Dr Robert A. Brown

 

An Education Engineer

 

Singapore’s ambition to be the “Boston of the East”, where the NUS and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are world-class research hubs and centres of teaching excellence, was given a boost when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) opted to set up its first and only overseas campus here in 1998. American Dr Robert A. Brown was the dean of Engineering at MIT when the elite university chose Singapore as its partner.

 

American Dr Robert A. Brown arrived in Singapore in 1996 while on a tour around Asia to decide where MIT
should set up its first overseas campus. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan hosted Dr Brown. From Dr Tan, Dr Brown discovered that the government had visions to transform Singapore’s universities into leading colleges in Asia, and make Singapore the “Boston of the East”. “Singapore had a progressive view of where they wanted to take their universities to,” said Dr Brown. He also felt that Singapore had an advantage over other Asian countries as English was the country’s official language.

When he returned to MIT, Dr Brown assembled a panel to assess the case for a partnership with Singapore’s universities. The 30-member panel consists of faculty members who came to Singapore to assess the strengths of individual engineering departments and institutional infrastructure. The team’s report identified ways to strengthen the faculties and infrastructure at NUS and NTU so as to transform them from teaching institutions to public research universities. That was the first time MIT and Singapore collaborated and each went away understanding the benefits it could get out of the collaboration. MIT was “comfortable” with coming to Singapore, as Dr Brown recognised that the nation had great potential to be a global education hub.

Convinced that the government would be committed to making NUS and NTU the best universities in Asia, Dr Brown, who later became provost of MIT, gave the green light to start the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA). The SMA aimed to develop Singapore’s engineering and life sciences postgraduate research. Back then, Singapore was not known as a research and development hub in Southeast Asia. SMA was created in the hope of changing that. Most of the lectures were Engineering classes. Classes conducted in Boston were held live online with students in Singapore. The lecturers used voice-activated cameras in video conferencing, so that the cameras would automatically rotate to follow their voices and focus on them when they moved around the classroom in Boston. The video conferencing enabled students from both countries to interact with one another easily. Because of the time difference between the two countries, classes were often conducted early in the morning in Massachusetts and late in the evening in Singapore.

Another highlight of the programme was its exchange programme during the summer break. The SMA faculty members from MIT travelled to Singapore to meet their students. In turn, the students spent a semester or two at MIT with their professors to collaborate on research.

“This was a huge advancement. It was before the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), before the Biopolis, and before the big technology jump which occurred in 2001,” recalled Dr Brown, who studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin and did his PhD at the University of Minnesota. Singapore and Singaporeans alike benefited from the partnership with MIT. Said Prof Yue Chee Yoon, who was NTU’s liaison in SMA, “MIT was open to sharing many of their best practices. They were willing to give Singapore insights into the key ingredients and success factors in a top research university.” Through SMA, NUS and NTU not only built up their research capabilities, but also raised their profiles internationally. SMA was key to attracting higher-calibre academics to Singapore and more top universities to collaborate with the Singapore universities, said Prof Yue.

Dr Brown left MIT in 2005 to become president of Boston University, a position he continues to hold. He is a founding member of Singapore’s International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP). The IAAP was established in 1997 by the Ministry of Education to advise them on how Singapore’s universities can become world-class institutes. Its role has since been broadened to encompass the provision of guidance on the development of Singapore’s tertiary sector as a whole. The IAAP meets every two to three years.

Dr Brown is still a member of the IAAP and takes a keen interest in the research and higher education landscape in Singapore. In June 2015, he came to Singapore for the biennial IAAP meeting. He feels that Singapore will continue to be Asia’s education hub. To stay ahead, he advises that Singapore needs to continue to attract the best faculty and students from all over the world. In December 2005, he was conferred the Honorary Citizen Award, which celebrates foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to Singapore.

References

Dr Tony Tan, “Education in a Globalised Economy” (Speech at NTU Ministerial Forum, NTUC, February 19, 1998), http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/1998/190298.htm

Jeremy Sor, “Singapore-MIT Alliance: Impacting the World Through Education and Research,” Knowledge Enterprise Online, February 2009, http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/ke/0902/articles/pg02.php

Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore Confers Prestigious Honorary Citizen Award on Dr Tsutomu Kanai and Dr Robert Brown, December 28, 2005.

Interviews with Prof Robert Brown over the phone in January 2015 and Dr Yue Chee Yoon
in July 2015.

 

 

Dr Robert A.Brown
United States of America, b.1951