2010 – Project Prizes & Special Awards

Recipient: Yu Shaomei, Giam Yan Xin, Ler Yi Bin

Their passion for research has indeed paid off for these young ladies. Giam Yan Xin, Ler Yi Bin and Yu Shaomei’s Major Project, “Development of Renal Guidebooks for Asians” clinched them the prestigious Temasek Applied Science School’s project prize, as well as internship stints at the collaborating hospital. It was also showcased at the School’s annual Project Show.

In recent years, renal disease has been on the rise in Singapore. Sensing the need for the development of a comprehensive nutrition guide for renal patients, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (Nutrition and Dietetics Department) had approached the School to embark on a collaborative project. The students, with the help of their in-house and external supervisors, devised guidebooks that would help patients manage kidney disease through diet. The books featured recipes for pre-dialysis patients, and those undergoing haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. In addition, the team also designed educational tools, such as Renal Dietary Wheels, to help patients choose the right food. These tools would serve as ideal counseling tools for dietitians, healthcare professionals, caregivers and renal patients.

It was not an easy feat developing the guidebooks as the team had to formulate and test recipes that would be suitable for renal patients, specifically Asian patients. They worked hard, often clocking long hours at night, for over six months. Nonetheless, it was a valuable learning experience for the three young ladies, as it helped them hone their project management skills.

Their supervisor, Mdm Kalpana Bhaskaran, only has praises for the team. Their strengths were in their positive attitude, ability to capitalise on the unique strengths of each member and being receptive to feedback. The external supervisor felt that the team’s efforts were commendable as renal medical nutrition therapy was a completely new area to them. The panel of judges unanimously agreed that the project offered tremendous benefits to renal patients with recipes which were carefully modified by the team in consultation with the sponsoring hospital. These recipes could also be readily used by renal patients as the team had conducted small-scale sensory evaluation of the dishes.

All three project team members are currently making plans to pursue further education that is also aligned with their passion. In fact, Yi Bin has already received an offer to pursue the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Flinders University. Temasek Polytechnic wishes them all the best in their future endeavours.

Temasek Polytechnic Supervisor: Mdm Kalpana Bhaskaran
External Supervisor (Senior Dietitian from Khoo Teck Puat Hospital): Ms Jerlyna Wan
Evaluator 1: Mdm Ong Eng Gim
Evaluator 2: Ms VerenaTan

Recipient: Leslie Seah Chuan Yang

It is not often that one family can build traditions of excellence. It is not often that traditions become trends. But in the Seah family passing the baton of excellence is not an exception; it’s a norm. In 2006 Sean Seah graduated from Temasek Business School. In 2008 Ronnie Seah graduated from Temasek Business School with a diploma in Accounting & Finance. In recognition of his excellent academic performance, Ronnie received the coveted DBS Excellence Award. Today in 2010 another Seah, this time Leslie has done their family proud again. He has performed so well in his Accounting & Finance course that he is today the proud winner of the POSB Excellence Award.

It is not often that three brothers walk through a similar educational experience and become young men who stand tall and stand proud to win awards that testify to traditions built through time and tenacity. It is a pity that there are no more Seah boys to train. All three completed their polytechnic education with Temasek Business School.

Teaching Leslie Seah has been a rewarding experience. He is a living testament that the 3R’s of educational experience of real, relevant and rewarding education that Temasek Business School promotes and practices have been realised. What is Leslie’s formula for success? Is there a family code of commendation? Leslie is a quiet, unassuming young man whose formula for success seems simple – diligence plus constant revision topped with close class attention equals 23 distinctions and a CGPA of 3.94 a mere 0.06 short of a perfect score of 4 points. This formula seems to be the miraculous potion in the Seah family.

It’s amazing what can be achieved in a family where the pressure to excel is not a battle cry. It’s comforting to know that this young man found an encouraging pressure-free family environment the key catalyst to a golden touchdown. What is Leslie’s advice to those who would like to take a similar route to records? How can others win the end game?

“Start right from the first year”, Leslie says. Start from the very first day with the end in mind. Sound advice indeed. Well done, Leslie Seah Chuan Yang. We are definitely proud of you.

Recipient: Thery Nathalie Rae Fern

Nathalie’s project is a photo-book ‘magazine’ consisting of predominantly fashion photography expansively shot on locations here and under demanding conditions overseas. Captured within the pages are powerful imagery and compelling visual statements which are breathtakingly refreshing, unconventional and immediately engaging.

Entitled, “Wonderer”, the project showed her professionalism, maturity and sensitivity towards her various thematic subject matters; in particular, her ‘frolicking’ and clashing clothes series, “which look different, feel different and seem different”. It characterised her lively and daring perspectives, and her personal take on fashion photography. For this project, she had relentlessly researched and documented her work which was executed with flair and much conviction.

Recipient: Lim Zu En

Zu En’s final-year project combines her innovative mind and outdoor spirit, with her focus on designing a place for people to learn and enjoy nature. Called “The Rainforest”, the project aimed to create nature awareness and appreciation, whilst emphasising the importance of balancing biodiversity conservation with economic growth.

Kyrsten Poh from Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts commented: “There's no denial that the research and site analysis are very well done. Kudos to that!...All and all, I know that Zu En is a talented and passionate young designer, able to create amazing designs when it is about free rein with no limitations.”

Recipient: Wong Jian Wei

Jian Wei, or “iron man” as he is affectionately known to close friends for his incredible stamina and intense, focused attitude towards work, is a self-confessed perfectionist and a risk-taker.

His work ethic and talent were recognised by Mr Magnus Teo, associate creative director at Wunderman Asia, who was deeply impressed with his “remarkable artistry and exceptional crafting.”

In Mr Teo’s words: “The diligence he invested in subject research reaped a site with credible content, as well as a strong brand identity painted in fresh concepts. Through his sound technical execution and detailed sculpting, we experienced a robust interface that was intuitive to explore. Even more remarkable was the artistry he poured into the projects. They went beyond appeal to be enriching, and connected the audience to a message at heart. His focus on the original purpose while stringing together various delicate aspects of the project produced a visual symphony that was exceptional. We anticipate greater achievements in time from him.”

Recipient: Habiibah Binte Aziz

A talented student, Habiibah’s design approach has been consistently of a very high standard. Unassuming, polite and humble, she showed a professional level of work especially in her charming and delightful illustrations.

For this project, “Introduction to Malay Culture and Heritage”, she takes the reader on the exciting journey of a girl named Nailah, exploring traditional Malay games, cuisine, wedding, architecture and its rich heritage. This was conveyed through a series of interactive pop-up books which Habiibah had expertly designed, skillfully illustrated and painstakingly hand-cut to achieve its desired effect. She is extremely pleased that she could do her part to instill a sense of pride for one’s culture.

Recipient: Chia Min Da

Often, we have difficulties understanding why some problems are hard to solve and why they are always stacking up. But problems can sometimes be resolved, if we realise that in any given situation, there are inherently two sides to it (such as love and hate, win and lose). However, because of our individual personality and pride, we have the tendency to be one-sided.

“2 Sides”, is Min Da’s final-year project, through which he has proven himself to be both a strong conceptual designer and consummate communicator. He impressed his assessors with his “thorough depth of work and exceedingly high standard of execution and production.” His analytical capability is clearly reflected in the creative and wide promotional applications, producing graphic communications of a very high standard which in his case, comes unsurprisingly naturally to him.

The Senoko Power Project Prize is awarded to the team which successfully completed a multi-disciplinary project in Temasek Engineering School.

This challenging multi-disciplinary project involved the successful development of an Auditory Training System for children with Auditory Processing Disorders (APD).

Two students played significant roles in this highly demanding project, displaying enthusiasm, ingenuity and dedication. Each one was also outstanding in exercising their initiative and problem-solving skills.

Elizabeth Lee Mei Yin completed a P300 Auditory study and developed an Auditory Training Program to help children with APD. The training program was successfully tested.

Nov Choun focused on developing computer based 3D Virtual Learning environment to enhance the learning experiences of the children with APD, using the Auditory Training program.

Recipient: Ng Wei Jing

The REDAS Project Prize is awarded to Ng Wei Jing, who juggled multiple roles in this highly demanding individual project which involved an analytical study and evaluation of Eco-Tourism. In the course of carrying out this project, she displayed ingenuity, problem-solving skills and dedication.

Recipient: Yang Lee Wei

During the six months he was attached to Bubble Motion Inc. for his internship, Lee Wei was expected to work within a highly structured software development environment and pick up skills like Linux administration, software quality assurance, as well as knowledge of mobile software development platforms like Mobile Java and BlackBerry. In the process, he also produced several tools that the company now uses for monitoring and testing their services. His supervisors at Bubble Motion were duly impressed with his dedication as well as his ability to learn fast and work independently.

For his Major Project, Lee Wei led a team to create a mobile application called SnapIT. SnapIT brings together a combination of technologies like the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, image processing and web services to enable users to capture the image of printed text with a mobile phone and convert it to electronic files. SnapIT also enables users to scan the ISBN barcode of a book and use it to retrieve bibliographic information online.

This project required Lee Wei and his team to incorporate a variety of technologies that were new to them, including various open-source tools and programming libraries. Within a short time, the team produced a highly-innovative application that has both real world value and commercial potential.

Lee Wei’s passion and interest in IT have been obvious since he joined TP. Besides excelling in his studies, he participated in various IT competitions. One was the Poly-Odai competition, an on-the-spot programming and problem-solving competition organised by Hitachi that required participants to work within a short time period to produce software solutions that mine information from Xtensible Markup Language (XML) files. Lee Wei and his team clinched the top spot in this competition.

A highly motivated and dedicated student, Lee Wei has earned the respect of his lecturers and fellow students, who recognise his academic distinction, passion for learning and commitment to excellence.

He graduates as the top student and Gold medalist of the Diploma in Mobile & Wireless Computing course.

Recipient: Brandon Lum Jia Jun

A security evangelist and a firm believer of open source technologies, Brandon Lum led a student team to develop the award-winning application, Smart Shop, in 2009. Clinching several outstanding awards in the past year, Smart Shop is a secure and revolutionary invention that allows online shoppers to assess the suitability of products before purchasing them over the internet. In doing so, Smart Shop addresses a real world concern in a cost-effective and efficient way using a web camera, augmented reality technology and an innovative software application.

This project won three awards at the Regional Open Jive Competition in 2009: the Regional Championship, the Sun Developers’ Choice Award and the Elixir Market Potential Award.

Following this success, Brandon won the IT Developers’ Award from Singapore Press Holdings, the prestigious SiTF (Singapore IT Federation) Award, which recognises local ICT innovation, as well as the international Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), an event at which international applications developers showcase their best projects.

Brandon’s passion for IT Security led him to chair the committee for the organisaton of the All 'Bout Security & Connectivity Seminar 2010, which hosted speakers from companies and organisations such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, ThinkSECURE, and Red Hat. This seminar, held alongside a Web Hacking Challenge by Hack In The Box, provided a sharing platform for more than one hundred industry professionals.

Embarking on an overseas student internship programme in Australia during his third year, Brandon worked as a researcher at the Centre for Computer and Information Security Research, University of Wollongong. In the course of assisting the professors to develop cryptography systems based on complex theoretical concepts, Brandon impressed them with his intelligence, dedication and capacity to pick up ideas about information security which were pitched at a postgraduate level.

An articulate, confident and responsible individual, Brandon is highly regarded by his tutors and peers for his intellectual acumen, quest for excellence and ability to lead his team to success. His personal mantra is to ‘go one step further in everything you do’.

Brandon graduates as the top student and Gold medalist of the Diploma in Cyber & Digital Security course.

Recipient: Piyathip Unadirekkul

How does one make the learning of Chemistry exciting? Well, Piyathip worked with her friends to do just that with the creation of an interactive chemistry card game called CHEMIONS.

This game requires students to match cards with different symbols to create a chemical formula, thereby gaining mastery of the Chemistry symbols. Set in an animated 3D chemistry lab, the game begins with a pool of 70 cards bearing the symbols of cations and anions. Players match these and form as many correct chemical formulas as they can within 10 seconds. Responsible for the design of the user interface and the backend programming, Piyathip worked with her team to create a game that is simple, yet effective and engaging.

For her internship, Piyathip was attached to an international advertising agency, DraftFCB. During her stint there, she worked on projects for the agency’s major clients. Piyathip’s creativity was apparent when she was tasked to conceptualise, storyboard and create animated and interactive presentations. She was commended by the company for her resourcefulness and positive outlook.

An intelligent student who is quick to gain mastery of a subject, Piyathip’s strengths lie in her skilful ability to conceptualise and design applications. A model student, Piyathip demonstrated academic leadership from her very first year at the polytechnic and excelled consistently in her three years of study here.

She graduates as the top student and Gold medallist of the Diploma in Internet & Multimedia Development.

Recipient: Lam Wei Chuan

Wei Chuan’s Major Project, the Mobile Game Maker, is a web application which can be used to develop mobile phone games. The application is designed such that users with no prior experience in programming can easily create their own unique mobile phone games online. While there are existing web applications that allow users to create online games, Mobile Game Maker is the only application that enables the creation of mobile phone games online.

An adventurous and avid learner, Wei Chuan was attached to Kumamoto National College of Technology (KNCT) in Japan in his senior year for his internship. There, he worked as an Information Technology researcher conducting studies on ways to use Flash and ActionScript to create interactive websites that would be compatible with Wii Games. He was commended by his supervisor at the KNCT for his resourcefulness, creativity, determination and dedication. He worked independently and produced excellent work, picking up new concepts, tools and technologies quickly.

In the last three years Wei Chuan also found time to learn how to play the piano and picked up the Japanese language. Indeed, he has demonstrated the capacity to be creative, explore new frontiers for learning and has embraced the spirit of continuous learning.

A hardworking and focused individual with multiple talents, Wei Chuan graduates as the top student and Gold medallist of the Diploma in Information Technology course.

Recipient: Koh Wei Meng

In finance, structured products are designed to facilitate highly customised risk-return objectives, and are used to meet customers’ specific needs that cannot be met using the standard financial instruments available in the markets.

Noticing that structured products take days to generate, Wei Meng and his team saw an opportunity to create a system that allows users to create their own structured products within a short period of time. For his Major Project, Wei Meng led his team to enhance a system called Kondor+ Structured Products (KSP) Wizard for Thomson Reuters, using XML. They also made use of Kondor+ Structure Products Markup Language (KSPML), to develop an Extractor for the KSP Wizard, a template that allows Thomson Reuters’ customers to key in data to automatically generate structured products within minutes.

Quick to learn, he picked up knowledge about XML as well as the Thomson Reuters’ proprietary software on his own to ensure the successful completion of the project. The system that was created was developed so well that it was recognised as the most outstanding project within the cohort. This was based on an evaluation of its technical complexity and its potential commercialisation opportunities. Wei Meng’s supervisor and colleagues commended his resourcefulness, commitment and professionalism during the course of working on the project.

Quick on the uptake, Wei Meng participated in the Oracle Data Modeling Competition 2008, FedEx International Trade Challenge 2009 and the Hitachi Odai competitions to push himself beyond his comfort zone.

Outside of school, Wei Meng is also a person with heart for the disadvantaged. Wei Meng has been spending his Sundays as a volunteer for the Homework Clinic, a non-profit organisation that provides free tuition to underprivileged children. In addition, he is also an active community grassroots leader at the Tanglin Cairnhill Community Club’s Youth Executive Committee (YEC) where he holds the position of Social Education Secretary and has participated in several community outreach programmes such as food distribution to the elderly and door-to-door visits to families in the lower-income group.

Highly conscientious, disciplined and motivated, Wei Meng is highly regarded by his peers and respected for his skills. He graduates as the top student and Gold medallist of the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics course.

Recipient: Low Kuan Wei

During his three years at Temasek Polytechnic, Kuan Wei showed keen passion in game development. In his final year, Kuan Wei worked with four other team mates on a project for the Mission Darkstar Competition, organised by the National Heritage Board. This competition was aimed at boosting heritage-awareness among web savvy Singaporean youths.Taking on the role of Programmer and Level Designer, Kuan Wei and his team developed a computer game titled Love By Past. This is a single-player, web-based, flash point-and-click, casual adventure game. Taking players through Singapore’s history, this game engages players in exciting game play with a variety of challenges. Players have to collect items and solving puzzles related to Singapore's historical milestones. Kuan Wei and his team competed against more than 20 other teams to clinch the third prize in the competition.

In his senior year, Kuan Wei was attached to Electronic Arts, one of the world’s leading interactive entertainment software companies, where he was involved in the quality assurance and testing of games prior to their release. Kuan Wei’s positive work attitude, diligence and willingness to learn earned him the commendation of his supervisors at Electronic Arts.

Highly passionate about digital games, Kuan Wei volunteered his services at the Game Conference Asia held in Singapore in 2008 and is a member of the Game Reviewer Group for the Gamers’ Choice Magazine. During one of the school vacation periods, Kuan Wei also assisted in a motion capturing research project with the National University of Singapore School of Computing. Indeed, Kuan Wei has demonstrated a keen desire to learn and is willing to try anything that would help him acquire the knowledge and skills to excel in the area of digital game development.

A determined and amiable student with good interpersonal skills, Kuan Wei is highly regarded by his peers and tutors. He is poised for a bright and power-packed future in the world of digital game development.

Kuan Wei graduates as the top student and Gold medallist of the Diploma in Game & Entertainment Technology course.