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Friday Nov 15, 2024
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From left: Nippon Paint Singapore Group Managing Director Wang Chyang, NIPSEA Group Group Chief Executive Officer Wee Siew Kim, A*Star Chief Executive Officer Frederick Chew and A*Star Assistant Chief Executive, Enterprise Assistant Chief Executive Prof. Tan Sze Wee
NIPSEA Technologies and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have joined forces in the field of coating solutions for autonomous navigation.
Over the next three years, this groundbreaking collaboration will be developing coating solutions for C.A.S.E. (connected, autonomous, shared and electric mobility) which offers a glimpse into the future of automobiles and its rapid developments.
Established in 2011, NIPSEA Technologies is the Research and Development facility of Nippon Paint Group, outside Japan and China. NIPSEA’S current collaboration with A*Star paves the way to promote innovative R&D projects, leveraging expertise in chemicals, engineering sciences, and infocomm technologies.
“This current project is part of our goal to contribute to the innovations in the rapidly changing automotive industry. We are very honoured to have A*Star as our partner in this attempt to develop disruptive technologies,” said Wee Siew Kim, Group Chief Executive Officer of NIPSEA Group.
This exciting partnership is yet another milestone for NIPSEA and A*Star, who have previously worked on several key initiatives over the past eight years. This includes the ICAP (Industrial Coating and Packaging) consortium project which produced packaging films that protect foods and medicine from oxidation, by keeping moisture out and blocking UV rays.
The parties also worked on the Cool Singapore project helmed by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2017, yielding a total cool paint solution to reduce Singapore’s ambient temperature by 2 °C.
Through this collaboration, NIPSEA has developed full cool paint systems by modification and development of coatings for cool walls, roof and road applications. More recently in 2019, the two cutting-edge organisations also collaborated on an anti-microbial coating project which was successfully implemented for solvent-borne auto interior coatings in China.
The current project is part of NIPSEA’s aim to develop coating technologies for the evolving needs of the automotive and transportation industry. Over the next three years, the two organisations will work on several fronts in the field of autonomous navigation. This includes the development of new coating solutions that addresses the key challenges of safety and cost in autonomous driving, as well as the employment of machine and deep learning approaches to increase productivity in coating research and development.
“We have worked together with A*Star since 2012 and have achieved many milestones together. However, this project, in particular, is very exciting as for the second consecutive year, Singapore ranks at the top of the list of countries ready to embrace autonomous vehicles (AVs), according to the 2019 Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI) conducted by KPMG. Hence, this allows NIPSEA to lay an excellent foundation to be the pioneer in autonomous navigation, over the next decade,” said Dr. Hong Jiang, Chief Technology Officer of NIPSEA Group.
Similarly, NIPSEA’s commitment to this cutting-edge project is echoed by A*STAR. Together, the organisations are looking forward to continuing their working relationship.
“Working alongside NIPSEA has been a happy journey for us, as both organisations place high emphasis on innovations that benefit society in a sustainable way. In this emerging and dynamic field of autonomous navigation, we are building upon our long-standing collaboration to create a technology solution for a safer environment,” said Professor Alfred Huan, Assistant Chief Executive, Science & Engineering Research Council, A*Star.
This collaboration is firmly in line with NIPSEA’s DNA to push the boundaries of innovation. This project will also provide major long-term benefits to Singapore and to the future of autonomous navigation.
