Trading Competitively

The FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge is underway... one team from TP has made it to the Singapore finals and it's from FBI!!

The team of Tien Beng and Ashwin, our seniors, featuring thermal jackets will present their proposal to a panel of judges later this morning at SMU...

Here's a pic of them "hard at work"... All the best, guys!

We're rooting for you! Do FBI and TP proud!

The team...

Rations for the preparation... essential for those late nights...

Our Lee Kuan Yew Award Winner - Benny Chng

Chng Cheng Ye Benny could have chosen any other course, given the excellent results he obtained for his 'O' Levels but he chose to enter a new diploma back in 2006 known as Financial Business Informatics.

3 years have passed and he's graduated with top honours, obtaining the Lee Kuan Yew Award as well as Thomson Reuters Course Gold Medal. In addition, he's won the IDA Special Prize, the VTB Capital Prize and the Oracle Corporation Singapore Special Industry Prize.

At yesterday's graduation ceremony, Benny delivered the valedictorian speech, reminding the graduates that it was only with the help of the people around them that this day was made possible.

To the Class of 2009, our heartiest congratulations... and to Benny, well done!

Read more about Benny's achievements here... http://www.tp.edu.sg/events/grad09/winners_lky.htm#lky1

History in the making...

May 19, 2009, 0815h... it'll be the beginning of a new work-day... but it'll a day like no other. It's history in the making... for IIT School, and for Financial Business Informatics.

It's IIT School's Graduation Ceremony and this year, we send our graduate out... our pioneers! All 69 of them who started their poly careers in 2006 will graduate today and receive the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics. It's our first with many more to come... and it's also a first to have a 100% passes where everyone in the cohort has passed and will pass out together.

To add the icing to the cake, our Gold Medallist, Benny Chng will be awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Award. This is the highest award a polytechnic graduate can receive. We are proud of his achievements and of all our graduates!

CONGRATULATIONS, Class of 2009!

You have made us proud!

We'll see you there...

Hainan... and it's not the chicken rice!

So it's been about a month since we came back from Hainan... and I think it's about time to blog about the trip before it goes stale...

The Hainan trip was an overseas community project organised by lecturers and students of FBI which took place from 4-11 April 2009. This was a culturally interesting experience for me, as it took me back to my Chinese roots, allowing me to appreciate the history and the geography of it all... And no, I'm not Hainanese (if you're wondering) but in general, Chinese... and for me, with very little sense of being Chinese, this was an awakening in its own right.

Another purpose on this trip was the community project... we were heading to a small town to teach English and perhaps IT (if the lab was fixed) and we were to interact with the children at a primary school... in a way, to help out and do some good (hopefully more good than harm) over there...

We started off in Haikou, moving down to a neighbouring province, Wen Chang and then to a small town in Wen Chang called Pu Qian. In between, we stopped off at a village where we stayed the night and experienced village life... if the weather had been better, some farming would have been lined up for us. The highlight, I must say, was the Kong Ming lanterns where the releasing of these lanterns signified the releasing of wishes to the gods, in the hope that it would be answered...

The simple lifestyle of the villagers, with their mahjong reminded me of what life was meant to be... ENJOYABLE. And as the Kong Ming laterns were released, I realised how important hope was... as it brought about faith.

On the way in to the village...

The releasing of the Kong Ming laterns...

Then a trip to a foreign language school for some interaction with Chinese students of about the same age... this was a student exchange organised for us and it was amazing to see their living conditions and how vastly different it was from ours... brought me back to school days in the dorms... although their crowded conditions were wanting, their excitement to meet a batch of foreign students outshone the gloomy facilities.

We were then transported to Pu Qian for the "real" community work we were supposed to do... Time was to be spent at Pu Qian Primary School where we would work on restoring some classrooms and teaching English... but above all, the interaction with their students was key.

We played games, taught them English, painted one of their classrooms, and taught them the chicky dance... then there was the cultural exchange where we brought a little bit of Singapore to Hainan with a Malay dance and a song.

But these young children taught us something that no amount of education could... it was that simple pleasures were most precious and these were the things that made one happy. The smiles on their faces, the looks of glee and the glows they exuded said it all... they were happy.

Malay dance at the cultural exchange

To sum it all, this experience was beneficial for all as we brought a bit of Singapore, something most in Pu Qian would not see in their lifetime and we took back fond memories, fast friendships and valuable learning points, something most students in Singapore would not experience. :)

... Ms Jo

My first week in TP

It's been a week since school started. Everything is beginning to settle down. We had been through the fun-filled week 0 camp. Ice breaking was the most important part of the camp as it allows us to know our classmates and understand them a little within a short period of 3 days. Week 0 is a lot on bonding the class together and not forgetting talks by Course manager and Year coordinator on important information we should know, eg. applying for LOA. First week of the school was pretty taxing for me as I could hardly adapt to the life in TP. First was the whole Online Learning Environment(OLE) where we source for our own lecture notes and tutorial. This is all new to most of us, which is so different from what happens in our secondary life. In the week, I got a little tensed up when lecturers went through the teaching plans, telling us what's going to happen in months to come. I felt like I was pulled out of my comfort zone, filled with uncertainty. Tutorials are piling, number of projects are adding. However, things are getting on track and I believe I can adapt real soon.

Posted by Wanling

Innovate... blow by blow...

The business case requires us to work on a sustainable plan where we can use IT for the tourism industry... how shall we do it? They're on their own... and it's out of our hands now...

So Ms Cheng, Mr Ang and I are sitting in the Function Room, enjoying the cool sounds of Jason Mraz... Lunch is at 12pm then the Ideas Fest (again, we're not invited!) and then it'll be the results...

For now... the waiting game starts... but before that, let's take another look at the teams...

Team KoolTech

The Movers & Shakers

Team OYA!

Ok, so for now... it's blogging on the FBI blog and charging up the lappie for some major surfing!

... Ms Jo :)

Updates as at 1435h...

All three teams have completed their presentations... a sense of relief is felt now. It's really out of our hands and in the hands of the judges and it's a good feeling. We're waiting at the student lounge, chilling out and relaxing before the results are announced.

More updates as at 1652h

We made it!!! The Movers & Shakers and Team OYA! are in the finals (There are only 6 finalists, out of a 43 teams)!!! Even as I write this, we're preparing to go up to speak in front of the entire audience consisting of judges, participants and their mentors. M&S are 3rd in line while OYA! goes 5th. PRAY!!

Further updates as at 1837h

The presentations are done... we're pending results now... fingers are crossed, toes are crossed, and I think even some eyes are crossed now... all in the hope of getting those prizes... Macbooks, Netbooks and PS3s... let's keep our eye on that prize for now... if we win, we'll let you know...

The results as at 2359h

So the results are in... we're elated, to say the least! 3rd placing for Team OYA! and 2nd place for the Movers & Shakers... no mean feat as no other institution has had two teams in the top 3 positions before. Ok, so we were beaten by ACS(I)... so what? We're still winners in our own right!

Official 3rd placing shot...

Official 2nd placing shot...

2nd and 3rd places triumphant!!

One of the TWO plagues that will be placed in Director's meeting room... YAYY!!

And now for the thank-you speech (or paragraph)...

A big thank you to everyone who has supported the teams in this learning journey... especially, Ms Cheng, Mr Jerry Ang, Dr Yap Chern Nam, Mr Lim Boon Teck, Mr Todd Livingstone, and Ms Lena Lim. It has indeed been a memorable moment!

Innovation at its best

We're in the midst of preparing for the InnovateIT competition at SMU... so even as we mull over our strategies with McDonalds, cookies (courtesy of Ms Cheng), sweets and snacks... we're hoping to do our best tomorrow.

Some pictures of us "hard at work"...

KoolTech's Stacy and Priscilla

Danial from the Movers and Shakers

Elson and Genevieve declaring victory for OYA!

McD's... with sweets and snacks...

Hard at work!

Orientate Me!

Freshmen Orientation 2009 took place from 15th to 17th April 2009 and the whole IIT School was abuzz with activity... FBI has 5 new classes (C238, C239, C240, C241 and C242) with more than 90 freshmen! We're excited to welcome the newbies to our fold and hope they'll do us proud as their seniors have done.

FBI Freshmen from C241 and C242 (Herman, Baichuan and Kai Keng)

Cool CPs for C238 and C239, Mr Gavin Tay and Ms Sherlyn Heng

The orientation has always ended with the TP Regatta... where IIT School has always tried to win something at the dragon boat races... this year, we were blessed! The lecturers' team took 2nd place and were awarded their medals by Minister George Yeo!

Minister George Yeo...

Looking smart and sauve in blue, our FBI lecturers involved in the dragonboat race... Mr Vincent Chew, Mr Lim Kok Yau, Mr Jerry Ang

Receiving the medals from Minister George Yeo... Our victorious lecturers!

Departing...

Departing in a few hours' time... the excitement's in the air... it's crowded at the Budget Terminal... many people are travelling. We were told to meet earlier to do a 'weigh-in'... sounds like we're preparing for a boxing match but it was for the baggage as Tiger is rather strict on the baggage allowance.

So where and what are we leaving for? We're on our way to Hainan Island for an overseas community project or OCP as it's affectionately known.

More details on the trip to come when we come back next week...

At the Budget Terminal to board Tiger...

Arriving in style?

Jasmine waiting patiently...

Citizens that are global?

The global citizenship classes are a vacation term subject where students go for an intensive one week of classes and then a trip overseas. This aims to provide students with a heightened awareness of what global citizenship entails and how interconnected we are.

The classes culminated with an excursion to the Asian Civilisations Museum at Empress Place today to have a look at the world around us...

What really stuck was the Singapore River exhibit where history was brought back to life, as if we were taken back into time... back to when it all started for Singapore as a small trading port, in particular, how banking was done in the days of yore... where old Robinson Road was (and still is, as a matter of fact) the centre of all banking... where chettiars were the "bankers" of the day, and where dollar notes and coins were of colourful paper, instead of the plastic we have now. We even got to see a promisory note from a trader to a chettiar... something that is now electronic and thus no longer tangible.

All in all, a trip worth taking... where out of the books, history came alive once more...

A picture of old Robinson Road...

Notes and coins from the old British colony

Stamps used in olden days by trading firms

A promisory note given by a Chinese borrower to the Indian chettairs (money lenders)