8 November 2008 - Address By Leong Keng Thai, Deputy Chief Executive & Director-General (Telecoms & Post), Infocomm Development Authority Of Singapore At The National Stritwise® Challenge 2008 At Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Convention Centre
Address By Leong Keng Thai, Deputy Chief Executive & Director-General (Telecoms & Post), Infocomm Development Authority Of Singapore At The National Stritwise® Challenge 2008 On Saturday, 8 November 2008, 10.10am At Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Convention Centre
Ms Angela Wee, Director, School of Infocomm Technology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic,
Students and teachers,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
Introduction
1. I am happy to be here to join you at this year’s National StrITwise® Challenge and the StrITcombat Competition where students from secondary schools, polytechnics and ITEs come together to pit their skills against one another in infocomm technology.
2. The challenge has grown from strength to strength since its inception four years ago. I was told that we have more than 32 secondary schools and 43 teams participating in this year’s competition. My congratulations to Ngee Ann Poly School of Infocomm Technology for creating such a strong turn out and may I also express my appreciation to the organising team for putting together today’s event.
A Challenge That Is Enriching and Rewarding
3. As you may already know, the National StrITwise® Challenge is part of Singapore’s largest National Infocomm Competition or NIC in short, which seeks to attract and nurture top talent, such as yourselves, to form a sustainable pipeline of infocomm manpower to continue driving Singapore's global competitiveness and economic growth. Not only that, the National StrITwise® Challenge has also successfully obtained its registered trademark last year to signify the exclusivity of the competition.
4. By participating in the National StrITwise® Challenge, you are given the opportunity to develop competency in a wide variety of infocomm skills like creativity, strategising, planning, applying programming and technical know-how, while learning to work in a team for a common goal and having fun in the process.
5. I am sure that those of you who have undergone the Robocode development for 'virtual’ robot, Flash and animation development workshops, will agree with me that infocomm is fun and most importantly, intellectually stimulating. For instance, creating a ‘virtual’ robot requires a combination of left and right brain activity. You need creative thinking to design the system or software architecture, understand various technologies, deploy the best technical knowledge, and maintain a high-level vision of how all the parts fit together. I hope you had great fun in the workshops.
6. Fun and competition aside, my key message to you is to urge you to study infocomm if you want to make a positive difference in the world. Infocomm courses are intellectually stimulating and appeals to those with a creative and analytical mind. It is an exciting and varied programme of study, where you can learn deep technical skills and apply them to develop innovative solutions for complex problems.
7. Since we are at Ngee Ann Poly today, I would encourage you to find out more about some of their diploma courses in Information Technology, Mobile Business Solutions, Multimedia & Animation and the new Diploma in Financial Informatics conducted by the School of Infocomm Technology.
Conclusion
8. In conclusion, I would like to extend again my sincere appreciation and thanks to Ngee Ann Poly School of Infocomm Technology for organising the challenge and training the contestants to create their own ‘virtual’ robots and graphical designs. I am confident that we are in for a good show today.
9. I hope that you will be inspired by the possibilities that infocomm can bring and pursue infocomm as your choice career. The future is in your hands. Be a player, have fun with infocomm and enjoy yourselves. Thank you.
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