SCS Magazine 2021 Issue 1

MCI (P) 068/04/2021

FROM COVID-19 CRISIS TO COVID-19 RECOVERY 02 How the GoWhere Team Went Everywhere in Singapore 04 Can AI Cure Our Pandemic Woes?

06 What is the Future of the MICE Industry?

08 Lum Seow Khun Chats about Onboarding in a Pandemic 10 Jason Leow Shares about Stepping Up for Good

Issue

01 2021

Contents Vision

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

POWER BOOST

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To be the leading infocomm and digital media professional society in Singapore

Why It’s Time to Get “Tech-cinated”

Six Ways to Hack the Future of Work

THE BIG IDEA

#LATEST@SCS

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How the GoWhere Team Went Everywhere in Singapore

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IT Leader Awards 2020 – Tech Movers and Shakers Celebrated

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Can AI Cure Our Pandemic Woes?

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IT Leader Awards 2021 – Revealing Our Tech Heroes from Crisis

To lead and contribute to the vibrancy and growth of Singapore’s infocomm and digital media industry

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What is the Future of the MICE Industry?

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SCS Executive Council 2021/22 Elected

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Thirteen Outstanding Members Inducted as SCS Fellows

Add Value

SPOTLIGHT

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To add value to the infocomm and digital media professional’s career and personal development

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Lum Seow Khun Chats about Onboarding in a Pandemic

Third Cloud Conference Goes Hybrid

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Jason Leow Shares about Stepping Up for Good

Mission Lead the Way

Be the Voice To engage and be the voice of the infocomm and digital media community

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The Magazine of the Singapore Computer Society

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

9:41 AM

Have You Been “Tech-cinated”?

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hich camp do you belong to – the one that believes the new normal is coming or that the new normal is already here? No matter your leaning, giving your tech skills and knowledge a boost will be the smartest move yet to stay immune (and relevant) as the COVID-19 situation unfolds and we transit into the post-COVID era.

Disruptive as it is, the pandemic has undeniably offered us many learning opportunities. For example, who would have thought that they could attend trade conferences remotely? Or that working from home can become a norm for companies and organisations – big and small?

Fact is, the pandemic has pushed us out of our comfort zones to deliver viable and holistic solutions fast – as in the cases of the GoWhere team from GovTech and Mr Jason Leow from Better.sg.

But perhaps, what’s even more notable is how the pandemic draws out our ability to adapt.

Whether it is learning to work productively from home, remotely onboarding new employees, or mentoring an intern (like Ms Lum Seow Khun from Microsoft) – we have done it all.

EDITOR Tan Teng Cheong CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Agata Blasiak Edward K. Chow Dean Ho Vladyslav Koshelyev Eyung Lim Ong Wee Min EDITORIAL SUPPORT Claudia Lim

ADVERTISING SALES & ADMIN Claudia Lim For ad sales enquiries, Tel: 6226 2567 ext 12 Email: claudia.lim@scs.org.sg Mailing Address 53 Neil Road Singapore 088891 EMAIL scs.secretariat@scs.org.sg EDITORIAL & DESIGN Lancer Design Pte Ltd

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Trailblazers like Marina Bay Sands and NUS are already reimagining the future with hybrid broadcast studios for the MICE industry and IDentif.AI as a viable cure for COVID-19 and other infectious disease outbreaks respectively.

A central theme resonates throughout these achievements: Technology and Heroes in Crisis.

Aptly, we have not only themed our SCS IT Leaders Awards 2021 as such, but also celebrate our newly conferred SCS Fellows who have been unwavering from the beginning – even before the pandemic.

There is no saying when we will be beyond COVID-19 at this point. But the writing is on the wall – if we are going to get through this and emerge stronger, we must embrace tech. Now. If you haven’t, there’s still time for you to get the booster tech vaccine. Start with this issue.

Have fun reading!

TAN TENG CHEONG Editor Fellow, SCS tan.teng.cheong@scs.org.sg

FEEDBACK We value your feedback for this magazine. Simply email scs.secretariat@scs.org.sg with your comments to help us produce an even more interesting and relevant magazine for you in subsequent issues. You are welcome to submit articles for inclusion consideration.

For advertising enquiries, please call 6226 2567 or email scs.secretariat@scs.org.sg. The IT Society is the official publication of the Singapore Computer Society. Any part of this publication may be reproduced as long as credit is given to the publisher, Singapore Computer Society.

All views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society.

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THE BIG IDEA

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

GoWhere Suite:

Making Mission Impossible Possible

An agile and UX driven digital team, we pride ourselves as one that takes time to carefully conceptualise possible solutions.

However, this resolution was put to test on a particular Friday when we were briefed to build a website that informs the public on where they could go to collect masks within a day. With less than a day, how are we to build a minimum viable product (MVP) while ensuring its user-friendliness?

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fter much deliberation, self-questioning and brainstorming, we decided on building a simple tool that displays images of mask collection posters, according to the postal code users key into the tool. We beat the deadline.

IT WAS ABOUT TECH. BUT IT WAS ALSO ABOUT OPERATIONS. But we soon realised that while having sleek codes was satisfying, the true proof of concept was in how well the tool can support operational needs. We were swamped with requests: site information updates, replacement of incorrect posters, merging of posters, etc.

Amidst the rush to address day-to-day issues, we searched for solutions to these real world problems: • Unstructured data – How can we introduce a system that facilitates data collection and ever-changing information update?

• User adoption – How could we redesign the operation flow such that officers would be willing and can easily come on board?

• Usability issues – How do we ensure design consistency and readability when posters are prepared in silos by various collection centres?

THE BIG IDEA

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EYUNG LIM Member, SCS Director, Digital Design & Development, Government Digital Services, GovTech

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO FIND A BETTER WAY TO GOWHERE. With the goal of improving the operational technology of GoWhere, the team came up with PosterGoWhere. It is a simple form that allows officers to input their centre’s collection details. After which, these details are concurrently populated to the MaskGoWhere website as well as generated into a poster that can be further adapted into four languages for print or digital display.

Additionally, PosterGoWhere features a consistent layout that has been tested for readability and compatibility with digital bulletin boards at HDB void decks.

Through capturing data digitally and translating it into a poster, PosterGoWhere not only effectively tackles pain points faced by both the tech and operations teams, but also makes for a seamless backend to frontend data flow. The structured data also allows for frequent refreshes and updates.

ENHANCEMENT IS AN ITERATIVE PROCESS. Having the operations team on board is important, but so is having the support of end users. Hence, the team leveraged our sister product – Whole-of-Government Application Analytics (WOGAA) Sentiments1, to set up feedback monitoring for the MaskGoWhere site within an hour. And true enough – no matter how much we think we understand our users, there will always be feedback that surprises us.

Once the direct feedback channel is opened, we had to fix issues – from systemic issues such as browser compatibilities and postal code errors, to everyday issues like size and fitting of masks. While it was a little overwhelming, we were happy that we can address problems and make our product more useful every single day. This led to more than 40 deployments in the first few days before the product reached a more stable state.

LESSONS ON INCLUSIVITY AND TECH STACK LEARNT. If there were feedback that left us with important learning beyond GoWhere, it was – to design with inclusivity in mind.

Two weeks after the product was launched, we observed that users repeatedly requested for language support beyond English. However,

translation was not the team’s area of expertise. Nonetheless, the team had to figure out a way to facilitate translations as part of the agile development process.

After consulting with several partners, we eventually settled with the implementation of a mini tech stack to facilitate concurrent and real-time translation.

Essentially, tech stack offers more than just a solution for translation. It is also a good way to address repeated challenges with attributes such as speed of execution, accuracy of data and information, reusability of implementation (and learning points), and scalability, tipping in its favour.

In the end, while we have accomplished the mission, our greater achievement lies in the codifying of our learnings – be it bug fixes, better approaches to inclusivity, or enhancing the tech stack so that future products have a much better starting point.

Next: Go...Where?

As at the end of 2020, GoWhere has been a part of 11 national initiatives, serving 14 million visits and over 48 million Application Programming Interface (API) calls. It has been a very humbling journey – working with fellow government colleagues in different parts of the government. In days ahead, we will look at how to leverage the tech stack built during the COVID-19 period to benefit other non-COVID related government projects in distribution operations and the social welfare domain.

GovTech is a winner under the Infrastructure category of the IT Leader Awards 2021 – Tech Heroes from Crisis.

WOGAA is a Singapore Government Tech Stack product responsible for the iconic smiley face seen on all government websites.

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

Can AI Find a Cure for COVID-19?

DR DEAN HO Member, SCS Provost’s Chair Professor Director, The N.1 Institute for Health (N.1), Director, The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM), Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore

DR AGATA BLASIAK Head of Digital Health Innovation, The N.1 Institute for Health (N.1), National University of Singapore

DR EDWARD K. CHOW Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

When outbreaks emerge, drug repurposing has traditionally served as the first line of intervention due to urgent circumstances and the limited resources available to develop treatment options. However, repurposed candidates do not always yield positive treatment outcomes on their own – and are hence prematurely discarded from consideration.

DIAGNOSING EXISTING CHALLENGES Traditionally, a potential drug is selected based on its mechanism of action, or the way it interferes with the infection process. This treatment is then tested on applicable disease models and potentially advanced to human studies.

But when potential candidates show a lack of efficacy, they usually fall out of consideration. This leads to crucial missed opportunities to place promising drug agents into combination regimens that could result in dramatically enhanced efficacy – even if they are ineffective on their own.

Another factor in optimising combination therapy treatment is therapy selection.

Typically, the therapeutics are selected (Step A), and their respective doses determined (Step B). Unfortunately, this sequential approach has led to suboptimal efficacy and patient toxicity.

To truly optimise combination therapy design, steps A and B should be addressed simultaneously. Specifically, drug and dose selection are so tightly connected that true optimisation often yields combinations of unforeseen but clinically-acceptable drugs and doses.

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This in itself presents an insurmountable challenge, as simultaneously solving both steps from a pool of drugs yields a large range of possible combinations and doses – 12 drugs at 10 dosage levels results in one trillion possible combinations. This renders the process too resource-intensive and sometimes even precluded based on time constraints. Furthermore, once a drug combination is identified, the drug doses required to capture and sustain positive treatment outcome are time-dependent and patient-specific.

Traditional strategies are not intended to resolve this spectrum of barriers.

CONCOCTING OPTIMAL COMBINATIONS To address these challenges, IDentif.AI is developed to optimise infectious disease treatment design based on a powerful, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-discovered correlation. Contrary to traditional big data-based approaches, IDentif.AI does not use pre-existing data and in silico modelling to predict combination regimens. Instead, it realises experimentally-backed combination regimens by pairing prospectively acquired data from experiments with an optimisation platform.1 The foundational approaches enabling IDentif.AI (also known as QPOP and CURATE.AI) have been validated in-human across multiple diseases, ranging from solid and haematological

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cancers to chronic illnesses such as hypertension, infectious diseases, transplant medicine, and cognitive training, among others.2-6 Following the emergence of COVID-19, a study harnessing IDentif.AI to design regimens against SARS-CoV-2 was initiated. A pool of candidate therapies was selected in consultation with a team of global health security experts, drug developers, field epidemiologists, and clinicians, among others. To come up with a list of combinations, IDentif.AI was integrated with a SARS-CoV-2 live virus model. Within approximately two weeks, IDentif.AI produced an experimentally validated and ranked list of combinations that pinpoints optimised regimens. Importantly – it also pointed out potential regimens that should be avoided due to lack of efficacy, even in an optimisation context.

Due to its mechanism-independence and applicability to virtually all infectious disease indications, IDentif.AI serves as an actionable clinical decision support platform that can be rapidly deployed in future outbreaks. In addition, IDentif.AI can be continuously implemented to monitor the evolution of combination regimen rankings across different pathogen strains.

THE BIG IDEA

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TREATING FUTURE OUTBREAKS Billions of dollars have been spent on the discovery and development of novel candidates, most of which have led to clinical trial failure. Results from IDentif.AI demonstrate that discovery and development must be seamlessly integrated, and not seen as different segments of the therapy workflow. The emergence of digital medicine and its optimisation capabilities also show that even well-designed, promising drug compounds will not yield favourable treatment outcomes if they are not utilised to their full potential. That is, they need to be co-administered with other therapies that are optimally selected, and at the right dose.

To pinpoint rapid and optimised intervention for future outbreaks, our ability to rationally reconcile carefully designed experiments into actionable treatment recommendations is essential. Furthermore, the pandemic preparedness community has to move beyond convention to reimagine all aspects of the treatment continuum, from discovery to development, clinical trial design innovation and all the way to drug supply chain management and beyond. As evidenced over the past year, when interdisciplinarity and community unite as one ecosystem, amazing outcomes can be realised.

NUS is a winner under the Pathfinder category of the IT Leader Awards 2021 – Tech Heroes from Crisis.

A. Blasiak, J.J. Lim, S.G.K. Seah, T. Kee, A. Remus, H. Chye, P.S. Wong, L. Hooi, A.T.L. Truong, N. Le, C.E.Z. Chan, R. Desai, X. Ding, B.J. Hanson, E.K. Chow, D. Ho*, IDentif.

AI: Rapidly optimizing combination therapy design against severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with digital drug development. Bioeng Transl Med. 2020 Dec 1;6(1):e10196. doi: 10.1002/btm2.10196.

2 D. Ho, Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Therapy, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz3023, 2020.

3 A. Pantuck, D.K. Lee, T. Kee, P. Wang, S. Lakhotia, M. Silverman, C. Mathis, A. Drakaki, A.S. Belldegrun, C.M. Ho, and D. Ho, Modulating BET Bromodomain Inhibitor ZEN-3694 and Enzalutamide Combination Dosing in a Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patient Using CURATE.AI, an Artificial Intelligence Platform, Advanced Therapeutics, DOI: 10.1002/adtp.201800104, 2018.

4 Rashid M, Toh TB, Hooi L, Silva A, Zhang Y, Tan PF, The AL, Karnani N, Jha S, Ho CM, Chng WJ, Ho D, Chow EK; Optimizing drug combinations against multiple myeloma using a quadratic phenotypic optimization platform (QPOP); Science Translational Medicine, 2018 Aug 8;10(453).

5 Zarrinpar, A.; Lee, D.-K.; Silva, A.; Datta, N.; Kee, T.; Eriksen, C.; Weigle, K.; Agopian, V.; Kaldas, F.; Farmer, D.; Wang, S. E.; Busuttil, R.; Ho, C.-M.; Ho, D., Individualizing liver transplant immunosuppression using a phenotypic personalized medicine platform. Science Translational Medicine 2016, 8 (333), 333ra49-333ra49. Cover Article 6 S. de Mel, M. B. M. Rashid, X. Y. Zhang, J. Goh, C. T. Lee, L. M. Poon, E. H. L. Chan, X. Liu, W. J. Chng, Y. L. Chee, J. Lee, Y. C. Yuen, J. Q. Lim, B. K. H. Chia, Y. Laurensia, D. Huang, W. L. Pang, D. M. Z. Cheah, E. K. Y. Wong, C. K. Ong, T. Tang, S. T. Lim, S. B. Ng, S. Y. Tan, H. Y. Loi, L. K. Tan, E. K. Chow, A. D. Jeyasekharan, Application of an ex-vivo drug sensitivity platform towards achieving complete remission in a refractory T-cell lymphoma. Blood Cancer J. 10, 9 (2020).

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

Reimagining the Future of the MICE Industry

As the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) industry gradually emerges from the darkest days of the pandemic, one important question is keeping the industry awake at night – how will we function as an industry in the new “never norm”? For an industry that thrives on face-to-face events, what does the post-pandemic world hold for it? Will we return to the way we were in the pre-COVID world or will we suddenly find ourselves in a totally new world?

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o better understand how we can thrive as an industry in this new norm, we need to ask ourselves a fundamental question: why do we exist as an industry? The simple answer – this industry serves as a platform for the community to fulfil three basic needs: 1. The need of communities to meet to transact knowledge 2. The need of communities to meet to transact business 3. The need of communities to meet to transact networks In the pre-pandemic years, we were an industry that “lived” for that once-in-a-year event – whether it is an annual meeting where thought leaders gathered to share knowledge and decide on the advancement of an industry; an annual tradeshow showcasing the best and latest industry solutions; or an annual global strategy company meeting.

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ONG WEE MIN Vice-President, Conventions and Exhibitions, Marina Bay Sands

When the pandemic brought the industry to a standstill in 2020, it also impacted the ability and willingness of the industry to meet. Travel restrictions and border closures shuttered the doors to our tradeshows and conventions. Despite these challenges, the three fundamentals remained constant.

TECHNOLOGY AS A KEY ENABLER TO ENHANCE DELEGATE EXPERIENCE Technology has always been a strange bedfellow in the world of MICE. It was often an afterthought and the industry was never serious (as there wasn’t a real need to) in harnessing technology to better engage our audiences. It is paradoxical that it took the pandemic to bring technology to the forefront of the MICE industry, compelling the community to reimagine and redefine what the future holds for the industry.

All these have and will continue to change, specifically, the traditional MICE event business model. Events will no longer be purely about the face-toface, but instead incorporate a virtual component that runs in parallel to drive greater engagement and reach wider audiences. New revenue models will emerge to leverage the potential that hybrid events offer.

The future will challenge the paradigm of the five-day-a-year event concept – the traditional meeting design where on-site content delivery was everything.

Technology will empower communities to consume content and knowledge on-demand all year round. MICE events of the future must therefore have components akin to a Netflix model where subscription-based content is available, as part of the ongoing yearlong engagement with the professional communities.

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THE BIG IDEA

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An average Netflix surfer makes the decision to either watch a movie or continue browsing in not more than 30 seconds of watching a trailer. Just like choosing movies off a Netflix channel, MICE audiences will now browse the plethora of content available online and make that critical decision of whether to engage further. While content is king but equal importance has to be placed on the delivery method as event planners continually look to design a bold and exhilarating content delivery method that will capture the imagination (and attention) of their audiences.

clients and wider global audiences, changing the way the MICE industry approaches storytelling and content delivery.

Harnessing technology like holographic telepresence will help communities to transcend geographical distances and allow in-person audiences to see eye-toeye with presenters even though they are not in the same space physically. Like holograms, mixed reality is considered revolutionary when utilised for MICE events as it empowers event planners to cater to global audiences. Through mixed reality, event planners can transform their events with show-stunning presentations, capturing audiences’ imagination in the O2O2O (Online-to-Offline-to-Online) world.

events in well-designed hybrid formats.

The future will see the industry adopting an omni-channel strategy to drive content 365 days, 24/7, online in a seamless, efficient and timely manner. Hybrid broadcast studios such as the ones at Sands Expo and Convention Centre will not be just about the studio in its standalone format.

Instead, it will be a global network of hybrid studios within key MICE cities linked to one another through a series of virtual systems, serving the needs of the industry and facilitating the adoption of a whole new business model.

Case in point, as a business innovation, the Hybrid Broadcast Studio at Marina Bay Sands effectively harnesses these technologies to create a whole new business segment that has never existed before. It opens new engagement channels for Marina Bay Sands to reach

MICE EVENTS OF THE FUTURE Pre-pandemic, we used to host thousands of events annually at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, and the conventional MICE event strategy was all about footfall.

In the future, the concept of eyeballs will need to be considered alongside the traditional concept of footfall. Hence, we firmly believe that the return of the industry will be marked with physical events running in parallel with equally successful virtual

Though challenging, it is also an exciting time for the industry as we stand at a critical point in history where we can take a step back to reimagine and redefine our collective future. The future that is all about engagement, content and storytelling. Do we dare to excite our audiences? Because if we do not, someone else will.

MBS is a winner under the Entrepreneurship category of the IT Leader Awards 2021 – Tech Heroes from Crisis.

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

WORKING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19:

How to Make It Work?

LUM SEOW KHUN Fellow, SCS SG100WIT List 2020 Director, Public Sector Group, Microsoft Singapore Earliest Tech Experience: Clinching a project with Telecom Authority of Singapore (TAS) Currently Watching: Mouse (Korean thriller) An App You Can’t Live Without: Microsoft Edge Last Binged: The evolution of home-based learning in Singapore Pet Topic: Narrowing the tech divide for persons with disabilities Favourite Way to Relax: Swimming, walking, colouring

Imagine starting a new job. Now imagine starting a new job in a pandemic. This was what happened to Lum Seow Khun, Director, Public Sector Group at Microsoft in Singapore – who was one month into her role when the circuit breaker happened.

She sits down with The IT Society to share how it was like, what she misses about the pre-COVID world, and what’s so great (and not) about the pandemic.

Q: Question, SK: Seow Khun Q: You were one month into your new job at Microsoft when the circuit breaker started. How did it affect you?

SK: In terms of work itself, not much. I’ve been working with the public sector for more than half my career by now – it’s a domain I’m familiar with. It was helpful that Microsoft had a very structured onboarding process with clear goals – 30, 60 and 90-day tasks. It helped that the people responsible for my onboarding were also very forthcoming, so everything went smoothly.

Working from home was not new – having worked in multinational corporations (MNCs) for many years, I was already familiar with a flexible arrangement where I work from home in the morning before heading to onsite meetings at the client’s place in the afternoon. So, the framework was already in place even before working from

home became compulsory. In fact, now that I look back, I’ve had many years of practice working in a hybrid world and it’s something that I could share with my customers, many of whom were looking to make the digital transformation leap into creating a modern workplace for their people.

During the initial weeks of circuit breaker, our customers had to swiftly set up secure infrastructure to support remote work.

Both customers and our teams worked long hours to put the work from home motion in place. Fortunately, we got into a good rhythm and are all in a much better place now.

Q: What about internally – was it hard getting to know your new team and the workplace culture?

SK: Nothing beats meeting faceto-face offline – and since that was impossible during the circuit breaker,

we had to do video calls. However, some colleagues couldn’t turn on their video for various reasons. Not having that visual input contributed to a sense of disconnectedness. Recognising the increased workload and additional demands from home, Microsoft prioritised our well-being and organised a range of activities such as virtual yoga and talks to reduce stress and burnout. We still have these courses, meditation sessions and more – even today.

To stay connected within our team, we also set aside time for virtual team lunches and games. While we couldn’t meet face-to-face, we got to know each other as more than just colleagues in the office.

It’s an experience that brought us closer.

Now everyone is more open with sharing about family and home life – and in the process, we all learn that everyone has their own challenges and became more understanding towards one another.

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Q: You also do quite a bit of mentoring. How did COVID-19 affect your mentoring activities?

SK: Mentoring means a lot to me – in fact, I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger. This still resonates with me today. Which is why I continued mentoring through the pandemic. We had an intern who joined our team during the circuit breaker. He had never done a virtual internship before, and I’ve never had a virtual intern before so the entire experience was quite interesting. We didn’t get to meet face-to-face in the entire time (12 weeks) he was with us and only got to catch up over coffee after his internship and the circuit breaker. But – he successfully completed the project he was working on. Talk about the success of flexible working!

As far as I am concerned, mentoring is a mutual process. While I guide my mentees, they also share their perspectives on emerging trends, apprehension about entering the workforce, and what they aspire to do. Some of these conversations have changed pre-COVID and now – the focus was on discussing aspirations and advising on career possibilities pre-

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COVID, but nowadays mentees express more worries about jobs, concerns about COVID-19 and their families. This experience during the circuit breaker has taught me to keep on practising active listening and empathy towards my mentees’ motivations as I continue my mentorship journey.

work options to continue. More importantly, organisations have also come to see this change as pivotal for staff retention and motivation and are actively embracing them. 66% of business decision makers are considering a redesign of physical spaces to better accommodate hybrid work environments.

Q: How else do you think the world has changed since COVID-19?

SK: The world is no longer the same as it was 12 months ago. Many lives were lost. We also saw in the news that more women lost their jobs due to the pandemic. These circumstances are sad and unfortunate. Serving as the advisor to the SCS Women in Tech (WIT) Chapter, my team and I are working on programmes to reskill displaced women so that they can find employment in our hybrid world.

In addition, the pace of digital transformation has accelerated significantly in the last year – a boon for companies seeking trusted technology solutions to drive success and help their people achieve more.

What used to take three years to implement can go as fast as three months now. These changes are widespread and touch every dimension of society – changing our lives for the better. We see hawkers on social media, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) seeking out SME Go Digital grants more actively and the government bringing forward the plan to equip all students with a digital learning device from 2028 to 2021. I am optimistic that these changes will put us in a better place when the world eventually emerges from the pandemic.

The rise of digital natives, together with the pandemic has changed many workplaces for good. Many of us benefit from a hybrid work arrangement and flexible work styles. For example, our Microsoft Work Trend Index1 noted that over 70% of workers want flexible remote

“While the future will always be uncertain, we must remember our united resilience and strength as we continue on the road to economic recovery. In the last year, we’ve all won in some way or other, whether it’s being better adapted or finding a good rhythm to keep our work, families, businesses and the economy going. As long as we stay positive, take care of our well-being and continue looking forward, our new hybrid world will be a promising one.”

What are some qualities a tech professional needs to thrive in today’s environment?

Post-COVID-19, I am looking forward to...

What is a quote you live by?

I hope that a post-COVID-19 world would be...

The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work—Are We Ready? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

TECH HERO TO THE RESCUE:

Tech for Good in Time of Crisis JASON LEOW IT Leader Awards 2021 - Pathfinder category Developer, Better.sg

Age: 42 Earliest Tech Experience: Started building WordPress sites for companies in 2012 Currently Into: Vue.js Always Motivated to: Learn something new Pet Topic: Coding Favourite Way to Relax: Travelling – Can’t wait to visit Bali again Fun Fact: Recently promoted to a father of an adorable boy

He is like you and me – no special suit nor any special power. However, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, during the months of April to July 2020, he stepped up. Armed only with a strong sense of mission and basic coding knowhow, how did Jason Leow become a tech hero? The IT Society chats with him to retrace the journey that awoke the tech hero in him.

Q: Question, JL: Jason Leow Q: Congratulations for winning the IT Leader Awards 2021 – Tech Heroes from Crisis. What inspired you to come out with the 11 digital tools that won you the award?

JL: My first project – Dabao Dash – came to life during the circuit breaker when dining in was not allowed at hawker centres and coffeeshops. Livelihoods of many hawkers and food sellers were badly affected. However, many were reluctant to get on board existing food delivery apps because of margin concerns and inadequate technical knowledge to navigate these apps. Hence, I thought it will be nice if there is a consolidated, open platform that is easy to use and share information. That was how Dabao Dash is born.

As all of us know, the pandemic situation is dynamic. Therefore, whenever my collaborators and I see an opportunity for a digital tool to help solve a complex issue, we brainstorm and work together

to design and build that solution. This has consequently resulted in the birth of tools like Majulah Belanja and Visual Aid. Q: There are many ways to help.

Why did you choose to do so with digital tools?

JL: There are other means of helping and showing support, but I eventually chose digital tools because of their potential for scale and reach. For example, with Majulah Belanja, we provided more than a platform that connects migrant workers and dormitory operators in different dormitories with corporate and individual donors. We offered a fast and effective way to match needs to available resources.

Q: Building 11 tools within such a short period of time is impressive. How did you do it?

JL: My training is in design, and my coding capabilities are mostly self-taught.

So you can imagine – my programming skills were relatively limited1 then.

Since then, Jason has learnt to code. He recently launched his own SaaS (software as a service).

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Additionally, given the fast unfolding pandemic situation, it would have been daunting even for an expert programmer to build 11 digital tools within such a short time. Fortunately for me, two things worked in my favour.

Firstly, the network at Better.sg allowed me to easily tap into like-minded individuals with complementary skills. Our common passion for tech for good enabled us to collaborate and build digital tools together.

Visual Aid was one such instance. I cofounded the initiative with Shaina Tan whom I met through Better.sg. Together, we roped in designers, illustrators, translators and healthcare professionals to help steer the project forward.

Secondly, I was able to leverage no-code tools for many of these solutions. These tools allowed me to quickly get tools up and working. At the same time, their simplicity meant that I could turn over the tools to someone else to manage it without worrying that it will break or its subsequent maintenance. What’s more – once I had learnt these no-code tools, the possibilities of application became limitless.

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Q: What do you see to be the roles of these tools after the pandemic?

JL: All of these tech for good tools are purpose-built, in response to a problem.

Naturally when the situation resolves, they should retire. We don’t need to get too attached to them. Instead, we should be glad that they cease to be useful – because it’ll mean that they have fulfilled their purpose and are no longer needed.

And that’s not the end of it. Should the

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problem return, we know that we have a ready solution that can be activated quickly and easily.

Q: What is next on the horizon for you?

JL: I am deeply interested in learning.

That is a recurring theme throughout my career. Previously, it sparked my move from social work to design – and now I am learning coding, which I believe complements my design

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capabilities. I will continue to learn and keep at doing what I do because I see the future to be one where tech will be increasingly harnessed for good – I want to contribute towards that.

“The journey throughout this period has been very rewarding. I am heartened to have touched lives and made a positive difference for many. I am also humbled by the learning opportunities these efforts offer and the ability to work along other talented and passionate individuals.”

AN OVERVIEW OF TOOLS BUILT Tool Tools for COVID19 COVID19.sheet2site.com/s/ toolsforcovid19/ Self-initiative Majulah Belanja sheet2site.com/s/majulahbelanja/ A collaboration with Covid Migrant Support Coalition (CMSC) Visual Aid visualaid.sg/ A collaboration with designers, illustrators, translators and healthcare providers Dabao Dash sheet2site.com/s/dabaodash/ Self-initiative Grant Hunt gogranthunt.com/ Self-initiative SG Long-term Care Costs Calculator carecostscalculator.better.sg A collaboration with other members of Better.sg Sweet Jam Sites COVID-19 initiative sweetjamsites.com/covid-19 Self-initiative

Purpose Offers tools and resources for small and medium-sized businesses to weather through COVID-19.

Impact During Circuit Breaker Total users = 784 Sessions = 1,090 Page views = 1,520

Helps employers and dorm operators support and encourage their workers by crowdsourcing resources and granting wishes.

Enables better communication between healthcare workers and migrant workers affected by COVID-19.

Total requests and offers = 1,800 Total requests matched = 700

Matches freelance, independent delivery folks with hawkers and small and medium-sized F&B shops affected by COVID-19.

Allows users to hunt down grants for their social impact project. The site is recently enhanced.

Total users = 9,710 Sessions = 12,7k Page views = 18.8k

Enables Singaporeans to calculate long-term healthcare costs that are not government-subsidised when caring for their loved ones.

Offers to build a complimentary notfor-profit, COVID-19-related website for anyone in a day. Anything that would help people be more informed, supported, safer or supplied.

Total users = 4,220 Sessions = 5,950 Page views = 7,580

Total users = 670 Sessions = 933 Page views = 1,100 Total chatbot users = 141 Not available

WASH in Southeast Asia covidsgsurvey.netlify.app It’s Raining Raincoats (a migrant worker NGO) irr-c19-mwhelp.netlify.app Call Home callhome.sg Independent Creative Professionals moppyart.netlify.app/

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POWER BOOST

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The Future of Work Is Here Business visionaries have predicted virtualisation of the office for a long time now. A popular book of the last decade “Remote: Office Not Required” gave examples of companies thriving without physical offices. For most organisations however, such changes were a distant future – until COVID-19 compressed these timelines by tenfold.

I

am fortunate to have colleagues on every continent and work with people across many countries. Even though I used to go to the office every day, I was already meeting most of my teammates over video conferencing. Working from home, I keep a similar approach. But I imagine, for someone who’s never had similar experiences, last year’s changes were disruptive. Good news is, anyone can acquire skills for remote work. Let me share some tips to help scale the learning curve.

IT’S NOT ABOUT EITHER OR. Eager futurists predict that remote work will completely replace face-to-face collaboration. It’s doubtful that this will happen soon – after all, people are social creatures. That said, the balance between virtual and in-person time will flip for many. I’ve heard several business people who swear by building in-person relationships, say that they will now rather conduct more virtual meetings than travel.

THE RIGHT TOOLS MATTER. Anyone with experience travelling business class will say that this improves the trip’s productivity. Similarly, “business class” tools can transform remote collaboration output in the new era. A high-quality virtual setup, which includes chairs, desks, cameras and collaboration software like virtual whiteboards, is a great long-term investment.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO STAY FLEXIBLE. Just like on-site work has rules, it is important to understand what makes remote collaboration effective and adapt workflows accordingly. For instance, by documenting every step and conversation

and allowing participants to contribute based on their timelines, the project team can work asynchronously rather than in real-time. If communication were key for face-to-face work, it is just as critical for digital collaboration.

VIRTUAL JET LAG IS REAL. We feel jet lagged when traveling between continents. Working with colleagues across different time zones over virtual work meetings can lead to odd work and sleep hours, sometimes even over multiple days. Exiting these working sprints is similar to experiencing jet lag, and taking time to recover once they are over is as important as after a “red-eye” business trip.

REMOTE COLLABORATION WILL ONLY IMPROVE. We are in the beginning of work transformation, and the technology we currently work with is still primitive.

Innovations such as Virtual Reality (VR) can make remote work more productive.

Case in point, I used my VR headset to project my office applications to multiple giant screens and collaborate with my colleagues on a virtual whiteboard – this is in some ways better than my “real” office setup.

VLADYSLAV KOSHELYEV Member, SCS Academy Lead, Facebook Founder, The Koshelyev Company

PEOPLE ARE FRONT AND CENTRE. Work has always been and will remain to be all about people, regardless of technology used. Since the dawn of ages where people sat in caves planning their next hunt, emotional intelligence, empathy and clear communication have been important, and they remain important when the future spacefaring civilisation coordinates its megaprojects across planets.

Being right in the middle of a major paradigm shift can feel disruptive and stressful. Historically however, such changes always led to more productive and fulfilling work lives eventually. This is our opportunity to deploy exciting new tech to transform how business is done – and have a lot of fun while at it!

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

Celebrating Achievements of 2020 and 2021 IT Leader Awards Winners

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he SCS IT Leader Presentation returned on 18 March 2021 with safe management measures in place amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides Guestof-Honour Mr S Iswaran, who was the Minister for Communications and Information, the Presentation was also attended by distinguished guests including Ministry of Health’s

Permanent Secretary Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Ministry of Communications and Information’s Permanent Secretary Ms Yong Ying-I as well as Mr Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

The event honoured seven outstanding individuals from five categories – IT Leader of the Year, Hall of Fame,

Entrepreneur of the Year, Professional of the Year and IT Youth – for the IT Leader Awards 2020. Additionally, two individuals and 11 teams were recognised under Infrastructure, Pathfinder and Entrepreneurship categories for the special themed edition “Tech Heroes from Crisis” for the IT Leader Awards 2021.

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Honouring Movers and Shakers of the Tech Industry Although SCS IT Leader Awards 2020 presentation is a year late – as a result of the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic, there is no doubt that the significance of the honour and our winners’ achievements remain an inspiration for both aspiring and current tech professionals. May our deserving winners continue driving the tech industry’s progress for many more years.

IT LEADER OF THE YEAR Howie Lau Assistant Chief Executive, Media and Innovation, Infocomm Media Development Authority A strong leader, Howie leads with a sense of purpose and laser-like focus on talent development. Howie’s achievement in developing tech talent is his lasting contribution.

Howie and his team at IMDA support the tech industry’s growth through talent, innovation and ecosystem development initiatives. His vision of an industry of tech professionals with relevant and current skills traces back to his days as SCS President from 2015 to 2018.

It propelled him to launch mentoring and certification initiatives for tech professionals. Amongst them were the Career Compass programme which engaged over 150 senior industry professionals and benefitted over 1,500 young and mid-career professionals; and the quarterly Cybersecurity Career Mentoring programme which groomed aspiring cybersecurity professionals.

The latter was subsequently strengthened with the introduction of the Certified Chief Information Security Officer programme.

To encourage non-tech professionals, managers, executives and technicians to enhance their digital skills, Howie extended SCS’ certifications beyond the tech industry with the launch of the Digital Proficiency programme.

Howie’s unique ability to “connect the dots” and see where national initiatives can be supported at the tech community level saw SCS membership increasing by 26% to reach 33,000 during his tenure as SCS President. His other accomplishments include the formation of AI and Robotics and Internet of Things Chapters around emerging tech areas, and the Women in Tech Special Interest Group to recognise women’s role in tech. At the national level, Howie co-chairs SG Women in Tech initiative.

HALL OF FAME Professor Alex Siow Professor, School of Computing and Director, Advanced Computing for Executives, National University of Singapore Alex is a pathfinder. As Singapore’s first Chief Information Officer, he leads by example how tech practitioners can rise to the top of their profession.

A highly distinguished tech veteran with stints in public and private sectors, Alex began his career as a structural engineer at Housing Development Board before switching to the IT department.

During Alex’s career at HDB which saw his appointment as CIO from 1981 to 2003, he implemented Singapore’s earliest digital transformation projects – burnishing HDB’s reputation as a thought leader in digital technologies.

Besides modernising operations with the introduction of mainframes, client-server systems, PC systems and networks and computer-aided design systems, Alex helped turn HDB into a customer-centric organisation, a forerunner of this concept in Singapore.

In his capacity as SCS President between 1997 and 2000, Alex introduced the first SCS Certification in IT Project Management and set up the SCS Resource Centre, contributing to the training and certification of the early batches of Singapore’s tech talent.

Alex’s selflessness in giving back to the tech community, mentoring upcoming tech executives and volunteering his time to improve the knowledge of tech practitioners and students is also evident from his involvement with other tech groups including the IT Management Association and the Project Management Institute Singapore Chapter and Cloud Security Alliance Singapore Chapter.

He was also a council member of the Singapore IT Federation and chaired its e-Learning Chapter.

Today, Alex continues to share his considerable experience in tech governance and implementation through his professional engagements with NUS, Temasek Polytechnic and Singapore University of Social Sciences.

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ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Joseph Gan Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, V-Key An experienced technologist, Joseph lives and breathes innovation. He holds the patent for V-Key’s V-OS core technology, the world’s first virtual secure element.

After catching the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship bug during his academic years in Stanford University, Joseph went on to co-found V-Key – a company that specialises in digital security solutions – in 2011.

Together with his co-founders and team, Joseph expands V-Key beyond its stronghold in Singapore to include financial and government customers across the region. Notably, V-Key was ranked third in the inaugural “Fastest Growing Companies in Singapore” conducted by The Straits Times and Statista in 2019, and awarded the 2019 Cybersecurity Award by the Association of Information Security Professionals for the SME (Vendor) category.

Today, V-Key is an internationally-acclaimed software-based digital security company, headquartered in Singapore.

Prior to starting V-Key, Joseph led engineering and R&D teams in the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies as the head of the Cyber Security Lab and later Cryptography Lab, where he oversaw research and development in software security solutions for the Ministry of Defence. He was also previously an R&D Manager in D’Crypt, leading a team focusing on software security research.

Apart from his V-Key portfolio, Joseph serves as the Chairperson for Security & Privacy Standards Technical Committee, and member of Future Economy Council’s Modern Services SubCommittee. He also finds time to mentor startup cybersecurity companies through programmes such as ICE71 and volunteer in Home for Good SG, which promotes and supports fostering and adoption. He currently fosters two children with his family.

PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR Professor Miao Chun Yan President’s Chair Professor and Chair of School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University Prof Miao is a gifted teacher and revered mentor with numerous prestigious educational awards, a leader with proven track records, and an accomplished researcher in Artificial Intelligence.

Prof Miao graduated 23 PhD students and mentored 16 postdoctoral fellows. She also led her NTU team to great achievements – Second in Computer Science among the Best Global Universities by US News and World Report 2019, and Top Three for research citation impact in AI 2017-2019 by Times Higher Education.

As Founding Director of the Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly, Prof Miao led Singapore’s first centre which tackles ageing population challenges with

THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR Huang Shao Fei Chief Information Security Officer, Land Transport Authority Shao Fei is passionate about contributing to Singapore’s cybersecurity ecosystem through building win-win partnerships among industries and student and startup communities.

A strong cybersecurity advocate in every sense, Shao Fei’s interest in cybersecurity goes beyond his professional portfolio. Shao Fei is an active supporter of cybersecurity initiatives that help aspiring professionals discover their cybersecurity career journey. For example, Shao Fei got cybersecurity industry veterans to volunteer as mentors and speakers for the Cybersecurity Career Mentoring programme, jointly developed by SCS and the Cyber Security Agency.

Shao Fei is also engaged in the cybersecurity startup scene, presiding as a judge at a Pitch Pit competition organised by cybersecurity startup accelerator – ICE71, and inspiring students and startup entrepreneurs at various events.

Respected as a credible voice in cybersecurity, Shao Fei not only regularly shares cybersecurity tips and commentaries through mediums such as print, radio, television and his personal LinkedIn page and conferences, but also his insights at talks, company visits and conferences like the GovInsider CXO Summit, CloudSec Conference, ISC2 Secure Singapore and ITS World Congress 2019. Additionally, Shao Fei contributes to the “Guide to Data Protection by Design for ICT Systems” published by the Personal Data Protection Commission.

Shao Fei is the President of the SCS Cybersecurity Chapter.

Concurrently, he co-chairs the Cybersecurity Working Group at the Union Internationale des Transports Publics and sits on the EC-Council Global Advisory Board to offer his expertise and knowledge. Shao Fei is also a member of the Blackhat Asia Executive Summit Advisory Board.

AI-empowered solutions. Prof Miao also helms the Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute as Founding Director and Lead Principal Investigator.

But Prof Miao is perhaps best known for her AI research in health, ageing, education and digital industry, having received over 20 Best Paper and AI awards including the prestigious National Research Foundation Investigatorship Award 2018.

Prof Miao’s passion for AI and education is also evident in her involvement with the reskilling and upskilling of local talents at NTU and SCS and the initiation of the Alibaba NTU Talent Programme for PhD students to strengthen the local AI talent base and help realise Singapore’s Smart Nation vision.

Prof Miao’s deep interest in AI saw her engaging as Editor and Chair of international journals and conferences, and serving on committees like the Ministry of Health’s City for All Age, Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Health Tech, SCS’ TechSkills Accelerator and AI Ethics Review Committees. She received the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2016.

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IT YOUTH Ben Chua Chief Executive Officer, Cyber Youth Singapore

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IT YOUTH Goh Jin Qiang System Analyst, Urban Redevelopment Authority

Ben founded Cyber Youth Singapore out of passion for cybersecurity and his aspiration in providing Singapore youths a safe platform and environment to explore their cybersecurity interests.

Jin Qiang delights in using technology to better lives of people and give back to the community. This love is captured in his tech journey through the various projects he has taken part in.

Without a tech background, Ben had a tough start in Diploma in Infocomm Security Management at Singapore Polytechnic.

However, while many of his classmates chose to drop out of the course, Ben overcame the learning curve with his seniors’ and mentors’ help. This experience inspired him to launch Cyber Youth Singapore – a youth led non-profit organisation supported by organisations such as the Cyber Security Agency and National Youth Council in 2019.

An avid gamer in his younger days, hours spent playing Dota and Maplestory ignited Jin Qiang’s fascination with computers. Attracted by the hands-on curriculum Institute of Technical Education offers, Jin Qiang enrolled in a higher NITEC course. His interest subsequently led him to pursue a Diploma in Information Technology at the Singapore Polytechnic.

At Cyber Youth Singapore, youths are given an opportunity to develop their cyber skills, step up to lead and bond with peers with the guidance of mentors and support groups. Plans are afoot to deepen engagement with industry partners and add value to cyber youths by offering them internship and skill development opportunities.

As President of SP School of Computing Ambassadors, Ben reached out to about 16,000 secondary school students between 2017 and 2018 to educate them about dangers of the digital world and offer tips on how to secure themselves online. He also developed six technical cyber demonstrations for his school which are still used in outreach efforts such as the Youth Cyber Exploration Programme and SP Open House today.

Ben is currently in his final year of study at SP. A Singtel Cyber Cadet Scholar, Ben hopes to further his studies in Computing and Law at the Singapore Management University.

At SP, Jin Qiang gained exposure through his involvement in the project SmartHomie, which garnered attention from industry experts and was showcased during the Thinker Lab opening. Jin Qiang graduated as Valedictorian for the School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology in 2014.

While studying at Singapore Management University, Jin Qiang spearheaded SMU Heartcode – a project that raises awareness of existing social issues in Singapore and imparts coding skills for solving real-life problems with Internet of Things solutions. Jin Qiang also got his first research experience as an IoT Developer intern at the TCS-SMU iCity Lab. In one notable project, Project SHINESeniors, Jin Qiang helped develop a smart home environment for elderly living alone. Using data sensors and systems to monitor living habits, he saw first-hand how technology saved lives after data systems detected abnormalities.

Jin Qiang went on to develop a community monitoring project – Quantifying Activity Levels of Community-dwelling Seniors through Beacons. He presented the project at the 33rd International Conference on Information Networking 2019.

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

Recognising Tech Heroes from Crisis Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, we saw sparks of brightness characterised by superhero teamwork and superhuman resilience. At the special themed IT Leader Awards 2021, the heroic acts of two individuals and 11 teams were recognised across three categories – Infrastructure, Pathfinder and Entrepreneurship.

INFRASTRUCTURE

RadiLogic: AI-Powered COVID-19 Detection Using Chest X-ray Images

ClassDo Virtual Classrooms for MENDAKI Tuition Scheme

Pneumonia on chest X-rays is one of the admission criteria for suspected COVID-19 as they have been shown to correlate with increased need for supplemental oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation for a patient. For which, RadiLogic can analyse each X-ray image and highlight abnormal chest X-rays within three seconds, so that radiologists can report such cases in 20% less time than before.

MENDAKI – a self-help group for the Malay community – had used ClassDo’s virtual classrooms to provide online tuition for its students on a small scale in 2019. However, during the circuit breaker, MENDAKI’s tuition centres had to close. This caused students, especially those in their crucial examination years, to face potential lesson disruptions.

Jointly developed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, RadiLogic is an AI system using programmed machine (deep) learning technology to prioritise and classify images of normal and abnormal chest X-rays, especially those showing lung infection (pneumonia) signs in a patient.

The system was programmed using 1,000 fully anonymised images of abnormal chest X-rays from COVID-19 patients and 3,000 anonymised normal chest X-rays to enable accurate comparisons.

To ensure that students in the MENDAKI online tuition programme continued to receive learning assistance, ClassDo supported the swift and smooth expansion of e-MENDAKI Tuition Scheme with its virtual room technology, benefitting over 3,000 secondary school students.

Beyond that, ClassDo’s rapid extension of its virtual classrooms to schools and private educators has seen a 50-fold increase in the overall hour usage and rising demand from the adult learning and corporate training industries.

GoWhere Suite for Timely and Accurate COVID-19 Aid Information The GoWhere Suite was developed by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore to quickly provide reliable COVID-19 related information including mask collection centres, opening hours of swabbing operations, channels to obtain grants and reskilling programmes. Available in four languages, the solution is also used to perform status queries of foreign workers in dormitories and assist in the distribution of the TraceTogether Token.

The application stack built-up for the GoWhere Suite is relevant for deployment and application to any generic distribution of information exercise as well as other areas.

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Systems for COVID-19 Testing Operations and Registry

Critical Role of IT in the Epicentre of the Fight Against COVID-19

Three systems – (1) the Swab Registration System for bulk booking and attendance tracking of attendance for swab tests, (2) the Testing Ops Centre Command and Control System that provides an overview of swab demands and lab capacities, (3) the COVID-19 Registry which automatically ingests COVID-19 test results from laboratories into a centralised repository – were developed to accommodate tens of thousands of swab tests every day. This digitalisation exercise significantly reduces the swab-to-test results turnaround time.

Integrated Health Information Systems played a key role in deploying IT solutions, including the use of analytics and AI to optimise the operations of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and National Centre for Infectious Diseases. In the face of surging COVID-19 cases, IHiS supported NCID in doubling its screening centre’s capacity for receiving, screening and discharging patients with the deployment of holistic tech solutions. These included setting up purpose-built ITenabled tentages, networks and computer equipment, IT infrastructure and Real-time Location Systems.

To date, the systems have been accessed by more than 24,000 employers and government agencies, supporting 5.5 million testing appointments or over 30,000 clients daily. Considered to be key in Singapore’s efforts in containing and reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the testing operations are expected to continue to be an essential part of Singapore’s response system to health crises in the future.

The team also implemented 17 rapid development releases to the IHiS-developed Command, Control, and Communications (C3) system. C3 provides real-time visibility to optimise patient flow and resources on the ground. The disease outbreak widgets use video analytics to not only support crowd control and contact tracing by monitoring patient inflow, lab and radiology departments status and waiting times, and bed occupancy status, but also resource optimisation by predicting patient arrival flow and volume.

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

PATHFINDER TraceTogether App and TraceTogether Token: Using Bluetooth Proximity Data for Swift Contact Tracing Multiple Non-Profit Digital Tools for COVID-19 When the circuit breaker came into effect, Jason Leow of Better.sg felt the impact hit close to home. His favourite food hawkers in Bedok saw sharp declines in business. Some had to close their stalls because customers stayed away from public places.

An experienced software developer with the Better.sg community, Jason designed and built 11 digital tools to help various segments of the community. There were Dabao Dash which connected food hawkers to delivery riders and customers directly; GoGrantHunt. com which assisted organisations and individuals in applying for financial aid for launching care projects; Majulah Belanja that matches the needs of migrant workers with donors and provides peer-to-peer support; and VisualAid that helps healthcare workers and managers of dormitories to communicate more effectively with foreign workers using illustrations.

The TraceTogether programme was developed as a digital contact tracing system, comprising a mobile phone app and a physical token. The programme was designed to quickly identify individuals who came in close contact with others who had tested positive for COVID-19, through the use of Bluetooth proximity data. The initiative plays a crucial role in reducing the transmission of the virus via swift contact tracing.

The first of its kind globally to be implemented at a nationwide level, the TraceTogether programme has been adopted by close to 90% of eligible residents in Singapore. Additionally, it has also shortened the contact tracing time by over 50% – from an average of four days for just activity-mapping, to completing the end-to-end process including the issuance of a quarantine order in less than 1.5 days.

IDentif.AI: Optimising Infectious Disease Combination Therapy with Artificial Intelligence

National Contact Tracing to Combat the Spread of COVID-19 The contact tracing solution is made up of connecting systems, to allow for speedier contact identification and enable contact tracers to easily create contact listing. This solution continues to be utilised for combatting the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Singapore now.

SafeEntry supports more than 420,000 businesses, listing close to 600,000 SafeEntry venues in total and an average of more than 100,000 active venues daily. More than 12 million transactions have been recorded by over 2.4 million users. Concurrently, the TraceTogether programme with an adoption rate of close to 90% (as of February 2021), has enabled contact tracing teams to reduce time taken to identify and quarantine close contacts by more than 50%.

For health monitoring and contact tracing operations, the COVID-19 national contact tracing web application eliminates the use of traditional Excel worksheets to facilitate better workflow on the ground, accelerate contact tracing efforts and minimise human errors. Integration was also made with different information sources such as SafeEntry and TraceTogether to improve the workflow. The app is currently running and being managed by Ministry of Health at its data centre.

IDentif.AI is an adaptive and evolving platform which allows new therapies to be continuously evaluated against different COVID-19 strains. Following strict medical protocols, the AI-powered tool can evaluate 12 locally available drugs to derive a combination of drugs that can be used to treat COVID-19.

Notably, a major hospital in Taiwan has approved two clinical study protocols to use IDentif.AI as a first line of defence against future outbreaks and pre-emptively prepare for the clinical trial of one of the IDentif.AI-pinpointed combinations. The IDentif.AI data was also requested by other hospitals and collaborators in US, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan and Singapore.

The development of IDentif.AI has enabled the quick discovery of drug combinations for treatment. Once human trials are conducted, and the process approved, IDentif.AI is set to help the global community be better equipped for pandemic preparedness and patient management.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Live Streaming Solution for a Hybrid World With the forecast that 95% of all advertisers will adopt a livestreaming strategy by 2025, live-streaming is expected to be regarded as an important strategy for organisations and businesses, continuing to grow in a ‘hybrid’ world for various activities.

BeLive’s Software Development Kit can be integrated to enable live video on website or mobile app and gain immediate access to live-streaming features like live shopping, live trivia, virtual gifting and live education.

During the pandemic, BeLive generated revenues amounting to S$2 million and reported over 200,000 Singaporeans to have watched BeLive live streams. In addition, the BeLive streaming solution helped companies like Changi Airport Group and Suntec City generate revenue and increase eyeballs.

Hybrid Broadcast Studio as a Game Changer Marina Bay Sands’ Hybrid Broadcast Studio was conceptualised as a live broadcast studio for event organisers to bridge geographical distances and creatively drive digital content. Widely regarded as a game changer by the global MICE industry, the Hybrid Broadcast Studio demonstrates Singapore’s and MBS’ capability and nimbleness in harnessing technology like holographic telepresence and Mixed Reality to re-energise the MICE industry, which was at a standstill in 2020. It also allowed event organisers to reimagine the multitude of event design possibilities that will help them reach and engage wider audiences through virtual and hybrid means.

Beyond the technology of the Hybrid Broadcast Studio, professional development and upskilling were instrumental in preparing MBS’ staff for seizing opportunities and leading conversations in the MICE industry, today and tomorrow.

AI-Powered Temperature Screening with iThermo Temperature screening has become the new norm with the onset of COVID-19. iThermo, the lightweight AI-powered smart health solution comprising a tablet fitted with thermal and 3D laser cameras, can accurately capture forehead temperatures up to three metres as people walk by.

The AI solution excludes surrounding temperatures such as hot food or drinks and provides audio alerts only when febrile persons are identified. Automated, iThermo frees up manpower resources to focus on other areas of need, and can screen up to 5,000 individuals daily. It also provides status reports and real-time updates from multiple sites via a dashboard to support operations monitoring. iThermo has been deployed to over 100 locations including offices, schools, public swimming pools, gyms, stadiums, community hospitals and nursing homes. iThermo is the first temperature screening device in Singapore that achieves HSA Class B registration.

Facial Recognition Access Control with Temperature Monitoring Pensees’ Facial Recognition Access Control with Temperature Monitoring solution allows for an auto contactless temperature measurement using a person’s infra-red thermal body temperature.

This also allows temperature monitoring and recording to be done without the person having to remove his or her face mask.

The cloud-based solution employs computer vision, including Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things sensors, to enable portability and quick deployment of access control and temperature measurement functionality. Temperature measured is also displayed in real time.

Currently, the solution supports over 400 customers, who subscribed to the solution, in both visitor and attendance management without the need for close physical contact. The solution has the potential to be deployed as part of a contactless door access system.

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

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New Leadership to Pivot into the Future with You

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CS announced our freshly minted SCS Executive Council for 2021/22 at the 54th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 25 March 2021. The new Executive Council will play a more active role in facilitating the adoption of new skills and sustainable transformation of our digital economy, through partnerships with government and industries in certifications and joint programmes.

“Amidst this disruptive landscape, the importance of tech in our everyday lives and its growing role in our future has been reinforced.

SCS is at a strategic spot to help our members build tech skills that give them an edge, and a vibrant tech community with greater professional and youth participation.”

– Dr Chong Yoke Sin, SCS President

AI Ethics & Governance Movement to Boost Professionalism

Women in Tech Initiatives to Drive Inclusiveness

Non-Tech Sectoral Engagement to Advance Digitalisation

To galvanise support from companies to use AI responsibly and deepen understanding for governance issues through Body of Knowledge and certification courses

To encourage more women to pursue tech careers and call for greater interactions and collaborations for a stronger tech ecosystem

To increase awareness of tech tools, best practices and implementations to better prepare non-tech sectors for a digital future

The Magazine of the Singapore Computer Society

SCS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 2021/22 President

Dr Chong Yoke Sin, FSCS iGlobe Partners

Vice-President

Lawrence Ng, FSCS PSA Corporation

Vice-President

Dr Kwong Yuk Wah, FSCS NTUC Club

Vice-President

Sam Liew, FSCS GIC

Honorary Secretary

Tan Teng Cheong, FSCS BetterIDEAS

Honorary Treasurer

Ong Whee Teck, FSCS Trusted Services

Council Member

Dennis Ang, FSCS Nanyang Polytechnic

Council Member

Jason Chen, SMSCS IBM Systems

Council Member

Andrew Chow, FSCS ST Engineering

Council Member

Adrian Chye, FSCS Mediafreaks

Council Member

Stephanie Davis, SMSCS Google

Council Member

Goh Li-Li, SMSCS Singtel

Council Member

Han Chung Heng, FSCS Oracle

Council Member

Grace Ho, SMSCS Swat Mobility

Council Member

Khoo Boo Beng, SMSCS Accenture

Council Member

Khoong Hock Yun, FSCS Tembusu Partners

Council Member

Lim Bee Kwan, FSCS Government Technology Agency

Council Member

Prof Miao Chun Yan, FSCS Nanyang Technological University

Co-opted Member

Henry Chang, SMSCS Defence Science & Technology Agency

Co-opted Member

Andy Lee, SMSCS Cisco

Co-opted Member

Bruce Liang, FSCS Integrated Health Information Systems

Co-opted Member

Lum Seow Khun, FSCS Microsoft

Co-opted Member

Siew Yim Cheng, SMSCS ComfortDelgro

Co-opted Member

Tony Tay, FSCS NCS

Co-opted Member

Yeo Tech Guan, FSCS Singapore Pools

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Thirteen Outstanding Members Honoured as SCS Fellows

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hirteen members who are well respected in their fields were conferred the prestigious title of SCS Fellow for their notable contributions to SCS and positive influence to the tech industry.

Heartiest congratulations to our newly conferred Fellows!

Cheah Wai Kit Security Practice Director, Lumen Technologies

Chong Chee Wah Chief Executive Officer, Treebox Solutions

Adrian Chye General Manager, Mediafreaks

Eu Kwang Chin IT Director, Dairy Farm

Dr Foong Wai Keong Managing Director, Toppan Ecquaria

Huang Shao Fei Chief Information Security Officer, Land Transport Authority

Khoong Chan Meng Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Systems Science

Lim Bee Luan Delivery Head, NTT Data

Lawrence Ng Regional IT Head, PSA Corporation

Oh Chin Lock Principal Consultant, Refaktor Community

Oon Jin Gee Chief Digital Officer, SMRT Corporation

Tan Heng Meng Managing Consultant, Techno Metrics Consultancy Services

Wong Wai Meng Chief Executive Officer, Keppel Data Centres

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THE IT SOCIETY / Issue 01/2021

SCS’ First Hybrid Event Saw a Good Turnout

T

he third annual Cloud Conference was held on 18 March 2021 as a hybrid event – the first such conference for SCS since the pandemic started. Eighty-five participants were present in-person while another 269 logged in virtually.

Speaking at the Conference, Mr Tan Kiat How, Minister of State for Communications and Information, encouraged the construction sector to accelerate its digitalisation efforts by leveraging funding support from the Productivity Solutions Grant provided by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). “Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs) that are ready and willing to sell overseas can now adopt pre-approved e-commerce platforms with regional or global reach,” Mr Tan said. “More than 63,000 SMEs have benefitted from the SMEs Go Digital Programme, many of which are cloud-based.”

SCS President Dr Chong Yoke Sin noted that a slew of sectors – hospitality, airlines, hospital management, education and entertainment – have undergone sudden radical transformation due to the pandemic.

“But it is SMEs that should leverage the public cloud,” Dr Chong said.

“Unlike large enterprises, SMEs

cannot afford to invest in servers, storage and networking gear. But with the cloud, SMEs can operate an operating expenses model, paying for computing and services as and when required. SMEs can also automate backup, recovery and software updates. Staff can access the cloud anywhere, anytime, from any device connected to the Internet; and teams in remote locations can collaborate seamlessly.”

SCS Cloud Chapter President Dr Anton Ravindran said the cloud has become the new normal and it now underpins the world’s economy, global supply chains and remote workforce. “The

cloud offers scalability, agility, resilience, business continuity, and cost efficiency,” he said. “While technological developments such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) play a major role in reshaping our future, cloud provides the backbone. As the efficiency and speed of cloud computing improves, the deployment and delivery of smarter algorithms through cloud will gradually become mainstream. Revolutionary toolsets and applications based on Natural Language Processing, object vision, and image recognition will soon be deployed in the cloud. Combined with 5G, cloud will offer excellent possibilities, going forward.”

AWS helps close the worldwide skills gap To bridge the growing global skills gap and democratize knowledge among individuals regardless of their background, education, or social status, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to help 29 million people in 200 countries grow their technical skills through more than 500 no-cost cloud computing training courses by 2025.

Delivered in multiple languages, AWS training curricula ranges from self-paced online courses and interactive labs to intensive upskilling programs. Amazon’s Machine Learning University, for example, gives participants the opportunity to learn and apply machine learning concepts to solve business problems.

Individuals looking to learn about cloud technology at their own pace have two robust resources in AWS Training and Certification and AWS Educate.

AWS Training and Certification offers both digital and classroom training. Digital training allows you to learn online at your own pace.

With classroom training, you can learn best practices from an expert instructor. The content is created by experts at AWS and updated regularly so you can keep your cloud skills fresh.

AWS Educate is Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to accelerate cloud-related learning. With the increasing demand for cloud employees, AWS Educate provides an academic gateway for the next generation of IT and cloud professionals.

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APAC Digital Skills Research Access to technical skills training is important to support economic development in an increasingly digital world.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) commissioned the report, prepared by strategy and economics consulting firm AlphaBeta. It analyzes the digital skills workers apply in their jobs today. The report projects the digital skills required by workforces over the next five years in six Asia Pacific countries: Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. To read more on the digital skills used in the workforce today and projected technology skill needs by 2025, download the full report and infographics.

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