1. What project were you involved in at IPUR?

I worked on a project with Professor Leonard Lee which looked at using the wisdom of the crowd to forecast health trends and outcomes. Our focus was on how to better predict future health outcomes for policymakers and practitioners. Forecasts and predictions are used to form health policies and decisions, making it essential that forecasts are as accurate as possible. In my three months at IPUR, we formulated, designed, and ran a study on this project in two different countries (Singapore and the Netherlands).

2. Could you share about your experiences working in IPUR?

The colleagues I met at IPUR were all extremely kind and welcoming and made me feel included as part of the team on the first day. I enjoyed getting to know the team over lunches and coffee chats. It was interesting to hear about the research they were doing and also to learn about Singaporean culture. They were all very interested to hear about the project I was doing at IPUR and they brought new insights and ways of thinking from diverse perspectives to the project.    

I had the opportunity to attend insightful and inspiring talks, such as Prof Heidi Larson’s lecture on “Rumours, Myths and Misinformation”. It was fascinating to learn how the spread of rumours and misinformation has been shaped differently due to the new digital world, particularly when it comes to topics that people don’t fully understand or trust, such as the COVID-19 vaccine. The highlight of my three months was the Art/Science symposium. It was a full day of great talks related to the communication of risk. The talks were focused on non-traditional and creative ways of communicating risk that ranged from artworks to documentaries, and quantum physics to trapezing. I was thoroughly in awe of the creativity that went into findings ways to communicate risk through these different channels.    

3. What have you learnt about risk communication?

The key takeaway I learnt about risk communication is that risk comes in all shapes and sizes. Hence, there is no one correct way to communicate risk. This makes it an interesting and fruitful research area, but also a challenge to research ways to effectively communicate risk to the public. I also learnt that risk is not communicated effectively enough. The work done at IPUR takes on this challenge and researches different approaches and strategies to communicate risk more successfully. The most remarkable way I learnt to communicate risk was through art. That is, finding ways to express and communicate the data and research on risk in art shapes and forms.