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one-north Festival opens at Biopolis, offers look into future of work, health and living

SINGAPORE — The one-north Festival 2017 at Biopolis, showcasing how research, innovation, creativity and enterprise will improve lives by driving the future of work, health and living, opens to the public on Friday (Aug 18) and Saturday.

Ms Low Yen Ling, the Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Education & Ministry of Trade and Industry, observing how 3D printing works at The Future Workplace @ Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) booth at the one-north Festival. Photo: A*Star

Ms Low Yen Ling, the Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Education & Ministry of Trade and Industry, observing how 3D printing works at The Future Workplace @ Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) booth at the one-north Festival. Photo: A*Star

SINGAPORE — The one-north Festival 2017 at Biopolis, showcasing how research, innovation, creativity and enterprise will improve lives by driving the future of work, health and living, opens to the public on Friday (Aug 18) and Saturday.

This year’s event marks the second edition of the festival jointly organised by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and industrial infrastructure masterplanner JTC. Supported by Mediacorp, Science Centre Singapore and over 40 industry, educational, and public sector partners, this year’s event is themed Pioneering an Innovation Future, with a focus on Future Health, Future Living and Future Work. Participants can choose from over 40 talks, more than 50 sessions of laboratory tours and open houses, five interactive workshops and close to 50 exhibition booths.

As Singapore pushes ahead with its Smart Nation drive, Future Health explores the latest advances in medical technology, drug discovery, healthcare and well-being to improve the lives of Singaporeans. Future Living offers a glimpse of what the future holds as the nation transforms its urban landscape for better living and sustainability, while Future Work highlights revolutionary technologies for the workplace of tomorrow.

According to the organisers, the festival also brings to light the multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder collaboration between research performers and industry partners in the one-north community, a key driver that has enabled investments in research, innovation and enterprise to contribute to the economy and improve the lives of Singaporeans.

In one-north’s first-ever Soapbox Race set to flag off on Saturday, 14 teams — seven from the one-north community and seven from the public — will race soapbox cars that they have built in a showcase of speed, creativity and showmanship. The slope at Biopolis Road will be transformed into a race and obstacle course where the teams will flaunt their creative soapbox cars.

Also lined up are a gamut of fun-filled activities where participants can build their own robots to battle each other and fly mini-drones as well as take part in other exciting activities at the Robotics jamming event. There will also be a Future Food Street offering trendy foods and new culinary concepts.

“Rapid advances in technology have led to disruptive business models emerging with the potential to profoundly transform industries,” said Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry and Education said at the one-north Festival on Friday, citing examples such as the “Uberisation” of transport and hospitality sectors, the dis-intermediation of the retail sectors with e-commerce, as well as the transformation of manufacturing due to digitalisation.

“We can only realise our visions for Future Work, Future Health and Future Living if we partner each other across all spheres – from Government, to educational and healthcare institutions, to companies,” Ms Low added. She noted that with major stakeholders side-by-side in a research and innovation ecosystem, one-north is like an engine spurring the creation of ideas, test-bedding innovations, and transforming technology into products and services for daily life.

Masterplanned by JTC, one-north is an iconic hub for growth clusters comprising Biomedical Sciences, Infocomm Technology, Media and the Physical Sciences and Engineering in a ‘work-live-play-learn’ environment. It is home to a community of more than 46,000 people from over 400 leading companies, 800 start-ups, 50 incubators, 16 public research institutes, as well as six corporate universities and institutes of higher learning.

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