Speech by MOS Faishal Ibrahim at Professional Engineers Board Day of Dedication 2024
Nov 7, 2024
A very good morning to all of you. Thank you for inviting me to join you today at the Professional Engineers Board’s Day of Dedication. I am honoured to be here.
Today, as we welcome our newly minted Professional Engineers (PEs), Specialist PEs and ASEAN Chartered PEs, we recognise that it is also an occasion to recognise the contributions of our PEs, and for PEs to renew your passion and dedication to the engineering profession.
Laying the Foundation of Singapore
Singapore’s journey from third world to first world is testament to the hard work and dedication of our predecessors, and of the many Engineers sitting here today. Engineers have played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for a safe, sustainable and resilient Singapore.
Our engineers, both in the public and private sectors, have made homes, workplaces, recreational spaces, transport infrastructure and essential utilities come to fruition safely and purposefully.
Engineers are the unsung heroes behind the building blocks of our city, supporting the way Singaporeans live, work and play.
As we continue transcending new heights, we will face impending challenges, such as climate change and ageing infrastructure, that will make the engineering landscape more complex and demanding.
Despite the new challenges, what remains consistent is the positive attitude and unwavering professionalism that sets our engineers apart, tackling the challenges through your expertise and innovative spirit, just as what you have always done.
Adopting Sustainable Practices to Decarbonise our Built Environment
To thrive in a low-carbon world, we will need to decarbonise our built environment. We need to factor in sustainability considerations upfront in the design and construction processes, rather than leave them as an afterthought.
Under the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, we have set the “80-80-80 by 2030” targets. We seek to green 80% of our buildings by 2030, meet Super Low Energy for 80% of our new developments from 2030, and achieve 80% improvement in energy efficiency from that in 2005 in our best-in-class buildings by 2030. We must sustain the momentum in meeting these sustainability targets.
Engineers have an important role to play in motivating lower-carbon choices and practices in our built environment. For instance, engineers can make carbon-efficient choices when proposing their design recommendations to developers, such as by considering the use of energy-efficient ventilation and cooling solutions, and the use of solar panels to harness renewable energy on site.
Engineers can also choose sustainable building materials with lower embodied carbon while still meeting the required building performance.
To support engineers in actively making sustainable choices, I am heartened to learn that engineers from JTC, BCA, the Singapore Green Building Council, and NUS, have developed the Singapore Building Carbon Calculator. Such tools can empower and guide our engineers to make informed decisions on how buildings ought to be designed for maximum carbon-efficiency.
With innovation and imagination, engineers can push new boundaries to design and build iconic super low, or even, zero energy buildings.
To tap on industry expertise to identify feasible solutions, BCA has recently launched the Design for Prototyping Decarbonisation Challenge.
I encourage all engineers to take decarbonisation seriously and leverage the partnerships forged amongst institutions, practicing professionals and government agencies to drive sustainable development.
Tapping on Innovation to Improve Resilience
This spirit of innovation can also extend to the way we maintain and construct our buildings and our infrastructure.
Many buildings, still left with decades of lifespan ahead of them, undergo wear and tear. Building owners require the support of engineers and other built environment professionals to help them manage the ageing infrastructure. Our adaptable engineers have adopted productive methods to inspect and maintain buildings.
For instance, engineers these days tap on drones to inspect the overall condition of buildings and identify specific exterior defects. This is more productive compared to traditional methods of visual inspection from the ground using binoculars or handheld cameras, or inspecting at height using gondolas.
Footage from drones can also be supplemented by data analysis and artificial intelligence systems to auto-detect, identify and diagnose defects.
I am glad to hear that our engineers are applying new construction technologies that push the boundaries of innovation and productivity. A good example is the recent construction of Singapore’s first floating swimming pool, at The Reef at King’s Dock.
The team behind it combined Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) practices with marine and offshore engineering to construct the swimming pool as a floating prefabricated concrete structure.
Compared to traditional cast in-situ methods, this approach with concurrent off-site activities reduced the duration of on-site works by 5 months, enabling timely delivery of the project whilst improving productivity.
Our engineers in the resource industries also innovate to cope with the resource scarcity that Singapore faces. For example, our water engineers are developing an underground superhighway, or the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS), to convey used water to reclamation plants and NEWater factories.
Our engineers are also championing energy resilience through innovation. They are working on developing large-scale solar energy solutions, for instance, floating solar farms on reservoirs, and building up our smart grid technologies to improve energy reliability.
In line with the theme of the event, “Innovating the Future”, innovative engineering and solutioning is the way forward. We need to continue reinventing the way we work, to overcome the complexities we face.
Hence, I urge all engineers to continue deepening your craft and to prime yourselves to meet the exciting challenges of the future.
A Robust Engineering Core, the Key to a Successful Built Environment
To build the necessary capabilities to deliver on infrastructure plans for long-term development goals such as the Long Island, Greater Southern Waterfront or Changi Terminal 5, we will need a steady pipeline of passionate and innovative engineers in the built environment sector.
This is the motivation behind the joint industry-government Taskforce on architectural and engineering consultancies chaired by Minister Indranee and Chairman of Surbana Jurong, Mr Chaly Mah.
This Taskforce is represented by key stakeholders such as Consultant firms, Trade Associations and Chambers, Professional Boards, Institutes of Higher Learning, young built environment professionals and government agencies.
I am thankful that the PEB and several PEs are on this journey with us, to enhance the awareness and attractiveness of the professions.
First and foremost, our engineers should stand tall and be proud of the important work you do. We need to continue to raise public awareness on the important role that engineers play.
We launched the Building Singapore Industry Branding campaign at the International Built Environment Week earlier this year.
The campaign highlights the nation-building role of our sector and celebrates the contributions of the multi-disciplinary built environment stakeholders in shaping the way Singaporeans live, work and play.
It aims to enhance public awareness and invoke public appreciation for the hard work of our engineers and built environment professionals.
Without our engineers, we would not have the world-class infrastructure that we have here in Singapore, and you should be proud of that.
Next, we need to promote the exciting trajectory of the engineering profession.
We need to make it known that the sector has transformed with time. For instance, there are new emerging job roles such as environmental sustainability engineers and robotic engineers. Environmental sustainability engineers track and plan resource usage and carbon-efficiency of projects. They also develop sustainability plans and implement green solutions to achieve project targets.
Robotic engineers develop robotic equipment that can automate laborious tasks. The products of these engineers can enhance the operational safety and productivity of construction works, reducing the reliance on manual labour.
These are refreshing career prospects that underscore the sector’s job diversity, keeping the industry fresh and attractive for aspiring young engineers.
For all the PEs sitting here today, we are counting on you to groom our aspiring young engineers into the next generation of engineering leaders.
Through mentorship, aspiring engineers can benefit from your guidance on career advancement and technical know-how. You can foster a positive workplace culture that offers support for aspiring engineers to reach their full potential. You can also inspire the next generation and remind them of the tremendous impact that engineers can bring.
Recognising Stewards of the Engineering Profession
Before I conclude my address, I would like to recognise two of our distinguished award recipients today.
Er. Chua Chong Kheng and Er. Tan Ngo Chiaw, are stewards of the transport and water resources sectors respectively. They have dedicated a lifetime of hard work in advancing their respective fields.
First, Er. Chua has dedicated 39 years to developing and enhancing Singapore’s land transport system. Er. Chua was instrumental in LTA’s delivery of the Circle Line, Downtown Line, Thomson East-Coast Line, Marina-Coastal Expressway and Lornie Highway.
Amongst many of Er. Chua’s contributions, his commitment to innovation was key to the Northeast Line’s success in becoming the world’s first driverless and fully automated heavy metro system.
Er. Chua also led many groundbreaking initiatives such as the development of the region’s first rail testing centre and the world’s first integrated stacked rail depot for 3 rail lines and a bus depot.
As for Er. Tan, he has spent 3 decades overseeing water projects for PUB’s four National Taps, safeguarding the water security of Singapore.
Er. Tan was instrumental in the development of the Changi Wastewater Reclamation Plant (CWRP), the DTSS and ABC Waters at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Er. Tan incorporated sophisticated technologies across the water cycle in these ground-breaking projects.
Er. Tan’s innovative solutions for major water projects won him and his team many awards. For instance, the adoption of the ceramic membrane system and ozone-biological activated carbon filters at Choa Chu Kang Waterworks was named the Water Project of the Year at the 2020 Global Water Awards.
I thank Er. Chua and Er. Tan for their unwavering dedication to Singapore’s infrastructure landscape and for representing the Singaporean engineering brand internationally.
Conclusion
Finally, let me conclude by sending my warmest congratulations to the newly registered PEs, Specialist PEs and ASEAN Chartered PEs, as well as the award recipients today.
I am sure that engineering will continue to be an exciting journey that will bring both tangible and intrinsic rewards to all of you. It is important that you, as PEs, be the custodians of public safety and the steward of engineering innovation.
I look forward to working with all the PEs in this room as we push ourselves to innovate further with the exciting opportunities ahead of us, to build the safe, sustainable and resilient Singapore we envisage. Thank you.