Science and Humanities Research Olympiad
AYRJ's flagship research mentorship programme
The Science and Humanities Reserach Olympiad (SHRO) is our flagship research mentorship programme. Secondary and pre-university students, no matter their background or research experience, are given the chance to work with professional researchers in over 24 different fields.
Why SHRO?
The team behind SHRO has had the rare chance to chase research properly, not just as a school assignment, but as a real curiosity you can build something from. We also know, bluntly, that not every student in Singapore gets that same runway.
A research project is more than extra work. Students get to learn how to ask good questions, gather evidence, interpret data, manage a long timeline, and explain findings clearly to other people.
But research is hard to navigate alone, especially for a secondary or pre-university student doing this for the first time. Most schools simply do not have the equipment, networks, or time to support independent research well. And even when mentorship programmes exist, they are limited to a few specific schools, hard to access, or reserved for the already high-performing few. The hundreds of sign-ups that SHRO receives every year is a testament to how rare such opportunities are for students on the ground.
SHRO exists to change this scarcity in opportunities. Because research should never be a privilege you stumble into. It should be an opportunity any passionate student can reach.
Previous SHROs
The inaugural SHRO was held in 2025 at the Cisco Systems office in Singapore. (SHRO is not affliated with Cisco in any way).
Hope to see you there this year!
What is SHRO?
SHRO is a research mentorship programme where students, individually or in groups of up to three people, get to work with professional researchers. We are open to students without research experience.
Signing Up
We email many secondary schools, polytechnics and junior colleges in the middle of January every year. We will request for your teachers to broadcast a recruitment email to all interested students in your school. The email will contain a sign up form to fill in. The form contains some questions for us to get to know you better.
Selection Interview
If we assess that you are ready to take on a research project, we will schedule an interview with you. We want to see students who are passionate, responsible and commited to the programme.
The Pitch
After passing the interview, you will be invited to the SHRO pitch day, a few weeks after the March Holidays. Before the pitch day you will be asked to select a few mentors to pitch to based on what the mentors are interested in. You can prepare a project pitch on any topic that you like. The pitch should only be used to demonstrate your appittude for planning, problem solving and literature review. It may or may not have anything to do with your final project.
Your Project
After the pitch day, we will assign you to a project based on mentor feedback. Your research project is ultimately determined by what your mentor can and is willing to support. Till December, you will continue to work with you mentor to complete your project.
Final Deliverable
At the end of it all, you are expected to submit a research report to us. This report will be graded for its quality, novelty and factual accurarcy to determine you results.
After the Programme
SHRO ends after December 31 of every year, but our support does not stop there. You can continue to work with your mentor if they are willing to do so, and also submit your work for publication in AYRJ.