Steering innovation, leading change

By Nur Isyana Isaman

Twelve NTU alumni have been recognised in the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the categories of media, manufacturing, technology, finance, and healthcare and science. The eighth edition of the annual list honours 300 young trailblazers across Asia Pacific for steering innovation and leading positive change.

The 2023 honourees include the co-founders of Our Grandfather Story, which started as an NTU undergraduate project, and an NTU presidential postdoctoral fellow pursuing materials science research.

Narrating folklore and stories of yesteryear

From left: Cheah Wenqi, Matthew Chew, and Ng Kai Yuan, the co-founders of Our Grandfather Story. 

The trio of Cheah Wenqi, Matthew Chew, and Ng Kai Yuan started Our Grandfather Story (OGS) together with fellow classmate Carine Tan, as a group project when they were undergraduates in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Class of 2018. Their submission for the project was their first two videos, featuring old-school food culture in Singapore: ice cream sandwiches by street peddlers, and local kopi served in hawker centres. Both videos went viral with over 6,000 likes in just two weeks.

Six years on, OGS is a well-known digital publisher focused on uncovering human interest stories, from profiling the last giant joss stick maker in Singapore to interviewing persons with disabilities finding love. OGS gives a voice to the inspiring stories of everyday people and explores cultural practices that are unique to the Southeast Asia region. 

Their main YouTube channel has more than 750 videos and over 335,000 subscribers, with the top video about a Singapore restaurant serving pay-as-you-wish meals amassing 9.7 million views.

“We are just a bunch of curious people who want to share stories of fun, inspiring, interesting, cool people with the rest of the world. And we are thankful to everyone who have joined us along this ride,” says 27-year-old Wenqi, who heads product growth and development. She dedicates the Forbes award to the OGS team “for telling amazing stories with honesty and sincerity”.

According to Forbes, the company reaches an audience of over 10 million every month across its brands. The team has launched a parent company, UNFOLD Asia, to manage their growing list of media brands, including Ribbit.FYI, nOm, UNFOLD Studio, and UNFOLD Creator. 

Cooling data centres with AI

Angelina Terlaki co-founded Red Dot Analytics two years ago.

As the co-founder of NTU spin-off company Red Dot Analytics, Angelina Terlaki (TIP/2021) innovates solutions using AI technologies to help data centres reduce energy consumption and achieve sustainability goals.

The 25-year-old started commercialising Red Dot Analytics in January 2021 with two other co-founders, including NTU’s President's Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, Professor Wen Yonggang. The company has raised $1 million in seed funding.

Besides embracing innovation, the NTU Entrepreneurship Academy alumna believes in having a purpose-driven mindset to run a successful business. She explains, “Start with a clear understanding of your purpose and the impact you want to make. Identify a problem or a need that you are passionate to address and align your business idea with that purpose. By prioritising the positive impact, you will be motivated to overcome challenges along the way.”

She says that the Forbes recognition fuels her commitment to scale up Red Dot Analytics and hopes to expand the company’s reach and presence in the region.

“My NTU education in technopreneurship and innovation taught me how to commercialise high-tech research, which was instrumental to my success. The experiential learning opportunities, industry collaborations, and extensive network were really useful,” she adds.

A multi-hyphenate venture capitalist

Alwyn Rusli is a seed and venture investor at Trihill Capital.

In his line of work, Alwyn Rusli (CEE/2017) is constantly on the lookout for early-stage start-ups with visionary founders and promising potential. His first job after graduating from NTU was managing business development and operations for a construction company that he co-founded in Indonesia.

Since joining the investment company, Trihill Capital, in March 2021, Alwyn has backed over ten start-ups in various industries, including commerce, fintech, and logistics.

“Starting a category-defining company is a lifetime commitment. Imagine trying to make a dent in this world despite starting with no money, customers, or team. It requires founders that resiliently cultivate both ends of the spectrum: determination, obsessiveness, and experimental nature, but also humility, openness, and principles; among other things,” says the 26-year-old, who jointly founded the venture investment arm at Trihill Capital.

Alwyn invests across Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia. Besides investing in start-ups, he also takes on the role of their board observer to help them build a strong business foundation.

Some of the start-ups he has been working with include wagely, which has developed a financial wellbeing app for employees, and Eratani, which provides digital solutions for the agricultural industry. He also serves as an advisor at Antler, a venture capitalist firm based in Singapore.

Pushing boundaries in materials science

Dr Tang Bijun is a presidential postdoctoral fellow at NTU.

Dr Tang Bijun (MSE/2017) was inspired by her mother – whom she describes as her role model – to pursue engineering.

“My mother is a senior engineer with a strong drive for self-improvement. ‘Live and learn’ is what she always says to me. She sets an inspirational example and has shaped me to be the woman scientist I am today,” shares Bijun. 

She aspires to continue pushing boundaries and create positive impact in the healthcare and science industry. In her research, the 29-year-old uses machine learning to analyse and discover new materials, such as novel two-dimensional materials for future electronics and spintronics devices.

Not only did Dr Tang attain her bachelor’s degree and PhD – both in materials science and engineering from NTU, but she is also currently a presidential postdoctoral fellow at her alma mater.

Her work has been published in over 20 research papers in renowned academic journals, such as Nature and Nature Electronics, and has been cited more than 750 times over the last five years.  

NTU congratulates six other NTU alumni selected by Forbes for the 30 Under 30 Asia list. They are the co-founders of Botsync - Rahul Nambiar (MAE/2018), Prashant Trivedi (MAE/2018), Singaram Venkatachalam (EEE/2017), Nikhil Venkatesh (CCDS/2018); the co-founder of software start-up Hypotenuse AI, Low Lin Hui (NBS/2017); and an honorary adjunct senior research scientist at the Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute, Dr Zehui Xiong (CCDS/2020).