A total of 39 faculty convened at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa on 12 Jan just before term commenced for a day of retreat. Amid the idyllic sea setting, thoughtful discussions took place among faculty throughout the day. In the agenda was a review of the department’s lab curriculum and practices, identifying any new strategies and rooms for improvement, internships for physics students and outreach focus to increase physics undergraduate intake.

Staff were divided into five groups to facilitate the discussions and presentations. An important point raised was the intended learning outcome of the undergraduate lab curriculum. Would a less-structured, more discovery-based and technical-assisted experimental design be a better approach? Issues regarding lab component weightage, manpower and resources were also brought up.

Evolving job landscape today will require our physics graduates to acquire more than just knowledge in the field of physics. Skills such as programming, modelling, machine learning and data analytics are becoming necessary in many emerging industries. This would imply the adjustment to emphasise more related topics in the present curriculum. Also put forward was the need to engage with industries so as to improve the employment prospect of our physics graduates.