From hackathons to Apple role

He credits his multidisciplinary training - which blends technical skills with business strategy - for his Cubstart win and landing a cybersecurity internship at his dream company

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Xu Jialu is currently working on his capstone project in the emerging field of 3D ceramic printing.

(PHOTO: SPH MEDIA)

Most engineering students are trained to solve technical problems. For Nanyang Technological University (NTU) undergraduate Xu Jialu, that was only the starting point.

During an internship at a fintech company, Jialu was tasked with designing a payment solution.

He pressed beyond the technical brief and asked more questions: How would it create value - and at what cost?

"It was not just about building something that worked. We had to think about the cost, the long-term value and whether it made sense for the business," explains Jialu.

This big-picture mindset was shaped by the Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP), NTU’s flagship engineering dual-degree scholarship programme, where students are trained to bridge technical know-how and strategic thinking through a multidisciplinary curriculum designed for a rapidly evolving world.

The programme integrates engineering and science with business, technology management and the humanities, equipping students with skills to look beyond code and make real-world decisions with confidence.