Tech
Galaxy
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tga.org
Cohort logistics
TGA is built around small, intentional cohorts. The numbers below are not negotiable — they are the conditions under which our seven-day pedagogy works.
- Eligibility: Secondary school & university students
- Team size: 8 students per team
- Language: English (working proficiency)
- Host location: Singapore · Tier-1 university campus
- Format: Immersive · project-based
- Faculty: NUS · NTU · HKU · Cambridge
- Cohort size: Capped at 12 teams per year
- Annual frequency: Once per summer
Five challenge components
Each cohort moves through five sequential components. Each is a gate: no team advances to design before research is in place, and no team advances to defense before its design is documented. This sequence is deliberately mimicked from how real academic and policy work is conducted.
01
Problem identification
Teams choose a real urban issue, scoped specifically enough that it could plausibly be addressed within seven days. Faculty veto vague framings on day one.
02
Research & framing
Teams draw from public datasets, urban fieldwork in Singapore, and expert talks. The deliverable is a defensible problem statement, not a solution.
03
AI application
Teams select an AI concept appropriate to their problem and explain — in their own words, without slide-deck buzzwords — why it fits and what it costs.
04
Design solution
Teams visualize the idea using models, maps, journey diagrams, or working prototypes. The output must be legible to a stranger on a poster wall.
05
Presentation & defense
A 10-minute live pitch followed by 3 minutes of panel Q&A. The defense is the harder half — judges probe assumptions, not summaries.
Daily schedule
Seven days, paced so that thinking time and pressure time are both protected. Mornings are for input and exploration; afternoons are for synthesis; evenings are for written reflection. The schedule below is representative — exact timings vary by cohort.
Cohort welcome, campus tour, opening keynote from faculty. Teams begin scoping their urban problem. Faculty mentors meet teams one-on-one.
Site visits relevant to each team's problem — public transit nodes, housing precincts, civic spaces. Field notes due that evening.
Public-dataset workshop. Expert salons with urban planners, AI researchers, and policymakers. Teams produce a written problem statement.
Teams select their AI approach and present a five-minute reasoning to mentors. Mentor pushback is structured but firm.
Visualization and prototyping intensive. Teams build the artifacts they will defend: models, maps, mockups, or working demos.
Full rehearsal before mentor panel. Hard feedback. Teams revise overnight.
10-minute pitch plus 3-minute Q&A before the full judging panel. Galaxy awards announced that evening.
Judging framework
Every project is scored against a published rubric. The rubric is shared with teams on day one and made public after each cohort. Honors are decided by the full judging panel; each panelist's scoring is documented and audited.
Judging panel
Professors from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and the University of Cambridge. Guest panelists from partner research and urban-design institutions.
Rubric dimensions
- AI logic & technical soundness 25%
- Urban systems understanding 20%
- Innovation & creativity 20%
- Design communication & clarity 15%
- Defense rigor & responsiveness 10%
- Team integration & role equity 10%
What makes
this hard.
TGA is not a STEM fair. The work expected of a TGA participant approximates the work expected of a first-year graduate student at a serious policy school. We say this plainly because applicants should know what they are agreeing to.
This is, at TGA:
— An AI-integrated urban systems design challenge
— Where solutionism is not rewarded, but systems complexity is
— Where students defend their assumptions and reflect on social impacts
— Where visual clarity must complement logical depth
Students must, at TGA:
— Work across five to six knowledge domains
— Handle unstructured ambiguity, not multiple-choice prompts
— Translate abstract concepts into audience-centered presentation
— Survive a real academic Q&A, on the record
Ready to bring
a team to Singapore?
Applications for the next TGA cohort open each September. Schools, learning centers, and independent teams of eight are welcome to apply.
Register a team See the Galaxy