Dr Choo Wee Tong
Industry Practice Master of Digital Economy (IPMDE) Alumnus | Adjunct Practice Faculty & Managing Director, ABS Corporate
From Digital Disruption to Applied Transformation
For Dr Choo Wee Tong, pursuing SMU's Industry Practice Master of Digital Economy (IPMDE) was about building the knowledge and capabilities to navigate digital transformation in practice.
As an educator, industry practitioner and Managing Director at ABS Corporate, he wanted to go beyond understanding emerging technologies in isolation. He was looking for a programme that could connect academic rigour with real-world application, while allowing him to continue his professional commitments.
IPMDE’s focus on applied learning, industry relevance and experiential education made it a natural fit.
Through the programme, Dr Choo explored areas including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI (GenAI), business analytics and digital transformation, while developing a stronger understanding of how these technologies can be applied strategically and responsibly.
Learning Through Real-World Challenges
A defining part of Dr Choo’s IPMDE journey was the SMU-X work-based capstone project.
Working with YCH Group, his team explored real operational challenges in smart logistics, evaluating technologies such as AI, edge computing, Warehouse Execution Systems and smart labels against practical business constraints.
The experience allowed him to move beyond understanding technologies in theory and examine how emerging solutions could work within real operational environments.
SMU-X allowed us to partner directly with enterprise industry players to tackle pressing operational challenges.
The project eventually became a published piece of research in SMU’s Asian Management Insights journal, titled 'From Hands-On to Tech-On', extending the learning experience beyond the classroom.
For Dr Choo, the project demonstrated the value of IPMDE’s hands-on approach, where academic concepts can be tested against real industry challenges.
Connecting Learning with Professional Practice
The learning from IPMDE quickly became relevant to Dr Choo’s work.
As an educator, he now uses the SMU-X research as a case study in his teaching, helping students understand how emerging technologies interact with complex legacy operations. The experience gives him a practical example through which to explore questions around technology adoption, human oversight and responsible governance.
The programme has also influenced his consulting practice at ABS Corporate. The strategic design frameworks and return-on-investment evaluation tools developed during IPMDE inform how he works with enterprise clients, helping them move beyond digital experimentation towards structured transformation roadmaps and measurable business outcomes.
This connection between learning and practice became an important part of his IPMDE experience. Concepts explored through the programme could be applied to his work, while challenges from his professional practice gave him new perspectives to bring back into his studies.
A Different Way of Thinking About Technology
Beyond the knowledge and frameworks, IPMDE also shaped how Dr Choo thinks about digital transformation.
The programme encouraged him to look beyond what technology can do and consider how it should be used. Through his learning and industry experience, he developed a stronger appreciation for the importance of critical thinking, responsible governance and human judgement alongside technological capability.
For Dr Choo, AI is most valuable when it complements human expertise rather than attempting to replace it.
The future workplace isn't about replacing humans with AI, but augmenting human capability.
This perspective has become increasingly relevant to his work as both an educator and industry practitioner, where he continues to explore how organisations can adopt AI and other digital technologies while keeping people, purpose and responsible decision-making at the centre.
Designed for Working Professionals
For Dr Choo, another important part of the IPMDE experience was the ability to pursue postgraduate learning alongside his existing responsibilities.
The programme’s modular, stackable structure allowed him to pace his studies while continuing his consulting and teaching commitments. More importantly, the flexibility created opportunities to connect his studies directly with his professional work.
IPMDE offers a flexible, stackable pathway through IGD, allowing working professionals to upskill at their own pace without stepping away from careers.
Frameworks explored during classes could inform client projects, while real operational challenges from his consulting work provided context for his capstone research and classroom discussions.
Rather than treating study and work as separate commitments, Dr Choo found that they could reinforce one another. Integrating his studies into his professional workflow made learning not a burden, but an energising part of his growth.
Continuing to Learn, Apply and Share
Today, the impact of IPMDE continues to extend into Dr Choo’s work as an educator and industry practitioner.
The programme gave him opportunities to deepen his knowledge, work on real industry challenges and develop a more strategic perspective on digital transformation. Just as importantly, it gave him experiences that he could carry forward into his teaching and consulting practice.
For professionals considering IPMDE, Dr Choo encourages them to make the learning journey practical by connecting new concepts to challenges at work, learning from experienced peers and making the most of opportunities to work on real industry problems.
His advice is simple:
Treat your studies as a living sandbox.
For Dr Choo, that mindset captures what made his IPMDE journey meaningful: learning something new, testing it against real-world challenges, and bringing those lessons back into the workplace.
As digital technologies continue to evolve, he continues to build on that foundation through his work with organisations and learners, bringing together technology, business knowledge and human judgement to support more thoughtful digital transformation.
Learn more about IPMDE.
