Singapore agencies recognised for science and tech innovation

Themed Transforming Singapore in a Changing World - STE Innovations for a Sustainable Future, Singapore’s Public Service Science, Technology and Engineering Conference (STEC) 2024 brought together over 850 leaders from public service and featured an exhibition of 21 projects. 

The Minister-in-Charge of the Public Service, Chan Chun Sing, noted that the contributions to science, technology, and engineering (STE) can potentially enhance Singapore’s impact beyond borders. 

“We must make sure that our people understand the challenges of the world deeply and fall in love with the problem, but not fall in love with the solution,” Chan said in his opening speech. 

“We should challenge ourselves to see how we can apply different technologies to solve different problems, bringing new perspectives,” he added. 

The conference recognised three shortlisted projects from the STE Innovation Challenge competition, a hackathon that promotes cross-agency collaboration to develop, test, and prototype solutions to real-world problems.  

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Four projects received the STE Excellence Award for developing innovative solutions for problems faced by citizens and communities. 

Easing healthier lifestyles 

One of the winners of the STE Excellence Award was the technology behind Healthier SG, a national healthcare initiative by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB). 

The initiative aims to simplify healthcare journeys for citizens, enabling better-informed choices and more convenient access to information.  

MOH Population Health Division Director, Delia Teo, told GovInsider that the main inspiration behind the project was to help Singaporeans become healthier in a more structured way.  

“We wanted to help connect primary care and the whole [healthcare] ecosystem to help the resident know what to do, then know who to see, and when,” she said. 

Healthier SG connects private and public healthcare providers, general practitioners, electronic medical systems, and residents as end users on a seamless platform.  

“Tech is an essential enabler for this,” shared Synapxe Deputy Director for Population Health Programme Office, James Ng. 

“We have enabled a health info grid that [transforms] data into operable data-sharing across the whole ecosystem,” he added that the connection of this ecosystem has not been done before. 

The technology behind Healthier SG can be used as a foundation for other national programs that seek a similar infrastructure for enhanced interconnectedness, Ng shared. 

Within one-and-a-half years of development, the project has enhanced over 20 systems in the public health sector, and 17 CMS in the private sector.  

“We look forward to making the health journey of Singaporeans a lot easier over the next few years as we operate, helping them understand what they need to do and using tech to help health partners and residents,” Teo added. 

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GovInsider previously spoke to Synapxe’s Programme Manager of Data Analytics and AI, Salman Jaffer, to understand how agile methods were applied to structure data analytics flow within Healthier SG’s backend. 

Tech for nature and sustainability  

The National Parks Board (NParks) and Singapore Land Authority also presented their project to enhance urban tree management in Singapore, driven by the city’s vision to integrate nature into urban life.  

The project aims to automate and improve tree inspection using technology that extracts parameters and generates digital twins for a more efficient and accurate process.  

NParks Assistant Chief Executive Officer and Corporate Development Services, Tan Chong Lee, shared that the research project started eight years ago, funded by the National Research Foundation.  

NParks manages about two million urban trees. Before this project, most of the inspection process was manual and rigorous. The challenge was to create a “mindset shift” with the introduction of technology, Tan said. 

“To make sure that our technology enhances our work, and at the same time, it doesn’t replace the importance of our work,” he added. With technology, the team can now focus their energy on higher-value work, rather than manual tasks. 

Tan shared that the technology behind the digital twin opens many possibilities for tree management, such as predicting tree growth over time to planning with climate change challenges accounted for. 

Another project which aimed to leverage technology and science toward combating climate change challenges was a maritime decarbonisation project by the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).  

The project was awarded for the successful completion of the world’s first ship-to-containership methanol bunkering operation. The objective is to replace the primary power source of ships, from fossil fuels to methanol, to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. 

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In preparation of the first methanol pumping operation, MPA trained crew to handle methanol safely, foreseeing an additional 10,000 maritime personnel to join courses in the proper handling of methanol by 2030.  

Innovating with purpose  

For the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech), embracing technology for innovation is a daily affair. The challenge lies in ensuring that every idea and project improves the lives of citizens and the work of businesses, said GovTech’s Government Digital Products, Product Manager, Suresh Kumar Sarad.  

“We don’t want to do technology just for the sake of it. We want to ensure [that] for each agency, no matter what their mandate is, for them to be able to leverage on the technology by GovTech to make things better,” he added. 

GovTech’s project received the STE Innovation Challenge Merit Award for rolling out the integration of video analytics systems (VAS) and cloud video exchange (CVX) in the whole-of-government video ecosystem.