Intrigued to Innovate

From My Classroom to Silicon Valley: How Two of My Students Outgrew University — and Raised US$2.6M to Prove It (feat. Armaan Dhanda & Samyak Baid)

In this episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan invites two of his former students back to the same studio where their journey began — not for a project consultation or to submit a report, but as world-class startup founders. Armaan Dhanda and Samyak Baid first walked into Dr Tan's CDE2301 Value Creation in Innovation course as wide-eyed freshmen. Samyak later served as his teaching assistant. Together, they pursued their CDE3301 Ideas to Proof-of-Concept project under Dr Tan and Dr Elliot Law, building a prototype to convert food waste into an alternative protein for pet nutrition. They called it Pawsible. It was ambitious for two undergraduates. What came next was something else entirely. Today, Armaan and Samyak are the co-founders of Anomaly Bio, a Singapore-based biotech startup that engineers microbes into micro-factories that convert sugar into high-value bio-based ingredients for crop protection, nutrition, and personal care. Their ambition is to build more resilient ingredient supply chains by brewing what the world needs in a tank, rather than relying on fragile conventional supply chains at the mercy of climate, geography, and geopolitics. Anomaly Bio's answer? Programme the right microbe, put it in a tank with sugar and water, and brew what you need. Just like beer, but with far higher stakes. They have already won the 2025 MIT Water, Food & Agriculture Innovation Prize, secured a paid pilot with Mars Petcare, received a hackathon award directly from Singapore's Prime Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong, and raised US$2.6 million in pre-seed funding, led by Pebblebed Ventures — alongside angel investors Akshay Kothari (Notion), Sean Hunt (Solugen), Eben Bayer (Ecovative), and Mithun Sacheti (CaratLane). All before turning 23. Guests: Armaan Dhanda & Samyak Baid, Co-Founders, Anomaly Bio Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

What Can a Historian Teach Young Innovators? The Secret Sauce That Distinguishes the Great from the Rest (feat. Prof. Jennifer Rudolph)

In this masterclass episode, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Prof. Jennifer Rudolph — a political historian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) — to explore a question that challenges our assumptions about innovation education: what role do the humanities play in building great innovators? The answer, it turns out, is everything. WPI is no ordinary university. For over 50 years, it has pioneered project-based learning (PBL) — a radical curriculum in which students tackle real-world, open-ended problems with no single correct answer, and in which every undergraduate must complete three major projects before graduating. It is precisely this culture of ambiguity, hands-on inquiry, and interdisciplinary collaboration that makes WPI the ideal home for Jennifer's unconventional mission. When WPI sent its first pilot group of engineering students to Beijing, they returned dissatisfied and disoriented — not for lack of technical skills, but because they lacked the cultural understanding needed to navigate the real world. That moment became the catalyst for Jennifer to reimagine innovation education, embedding Asian history, culture, and humanistic thinking into the PBL curriculum through unexpected entry points: China's mega-infrastructure projects, K-pop, and Asian pop culture. Her driving conviction? That the "wicked problems" of our time — complex, ambiguous, with no single right answer — demand far more than technical expertise. And that the secret sauce most innovators overlook has been hiding in the humanities all along. In this Master Class episode, you'll discover: · Why project-based learning is far more than a pedagogy — and why sitting with ambiguity is the foundational skill every young innovator must develop · Why "wicked problems" have no single correct solutions — and why that very ambiguity is the most powerful wellspring of creative thinking and innovation · How humanistic inquiry trains the very same perspective-taking and empathy skills that every great innovator depends on · Why WPI's radical 7-week sprint terms forced a historian to abandon chronological teaching — and how that constraint became her most liberating teaching breakthrough · How a failed Beijing pilot project exposed the cultural blind spots among technically skilled students — and what Jennifer did to fix them · Why weaving history, culture, and the liberal arts into innovation education isn't a "soft" addition — it's the secret sauce that separates good innovators from truly great ones Whether you're a young innovator just starting out, an educator reimagining your curriculum, or simply someone curious about what it truly takes to solve the world's most complex challenges, this is your invitation to look beyond the formula and discover the human thinking that makes real innovation possible. Guest: Professor Jennifer Rudolph, Professor of Asian History and International and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

From Campus to Cosmos: How a Freshman Pitched – and Now Leads – a Singapore Government-Backed Space Mission (feat. Tristan Voon Zhi Kai)

In this special NUS Open House 2026 episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Tristan Voon, a student from the NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) leading the Galassia-5 CubeSat payload project. At its core, Galassia-5 is a Singapore government-backed Earth observation mission designed to revolutionise data delivery by cutting latency from hours to just 5 to 10 minutes. Confronted with the critical bottleneck of delayed satellite imagery for applications like piracy surveillance, Tristan and his team are leveraging an onboard AI Neural Processor Unit (NPU) to run edge AI. This enables the satellite to process images in space and transmit only the most vital information directly to users via a downlink. What makes this mission even more remarkable is its origin. Bypassing traditional routes, Tristan reached out cold to industry experts during his very first semester to pitch the mission concept. Today, Galassia-5 holds the unique distinction of being the best-funded Final Year Project (FYP) at NUS, with more than $1 million in external funding. Tasked with delivering on this massive investment, Tristan now leads an interdisciplinary team of 20 people. His journey highlights the gritty reality of navigating unknowns, complex engineering, and the power of lateral innovation. This episode uncovers: · Why latency is the biggest bottleneck in real-time Earth observation and how edge AI solves it. · How a freshman secured over S$1 million in funding to build the best-funded FYP in the school. · The hidden realities of leading an expanded 20-person team and the importance of delegating complex technical tasks. · Why stepping out of your academic comfort zone and embracing knowledge from a variety of fields is essential for true interdisciplinary growth. · Why the NUS iDP offers the ideal ecosystem for students to transform wild ideas into funded, space-bound realities. Whether you're a prospective student attending the NUS Open House, an aspiring engineer, or someone fascinated by space tech, discover how Tristan’s journey exemplifies the ultimate university experience. Guest: Tristan Voon Zhi Kai, Final-Year iDP Student and Team Lead for Galassia-5, National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

Tired of Green Owls? How EasyConvo Truly Helps You Learn to Speak (feat. A.Guhan S/O Ashok Kumar)

In this candid episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Guhan Ashok Kumar, a recent graduate of the NUS Innovation and Design Program (iDP). Guhan recounts how he turned his childhood challenge with a speech impairment and the mockery he endured into EasyConvo, a startup that offers a space for students to practice speaking daily—an essential step toward achieving fluency. Daily speaking practice is the most effective way to learn a language. However, traditional classrooms and popular apps often keep learners stuck in vocabulary drills, preventing them from truly finding their voice. Guhan notes that while research shows learners need 20 minutes of daily speaking to improve, traditional methods can't meet this demand at scale. What started as a Korean-language chatbot called Chingu went through relentless iterations, team breakups across three continents, and a pivotal moment when a professor's blunt critique led to a complete rethink of its mission. Instead of the common startup goal to replace teachers, Guhan’s team developed a "teacher-led AI" model that amplifies the educator's impact while allowing teachers to retain full pedagogical control. Within a year, Guhan and his co-founder, Kedrian Loh, achieved several milestones: they secured the EDIC Entrepreneur Fellowship, came in 1st Runner-Up at CDE Innovation Day Challenge, and acquired their first revenue-generating clients—all while Guhan was in his final semester. This episode reveals: · The "Green Mascot" Fallacy: Why earning streaks and vocabulary drills fail to improve speaking skills compared with authentic conversation. · The Power of the Pivot: How the team shifted from attempting to replace teachers to developing an AI "twin" that continuously supports students without replacing the human educator. · Interdisciplinary Advantage: How a "data scientist at heart" employed design thinking to create tools that people genuinely need instead of merely "cool code". · Mental Resilience: Managing the "vampire schedule" of a startup founder and the courage needed to demo live features just 10 minutes after coding them during a global pitch. Whether you are a student engineer, language teacher, or aspiring entrepreneur, learn how empathy for learners and respect for teachers can transform a simple project into a groundbreaking innovation. Guest: A.Guhan S/O Ashok Kumar, proud young alumnus of NUS iDP, National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

From Fear to Fearless: How a Biomedical Engineer Turned Childhood Trauma into a Medical Device Transforming Myopia Care (feat. Lakshmi Sujeesh)

In this deeply personal episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Lakshmi Sujeesh, a recent graduate of the NUS Innovation and Design Program (iDP) who transformed her childhood fear of eye treatments into EyeWonder™, a groundbreaking device that's changing how children experience contact lens insertion for myopia control. What began as a clinical observation of a struggling child at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) became a mission fuelled by empathy, pig eyeballs stored in home freezers, and relentless iteration. Despite contact lenses being 80% effective at slowing myopia progression, only 10% of children adopt them because of overwhelming fear. Lakshmi's solution? An ingenious innovation that hides the lens from view, replacing terror with curiosity and reducing training time from 90 minutes to under 30. Working within the Duke-NUS Health Innovator Program (D-HIP) alongside a medical student and an MBA student, Lakshmi's interdisciplinary team secured a S$50,000 grant, filed a provisional patent, secured news coverage on The Straits Times, and attracted interest from major lens manufacturers - all within 9 months. Their journey reveals how the best healthcare innovations emerge not from pure engineering brilliance but from genuine empathy for the people you're trying to help. This episode reveals: · Why Singapore is the "myopia capital of the world" and why children refuse a highly effective treatment because of psychological barriers, not medical ones · How camping at wet markets for pig eyeballs and countless failed suction attempts led to a breakthrough in her proposed prototype · Why does hiding the lens and using a pinpoint light source create fearless children who confidently use the device themselves · The power of interdisciplinary teams: how a doctor's clinical perspective, an MBA's market insight, and an engineer's prototyping transformed their solution · Why prototyping "ugly" early and testing with real users unlocks insights you'd never discover in the lab Whether you're a student engineer, a healthcare innovator, or anyone curious about turning personal pain into purposeful solutions, discover how one young woman engineer's childhood experience became the compass for a medical device revolution. Guest: Lakshmi Sujeesh, proud young alumnus of NUS iDP, National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)