A*Star scientists, engineers recognised for contributions to local SME ecosystem

SEVEN research scientists and engineers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) were recognised on Wednesday for their contributions to the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ecosystem and potential to help local SMEs grow.

The award recipients were seconded to SMEs under A*Star's Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) programme, and helped their respective host companies co-develop novel products, upskill workers and expand internationally.

Four winners received the T-Up Excellence Award for their exceptional contributions to the SME ecosystem by developing innovative, marketable products and improving the research and development (R&D) capabilities of the companies.

The remaining three winners received the T-Up Emerging Talent Award for their potential to meet industry needs and help local enterprises grow.

The awards were presented at SME Day 2020 @ SWITCH by Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Trade and Industry and Manpower Tan See Leng.

He also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between A*Star and the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to develop an innovation and enterprise talent pipeline for local enterprises. The partnership will see A*Star's T-Up secondees working with SIT interns to help companies solve problems through research and innovation.

The interns will benefit from mentorship, R&D experience and exposure to the process of technology translation and commercialisation. A*Star and SIT piloted the collaboration with fintech firm STYL Solutions in May.

In his speech at the event, Dr Tan urged SMEs to accelerate their innovation journey by adopting ready-to-go technologies, leveraging operation and technology roadmapping, partnering public agencies and private companies to innovate, and upskilling their workforce.

SMEs can reach out to the trade associations and chambers (TACs), which can help by consolidating and defining common problem statements for each industry, and bring the aggregated demands to research institutes to co-develop solutions.

"This is a much more efficient way than having individual SMEs running from pillar to post looking for solutions themselves," Dr Tan said.

Aside from upskilling their existing workforce, SMEs can tap the T-Up programme for R&D talent, he added. Under the programme, A*Star researchers with the appropriate expertise will be embedded with the company to drive technology transfer or R&D projects, or help build in-house research and innovation capabilities. More than 900 A*Star research scientists and engineers have been seconded to more than 800 SMEs since 2003.

The 2020 winners of the T-Up Excellence Award are:

*Dr Veeresh Juturu from A*Star's Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, who was seconded to Westcom Solutions and developed a microbial solution to turn food waste into organic fertiliser;

*Dr Manippady Krishna Kumar and Lance Tan Wei Sheng from A*Star's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, who were seconded to Champs Industrial and developed water disinfection technologies; and

*Chiu Ying Lay from A*Star's Institute for Infocomm Research, who was seconded to Whizpace and helped enhance and develop the company's "super Wifi" products.

The 2020 winners of the T-Up Emerging Talent Award are:

*Dr Li Hongying from A*Star's Institute of High Performance Computing, who was seconded to ERS and developed a computational fluid dynamics model to simulate scenarios and speed up product design;

*Tnay Guan Leong from A*Star's Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), who was seconded to Fidel Engineering and Trading and developed a machining technology that accelerated production of complex aerospace components; and

*Pua Suan Tai, a former SIMTech research engineer who was seconded to Hope Technik and devised payload modules for robotic load carriers to be used in malls to deliver goods.