Deciphering fragile, handwritten historical documents and traditional calligraphy is a painstaking process. For heritage archivists looking to preserve Singapore's rich past, transcribing records dating as far back as 1906 required countless hours of manual effort, leaving valuable historical information vulnerable to time and difficult for the public to access.

To solve this, Toh Zheng Yu, Prakhar Trivedi, and Joon Jun Han, graduates of NYP’s Diploma in Information Technology (now known as Diploma in Computing), created ArchAIve. The smart, AI-powered platform digitises, transcribes, and translates historical Chinese records and calligraphy into accessible formats.

By converting delicate physical manuscripts into a searchable digital archive, the system makes it effortless to organise, search, and study early Singaporean heritage.

What began as a classroom module project quickly grew into a national award-winning solution that bridges history and modern technology. By giving archives a digital second life, the project ensures that crucial cultural stories remain preserved, searchable, and inspiring for generations to come.

This achievement highlights the hands-on learning cultivated at Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Information Technology, where students gain the skills and mentorship needed to create meaningful, real-world tech solutions.

Joon Jun Han: ArchAIve started as a module project. I never expected it to end up protecting Singapore’s heritage records, let alone winning a national award. Through engaging with stakeholders, networking, and iterating through countless failures, this journey taught me that technopreneurship isn’t about having all the answers upfront. It’s about staying curious, staying disciplined, and learning from failures.

Prakhar Trivedi: ArchAIve was a leap of faith towards a dream where technology brought heritage closer to us in our everyday lives. At each step, my lecturers were there to support my team and me, providing us not just technical expertise, but business guidance as we sought our first clients. My technopreneurship journey opened my eyes to the possibilities beyond the classroom; I learnt to build with purpose, pitch, and manage real-world relationships. I am incredibly grateful to the school for pushing us to explore and experiment to deliver real-world impact with our tech skills.

The team & project have also been featured in The Straits Times.