PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Daren Ler

Also known as Daren Ler Shan Wen, Ler Daren

Daren Ler is a computer scientist and educator at the National University of Singapore whose research on meta-learning and automated machine learning focuses on algorithm selection. He earned a first-class honours degree in computer science in 2002 and a PhD in 2009 at the University of Sydney, taught H2 Computing at National Junior College, and received the Ministry of Education's Outstanding Computing Teacher Award in 2019. After co-leading Team Singapore at the 2018 International Olympiad in Informatics, he joined NUS Computing as a Lecturer in January 2020, co-founded the Centre for Nurturing Computing Excellence, and won Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards in 2024 and 2025. In 2026, he coauthored a paper that uses a large language model to generate synthetic datasets for meta-learning-based algorithm selection. He is a Senior Lecturer (Educator Track) in NUS Computer Science and Director of Studies at Acacia College.

Now at
Acacia College

Timeline

  1. 2002–2009

    Degrees at the University of Sydney

    He earns a bachelor's degree in computer science with first-class honours in 2002 and a PhD in Engineering, Technology & Applied Science in 2009, both at the University of Sydney.

  2. 2003–2005

    Early meta-learning papers

    In 2003, he coauthors a paper with Robert Munro and Jon Patrick on meta-learning for language-independent named entity recognition, presented at the Seventh Conference on Natural Language Learning. In 2004 and 2005, he publishes two papers on landmarker selection and generation, at the Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference.

  3. 2018–2019

    Olympiad team and teaching award

    As a Computing Teacher with the Ministry of Education at National Junior College, he and Steven Halim of NUS Computing lead Team Singapore at the 2018 International Olympiad in Informatics in Tsukuba, Japan; the team wins one gold, two silver and one bronze medal. In 2019, the ministry awards him its Outstanding Computing Teacher Award.

  4. January 2020

    Lecturer at NUS Computing

    He joins the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore as a Lecturer in January 2020. His research interests include meta-learning for algorithm selection and automated machine learning.

  5. 2020

    A meta-feature for algorithm selection

    At the 12th Asian Conference on Machine Learning in 2020, he coauthors a paper with Haofei Chen, Ya Liu and Japnit Kaur Ahuja that introduces a meta-feature based on a distance-weighted class-homogeneous neighbourhood ratio for algorithm selection.

  6. 2022–2023

    Co-founding CeNCE

    In February 2022, NUS Computing establishes the Centre for Nurturing Computing Excellence (CeNCE) for pre-university and university students, and the centre holds its official launch in January 2023. He is a co-founder and the Deputy Director of CeNCE.

  7. 2024–2026

    Teaching excellence awards

    He wins the School of Computing's Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2024 and 2025, the NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award in 2025 and 2026, and a place on the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll in 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Senior lecturer at NUS

    He is a Senior Lecturer (Educator Track) in the Department of Computer Science at NUS, Director of Studies at Acacia College, a core member of the university workgroup for X + AI courses and programmes, and Chair of the Singapore National Olympiad in Informatics. In May 2026, he coauthors an arXiv paper with Darren Zhu that uses a large language model to generate synthetic regression datasets for meta-learning-based algorithm selection.

Career

  1. Since 2020National University of SingaporeLecturer, Co-founder and Deputy Director
  2. NowAcacia CollegeDirector of Studies
  3. 2018–2019Ministry of Education (Singapore)Computing Teacher

Education

  1. 2009University of SydneyPhD in Engineering, Technology & Applied Science
  2. 2002University of SydneyBachelor's degree in computer science with first-class honours

From the biography.

  1. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes National University of Singapore. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes National University of Singapore. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Daren Ler yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. The Department of Computer Science welcomes new faculty members - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Meta-Learning Orthographic and Contextual Models for Language Independent Named Entity Recognition - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Daren LER Shan Wen - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Team Singapore wins one gold, two silvers and one bronze at the 2018 International Olympiad in Informatics - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Dr Daren Ler Shan Wen - Acacia acacia.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. A Distance-Weighted Class-Homogeneous Neighbourhood Ratio for Algorithm Selection proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. First EGOI female gold medallist awarded NUS Merit Scholarship at official launch of Centre for Nurturing Computing Excellence (CeNCE) - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Faculty members honoured with Teaching Excellence Awards - NUS Computing comp.nus.edu.sg. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. [2605.09518] LLM-Driven Performance-Space Augmentation for Meta-Learning-Based Algorithm Selection arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.