Crossing the oceans and building a bridge of connection between China and Singapore

Tianjin Eco-City, a green new city growing out of the saline-alkali beach.

After 15 years of transformation, Tianjin Eco-City has written the "high appearance" of green mountains and clear waters and the "high quality" of economic development on the road of construction, implemented the new development concept, integrated into the new development pattern, painted new scenes, set examples, and grown into an excellent "pathfinder".

▲Yang Jiesheng (first from right) had an academic discussion with outstanding scientists including two Nobel Prize winners at the 15th International Youth Science Forum in 2023

As a major cooperation project between the governments of China and Singapore, Tianjin Eco-City has attracted much attention since its construction. Yang Jiesheng, a fellow of the Singapore Academy of Sciences and the Singapore Academy of Engineering, has been paying attention to the cooperation process between China and Singapore for a long time. Since 2021, he has been working hard to build a bridge between the Singapore University of Technology and Design (hereinafter referred to as "SUTD") and Tianjin Eco-City. In 2023, he came directly to Tianjin University to take up his post, and his work focus has changed, but his goal of promoting cooperation between China and Singapore remains unwavering.

"This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project. This is a big day, and we should have had some larger collaborations before this," said Yang Jiesheng.

Only by seeing far can we go far

Curiosity is the seed of science. Yang Jiesheng has had this seed in his heart since he was a child.

"When I disassemble an electronic part, I find some black stuff inside. When I was a kid, I was curious about where it came from. Later, I learned that it was a chip, and I wanted to know how the chip was designed and produced, and why a small chip could play such a big role." Yang Jiesheng said. His curiosity about the electronics field drove him to enroll in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering major at Nanyang Technological University. In his senior year, he also took the elective major of Integrated Circuit Design.

The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is the flagship school of Nanyang Technological University, but in the early 1990s, "integrated circuit design" did not set off a learning trend. Because it involves interdisciplinary studies, it is recognized by students as the most difficult major in the school, and few people choose to take it. Under the guidance of his mentor, Yang Jiesheng began to explore low-voltage, low-power, and large-scale integrated circuit modeling and design. "It was 1993, and most people were discussing how to make integrated circuits faster. Few people talked about low voltage and low power consumption, and there were even no articles to read. Sometimes I felt that if no one was doing this at all, why should we do it?" Yang Jiesheng recalled. Under confusion and pressure, some people gave up, but Yang Jiesheng still persisted. He always remembered what his mentor said: "When we do things, especially scientific research, we must look further. A field that is unpopular now may become popular in the future; some that are popular now may be eliminated in a few years."

This is indeed the case. After entering the 21st century, people gradually realized the problems caused by increased power consumption, such as heat dissipation and circuit performance degradation caused by increased chip temperature. Especially with the continuous development of the consumer electronics industry, low power consumption and high integration have become important trends. Yang Jiesheng is very grateful for his mentor's teachings. It was also from then on that his curiosity about science gradually took root and turned into a more determined force, and "looking at the long term" also became an important habit for him to think about problems in his career.

"If you ask me which job I feel most satisfied with, I think it is the creation of the Center for Excellence in Integrated Circuit Design (VIRTUS)," said Yang Jiesheng.

This starts with Singapore's semiconductor industry. Singapore entered the semiconductor industry as early as 1968. By 2009, it had become a major center of the global semiconductor industry. More and more internationally renowned semiconductor companies have set up their Asian headquarters in Singapore. Yang Jiesheng had long observed the rising trend of Singapore's semiconductor industry. He spent five years advocating that the semiconductor industry should be combined with universities. In 2010, the Singapore Economic Development Board invested 52 million Singapore dollars (about 250 million yuan) to jointly establish the Center for Excellence in Integrated Circuit Design with Nanyang Technological University, committed to developing into a world integrated circuit design center, developing core technologies required for integrated circuit and system design for application fields such as medical technology, clean technology and consumer electronics, and carrying out education and training of related talents. Yang Jiesheng served as the founding director of this center.

As soon as the news came out, Yang Jiesheng visited a number of integrated circuit design companies without stopping. For example, he once suggested that MediaTek Inc. invest in Singapore and expand its R&D center to conduct integrated circuit research; he also sincerely stated that VIRTUS will cooperate with the industry, and the compound graduate students they jointly train will become reserve talents to serve the industry. For Yang Jiesheng, it is his consistent goal to contribute to Singapore's social and economic development by leading interdisciplinary research, especially industrial cooperation. In his nearly 30 years of work, he has always maintained a close and good relationship with the industry, providing professional consulting services to statutory bodies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and multinational companies in the fields of electronics and integrated circuit design. "Companies give scientific research funds, and we solve the problems encountered by companies; the students we train participate in these tasks, which helps to improve their capabilities, and their performance is seen by companies and they are willing to recruit them." Yang Jiesheng emphasized, "So, I think the cooperation model with companies is very good."

It was in such cooperation that Yang Jiesheng realized the importance of interdisciplinarity. "The problems in today's world cannot be solved by a single discipline. For example, environmental ecology and aging all require interdisciplinary solutions." So when NUUST extended an olive branch, he was tempted.

This is the fourth public university established in Singapore. The founding president, Professor Thomas Manianti, was once the dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As early as its establishment in 2012, the new University of Science and Technology injected "interdisciplinary" into professional design, college construction, research cooperation and other aspects, and was committed to becoming a hub for the integration of Eastern and Western science and technology. Yang Jiesheng wanted to know what it would look like when the cross-disciplinary approach was fully and deeply developed. After joining the new University of Science and Technology in 2014, Yang Jiesheng was appointed as the founding vice provost and set about establishing the Graduate School and the International Cooperation Department. At that time, the new University of Science and Technology had established cooperative relations with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Zhejiang University, and hoped that Yang Jiesheng would be able to win more strategic partners after taking office, especially the Ivy League schools in the United States. But Yang Jiesheng had different ideas. He believed that as a young university, the new University of Science and Technology should have a broader mind and vision, and should focus on the balanced development of Eastern and Western cultures when choosing partners, "not one-sided."

"My principle is that 50% of our partners come from universities in the United States and Europe, and the remaining 50% come from Asia." Yang Jiesheng particularly emphasized the selection of the number of partner schools. "The situation in each country is different. For example, Singapore has only 7 universities, but China has more than 2,000 universities, and the number of universities in the United States has exceeded 4,000. So we have to pay attention to the number ratio. We can't say that if we have two partner universities in Malaysia, we only have two in China."

Yang Jiesheng's point of view convinced Professor Thomas Manianti. Since 2014, NTUST has attached great importance to exchanges and cooperation with Chinese universities. So far, they have built a solid cultural bridge with nearly 20 Chinese universities. In the past 9 years, the rapid development of China's science and technology and China's important role in the world's science and technology stage have proved the correctness of Yang Jiesheng's original decision. "Whether it is doing scientific research or cooperation, we must look at the long term." He emphasized again.

Born to struggle, we must contribute more to society

The first intergovernmental cooperation project between China and Singapore was the Suzhou Industrial Park, which was established in 1994. In the past 30 years, the Sino-Singapore experimental fields in Suzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing have continued to expand, and Singaporean universities represented by Nanyang Technological University have played an important role in this process. Yang Jiesheng believes that although the new university is young, it should also contribute to the transformation of the experimental field into a demonstration field. The first project he set his sights on was the Tianjin Eco-City project. For this reason, he specifically contacted the Tianjin Eco-City, and after some discussion, he found that there was indeed a blank in cooperation with Singaporean brand universities. This made them all see opportunities.

In June 2022, at the first Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Economic Forum, NTUST and Tianjin Eco-City signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation, planning to carry out strategic cooperation in the fields of cultural exchanges, education and training, scientific research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, to help the Eco-City develop into a leading low-carbon, smart and sustainable city, and to deepen cooperation and exchanges between China and Singapore in the fields of science and education. This is Yang Jiesheng's first step towards Tianjin.

"But this is not enough, we also need to cooperate with a Chinese university in Tianjin," said Yang Jiesheng. Through organizing talks and mutual visits, they finally reached an agreement with Tianjin University and hoped to promote the tripartite cooperation with Tianjin Eco-City to further expand the space for scientific research cooperation. To ensure the smooth progress of the cooperation plan, Yang Jiesheng joined the School of Microelectronics of Tianjin University in 2023 and pressed the new start button.

As a world-renowned expert in low-power RF/millimeter-wave integrated circuit design, Yang Jiesheng is the first scholar in Singapore University of Science and Technology to be awarded the title of Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the first scholar to be awarded the title of Fellow of both the National Academy of Sciences of Singapore and the Academy of Engineering of Singapore. In addition, he was also named a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) and received many honors such as being among the top 2% scientists in the world.

Yang Jiesheng has always had a clear plan for his scientific research career. As early as when he was working at Nanyang Technological University, he initiated the FIRST (For Industry Research Success) industry seminar. "But at that time, 'I' stood for innovation. I didn't think I had to be the first. In the 21st century, we need to collaborate more on innovation, and we will make greater contributions to the world." After joining NTUST, Yang Jiesheng expanded the connotation of "I" to industry, hoping to strengthen the integration of industry, academia and research. This concept is also reflected in his research. In the field of deep submicron complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process modeling and the use of parasitic mixed-mode devices, he holds 39 patents, including two of the world's smallest integrated transformers and one of the world's smallest 60GHz standard integrated filters; he is the main inventor of the Virtus chipset, which fully complies with the IEEE 802.11ad standard, is at least 1,000 times faster than Bluetooth 2.0, consumes less than 300 milliwatts of power, and has advantages such as carrier suppression and ultra-low harmful radiation; he also participated in the invention of many new circuit technologies for 5G wireless communications and RF/millimeter wave IC applications. More importantly, almost all of his patents have been successfully transformed by enterprises, achieving good social and economic benefits.

After nearly 10 years of development, the FIRST Industry Seminar has developed into a grand event for the semiconductor industry, with more than 1,000 industry professionals participating each year. After arriving in Tianjin, Yang Jiesheng actively promoted international exchanges and cooperation between Tianjin University and Singaporean universities. At the same time, he also gave new keywords to the FIRST Industry Seminar. "Tianjin University has a history of more than 100 years and has a deep foundation in scientific and technological innovation and corporate cooperation, but there are still areas that can be strengthened in the interdisciplinary field." Yang Jiesheng said that the "I" at this time is more about interdisciplinary. He sincerely believes that the experience of Singapore University of Science and Technology in breaking down barriers between colleges and conducting in-depth cross-disciplinary cooperation can be fully personalized according to the development needs of Tianjin University.

In the past six months, Yang Jiesheng's student training and team building at Tianjin University have been progressing in an orderly manner. In his standards, this will be a "5A" team with ability, attitude, goal, ambition, and adaptability. As the person in charge of the construction of the interdisciplinary discipline of integrated circuit science and engineering, he actively carries out innovative talent training projects for graduate students, conducts in-depth docking and full discussions with relevant disciplines inside and outside the school, and jointly promotes the innovation of interdisciplinary talent training models and the integration of industry, academia and research to jointly educate people; as the person in charge of chip microsystem modeling, he cooperated with SMIC to establish a modeling and testing center to solve the technical limitations of device models. The FIRST industry seminar held in Tianjin will also show the world the development history of integrated circuit design in Tianjin and the strength of the School of Microelectronics of Tianjin University in the field of integrated circuit design.

"With the emergence of 5G/6G, electric vehicles, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and drones, China must become a self-sufficient leader in semiconductor technology. However, the lack of coordination and duplication of resources, funding, and chip design work have seriously affected Beijing's push for chip dominance. In addition, bans and sanctions on semiconductor equipment, cutting-edge technologies, and advanced electronic design automation software in some countries have made it more difficult for China to catch up. To overcome these challenges, China needs a bold, united, well-coordinated, and transformative semiconductor technology strategic plan." Yang Jiesheng solemnly wrote in the new article. To this end, he suggested that China develop the world's first AI and blockchain-driven integrated circuit and system design platform technology for large-scale innovation acceleration and viable commercialization expansion of semiconductor IP, products, and systems.

"In addition to Singapore and ASEAN, my new focus is on China," Yang Jiesheng said sincerely. He was born and raised in Singapore, but he has always been paying attention to the development of world science and technology. Before cooperating with Tianjin, he had been working hard to promote cooperation between universities in China and Singapore for more than 20 years. He not only carried out teaching and research cooperation with teachers and students from many domestic colleges and universities, but also trained 19 doctoral students, 14 master students and 34 postdoctoral researchers from China, many of whom have become outstanding representatives of the industry and academia. In addition, he is also actively promoting China-ASEAN cooperation in Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and 5G/6G technology.

Yang Jiesheng adapted quickly to his new job at Tianjin University. When he was interviewed, he had just returned to Singapore. The 15th anniversary of the Tianjin Eco-City project was approaching, and he wanted to finalize the details of the tripartite cooperation between NTUST, Tianjin University and Tianjin Eco-City as soon as possible.

"The whole world has received a lot of help from China, because China can often bring high-quality and low-cost technological products. Especially some developing countries, they don't have so much money, but they can enjoy the benefits of these technological products. In this regard, China's contribution is obvious to all and plays a vital role." Yang Jiesheng added, "Life is the same. My life goal is not to fight for honor and treatment, but to make some contributions to society and people. If everything is measured by money, I will not come to Tianjin to work."

Yang Jiesheng is a person who loves to think, and he also loves everything that requires thinking. Interestingly, he has liked Chinese chess since he was a teenager, and even won three consecutive championships in the middle school group. When he was in Singapore, he liked to take a walk by the river, letting his thoughts fly while walking, letting his imagination run wild. Now, at Tianjin University on the banks of the Weijin River, he is still planning for the future, and his ambitious look is very much like the boy who played chess in the past.