By Kunchur Bharat (26A01B) and Sophie Sim (27S05A)

For most, research is another bullet point used to pad a resume. Felicia Tan Ee Shan (25S02A) and Low Li Ying Amy (25S06F) live and breathe it. Between the two of them, they have achieved everything a student researcher could dream of. 

Felicia is the proud recipient of the Singapore University of Technology and Design Multidisciplinary Award, Yale-NUS Special Award and the Singapore Association for the Advancement of Science Best Poster Communication Award; Amy’s sustained academic performance and research potential earned her the Defence Science and Technology Agency Junior College Scholarship in both 2024 and 2025. 

Guided by their shared passion for STEM research, Amy and Felicia embarked on their largest research project yet: the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2025. Their project, MAESTRO, was an audio-visual analysis framework designed to automatically detect hate speech in online content, thereby reducing the workload on human moderators. The outcome was completely unforeseen for both of them. Awards at ISEF are split into two categories. Special awards are presented first, followed by grand awards, separated by a two-day gap. 

“At [the] grand awards, our court shoes were off, our blazers were unbuttoned […] we were just enjoying the vibes,” Felicia shared, in between bursts of laughter. Their expectations were born out of a simple recognition of the high calibre of competition at ISEF. Felicia continued, “We thought the furthest we would go would be fourth at most.”

They ended up placing 2nd in the Robots and Intelligent Machines category.

Yet, getting to ISEF was not something either of them had even considered when they first began this project. It began through the DSTA’s Young Defence Scientists Programme (YDSP), where Felicia embarked on a simpler version of their future ISEF project — using multimodal AI for fake news verification in images and text. Felicia chose to follow her mentor up and continued to stay in the programme, while Amy coincidentally also signed up for YDSP in the same year and was paired up with Felicia. 

While their team dynamics were smooth from the start, the same could not be said for the technical aspect of their project — Felicia confessed that it was not till late August of the previous year that they had firmed up the general direction of their research. 

“We did full-time at DSO [National Laboratories] for 2-3 months before, but even up till ISEF, it was really stressful. It was around TP (Timed Practice) time […] and at the same time, there were so many Zoom meetings that we had to attend because we needed a lot of feedback from different people. It was just really stressful, juggling all these different commitments at once.”
~Amy

Amy and Felicia were also managing individual research projects concurrently, a challenge in any year, but especially in Year 6. 

Felicia represented RI at the A*STAR International Research Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology 2024, where her project on AI misinformation detection received the Best Paper Award. Her work has also been recognised at the National STEM Talent Search 2025 (Top 8, Computer Science Finalist). 

Similarly, Amy, through the Nanyang Research Programme and the Research@Young Defence Scientists Programme, explored topics ranging from microclimate simulations to machine learning algorithms. This culminated in two peer-reviewed paper submissions to INTED 2024 and IHIET 2025. 

How did they manage to balance these commitments then? 

Balancing Commitments

Echoing Amy’s sentiments, Felicia spoke on the idea of “seasonality.” As in the case of Amy and Felicia, you can have a lot on your plate, but juggling these commitments requires being discerning enough to focus on one thing at a time. Speaking from personal experience, they both knew that after the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF), which was in March, committing to ISEF would mean that a significant portion of March till late May had to be blocked out. 

This meant intentionally deprioritising their formal academic commitments, with the knowledge that they could catch up on them later on. They were also very lucky, Felicia shared, to have a support network of teachers that they could consult with to catch up on work, as well as CCA mates and teammates in other projects that understood their workload. 

Having summited the highest peak of pre-university STEM competition, we asked them for advice for budding student-researchers with similar aspirations.

Their biggest piece of advice? Start young. 

“By the time you get to JC, a lot of the other applicants will have a bunch of experience already […] you should start — not when you’re [in] Sec 1 — but maybe Year 4 [or] Year 3,” Amy shared. Despite their illustrious resume, Felicia made this caveat clear: 

“It is very rare to go to ISEF or, besides that, even the Asia [and] regional stuff at SSEF, for your first SSEF project.”

In the same vein, it is necessary to realise that creating something totally original is a myth. Felicia stressed that you simply cannot create something from what you do not know. Put simply: 

“We all stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Open-mindedness is also key. 

“The education system actually has a lot of opportunities, and none of us at Year 1 or 2 would think [about] ISEF — we never had ISEF in mind. But it’s a wealth of experiences — some random hackathon, some random Physics research. The skills that you learn along the way will piece together and then culminate into ISEF.”
~Felicia

Amy chimed in, emphasising the importance of casting a wide net when it comes to different areas of research, as choosing one’s preferred area is ultimately a process of elimination as well. 

However, as they admit, research that loses sight of the downstream user is pointless. This is where their service to the community comes in. 

Service from the Heart 

Although research is meaningful, since they are most often cooped up in the lab, they miss out on seeing the real impact of their efforts. Through volunteer work, they feel a different kind of fulfillment which fuels their passion and drives them to continue working. 

Felicia helped us break down the true meaning of “giving back”, speaking of privilege. 

Everyone has that innate immense potential, she believes. However, some people eventually explore fewer extracurriculars than others because of primary skills such as time management, while others fall behind due to external factors. 

“If my primary worries are troubles at home, I wouldn’t even be thinking about STEM research. It is one thing for a select few to go far in tech, as is a great reckoning for humans, but what is the point of having such great tech if only a few can access?” Felicia notes.

Her words highlight a growing tension: In a world obsessed with transformative technology, there is growing urgency for equitable distribution.

“No tech can be truly great if it’s only in the hands of a few.”  

To be a good researcher means not only to be good at your trade, but to still be in touch with the real world, and to utilize your abilities for a sensible social cause. Only then can you truly be an influential person in the world of technology. 

In line with this philosophy, Felicia founded SheCodes, a community supporting girls in technology that has reached over 210 members across 10 schools. Using her technological expertise, she intentionally paves the way to helping every girl overcome barriers in their tech journey. 

Meanwhile, Amy went back to the essentials, contributing to NTUC’s Share-A-Textbook initiative, and becoming an active member of Ulu Pandan Stars, equipping children with basic reading capabilities and walking along with them in the first steps of their education journey.

Looking Forward

When facing exam results, there is always a tinge of uncertainty, and Felicia and Amy are no exceptions to this. 

For many, it holds unimaginable weight in their decisions for the future. But nobody ever only has one path — we all have a radius of options available. To be fixated on that one path would be too immense a pressure to put on yourself at this point in your life, according to them. Instead, Felicia thinks, “So what if it doesn’t go to plan?” 

Amy echoes this sentiment, emphasising the importance of having a range of plans in mind. At the end of the day, A Levels is just another fork in the road. 

To wrap up, they left us with some words of wisdom. 

They encourage us that life is not made of a single moment — everything is inherently uncertain. The willingness to explore and the stubbornness to continue putting in effort no matter the circumstance are what truly make us set for life.