Autonomous Post Bus

Autonomous Post Bus.
Image generated by Copilot
from a prompt by Tom Worthington

Greetings from the Public Transport Council of Singapore's Roundtable on Autonomous Vehicles in Public Transportation. There are twelve people around the table to discuss how to integrate automated vehicles, of all sizes, into the transport system. There is a large exhibition of busses and metros downstairs. I attended a previous exhibit where a full size bus was set up to operate without a driver. The technology is now there to use that, but what for? Does the automated bus operate fixed routes, or could it do more? 

I am not an expert in AI or public transport, so I am not exactly sure why I was invited. But I do teach students how to build automated systems for real world needs. It strikes me that the driver-less bus is a solution still looking for a problem to solve. There is also the problem of driver-less vehicles coping with congested roads. A bigger issue is public perception: EVs catch fire far less than petrol cars, but being new they invoke fear. Similarly driver-less vehicles will likely be safer, but early inevitable accidents will make the headlines. 

Some small autonomous vehicles are already operating in Singapore. We had to introduce ourselves, I explained I am not an AI or transport expert, but suggested looking at a finer granularity for autonomous transport, integrated into the mapping apps. I related how ANU introduced a shuttle bus, but this was not visible on Google maps, so most people would not know it exists. Also I related how I have seen four students on one battery scooter, which promoted me to think much smaller slower autonomous transport had a role (much smaller than a taxi or mini bus). 

An interesting point which came up was how comfortable the passengers feel sharing a small vehicle with a stranger, with no driver. I was surprised this was still an issue, as ride sharing companies have addressed security through rating of drivers, and women only services. It should be possible to have a service which shows you a photo of who you are travelling with and gives an endorsement of them. 

Something which occurred to me was if there was a place for a modern version of the post bus. These traditionally provide a slow bus service for sparely populated rural areas, integrated with postal delivery. The modern version could be a parcel delivery service, with space for passengers. You could arrive at your destination, and pick you package from the back of the vehicle. I had copilot produce a sketch of this (prompt: "create an image of a six seater autonomus vehicle, which has parcel lockers like those used by amazon built into the back. Show a person removing a parcel from a locker.").

I thought it was curious Singapore, a leader in public transport, asking people from other nations for advice. I am reminded of an episode ("Transport!") of the satirical TV series "The Games", where consultants suggested studying the Los Angeles public transport system, until it was pointed out they don't have a public transport system. 

ASCILITE 2027 Vietnam

I recommend the free coffee queue at Edutech Asia as a place to meet people. Bumped into Glen O'Grady from RMIT Vietnam, who used to be at ANU. He is promoting the ASCILITE 2027 conference which will be hosted by RMIT in Vietnam next year.

Rise of the Machine

Audience wear headphones
for multiple sessions
on Edutech conference floor.

Greetings from EduTech Asia in Singapore. I am at a panel on jobs and skills, chaired by Ana Hoi, from Western Sydney University. They made the point that work experience is part of medical education, but not for many other students. These experiences could be added, it was suggested, with site visits, and projects. In the case of the computing students I teach, we provide projects for them, individual and group, as well as internship opportunities. 

ps: I was later getting here. I rushed to the Suntech Conference Center, into the room in my schedule, only to find it deserted. That is tomorrow's event on AI for Public Transport: I was a day early. A short bus ride and I was at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center, where EduTech Asia is held. 

Qualifications with AI for Employability

Greetings from Singapore, for the second of two  workshops at Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026, by the Singapore University of Social Sciences, with Associate Professor Tan Yan Weng, & the NICE team. The topic is "CET and Employability". CET is the Singapore abbreviation for "Continuing Education and Training, which in Australia is called Vocational Education and Training (VET). Microcredentials got a a mention early on. Microcredentials have not fulfilled their earlier promise in Australia, but perhaps they can be supercharged with AI. 

Professor Weng says Singapore had a push for stack-able Just in Time microcredentials for working adults, which is a bold claim to make. He described five stack-able credentials for supply chain management (vital to a trading economy like Singapore). Any two certificates can be used for a minor, or all five for a major in a degree. Even before the first students have graduated from this program, it is being revised to incorporate AI. One priority was the need for human to human communication skills (ironically, I suggest AI can be used for this, just as flight simulators are used to train flight crews in how to work as a team). Rather than adding an AI course, it is to be embedded into the existing modules from 2027. Interestingly, class participation was increased to be 15% of the assessment. Cold chain management as mentioned, but my entire knowledge of this comes from episodes of SBS TV's Inside the Sydney Fish Market. ;-) 

I got al laugh out of the room in the group exercise when I related how my team of students who were building an automated systems for matching people to jobs. They fed my CV  into their system, and it said I lacked communication skills. 

AI for Andragogy Testing Tests with Simulated Students

 

Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026

Greetings from Singapore, where at the first of two  workshops at Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026, by the Singapore University of Social Sciences. The first is AI-Enabled Learning and Teaching for Adult Learners by Dr Lye Che Yee, and a gaggle of SUSS staff. The first challenge posed was how student will learn if AI just gives them the answer. One difference noted was that previous search systems required the student to provide keywords & search commands, whereas AI can understand natural language. I suspect this is an illusion. With early programming languages, such as COBOL, it was claimed business people could use it, programmers were not required. This was not the case, nor with later generation languages, when the same claims were made. Training was needed to understand the problem, express it well, document the process, & test the answers. 

Dr Yee suggests that learners will need to learn a set of essential skills, even if AI does the hack work. These include communication skills, which is something one of my team's of ANU students system told me was lacking in my CV. One tricky skill which will be needed is judgement.

Associate Professor Wong showed how they redesigned a take home assignment to incorporate use of AI. The student has to explain how it was used with the techniques in the course. They argued it was not necessary to teach how to use LLMs, just as it is unnecessary to teach use of office software. I suggest this is incorrect. At primary school we were trained to make an emergency phone call. Just because people have technology, they do not necessarily know how to use it effectively. In fact Professor Wong's assessment design appears to be teaching how to use a LLM with detailed instructions. The key question for me is the students are trained in how to do this, or just given the assignment and expected to work that out themselves. 

One incidental point which came up in discussion is that SUSS still subscribes to TurnItIn for checking student assignments, but has turned of the AI score as it is "nonsense".

We then moved on to adaptive drift, which I didn't quite get. But that might be because I got caught up chatting at morning tea, and was late back. 

Back on track we were asked to try an application which used a simulated student to submit answers to typical questions, to be able to see how well LLMs could assess. The point here was that it is hard to simulate a weak student, as the LLM has so much knowledge. This is not an unusual problem, academics who have not been trained to teach have difficulty with struggling students. This suggests that software test techniques could be applied to reviewing assessment tasks. With software development it is routine to run an automated set of tests each time software is changed. The same could be done with assessment: the assignment changes and a series of tests are triggered, with simulated students submitting answers, which are then evulated. 

Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026 Singapore

Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026

Greetings from Singapore, where have I arrived for Edutech Asia. But that doesn't start until Wednesday, so I have time to take in a couple of workshops at Andragogy for Impact (AnfI) 2026, organised  by the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

• Workshop 3: AI-Enabled Learning and Teaching for Adult Learners – Insights from SIG-AILTA, by Dr Lye Che Yee, Associate Professor Ivy Chia, Associate Professor Jimmy Wong, Associate Professor Marcus Lee, Associate Professor Wang Yue, Dr Grandee Lee & Dr Tristan Lim, Chair & Co-Chairs, SIG-AILTA, Singapore University of Social Sciences
• Workshop 5: CET and Employability: Designing Programmes and Analysing Outcomes, Associate Professor Tan Yan Weng, Associate Professor Randolph Tan & the NICE team

In addition the Singapore Government invited me to be on a round-table on AI for public transport.