Speech by SMS Desmond Lee at the Professional Engineers Board Day of Dedication 2015
Nov 14, 2015
Good morning.
I am tremendously delighted to join you on your Day of Dedication, where you:
• Reaffirm your pledge to serve society, and
• Welcome new members into the profession.
Our pioneer engineers played a pivotal role in building modern Singapore. Some of them are here in this room. Looking ahead, the ability of the engineering profession to integrate various disciplines to plan, to design and to develop more tightly integrated urban systems will be vital to Singapore’s future development. So let me just take a bit of time this morning to share some of these thoughts with you from an outsider’s perspective, from outside the profession, and about how we can possibly get to this future.
Engineers’ contributions to SG50
This year, we celebrate SG50 and we are nearing the end of the year of celebrations. It has been a year of nostalgia and reflection, where we remember and appreciate our pioneers for what they’ve done for us, but also a time where we look forward into the future, because next year is SG51, and so it is the same for your profession.
Our engineers have played a critical role in transforming Singapore into what it is today – a world class metropolis. Beyond conventional engineering, you have broken new ground, through innovation and ingenuity, to overcome our severe constraints and turn them into strengths.
The impact of your work on our everyday life is felt, is seen everywhere we go. While it is easy to take for granted many of your achievements, it is important for all of us to remember that these are the results of our engineers’ hard work, especially those of our pioneers.
Indeed, the importance of engineering to a small city-state like Singapore has never been in doubt. In the 60s and 70s, our brightest students were awarded scholarships to study engineering in the top universities overseas. When they returned home, they were charged with the responsibility of nation building, literally nation building. Our Old Guard leaders placed great trust in many of these young engineers in the service.
In particular, our former Deputy Prime Minister, the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, did not like ‘turn-key’ projects where we awarded to external contractors projects from design to launch. Dr Goh wanted our young engineers to roll up their sleeves and ‘get their hands dirty’ with challenging engineering work, and to build up their own engineering capabilities. These young engineers were put in charge of major engineering projects. Through grit and determination, many progressed to become key public service and engineering leaders with deep experience and instinct.
These include eminent people like:
• Mr Lee Ek Tieng, former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Head of Civil Service;
• Mr Tan Gee Paw, Chairman of PUB and recently appointed Advisor for Singapore’s railway transformation;
• Mr Liew Mun Leong, Chairman of Changi Airport Group; and
• Prof Lui Pao Chuen, Advisor, National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office
Because of Singapore’s constraints, our engineers are a cut-above
As a small island city-state that is dense, with limited resources, and no hinterland, Singapore had to solve many unique problems with innovative engineering solutions that push the limits of our natural constraints.
So our engineers had to be a cut-above the rest. For example, the bold relocation of our international airport from Paya Lebar to Changi had made Singapore a world-class aviation hub, and it continues to grow.
Marina Bay is another example where we have developed our infrastructure, our urban greenery and waterways in an integrated manner, to extract multiple values from our limited space. Through impressive engineering achievements like the Marina Coastal Expressway, Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and the Common Services Tunnel, our engineers contributed to our vibrant city set in lush greenery. Marina Bay today functions as our new CBD within a remarkable setting of a reservoir, a flood control mechanism and a recreational green and blue space for our people.
Next, through the development of NEWater and affordable desalination technology, and the construction of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, our engineers have enabled Singapore to close our water loop, to strengthen our water resilience and exponentially increase the yield of our water supply.
The Underground Ammunition Facility at Mandai and the Jurong Rock Caverns show that we are not limited by our surface land area in the creation of usable space. Some two years ago I visited the rock caverns, it is a feat of engineering capability. With engineers who possess deep and innovative expertise, we have the potential to carry out complex engineering projects such as developing underground cavern spaces in rock.
And in the defence line, we have Singapore’s largest corp of engineers who with their systems engineering capabilities have helped keep Singapore safe and secure.
Your efforts as a profession have gained worldwide recognition and attracted international interest, accolades and awards.
Over the years, our engineering expertise has also been exported internationally, through companies like Keppel, SembCorp, Hyflux, Surbana Jurong, Ascendas-Singbridge, and in city projects like in Suzhou, in Tianjin, and in Guangzhou in China, and more recently Amaravati in Andra Pradesh, India.
A New Breed Needed: Urban Systems Engineers
Looking forward into the future, our next fifty years will be even more exciting and even more challenging for us. As Singaporeans aspire for more green and blue spaces and greater mobility, connectivity, and convenience, we need to plan, design and develop more integrated urban systems than ever before.
At the same time, we face many drivers of change, including:
• First: Climate change - with warmer temperature, rising sea levels, and increasing frequency of extreme weather events, we must understand the potential risks and develop our own solutions, engineering solutions some of them, to deal with the impact of climate change.
• Second: Singapore will continue to be seriously resource constrained, including in land, water, energy and people. Previously, we relied on measures like land reclamation and importing fossil fuels, but practical constraints as well as growing aspirations will demand new solutions for our future needs.
• Third: we are a rapidly ageing society. Part of our response will involve innovative engineering and design, from smart homes to healthcare technology.
• Fourth: given the manpower constraint and the need to raise our productivity, you will, as engineers, need to be at the forefront driving changes in the way Singapore builds and develops and grows. This needs automation and digital engineering, and the adoption of game-changing technologies such as digital technologies, robotics, and sensors.
To meet all these challenges, what we really need is a new breed of engineers – urban systems engineers – who are not only good in their own engineering discipline but are also creative and able to adopt a multi-disciplinary outlook.
They need to be future-ready, able to embrace innovation and harness new technologies. They must dare to break new ground and provide integrated solutions to improve the quality of life in Singapore and enhance our productivity.
For example, water engineers can no longer function only as civil engineers designing and building water treatment plants or pipe networks; or as mechanical and electrical engineers operating and maintaining infrastructure. While they still have to do these well, they also have to be systems engineers who can close the water loop and optimise the production of NEWater.
They must be able to work across disciplines, perhaps even mimic nature, for example by imitating mangrove plants or human kidneys to reduce energy needed for desalination. Beyond that, engineers will also need to rethink ideas on flood management and learn how to recreate nature, like building the river in Bishan Ang-Mo Kio Park in our ABC Waters Programme instead of concrete monsoon drains. Such urban systems engineering will be critical as we try to adapt to climate change.
Our engineers will also continue to be challenged to make our newer residential towns like Punggol and Bidadari even more liveable and sustainable. Advanced computer models will help to plan our towns to creatively integrate different infrastructural projects. Data analytics and smart solutions can enable our estates to be better maintained and more resource efficient. Smart-enabled homes will trigger a suite of new applications ranging from home energy management, to tele-health.
As engineers, you will need to work with multiple stakeholders to maximise the use of limited land and manpower, be it the building of our new generation port at Tuas, the expansion of Changi Airport, or the exploration of underground space.
We must be bold enough to adapt and adopt innovative and productive technologies to drastically raise productivity and quality in our work while optimising the use of land and manpower.
On transportation, engineers cannot plan roads or rail networks in isolation. They will need an integrated ‘systems’ approach, to work with urban planners, architects and landscape designers to create sustainable urban solutions as we move towards the future of a car-lite society. These are just some of the many exciting opportunities where urban system engineers can contribute greatly to the future of Singapore.
Way forward: Nurturing our Urban Systems Engineers
How do we develop and nurture this breed of urban systems engineers? For that, we need to work with everyone here in this room, because everybody is part of this system. First, we must recruit, train and retain talent in urban systems engineering by making it an attractive and fulfilling career option. I did google and saw many overseas universities and some in Singapore offering this discipline, often cross-disciplinary.
Government and the private sector must work with universities, polytechnics and ITEs to develop curriculum that takes a more integrative approach to build engineering capability, enhanced with an understanding of our urban systems.
Engineering courses should also sensitise students to different topics such as ecology, sociology, economics and data analytics. Our Institutes of Higher Learning have started to provide more options for aspiring engineers to take courses beyond the engineering faculty, in the form of double majors, minors and dual track programmes.
An example is MND’s collaboration with NTU, where their Bachelor of Engineering offers a second major in ‘Society and Urban Systems’, while their Master of Science in Civil Engineering has a specialisation in Sustainable Urban Systems.
Another example is BCA Academy’s collaboration with the University of Florida to launch a Master of Science degree in Construction Management with strong emphasis on digital engineering to change the way we build.
When I was studying in NUS, what we said about engineering students is that well, engineering students, many hours of work, always studying, very few girls compared to arts and social sciences and law. Well it may have been the case then, but I think it is not so the case now. When we recently gave out our MND EDGE scholarships about a month and a half ago, I was very encouraged that many of our scholars who take scholarships in engineering are ladies. It is very encouraging.
MND will also work with our stakeholders, including the Institutes of Higher Learning, to better link engineering research in Singapore with real urban solutions that the Government seeks, so research in our learning institutions, we will tie it more closely to the needs that the Government has to solve. We will provide more training and internship opportunities at agencies within the MND Family, to create a more integrated and holistic experience for engineers. That is the first part on making urban systems engineering an attractive career option.
Second - and this is a broader point - we must explore ways to make engineering a more attractive career, and to build up engineering capability both in the public service and the private sector. We will strive to grow the pool of science and engineering talent by developing more attractive career pathways with exciting, challenging and meaningful work.
For example, to ensure that government agencies are future-ready, the Public Service Division, PSD, is leading a whole-of-government effort to rebuild engineering capabilities in the Public Service, and will also work closely with the industry to grow our engineering capabilities in Singapore.
BCA is working closely with the industry and academia to develop a sustainable manpower plan to support the growth of our built environment sector. Now we call this the Sectoral Manpower Plan, or SMP for short. The SMP has two objectives, the first, tit aims to build up a strong Singaporean core of PMETs in the relevant engineering disciplines. And secondly it focuses on upgrading the skills and capabilities of those already in the built environment sector.
For example, while Polytechnic and ITE fresh graduates would be able to enhance their competencies through on-the-job training under the SkillsFuture Earn & Learn programme, and practitioners already in the field are able to update themselves by taking courses offered at the BCA Academy.
We are already beginning to see some early results. Some 1,200 people have been offered the BCA-Industry Scholarship and Sponsorship awards in the last two years. The majority are for engineering and built environment related courses. BCA aims to award another 2,000 of such scholarships and sponsorships in the next three years.
Third, we would like to encourage and work with the Professional Engineers Board and the Institution of Engineers Singapore, as well as senior members of the engineering profession, to mentor and encourage the younger generation of engineers, some of whom are getting their certification today, and others still in school, to adopt urban systems engineering. It is important that we work together to move beyond the traditional boundaries of electrical, mechanical or civil engineering, to promote a multi-disciplinary approach where environmental, bio and data engineering are seen as critical parts of urban systems engineering.
Closing
In closing, let me take the opportunity to congratulate the engineers receiving your PE registration certificates this morning – I know it is a long journey since you graduated, and the graduates from NUS and NTU who will be awarded the Board’s gold medals for excellence in your studies. I wish all of you the best in your careers and I am sure you will face fulfilling challenges and opportunities in the many many years ahead.