Intrigued to Innovate

di NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP)

Stagione 1

From My Classroom to Silicon Valley: How Two of My Students Outgrew University — and Raised US$2.6M to Prove It (feat. Armaan Dhanda & Samyak Baid)

In this episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan invites two of his former students back to the same studio where their journey began — not for a project consultation or to submit a report, but as world-class startup founders. Armaan Dhanda and Samyak Baid first walked into Dr Tan's CDE2301 Value Creation in Innovation course as wide-eyed freshmen. Samyak later served as his teaching assistant. Together, they pursued their CDE3301 Ideas to Proof-of-Concept project under Dr Tan and Dr Elliot Law, building a prototype to convert food waste into an alternative protein for pet nutrition. They called it Pawsible. It was ambitious for two undergraduates. What came next was something else entirely. Today, Armaan and Samyak are the co-founders of Anomaly Bio, a Singapore-based biotech startup that engineers microbes into micro-factories that convert sugar into high-value bio-based ingredients for crop protection, nutrition, and personal care. Their ambition is to build more resilient ingredient supply chains by brewing what the world needs in a tank, rather than relying on fragile conventional supply chains at the mercy of climate, geography, and geopolitics. Anomaly Bio's answer? Programme the right microbe, put it in a tank with sugar and water, and brew what you need. Just like beer, but with far higher stakes. They have already won the 2025 MIT Water, Food & Agriculture Innovation Prize, secured a paid pilot with Mars Petcare, received a hackathon award directly from Singapore's Prime Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong, and raised US$2.6 million in pre-seed funding, led by Pebblebed Ventures — alongside angel investors Akshay Kothari (Notion), Sean Hunt (Solugen), Eben Bayer (Ecovative), and Mithun Sacheti (CaratLane). All before turning 23. Guests: Armaan Dhanda & Samyak Baid, Co-Founders, Anomaly Bio Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

S1 · E11

8 mag 2026

1:00:31

Beyond the Degree: Creating Impactful Innovations as an Undergraduate — The Questions You Were Too Afraid to Ask (feat. Vishnu Saran, Dr Elliot Law and Harini Ravichandran)

In this special episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan does something he has never done before — he steps aside and lets you drive the conversation. For the first time on this podcast, the questions came from you — our listeners, the next generation of innovators — who sent in what you were almost too afraid to ask out loud. To answer them, Jovan brings together three people who know this journey from the inside: an educator (Dr Elliot Law), an alum-turned-founder (Vishnu Saran), and a student still in the thick of it (Harini Ravichandran). Same questions. Very different answers. In this episode, you'll discover: · The Real Startup Killer: Why people management — not product or technology — is what truly makes or breaks a team · The Founder Mirage: How to tell genuine intrinsic drive apart from fad-chasing · Why Teams Fail: What struggling teams really blame, and the hidden patterns underneath every breakdown · The Validation Trap: Why "fake validation" can quietly stall your progress — and what real validation looks and feels like · The Grit Code: The specific habits that sustain young innovators through their darkest moments · The Unasked Question: Why the questions you are most afraid to raise are almost always the most important ones in the room If you have ever wondered whether the struggle is worth it, this episode was made for you. Guests: Dr Elliot Law, Programme Director, NUS Innovation and Design Programme (iDP) & Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programmes, NUS College of Design and Engineering (CDE); Vishnu Saran, Co-Founder & CEO, Invigilo Technologies & NUS iDP Alumnus; Harini Ravichandran, Final-Year iDP Student, National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

S1 · E12

28 mag 2026

50:46

Stagione 2

The Weight of the Invisible: How Two Year 1s Took On a 250M-Patient Problem and Won IDEATE 2025 (feat. Sarah Tan Jing Ren and Tay Hock Jun)

In this Season 2 premiere of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Sarah Tan and Tay Hock Jun — two first-year Biomedical Engineering students in the NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP), and his own residents at Residential College 4 (RC4). At IDEATE 2025, NUS’s flagship innovation makerthon, they and three teammates took on a condition they knew almost nothing about—lymphedema. A condition that around 250 million people worldwide suffer from, many of them breast cancer survivors. Current medicine only offers them a machine that pins them to a chair for one to two hours a day, or a sleeve so hot and so tight that patients stop wearing it. The team’s answer? Replace air with mechanics. Competing as Team bmETER, they built a motor-driven band that tightens like a zip tie within a lightweight fabric sleeve — delivering the benefits of a clinical machine that a patient can wear and walk with. Building the prototype was a constant clash of variables: a racing makerthon clock versus a delayed risk assessment. In this episode, we unpack the unconventional approaches the team took to get to the finish line. Hear how a desperate trade for sewing machines (involving a puppet show) and a borrowed mannequin (that earned them plenty of stares) became the secret weapons for a winning pitch. More than 80 teams entered, but Team bmETER won — and their work continues through the CDE3301 Ideas to Proof-of-Concept interdisciplinary project course, together with the lymphedema specialist they consulted involved. All of it in their first year of university. In this episode, you’ll discover: · Not knowing the field can be an advantage: Why unfamiliarity with lymphedema gave them an unbiased view of the problem · Starting rough beats waiting for permission: How a puppet show, a borrowed sewing machine and a dismembered mannequin stood in for lab access · Adherence matters more than performance: Why heat, not pressure, is what drives patients to give up on their compression garments · Making people feel a problem beats explaining it: Why a compression stocking and two 1.5-litre bottles of green tea moved the judges more than any slide · Talking to the field early changes what you build: Why the one thing Hock Jun would change is starting those conversations sooner Whether you are a prospective student wondering what is genuinely possible in your first year, an undergraduate weighing up your first competition, or simply curious about how medical innovation really begins, this is what five first-year students built with empathy, borrowed equipment, and a refusal to wait until they felt ready. Guests: Sarah Tan Jing Ren and Tay Hock Jun, Year 1 NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP), National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

S2 · E1

29 lug 2026

41:02

From Gundam to the Operating Theatre: How 3 iDP Students Are Building the Raspberry Pi for Robotic Surgery (feat. Justin Seow Zhi Yong, Kong Jin Yu and Charly Chandra)

Every undergraduate has a side project they can’t stop thinking about. Few turn it into a mission. In this eye-opening episode of Intrigued to Innovate, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Justin Seow, Kong Jin Yu and Charly Chandra — Team Pod, 3 NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP) students on a mission to put robotic surgery within reach of every medical student for under S$200. The da Vinci surgical system has been used on more than 20 million patients worldwide. It also costs millions, so surgeons typically reach its controls only years into their careers, and medical students meet it only in textbooks. 3 engineering undergraduates decided that was a gap worth closing. It began with a Reddit meme about how you would really pilot a Gundam, the space-war robot from Japan’s Mobile Suit Gundam anime. Its punchline, a photo of da Vinci’s console, sent two robotics fans down a path they never expected. What followed was a project they pitched themselves through CDE3301 Ideas to Proof-of-Concept, with no industry partner, motors that tore themselves apart until Justin became part of the circuit, and a working prototype just 2 weeks before the final presentation. Then a consultant neurosurgeon agreed to put Pod, their controller, through its paces. Raspberry Pi made computing cheap enough for any student to tinker with. Can 3 students do the same for robotic surgery? 5 lessons to take away: ● Look hard, look everywhere: even a Gundam meme led them to a real gap in surgical training ● Chase leverage, not a better machine: they chose to grow the pool of future surgeons, not build a cheaper robot ● Test it with real users: feedback from medical testers reset Pod’s design requirements ● Compete on value, not price: surgeons pick the system for what it can do, not what it costs ● Listen widely, act selectively: take in every expert view, keep what fits, then act Whether you’re a first-year student wondering what’s possible, sitting on an idea you can’t shake, or just curious how tomorrow’s surgeons will train, press play and listen to their story. Guests: Justin Seow Zhi Yong, Kong Jin Yu and Charly Chandra, NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP), National University of Singapore (NUS) Hosted by: Dr Jovan Tan Produced by: Low Tse Han & Dr Jovan Tan Managed by: Kashfy Ilxilim Bin Zulkarna’in Presented by: NUS Innovation & Design Programme (NUS iDP) at the NUS Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC)

S2 · E2

13 set 2026

58:12

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