Earlier this month, we were invited to Singapore by NUSX – the National University of Singapore’s innovation and enterprise arm – to film at the A5X conference. The result is a special interview series in collaboration with NUSX, featuring founders, investors and academics from across the globe.
Not to mention interviews with the winners of the 48hr Challenge and the 3 Month Challenge of the Singapore Defense Tech Hackathon (SDTH).
Our focus: the shared challenges facing DeepTech ecosystems, the developing bridge between Europe and Asia, and the lessons each region can learn from the other. From university venture building and defence innovation to AI in healthcare and national AI strategies, the series paints a picture of how the world’s most ambitious innovation ecosystems are thinking – and where they’re heading.
We filmed six conversations. Here’s who we spoke to, and what each covers.
The Interviews
Dr. Tan Sian Wee – Senior Vice President (Innovation & Enterprise), NUS
The NUS Enterprise story: the A5X vision, billion-dollar ambitions, Singapore as a global launchpad for DeepTech – and the launch of Nova, NUSX’s full-stack AI platform for opportunity discovery.
Dr. Orna Berry – Technical Director, Google Cloud
Former Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Trade on what makes innovation ecosystems work, the real bottlenecks behind the AI wave (compute, infrastructure, data, talent), and what Europe can do differently.
Dr Babak Parviz – CEO & Founder, NewDays.ai
The founder of Google Glass on applying AI to dementia and cognitive care, building trust in healthcare AI, and what small companies can do in healthcare that tech giants cannot.
Prof Helmut Schönenberger – Co-Founder & CEO, UnternehmerTUM; VP Entrepreneurship, TUM
What Europe and Singapore can learn from each other on university venture building, closing the gap between lab and global market, and competing for global DeepTech talent.
Prof Benjamin Tee – VP (Ecosystem Building), NUSX
Inside the lab-to-market engine: the Physical AI Venture Lab, deciding when research becomes a company, and building DeepTech spin-outs that can compete globally from Singapore.
Gary Ang – Professor of Practice, Defence Innovation & Applications, NUS Enterprise
Dual-use innovation done properly, DefenceTech’s journey from R&D to real-world use, and the emerging Europe–Singapore DefenceTech partnership.
The Hackathon Winners
SDTH Winner (48hr Challenge) – Wayne Lin, NeuroMech
The 48-hour hackathon winner on building a brain-computer interface for hands-free control of unmanned ground vehicles, why defence operators need it, and how you make BCI actually reliable.
SDTH Winner (3 Month Challenge) – Vaikesh Manimaran, Maelstrom
The three-month challenge winner on countering drone swarms with a micro-missile system, the real-time trade-offs between speed, accuracy, cost and reliability, and why humans must stay in the loop in autonomous defence.
The Big Picture
Across all conversations, a few themes kept returning: talent is the real bottleneck, universities are becoming the engines of DeepTech venture creation, and the Europe–Asia bridge is no longer a talking point – it’s being built, one partnership at a time.
Watch the full series, and let us know which conversations you’d like us to take further.