1. Good afternoon to all our award recipients, academics, principals, households, fellow colleagues from the general public service businesses and plenty of of our accomplice corporations from the business sector.
2. It is a very particular afternoon for all of us in Singapore and likewise for MOE. As we speak, we’re gathered right here for the inaugural investiture to have a good time and affirm our first batch of engineering and tech programme scholarship recipients – or what we name ETPS in brief.
3. All our award recipients have demonstrated nice curiosity and aptitude for science and expertise. We need to spur them on.
4. Why did we now have this scholarship? Engineering and science could be very essential to us as a rustic. The standard of our lives and the type of financial alternatives that we now have going ahead will very a lot depend upon the standard of our science and expertise and engineering capabilities.
5. Engineers are innovators and creators of our future. It is going to be much more so going ahead. Simply outdoors this corridor, you see the vary of initiatives that our scientists and engineers are concerned in. From day-to-day initiatives that enhance the standard of our lives, to initiatives that present out-of-the-box considering. A few of them are present options that we now have already discovered. Many are additionally downside statements that we’re on the lookout for options to. Finally, the options might not simply profit fellow Singaporeans in Singapore, however they may also be scaled past Singapore to make an influence, and a distinction to the remainder of the world.
6. On this more and more related world, it’s all the extra vital for us to strengthen our science and engineering capabilities. And we would like them to start out younger. For this reason we began this scholarship to ship a powerful sign of our continued emphasis on science and expertise, along with engineering. We need to encourage yet one more era of scientists, technologists, and engineers to assist construct our future collectively. I am blissful to say that the ETPS was very nicely obtained with greater than 500 candidates from all our pre-university schools. This bodes nicely for our engineering sector, in addition to for our subsequent era.
7. Apparently, our choice course of was additionally fairly novel. The choice course of didn’t take note of simply the educational capabilities of our college students. We’re on the lookout for college students with a deep ardour in science and engineering. We wish people who find themselves not simply good with theories and summary ideas. We additionally need college students who’ve ardour, creativity, gumption to strive one thing new, to construct one thing, tinker with one thing, enhance one thing. So, in contrast to one-on-one interviews in standard scholarship interview codecs, the shortlisted college students had been positioned in teams to debate issues and discover options, as a result of we additionally need college students from numerous backgrounds to come back collectively to deliver their completely different disciplines to unravel rising issues. These are the qualities that we need to see in our college students.
8. As a lot of you’ll know, lots of the most fun concepts on this planet of science and engineering at present come from the intersection of standard disabilities. That is additionally how we wish to see our college students go forth and develop their capabilities.
9. To provide you a glimpse of some examples, we now have Jarius Ting from Jurong Pioneer Junior School. What did he do to impress the panel? His mom discovered that her hairdryer wasn’t working. He tinkered with it, troubleshot, found out what went fallacious, and acquired it working once more. He introduced it again to his mom as a Mom’s Day current.
10. Then we now have Aaron Ng from Hwa Chong Establishment, who proposed enhancing a drone, and to make it right into a dragon-shaped one to function a toy. You may be questioning – so what has the drone and it being dragon-shaped need to do with engineering? Properly, the truth that you dared to strive, the truth that you dared to experiment and tinker with it, is one thing invaluable.
11. These are the sorts of scholars that we’re on the lookout for.
12. Now, for all the scholars current right here at present: Later in the course of the seminar, you’ll hear extra thrilling concepts of initiatives you could stay up for engaged on in time to come back; the kind of programmes that you can be uncovered to.
Large, bushy, audacious objectives
13. On this event, I might identical to to go away you with three “BHAGs”: Large, bushy, audacious objectives that relate to Singapore’s future. And I hope that someplace in your profession going ahead, it is possible for you to to recollect these three BHAGs and assist us to unravel a few of the large challenges dealing with Singapore.
14. So, the primary BHAG: For us to be a carbon impartial nation. Now, that’s simpler mentioned than performed. As we speak, nearly 100% of our power sources come from fossil fuels. Renewables, within the type of photo voltaic power, varieties just a few proportion factors of our power sources. How can we break away from the carbon constraints for us to have the next high quality of life and extra financial alternatives that isn’t constrained by our carbon finances? More and more in Singapore, what determines the type of financial alternatives that we will have? It is not simply in regards to the land measurement, the monetary sources that we now have, the standard of individuals we now have. However it’s also whether or not we will overcome the carbon constraint. Can we now have extra renewables? As we speak, the best-in-class renewables or photo voltaic has an effectivity fee of about 20 to 25%. Can we double that? Can we triple that? As we speak, many individuals assume that Singapore is a sun-drenched nation. However we all know that Singapore can also be overcast 80% of the time, and we can not gather as a lot photo voltaic power as we wish.
15. How will we overcome all these constraints and switch ourselves right into a carbon-lite, or a net-zero nation? That’s our large, bushy, audacious aim. Can we do it? Let’s take a look at the story of water. As soon as upon a time, we had restricted water for our personal sustenance and business use. We had three reservoirs; we needed to import water. During the last 50 years, each doable river that may be dammed as much as kind a reservoir, we now have performed it. From three reservoirs to 17 reservoirs now. Of your entire island of 700 sq. kilometers, there are about two-thirds of the land space used for water catchment.
16. As we speak, we now have been in a position to deliver down the value of desalination, and NEWater is just about akin to freshwater. With a era’s effort, we now have turned water from a constraint into a chance. We now have corporations exporting water applied sciences to many components of the world which are freshwater starved. If we will do this for water within the final era, let’s try to try this for power within the subsequent era. If a small, little place like Singapore with out pure sources can overcome our fossil gasoline dependence, then we can have opened up many new alternatives for a lot of different cities all over the world. In order that’s the primary BHAG that I’ll go away behind for our college students to consider.
17. The second BHAG – the second large, bushy, audacious aim – How a lot area do we now have in Singapore?
18. How can we proceed to develop, enhance our high quality of life, and have extra thrilling financial alternatives for our individuals? Beforehand, individuals mentioned that we now have about 500 sq. kilometers of land. Now, we now have about 700 sq. kilometers. However that is not all that we now have. We now have sea area and air area as nicely.
19. The query then is that this: how can we proceed to enhance our high quality of life, construct higher flats for our individuals, have extra industries inside this area of about 1000 sq. kilometers of two-dimensional land and sea area, however with limitless top or depth area.
20. We now have initiatives, such because the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System which runs throughout your entire island to recycle water, the Jurong Rock Caverns, the aquaculture that you just see in our waters, or the advanced options that we now have needed to give you to handle our airspace and 4 or 5 runways at airports. How will we optimise this quantity of area to maintain enhancing the standard of life and financial alternatives for our individuals?
21. Therein lies our second BHAG. Is it doable? Definitely. As we speak, what we proudly know as Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay was once the ocean. What was once a grimy and smelly Singapore river is now a part of Marina Barrage.
22. There are immense alternatives for what we will do on the floor of land and sea; there are additionally immense alternatives of what extra we will do beneath the floor and above floor. As soon as upon a time, we had a two-dimensional map that laid out the entire of Singapore. As we speak, our businesses are constructing a three-dimensional map to have a look at the completely different layers underground that we now have to combine with the intention to construct the type of high quality setting that we would like. What extra can we think about for our little island that may enable us to transcend our geographical constraint?
23. Third BHAG: how we use our science, engineering, and technological capabilities to entrench our relevance to the world. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, it has change into much more obvious that our financial livelihood and survival is not only about being profitable. It’s about with the ability to produce issues which are of worth and relevance to the world; that makes us not simply displaced by different individuals. How can we now have these area of interest engineering and science capabilities that enable us to create extra financial alternatives for ourselves, that don’t depend upon the dimensions of our inhabitants, or the dimensions of the land that we now have?
24. There are various attention-grabbing corporations in Singapore at present, defining their very own niches of their respective industries. They’re in area of interest areas that many people might not even learn about. However collectively, all of them add to the financial variety and resilience of our nation, that even within the hardest of instances, our financial livelihoods won’t be displaced.
25. Nevertheless, there may be nothing static on this competitors. Folks will discover new methods to do issues; they may compete with us. It is a steady course of for us to maintain considering of what new concepts we will have to provide issues which are of relevance and worth to the world, that makes us onerous to displace. How will we hold ensuring that we’re one step forward of the competitors? Therein lies the large challenges and alternatives for a lot of of you.
26. Lots of you’ll know that truly within the petrochemical area, we’re one of many hubs on this planet. Within the biomedical area, we’re additionally one of many hubs on this planet. On all these dimensions, we compete not on the idea of cheaper land or cheaper labour prices. We compete on the idea of the standard of our concepts and the sorts of product innovation that we will add and convey to the market. That is how we entrench our relevance to the world. It is a work in fixed progress, generations after generations, by no means resting on our laurels.
27. On that be aware, I am certain the remainder of the seminar audio system will encourage you with more difficult issues for you to consider as you go ahead. However bear in mind, science and engineering will probably be elementary to our high quality of life and our livelihoods, now and endlessly. We hope that you’ll at all times retain the sturdy fundamentals that you’ve got constructed up, be daring to tinker and discover, be daring to collaborate past the standard disciplines. Hopefully, you’ll assist us remedy a few of these BHAGs, be it our power sustainability, our area utilization, or our financial relevance to the world. Congratulations and thanks for stepping ahead, to serve, to be taught, and to develop within the science and engineering neighborhood. Thanks very a lot.
