Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Ong Ye Kung, Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition (SAFMC) Awards Presentation Ceremony

Introduction

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

When I was young, in primary school, I don't think I knew that much about aeroplanes. I was just telling our hosts and my colleagues that by trial and error and probably by luck, I found that if I fold an aeroplane and use a pencil to roll up the sides of the plane so it curves upwards, it will fly a lot further and land smoothly. Actually I also don’t know why this is so - maybe you can tell me - but this is what I did as a kid. And today I look at what you have done, I think it's wonderful. Whatever you have done has been very impressive, so well done and let's give yourselves a good round of applause.

Importance of Science and Technology to Singapore

Today we have the Defence Technology Community. It is an important community because there are many scientists, engineers, working on how to defend Singapore using a lot of technology. And today we have a few important people from this Defence Technology Community; one is the Permanent Secretary (Defence Development), Mr Ng Chee Khern, over there. The other is our Chief Defence Scientist, Mr Quek Tong Boon, and of course, Mr Quek Gim Pew. He is the CEO of DSO National Laboratories. Doesn't matter whether you know what they do, but they are all very important people in our Defence Technology Community. They have done some fabulous inventions. This is a five thousand person strong community. One of the inventions they have done that I want to tell you about is called a hyperspectral camera. I don't know if you know what a hyperspectral camera is, but the startling point is this: every object; everything around us reflects light, absorbs light, and emits light differently. It's a little bit like a fingerprint, like a colour fingerprint. Every object is different. So hyperspectral imaging is a technique that captures this fingerprint or the colour information of the object, and it's very important in defence because we can use this technology to better recognise and detect targets that we want to destroy. This technology is not new, but the equipment used to do this is very bulky. So what our Defence Technology Community has done: they use commercially-available cameras, very simple cameras, they add optical crystals to it, and then they have a hyperspectral imaging capability that is very light and even commercially available. And this has huge potential for imaging applications, using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and even using satellites.

And talking about satellites, another amazing thing that we have done in Singapore is that we have successfully launched our first locally designed and developed commercial satellite called TeLEOS-1 (Te-Le-Os One). This satellite will orbit around the Earth's equator, passing over Singapore, and it can capture images at ground resolution of one metre and every 100 minutes it will go past the same image. And this ability to produce information at this frequency and resolution makes a big difference whenever there is an environmental disaster in the region. This satellite can give us very valuable information to save lives, and this is very valuable know-how for Singapore to develop our own satellite capability in the industry. The people working there are engineers, but I think they call themselves satellite technologists.

Improving Our Lives with Science and Technology

So today, science and technology is all over, not just in defence, and we can see it all over in our lives. I read that Raffles Institution (RI) has an impressive invention in education. It is an app that caters to the needs of the elderly. It is a Speech Recognition Tool and you can translate dialects like Hokkien and Teochew to English. And I think that is pretty useful for the elderly.

And we see many others, in homes now, we can have sensors. So if an old person lives at home, the sensors can tell whenever there are unusual activities. For example, if the boiling water has boiled over, the sensor can pick it up and send a WhatsApp or SMS to a loved one, or to a nurse, so that they can come take a look and check on the elderly.

Traffic regulations and conditions. Today, with our iPhones and smartphones, we can tell where there is jam, where traffic is still light. In time to come, we will have much more sophisticated traffic regulations applications that can allow us to travel more smoothly, avoiding all the traffic jams. The possibilities are endless.

Closing

So today in this very hall, I see more than just aspiring scientists and engineers. I see a lot of future possibilities. Many of the flying machines in this hall that we see today feature interesting designs that showcase your creativity and ingenuity. We can push these boundaries further so that some of these machines can be used in the near future to do all kinds of things - to deliver medical supplies in the disaster zones, kill Dengue mosquitoes, deliver daily necessities to the old folks and the handicapped, deliver internet orders to your homes, all kinds of possibilities.

I think everyone in this hall is curious and interested in technology. There is one thing to remember - hold on to that curiosity throughout your lives and throughout the journey in studying and when you start work. Because once you are curious, you will learn your whole life. When you learn your whole life, you will get very good at what you are doing. Congratulations again, all the best and have a good day. Thank you.