Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Heng Chee How, at the Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Awards Ceremony 2024 on 6 April 2024

Mr Cheong Chee Hoo, Chief Executive Officer of DSO National Laboratories,

Mr Daniel Tan, Senior Director, Exhibitions & Galleries, Science Centre Singapore,

Partners,

School Leaders,

Participants, Parents, Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon. I am happy and excited to be here today at the Singapore Amazing Flying Machine (SAFMC) Awards Ceremony. This is my fifth attendance of the Award Ceremony. Thank you for having me once again. It is always a great pleasure and it is amazing to see so much interest in this subject matter and so many great minds putting your interests to work and applying your knowledge to make these flying machines. These flying machines are able to fly not only because of the aerodynamics but also because of what you put into them, making them fly individually and together as a swarm. This testifies to how quickly technology has developed, and we must continue to watch this space, make full use of it, and apply to our advantage. The SAFMC is a competition that let your ideas take flight. Throughout the years of attending the ceremony, my favourite part is always the opportunity to share in your journey of experimentation and discovery. I look forward to meeting all the participants later.

It is also great to know that SAFMC achieved a new participation record this year, with over 2,000 participants across 160 local and international schools. With this extent of competition, I am sure that the champions had to raise the bar very high in order to emerge victorious. This shows that we have many passionate and budding innovators in our midst.

Your love for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM for short, and your determination to realise your big ideas are important traits for this competition. But these traits are also equally important for Singapore. STEM is a foundation and key enabler for many technological innovations that have advanced Singapore's economy, society, as well as our defence and national security capabilities.

DRIVING INNOVATION

Innovation is critical in overcoming the challenges we face in our future – and there are many big problems for all of us to solve. From global warming, to deadly pandemics, we need innovators to seek new approaches, and tackle these challenges effectively. Let me share an interesting example developed by our local engineers in DSO National Laboratories.

DSO has the critical mission of developing technological solutions to help the Singapore Armed Force (SAF) defend Singapore against a whole range of threats. The engineers and scientists in DSO were tasked to develop an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, that is capable of taking off and landing with precision in a small area, along with long flight endurance. Herein lies the challenge – drones can take off and land easily within a small area, but do not have sufficient endurance.  For those interested in this, you will know it is not easy to have both precision and endurance.

So, what they came up with was a hybrid system that possesses the best characteristics from a variety of potential solutions. They invented the V15, Singapore's first locally developed UAV that is capable of Vertical Take-off and Landing. In addition, it can also change from rotary to fixed-wing flights and can stay up to three hours. That was a great achievement.

But DSO did not just stop there. DSO engineers worked with the Navy to develop another variant – the V60. The next challenge was to take-off and land on a platform that was on a moving ship, which called for even greater precision. The varying wind conditions and sea state make operations especially difficult for traditional UAVs. The V60 was thus developed to be capable of operating safely and autonomously on board a moving ship.

The V15 and V60 UAVs are examples of game-changing technologies applied by people who dare to dream, dare to take on the challenge, and get it done. So if you are excited by the V15 and V60 examples, I encourage you, as Mr Cheong Chee Hoo did, to seriously consider joining DSO and be part of this great team to make that difference. One of our previous participants, cited by Mr Cheong, is another good example who has actually done so – Category E's Deputy Technical Chair, Hui Shan.

She first discovered SAFMC through her internship with DSO, took part in Cat E in 2023, and later graduated from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) with a degree in Systems Engineering. She then decided to join DSO, and is now a Mechanical Engineer working on UAVs in the Robotics Division. Perhaps, in the near future, we will hear of another exciting UAV from DSO that is developed by Hui Shan and her team.

IMPORTANCE OF SAFMC

Competitions like SAFMC play an important role in inspiring interest in STEM subjects, and igniting the curiosity in our next generation of scientists and engineers. For the past 15 years, SAFMC has remained true to this cause. I am glad that MINDEF and MOE have continued to support, grow and evolve SAFMC into a flying competition that is like no other.  

Having attended SAFMC Award Ceremony over the last five years and interacted with many teams that participated, it is indeed true that the best teams do exhibit some common patterns. You can summarise it by the acronym: S.O.A.R.

'S' stands for 'Synergistic'. Innovators should foster and build enthusiastic and motivated teams, draw upon the best ideas and put them into collaboration in order to build and draw upon the collective strengths of the team. With that, the 'O' stands for 'Openness', which is the state of staying open to different ideas and approaches, which leads to sometimes surprising but great results. This is where you are at the frontier of knowledge. I think what really excites us is not what we know, but what we do not know. By then knowing, you can have different possibilities and that is where advancements come from.

The third one is 'A', and that stands for 'Adventurous', which means that one is not daunted by the fact that one may not yet know something or that something is new. Therefore, the idea of possibility is so attractive. 'R' stands for 'Resilient', because as in all things, when you try, there is no guarantee. We all hope to succeed every time but it does not happen like that. We have got to try and if it does not work, congratulate yourself. You are one step nearer to something that would work at your next try. This is what it means to never give up.

CONCLUSION

With all that, examples of those who have year after year during competitions like this continue to work hard and journey. You have discovered new ideas, you have made improvements, and you have tested and you have also been tested.  Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you do not. Despite all that, you kept going and because you are undaunted, you are capable of meeting challenges and making a difference. What you have learnt and gained is not therefore the knowledge to design and fly a machine, but what you have really learnt in this process are more important traits. Knowledge is one thing, but the idea is that you would want to push the envelope and be at the frontier. You want to explore, not be afraid of the unknown, capture knowledge for humankind, and apply it to everyday challenges that can make life better for everybody in your community and in your country.  

I hope that you continue to live the SAFMC spirit and let your dreams take flight.

Thank you.