RECOGNISING THE BEST OF S'PORE'S DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY TALENTS

The top minds in Singapore's defence technology and science fields were recognised at the Defence Technology Prize (DTP) award ceremony held at the University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore, on 11 Nov.

Dr Eric Yap, Head of the Population Genetics Laboratory at the Defence Medical & Environmental Research Institute of the DSO National Laboratories (DSO), received the DTP Individual Award (Research & Development) for his significant work in population genetics and biological defence.

The DTP Team Award was presented to four project teams:

Knowledge-Based Command and Control Information Systems Team, with members from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the Republic of Singapore Airforce (RSAF) and the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA);
SAF Centre for Military Experimentation (SCME) Mission Mate Team, with members from the Ministry of Defence's Future Systems Directorate, DSTA and Singapore Technologies Electronics;
Advanced Radar Technologies Team from DSO;
Electronics Systems Research Team from DSO.

Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony, congratulated the winners and highlighted their key roles in Singapore defence.

"For all of technology's multiplier, enabling and catalytic effects, it is the people in our integrated defence ecosystem who create, exploit, integrate, acquire, operationalise, maintain or operate our technologies."

"You are hence, the ultimate multipliers, enablers and catalysts," said Mr Teo.

DTP Individual Award (R&D) recipient, Dr Yap, said he felt honoured and privileged.

"Honoured to be selected by my scientific peers and colleagues in the defence community, and privileged to be working in defence medical research. It is an area which is intellectually challenging and results in practical and useful solutions," he said.

For the last 11 years, Dr Yap has achieved many breakthroughs in his work, including the problem of myopia in SAF soldiers, and R&D in DNA fingerprinting to identify human remains in mass-casualty disasters or missing-in-action incidents.

Dr Yap's work has also resulted in a quicker diagnosis of melioidosis, a soil disease that can affect soldiers, and he was part of a team that developed new means of analysing biological agents, which proved vital during the Anthrax scare in 2001 and the SARS outbreak in 2003. (See 14 Nov 05 cyberpioneer article - He has the DNA for defence science)

As for one of the DTP Team Award winners, the Mission Mate Team from SCME, it has been a very satisfying journey to bring ideas to fruition.

Its team leader, Division Manager of DSTA, Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Chew Lock Pin, said: "The Mission Mate system was one of the first ideas conceived and experimented on when the SCME was inaugurated in 2003, so it is really good to see our work bear fruit now."

Through network-centric experiments on Integrated Knowledge-based Command and Control (IKC2) ideas, the team has come up with the Command Post Anywhere concept.

Different components of a command post are distributed to various locations yet are able to operate as effectively as in the traditional centralised model using cutting-edge technologies and equipment. (See 14 Nov 05 cyberpioneer article - 'Brains' made smarter )

Established in 1989, the DTP is considered the most prestigious award presented at the national level by the Ministry of Defence.