Subtitle: Research Seminar by Dr Grischa Liebel. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , Grischa Liebel Associate Professor Department of Computer Science Reykjavik University, Grischa Liebel is an Associate Professor in Software Engineering and the director of the CRESS research centre at Reykjavik University, Iceland. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. His research focuses on human factors in software engineering, typically in areas such modelling and model-based engineering, requirements engineering, processes, and education. Much of Grischa’s… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTbOXO7ktpRtBsn62WuekYtpUODI4SlBBNTBUMEtSMlRXQlNGODdNWUFJNC4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Thursday, July 30, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM. Meeting Room 4-1, Level 4. SMU SCIS 2, Singapore 178903. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

Conversational Search for Video Retrieval

School of Computing and Information Systems As digital video libraries expand exponentially, our search engines remain trapped in a passive, "one-shot" paradigm that forces users through exhausting loops of visual browsing fatigue. This talk introduces a transition in search paradigm: transforming video retrieval from a rigid query-ranking mechanism into an active, cooperative human-machine dialogue grounded in information theory. Moving beyond traditional system limitations, we will explore a conversational framework designed to dynamically narrow down the search space in real time. We will examine how training-free active concept pruning optimizes textual search by breaking away from the pitfalls of classical feedback loops. From there, we will discuss about how entropy can be use as a "central controller" to dynamically orchestrate cross-modal interaction modalities—like visual exemplars and fluid open questions—without the constraints of a static vocabulary. Finally, we will preview how this framework extends active reasoning directly into fine-gra… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by CHENG Yu Tong. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , CHENG Yu Tong PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, CHENG Yu Tong is a Ph.D. candidate supervised by Prof. NGO Chong Wah at Singapore Management University. His research primarily focuses on the field of multimedia retrieval, with a specialization in the known-item search task. He also has an extensive background in system design and competitive benchmarking, having participated in numerous iterations of the Video Browser Showdown (VBS). Notably, in… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UMkFLRjRDRDVTVEhGODlSTlQ2WTFXMlE2US4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Thursday, July 30, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

MAF Alumni Reunion 2026

Office of Alumni Relations 🔥 MAF FAMILY — IT’S REUNION TIME! 🔥 We’re calling every MAF graduate from 2004 to 2025 to come home for one unforgettable night. Expect: ✨ Reuniting with old friends you haven’t seen in years ✨ Meeting fellow alumni across industries, companies, and countries ✨ Catching up with your favourite faculty again ✨ A whole lot of MAF energy under one roof We’re putting real heart into growing and strengthening the MAF alumni community — and this reunion marks the start of an exciting new chapter. So register now, rally your classmates, and get ready for a night that’ll feel just like coming home. Be there. 🙌🔥. Contact: fabianchong@smu.edu.sg. RSVP: . Type: Social & Networking. Subject: University Events. Audience: Alumni. SMU Faculty & Staff. School/Programme: Lee Kong Chian School of Business. MSc in Applied Finance. Thursday, July 30, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM. SMU ALCove.

Singapore Tax Academy Research Initiative (STARI) Annual Conference 2026

Centre for Cross Border Commercial Law in Asia Subtitle: Shaping the Future of International Tax: Policy, Practice and Perspectives. Fee(s): Public Early Bird Rate: SGD523 per pax incl. 9% GST (non-refundable) Public Standard Fee: SGD654 per pax incl. 9% GST (non-refundable) SMU Faculty: Complimentary - please register here instead. Overseas participants who in their business capacity belong overseas and are sponsored by overseas employers, will pay SGD480 (Early Bird Rate) / SGD600 (Standard Fee) excluding GST. . Contact: ccla@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Please visit: https://site.smu.edu.sg/stari-annual-conference-2026#speakers. RSVP: Public: SMU Staff and Current Students only: . Type: Conferences & Symposiums. Subject: Accounting. Law. Audience: Public. SMU Faculty & Staff. Current Student. Academic Community. Friday, July 31, 2026, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Tax Academy of Singapore Hub, #01-03, Revenue House 55 Newton Rd, Singapore 307987. For more info visit site.smu.edu.sg.

SMU: Tokyo Coffee Session

Infosessions Hourly Sessions: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (JST) (hourly sessions) 6:00pm - 8:00pm (JST) (hourly sessions). RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/smuai/tokyo-coffee-session. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations. Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you. For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Finance & Financial Markets. Business. Audience: Prospective Student. Public. Friday, July 31, 2026, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM. SALONE VENDREDI 103-0022 Tokyo, Chuo-City, Nihonbashimuromachi, 3-4-4 Floor 1.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

PGP Pre-Term Course Registration

ISIS Events Term: 2026-27 August Term - Regular Academic Session (24-Aug-26 to 15-Nov-26). Term Week: Before Term Starts. Subject: Academic. Type: BOSS/Course Registration. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Friday, July 31, 2026, 12:30 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026, 12:30 PM.

Building Trustworthy AI for Code: From Model Training to Agent Evaluation and Benchmark Reliability

School of Computing and Information Systems AI for Code is evolving from code-completion models toward software development agents that inspect repositories, edit files, execute tests, and submit patches. As these systems participate in increasingly complex development workflows, final-output metrics alone cannot explain how results are produced, what risks they may hide, or whether the benchmarks used to measure them are reliable. This dissertation studies trustworthy AI for Code through three connected perspectives: model training, agent evaluation, and benchmark reliability. It examines the effectiveness and memorization risks of collaborative code-model training; evaluates software agents through their generated patches, execution trajectories, testing behavior, and agent-written tests; and investigates the stability and validity of repository-level performance-optimization benchmarks. Across five studies, the dissertation shows that reported success should be interpreted beyond headline metrics. Effective training may still introduce memorization… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by CHEN Zhi. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , CHEN Zhi PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, Zhi CHEN is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Singapore Management University, supervised by Prof. Lingxiao Jiang. His research focuses on AI for Code and software development agents. He has published papers at leading software engineering conferences, including ICSE, ASE, and SANER. He also has industry R&D experience at technology companies such as TikTok AI Innovation Center and Sea Labs. More… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UMFU1NVlJRjIzUEs5WUtJS1haSFdTRk5TNS4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Friday, July 31, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

Harmony without Uniformity: Recovering Individual Decision Models from Heterogeneous Behavioral Data

School of Computing and Information Systems This dissertation studies how to recover behaviorally faithful individual decision models from heterogeneous behavioral data. An individual may be an artificial agent governed by a policy or a human participant producing a sequence of choices, and the relevant evidence may consist of complete state--action trajectories or trial-by-trial human decisions. Observations from a single target are often limited, while indiscriminate pooling across a heterogeneous population can obscure target-specific behavior or transfer incompatible structure. The central challenge is therefore to use population data to improve individual model recovery without averaging away the behavior that defines the target. Variational Trajectory Encoding (VTE) addresses the first stage of this problem by learning unsupervised representations of complete state--action trajectories without reward, goal, or policy-identity labels. These representations preserve meaningful variation among trajectory-generating policies and enable a shared polic… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by GE Zichang. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , GE Zichang PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, GE Zichang is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, under the supervision of Professor Pradeep VARAKANTHAM. His research focuses on decision making, particularly representation learning and cognitive program synthesis. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UNlA1SUxJN0NXQlVOSVNOT09GRFVTNkNJUy4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Friday, July 31, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

End-Term Course Feedback

ISIS Events Term: 2025-26 July Term - Regular Academic Session (13-Jul-26 to 16-Aug-26). Term Week: Week 4 to Week 5. Subject: Academic. Type: Course Feedback. Audience: Current Student. Critical Date: Yes. Monday, August 3, 2026, 12:00 AM – Sunday, August 16, 2026, 11:59 PM.

Privacy Preservation in Large Language Models (LLMs)

School of Computing and Information Systems Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized artificial intelligence but introduced profound privacy vulnerabilities, including data leakage, model inversion, and the inadvertent exposure of sensitive information. As LLMs integrate into high-stakes applications, mitigating these risks is paramount. This talk explores the fundamental privacy challenges inherent in LLM operations and introduces NOIR, the first privacy-preserving LLM model. To prevent prompting contents exposure to honest-but-curious cloud service providers, NOIR utilizes a secure, distributed architecture that transmits only encoded embeddings. By employing local differential privacy at the token embedding level alongside a data-independent, randomized tokenizer, NOIR effectively shields both proprietary prompts and resultant answers. The talk will demonstrate how NOIR achieves an optimal balance, providing rigorous privacy guarantees without compromising computational efficiency or downstream model performance. Subtitle: Research Seminar by Dr My T. Thai. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , My T. Thai Professor Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering University of Florida, My T. Thai is a Research Foundation Professor, Associate Director of UF Nelms Institute for the Connected World, and a Fellow of IEEE and AAIA. Dr. Thai is a leading authority who has done transformative research in Trustworthy AI and Optimization, especially for complex systems with applications to healthcare, social media, critical networking infrastructure, and cybersecurity. The results of her… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTbOXO7ktpRtBsn62WuekYtpUMDdEMzI3V0xUMVQyM0RUV0JUQzlLUlQyOS4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Monday, August 3, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM. Meeting Room 4-4, Level 4. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

✨ Supercharge Your eLearn Courses with GenAl Magic [ELN]

LST Description: Learn how to create engaging interactive content using H5P and explore Al-powered teaching tools, including Lumi Tutor, Lumi Pro, and Bongo Learn. For more information on the workshops, please contact us at elearn@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: RSVP: Register Here. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: SMU Faculty & Staff. Monday, August 3, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Zoom Session.

Quality Assurance for AI in Software Engineering: Practitioner Perceptions, Training-Time Threats, and Inference-Time Control

School of Computing and Information Systems AI models have become core components of modern software systems, and software engineering itself is increasingly performed by AI: large language models summarize, generate, and repair code, and autonomous agents resolve real-world software issues end to end. The quality of AI models is thus now a software quality problem—yet AI systems are data-driven, stochastic, and largely opaque, so established quality assurance principles do not transfer directly. This dissertation studies how to assure AI quality across the lifecycle through five studies. First, an interview study with 15 industry practitioners, validated by a 50-practitioner survey, establishes which quality attributes practice actually prioritizes—revealing, among other findings, that efficiency is treated as a hard constraint under which correctness is optimized. Second, an empirical study of data-poisoning backdoor attacks on Code LLMs shows that poisoning just 20 of 454,451 training samples (0.004%) successfully implants backdoors, overturning the… Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by WANG Chenyu. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , WANG Chenyu PhD Candidate School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University, WANG Chenyu is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, supervised by Prof. David Lo. His research focuses on quality assurance for AI in software engineering, spanning studies of practitioners' quality needs, training-time threats such as backdoor attacks on code models, and run-time control of LLM agents for software… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9URFQ5UkcyQjdNWTNJOTFWN0g5OExETTJZSC4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community. Monday, August 3, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902. For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg.

PD Coffee Sessions (Singapore)

Infosessions Hourly Sessions: Monday, 3 August 2026, 6:00pm - 8:00pm (hourly sessions) [Physical Session]. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://postgraduate.smu.edu.sg/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/11522/p/p-03d8/t/page/fm/3. Event Details: Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to address your concerns and discuss about the Professional Doctorate programme we have here in SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business. We offer Professional Doctorate programme that can be completed in 3-5 years while working:Doctor of Business Administration, To do a pre-application assessment of your profile, please bring along a copy of your resume. On Campus Level 4, Meeting Room Lee Kong… Contact: lkcsbpd.admissions@smu.edu.sg. Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Business. Finance & Financial Markets. Audience: Prospective Student. Public. Monday, August 3, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM. Level 4, Meeting Room SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business 50 Stamford Road, Singapore 178899 Singapore.

STARI Lunchtime Seminar - Pillar Two Beyond International Tax Law: An Investment Law Perspective

Centre for Cross Border Commercial Law in Asia In addition to reshaping the international tax landscape, the implementation of the Global Minimum Tax rules under Pillar Two has raised new legal questions extending beyond the traditional boundaries of international tax law. This talk examines whether, and under what circumstances, Pillar Two measures may be challenged under international investment treaties by multinational enterprises subject to top-up taxes. It considers whether measures implementing Pillar Two might be scrutinized under investment treaties, the potential application of substantive investment protections (such as expropriation and fair and equitable treatment) to Pillar Two measures, and the practical implications for both states implementing Pillar Two measures and multinational enterprises affected by top-up taxes. More broadly, the talk reflects on what the interaction between Pillar Two and international investment law may suggest for the future design and implementation of international tax rules. Fee(s): Public Standard Fee: SGD50 per pax excl. 9% GST (non-refundable) SMU Faculty: Complimentary - please register here instead. Contact: ccla@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Dr Xiaorong Li, Lecturer of International Tax Law Faculty of Law, Kyushu University Xiaorong (Sharron) Li is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University since 2024, after joining as an Assistant Professor in 2023. She holds a Doctor of Law degree from Peking University (2021) and was a guest researcher at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business (Oct-Dec 2018; Oct 2019-Jun 2020). Prior to academia, she worked at PwC Shanghai in… RSVP: Public: SMU Staff and Current Students only. Type: Conferences & Symposiums. Subject: Accounting. Law. Audience: Public. SMU Faculty & Staff. Current Student. Academic Community. Tuesday, August 4, 2026, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM. Tax Academy of Singapore Hub, #01-03, Revenue House 55 Newton Rd, Singapore 307987. For more info visit law.smu.edu.sg.

SMU MQF Virtual Consultations with Admissions Manager

MQF Infosessions RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://postgraduate.smu.edu.sg/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/11522/p/p-03e1/t/page/fm/2. Event Details: Singapore Management University (SMU): Virtual Consultations with Admissions Manager The session will be held in virtual mode. Zoom details will be sent to you an hour before the start of the event due to security reasons. Speak with our admissions advisors to learn more about how the SMU MSc in Quantitative Finance (MQF) programme can elevate your career with personalized guidance on the application process, programme details, and opportunities for growth. Get expert advice tailored to your goals and… Contact: mqf.admissions@smu.edu.sg. Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Business. Finance & Financial Markets. Audience: Prospective Student. Public. Thursday, August 6, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Online (Zoom).