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2023 Global Winners

Sadrila Abbasi

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Architecture & Design

Jessie Lim

Nanyang Technological University
Art History & Theory

Tulip Yu Lay Ong

Nanyang Technological University
Business

Thuy Linh Le

International University – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City
Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences

James Kenneth

Western University
Classical Studies & Archaeology

Pye Sone Kyaw

Nanyang Technological University
Computer Science

Yong Xu Leong

Nanyang Technological University
Earth & Environmental
Sciences

Alexander Gilsaa Hansen

University of Oxford
Economics

Hong Liang Lee

National Institute of Education
Education

Thompho Netshivhera

University of Witwatersrand
Engineering

Olivia Skipsey

Bangor University
History

Katherine Kingsley-Jones

The University of Sheffield
Law

Chun-Pei Wu

National Taiwan University
Life Sciences

Emily Udle

Carleton University
Linguistics

Liam Waterman

Western University
Literature

Netta Karjalainen

University of Helsinki
Mathematics & Physics

Julie Cheung

Karolinska Institutet
Medical Sciences

Bethany Schaufler-Biback

Queen’s University
Music, Theatre & Film Studies

Tan Hui Qing

Nanyang Technological University Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Healthcare

Nathalie DiBerardino

Western University
Philosophy

Justin Khouw

Australian National University
Politics & International Relations

Meryl Yu

Yale-NUS College
Psychology

Christie Soo

London School of Economics
Social Science: Sociology & Social Policy

Terina Kaire-Gataulu

Massey University
Social Science: Anthropology & Cultural Studies

Arian Saghafifar

American University of Sharjah
Visual Arts

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Sadrila Abbasi

Architecture & Design
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Winning Paper:Transcending Transience: Reimagining Architecture For The Char Dwelling Communities Of Jamuna-Brahmaputra Of Bengal Delta.

Sadrila is a Bachelor of Architecture graduate from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Her academic journey has been marked by remarkable
national and international achievements. In light of the current global situation, she believes it’s crucial for individuals worldwide to consider the broader global context. In addition to her architectural practice, she has had the opportunity to engage with various communities within the world’s largest refugee camp, enriching the humanitarian aspect of architecture. Driven by a profound desire to explore and contribute, she aspires to expand her horizons as an architect by collaborating with diverse communities in various contexts.

Jessie Lim

Art History & Theory
Nanyang Technological University

Winning Paper: Our Colonizers are Different— Critiquing the Contemporary Through Appropriating Colonial Vestiges in Singaporean Contemporary Art

Jess is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the English Literature and Art History double major programme at Nanyang Technological University. She is currently on a gap year pursuing field experience in the arts industry in her home country of Singapore before embarking on her final year paper. She strongly believes in the potential of contemporary art and exhibitions to foster critical thought and socially engaged audiences, and she is passionate about making art accessible for all. Always eager to learn about new perspectives, she hopes to pursue further studies abroad to learn more about different ways of seeing and diverse ways of being.

Tulip Yu Lay Ong

Business
Nanyang Technological University
Winning Paper: Reducing Ugly Food Wastage Through Gratitude


Tulip is a final-year Economics and Psychology undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University. She chose to major in both Economics and Psychology as she likes how both disciplines complement each other in explaining human behaviours and decision-making. She is fascinated by how various factors can influence people’s perceptions, cognition and behaviours. She is interested in how behavioural insights from research can be used in applied settings to solve pressing problems that we face today.

Thuy Linh Le

Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences
International University – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Winning Paper: Comparison Of Physical And Functional Properties Of Active And Smart Biodegradable Packaging Film By Incorporating Betacyanin-Rich Red Pitaya (Hylocereus Polyrhizus) And Beetroot (Beta Vulgaris L.) Extract Into Chitosan Films

Thuy Linh will receive an Engineering of Food Technology this year at Ho Chi Minh City International University. She was born in Quy Nhon City and then went to Ho Chi Minh City to study at the university. During her undergraduate years, Linh received several recognitions for her project. She worked under the supervision of Associate Professor Le Ngoc Lieu to investigate active packaging films based on chitosan.

Thuy Linh is passionate about food, and she enjoys combining her interests through research. She will continue to study for a Master’s degree and pursue a career as a Food R&D Specialist.

James Kenneth

Classical Studies & Archaeology
Western University

Winning Paper: Science vs. The Venerable Bede

James is in the final year of an Honours Bachelor degree at Western University with a double major in Classical and Medieval Studies. His primary focus is on the period ca. 250 – 750CE, which saw the decline and eventual collapse of the Roman Empire and the birth of early medieval kingdoms in western Europe. James recently had the honour of being selected to participate in Western’s Vindolanda Field School. This gave him the opportunity to travel to the UK to study his era of interest in a hands-on archaeological context. James plans to pursue his Masters degree in Europe in 2024.

Pye Sone Kyaw

Computer Science
Nanyang Technological University

Winning Paper: Generalizable Face Forgery Detection with Self-Blended Consistency Learning

Kyaw recently graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science as the top student in his cohort. Throughout his undergraduate studies, he worked on various AI research projects ranging from federated learning to computer vision. He spent a year at TikTok as a computer vision engineer intern during which he conducted research on face forgery detection techniques which eventually led to his UA submission. He is presently an AI Engineer working on AI for public good and takes great joy at translating research into solutions with real-world impact.

Yong Xu Leong

Earth & Environmental Sciences
Nanyang Technological University
Winning Paper: Changes in Dung Beetle Diversity and Community Composition Among Trap Types and Across a Habitat Type Gradient in Singapore


Yong Xu graduated from the Asian School of Environment at Nanyang Technological University with a B.S. (Honours) in Environmental Earth Systems Science and a specialization in Ecology. While studying, she conducted research in dung beetles as well as local ungulates with camera traps and was a molecular lab researcher in wildlife forensics for a professional internship. Beyond invertebrates and ungulates, she is passionate about wildlife photography, art, and the outdoors. She hopes to one day be able to conduct ecology research outside of Singapore and further her studies, all while enjoying the views and learning more about the natural environment.

Alexander Gilsaa Hansen

Economics
University of Oxford

Winning Paper: The Bridge: Urban integration in Copenhagen and Malmo

Alexander is a pre-doctoral research assistant working for Professor Daniel Sturm at the London School of Economics. Before that, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College (‘Univ’) at the University of Oxford. His research concentrates on urban economics, using computational models to understand the structure within and between cities. An undergraduate thesis and current working paper studies the Danish-Swedish Øresund bridge and its impact on cross-border labour, housing, and commuting markets. He will be on the PhD market in 2023-24.

Hong Liang Lee

Education

National Institute of Education

Winning Paper: Creating task-specific creativity assessment tools

Hong Liang is a final-year undergraduate at the Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, pursuing a BSc (DMP) in Biology and Education. With a fervor for science and education, he aims to ignite a love for learning in his students, emphasizing emerging STEM concerns like biodiversity and environmental conservation. Beyond STEM education, he is committed to fostering well-rounded students, equipping them with the skills and values needed to realize their future aspirations.

Thompho Netshivhera

Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand
Winning Paper: The design of an “Energy Supply System for Water Purification” focused on addressing the issue of untreated sewage contaminating the Mvudi River from the Thohoyandou Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTW) in Limpopo, South Africa (RSA)


Thompho, a BSc Mechanical Engineering graduate from Wits, is pursuing a master’s degree in partnership with Airbus Germany, researching about the introduction of a portable low-pressure cold spray system for repairing Aluminium Alloy 2024-T3 structures. His passion for impactful engineering emerged during an internship at Eskom, Africa’s largest electricity supplier. In his final-year project, he designed an electricity system for rural wastewater purification that solves power outage-related water treatment challenges in his community without harming natural river habitats, with potential for global application. As a junior engineer, Thompho is committed to spearheading innovative and sustainable solutions that enhance societal well-being.

Katherine Kingsley-Jones

Law
The University of Sheffield
Winning Paper: Critically evaluate the liability of women who kill their abuser

Katherine graduated from The University of Sheffield in July 2022, and holds a 2.1 LLB Law and Criminology degree. She is now working as a paralegal at a London law firm. Katherine is committed to equality before the law. This motivated her winning research project, analysing the unsuitability of the partial defences to murder in the jurisdiction of England and Wales, for women who have killed the perpetrator of their coercive control. Katherine has subsequently developed a particular interest in family law, as it focuses on how the law can help people in vulnerable periods of their life.

Chun-Pei Wu

Life Sciences
National Taiwan University

Chun-Pei Wu, a promising young researcher from Taiwan, is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge. Previously, she studied Biochemical Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, for which she received a full academic scholarship and won various awards for her research.

Her diverse research spans cancer therapy, protein engineering, and programming, including nanoparticle-based drug delivery for cancer treatment, monoclonal antibody generation against viruses, and machine learning in drug discovery.

Proficient in both lab work and computational skills, her current focus is on unraveling molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways in cancer while using bioinformatics to understand unresolved aspects of cancer biology.

Emily Udle

Linguistics
Carleton University

Winning Paper: Genre in Times of Change: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of a Remote Newfoundland Real Estate Listing

Emily will graduate from Carleton University in 2024 with a double-major in English and Applied Linguistics, and a minor in Professional Writing. Her undergraduate thesis reflects her interdisciplinary approach to research, as she pulls from Systemic Functional Linguistics to inform her literary criticism of expat-Newfoundland fiction in the region’s post-moratorium economy.

Beyond her research, Emily has spent almost two years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s National Cybercrime Coordination Centre, where she is now the Co-Project Lead of a proactive initiative to increase cyber-literacy in Canadian classrooms. After volunteering with low-income high school students and adult literacy learners throughout her undergraduate degree, Emily is passionate about propelling students towards their goals, particularly within the arts and humanities.

Liam Waterman

Literature
Western University
Winning Paper: “Fools of Nature”: Fear and Ecology in Hamlet


Liam is currently completing an MPhil in English at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. He previously graduated with distinction from Western University, Ontario Canada, where he received his BA in English Language and Literature. Liam’s research explores the relationships between human beings and nonhuman environments present in British poetry from the long nineteenth century, with a focus on the ways that poetic structures can work to model affects conducive to ecological care. His current master’s thesis follows these lines, exploring the role of boredom, acedia, and other states of disinterest in the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in relation to spaces of nonhuman life or ‘Nature.’

In the future Liam hopes to inaugurate the field of ‘literary criticism criticism,’ a school of research devoted to investigating texts of literary scholarship as literary art works in themselves.

Netta Karjalainen

Mathematics and Physics
University of Helsinki
Winning Paper: Inferring underlying Heisenberg Hamiltonian from a spin spectral function for a quantum spin liquid by a neural network


Netta is a B.S. graduate in Chemistry from the University of Helsinki. She also studied physics during her studies and did the research for her thesis in The Correlated Quantum Materials group at Aalto University. Her research focused on inferring spin coupling constants for a quantum spin liquid. Netta is passionate about science, learning new things, and problem-solving tasks. She’s currently pursuing her M.S. in Theoretical and Computational Methods program and wants to gain a deep understanding and knowledge of machine learning and quantum technologies.

Julie Cheung

Medical Sciences
Karolinska Institutet

Winning Paper: Acute Inflammatory Protein Expression Predicts Subacute Autoantibody Responses Following Traumatic Brain Injury.


Julie is a fifth-year medical student at the Karolinska Institute. Her passion lies in the intricacies of the brain, the acute neuroinflammatory response after severe traumatic brain injury, and the subsequent chronic immune reactions. Julie has an interest in programming and has contributed to the development of an automated cell segmentation platform within her research group. Onwards, she will explore experimental techniques in addition to her programming skills. This will enable Julie to study the central nervous system following injury and to fulfill her long-term dream of becoming a surgeon while concurrently pursuing academic research.

Bethany Schaufler-Biback

Music, Film and Theatre
Queen’s University

Winning Paper: Etiquette, Ableism, and Access in Contemporary Theatre

Bethany is a MA student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies. She is a recent graduate of Queen’s University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Hons., in Drama. Her research focuses on audience and spectatorship studies, with a primary focus on theatre audiences through the lenses of care, accessibility, and affect. She has had the opportunity to present her work at the Inquiry@Queen’s Conference and the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference, and is currently co-authoring an article that examines how audience members negotiate individual and collective affects during live theatre performance.

Bethany also works as a theatre practitioner who is dedicated to accessible theatre practice, with a particular interest in stage management, accessibility coordination, and technical direction.

Tan Hui Qing

Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Healthcare
Nanyang Technological University

Hui Qing has recently graduated from NTU with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Sports Science and Management (Highest Distinction). Her undergraduate research revolves around the contributing factors and effects of Low Energy Availability. Hui Qing has taken up the role of a Research Assistant in Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine focused on thermoregulation in firefighters, displaying her commitment to improve the wellbeing of others using her passion and expertise in sports science research. Currently, she is working on identifying a topic of interest for her post-graduate studies, by venturing into the different aspects of sports science.

Nathalie DiBerardino

Philosophy
Western University

Winning Paper: Ascriptive Algorithms-Exploring the Classificatory Influence of Predictive AI Technologies

Nathalie is a Masters student in the Philosophy Department at Western University in Ontario, Canada. She completed her Honours B.A. in Philosophy at Western, where she researched topics in the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Nathalie is particularly passionate about addressing the harms that these technologies can and are producing in the increasingly numerous contexts in which they appear. In addition to her work in AI ethics, Nathalie is interested in social and political philosophy, social epistemology, and applied ethics more broadly.

Justin Khouw

Politics & International Relations
Australian National University

Winning Paper: Australia’s Nuclear-Powered Submarine Future: An Indonesian Assessment

Justin is currently in his final semester of a Bachelor’s degree in International Security Studies at the Australian National University with plans to undertake Honours in 2024. He is passionate about researching Indonesia’s foreign and security policies, an interest driven by his upbringing in the country. In 2023, he examined the Indonesian response to the trilateral AUKUS pact as part of an Australian National Internships Program placement at the Sea Power Centre-Australia. He hopes to build on such research to further explore Indonesia’s evolving role in global affairs. He very much looks forward to meeting other aspiring researchers in Dublin.

Meryl Yu

Psychology
Yale-NUS College

Meryl graduated from Yale-NUS College with a B.A. (Honors with Highest Distinction) in Psychology. She is passionate about socio-emotional learning, prosocial development, and educational inequities in layered social contexts.

Her winning entry is paradigmatic of these interests. Entitled “A Values-Alignment Empathy Training Intervention to Decrease Relational Aggression Among Singaporean Adolescents”, the paper is an abridged version of her honors thesis, pursued under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Hae Yeon Lee.

As a junior researcher, Meryl aspires to continue pursuing work that translates basic social-cognitive theory into culturally-tailored interventions, with the ultimate goal of bridging inequities at the school starting gate.

Christie Soo

Social Science: Sociology & Social Policy
London School of Economics

Winning Paper: A Mixed Method Study: Familial Obligation and Female Labour Market Participation

 

Christie is a First Class Honours graduate in BSc International Social and Public Policy with Politics from LSE, with a passion for public policy. She is committed to driving positive societal change through shaping policy, and her current research interests lie in public housing policies and financial inclusion in digital payments. Notably, she was also awarded first class for her dissertation titled “Building Homes, not Houses: The Significance of Policy Coherence in Public Housing Programmes,” where she conducted a comparative study between Singapore and England. Presently, Christie is working as a policy analyst at Pay.UK, the UK’s national payment systems operator.

Terina Kaire-Gataulu

Social Science: Anthropology & Cultural Studies
Massey University

Winning Paper: (Re)Claiming ʻŌlelo: The impact of language acquisition on Native Hawaiians

Terina is currently a Sociology Honours student at Massey University. She was a speaker on the student plenary at the Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand conference in 2022. Her interest in how Pasifika people construct identity in colonial and diasporic spaces has informed her undergraduate studies, and she intends to continue her education by exploring how online spaces can be used for the benefit of Pasifika people as a means for enacting cultural identity and finding community across the digital vā.

Arian Saghafifar

Visual Arts
American University of Sharjah

Winning Paper: Shelter at the End of Time

Arian received his Bachelor of Architecture with Excellence from the American University of Sharjah. He achieved the MAD award in 2021, a continuous competition during five years of education, the award is given to one student from the Architecture program based on Motivation, Attitude, and Dedication.

He also achieved the Riba President’s Bronze Medal Entry in 2019 and a Highly Commended Global Undergraduate Award in 2020. He combined virtual reality (VR) with architecture to create an immersive experience in the Dubai Design Week exhibition and was invited as a guest to the Future Talk Podcast. As the team leader of Shahira Fahmy Architects, he secured the prestigious ‘Architects in Residence Al-Ula’ award in 2021. He is well-capable in using digital techniques and innovative design strategies. Arian worked as a scripting assistant for the “Synergistic Space Potentials” paper. He had the privilege of exploring procedural thinking and 3D printing. He believes learning is not only how to use a software, but how to develop an innovative design strategy.

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