The Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore is delighted to be an academic partner in the inaugural Google Cloud AI for the Biomedical Sciences programme, developed under SG Code Campus’s Google AI Accelerator initiative and supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The programme also welcomes Dunman Secondary School as its pioneering school partner.

This cutting-edge initiative will introduce Singapore’s most promising pre-university students to real-world biomedical challenges through the transformative potential of artificial intelligence. Aligned with Singapore’s Applied AI Initiative under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2030 plan, the programme aims to cultivate interdisciplinary talent at the intersection of life sciences and data science—an area of growing national priority.

CSI Singapore was invited to participate as an academic partner, bringing research and clinical relevance to this strategic national effort. Two Principal Investigators (PIs) at CSI Singapore will be working closely with this initiative. They are: Assistant Professor Anand Jeyasekharan, a CSI PI who also serves as Senior Consultant at National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) and Dr. Jason Pitt, a CSI PI who is also a member at the NUS Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII). Together with their teams at CSI Singapore, Dr Anand and Dr Jason will work with initiative participants to facilitate problem solving using anonymised cancer imaging datasets, coordinate scientific and technical communications, and build and test machine vision models using publicly available imaging data from the Genomic Data Commons. Thus, these efforts at CSI will ensure that the students work on authentic, medically relevant problems.

Overall, CSI Singapore’s contributions will focus on three key outcomes:

1. Education and Talent Pipeline Development
   The programme provides hands-on experience with cancer imaging data, cultivating early interest and foundational skills in biomedical AI among Singaporean youth.
2. Applied AI Skills Using Real Tools
   Participants leverage Google Cloud’s AI suite—including Vertex AI, Gemini, and Vision AI—to develop solutions for cancer detection and diagnosis, gaining experience in applying cutting-edge technologies to real-world problems.
3. Cultivating Future Interdisciplinary Leaders
   Through immersive exposure, the initiative nurtures a generation of future-ready researchers, clinicians, and technologists who will be critical to driving innovation within Singapore’s RIE ecosystem.

With the support of government and school partners, this programme serves as a model for collaborative, interdisciplinary STEM education that aligns with Singapore’s long-term vision to apply AI in high-impact sectors like healthcare.