Lee Yiyuan
Class
1331
Rank points
85
NUS
Computer Science
A*STAR Undergraduate Scholarship
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My university application journey
I had been in the robotics club since primary school, and it was a passion of mine that I had followed over the past 9 years prior to graduating from NYJC. The programming aspects of robotics interested me a lot, and it helped spark my interests in software engineering and artificial intelligence. Computer science seemed like the best idea at that time, and it ended up as a choice I have not regretted thus far.
I was lucky during my application, as my rank points had just made the cut according to the indicative grade profile for that year (it became straight A's a year later, even until now). Apart from that, the application was rather smooth.
If you are questioning whether you should apply for schools a or b and scholarship x, y, or z, I'd say that the answer would be to apply for everything you have in mind, and to decide after getting the offers - it wouldn't harm anyway.
Life after NYJC
Currently, I am studying computer science while doing a research internship at the side in robotics. My current focus of studies is in artificial intelligence, and my research interests include in long-horizon decision making, with certain applications to autonomous driving. During my free time, i sometimes game and watch tv shows and movies; however, I am blessed with being able to study and do research in something I really like, so that my free time and my "work" time is often indistinguishable.
The computing faculty in NUS, in general, is full of people with passion in programming related stuff. There are those with impressive records in competitive programming, having represented the nation to clinch top awards in overseas competitions. There are those with an immense amount of software development background that it no longer becomes a mystery how youngsters are able to start their own tech companies. There are those that have done enough machine learning that you question what are they even doing in that introductory linear algebra or calculus class. At any rate, if you have a passion in programming related areas, you will definitely enjoy being in NUS computing - not just because of the course well taught, but more importantly because of the community you will get in touch with.
My Future Plans
My immediate plan is to apply for graduate school, with a research focus in artificial intelligence applied to robotics.
Tips for Juniors
If you ever feel lost in university, don't be afraid that you are the only one and losing out, because everyone is probably just about as lost as you. It is what you do in these situations that decide whether you find a way out. Often, taking even the slightest of efforts to better yourself and to pick yourself out, is better than doing nothing at all and wallowing in limbo and self-pity in certain occasions.