Tampines AI Exhibition Brings Hands-On Demos as Community Hackathon Grows

Singapore's community-level AI push took a concrete step forward this weekend as the Tampines AI Exhibition 2026 opened at Our Tampines Hub, showcasing over a dozen AI projects developed by residents and tertiary students. The three-day exhibition, running through June 21, features everything from humanoid robots to AI translation glasses — but its centrepiece is a voice assistant built by Temasek Polytechnic students specifically for elderly Singaporeans navigating the digital world.

The event is the culmination of the Jom AI @ Tampines Hackathon, organised by the People's Association, Our Tampines Hub, and NCS Group. Over 40 teams from secondary schools, ITE, polytechnics, and universities participated between April and May, tackling problem statements sourced directly from Tampines residents — including seniors, persons with disabilities, and community leaders. Among the winning solutions are an AI system to detect improperly parked bicycles and a wearable device that detects when an elderly person falls.

The standout project, Luna, is a voice AI assistant built by a team of four engineering students. It uses SEA-LION — Singapore's open-source large language model trained on Southeast Asian languages — to provide step-by-step guidance through everyday tasks like ordering food delivery or booking a cab. Crucially, Luna supports code-switching between English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, and Singlish, and hands control back to the user when payment is required, addressing a key security concern for elderly users.

Guest of Honour Minister Masagos Zulkifli, who is also MP for Tampines GRC, emphasised that the exhibition was designed to show residents what AI can actually do rather than just talk about it. He encouraged Singaporeans to start small — suggesting they try using chatbots instead of regular search engines — and announced that all community clubs in Tampines GRC and Tampines Changkat SMC will soon offer a curated series of AI courses for residents of all ages and abilities.

Why it matters for Singapore: Grassroots AI initiatives like the Tampines exhibition are exactly the kind of on-the-ground engagement needed to close the confidence gap that surveys keep highlighting — Singapore workers rank among the world's most active AI users but consistently report low comfort levels with the technology. By putting AI tools directly into the hands of seniors, hawkers, and students in a familiar community setting, programmes like this build the digital literacy that underpins the national AI strategy. The SEA-LION-powered Luna assistant is also a neat demonstration that Singapore's homegrown language model can solve real, localised problems that generic AI tools can't touch.