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Issue No 2, March 2004

 

TDSIans

Greetings and welcome to the second issue of TDSIans.  I hope you enjoy reading it. Thank you.


 The Graduate Diploma Programme in Defence Technology and Systems (DDTS)

DDTS 2003
DDTS 2003, that started on 28 June 2003, completed successfully on 4 December 2003.  All 27 students met the graduation requirements and they will be conferred the Graduate Diploma in Defence Technology and Systems at a graduation ceremony on 20 March 2004 at NUS.  For the first time in the DDTS programme, these students also presented their DTS projects to an audience of lecturers from NUS & SAFTI Military Institute at the end of their course.

Prof Wilson with Students          Presentation by DDTS Students       

DDTS 2004
Applications for DDTS 2004 will open on 8 March 2004.  It will close on 3 April 2004.

The Engineering Subject Evaluation (ESSE)
TDSI administered the ESSE on 9 February 2004.  A total of 37 candidates took the ESSE.  SAFTI would use the ESSE results to gauge the suitability of potential SAF candidates for the DDTS 2004 programme.

Review of DDTS Curriculum
MINDEF, DSTA and TDSI are jointly reviewing the DDTS to ensure that its curricula are relevant to the needs of the Singapore Armed Forces.  Changes to the curriculum will be implemented in phases from DDTS 2004 onwards.
 

  The Masters Programme In Defence Technology and Systems (MDTS)

MDTS 2002
Having met all the requirements of the MDTS programme, 29 students from this inaugural batch participated in the NPS Commencement Ceremony on 19 December 2003 during which NPS conferred them their respective Master of Science (in a relevant field) degrees.  One of the students - Mr. Teo Tiat Leng - was awarded the NPS's "Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper Computer Science Award" for being the outstanding graduate in Computer Science who demonstrated outstanding academic performance, thesis quality and leadership ability.  The MDTS 2002 students will participate in the NUS Commencement in July 2004.  The Master of Science (Defence Technology and Systems) degree will be conferred on the students during this occasion.  In addition, TDSI and MINDEF will jointly organize an MDTS Graduation Ceremony for this pioneer batch of MDTS students in July 2004.

MDTS 2003
This second cohort of the MDTS students completed the common curriculum phase of the programme in NUS in December 2003.  These students are now in NPS for the specialization phase since January 2004.

MDTS 2nd Batch

MDTS 2004
Applications for MDTS 2004 started in November 2003.  The course will begin on 28 June 2004 and we expect 30 students in this intake.

MDTS Curriculum
The MDTS curriculum is being further fine-tuned and it will be implemented for MDTS 2004.
 

Research

CRADA
NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong and NPS Superintendent RADM David R. Ellison signed the Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) on 30 July 2003.  Five projects on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Synthetic Aperture Radars, Infrared Sensors, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles spanning 3 years are listed in this agreement.  Work on these collaborative research projects have begun, and some of our MDTS students are participating in some of these projects to meet their research thesis submission.  We will add several new projects in the coming months to the CRADA.

New Projects
Besides the 5 projects in the CRADA, NUS and NPS researchers have proposed new topics of which 3 have been approved : "Cooperative Weapon Systems", "Digital Antenna Systems" and "Cavitating Flow".
 

Seminars and Conferences

Seminars and conferences offer opportunities for ideas sharing among intellectuals, students and the industry. TDSI organized seminars on these topics in the recent 6 months.

Large Scale System Engineering (LSSE) Seminar
On 1 October
2003, the MDTS 2003 students presented the Large Scale System Engineering Seminar.  Held at EA Auditorium with about a hundred participants, this seminar covered the following topics:

  • Friendly Fire

  • Singapore's Water System

  • IDF - What is it good for?

  • Singapore Story

LSSE Seminar

"Modeling and Simulation" Workshop
While conducting the MDTS's "Modeling and Simulation" module at NUS in October and November 2003, Prof Thomas Lucas from NPS also conducted a workshop on "Combat Modeling In Support of Decision Making" at DSTA on 12 November 2003.  The core participants came from the modeling and simulation community in MINDEF, DSTA, DSO and NUS.

"Protecting the Sea Base" Seminar
The NPS Alumnus (Singapore) organized a seminar on 30 January 2004 at Temasek Club for MDTS 2002 graduates to share their experience and findings from their Integration Project titled "Protecting the Sea Base".  About a hundred staff members from MINDEF, DSTA and NUS attended this event.

Conferences
TDSI hosted an exhibition booth at DSTA's Defence Technology Prize Presentation and Conference on 27 November 2003 at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

 

Current Affair in TDSI

Management Board
The TDSI Management Board was re-appointed for another 2-year term from 15 December 2003.  A new board member is BG Tan Huck Gim, Commandant SAFTI Military Institute who replaced RADM Simon Ong who retired from the SAF.  On 1 February 2004, Mr Quek Gim Pew, the new Chief Executive Officer of DSO National Laboratories, joined the Management Board in place of Mr Quek Tong Boon.

Director and Deputies
Prof Yeo Tat Soon was re-appointed as Director TDSI for another 2-year term from 15 December 2003.

Two new Deputy Directors were appointed to assist the Director who had also been appointed as Vice-Dean (Administration) in the Faculty of Engineering since 18 August 2003.  Prof Poh Kim Leng was appointed Deputy Director on 18 August 2003.  His term was extended for another 2 years on 15 December 2003.  Dr Yeoh Lean Weng of DSTA was appointed Deputy Director on 15 December 2003 for 2 years.  Both persons are very conversant with TDSI and its programmes as they have been shaping and teaching these programmes, particularly the DDTS programme since year 2000.
 

Upcoming Events

  • The Graduation Ceremony for DDTS 2003 will be held on 20 March at NUS.

  • Commandant SAFTI Military Institute and his principal staff and commanders will visit TDSI on 8 March 2004.
     

 Please update us on any change in your particulars with an email to: Ms Jocelyn Kan