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Louis Shue |
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Assistant Programme Manager, Assistive ICM for Health Monitoring and Rehabilitation Programme
Upon completion of my PhD studies at the Australian National University in 1999, I decided to seek a career in R&D in Singapore. Why Singapore, you may ask? Well, it is a different country, which borders between Asia and a western country – Australia. It did seem fun, both culturally and geographically.
Having been educated and living in Australia for most of my life, Singapore represented a big cultural change. While not as multi-cultural as I was used to back in Australia, the different racial groups here are very rooted in their respective traditions and it was interesting to observe as an outsider. Another adjustment I had to make upon arrival is the slightly more rigid management style and presence of many rules, which is different but perhaps at times more efficient.
 After joining I²R in late 1999, I have worked on a diverse range of projects. One of the early highlights was being part of a small team working on a 3-year project, where a small object of a few pixels in a video sequence was required to be detected and tracked. Subsequently, I have been involved in speech/audio processing and microphone array research. Since 2001, I have been privileged to lead a research team. This was quite a challenge which allowed me to not only look at problems at the microscopic (technical) level, but also the larger picture of how the group’s work would fit with the general research direction of I²R. In addition, as part of my job, I was given many opportunities to interact with leading scientists in my field at the international conferences I had attended.
In my current capacity as the driver for a number of ICT-for-healthcare projects, e.g. tele-health and remote monitoring, there is an even greater need for interaction with people outside of our own domain. In other words, this includes not only the various research groups internally, it involved the other research institutes under the A*STAR family, as well as engaging physicians and IT professionals from various local hospitals. This was another personal challenge since most of my colleagues and I were not trained in healthcare. However, it was satisfying to see applications of some of our work to living people and to know that we could make a difference to people’s lives.
To me, a good attitude for a research scientist to have is to never be afraid of failures. The important point is to remain open-minded, be humble and learn from past mistakes. At the same time, we as technical researchers must always remain critical in answering tough questions. However, at the end of the day, you should have conviction and confidence in your beliefs. Finally, especially when things do not go well occasionally, try not to take yourself too seriously.
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