OVER 100 scientists, researchers, and engineers at TUMCREATE in Singapore are working on concepts for the improvement of the country's public transportation system, including the deployment of electric and autonomous mobility. TUMCREATE was set up in 2010 to foster research collaboration between Singapore and Germany's Technical University of Munich (TUM).

"Singapore, with its excellent transport infrastructure, is a perfect environment to testbed new ideas for the upcoming technological changes in the mobility sector and to provide commuters with high comfort and a positive travel experience," says Dr Thomas Aulig, Corporate Director at the research body in an interview with The Business Times.

"We are planning for e-vehicles with an increasing level of autonomy of buses and taxis that will improve the connectivity to the MRT system and act more demand driven, to provide mobility services if needed. As the number of cars on public roads should not increase, the public transport needs to be more convenient for commuters, using scientific data models for demand prediction," he adds.

Leading German automotive companies have already announced that they will end the production of combustion engines latest by 2030. So, the change to e-mobility may come earlier than many people currently expect.

For decision makers it is therefore important to have good planning tools to predict the increased demand for electricity, and to know where and how many charging stations for buses and private vehicles need to be offered and how much investment this will require, says Dr Aulig.

"As part of the NRF-funded Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), we are using the opportunity to partner with Singaporean institutions as well global leading universities that constitute the CREATE campus like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

"TUM researchers appreciate this unique possibility for academic exchange between globally leading innovation clusters and the Singaporean research ecosystem."

A large part of TUMCREATE's research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore.

At CREATE, researchers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds work closely together to do cutting edge research in strategic areas of interest, for translation into practical applications leading to positive economic and societal outcomes for Singapore. Being a CREATE partner also allows TUMCREATE to pitch for other competitive research grants in Singapore, he adds.

TUM professors identify together with their local partners impactful areas of interest and relevance for research.

"The institutional anchoring in Singapore gives the TUM leadership and professors valuable insights into the fast paced adoption of novel technologies and innovation in Singapore, as well as feedback on research and training demands relevant for the German industry, both in Asia as well as back home in Germany," says Dr Aulig.

TUMCREATE has a successful long-term partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) since its inception and students can enrol for a joint TUM-NTU PhD degree.

It is also working closely with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) institutes and the National University of Singapore on several projects. These projects are tailored in such a way that complementary expertise of all partners is required for successful research outcomes.

"For test-bedding the application and commercial potential of our research, we have been cooperating with industry players like SATS, SingPost, ST Engineering and Continental. Or, whenever our researchers have an entrepreneurial mindset to start their own business, we support them with contacts to the venture capital community," Dr Aulig tells BT.

A key project with public value for Singapore that TUMCREATE is working on is the SITEM project. Under it, A*Star's Institute of High Performance Computing and TUMCREATE are working together on Singapore's 2040 vision to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles and have all vehicles run on cleaner energy.

Two fast-growing start-ups have spun out of the TUMCREATE research programme.

The battery research team has joined hands with VDE Renewables Asia, based in Singapore. VDE Asia, in collaboration with the German-based VDE network, offers rapid and high-value test services in the field of solar photovoltaic components and systems, battery and energy storage systems, power electronics and grid conformity.

The researchers of the Cognitive Systems and Robotics group developed Speedcargo, the world's first AI-powered robotic solution for the build-up and break-down of aviation cargo pallets.

This innovative logistic concept is re-thinking the global handling of air cargo from scratch and could successfully tap on local venture capital for the founding of Speedcargo technologies to scale up its operations.

It is conducting a comprehensive impact analysis of electric vehicle (EV) charging demand which can further guide policymaking and contributes towards Singapore's decarbonisation commitments.

"SITEM is based on the first high fidelity, island-wide transport modelling and simulation platform that integrates multiple aspects of mobility and energy data - vehicles, drivers' behaviour, and electricity grid capacity.

"Through advanced scenario mobility modelling and simulation, the project aims to deliver insights on how Singapore can optimise electric vehicle charging station placements to address EV drivers' demands and minimise the impact on the power grid," says Dr Aulig.

For 2022 and beyond, TUM intends to increase its footprint in Singapore with a pipeline of new, large-scale research projects.

These collaboration projects are currently in discussion with potential Singapore partner institutions and may include topics related to food sciences and energy research.

The proposal, Proteins4Singapore, aims to conduct scientific research on alternative and sustainable sources of proteins and the engineering of these proteins for specific functions in food that is both nutritious and acceptable. The research will combine innovative processing and extraction methods and a novel reverse food engineering approach to improve food production.

Similarly, another proposal, Greenfuels4Singapore, will contribute to understanding Singapore's options for a transformation from fossil fuels towards alternative energy carriers, biomass-based fuels, synthetic fuels, hydrogen or electricity generated from emission-free sources, will be the future to reduce Singapore's carbon footprint and enable the Republic in a world that is changing rapidly to be at the forefront of new planning processes for future energy supply, says Dr Aulig.

Besides Singapore, TUM has co-operative research projects and exchanges with scholars and students with offices in Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Brussels and Beijing.

Worldwide, Singapore is TUM's most important overseas location in terms of research activity, education and talent exchange. In 2002, it became the first German university to open its own campus abroad. TUM Asia has been founded under the Singapore government's Global Schoolhouse Initiative as the Asian campus of TUM, which is one of Europe's top universities.

It is committed to excellence in research and teaching, interdisciplinary education and the active promotion of promising young scientists. It also forges strong links with companies and scientific institutions across the world. Seventeen TUM professors and alumni have been awarded the Nobel Prize. In addition, TUM was one of the first universities in Germany to be named a University of Excellence.

Dr Aulig says that every year, more than 70 technology-oriented companies are founded at TUM.

Celonis - a process-mining company, Lilium - which is developing an electric powered flying taxi and Personio - which provides software that enables small and mid-sized companies to digitalise their HR processes, are three companies from the TUM start-up family already exceeding a valuation of more than US$1 billion and having reached unicorn status.

TUM is collaborating with partners in the large-scale Horizon framework research programmes funded by the European Commission.

As a key player it is managing the consortium awarded by the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) with an endowment of 400 million euros (S$632 million) for the large-scale project EIT Food.

The joint FoodConnects project unites leading companies, research institutes, and universities under a vision of becoming a driver and centre for a global nutrition revolution. The goal is to fund within seven years, 350 start-ups, train 10,000 graduates, and bring 290 new or improved products to market through the findings of the EIT Food consortium.