ISACA is an international professional association focused on IT governance. It held a Governance, Technology, Audit & Compliance and Security 2024 conference (GTACS 2024) at the Suntec Convention Centre on 16 July 2024, delving into practical challenges of implementing and enforcing cyber security in organisations.

At the event, an IIT student (Sim Wen Xuan, Rachel) received the Singapore Youth Leader Award from Mr Tan Kiat How (Senior Minister of State/Ministry of Digital Development & Information).

Rachel is a Year 3 student pursuing the Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics. She is a TP Scholar and Honorary Secretary of the TP-ISACA Student Chapter. A keen participant of archery, she is also the recipient of the CCA Merit Award (Archery). Rachel enjoys penetration testing and implementing network technologies. Participating in Capture The Flag events (CTFs) has piqued her interest in specific areas, including exploring malware analysis and web exploitation. What she enjoys most about this field is the thrill of investigating hints and uncovering the hidden truths. She loves researching the inner workings of different vulnerabilities information systems and how even the most seemingly secure systems can still be exploited, inspiring her to make the digital space safer for everyone. Rachel is determined to make the most of her education and aspires to be a great digital forensics analyst in the future. 

Congratulations, Rachel !

Ng Shi Yu from TP’s Diploma in Applied Artificial Intelligence course was part of Team Singapore that won gold at the 1^st International Olympiad in AI (Scientific Round).

The competition took place in Bulgaria from 9 – 15 August 2024. He worked alongside 3 other teammates from NUS High. A second Singapore Team comprising students from NUS High, Singapore Polytechnic and Nanyang Polytechnic also won a gold medal in the same category. This is a fantastic achievement for our Singapore students at the international stage. The Singapore Teams were led by Professor Cheong from NTU which shortlisted and prepared students for the event.

Ng Shi Yu is in his 3^rd year of studies in TP’s AI course. He was previously from the School of Science and Technology and has a deep passion of emerging tech.

Well done, Shi Yu !

The HumanITy Challenge is a sustainability innovation competition that challenges students to put their creative problem-solving skills to the test, and develop ideas that leverage the power of IT to tackle society’s sustainability challenges for humanity.

Hosted by the NUS Department of Information Systems and Analytics, the Challenge is a journey of learning, creativity and networking.

A team of four senior students from the Diploma in IT (Team Name: IT Girls) clinched 1st place at the inaugural NUS MUFG DELL HumanITy Challenge! Mun Leng, Sanjana, Sujitha, and Jennie impressed the judges with their cutting-edge water-saving IoT solution. It aligned perfectly with the Singapore Green Plan 2030's goal to reduce household water usage to 130 litres per person per day.
 

Our senior students from the Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics (Team Name: Mickey’s Clubhouse) also excelled, earning the 3^rd Prize, with their solution to encourage more people to take public transport. Tan Yee Heng Lucas, Tay Javier, Aniket Kumar, Muhammad Matin Bin Rumi hope that their application can contribute towards reducing stress on the environment and supporting the Singapore Green Plan as well.

Heartiest congratulations to both teams ! You have done incredibly well ! Keep it up !

Ashwin aced his 1-year internship at Oracle Consulting Singapore

Ashwin during Graduation 2024

After completing his GCE O Levels at Peicai Secondary School, Ashwin Gunasekaran enrolled into the Common ICT Programme at Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Informatics & IT. He then took up the Diploma in Applied Artificial Intelligence in Year 2. In Year 3, he secured a 1-year internship at Oracle Consulting Singapore, as a Full Stack Developer, crafting customised solutions to meet the unique requirements of the company’s clients.

Ashwin worked with a team based overseas and had to manage the complexities of remote collaboration. As project lead, he developed a cloud application from scratch using Oracle’s development platforms and tools for solutions delivery. Despite initial unfamiliarity, Ashwin and his team, successfully completed the project which is now set for implementation in the client’s business operations.

A firm believer in continuous learning, Ashwin leveraged on the resources of the Oracle University, and pursued various industry certifications. He acquired 10 Oracle certifications during his internship, including: Oracle APEX Cloud Developer Certified Professional; Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2023 Certified Multicloud Architect Associate and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2023 Certified Application Integration Professional. Ashwin will be pursuing the Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) at Singapore Management University, after completing National Service.

Victor Chua graduated in May 2024

Victor graduated as the Silver Medallist of the Diploma in Information Technology in May 2024. In his third year at the polytechnic, he took on a year-long internship at DBS as a Data Engineer. During his internship, he realised the indispensable role of communication within a team and learned the importance of asking the right questions to the right person to enhance efficiency and workflow.

Victor gained valuable insights into the projects the team was managing from his workplace colleagues and mentor. One of the things that Victor appreciated at DBS is the active involvement of interns in real projects. This hands-on experience allowed him and his peers to have a sense of belonging to the DBS team and allowed them to understand a project lifecycle. Victor appreciated that DBS provided a robust support system, a points system that incentivizes continuous learning as well as events for employees and interns to engage in. All in all, Victor is grateful for the rich lessons in leadership that interns at DBS get to experience as they work on a project from start to finish. Victor has been accepted into Nanyang Technological University’s Turing AI Scholars Programme (TAISP).

Emonda Wong graduates with a Specialist Diploma in Business Analytics (Work Study Programme)

Emonda with her mother

Emonda graduated with a Specialist Diploma in Business Analytics (Work Study Programme) from Temasek Polytechnic in August 2023. Prior to that, she had completed the Diploma in Big Data & Analytics at Temasek Polytechnic in 2022 and a Higher Nitec in Cyber & Network Security/ Network Security Technology. Emonda considers herself fortunate to have navigated through both ITE and Polytechnic, which gave her a solid foundation in the technology industry. At Temasek Polytechnic, she was not only able to deepen her technical skills, but she also refined her abilities in email writing, presentation and workplace communication.

Emonda's role at Accenture was primarily that of a Business Analyst Professional when she first started. She was responsible for investigating and resolving tickets while ensuring timely solutions. She was actively involved in gathering requirements for Change Requests to address clients' needs for new functions or programs. Emonda played a key part in contributing to business process improvement by offering effective resolutions. Her duties also encompass performing testing, preparing data for test cases, and conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for system enhancements to ensure the seamless integration of new functionalities.

Emonda is appreciative of the opportunity to work in a large multi-national consulting company such as Accenture. The skills that she has built from ITE, Temasek Polytechnic and the Work-Study Programme have helped to build her confidence as an IT professional. Emonda is currently working at Accenture as an Advanced Application/Cloud Support and Engineering New Associate. 

The trip included tours of Stanford University and U.C Berkeley campuses, offering insights into the academic and entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. At Fortinet, a leading cybersecurity company, they gained valuable knowledge about cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies and sustainability efforts. 

Their trip concluded with visits to the Google and Apple campuses, where they experienced the culture of collaboration and innovation that defines these tech giants. The students were accompanied by two lecturers – Mr Shaun Tan and Mr John Leong. The students found the trip fulfilling and enriching.