On 1 October 2026, the Institute of Operations Research and Analytics (IORA) at the National University of Singapore hosts IORA Industry Day 2026 — an annual gathering where academic research meets real operational problems. The Magicsoft Asia team, the company behind Collie, will be attending.
For a company building physical intelligence systems — access control, AI video analytics, IoT sensing, and robotics deployed on live industrial sites an event focused on how operations research in Singapore translates into measurable business outcomes is directly relevant to the work we do every day.
IORA Industry Day brings together academic researchers and industry practitioners to explore how operations research solves real business challenges.
What Is IORA Industry Day 2026?
IORA Industry Day is an annual half-day event hosted by NUS’s Institute of Operations Research and Analytics, part of NUS’s Smart Nation Research Cluster. Now in its third edition after successful runs in 2024 and 2025, the event showcases how Operations Research (OR) and Data Analytics help organisations address real-world challenges and create meaningful impact.
What distinguishes it from a typical industry conference is the focus on applied research. Rather than abstract academic papers, the programme presents live industry collaborations — actual projects IORA has run with partner organisations, presented alongside the companies involved.
Event Details
| Date | 1 October 2026, Thursday |
|---|---|
| Time | 9:00am to 2:30pm (network and lunch session from 12:40pm) |
| Venue | Innovation 4.0 Building, Level 1 Seminar Room, 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602 |
| Campus | National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge Campus |
| Host | Institute of Operations Research and Analytics (IORA), NUS |
What’s on the 2026 Programme
This year’s agenda spans supply chain, logistics, aviation, and forecasting — sectors where optimisation delivers direct, measurable operational gains:
- Designing a Store-Friendly Warehouse — optimising supply chain operations from warehouse to shelf, presented jointly by FairPrice Group and IORA. This collaboration is a key highlight of the 2026 programme, marking the start of a longer-term partnership.
- Container Logistics: Questions, Challenges and Solutions — IORA’s work on container logistics optimisation
- Optimal Choice Model Trees for Feature-Based Pricing — from the SIA-NUS Digital Aviation Corporate Laboratory
- Algo Forecasting in Dynamic Industry Environments — handling non-stationarity, structural changes, and large-scale data
- Shipping Network Optimization with Monte Carlo Tree Search — from the Department of Analytics and Operations, NUS Business School
The Panel: Turning Partnership Into Impact
The centrepiece of the day is a panel discussion titled “From Partnership to Impact: Realising the Benefits and Aligning Expectations of Industry–Academic Collaboration,” running from 11:20am to 12:30pm.
The 2026 panel focuses on what makes industry–university collaborations actually work — and what each side needs to bring.
The panel brings together:
- Zeng Qiao Jia — Chief Supply Chain and Central Operations Officer, FairPrice Group
- Leemon — Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Customer, Singapore Pools
- Marc Dragon — Managing Director, Reefknot Investments
- Prof Andrew Lim — Director, IORA
- Prof Jussi Keppo — Research Director (Industry), IORA and Head of Department of Analytics and Operations, NUS Business School
The session is moderated by Dr Koh Chaik Ming, Senior Research Fellow at IORA, and focuses on a practical question rather than a theoretical one: what actually makes an industry–university collaboration work, and what does each side need to bring to the table for it to deliver lasting value?
Why This Matters to Magicsoft Asia and Collie
Operations research and physical site intelligence solve the same underlying problem from two directions.
OR answers questions like: given constrained resources, what’s the optimal allocation? Where should inventory sit? How should a fleet be routed? Those models depend entirely on the quality and timeliness of the data feeding them.
Optimisation models are only as good as the operational data behind them — which is where real-time site intelligence comes in.
That’s precisely where the Collie platform sits. Every access event, every vehicle entering a gate via ANPR, every environmental reading from an IoT sensor, every detection from AI video analytics is an operational data point captured automatically and timestamped — the raw material optimisation models need, without manual logging or reconciliation.
The Collie robot fleet extends that further: robots that patrol, inspect, and handle materials generate operational telemetry that feeds directly back into the same intelligence layer. As Singapore’s manpower shortage pushes more operations toward automation, the intersection of OR-driven decision models and automated physical execution becomes far more practical than either alone.
Beyond Collie, the wider Magicsoft Asia ecosystem includes WSH PEER, a digital safety and inspection platform for high-risk industries, and VANDA, a smart clinic management system for hospitals and clinics — both operating in sectors where OR and analytics have clear applications.
What We’re Looking Forward To
Three things in particular:
- The FairPrice warehouse project — warehouse-to-shelf optimisation is directly adjacent to the logistics and industrial sites where Collie is deployed, and seeing a large Singapore retailer’s approach to operational pain points is valuable context.
- The panel on collaboration models — for a technology company, understanding how research institutions like IORA structure industry partnerships is genuinely useful for thinking about future R&D directions.
- The networking session — the buffet lunch and poster sessions run from 12:40pm to 2:30pm, with all presenters available at the Atrium for Q&A. That’s often where the most useful conversations happen.
Meeting Us at the Event
If you’re attending IORA Industry Day 2026 and want to talk through how real-time site data, access control, or robotics could support your operations, our team would be glad to connect during the networking session.
Full event details and registration are available on the official IORA Industry Day 2026 page.
Get in touch with the Collie team →
Explore the Collie robot fleet →
