The panel comprising (from left to right) Patrick Pang, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Transformation Office, GovTech; Cheng Wee Kiang, Director, Plans & Strategy Division, HTX; Kenneth Lim, Deputy Director, 1Signalling & Platform Screen Door in the Rail (Electrical & Mechanical) Group, LTA; Dr Judith Wong, Director, Microbiology & Molecular Epidemiology Division, NEA; and moderator Tang Weylin, Director, S&T Master Planning, S&TPPO, PMO. (Photo: HTX)
Director of HTX’s Plans & Strategy Division Cheng Wee Kiang got to rub shoulders with fellow leaders in Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) within the public service at a panel discussion held during the Public Service Week Learning Festival 2024.
Themed “Making an impact with science, technology and engineering”, the panel discussion was livestreamed to public service officers on 26 July 2024, allowing viewers to gain a deeper understanding of how STE can drive innovation in fields such as infrastructure, homeland security, public health, and digital innovation.
During the discussion, Wee Kiang emphasised that STE projects should continue to be pushed at the whole-of-government level and that collaboration between government agencies is critical to enhancing the safety and security of Singapore.
He singled out the public trial of the autonomous Xavier ground robot as an example – this trial involved HTX, the National Environment Agency (NEA), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), and the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
He also spoke about how the island-wide deployment of the PolCam network has helped solve and deter crime, and how HTX is currently working on projects such as embodied artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance homeland security.
Also present at the panel discussion was Tang Weylin, Director, Science and Technology (S&T) Master Planning, Public Sector Science & Technology Plans & Policy Office (S&TPPO), Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), who spoke about STE’s contributions to Singapore’s nation building. He also pointed out that Singapore needs to strengthen its STE capabilities, especially in new technologies like robotics and AI, to deal with new challenges like climate change.
Dr Judith Wong, Director, Microbiology & Molecular Epidemiology Division, National Environment Agency (NEA), then talked about Project Wolbachia, which is aimed at suppressing the population of mosquitos responsible for dengue fever. This project involves using male mosquitos infected with the Wolbachia bacteria to infect female mosquitos, which then produce non-viable eggs.
She said that the project adopted an interdisciplinary response that combined the application of engineering and data analytics to scale up the deployment of the Wolbachia mosquitos. Expertise in scientific communication was also needed to raise public awareness and understanding of the release of Wolbachia mosquitos in the community, she added.
True to Wee Kiang’s point about collaboration between government agencies, Project Wolbachia involved not only scientists from NEA but also drone engineers from HTX who helped explore ways to release the Wolbachia mosquitoes.
Another example of inter-agency collaboration could be seen in the COVID-19 wastewater surveillance project, in which NEA worked with the Public Utilities Board (PUB) to access the sewer network and collect wastewater samples to test for the presence of COVID-19. The NEA team also had to work with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to explore how this surveillance data could best be used.
During the discussion regarding the deployment of AI in the public service, Wee Kiang shared that HTX recently launched its AI Movement to empower its own officers as well as their counterparts across the Home Team. One of these AI solutions is a procurement copilot that can help our officers reduce the time spent on preparing tender evaluation reports.
This year’s Public Service Week Learning Festival, which took place from 24 to 26 July, aimed to raise awareness among officers about emerging skills and ways to take charge of their growth. Speakers from both the public and private sectors were present to share insights into upskilling for the future.
