Outstanding Student Teams Received Awards From Minister for Education for Innovations in Alternative Energy Projects

Singapore, July 28, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The National Engineers Day (NED) 2015 ended on a high note today, with three student teams emerging as champions of the inaugural Energy Innovation Challenge. Minister for Education, Mr. Heng Swee Keat, presented the awards to the winning teams at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre as the Guest-of-Honour. He also shared that visionary engineers are amongst the pioneers who contributed skill and foresight to transform Singapore and that it is important to continue to tap on the power of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to take Singapore forward.  

The team from Anglo-Chinese Junior College beat off competition from 29 other secondary school and junior college teams to clinch the top honours for Category 1, for their project on ‘Harnessing Wind Power to Generate Electricity’. ITE College West set themselves apart from 21 other polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education teams to be the winner for Category 2, for their project on ‘Using Solar Sheet to Cool Down the Room’. The top prize for Category 3, whereby 19 other local and foreign university teams also contested, went to the team from SIM University for their project ‘A Made-In-Singapore Sustainable Urbanised Vertical Axis Wind Turbine’.

All participating teams had to research and design solutions to demonstrate the use of alternative sources of energy over a four-month period under the guidance of professional engineering and business mentors. Their projects were displayed at the NED Expo from 22 to 24 July.  After a preliminary round of judging, the top 10 teams from each category were shortlisted. EIC Chief Judge Professor Lui Pao Chuen then selected the three most outstanding teams for each category for a stage presentation to the guests of the Closing Ceremony. The audience were given a chance to vote for their favourite team for each category and the team that received the highest number of votes was then declared the category champion.

Each champion team from Categories 1 and 2 won a three-day educational visit, sponsored by Santos Ltd, an established Australian oil and gas company, to its engineering facility in Adelaide.  The first and second runner-up teams won cash prizes of SGD1,000 and SGD700 respectively. For Category 3, the champion team won a cash prize of SGD8,000, while the two teams that tied for the first runner-up position won SGD5,000 each.

“The revival of interest in engineering is clearly evident by the large number of entries for the inaugural Energy Innovation Challenge. Singapore needs to excite our young people with national challenges that can be solved through the application of technology. The future of our country depends on the ability of our young people to create new products and services with their imagination grounded on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Competitions like this provide the motivation and excitement to reach out to a large number of our young people,” said Professor Lui Pao Chuen, Chief Judge of Energy Innovation Challenge.

EIC is jointly organised by IES and Science Centre Singapore with support from the Ministry of Education, the National Research Foundation and the Energy Market Authority.

More than 500 students participated in NED 2015 and attended a series of engineering-focused activities aimed at stimulating their interest in the engineering profession.  NED is organised by IES with the support of the Ministry of Education, Institutes of Higher Learning and government and industry partners.

“We are excited to see so many students at the National Engineers Day 2015 over the past three days. We believe that the fun and engaging activities have shown that engineering is a great way to make things happen,” said Dr Yeoh Lean Weng, Chairman, NED 2015 Organising Committee. “I am impressed by the students’ creativity in developing innovative prototypes to address our energy challenge. I could see their passion and enthusiasm when they explained their projects to the judges. I hope that they will become good engineers and strive to create a liveable environment for our future generations.”

*Refer to Annex A for summary of winning teams.

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Glossary

The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES)

新加坡工程师学会

National Engineers Day

全国工程师日

Dr Yeoh Lean Weng

杨联文博士    

Professor Lui Pao Chuen

雷普权教授

 

About The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES)

The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) was formally established in July 1966 as the national society of engineers in Singapore. IES is the premier engineering institution in Singapore and is called upon by the Government to provide feedback on professional engineering matters.

IES is well represented among the faculty members of the major engineering institutions of higher learning in Singapore. Through close collaboration with the local universities and polytechnics, IES organises courses, seminars and talks for engineers and IES members to advance the continuous development of engineers.

The Institution maintains close links with professional organisations of engineers regionally and throughout the world. These include organisations in Australia, China, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States. The Institution also represents Singapore in the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations (AFEO) and the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) in promoting goodwill, fellowship and exchange of knowledge among all engineers in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region.

Through its Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB), IES obtained full signatory status in the Washington Accord (WA) in June 2006. The entry grants IES the authority to represent Singapore, the first country within the ASEAN region which has obtained full signatory status in the WA, to vet education systems under the WA mutual recognition framework.

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Annex A

Energy Innovation Challenge 2015 Winners

Category 1 - Secondary Schools and Junior Colleges

Champion:                 Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Harnessing Wind Power to                                       Generate Electricity

First Runner-up:        Temasek Junior College, Application of Thermoelectric                                            Effect to Improve Energy Efficiency of Water-Coolers

Second Runner-up:   Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Harnessing Sunlight to                                              Generate Electricity

Category 2 - Polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education

Champion:                 ITE College West, Using Solar Sheet to Cool Down the Room

First Runner-up:        Singapore Polytechnic, Harvesting Energy from Waste                                              Water and Sludge using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)

Second Runner-up:   ITE College West, Vegetable Washing System

Category 3 - Local and Overseas Universities

Champion:                 SIM University, A Made-in-Singapore Sustainable                                                     Urbanised Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

First Runner-ups:     Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation,                                                   Malaysia, Eco-friendly Weight Lifting Machine; and

(tied)                           National University of Singapore, Converting Solar Energy                                        to Mechanical Work with Stirling Engines