High Impact Thesis

Does growing up in a single-parent family necessarily put children at an educational disadvantage? And how do gender expectations, parental involvement, and grandparents' support shape children's academic success?

In this episode of High Impact Thesis, we sit down with Deng Fang, a PhD candidate in Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, to explore the complex relationships between family structure and children's educational outcomes in China. Drawing on her doctoral research, Fang challenges conventional assumptions about single-parent households, revealing how the effects of parental divorce differ across mother–daughter, mother–son, father–daughter, and father–son relationships. We also discuss the evolving role of grandparents in childcare, the importance of intergenerational cooperation, and how cultural norms and gender expectations influence family dynamics.

Join us as we unpack what these findings reveal about the changing Chinese family and rethink what truly matters for children's educational development.

Why do countries sometimes hesitate to work more closely with powerful allies, even when regional security threats are growing? In this episode, we speak with Anthony Toh Han Yang, a PhD student at NTU’s Public Policy and Global Affairs programme, about his research on US alliances and alliance cohesion in the Asia-Pacific. Anthony explains why rising threats alone cannot fully account for alliance behaviour, highlighting the importance of strategic value, bilateral relationships, domestic politics, and public opinion. Drawing on cases including South Korea and the Philippines, we explore why alliance commitments can strengthen or weaken over time and what these dynamics mean for regional security. Beyond his research, Anthony also reflects on staying objective while studying geopolitics, communicating international relations to the public, and his PhD journey.

What does it take for AI-generated images and videos to do more than simply look real? In this episode, we speak with Ziqi Huang, a Ph.D. candidate at NTU’s MMLab, about her research on making generative AI more controllable, reliable, and aligned with human understanding. She introduces ReVersion, which helps diffusion models learn relationships between objects; VBench and VBench++, which evaluate video-generation models across multiple human-aligned dimensions; and VChain, which enables models to reason through visual steps before generating a final video. We also discuss why realistic-looking outputs can still violate physics or common sense, how generative models could support robotics and physical AI, and Ziqi’s journey from an undergraduate interested in art and technology to an award-winning AI researcher.

In this episode, we sit down with Kethmi Hettige, a Ph.D. candidate in Computing and Data Science at NTU, whose research focuses on spatial-temporal prediction and reasoning. Kethmi shares how her work combines AI, graph neural networks, physics-guided learning, and large language models to tackle real-world challenges such as air quality prediction, traffic forecasting, and environmental monitoring. We explore her research contributions, including the importance of interpretable and trustworthy AI systems, and integration of scientific knowledge into machine learning models. Beyond the technical discussion, Kethmi also reflects on her experiences throughout the Ph.D. journey.

How do we measure the value of a smile? Dr. Hilary Ma joins us to discuss her research on participatory arts and the aging experience. From the galleries of the National Museum to the heart of Singapore's neighborhoods, learn how her initiative, Project ARTISAN, uses intergenerational storytelling to combat loneliness and build resilience in seniors. It’s a story of art, heritage, and the powerful "kampong spirit" that emerges when we create together.

Welcome back to High Impact Thesis!

This episode dives beneath the surface, exploring the 70% of our planet that remains largely hidden. We speak with Abu Bakr Azam from the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme, whose doctoral work is challenging the million-dollar price tag of deep-sea access.

His thesis, "Acoustic Aided Localization and Perception for Low-Cost Underwater Robotics," shows how to explore the oceans without breaking the bank. We discuss how his novel systems achieve centimeter-level localization accuracy using affordable sensors, overcoming challenges like murky water and the complete failure of GPS.

Join us to explore the future of low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), the drive for new solutions like non-contact cleaning, and how this work opens doors for conservation, energy, and scientific discovery. Abu Bakr also shares a candid look at the personal journey of completing this complex and impactful PhD.

In this episode, we speak with Zhou Qinrou, a PhD student from NTU School of Social Science, whose research is challenging the foundational assumptions of how we understand bureaucracy. Qinrou takes us to walk through her thesis that discusses "What truly drives public servants to be good beyond simply doing well?" We dive into the critical Chinese concept of "zuoren" and "zuoshi". At the end, Qinrou also gives her personal understandings of the commitment, which supported her throughout her impactful PhD journey.

In today's episode of "High Impact Thesis," we sit down with Alka Luqman, a final-year PhD student at NTU's College of Computing and Data Science. Before starting her PhD, Alka spent seven years in an industrial company, where she worked on machine learning projects and natural language processing in the pre-LLM era. Alka shares her motivation for leaving the corporate world, to create new technology rather than just use it. Her current research focuses on peer-to-peer federated learning, a form of distributed machine learning that allows data to remain on individual devices, improving privacy and security. We discuss the challenges of implementing this technology in the real world, including data distribution shifts and communication efficiency, which is a core focus of her research.

In this episode of High Impact Thesis, we talk to Dr. Pritish Mishra, who recently completed his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at NTU. Pritish shares how his fascination with nanotechnology led him to explore computational material science, culminating in his research on designing single-photon emitters using perovskite quantum dots. He discusses how simulations, machine learning, and experimental synthesis come together in the search for highly efficient quantum materials, which is essential for secure quantum communication. We also dive into the challenges of interdisciplinary work, unexpected turns in his PhD journey, and his experience leading TEDxNTU.

In this episode of High Impact Thesis, we speak with Nicole Yao, a PhD student from NTU’s School of Humanities, whose research explores the representation of ruins in contemporary Chinese literature and film. Nicole discusses how abandoned spaces—urban and rural—symbolize the human cost of modernization in post-1990s China. She also reflects on the challenges of interdisciplinary research, the role of sincerity in representing marginalized lives, and what it means to pursue meaning in the humanities. Recommended works include The World by Jia Zhangke and The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi.