A team of two students from Nanyang Technological University, Oh En Yao Joshua and Goh Jing Yaw, has been named the winner of the Sembcorp Water Technology Prize (SWTP) 2016. This is an annual nationwide competition sponsored by Sembcorp and supported by PUB that aims to give students a taste of what it is like to be water engineers for a day.
Participants in this year’s SWTP competed to build and run the best-performing, most efficient membrane bioreactor (MBR) system. This required them to make key decisions in configuring their MBR units for optimum life cycle cost, and finding the best strategy to operate their plants with the lowest possible power usage.
A total of 28 students from polytechnics, ITEs and universities took part. The winning team was presented a cash prize of S$5,000 by Sembcorp Group President & CEO Tang Kin Fei at a ceremony at Singapore International Water Week today, and also won an internship opportunity with Sembcorp Industries. The first and second runner-up teams, from National University of Singapore and Republic Polytechnic respectively, took home cash prizes of S$3,000 and S$1,500.
Mr Tang Kin Fei said, “Sembcorp is proud to sponsor the Sembcorp Water Technology Prize once again. As Singapore’s leading water company, we hope to expose young people to water technology, and inspire them to consider a career in our industry. I would like to congratulate the winners, and I hope that all our participants found the experience a fun and meaningful one.”
Mr George Madhavan, PUB’s Director of 3P Network added, “Research and development is vital in overcoming water challenges, as demonstrated by Singapore’s relentless pursuit of technology that eventually led to alternative sources of water such as NEWater. We are glad that Sembcorp provides such hands-on opportunities for students to understand the real-life challenges faced in water management today. We hope that the youths of today are inspired to come up with innovative solutions of tomorrow as we continue to search for more cost-efficient and effective ways of producing water.”
