GenAI + Science: Teaching, learning and shaping the future of discovery

GenAI + Science: Teaching, learning and shaping the future of discovery

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In this series on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is harnessed to enhance educational experiences in NUS, we spotlight courses that leverage Generative AI (GenAI) to elevate the quality of teaching and learning.

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Meet Lyra, your AI tutor

Since September 2025, NUS students taking the course GEA1000 Quantitative Reasoning with Data have been able to turn to a tutor that is always ready to answer questions anytime.

Offered as part of NUS' General Education curriculum, the course equips students with essential data literacy and reasoning skills. To better address the wide range of students' interest and abilities in this subject, the GEA1000 tutors, together with the Office of the Provost and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, collaborated with an education technology company from the United Kingdom to conceptualise and develop Lyra, a novel "Human + AI tutoring" platform that supports students with accurate, trustworthy and course-specific responses around the clock. Students can now ask for step-by-step guidance to answering exam questions, check their understanding, and, in the near future, ask Lyrato generate questions on the fly to test their understanding of course concepts. Students can also bring human tutors into the conversation at the click of a button.

To reach this exciting stage of development, the NUS team leveraged its pedagogical expertise, user insights, and test-bedding capabilities, together with domain expertise in data literacy, to develop cutting-edge protocols and novel platform features in collaboration with the education technology partner. These protocols 'taught' the AI how to give the right guidance to students, based on teaching materials developed for the course, and 'forget' the 'wrong things' it had learnt during its general training. Based on GEA1000 benchmarks established by NUS, the Lyrachatbot has an accuracy of more than 95%, well above those of the Large Language Models (LLMs) on which it is based.

"Our aim is to have Lyraprovide personalised support to students in a way not possible previously, while freeing human tutors to focus on teaching students how to reason in real-time and deal with complex scenarios," said Senior Lecturer Dr Amanda Soon, who is in charge of GEA1000, and leader of the LyraNUS pathfinder team.

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AI doctor as a training partner in acute care

Over at the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies(NUS Nursing) in the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, an AI-powered doctor has been developed and incorporated into a virtual reality simulation program to enhance acute care training.

In the course NUR3116C Transition to Professional Practice Experience, training in teamwork and communication traditionally used in-person simulations with patients and mannequins. The education team has since integrated this approach with AI medical doctor agents in place of human-controlled avatars and added GenAI to simulate richer, more adaptive dialogue, resulting in more natural, contextually aware, and responsive interactions.

Within the virtual simulation, AI medical doctor agents interact with the students in real time, guiding scenario progression and focusing on critical aspects such as recognising and managing clinical deterioration, effective communication, and interprofessional collaboration. These capabilities support better patient outcomes and strengthen mutual trust and teamwork, forming the foundation of high-quality, person-centred care.

According to Professor Liaw Sok Ying, Head of NUS Nursing, students have made significant gains in their clinical knowledge and communication. "The AI doctor's questioning style encouraged them to think more critically, justify their decisions, and reflect on their reasoning. This approach supports the active, self-directed learning we aim to foster," she said.

Following this success, NUS Nursing plans to expand the use of the virtual reality simulation program across its undergraduate curriculum, to enable students at different stages to revisit and practise key clinical and communication skills as part of formal coursework.

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Developing better software faster, with AI

In CS3216 Software Product Engineering for Digital Markets, students from the NUS School of Computingdevelop software products powered by GenAI. As this course emphasises exploring and leveraging the latest technologies in software application, the rise of GenAI has allowed instructors to incorporate a new range of functionalities. This focus on using the right technology to solve a particular problem helps students identify and leverage GenAI to develop optimal products.

One of the course assignments involved using GenAI for written reflections. Associate Professor Soo Yuen Jien, who is from the School's Department of Computer Scienceand is also Director (Teaching & Learning) at NUS Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, said, "When students are competent in written communication, the method with which they choose to produce the output is not critical. Students are assessed on genuine reflection and learning, which is a higher-order outcome-and the availability of other tools, including GenAI, does not compromise this aim."

GenAI enables students in CS3216 to develop a wider variety of software applications, from tools that generates other software to those that create content. In recent years, students have utilised GenAI to develop software products with intuitive user interfaces and intriguing functionalities, such as children's picture books with customisable protagonists, and learning companions for A-Level General Paper.

Reflecting on the University's evolving approach to harnessing GenAI for better teaching and learning, Associate Professor Melvin Yap, NUS' Associate Provost for Education and Technology, shared, "At NUS, GenAI is helping reshape education in meaningful ways. Students are not just using AI; they are learning to question it, refine it, and think critically alongside it. This ensures that our graduates are prepared to lead with clarity and purpose in an AI-pervasive world."