City of the Future: Singapore – Full Episode — National Geographic

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The paradigm has shifted. The world is accelerating. The science fiction of yesterday is rapidly becoming the science fiction of right now. How do we withstand the tectonic shifts in the world around us? How does a society thrive when the world economy is undergoing constant disruption? How do we continue to learn when information is moving at the speed of light? There are places that are ahead of the curve. Cities building the tools for tomorrow. [00:00:44] Speaker 2: We want to create innovations that have a real-world impact. [00:00:51] Speaker 3: One day, Singapore can be self-sustained in food production. [00:00:56] Speaker 4: We are looking at the development of Singapore 40 years ahead of time. [00:01:03] Speaker 1: This city could be a model for what's to come. This is the city of the future. Singapore. The future of the world lies in its urban environments. More than half the world's population live in cities. And that number is growing. This rapid influx of people creates possibility, but it also creates challenges. How can the cities of today grow and thrive to become the places we want to live in tomorrow? Creating sustainable, manageable human spaces in the world's ever-expanding cities is a challenge facing governments across the globe. And no one understands the complexity of this challenge better than the planners at Singapore's Housing and Development Board. The agency in charge of creating living spaces for about 80% of the resident households in one of the most densely populated cities. [00:02:23] Speaker 4: I'm an architect by training and I also have a master's degree in planning. So I'm an architect planner. [00:02:33] Speaker 1: Since 2010, Dr Cheung's vision and guidance has helped usher in a new era of smart public housing for the HDB. Allowing the city she loves to grow and thrive, despite significant challenges. [00:02:54] Speaker 4: As an island city-state, we're only about half the size of metropolitan London. We have to house 5.7 million people. And we are, of course, very land and resource constrained. So that is the big challenge. But having said that, over the years, we have managed to develop Singapore in a pretty sustainable way. And we are one of the most livable cities in Asia. [00:03:21] Speaker 1: When Dr Cheung was a little girl, Singapore was a vastly different city. It had a third of today's population. Less than 1% of the current GDP. And little to no infrastructure. In just over five decades, though, this tiny city-state has undergone a remarkable transformation. Singapore's HDB has built a million flats, creating one of the most successful public housing programs in the world. HDB is now looking to high-tech, innovative solutions to not only provide enough living spaces for Singapore's citizens, but also improved quality of life for decades to come. [00:04:09] Speaker 4: We have very sophisticated computer models that help the architect planner to improve the environmental quality in the town. So, for example, Singapore is in the tropics. So we want to encourage the breezes to come through. Through computer simulation, you can actually position the blocks and the public spaces and the parks in such a way to help you to achieve this. Singapore does very long-term comprehensive planning. Singapore does very long-term comprehensive planning. And that is very important. You are looking at the development of Singapore 40 years ahead of time. And this is important because it ensures that we have sufficient land safeguarded to meet all our development needs. [00:04:55] Speaker ?: Singapore is planning decades ahead. [00:04:56] Speaker 1: Singapore is planning decades ahead. In such a land-scarce nation, the question is often not what to build, but where to build. Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority is in charge of identifying the future needs of all Singapore's land. It's the kind of challenge that draws in the adventurous and the curious. [00:05:29] Speaker 5: I'm very much an urban person. The city is close to my heart and even more so having worked in detail on the plans over the last 20 over years. [00:05:41] Speaker 1: For Andrew and the URA, sometimes that work means creating land from nothing. A process known as land reclamation. Since independence in 1965, Singapore has used reclamation to increase its land mass by about 23%. One of the most striking examples of this, and perhaps a vision that cities across the world may adopt, is Singapore's Marina Bay. A vast engineering project that has been decades in the making. [00:06:16] Speaker 5: When I first started work with URA, Marina Bay was just a vacant tract of land. It was only maybe 10 to 15 years ago that we actively started development of the area. [00:06:33] Speaker 1: Andrew was part of the team that drew up the plan for Marina Bay and translated it into reality. Its development dramatically increased the footprint of Singapore, but it was designed with the needs of its citizens in mind. [00:06:48] Speaker 5: The traditional central business district just comprises its office space, then is only used 9 to 5, 5 days a week. So as we've planned Marina Bay, we've always looked to bring in complementary uses. So the idea is you create a mixed-use precinct that the activities carry on 24/7 in 7 days a week. [00:07:13] Speaker 1: To make the round-the-clock Marina Bay model work, the URA needed infrastructure. In land-scarce Singapore, that meant going underground. Using precision-designed layers of essential services, including water and electrical tunnels, pedestrian and commercial spaces, transportation infrastructure like highways and subways, and even telecommunication superhighways. These hidden underground systems have been designed to meet the needs of Singapore for the next 50 years. But some in Singapore are looking beyond that, already imagining the cities of the far future. [00:07:57] Speaker 6: I actually think that the future of Singapore is not just about increasing the density around the transportation nodes of activity. I actually think it's about exploring air rights as well. [00:08:11] Speaker 1: Jason Pomeroy has grand visions for his city. The award-winning architect of Singapore's first zero-carbon house, the B House. His designs are pushing the boundaries of how Singapore might look more than 50 years from now. [00:08:28] Speaker 6: Think about creating structures over roads, over motorways, topping up above existing structures. The rooftops today might be sky courts, sky gardens of recreation. [00:08:41] Speaker 1: If cities expand upwards into the skies, conventional methods of road transportation may no longer be effective. Perhaps the future of urban transportation will play a major part in shaping the way we live. [00:08:54] Speaker 6: And then all of a sudden you're going to need to think about how to get people up there. You know, if you were to fast forward 50 years from now, we already see drone technology becoming so advanced. Why are we not sticking people into those drones? Again, a bit like Blade Runner. All of a sudden, your sky courts, your sky gardens, even your private terraces to your condo is actually a landing platform for your own personalised drone. [00:09:20] Speaker 1: Though the idea of us flying to work may be decades away, drone technology is advancing rapidly and could become integral to the evolution of transportation in the cities of tomorrow. In Singapore, the government has thrown its support behind an advanced program to test the limits of drone capabilities in the world's rapidly expanding urban environments. [00:09:46] Speaker 7: We will release the drone. Skyways is Airbus's project that is exploring this urban air delivery domain, or basically cargo delivery with drones project. The drone that we're using is actually fully customised or fully designed by our team here in Singapore. [00:10:10] Speaker 1: To ensure maximum safety in the air, the drones have multiple aerospace-grade navigation systems. So that if one system malfunctions, it can rely on others to fly to its destination. [00:10:28] Speaker 7: The packages that we can deliver by design today is up to four kilograms. What we understand is that four kilograms would cover perhaps about 80-85% of all the packages that are parcel deliveries that are done today. [00:10:42] Speaker 1: Once the package has been delivered to its slot, the mailbox automatically sends a personalised code to the customer so they can pick up the package 24/7. [00:10:53] Speaker 7: And just like that, the parcel comes back. In Airbus, one of our visions is what we call urban air mobility. So flying taxis, for example. Skyways is about enabling this technology. It's about looking and moving towards a future where we have then a flying transportation means in an urban setting. [00:11:18] Speaker 1: Singapore innovators are imagining and experimenting the "what's next" for urban travel. Drone technology may be the next revolution liberating commuters from their two-dimensional travel. But the challenges facing all of our cities may be more elemental than where we will build and how to get around. Providing food and water for the millions of people that will pack into our urban environments could be the biggest challenge yet. As urban populations rise, the world will face unprecedented challenges. How to house, transport and most importantly, feed its people. In the future, as rural populations decrease, ensuring food stability will be key. In land-scarce Singapore, it's a challenge that is already being confronted. [00:12:24] Speaker 3: Right now, 93% of produce is imported into Singapore and that's because there just simply isn't enough land to do farming practices. [00:12:33] Speaker 1: Benjamin Swan came to Singapore as an engineer on the Marina Bay Sands project. But having fallen in love with the city, he recognised a challenge and an opportunity. To help the nation towards its goal of food sustainability, Ben is developing a new way to grow food, not just in Singapore, but in any urban environment. [00:12:59] Speaker 3: Sustenere is a controlled environment agriculture farm. We effectively replicate what's happening outside of nature to grow impossible products in impossible places. [00:13:10] Speaker 1: Singapore is a trailblazer in this technology, having opened the world's first commercial vertical farm in 2012. Now Sustenere, through their patented processes, are able to grow produce indoors, without sunlight and without soil. [00:13:29] Speaker 3: What we actually have done is we've come up with our own system here to introduce the seeds directly into the foam cubes. So what that does is ensures that we have 100% germination success. This room has been specially designed to take the plant from its initial germination through to a mature state where we can introduce it into the main grow rooms. [00:13:54] Speaker 1: These large scale growing rooms are astonishing feats of agricultural technology. The precision calibration of the growing environment allows these new age farmers to optimise cultivation at every stage in the plant's growth. [00:14:09] Speaker 3: We control the air temperature, the humidity, the light durations, the light wavelength. We control the dissolved oxygen in the water as well as the carbon dioxide saturation in the air. [00:14:20] Speaker 1: In these closely monitored growing rooms, Sustenere is creating food history. [00:14:27] Speaker 3: First ever Singaporean grown strawberries. We're actually growing three varieties in this room. What we've learned through controlled environment agriculture, we can actually emphasise certain characteristics of the plant. Without using GMO, we can make our kale softer, we can actually make it sweet. A lot of the Singaporeans don't like their products to be bitter. So we took it into our R&D lab and what we found was by manipulating the air temperature and humidity and also the wavelength of light and the growth cycles, we were able to create this great product that we're growing today. [00:14:59] Speaker 1: Not only is this farm able to produce vegetables perfectly calibrated for Singaporeans, but the techniques could provide vital farming areas for the densely populated cities of the future. Traditional land farming grows produce outside on a flat, linear area. Sustenere's system grows food inside in any building, expanding agriculture's footprint up into the sky. [00:15:29] Speaker 3: So what vertical farming means for places like Singapore that has very little or has land scarcity is that we can leverage buildings to grow products. And with the efficiency that we have within our footprint, we believe one day that we could actually produce enough produce indoors to stain Singapore's map. [00:15:54] Speaker 1: Fresh, available food will be a necessity in our cities, not only to feed citizens, but also to keep them healthy. As populations age and the incidence of diabetes continues to rise across the developed world, Singapore, like all cities, needs to encourage its citizens to eat smart and well. [00:16:20] Speaker 8: We wanted to deploy food and beverages as a tool to manage, it could be health, it could be wellness, it could be performance and of course also for fitness as well. [00:16:32] Speaker 1: Believe it or not, these colourful sculptures are edible. They are the creations of Dr. Lee Mun Wai, a scientist at Singapore Polytechnic's Food Innovation and Resource Centre. Using the latest breakthroughs in technology, she is creating food tailored to the exact caloric and nutrition needs of Singapore's senior citizens. [00:16:56] Speaker 8: We wanted to look at personalised nutrition for a target group of people. So what we started off is basically looking at people with different lifestyles or otherwise looking at people with different health conditions. [00:17:06] Speaker 1: To realise her vision, Dr. Lee collaborated with bioengineer Mark Wong to build a piece of wearable tech that can monitor a person's nutritional requirements. [00:17:17] Speaker 9: What we have developed here at Singapore Polytechnic is what we call the Intersent system. It's a form factor of a watch. The app, it's pulling data from the wearable. So this data can then be fed to algorithms to compute specialised individual nutrients that are customised for that individual. So a 3D printer could then use this data and print out the appropriate nutrient values suitable for that individual. [00:17:46] Speaker 1: Dr. Lee's system is one of the first of its kind in Singapore, and perhaps the world, to pair wearable tech with 3D printing to create food with personalised nutritional values. [00:17:58] Speaker 8: This particular printer actually has a beautiful way of allowing us to customise nutrition. So there should be probably a chicken rice that is actually high in calcium, some that is actually good for potassium and different types of vitamins and minerals that is a custom. [00:18:11] Speaker 1: While still an experimental prototype, the potential is staggering. This jelly packs a punch with the necessary nutrients for optimising health and even preventing diseases. [00:18:24] Speaker 9: With greater sets of data from each individual, we can now create a whole library or database and identify trends by using machine learning or using AI. So that is extremely powerful in the near future, to be able to predict potential health issues and mitigate those health issues in population centres before events occur. [00:18:45] Speaker 1: Through imaginative planning and technological innovation, Singapore is finding new ways to house and feed its growing population. But perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing any global city will be ensuring a constant, safe supply of that most precious of resources: water. Singapore currently uses 2 billion litres of water a day. The most efficient source of fresh water is rain. And to capitalise on this resource, the nation is crisscrossed with an extensive network of rivers and canals that channel every last precious drop of rain into 17 storage reservoirs. [00:19:34] Speaker ?: Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. [00:19:41] Speaker 10: Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. [00:19:42] Speaker ?: But to collect rainwater, you need land and lots of it. [00:19:42] Speaker 10: Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. Singapore's catchment system is extensive and efficient. But to collect rainwater, you need land and lots of it. Singapore is a small island, so we are limited in terms of the catchment area that we have. And also now with the changing weather patterns, the water coming from rain, it's a bit unpredictable. So we've moved on to more weather-resilient water sources like desalination. [00:20:33] Speaker 1: As the world warms, every city will need to find fresh solutions to provide their citizens with clean water. In Singapore, the Public Utilities Board is already looking to the future, experimenting with new techniques to push the water potential of the little red dot. Looking ahead, our cities need to overcome a variety of challenges. Rapid urbanisation will present problems of growth, housing and food sustainability. But none may be more crucial than the access to fresh water. Singapore currently imports about half of its daily water requirement. In the next three decades though, the aim is to ensure water sustainability. To do so, planners are looking to a resource the island nation has in abundance: seawater. I always call this a new toy. [00:21:38] Speaker 11: Really, it's kind of a toy for us. But seriously, it's a plant that's designed with robustness, reliability. It's fully automated. [00:21:46] Speaker 1: Hugh Kitsan oversaw the construction of a brand new state-of-the-art water facility: the Tuas Desalination Plant. [00:21:56] Speaker 11: We've been working on this project for the last just over two years to get it from a green field and up to the state that you see right behind me. A functional 30 million gallons per day desalination plant. [00:22:11] Speaker 1: The Tuas Desalination Plant is a modern marvel of precision engineering. In Landscares, Singapore, its footprint is a mere 100 metres by 300 metres. That's roughly the size of three football fields. This may seem large, but it is a relatively small footprint compared to plants of its kind around the world. [00:22:33] Speaker 11: When we did the design and the construction, it was quite a challenge that you got to make sure that they are all stacked and arranged in like a Lego manner that it all fits nicely into a puzzle and it forms the plant, what you see today. [00:22:47] Speaker 1: Despite its small footprint, the Tuas Desalination Plant houses one of the world's most powerful technologies for producing fresh water from the sea: reverse osmosis filters. [00:23:00] Speaker 11: That's actually the heart of the plant where the salt in the sea water gets separated or removed from the water. The white tubes in there is the reverse osmosis membrane where filtered water will be pushed through the membrane. [00:23:16] Speaker 1: This high-tech process is a key part of preparing Singapore for the future. But conventional water desalination is energy intensive. The electricity you would need to desalinate enough water for just one day of Singapore's needs could power a Singaporean household for a thousand years. To save energy and reduce the cost of water desalination, the PUB is now investing in new research. Evoqua is a company working on the desalination process of tomorrow. [00:23:52] Speaker 12: We are demonstrating our next ED technology for seawater desalination. [00:23:58] Speaker 1: Electrodialysis uses electricity to remove salt from seawater. Pairs of electrodes are placed in a stream of salt water with one positive electrode and one negative. The positively charged sodium ions are attracted to the negative electrode and the negatively charged chlorine ions are attracted to the positive electrode. This concentrates the salt around the electrodes. The process is repeated until the water is salt-free. [00:24:32] Speaker 12: Right now we are building a demonstration plan with a capacity of 3,800 m3 per day. We have plans to further scale up this technology with a capacity of 100,000 m3 per day. [00:24:46] Speaker 1: Singapore's innovations in housing, food and water are giving us a glimpse of how a forward-thinking city might solve some of the challenges it faces. But these solutions will come at a price. Fast, secure and thriving economies will be essential for facing an uncertain future. And perhaps no nation understands this better than Singapore. [00:25:10] Speaker 13: The financial sector is a very, very critical sector for Singapore. Almost 12% of our GDP comes from this sector. So you understand how critical for us to ensure that this sector is a vibrant sector, it is competitive, it attracts the best possible ideas. [00:25:28] Speaker 1: As the Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Sopnandu Mahanti needs to ensure that the nation sets a world standard for the financial sector. This boils down to one thing: technology innovation. [00:25:44] Speaker 13: Most of the services in the financial sector are going to be powered by technology. [00:25:50] Speaker 1: In 2016, Singapore announced Project Ubin, a new FinTech experiment using blockchain technology. Traditionally, banks keep a record of all transactions on their own centralized ledger, which is susceptible to manipulation by hackers. But Project Ubin keeps all records on a blockchain. This means that identical copies of the ledger are kept on a distributed network of computers around the world. These computers check in with each other to ensure that their copy of the ledger is correct. If one of the copies does not match the others, it is rejected and replaced with a copy that the majority of ledgers agree is correct. To tamper with the blockchain to steal money, a hacker would need to hack a majority of the computers on the network simultaneously. A virtual impossibility. [00:26:42] Speaker 13: The real killer use case is cross-border transfer. Today it takes two to three days to move money between two countries, the whole overseas transfer. So if we can apply a technology like blockchain, it may give us that opportunity to reduce the time to do cross-border transfer and may also reduce the expensive way we move money from a country to a big country. [00:27:06] Speaker 1: Singapore has long been known as a financial hub, home to major banks from around the world. With Project Ubin, Singapore has ensured that it will stay ahead of the pack when it comes to fintech. In a country short on natural resources, the motto is "Innovate or Die". And Singapore has taken up that challenge, with a startup culture catapulting the nation into the future. Ideas are one of the intangible resources that power cities. Singapore has also capitalised on the nation's creative DNA to support and usher in a new wave of innovative companies. One of the biggest startup hubs is ST Engineering's tech incubator, InnoSparks. [00:28:02] Speaker 2: We are focused on solving some of the urban challenges, particularly solutions in smart cities as well as health tech. [00:28:12] Speaker 1: Medical technology is a $350 billion global industry. One that thrives on the latest ideas. [00:28:21] Speaker 14: Start alignment. [00:28:23] Speaker 1: Like Alan Goh's revolutionary automated needle targeting system. [00:28:29] Speaker 15: With AND system, we are able to automate the entire needle alignment process, making it very stress-free for the doctors. They can align the needle to the target at a fraction of the time. It is more accurate. [00:28:42] Speaker 1: More than just a surgical assistant, Alan's robot can actually help train the next generation of surgeons. [00:28:49] Speaker 15: Typically for a surgeon to be expert in terms of puncture, he has to puncture more than 150 times. But with such a device, which is smart, automated, junior surgeons probably just require about 40-50 puncture and they could be an expert in the field of puncture. [00:29:05] Speaker 1: InnoSparks has also been key in developing life-saving technologies to solve global health problems. [00:29:14] Speaker 16: My name is Jerome. I'm the head of engineering at InnoSparks and I'm also the lead engineer for Air Plasma Mask. So we actually started the project development in 2013 when Singapore was hit with severe haze. [00:29:28] Speaker 1: During the 2013 Southeast Asian haze crisis, large-scale wildfires blanketed the region in impenetrable smog, shattering all records and pollution indexes. Stores sold out of high-quality air filtration masks. Worse yet, parents were dismayed to learn that all masks on the market were built for adults. [00:29:51] Speaker 16: We actually went to do a 3D facial scanning of more than 850 children and adults. And then using an algorithm that we developed in-house, proprietorily, we came up with three sizes of masks that fit children, adults to the elderly. [00:30:11] Speaker 1: Using thermal imaging, the benefits of these masks leap into focus. [00:30:17] Speaker 16: We can see that actually the masks itself stays pretty much purple. This is a quick way to show that the ventilator is actually effective in venting heat from the mask. [00:30:28] Speaker 1: While a vital part of Singapore's economy, the tech scene is not just about software or hardware. At its core, it is about hardware, providing for its citizens. [00:30:41] Speaker 2: We want to create innovations that have a real-world impact. So we take a very user-centered approach. [00:30:51] Speaker 1: Singapore's digital economy is providing real, tangible benefits to people. And some of its brightest inventors are focusing on the far future. Local start-up TransferFi has developed a technology that could change the way we think about electricity. [00:31:09] Speaker 17: Wireless power transfer is inherently being able to transfer power wirelessly, using radiofrequency to be able to transfer power. In terms of the construct, behind it is electromagnetic waves, essentially power within a waveform. [00:31:30] Speaker 1: The custom-built transmitter converts electrical current into electromagnetic waves. Using a complex algorithm, this wave is modulated and focused into a tight beam, transmitted to an array of antennas using radiofrequency. The receiver harvests the radiofrequency waves and converts them to direct current, which is able to power electrical devices. [00:31:55] Speaker 18: The system is ready now, so the signal is now generating. I think now we are ready to switch on the power amplifier. T5 logo there, it's on now. [00:32:15] Speaker 17: It switches on without any wires threaded to it, no battery is nothing. It's all power through air. [00:32:21] Speaker 1: This simple demonstration gives a hint of the enormous potential of the system. As the technology is scaled up to further distances, it could revolutionize every industry that relies on electricity. Creating the world's first long-range, safe and efficient wireless power networks. [00:32:40] Speaker 17: There's a lot of uses. I mean, it's ubiquitous technology. I mean, you can use wireless power transfer and distribution for almost anything. From consumer electronics, to medical devices, to offshore renewables, to sensors, you know, for automation. [00:32:57] Speaker 1: Singapore's digital start-ups are dreaming up ingenious new technology, proving that perhaps the greatest resource we'll need in the future is imagination. In tomorrow's super-connected smart cities, every aspect of our lives could be affected by the constantly changing world of digital technology. Preparing the next generation for this future is top of mind for most educators of today. In Singapore, that preparation starts early, using tech tools to teach children the building blocks of a digital mindset, including the most basic skill needed for coding: sequential learning. [00:33:51] Speaker 19: Sequential learning, it seems easy for us adults, but it's actually not easy for them at all to know who comes first and who comes next. [00:33:59] Speaker 20: All right, children. We're going to go over there. Then we're going to find your dry leaves. And then we're going to put them in your basket. All right, let's go. [00:34:08] Speaker 19: I feel that there's a lot of skills that they can gain from having the tech toys as well. They are learning problem-solving skills, communication skills, language skills as well, and also they learn how to problem-solve sequential as well. [00:34:25] Speaker 8: One, two, three, four. We need to press four steps. Good job. [00:34:30] Speaker 19: The Play and Maker program, there are three tech toys. The B-board is something that is very friendly and very easy to operate because there's only a few buttons for the children to use. For example, we have the forward, backward, turn left, and turn right button. Try to show us how to go. Kibo, I would say, it's a little bit high-end order thinking whereby children will have to sequence the block first, put it in order, and they have to scan the barcode. So for Kibo, it won't function if they don't start with the begin block and end it with the end block. During that time, children actually get to do a trial and error to see whether it works or not. [00:35:10] Speaker 1: These tech toys introduce children to advanced learning concepts. In doing so, they are arming future generations of Singaporeans with the skills necessary for computer programming and literacy, without exposing them to too much screen time. This dynamic new approach to education is of critical importance for parents, helping to prepare their children for the workplaces of the future. [00:35:38] Speaker ?: So where do you want to go to now? [00:35:40] Speaker 21: I've got three boys, they are 12, 11, and youngest is four. Since I'm in the finance line, the current way to go is the fintech. The concern for how my kids are going to cope with the new change and their career force has always been there. [00:35:56] Speaker 19: Definitely, I feel these tools will actually help children to prepare the workforce in the future because we are actually building the foundation. For example, the foundation of language, the foundation of problem solving, the foundation of communicating with people. [00:36:13] Speaker 1: Tech literacy is not just a challenge for newer generations. As populations around the world age, the need to become digitally literate cuts across all age brackets. Singapore is tackling this problem head on, with proactive efforts to provide tech education to all of its citizens, ensuring none are left offline. [00:36:39] Speaker ?: I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. [00:36:40] Speaker 22: I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. [00:36:48] Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. [00:36:49] Speaker 22: I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. I'm a big fan of the world age brackets. [00:36:58] Speaker 1: Mr Tan's journey to digital fluency came at a clinic held by Singapore's Infocommunications Media Development Authority. [00:37:09] Speaker 22: You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp or via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. [00:37:24] Speaker 11: You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. [00:37:26] Speaker 22: You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the Internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. [00:37:59] Speaker ?: You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. You can turn to the internet via WhatsApp. [00:38:01] Speaker 1: Singapore's focus on training all of its citizens for the future is nurturing a highly educated, versatile and connected population. Connectivity and community will shape the world of tomorrow. And in Singapore, that sense of community is already revealing itself in new and surprising ways. We are racing towards a future that will be dominated by technology. In the decades to come, dedicated citizens will find ways to harness that technology to make a positive impact, enhancing lives through creative innovation. In Singapore, technology is already being created that will care for the nation's most vulnerable. [00:38:51] Speaker 23: We try to provide sleep warmness for newborn babies and also premature babies. Hi, how are you? Hello. Hi. [00:39:02] Speaker 19: Hi, Frank. [00:39:03] Speaker 23: So what you do is that you actually put a baby on it. And after your baby sleeps for about a minute, we can give you the breath count and know how well your baby is sleeping. When a baby sleeps, they have a lot of periodic breathing. That means they breathe and they stop, they breathe and they stop. Now this happened to 2% of the newborn baby. But it happened to 60% of premature babies. [00:39:33] Speaker 1: Periodic breathing dramatically reduces oxygen flow, which can have a detrimental effect on a baby's growth and even their cognitive development. The breath optic system uses fiber optic technology to help monitor this. For Frank, this project is personal. [00:39:54] Speaker 23: I think one of the driving force of us inventing this product was because 24 years ago, I had a premature son. At that point in time, I bought whatever that's available to try to monitor the baby. And actually, for one month, me and my wife did not sleep in the same room because we took 12-hour shifts to stare at the baby. So we took turns to look after my son for a while. So when we were able to use the optic technology, optic fiber technology to create such a sensor, and we didn't really know what we want because I was in that position before. [00:40:38] Speaker 19: And your son is okay now? [00:40:39] Speaker 23: Oh, my son is perfect now. He's alive and kicking and well. [00:40:49] Speaker 1: The spirit of using technological ingenuity to improve lives has been built into the city itself, with green corridors and protected parkland keeping Singapore from becoming a concrete jungle. In its efforts to conserve and protect its status as a city in a garden, NParks is employing the power of technology. [00:41:15] Speaker 24: So one of the tools that we use is called the SG BioAtlas app. It's a free citizen science-based app where everybody can download, and you could record wildlife sightings that you see in Singapore. It could be at your park, it could be in the forest in Singapore. And using this data, we can develop some conservation or management strategies where we could conserve certain habitats or protect certain green spaces. [00:41:41] Speaker 1: The app is empowering Singapore's citizens to play a meaningful role in the conservation and protection of the city's incredible biodiversity. [00:41:56] Speaker 14: Those birds over there, they're the jungle foals. They're like chickens. But they are technically not chickens, right? [00:42:09] Speaker 25: I'm a working mum. In the daytime, we'll usually be working. And by the night time, I'll be probably down on my couch and watching television. [00:42:17] Speaker 14: I spend most of my time on the phone, watching YouTube, playing games. [00:42:23] Speaker 1: Not only is the citizen science program helping NParks maintain Singapore's rich ecosystem, but also helping people build connections with green spaces and each other. [00:42:36] Speaker 25: Singapore is scarce of land, so what we need is to preserve what we have now. And using the technology, we are able to provide feedback to the national park board on the species that we still have in Singapore. [00:42:54] Speaker 1: As the modern world rapidly marches towards urbanisation, our future cities will face unprecedented pressures. Innovation and technological advancements will help bring profound change to how we live, how we work, and how we learn. In Singapore, that change is already underway. [00:43:19] Speaker 11: It feels like we are part of building and creating a Singapore that is vibrant, safe, and also sustainable for the people now and also for the future. [00:43:31] Speaker 3: If we can do it here in Singapore, we can literally do it anywhere in the world. [00:43:35] Speaker 15: And we are excited. Almost on an everyday basis, we are motivated by the fact that we actually can make a difference. [00:43:43] Speaker 13: I heard from one Nobel Prize winner, only a prepared mind can see opportunity. And we are using this opportunity by getting ourselves prepared. [00:43:55] Speaker 22: I think that 50 years later, it should be more advanced. I can't imagine what the future will be. The future will be more advanced.