$10M FUND TO SPUR INNOVATION IN DEFENCE TECH

A $10 million fund to support efforts by Singapore's defence technology community to seek innovations that address national challenges was announced by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the DSTA-DSO Scholarship award ceremony held at Orchard Hotel on 11 Jul.

Speaking to the scholarship recipients, Dr Ng said: "We hope that this $10m fund will motivate our scientists and engineers to push the frontiers of science and technology and seek new breakthroughs for Singapore."

The fund is split equally between the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) and the DSO National Laboratories - each will receive equal portions of the research purse. DSTA and DSO technical staff can start applying for the funds in August.

Dr Ng said: "In the last nearly 50 years, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has progressed because our defence scientists and engineers have marched alongside our combat troops.

"What you do as a defence technologist in the laboratories and offices is no less important than what the SAF does in mission headquarters and on the ground."

It's not just Singapore's defence that benefits, elaborated Dr Ng. For example, Singapore's defence engineers were intimately involved in the creation of an underground space for oil storage - a first in South-east Asia - because of the experience they had gained from building the world's most advanced Underground Ammunition Facility.

For one of the scholarship recipients, that is the exact reason she decided to take up a DSTA scholarship. "It's a very meaningful scholarship because it allows me to use my knowledge in a very big way," said 19-year-old Ng Rui Qi.

"This is especially important for a small country like Singapore, a small nation with a small population. We really need technology to make up the shortage in numbers." The Ngee Ann Polytechnic alumna will head to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to read Electrical and Electronic Engineering on a DSTA undergraduate scholarship.

Others took up the scholarship for more personal reasons. For 21-year-old Brandon Peh, it was the love of engineering that convinced him to take up the scholarship offered by DSTA.

"I believe that engineering has the ability to fascinate people and make people happy - hat's what I would like to do," said Mr Peh, recalling the excitement he felt when he first handled a smartphone - an Apple iPhone - five years ago.

"Maybe I, too, can do or make something that is useful and impactful for our soldiers." The Raffles Institution alumnus will head to Cornell University, United States, to read Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

He's in good company - some of his fellow scholarship recipients have already made their contributions to Singapore's defence. Postgraduate scholarship recipient Tammi Yeo was a key member in the team that received the prestigious Defence Technology Prize Team (Engineering) Award in 2013 for their work in developing the Multi-Mission Range Complex (MMRC). The MMRC is a three-storey indoor live-firing range consisting of seven ranges in one building and is located in Pasir Laba.

Said the 30-year-old: "I hope to continue to solve real-life problems and be able to propose solutions to improve the SAF's capabilities." She will head to the Naval Postgraduate School in the US for a Master's degree in Operations Research.

"To be able to use these insights to better the defence of Singapore in one way or another is something I look forward to."

Another brainy scholarship recipient was 27-year-old Cheryl Seow, who works in the Sensors Division of DSO.

She recounted her undergraduate days in NTU where her stellar performance gained her admission into a young scholars' programme. While in that programme, she even had opportunities to interact with Nobel laureates from around the world.

Her area of expertise is in hyperspectral technology - an emerging field that has the potential to vastly improve the sensing capabilities of military forces.

Explaining her work, Ms Seow said: "It's like a camera that captures a lot more colours -you can distinguish objects better and even identify materials from a (hyperspectral) image."

She added: "Underlying it all, it's how to better use the knowledge that I have to protect Singapore and all at home." Her scholarship will send her to the Institute d'Optique Graduate School in France, where she will pursue a doctorate in Optics.

This year 93 scholarships were awarded. Of these, 38 were DSTA undergraduate scholarships and 15 were DSTA postgraduate scholarships. There were also nine DSO postgraduate scholarships given out.