youth Workshops

Future of airports

The one-hour Talk [online] offers students an overview of behind-the-scenes look at how airports are imagined, designed, and engineered for the decades ahead. Drawing inspiration from T5 in the Making (the currently ongoing exhibition by Changi Airport until March 2026), this talk brings together academic perspective and industry insights.

Organized by X-INTERVAL, the session is designed to enrich students’ understanding through the lens of engineering, innovation, and infrastructure. By unpacking what goes on beyond what passengers see, the talk prepares students — when they have the opportunity to experience the exhibition in person — to better appreciate the thinking, planning, and technical expertise behind large-scale airport developments.

The [online] talk went smoothly, with more than 30 in attendance

From an overview of what future airports might look like, insight look at the massive works undertaken for Changi Airport T5, sharing about a large-scale project management and its challenges, to experts sharing about their own journey from being a student to being a Lead – exactly what students need to hear!

Let’s simply sum up with some of their feedback:

“Thank you very much for the permission given to me. The material I received from the Zoom session tonight was very interesting, as it is quite rare for me to get materials related to airports. From this session, I gained many important and valuable points. Once again, thank you.”

“Thank you for being a moderator for today, i really appreciate it, so i really interested about the ARUP making the T5 project. “

“Thank you for providing good and interesting material, hopefully in the future you can give us information again”

“The sessions gave a comprehensive look at how airports are developed. I really liked how Chriswini talked about the hidden geotechnical issues when building on reclaimed land, and how it contrasted with Stefan’s idea of a smooth, hassle-free digital experience for passengers. The future of aviation will be built on the strong combination of solid physical structures and advanced digital technology.”

“Personally, I felt this session was quite insightful as I allowed me to know what has been or will be carried out for T5 construction especially the geotechnical part that was presented by Arup. It gave me a better understanding of what a geotechnical engineer does in a construction project which was very related to my course of study. Furthermore, the evolution and transition of aviation and the using of new technology that was we will be using at T5 was very interesting and eye-opening. Once again thank you for giving me this opportunity to participate in this Zoom session.”

“The talk was very insightful as there were professionals in the field sharing from their perspectives. I was especially drawn to Ms Chriswini’s (from Arup) sharing as I am very interested in Geotechnical Engineering. I learnt the importance of ground analysis and the pictures of the test shown in slides looks very interesting. Prof Ong’s sharing allowed me to understand what are some improvements that we can look into for our future airports and Mr Tuchen’s sharing allowed me to understand how technology is integrated to make things seamless. I love that the seminar was in small groups, it allows students to voice out their questions and we are able to get immediate response from the professionals, since there is a possibility that our questions might be skipped if it was in big group. Overall, I think the seminar was very valuable and fruitful, and I look forward to other seminars!”

“I was especially interested in the ground structure investigation”