The FBI Experience

JAE 2012

2012-01-12T09:10:00.002+08:00

Dear applicants,

Please note that you are invited to attend a scholarship briefing and apply today.

You can call 6780-5312 for information.

The University of Adelaide - Singapore Entrepreneurs' Challenge 2011

2011-11-30T16:37:00.008+08:00

The University of Adelaide, Singapore eChallenge 2011 was organised by Ngee Ann-Adelaide Education Centre and sponsored by Ngee Ann Kongsi. Singapore eChallenge was a business plan competition which aimed to foster the successful development of new ideas into investment-ready, early-stage companies. It also stimulated innovation and entrepreneurship and created genuine commercial prospects.
My friends and I came out with FoodCulture Guide, a unique, service provider of affordable tour packages of Singapore’s vibrant food culture. Our aim was to be a regional leader and succeed with the workforce we developed by retraining the elderly as tour guides; providing job opportunities and spreading the different cultures found in Singapore to the people around the region. We used social media – Blogspot, Facebook Page and even Twitter to reach out to our targeted audience.

Initially, this idea came from my friends (Lee Hui Xin and Umairah Kwang) and me when we took our Cross Disciplinary Subject – Entrepreneurship in Year 2. We were given the topic of ‘Silver Industry’ to work on for our assignment. In order to stand out and be unique, we chose to hire senior citizens instead of creating any innovative products that can help them physically. After which, I also found out that Singapore is lacking in promoting our own culture and heritage. Therefore, we foresaw that there would be business opportunities in setting up a business idea relating to this area.
After which, I continued working on this idea and together with my classmates - Lee Hui Xin, Umairah Kwang, Nur Sakinah, Adeline Wong and Benjamin Tan, submitted our business plan to Final5, a competition organized by Temasek Polytechnic.. Even though we didn’t manage to make it to the finals it was still a great learning experience for every one of us.
After making further improvements to our business ideas, I decided to submit the business plans of FoodCulture to the Singapore eChallenge 2011. This time, we managed to make it to the semi-finals, then finals and even managed to clinch the 2nd runner-up on 18 November 2011.

From left to right: Poh Jue Ying, Herman Benny, Professor Lindsay, Benjamin Tan, and Patricia Phua.

From left to right: Ms Nami, Ms Cheng, Patricia Phua, Poh Jue Ying, Benjamin Tan and Herman Benny.

Singapore eChallenge 2011- top 6 finalist teams on stage.

My team that participated in the eChallenge 2011

Our dearest and ardent supporters: Adeline Wong, Chen Shao Chun, Low Kai Keng and Jeffrey Lim.

You might ask: ‘What’s the unique selling point of FoodCulture?’ We see ourselves as Social Entrepreneurs that help the senior citizens to embrace an active lifestyle and provide them with opportunities to continue contributing to society. However, our idea was not just beneficial to the ‘Silver Industry’, but also helps to educate the younger generations of Singapore’s rich and diversified culture as well as heritage.
Basically, the major set-back that we faced was time management as we are currently Year 3 students and most of us are either busy with Major Project or Student Internship Programme. The lack of time and the need to focus on our studies were indeed the biggest challenge that we faced. However, proper planning, good time management and commitment from everyone in the team are needed in order to manage and excel in our studies and participate in any competition.
Thus, there shouldn’t be any excuse or reason for anyone from not joining competitions. So, don’t hesitate anymore, just take a little step forward and who is to know? You might be the next winner, a successful entrepreneur!
In life, it’s not about winning or losing, but to simply enjoy the whole process. Our team truly appreciated this opportunity that was given to us to learn something outside the classrooms.
Lastly, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and thank all our lecturers, supporters, volunteers, Ngee Ann-Adelaide for their continuous support. Especially, Ms Cheng, Course Manager of Financial Business Informatics, Ms Nami – our supervisor, and our lecturers - Ms Audrey Toh, Mr Edward and Ms Esther. Without their endless support and guidance, I don’t think we would be able to make it thus far.
Once again, thank you!

Posted by Poh Jue Ying

NE$T competition

2011-10-28T09:01:00.012+08:00

On 20 October 2011, the Special Interest Group (SIG) from the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics (FBI)organized an immersion programme for upper secondary students based on NE$T, a financial board game developed by a team of FBI final year students with advice from financial experts from the industry. The game's concept is similar to Monopoly where players have to earn money and buy property. The difference is, players can pick up 'learning space' cards that give them financial advice and investment tips. One of these cards could read: 'Don't rely only on the CPF money as many experience insufficient cash for retirement.'
Participants even stood a chance to win IPOD TOUCH and PSP - ‘Wow’ prizes. Exciting isn’t it ?
There were students from different secondary schools. Some came earlier and thus, spent time on solving crossword puzzles relating to financial topics. As organisers, we went around to help them by giving some “hints”.

Eventually, all the teams had arrived for the event. The participants were totally engrossed while listening to the explanation of the game rules by Bang Geng and Jaynie.
Before the competition started , there was a ‘practice’ session for participants to familiarise themselves with how NE$T should be played. During the competition, the whole room was filled with fun and excitement. Can you feel that? Not only did participants enjoyed themselves, they also learnt knowledge of topics ranging from CPF to health insurance and financial products. This allowed them to buy their own 'house' and complete the game.

Kenny and Rong Quan from Mac Pherson Secondary School jumped with joy when they won the first prize which was a PSP each.

Shu Hui and Ann May from Temasek Secondary School won the second prize which was an Ipod TOUCH each.

This event is definitely a memorable one for both the participants and the organisers. There are other events that are coming up soon.

Do stay tuned! ^^

Posted by Yu Ting

Japanese Students came to TP!~

2011-10-24T21:45:00.045+08:00

Day 1; It was the day when we met ~~
Everyone was so excited to meet each other. We (students from the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics and Diploma in Mobile Network Services) were all anticipating and waiting for their arrival in the lecture theatre. And finally we got to meet each other!

After settling down in the lecture theatre, the Japanese students prepared performances for us! They performed “Kendo”

Calligraphy~ where the MNS students were given a chance to write their names on calligraphy paper.

Origami~

The Japanese students were not only talented but they were also willing to share they taught us how to fold cranes, with lots of love \(^O^)/

We played ice-breaking games to get to know each other. Although there was language barrier between us, we managed to explain to them how each and every game was to be played!

With this . . We enjoyed ourselves while playing!!

The laughter we had whenever someone had to do a forfeit!

Punishment for ice-breaking games??
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2330931747573&set=t.1349542376&type=3&theater
hahahahahah!! =x

When everyone started to get comfortable with each other, we showed them what we are studying in TP!
The MNS students showed them the TP-IBM IT Service Management Centre.

The FBI students showed them the TP-Thomson Reuters Lab and showed them how we could search for stock prices instantaneously! They were amazed at how we go about learning on our courses.

And last of all, on the first day of our meeting.. we ended with a Group photo at the Koi pond~~

By then, we had already made friends with them and were already talking about our interests and things we like in common. We could talk about many things from sports to music which I find it most fun because we really have many things in common.

It was really an enjoyable day!
All of us had lots of fun . . Everyone was looking forward to the second day, whereby TP students brought the Japanese students out for a city tour!

We were to fetch them from their hotel, Bayview Hotel, at nine in the morning the very next day. We were on time but the weather took a turn for the worst. There was a heavy downpour when we reached there. There was no direct shelter from the MRT station to the hotel. Therefore, we sent representatives from our group to fetch our own groups as we did not have enough umbrellas.

This may seem like a bad sign but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We bonded more by having to share umbrellas together. Our first destination for most groups was the; Singapore Flyer.

Not all groups went to the Flyer, because we had other things in mind. Some of us visited the Marina Bay F1 Circuit, and even Ice Skating!

We mostly roamed around the central business district area (CBD) or we call it town as it has a combination of Singapore style in which there is high rising buildings and also a taste of the olden days like shop houses. We were able to show the Japanese students how we lived in the past and today.

In my group, we had a Japanese student (Mossan) who is a baseball starting pitcher. Well, in Singapore, people don’t play baseball but I do watch Major League Baseball often and I told Mossan, the pitcher to pose his routine throw posture when we were at the Flyer. (See photo below) You seldom see this kind of thing yeah?

Mossan ‘delivering his pitch’ in the flyer. He has got some moves!

G max Bungee at Clarke Quay!!

F1 Marina Bay Circuit!!

Not only that but we also brought them to enjoy our local delicious food!!
A few groups brought them to the food court at Marina Square, the Gallerie. There, we brought the Japanese students around to let them choose what they wanted to eat. They really did satisfy their hunger, didn’t they?

Singapore is a racially harmonious country and we told them to try out the different foods. We had Chinese, Malay and Indian food! We let them enjoy our local desert Ice Kachang.

Everyone of us had loads and loads of fun eating!!!

After lunch, most of us went shopping, well most of us. Some groups brought them to Bugis to see the life of street shopping. Singaporeans love Bugis Street. Some of us brought them to The Central for shopping.

On the other hand, some groups went to the Toy Museum. It was good to remind ourselves that we’re still young and although we live in different countries, we still enjoy doing the same things and live in the same world.

This is an experience that we will never forget! It was so enjoyable and exciting as we made new friends and bonded more with our existing friends. It allowed us to learn more about the Japanese culture and the Japanese students to know more about Singapore and the Singaporean lifestyle. All of us enjoyed the two-days bonding together and we are all looking forward to meeting them again in the near future.

Till then, sayonara!

Posted by Shermaine, Jun Jie and Lutfi

FBI Networking Day - The Talent Search 2011!!! -

2011-08-17T16:03:00.018+08:00

This is one of the most important events that takes place every new academic year for all our FBI freshmen, juniors and seniors! There will be performances by every class from freshmen to seniors to showcase their talent, as well as special performances dedicated to some lecturers by some of our seniors!

This year, my class was one of those which brainstormed, prepared and performed for the FBI networking day and it was a really exciting process. After many suggestions, we finally decided on a dance performance. Learning new dance steps through videos from Youtube was quite a challenge, but that did not discourage us. Especially for the basic Waltz which requires the coordination from both parties, we took a longer time learning the steps and trying to coordinate with each other. We had to fork out time on our own to practise more than the others.

Despite the fact that this learning process took up a lot of our time, we were actually looking forward to the performance every day. Although at the end of the day we did not win any award, we were glad that we had all put on our best performance.

The performances by all other classes were brilliant and some were simply magnificent.

Time seemed to fly while we were enjoying all the performances. It was indeed exciting to have a SMS voting system for us to vote for our own class! The SMS voting results would be considered in addition to the scores given by our special guest judges!

All in all, I just wanted to say that this is indeed the event that all FBI students, especially freshmen, are encouraged to attend and participate in. This is because the classes will come together through all the brainstorming and preparations, and students will foster a closer bond with one another.

Posted By Joyce Lim

FBI freshmen at their stalls on CCN Day

2011-06-01T16:25:00.004+08:00

At the Campus Care Network(CCN) day on 20 May 2011, FBI freshmen did their part by setting up stalls to engage the TP community for a good cause. All proceeds from the day’s effort will benefit financially needy students at TP.

C289 selling cotton candy

C290 selling ‘I love TP’ and ‘I love IIT’ badges and polaroid photos. Manning the booth are Shikin, Jesslyn, Li Jun, Nicholas (From Left to Right)

C291 manning the game stall ‘Hook the Golden Neck’

C292

Junior Achievement Company Of The Year Competition

2011-04-27T15:40:00.013+08:00

Junior Achievement (JA) Company of the Year Competition is a platform designed to nurture an entrepreneurship spirit and business skills in youths.

(from L to R, Kelvin Koh, Leong Shi Cheah, Eka Syafiqah, Justin Tan and Low Kai Keng)

This competition was divided into two stages. In the first stage, all participating teams from 10 different countries including Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkmenistan would showcase their business ideas and products in their own respective countries before the judges would select at least one team to compete in the regional leg.

Pressence, a student-run company from Temasek Polytechnic was selected to represent Singapore at the first-ever Regional Junior Achievement Asia Pacific Company of the Year Competition, after clinching a top spot in the Singapore leg.

Volunteers from Credit Suisse visited Temasek Polytechnic for 12 weeks to coach us the JA Company Programme. “We started off by coming to a unanimous agreement on our company’s name, Pressence, and dividing ourselves into different departments. After which, our company decided to produce personalised pillows as we saw that there is a gap in the market. We wanted to fill that gap and cater specifically to our customers. By allowing our customers to customize their own pillows, we make them feel important by providing them with choices and convenience. Being a customer-focused company is of great importance,” said Priscilla, President of Pressence.

(Students making personalised pillows)

“What was really interesting throughout this whole experience was that we got to actually build a simulated company, issuing shares, producing and selling our products, and rewarding shareholders with returns upon liquidation of our company. It was something we would never thought we’d do in our life as a student. It really put what we learnt in school into play,” she added.

“There were many set-backs that we faced, for instance, customers were initially not receptive of our product and sales were below expectation. That is when we realised that managing and maintaining a successful business model is harder than it seems to be. However, we persevered, taking these set-backs as lessons learnt for us to work harder and made painful decisions in order to keep our business model operating. Our hard work paid off. Sales started to increase tremendously during the last few weeks, and we were making profits! Victory tasted so sweet at that time. Pressence event donated part of our earnings to Temasek’s Campus Care Network Funds to help financially needy students. After the operation of our company for 12 weeks, five of us: Eka, Justin, Kai Keng, Kelvin and Shi Cheah were honoured to represent Pressence and participated in the competition in Singapore. The competition took place in Raffles Institution on 6 January 2011. We set up a booth and presented our business ideas, experiences and products to the judges who were from the industry,” said Justin.

(Junior Achievement Competition in Hong Kong)

“Being a part of the JA Company of the Year Competition equipped us with a broad understanding of free trade among countries and ways a company should demonstrate corporate social responsibilities. Additionally, being able to represent Singapore in this competition is definitely a glorious and humbling experience for us all. It not only recognised our efforts but also gave us the opportunity to interact with students from different countries. This has been a most fruitful experience. We wouldn’t be able to make it this far if it wasn’t for the continuous support from our lecturers, our sponsor and volunteers from Credit Suisse, and Junior Achievement Singapore. We would like to acknowledge our gratitude and thanks to them.” said Kai Keng, Vice-President of Production of Pressence.

(Pressence with the Japanese students in Hong Kong)

“Our journey in Junior Achievement Company went definitely further than what we had ever expected. It went all the way to Hong Kong (17-29 January 2011) where we represented Singapore for the Asia Pacific Competition! Junior Achievement was truly an inspiring experience for all of us. Meeting different students from different parts of the world and successful entrepreneurs in the international industry really inspired us to be a successful person in the future. Through this competition, we understood how each country is significant in contributing to the economy today. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to participate in Junior Achievement Company of The Year Competition as the memories and friendship forged are definitely one that I would keep for life. I believe it goes the same for the rest of my team members.” said Eka, Vice-President of Public Relations.

According to Kelvin and Shi Cheah, “Junior Achievement Company of the Year Competition is definitely one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling competitions as it not only taught students how to view things from a different perspective as an entrepreneur but also opened up a whole new dimension for students to learn the operations of a business. We would strongly encourage all youths to participate in this competition and we believe it will continue to ignite the passion for them to be entrepreneurs”.

Posted by Kai Keng

University of Adelaide Entrepreneurship Challenge 2010

2011-01-04T08:37:00.002+08:00

(L to R) GOH, Ms Elim Chew (Founder and President of 77th Street), Stacy Goh (IIT FBI), Genevieve Leng (IIT FBI), Denise Goh (ASC), Mr Teoh Eng Hong (Director, Ngee Ann-Adelaide Education Centre)

Our company, AngelFace Innovations produces and markets ComfyTouch, a product that incorporates the benefits of music with the comfort of a baby cushion.
Resembling an adult’s hand that aims to provide a comforting, cozy and sleepy environment for infants and toddlers, ComfyTouchis the only baby cushion that incorporates a pitch detector and motion sensor that will track and act according to its surroundings.Our target market isSingapore and Australia. AngelFace Innovations hopes to appeal to all parents who are looking for an innovative solution to a good night’s sleep for them and their little angels.
Based on ourbusiness plan and 2 rounds of presentation, we won third prize at the University of Adelaide Entrepreneurship Challenge on 18 November 2010. Our prize comprises a trophy, SGD1,000cash prize, and another SGD1,000 seed fund for Temasek Polytechnic.
We have learnt much from this experience and it was certainly a valuable one. We would strongly encourage more juniors to participate in this competition. We would also like to thank our lecturers for grooming and nurturing us.

Junior Achievement Titan Competition 2010

2011-01-03T15:34:00.002+08:00

(L to R), Bang Geng, Jaynie and Jun Jie with judges and officials of the competition

Participating in the Junior Achievement Titan Workshop and Competition from 18 to 19 Nov 2010 gave us the opportunity to broaden our understanding of running a virtual company and competing in a computer-simulated business environment.

As Freshmen, we were not sure if we would swim or sink if we were to participate in the competition, but after meeting up with our Senior, Nyang Bing Ru, who emerged champion with his team for the same competition in 2009, hissharing about his experience finally got all of us interested.

In the workshop, we learnthow to strategically set the price for our product (a holo-generator) to undercutting the market competition via various factors in which we have to set based on what our competitors’ offer to the virtual customers. The workshop also included a sharing session by participants from the other polytechnics and junior colleges. One of which was an investment proposal involving marketing a product through a patent and certain termsthat we picked up were “break-even-point” and “product lifecycle”. We were then given some time for us to put what we have learnt into practice… in a simulation game that modeled closely to that of the world of business. The Supply and Demand concepts that we learnt from our Diploma helped us in interpreting the demand of consumers and analyzing competitor’s strategies.

In the finals, we met our formidable competitors and westruggled over the decisionswe had to make in ashort span of time as each would affect the overall performance of our company.

We were overjoyed and fortunate to come in 2nd placing. This competition not only give us the opportunity to learn new concepts outside our classrooms, but also the opportunity to meet new friends. We would strongly recommend this competition to all students.

Soh Jun Jie
Chew Bang Geng
Jaynie Anne Margareth T Pineda
(Freshmen - Diploma in Financial Business Informatics)

Straits Times Website on Financial Board Game

2010-12-21T10:49:00.004+08:00

You might be surprised to see the photographs of your course mates (Chen Huan (L) and Liu Hua Zhen) and lecturer, Mr. Eric Tay on the Straits Times, 20 Nov 2010. The article featured a financial board game, NE$T, developed by FBI seniors. The game was developed in three languages. The English version was developed by Siti Sarah, Joycelyn, Li Pei and Gui Jie; the Chinese version by Chen Huan, Hua Zhen, Lin Yu and Xiao Yue while the Malay version, by Boris Tan, Siti Mariam, Nadiah and Yee Ling.

Let your CP know if you are keen to have a go with the game.

12 weeks of Overseas Internship in Vietnam

2010-11-23T20:38:00.011+08:00

Hey dudes and babes. We are your 3rd year (about to graduate if everything goes well) seniors. So the topic today is our trip to Vietnam, Hanoi for our Overseas Internship! We worked asHotel Management Trainees and had the chance to experience some other job sectors. Our job scope ranged from front office to F&B. So just to surprise you a bit, we worked asbellman, operator, receptionist, guest relations officer, butler, room attendant (yes! clean rooms! but no need to clean toilets), security patrol, PR, Sales, Marketing, restaurant host, waiter and bartender. We covered these in around 11 weeks.

Other than working, we had a lot of fun meeting people in parties, gatherings and events. We missed the drinking times especially, morning tea, afternoon coffee and night... and it is quite cheap for all types of drinkers. Like Singapore’s “Uniquely Singapore”, Vietnam’s tourism motto is "Hidden Charm". It really is a hidden charm. Though Hanoi itself is a city, there are still traces of their culture here and there. Sitting by the roadside eating street food is a truly unique and nice experience (if you are don’t mind the cars’ exhaust), crossing the road everyday can be a challenge and once you get the hang of it, it is quite thrilling (at your own risk, but it is quite safe actually). We usually travel around by motorbikes of our colleagues and you'll like it. For weak-hearted people like me, they go at a maximum speed of 50km/h and an average speed of 25km/h. I didn't realize language is a huge barrier until we got there, so we got the chance to learn a new language but it is hard work to practice. Luckily the staffs' Englishis quite good.

We got a one-week holiday at the end to travel around Hanoi.
So I urge people who have the chance to go for OSIP to take it!! It is good to have exposure to the outside world, free language lessons and a working HOLIDAY!!! :D
We are now back in Singapore and attached to a local financial institution for our second internship. After that, our MP will be next.

Yours two and only,

Zhenghui and Edmond

A typical home-made Vietnamese meal I had in Hai Duong in my Front Office Supervisor’s home.Ngoncua!!! (Very delicious)

Celebrating Singapore’s 45th birthday in Melia Hotel, a 5 star hotel, an eat-till-you-drop Singapore food galore, featuring Char Kway Teow, Laksa and chicken rice, etc. Free flow of drinks as well :>

The super-congested and unorganized traffic - crossing the streets can be very THRILLING!!!

An outing to the night market after buying the satay-like food.

Scenery from the Cave of Paradise of Halong Bay. A paradise for people who want to relax and chill out without having any worries. They say if you have not been to HaLong Bay, you have not been to Hanoi - we visited at the end of our Internship.

Sunset view in Halong Bay on the cruise, marking the end of the day’s activities. The night sky is also quite relaxing for some ‘moon-tanning’.

The Staff Party - Front Office performance costume: the Ao Dai, a Vietnamese traditional costume. Our performance item is a fashion show of the different designs of the Ao Dai.

A trip to the Hanoi Zoo with our F&B colleagues - feels like reliving again my childhood times.

Trip with KNCT students

2010-10-13T11:04:00.013+08:00

A group of students from Kumamoto National College of Technology (KNCT), Japan visited Temasek Polytechnic on an exchange programme from 4th October to 5th October 2010. IIT students from the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics and Diploma in Mobile and Network Services hosted them. It was an enriching experience filled with fun for everyone, although it lasted only for two days.
During the first day of the exchange, the Japanese students visited our school. They presented a video on their school and the type of Co-curricular Activities (Club Activities) they would usually engage in. The students study subjects related to Informatics and Engineering. They will take five years to complete their studies and then they will proceed on to either the University or the workforce. For the first two years of their studies, they will learn English, Mathematics, Physics, and all the other general subjects. For the rest of their years in the college, they will be trained to be specialised engineers.

Figure 1

Figure 2

On the first day of the exchange, the Japanese students had a chance to tour around our labs and also played games, such as Five Stones and Chaptek (a well-known Malay kampong game) as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively.

Figure 3

On the second day of the exchange, we had the opportunity to learn about the Japanese culture, and the Japanese students, about our culture. We had fun bringing them around Singapore - from letting them try out our local food, to bringing them to the various tourist attractions (refer to Figure 3).
We went to the Singapore Flyer with the Japanese students and they went on a thirty minute ride in the capsule. They got to admire and take photos of the Marina Bay waterfront and the historical landmarks in Singapore such as the Singapore River, Raffles Place, Merlion Park and even the Padang. They found the ride fascinating as they do not have such rides in Japan.

Figure 4

We also brought them to the Esplanade, Marina Square and Orchard Road as well as taste our local delicacies. Majority of the Japanese students tried Hainanese chicken rice, which is a well known cuisine in Singapore and they enjoyed it very much. The photo in Figure 4 shows the Japanese students savouring their delicious lunch.

Figure 5

The Japanese students also had a chance to ride on our local Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), which is different from theirs. They commented that their train is not as fast as ours. I believe they are not referring to their Shinkansen (Bullet Train). They find it interesting that our MRT has songs alerting passengers that the train is arriving and even songs to remind passengers to move to the centre of the train and to give up their seats to those in need. (Refer to Figure 5).

Figure 6

The Japanese students enjoyed themselves very much during the outing around Singapore. We hope that there will be more opportunities like this for us to open our eyes to the different cultures of the world (Refer to Figure 6).

Posted by Kee Yee

OCP to Cambodia

2010-07-26T17:40:00.002+08:00

My trip to Cambodia was not at all what I expected it to be. Even before the trip, I was thinking twice about attending this trip as I barely knew anybody in the group. It was my first time meeting the senior FBI members. However, when we were put into groups for the pre-trip preparation, I clicked with the seniors instantly. Therefore, our trip started out well with all of us bonding well with one another.

Initially, I had no idea what to expect from this trip as I’ve never been to Cambodia and this is why I felt that this trip has successfully achieved its purpose for me. I did not lay any expectations and it turned out to be beyond my expectations. There were many things that I learnt from this trip.

The most significant and valuable thing I have learnt throughout this trip is that we should give without expecting returns. It does not have to be giving something material per se but it can apply to giving something in a form of knowledge, effort or love.

The children in Cambodia taught me this through their genuine generosity. On the last day of my visit to their school, I received many gifts from them. I was given simple gifts such as lip gloss, plastic rings and key chains. Even though it was really simple, I felt really touched by their love to get something for us despite knowing that they are so much more in need of things as compared to us.

However, what really struck me was my visit to the Riverkids orphanage. We did not spent a long time visiting the orphanage. Nevertheless, I managed to go into their small classroom to take pictures for my Global Citizenship project. I got the chance to interact with the very adorable and lovable children there. The children were about 4-6 years old and they were so generous with their smiles. I had a conversation with one of them, asked for his name and many more children started to come towards me. Before leaving, a little boy came up to me and gave me a marble. That really touched my heart.

From then on, I told myself that if a little orphan boy was willing to give me his marble, why not I give whatever I have to others too. He has definitely left a mark in my life; I would like to make my mark on others too.

Posted by Eka

Visit to Asian Civilization Museum

2010-07-06T10:39:00.001+08:00

First and foremost, the trip we had to the Asian Civilization Museum (ACM) was not my first. I’ve been there once before with my family and that place was more or less similar to what I saw a few years ago.

However, I feel that my trip to the ACM this time round was more fruitful and I managed to bring back more learning points this time as compared to the other time I was there. I feel that this is so as this time round I went to the ACM with a different perspective and for a different purpose. I went to the ACM in mind to find out how all the exhibits are linked up to what I am learning in my Global Citizenship class such as globalization, culture, values an sustainability.
I went through exhibits of different countries such as India, China, West Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Towards the end of this trip, I start to see that all these countries such as China and India have played a huge part in how Singapore is right now and the culture and practices that we Singaporeans have inhabited.

In this trip I realize that many of the exhibits portray what I have learnt in class such as globalization. For example, I saw an exhibit on the Chinese porcelain and potteries which were inspired by other countries such as Europe to the Chinese. The artifacts were dated way back to the 14th century. This made me realize that globalization had taken place not only in the 20th century but it has started way before I was even born. Religions such as Buddhism and Islam were also an effect of globalization as people start to travel around the world; they start to spread their practices and their culture to the place they went to.

As for culture, the ACM mentioned a culture practiced by the Chinese which is filial piety which states, “As long as their parents are still alive, one must not travel a far. If one must, ones whereabouts should always be made known”. This is culture that is being practiced by the Chinese from a long time ago. However, I believe that right now it’s being spread to some other races and not only the Chinese. This is because I personally believe in filial piety too, I feel that as a daughter, I am still under my parent’s guidance and I am obligated to inform them of my whereabouts and not leave them astray even when I am older and married. It is still my obligation to take care of them as they have for me when I was younger.

I feel that this is also practiced by majority of Asians. The westerns however are more independent as they start to live on their own perhaps as early as the age of 21. This is a form of valuing diversity. Different cultures have diverse values and cultures which may be due to socialization.

Overall, I feel that I have learnt a lot from this trip and it has definitely been a fruitful one. I managed to link what I see in the museum to what I have learnt in class and now I have a different outlook in global citizenship. Aside from that, I had fun visiting the site with my classmates. This trip has given me a different perspective about the stereotypical museums being boring. I look forward to visiting more of such sites in the future with my family and friends to learn more about my country and also other countries around the world.

Posted by Eka

Come back already!

2010-06-21T00:40:00.002+08:00

Yeah, the break's over, so come back already!

Welcome back, everyone!

Hopefully it was a good holiday. Now it's back to working out the 2nd term of the April semester before the exams start... urghh!!

So whatcha gonna do?

2010-06-07T01:54:00.000+08:00

So what are you gonna do over these next 2 weeks??

How are you gonna spend it?

Is there an itinerary for it? Or will it just be free & easy?

Will there loads of catching up... with friends, on the much-needed beauty sleep, or leveling up on that latest game??

Comments, please!!

Yippee! It's the holidays!!

2010-06-04T23:29:00.002+08:00

Finally! The tests are over!! Yippee!!

Enjoy the 2-week break, peeps... and remember to come back to school after that.

A Global Challenge

2010-06-02T20:56:00.005+08:00

We may be a banking and IT course but that doesn't mean we don't do others things...

From 29 May to 30 May, 4 senior FBi-ians participated in the ASEAN Science Enterprise Challenge 2010 (ASEC 2010) at the Singapore Science Centre. There, they were grouped into various teams, given a challenge and 24 hours to work on it before presenting their idea, models, and business plan to a panel of judges. Participants came from schools all over Singapore... and the winners would represent Singapore in the Global Enterprise Challenge, to be held in Bali in June 2010.

Well, someone from FBI is going to Bali!!

Congrats to our senior, Tan Ser Han (4th from left), whose team, Team Hemeryx, won the ASEC Challenge! Ser Han and team will be representing Singapore in Bali this June.

All the best, guys!

Picture credit to Global Enterprise Challenge: http://gec-singapore.com/2010/05/31/asec-2010-winners/

The mayhem continues...

2010-05-31T00:16:00.002+08:00

The term test week cometh...

Some tremble in fear, for lack of preparation...

and

Some go forth with courage and boldness, for lack of fear...

To the freshies, juniors and seniors sitting for tests, all the best!!

JIA YOU!

Another Milestone for FBI!

2010-05-19T00:08:00.001+08:00

May 19th, 2010... another historic milestone for FBI as we graduate our 2nd batch of students. It is a time of celebration and thanksgiving, as we see 83 FBI-ians move on out into the world.

To the FBI graduands of 2010...

CONGRATULATIONS!

We're proud of you!!

Presenting our Director's Listers!

2010-05-01T23:55:00.004+08:00

At a ceremony yesterday with parents and lecturers, they received their certificates. They've been recognised for outstanding performance in their studies last year... these are our Director's listers!

Congrats people!

Keep up the great work!

The Juniors

The Seniors

And another one gets his wings...

2010-04-24T12:08:00.004+08:00

We've introduced Ashwin as our pilot... now let's introduce Bing Ru or Bingz as he's affectionately known to some of us...

Today marks a significant milestone as he graduates from the Singapore Youth Flying Club (SYFC) and gets his wings... Bingz, we're proud of your achievement! Congratulations!

Add or drop?

2010-04-19T07:01:00.000+08:00

It's the first week mayhem! The add/drop process is in order... if you have CDSs to take and need to add or drop any of them... make sure you do this by Friday, 23 April 2010... or thereafter hold your peace for the rest of the semester ;).

Huh?? So fast??

2010-04-15T01:23:00.001+08:00

Yes, reality hits home... and school is starting soon... and if you're wondering where the holidays went to, it's over!! *sob sob*

But not to fret... take comfort in the fact that we'll be together even though we'll be back to the grind! Yayy!!

So remember to come back to school, 19 April 2010... see ya then!

Take me! Take me!

2010-04-09T00:21:00.002+08:00

A quiet unassuming guy, he hides behind the lens and snaps pictures... but Yi Zhi somehow manages to draw the brilliance of the subjects in his pictures... A taste of what he's done is below... nice, right? Check out more about him and his photos at his link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaynezhi/.

Sketches

2010-04-08T01:11:00.000+08:00

He keeps sketching and sketching... and all those etchings eventually come to something... (hopefully...)

He's a Pacesetter, an MC and a cool-kat presenter... but most of all, he's an artist at the heart...

He's Tobie as he's known to his friends.

Flying high

2010-04-07T12:01:00.006+08:00

(Ashwin, in the foreground, seen here with Tien Beng...)

He's a suave, uber cool guy... and he usually manages to get his way... I guess he'd better do if he has to plot the flight path and ensure that everyone stays safe on board... He's Ashwin... a pilot and committee member with the Singapore Youth Flying Club (SYFC). While juggling studies in FBI, he's managed to obtain his pilot licence, participate in several competitions, work the discs as a DJ, and still graduate! Congrats!

One of our stars...

2010-04-06T13:40:00.000+08:00

She's Farah to her family, friends and school-mates... but come tomorrow she'll be Aishah for a while, an upcoming young singer, a member of a spunky band called Ratna.

(pic taken from opening sequence)

Catch her every Wednesday night, starting tomorrow (7th April 2010) on Ratna at 9.30pm on Suria! :)

Meet some of the FBI-ians...

2010-04-05T23:57:00.000+08:00

Bet you're wondering who the FBI-ians are... ok, so let's introduce some of them to you...

In the next few days, we'll introduce an actress, a pilot, an artist, and a photographer. Wait a minute, you say... isn't this course about banking and IT? What does acting, flying, art and taking photos have to do with this course then? Well, our FBI-ians are not just about banking and IT... they're multi-faceted, multi-talented people and they pursue their passions while still getting a diploma in Financial Business Informatics.

So look out for the daily posts about these FBI-ians!!

So win or not?

2010-04-01T01:24:00.003+08:00

They worked hard and prepared well...

They spoke and presented...

They WON!!!

So which competition was this?

It's TP's FINAL5 Entrepreneurship Competition and they're the Champs!

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM!!

Well Done!!

Showcasing our best

2010-03-22T21:02:00.005+08:00

The annual IT Project Show for IIT School was held on 17 March 2010 and our seniors got to show off their projects... here's some of the pictures, just in case you missed it... (pictures courtesy of Phone Myint)

Explaining what the project was all about...

Heng Sin doing his job and giving Da Jun (one of the GET lecturers) a run down of the MAS project...

Ms Cheng Huey Chen, our course manager with some of the project members, Zhi Yuan, Alvin and Hui Bin

Again, Ms Cheng with Hui Peng and Melvin, who worked at Thomson Reuters

And the Best Project goes to... *drumroll*... Louis and Wei Meng (not in picture as he's in Thailand on OSIP)! Congrats guys!!

Happy holidays!

2010-03-01T01:18:00.000+08:00

Yup, you heard it right! The holidays are about us... for the exams are OVER!! Yeah!

So here's wishing everyone...

A Wonderful Holiday!

You've earned your break!

And don't forget to come back next semester, ok...

IBM Banking Centre Visit

2010-02-02T17:29:00.002+08:00

The IBM trip has widened my knowledge about user interface. Basically, the moment I entered the room, I was impressed by the technology used in IBM. To enter the room, staff have to scan their finger veins before entering their pin code. They are only permitted to enter once and the system recognises their identity. In the room, we were given a brief introduction about the IBM Banking Centre. This was useful to those who do not have any general knowledge about the centre. It provided them with the basic information about what IBM does.

After the introduction talk, we were brought around to view some of the latest banking products. This included the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) with the latest technology embedded into the machines. The re-using of cash notes was a good strategy to minimise the problem of low cash flow in the machine. There is a machine that uses different finger veins to withdraw certain denominations of cash notes. For example, when you scan your index finger, you would be withdrawing $10 notes and the middle finger to withdraw $50 notes. Finger veins are used in this technology because it is unique to each individual. Using fingerprints is not ideal as it could not accurately scan the finger due to cuts or any injury on the finger. Fingerprints can also be taken from an individual through many different ways. Finger vein scanning is made possible with the circulation of blood in the finger. This results in a more secure way to transact as opposed to transacting via using fingerprint.

Another technology used is the electronic display to inform customers that the machine is experiencing some problems such as the inability to withdraw $10 notes. Thus, customers do not need to queue if they know that the machine could not be used in any way. In any of those machines, if there is any shortage of cash, the bank will be alerted through the system. Thus, cash can then be topped-up quickly to the machine. Security cameras can alert banks or institutions should there be any bags left unattended. Security measures can then be increased to ensure the safety of staff and customers.

This experience had given me many new ideas and opportunities for me to better understand the technology used in many banks and institutions. The usability of the machine was great and meets the current conditions of the customers, banks and institutions. The advancement in technology has increased the standards of systems used in the banks. This visit has helped me greatly in my course of study as I am currently studying about banks and human computer interaction.

Posted by Raihanah Bte Abdul Rahim

It's official

2010-01-28T09:10:00.000+08:00

Yes, you heard right!

It's official!

Our cut-off point for 2010 is 14 points.

Welcome to all who have been posted to FBI!

We look forward to having you with us.

See ya at Orientation in April 2010!

Results!

2010-01-26T23:45:00.004+08:00

Yo peeps! The JAE posting results will be out tomorrow! So to all those who participated in the JAE this year (bet you're chewing your nails off now with all that suspense...)

ALL THE BEST!!

We hope you get into the course of your choice.

... And if you wanted FBI and didn't get in, don't lose hope. There's always the appeal process. Come down to TP and put in an appeal for FBI...

Sob Sob Mommy! It's over!!! Sob Sob

2010-01-15T22:03:00.003+08:00

That's the ending tagline on the "Just for Laughs" television programme...

I guess we can borrow it for now and use it for the JAE... The Joint Admissions Exercise 2010 is over. Ending at 5pm today, we thank you if you have come down to inquire about the diploma in Financial Business Informatics or if you've been asking around about us. We hope you've had enough info and made the right decision. We wish you all the best in the posting...

Now it's time for all the FBi-ians to dig in and start slogging and slugging it out... the exams are about us and thereafter the prep for the upcoming Global Citizenship and Overseas Community Project.

To all the FBI-ians who have helped in one way or another... To the extra smart-looking ones who have been promoting the course at the counseling area... To the savvy online ones who have been "spamming" their FBs, blogs and whatever else they had... To the uber cool ones who have been telling their friends how cool this course is...

THANK YOU!!!

We're totally proud of all you've done and achieved!

2 more days...

2010-01-14T00:01:00.004+08:00

2 more days before the mayhem ends...

2 more days before many fates are sealed...

2 more days before some questions get answered...

2 more days before many new beginnings start...

2 more days to decide...

1 decision to affect your future...

Make the right decision... for a future and a hope...

Choose FBI (T17)...

Let it be your FIRST CHOICE today!

What is FBI?

2010-01-13T22:09:00.005+08:00

Perhaps some of you are too busy to come by our JAE Centre, or perhaps you'd just like to do this research in the comfort of your home instead of rushing around, and pressing about with the crowd...

So let's give you a few fun facts about the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics here...

1) It's a dual skill set course, in Banking and IT

2) We learn about banking products such as equities, bonds, forex, money markets, and derivatives.

3) We also learn about IT, technology that banks use, such as Thomson Reuters Wealth Manager, Kondor Plus and Kondor Plus TP (trade processing) in the Reuters Financial Risk Competency Centre (1 of only 2 centres in the world!).

4) Our internships are usually with banks and financial institutions.

5) You'll get an industry certification in addition to the diploma when you graduate, giving you an edge over the rest. It's called the Statement of Attainment in Deal Processing and Settlement Role IV from the Institute of Banking and Finance in Singapore (that's the banking industry's industry body!).

6) There are university options too! We can choose to read either Business or IT degrees or both! How's that for keeping your options open?

Well, hopefully this provides you additional insight into the course.

If you need more information, just leave us a tag (on the right) or add us to your msn: fbijae2010@live.com. We'll be more than happy to help ya out!

All the best now!

JAE 2010

2010-01-12T20:52:00.004+08:00

Got a burning question on FBI? Drop us a tag on the right! Or add us on msn:fbijae2010@live.com and ask away!

From now till Friday, you have 4 days to make your decision... Need more convincing? Come by Temasek Polytechnic to learn more about our 51 courses... and about us!

Yeah! FBI's the best!

Moment of Truth

2010-01-11T15:22:00.004+08:00

Today marks the moment of truth for all those who took the 'O' Levels last November...

We wish everyone the best and hope they'll make the best choice for their future. And of course, it's the perfect time to consider a Diploma in Financial Business Informatics or FBI, as we like to call it...

What is it about, you ask? It's about banking and IT, all rolled into one... something that will equip you with a dual skill set and distinguish yourself from the rest.

So if you wanna stand out and excel, don't waste anymore time...

Make FBI (T17) your first choice...

Come by the JAE centre at the TP Auditorium or msn us at fbijae2010@live.com if you need help or more info...

Open House 7 - 9 Jan 2010

2010-01-10T15:20:00.003+08:00

TP Open House came and went in a flash!!

Here are some pics from our very own FBI booth at the Learning Space on Level 5... if you haven't seen it, you should pop over some time... it's totally COOL!

Exciting times ahead!!

2010-01-06T23:31:00.004+08:00

Even as the new year has arrived, TP Open House and the Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) is upon us as well.

So if you've got questions on the Diploma in Financial Business Informatics... just ask in any of the following ways...

1) Pen down your questions in our chat box here...

2) Chat us up on MSN: fbijae2010@live.com

3) Come by our booth at the Open House or JAE, stop any of our ambassadors or lecturers and they'll be most glad to clarify any queries

To all those getting "O" Level results on Monday... All the best!!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:30:00.000+08:00

Happy 2010, peeps! A new decade awaits us as we look forward to more ups and downs... get ready for exciting times ahead!

An eChallenge...

2009-12-11T00:10:00.005+08:00

Over the holidays, while others went away to Japan, some of my friends and I busied ourselves on an eChallenge... We were required to submit a concept proposal to the University of Adelaide and guess what? We made it to the semi-finals and all the way to the finals! And even though we didn't win, this was a fantastic experience! So who were we, you ask?

Take a look...

Recognise us??

A Parliament Experience

2009-11-04T09:17:00.002+08:00

Around three weeks ago, I received a phone call from Temasek Polytechnic, inviting me to attend a Parliament talk. It sounded pretty interesting and it was a rare opportunity to visit the Parliament, so I agreed. And I would like to say, this is definitely not a wasted trip.
These were some rules given to me before the visit.

Students are to bring along their student ez-link cards or NRICs to exchange for the security passes.
Students are to come dressed in office/work wear, i.e. no bermudas, jeans, shorts or sandals.
Students and Staff are strictly advised not to bring bags. Carry only what you need.
Staff will collect all handphones on arrival and deposit them at the security counter after security checks at the public lobby.

On the 14th September, was the trip itself. The bus took off at around 2pm and travelled through the KPE tunnel. During the ride, Mr Edmund from SAA told us some interesting facts about MP. He had gotten us engaged by sharing with us the MP’s salary. The pay was around $8000 per month however, the workload is heavy. An MP has to work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Most importantly, MP has to solve all the problems that the citizens have stated. He also said that, in order to become an MP, an individual has to start off from the most basic role in an organization (eg Grassroot) and work hard to be promoted and recognized.

When we reached the Parliament, we had to go through bag checking counter twice, surrendered our handphones and NRIC in exchange for an entry pass. Before we enter the Parliament room, there was another checkpoint. The whole process is somewhat similar to that of the Airport.
Finally we entered the Parliament room which is located at a higher ground than the actual one. Anyone who enters or leaves the room is obligated to bow to the Speaker of the Parliament. We bowed and sat. The talk had already begun. LCDs were everywhere in the room capturing the image of the current speaker. There were also earphones inside the armrests which allow us to switch from one language to another and these languages were translated by several humans, on spot!

Just a side note: When the Speaker and the Mace are not present, the talk will be nullified. Each seating was allocated to individual MP and Ministers for the convenience of electronic voting.
The topic varied. There were talks about private educations and there were talks about the casino in IR. Each speech lasted for quite long and most of which were too complicated for my understanding. I realized that all the speaking MP has to give statistics to support their point of views and it sounded almost like a debate.

Overall, this trip has been fruitful and an exciting news is that, I had seen Prime Minister Lee! It is such a pity that we couldn’t get a chance to converse with him.

Posted by Genevieve Leng

Japan Study Trip - IT systems used in Tokyo Stock Market

2009-10-21T17:27:00.000+08:00

In Japan, the stock market comprises of companies from Japan companies from all over the country. This stock market in Japan is called the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is something like the Singapore Straits Times Index or STI for short. In the Tokyo Stock Exchange, many trades take place, consisting of buying and selling of stocks and bonds. For the trading participants whom want to do trading in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, they will have to go to a securities firm first before they are able to trade in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. TOPIX (which also stands for Tokyo Stock Price Index) is used to track all the domestic companies of the exchange and are cited by news or financial services firms and are used to benchmark the performance of portfolios such as mutual funds. In the past, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (the size of 4 tennis courts) used to be filled with 2000 floor traders using hand signals for transaction. You can imagine the chaos in there when the floor traders are rushing to buy or sell stocks. Now, the floors traders are being replaced by computers and transactions takes place electronically. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange stock centre, the staffs monitor the market and does ten thousand investigations on private (illegal) transactions. These illegal transactions takes place to remove the brokerage fee all together. Hence, the staff is here to prevent such events from happening. There is also a “Thinker” which a curved LED panel which surrounds the top of the Tokyo Stock Exchange stock centre. It displays the latest prices of stocks and if they have risen or fallen. A neat feature about the “Thinker” is that based on the number of transactions are done, the speed of the stock prices movement will increase or decrease. For example, if 100 transactions are taking place, the “Thinker” will slow the speed of the stock prices down. Whereas if 10000 transactions are taking place, it will speed up the movement of the stock prices. Of all the companies in Japan, 2400 companies are listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. They are separated into 3 sections, the first section is for large companies, the second section is for medium sized companies, and the “Mothers” section is for high-growth startup companies. One of the few IT issues that occurred in the Tokyo Stock Exchange before is on the 17th January 2006, where the Nikkei 225 (the TSE index) fell 2.8% which was the quickest drop in 9 months. This was because investors sold stocks across exchange in the wake of a raid by prosecutors on an internet company named ‘livedoor’. Due to this, the Tokyo Stock Exchange had close early on 18th January as the trade volume was threatening to exceed the TSE’s computer system’s capacity of 4.5 million trades per day. This event was known as “livedoor shock”. The exchange did not hesitate to increase its order capacity to 5 million trades a day. In order to get us more involved, there was a hands-on session of trading in a virtual market where we managed to earn a profit of 200k. To summarize, we found this trip to the Tokyo Stock Exchange meaningful and interesting.

Posted by Melvin Hee, Joshua Ng

Japan Study Trip - Ueda City Multimedia Centre

2009-10-21T17:16:00.006+08:00

In 1995, a new Multimedia Information Center was completed to usher in a new information age.

This area is where the public can use the computers to do research or they can use them for normal use like surfing the web or online chat. Parents can also bring their children there to play learning games on the computers. The public can also use the tables and chairs for studying and reading as the learning environment there is good.

This is the computer lab where training and courses will be held for both professionals and beginners. They will be taught how to draw and make animations, they will also be taught how to modify and edit cartoons and movies using the computers.

This area is where the public can use the facilities to self edit the videos or film they make by themselves.

These people are the animators working at the Ueda Multimedia Centre. There are only responsible for adding the colours to the pictures which are sent to them from another city. Animators from another city will draw the pictures and tell write on the pictures what colour they want at which area and these animators at Ueda will put in the colours. They divide the work in this way so that it will lighten the work of the animators so that they can create more animes.

Posted by Jun Ren, An Rong

Japan Study Trip - Similarities between Japanese culture and Singapore culture

2009-10-21T17:13:00.001+08:00

After having been to Tokyo as well as Nagano in Japan, I have discovered several similarities in terms of its culture.
One such similarity is both Singaporeans and Japanese have Buddhism as one of their religions. Majority of the Japanese people are Buddhists while majority of the Chinese Singaporeans are Buddhists. Japanese Buddhists believe in good luck. In temples, such as the one I have been to in, the people believe in fortune telling. A stick with a number written on it is to be shaken out from a metal can. Based on the number of the stick, the person has to take a piece of paper from the small wardrobes placed in front of the person. This type of fortune telling is also conducted in Buddhist temples in Singapore.
Another similarity is the food culture. Japanese people eat rice as staple food, which is similar to the Singaporeans. Rice is the main staple food of Asian countries. Not only is rice eaten during meals, noodles are occasionally consumed, especially during a person’s birthday. Both Japanese and Singaporeans believe that noodles are long, hence representing longevity. The Japanese people usually eat soba, a kind of Japanese noodle, during someone’s birthday. Similarly, Singapore Chinese eat longevity noodles during someone’s birthday.
Not only is Singapore similar to Japan in food culture, both of these Asian countries use chopsticks in meals. Japan has started using chopsticks due to the influence of China whereas in Singapore, the Chinese origin has brought chopsticks into Singapore. Not only is the Chinese in Singapore use chopsticks now, even the other races such as the Malays and Indians are also learning how to use chopsticks.
Let us now move on to the similarity of the languages in both countries. Although the languages spoken in both countries are different, some of the Japanese characters are rather similar with the Chinese characters. This is probably due to the influence of the Chinese when Japan invaded China during World War II. The similarity of both the written characters has actually aided me during the study trip, especially during the home stay in Nagano. As our group faced language barriers during the home stay, besides the use of body language, the Japanese family, Suzuki, attempted to write on paper some Chinese characters. This helped us in communicating between each other.
Another similarity between both countries is the modern lifestyle. As Japan and Singapore are technologically advanced countries, people in both countries have a high standard of living. I felt the hectic lifestyle in Japan, which is similar to Singapore. The streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo is rather similar to the busy roads in city hall. Working adults flood these streets in the morning, rushing to work. In the evening, these adults also flood the streets.
There is also another similarity in terms of the transportation system in Japan as well as Singapore. Both of these countries have buses and trains as a form of public transport. Not only are there buses and trains, the use of cars are widely common too. However, I liked the way the Japanese queue up for their turn in entering the train at the train station. In Singapore, whenever a train arrives, people will simply crowd around the train door to enter the train, which I find unsystematic. I hope that Singapore can improve on this to make our train system as systematic as the Japan train system.
To sum up, the lifestyle in modern Japan has been rather similar to Singapore as both countries are technologically advanced. Both countries are of high standard of living. If I have a chance, I will not mind to make another visit to Japan!

Posted by Marcus Chia, Jonathan Chan

Japan Study Trip - Differences Between Japanese Culture And Singapore Culture

2009-10-21T17:00:00.004+08:00

1. Introduction
This report serves to document our findings about the diffferences in culture between Singapore and Japan during the seven days. We will be highlighting and describing some of the more important aspects of culture and its unique differences as well as how did we cope with it.

2. Differences between Japanese Culture and Singapore Culture
2.1 Food and table manners
This difference was encountered during our home stay in Nagano. In Singapore, our table manners are in-lined with the western culture. However, in Japan, it is a basic courtesy to say ‘Itadakimasu’ before eating and ‘Gochisosama deshita’ after finishing your food. This is less commonly seen in the city like Tokyo, but was often practiced in the suburbs of the city like Nagano. Thus, it is something different as we Singaporeans do not have such habits.
In Singapore, we often dine out for most of our meals, hence if it is at a hawker centre or a food court, it would normally be a one dish meal. However, in Japan practically all of their meals are eaten at home, cooked by the lady of the house which explains their long life mortality. A Japanese meal commonly consists of rice, raw fish, tempura or meat, coupled with two other side dishes and soup. This includes breakfast as well which is totally different from Singapore where we had only bread, cake and a cup of hot Milo, Milk or Tea.

Breakfast in Home Stay

2.2 Traditional Home
The differences between our home in Singapore and a traditional home in Japan which is somehow look alike what we have seen on television which samurais and ninjas lived in. In a traditional home, it is usually made of wood and paper, furnished with an organic feel, tatami mats and sit down bathrooms. Most of which are partioned by paper sliding doors known as fusuma.
Firstly, a traditional Japanese home usually uses parquet floor design. Westernised countries like USA and Singapore uses marble floor and tiled. As a result it eludes off a Zen sensation whenever we stepped in giving us a organic feel. This can be found in Singapore as well, but it is rather rare as it costs a bomb to have such furnishing.
Secondly, the most important thing in a home is the bed. In Singapore, whenever we are tired, we think of our soft feather spring bed which is very comfortable. However, beds are not commonly seen in such traditional homes as their ‘beds’ are called tatami mats. Tatami mats are thick straw mats which provide more comfort to sleep on than stone or wooden floor. Hence blankets are given as beds. Also what was difficult to adapt to, were their pillows. The pillows were not feathery soft but hard as it contained like a bean-like material. It costed us quite a number of sleepless nights.
Lastly, their bathrooms are not quite what we expected. It is certainly different from Singapore as the toilet is not their bathroom. They are two separate rooms. The bathroom neither has a bathtub nor a standing partition. All there were was a showerhead, soap and shampoo, a body scrub and a stool. So it works by sitting down on a stool and bathing yourself normally. This is so, as the bathtub is used as a public bath irregardless of whether it is at home or at a real public bath. The Japanese re-uses their bathwater either for bathing or washing laundry and hence as a result, it is like Japanese cum Western bath style, where we soak in the bathwater after washing yourself and doing a westernised bath after soaking. This experience was greatly enjoyed by us as we soaked in the relaxing hotspring water at the onsen.

2.3 Traditional Games
In Singapore, usually the types of card games we play are mainly poker cards, such as “Black Jack”, “Big 2” and etc. However, in Japanese culture, their traditional card game was called “Hanafuda.” It is a special sets of cards which can be used to played in many different ways just like a set of poker cards. During the home stay, one of the types we played was called “Matching” whereby we have to memorise the cards every time we flip them up, and flip another card which is under the same category as the first card.

The Host Teaching Us How To Play “Hanafuda.”

Posted by Clarke, Kenny

Japan Study Trip - Similarities of Bank of Japan and Monetary Authority of Singapore

2009-10-21T16:55:00.001+08:00

Singapore and Japan are international financial centres that constantly strive to offer financial institutions with a pro-business environment, excellent infrastructure and top-of-the-edge technology to encourage the nurture of talented investors and the continuous upgrading one’s skills.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) are the respective central banks in Singapore and Japan. Both of the central banks are in charge of the function of currency issuance, in the instance of Japan, the BOJ issues Japanese yen and for Singapore, the MAS issue the Singapore dollar. In order to maintain people’s confidence in banknotes, various securities features were put into both the Japanese yen and Singapore currency. Thus, both MAS and BOJ have control over the circulation of their respective home currencies, as well as money supply and credit of the respective currencies.
MAS and BOJ oversees the nation’s primary monetary authority, giving great emphasis on the monetary policies in the country to achieve currency stability, minimal inflation rates as well as high employment rates. It is also known as the bank of the government and the lender of last resort for commercial banks. Due to the subprime in 2007, MAS has decided to intensify the supervision of financial institutions due to the large impact of the crisis. MAS also regularly conduct a coordinated industry stress testing exercise (in order to assess potential risks to financial institutions’ soundness) with banks and life insurers. BOJ, on the other hand, gives advice and guidance to individual financial institutions about topics, such as risk management.
Data is complied through economic analyses and research activities to produce reports for the government. BOJ monitors developments of financial institutions’ deposits and loans (off-site monitoring) and carries out onsite examination to assess the soundness of the financial institutions’ management by sending out its staff on direct visits to financial institutions. To ensure stable functioning of the financial system, it is necessary to detect and solve problems of financial institutions at an early stage.
Without BOJ and MAS, inflation may occur as the role played by the central banks to maintain price stability and the entire economy in the countries cannot be achieved. Once the economy enters a period of inflation where the value of money erodes, people’s confidence in money will diminish, and economy activity will eventually be endangered. Under inflation also, the value of the money people have in the bank decreases while that of certain kinds of property such as real estate rises. Eventually, the distribution of income and assets will become less and less equitable.
Besides economic instability, the lifestyle of people will be too affected. People would keep cash at home rather than depositing their money at banks, and would carry cash around for payment instead of asking their banks to send money to their counterparts. In addition to the fact that people would be exposed to a considerable risk of being robbed on the street such a cash-based system would be quite inconvenient, Moreover, in the economy as a whole, economic transactions and productive activities would stagnate because money would not flow into firms smoothly.
In conclusion, both MAS and BOJ play an important role for their respective countries, acting as their central banks.

Posted by Saralyn Low, Jessica Lok, Lee Jinq-Yi

Japan Study Trip - Differences between Bank of Japan and Monetary Authority of Singapore

2009-10-21T16:48:00.004+08:00

During the Japan study trip, we visited the Bank of Japan’s old building to learn more about Japan’s central bank, which is Bank of Japan. Similarly, Monetary Authority of Singapore is also a central bank. However, we will be talking about the differences between Bank of Japan (BOJ) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in this report.
The first, and most obvious, difference between the two central banks is simply the appearance of the buildings. The oldest part of the old BOJ building was completed in 1896 and is a great example of western-style architecture of the Meiji era (1868-1912) and designated as an important cultural property. On the other hand, the MAS building is a high-rise building just like those you can see in Shenton Way. It was renovated in 2005 with an architectural style of modernism and the architect is RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Private Limited.

Bank of Japan building

Secondly, for BOJ, their missions are to help maintain their price stability which means that their economy would not experience inflation or deflation however, it is not common for an economy to have price stability and another mission is to ensure the stability of their financial system which would thereby lay the foundations for sound economic development. Their objectives are to issue banknotes and to carry out currency and monetary control to ensure the smooth settlement of funds among banks and the other financial institutions which would contribute to the maintenance of stability of the financial system.
However, for MAS, their mission is to promote sustained non-inflationary economic growth, and to have a sound and progressive financial centre. Their functions is that they act as the central bank of Singapore which includes the conduct of monetary policy, that is the process by which MAS controls the supply of money circulated around, the availability of money and the cost of money which is the rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy, they also issue currency, the oversight of the payment systems and serving as banker to and financial agent of the government. They also conduct integrated supervision of financial services and financial stability surveillance. They manage the official foreign reserves of Singapore and they develop Singapore as an international financial centre.
The third difference is that in Japan, BOJ acts like a bank which means that bank operations such as depositing and withdrawing money are available in it unlike MAS which does not have any bank operations such as deposits and withdrawal of money.
Lastly, MAS have also started circulating polymer notes which are much durable, cleaner and cost effective which are most suitable for lower denomination notes like the $2 which is used frequently as it is subjected to more wear and tear. The conventional security features of the paper notes are also retained on the polymer notes which are issued. The polymer notes are non-porous, non-fibrous, sturdy, heat and cold resistant and dirt and bacteria resistant which are better than paper notes. BOJ, however, is still circulating paper notes.

Posted by Elissa Lim, Fiona Ten

Study Trip in Tokyo - Nagano

2009-10-20T17:08:00.015+08:00

Day 1. Landing in Japan did not have much of a culture shock for us yet; much of what we saw through the bus ride to the countryside was building, roads and everything else you could find in a city. It was much like Singapore. Soon the view from the inside of the bus that journey took so long turned from skyscrapers to beautiful little houses littered on very green grass with mountains taller than the buildings earlier in the back, as if to complete a painting. Going and staying at the inn taught me the difference of inns in a western country and eastern. Japanese culture had taught them to sleep on a low mattress on a type of wooden mat below that. It wasn’t like a usual bed, being tougher on the back and had a harder feeling. It taught me that going to a different country would lead to different culture practices, which taught me adaptation. At first, it was a slight difficulty, but after a day of trying to adapt to these different practices, it all eased in, as this question dawns to you; if the people here can live like this every day in and out, why can’t you?

Day 2. An intriguing day, as we had to live with a family that lived at the countryside during the evening and till the next morning. An elderly couple greeted us, ever so politely with their dog barking madly. They had their own Japanese style of greeting, so we had to do it their way as we were on their turf. This, alongside with living with the family taught me to respect cultures of different people and follow them wisely. I had also learnt how to sleep with 4 other people, all with different personalities, and to adapt to that to make my night time enjoyable. We were fed with food, most of it being grown by the families themselves. The family had a small farm, compared to the bigger farms the neighbors had. We watered the plants, took the dog for a walk and had been taught how to do penmanship, how to write our names in Japanese.

Day 3 - End of trip. The 3rd day initiated the move to the hotel. We had visited museums, centers and it or business related places of interest throughout the duration of the trip. We saw how professionals in Japan behaved, held themselves and presented themselves to us. It was not like Singapore’s professionals, they just had a different style, but being as professional as they could. At the hotel we them had a proper bed and pillow, unlike the hard bean-filled pillow we had to use at the other places we stayed in. We had then been allowed to visit places that would appeal to teens, like Akihabara, Harajuku and Disney Land.

The great thing about being able to roam around was the feeling of freedom of being able to take things at your own pace. Sadly, Japan, as the darkness engulfs the sun early, the shops too close as early. This taught us how to time our take on Japan and to map out properly. Being at some place too late would mean that the place would be closed, so Japan has taught me how to time my journey time, time spent at that particular destination and many other factors pretty well. Another thing that the trip had taught me would be independence, being alone, managing money, time and taking care of myself were the few things that contributed to my learning of independence.

Posted by Sanchez Seneviratne, Kelvin Koh

Pre-exchange with Tokai University Students

2009-09-11T11:10:00.019+08:00

We are going to go to Tokyo in end of Sep to visit schools, Japan's financial markets and information technology companies. Prior to our visit to school, we had MSN video conferencing with Japanese students from Tokai University. We could not send / receive Video each other due to some technical constraints, however we enjoyed voice chatting with sending photo from both side.

Jinq Yi, Kevin, Jissica from FBI

It was a fun session talking with students from Tokai University. Although the session was just conducted through MSN, I could feel their passion of welcoming us to Japan in the coming 2 weeks. They were eager to know the life style and schools in Singapore. During the conference, we had basic Information about both sides' students culture. We exchanged our contact email addresses and I can't wait to go to Japan to meet them!!
(By Jinq Yi)

I think that the conference was an enjoyable experience. At the start, I believe that both parties were shy and afraid to talk. But after awhile, we were comfortable talking to each other and were making jokes. I also believe that the Japanese students are also curious about Singapore as we are curious about Japan and that both parties will learn a lot from this visit during study trip.
(By Kelvin)

During the conference, the three of us had a chance to talk to the Japanese students before meeting them in Japan in two weeks time. We introduced ourselves and shared a few questions. I found this session to be enjoyable and enlightening. We communicated in simple English and managed to understand each other. It was nice to exchange likes and dislikes as well. The Japanese students were very friendly and there were many of them who took turns telling us their names and something about themselves.
(By Jessica)

Photo from Tokai University (Japanese students are watching our pictures)

Photo from Tokai University (at professor's lab room)

Experience with Waseda University Guests

2009-08-31T11:07:00.006+08:00

24th August 2009, a group of students from Japan, Waseda University, paid visit to Temasek Polytechnic. They were here to learn more about our Financial Business Informatics course structures and subjects. It was our pleasure to give a presentation for them at the Thomson Reuters Financial Risk Management Centre. Throughout the presentation, Ms Nami was very kind to explain every important point to them in Japanese.

We started off the presentation by introducing our Diploma (Financial Business Informatics) to the visitors from Waseda University. Furthermore, we gave a brief description of the skills and modules that were available in this course, including the Reuters Wealth Manager(RWM). After which, we provided the visitors with an interactive and memorable experience by demonstrating the basics of RWM. However during the demonstration, some visitors were having difficulties regarding the software, thus help and support were provided to them. In overall, the visitors were enjoying themselves and they were very impressed on what the RWM could do.

After the presentation, students from Waseda University raised some questions and feedback about the RWM system. They wanted to know more about how the firm uses RWM to help them in generating more profits and make better decision. They were given 30 minutes to explore the application and stimulated the real trading environment. They had also asked some questions about why we choose the course, the educational system in Singapore and some interesting places they can visit in Singapore as well. We shared our experience in poly life and some thoughts about future. The organizer and the visitors had a very good communication session. We exchanged the views regarding Japan and Singapore cultural and economic situation. We had also got their personal contact number and email.

At the end of the session, there were some refreshments provided for the visitors. We took some pictures for memory and we had very interesting chat with them. It was an enriching experience for all of us.

Posted by Guo Cheng, Yi Zhi, Alvin

They now represent Singapore!

2009-07-12T09:45:00.007+08:00

It's official! We have made it to the Asia Pacific finals of the Federal Express/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge. Whilst it is a mouthful to enunciate the full name of this competition, it is no mean feat to have won the Singapore finals.

Our team of Tien Beng and Ashwin have done us proud! Their presentation at the Singapore finals saw them win high praise from the judges and the Singapore finals. The Asia Pacific finals will be held from 3rd - 7th August 2009, here in Singapore.

Way to go, Team! We're proud of ya!!

Trading Competitively

2009-07-11T02:48:00.005+08:00

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

2009-05-20T11:43:00.003+08:00

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...

2009-05-19T01:21:00.006+08:00

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!

2009-05-05T15:48:00.015+08:00

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

2009-04-27T16:58:00.000+08:00

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...

2009-04-25T10:10:00.010+08:00

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

2009-04-24T21:30:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-04-19T00:44:00.001+08:00

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...

2009-04-04T10:40:00.005+08:00

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?

2009-03-13T16:15:00.005+08:00

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)

The Next LAP

2009-02-19T22:45:00.001+08:00

On 18 Feb 2009, the graduating FBI cohort came together once again for the Next LAP seminar ("LAP" stands for "Life After Poly"). This also saw Merrill Lynch Campus Recruitment joining us for a career talk. Ms Goh Soo Lee and her colleague gave us insight into the world of banking and how we could get an edge in getting that job we wanted as well as some encouragement to go out and achieve.

Listening intently...

A small token appreciation to our guests :)

Off to Beijing!

2009-02-18T01:38:00.000+08:00

Today at 12am, two FBI seniors take off to Beijing on a two and a half month stint with Thomon Reuters Beijing...

Representing Thomson Reuters Singapore and FBI, Jen Low and Chia Sheng Yang will work on projects with the Bank of China. We look forward to hearing more about their stint when they return in May 09.

Inter-diploma debate

2009-01-19T08:52:00.000+08:00

YAY! Time for celebration! For those who haven’t heard, FBI team won for the inter-diploma debate!!! Honestly, this victory wasn’t clear to us at first. We had so many challenges that we had to overcome. We nearly had to withdraw from the tournament due to the sheer amount of pressure and expectations placed on us. However, with the help of our advisor, Ms Joanna Tan, we manage to deal with the problem and stayed in the competition.

The qualifying round was a lucky win for us. Even so, we didn’t lower our standards as the expectations from our advisor was, honestly, VERY HIGH. By the way, there was actually another FBI team, FBI2. The team consisted of Danial, Stanley and Sham. They were just as good. They got through to the quarter-finals with us. They had 3 close wins, whereas FBI1, my team, had 3 clear wins. In other words, the type of winning affects the team chances to move on to the next round. Due to this system, regretfully, they didn’t have a chance to compete in the next round with us.

The semi-final was the peak of all the debates. It was really very nerve racking. We were against MWC. The speakers were all excellent and confident. Surprisingly we won the debate. By then, our energy had worn out. We decided that we were happy with us moving on to the finals. However, as me and Ronald are in the debates club, it will give the club a bad name if we lost the tournament. So, we gave our all.

The tournament itself was a great stepping stone for me in becoming a better speaker. At first I came as a very ‘kanchiong’ speaker. I rushed through my arguments, my tone was loud and lacking in confidence, it sounded as though I was reprimanding someone. However as time went by, I got the hang of it. I realized that the more calm you sound, you will sound much more credible and you will start to gain support from the audience and most importantly, the adjudicators. This skill I learned through the course of the debate will be useful and significant especially in the working world. Always remember that no one is born with great skills. It takes constant practice to acquire one.

Also, I learned that team work is extremely important. When we had problems within the group, our communication suffered and so did our performance. We lost a particular debate because of it! It was a complete waste! Even so, we managed to work out the problem, and now, WE EMERGED AS THE WINNER OF THE TOURNAMENT!!!!

Three cheers for Ronald and Leo. These two men are responsible for the change of my mannerisms and without them; the journey wouldn’t be as fun! And special thanks to our advisor Ms Joanna Tan for her constructive comments, Ms Marlina for being our advisor when our advisor was out of town. Not forgetting all the FBI teachers and friends for taking their time off to support us as well! THANK YOU!!!!!

Posted By Farah Erfina.

VTB charity events

2009-01-08T09:14:00.015+08:00

Even since school started, we had been looking forward to internships as we will be able to have a physical experience on what we had learnt. However, never did we know that what we will be undergoing will be far more than what we can imagine.

Through our stay in VTB Bank Europe plc, we were tasked not only to help out with the routine work assigned, we were also ask to help out in various interesting activities such as organizing party for the staffs, auction of items, charity event as well as the selling of the furniture.

As these activities are not related to our course, many may think that we will not benefit from it. However, we think otherwise. Through the various events that we participate in, we had learnt the importance of systematical organization as well as teamwork. In addition, we learnt to be more confident in ourselves and speak up to interact with other people. Lastly, our supervisors allow us to be fully in charge of those activities which thus help build up our leadership quality.

One of the most memorable events that we can remember vividly is definitely the charity event. Not only did we get to enjoy ourselves, we also played a part in contributing to the society through helping the people in need.

However the process of organizing this event was not easy. We had to book the bus services for the elderly as well as to book the duck tour in advance due to the number of participants we had. In addition, we also needed to preorder some goodie bags for the elderly as “souvenirs”. During the preparation, we met with many obstacles such as the failure of communication, the failure of understanding the services we required for the day, etc. In addition, as we are handling the elderly, we had to take into consideration such as the number of humps that we will encounter through the journey, the distance from the drop off point to the ending point and etc. However, we managed to overcome the obstacles to make this event a success.

Although we did not play a major part in the lives of these elderly, we knew that the small little things we did will definitely add colours to their life. We believed that through the half day interaction, the elderly will understand that they are not standing alone in society and there is always helping hands around to give them ample support.

This charity event was indeed a fun and unique event for staff to bond. On top of that, the most valuable reward that we received was to see the smiles that we brought to the elderly.

The event has definitely made us change the traditional thinking that working life is dull and boring. Should there be any more of these events, we will definitely agree to help out without hesitation.

Bags of goodies for the elderly.
Packed the day before the charity.

Fang Lu helping her elderly to the duck tour.

Beng Yan and Hui Ying helping their elderly to the next destination.

Beng Yan helping an elderly down the bus

Xiu Wen and Shui Jin with their elderly.

The group with their supervisors.

The whole group at Suntec.
Volunteers from VTB Bank Europe plc, Singapore Branch.
Staff Volunteers from TOUCH Community.
The Elderly.

Posted by Ong Hui Ying and Looi Shui Jin

The overseas stint

2009-01-06T15:12:00.016+08:00

I was given the opportunity to work overseas for 2 weeks in Cambodia under the Ministry of Foreign Affair Initiatives for ASEAN Integration (IAI) scheme. This is an initiative mooted by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in Nov 2000 for closer ties and better understanding between newer and older members of ASEAN.

The students came from various government ministries in Cambodia, most of them based in Phnom Penh where the Cambodia-Singapore Training Centre is located. The course ran for 2 weeks from 24 Nov till 5 Dec 2008.

Evening time by the TonLé Sap...

The one interesting thing about the whole stint was the cultural difference... They are a gentle people who enjoy their culture, appreciate the freedom they have and are fiercely proud of the heritage they have. The pace of things in Cambodia was unlike Singapore... it was s---l---o---w... In the evenings, there'll be a gathering by the TonLé Sap (the largest freshwater lake-river (combined) system in South-East Asia) where they'll enjoy the cool breezes and company... Some others would work till the evening and then enjoy a round of exercise at the nearby park or just a kite-flying session on an open field... a work-life balance in its own right.

The country, which is steeped in history, has advanced and changed much... It's moved out of old, traditional Kampuchea (as it's known in Khmer) to that of the modern-day Cambodia now seen around us. New buildings are springing up, businesses are taking flight, and the Cambodians are driven individuals, working harder... hungry for a taste of success...

Other than that, they were very much typical students... they surfed the Net instead of working, they came in late (and it just wasn't about the 15 mins grace period!), they chatted on their mobiles in class, and they called me "Cher"... sound familiar?

... Ms Jo

Payment method in Japan

2008-12-18T09:00:00.000+08:00

During our visit of IBM Banking Centre, we could learn a lot from the latest technology and business solutions for banks. In near future, sooner than you think, you will be able to use your finger to withdraw money from ATM :>

The payment system and technology used really depends on background and needs of each country. In Japan, biometric technology has been implemented for ATM since 2004. However, the penetration rate is still about 3% in 2008, Financial Services Agency said. The two reasons given by the agency were:

1. Not many ATM can accept biometric card

2. People might feel lazy to change their ATM cards to biometric cards.

The problem is that the importance of security of ATM card is not recognized by people.

Actually, Japan is still a cash-based society and credit cards are not widely used.
According to survey conducted by JCB(Japan Credit Bureau) in 2007, 84.9% of people (the age range from 20 to 60 years old) hold credit cards in Japan. The average number of credit card usage per month is only 4.5 times. 40% of them answered that they use credit cards "for emergency purposes" only.

For other payment methods such as cheque, it is almost impossible for individuals to use personal cheques in Japan due to strict checking. You may need to use bank cheque if you really need to issue the cheque.

So, what is a more popular payment method in Japan now? The handphone.

The Japanese use handphone more than just for communication purpose but they use it as a mode of payment.

You can look at the TV commercial below and see how payments are settled at a cashier just by flashing your handphone.

Mobile Wallet
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=LeNZ344AAws

What if you lost your hand phone? No worries. Japanese handphone has biometric authentication feature.

It might be interesting if you can do some research on different payment methods in other countries.

Posted by Ms.Nami

My overseas attachment in Vietnam

2008-12-09T08:31:00.012+08:00

My overseas attachment in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam has been a very fulfilling and remarkable one. In the past, I’ve always linked Vietnam to rural, poor developed country. However, after being in Vietnam for 4 months, it changed my views. Vietnam is a growing city with more and more investors coming in to invest.

The company that I worked for during my internship is Ngan Giang. Ngan Giang is an authorized dealer in Vietnam distributing barcode scanners and printers. My job scope ranges from creating databases to preparing monthly payroll for the staffs. It was very rewarding as I’ve learnt many valuable skills and grow to be independent.

Ngan Giang’s Sign Board

Outside Office

Needless to say, although Vietnam is a growing country, there will be times when a blackout happens in the office and everyone is left stranded in the dark.

Blackout in Office

After having working for 3 months in the company, we will realize that a working environment is very different from school. In school, our studying hours are not always fixed; there are times we can go to school in the afternoon and sometimes in the morning. However in a working environment, the hours are fixed. My working hours in Vietnam starts from 8 in the morning and ends at 5 in the evening. Also, unlike in school where our lecturers would sometimes help us in our projects whenever we have difficulties, a working environment doesn’t entitle you that privilege. Many times we had to work independently. I was glad that when I was still studying, we were given PBL for out projects. It had physically mentally trained me and I was really for the challenge.

Vietnam is a country full of delicacies. The most well-known dishes among the world are the Vietnamese Spring Rolls and the Vietnam Beef Noodles, are simply Pho. Vietnamese loves to eat vegetables and it is a common sight to see Vietnamese people adding plenty of raw vegetables into their food.

Pho, Beef Noodles

Vietnamese Spring Roll

There are many places of interest that we can go in Vietnam and I have explored almost all of them within these 4 months. Vietnam is a country full of war history where there are several museums showing the war remains and the story of the war. The places that I’ve visited include War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnel, Revolutionary Museum, Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon Post Office, People’s Community Hall, Mekong Delta, Cao Dai Temple, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Phu Quoc.

Cu Chi Tunnel. Pronounced as Gu Chi Tunnel.

Ho Chi Minh outside People’s Community Hall, City Hall

Temasek Polytechnic Students
outside Notre Dame Cathedral

Temasek Polytechnic Students in Da Lat

Beautiful Sunset in Vietnam

I would definitely recommend students to go for an Overseas Internship as it is not only a good working experience but also an experience of living in another country away from Singapore.

Posted by Chuan Liang, C155

FBI Immersion Crystal Reports Challenge

2008-12-01T08:58:00.008+08:00

The Participants

Group photo

On 25th November 2008, it was the FBI Immersion Programme. Being the overall in charge for this programme, I was filled with excitement and eagerness. The feeling of being able to lead the students to bring the best to other students was simply great beyond words.

On the day itself, there were 11 helpers alongside with me and 3 lecturers who were hosting this programme. On the first one hour of the programme, I could see anxiousness appearing on each of their faces. I myself, was filled with emotions as well.

At the second hour, the secondary 4 Immersion students started to make their way in. I could clearly sense a bond with them at first sight. Seeing them made my heart rekindle with a spirit of youth, how I wish I had an equal chance like them to be able to come for such an Immersion programme.

On to the first activity of the day, we had a great start with a Business Intelligence lecture for the students and it could be seen that most of them expressed interest towards the subject. Thereafter, they proceeded onto the hands-on session of the Business Intelligence software, Crystal Reports. They were very attentive and they tried their best in solving most of the questions. However, there were times when they could not solve it and the helpers like me came in to help out.

When the hands-on session ended, the highlight of the programme came- the Crystal Reports Challenge. The students were given ample time to complete a set of questions and create their reports. Next, they were brought to a room where they started playing the Auction Game: Build The Bridge! They had lots of fun and we helpers were more than happy to see the smiles reflected upon their faces.

Lastly, there was the award ceremony for the Competition of Crystal Reports. The results were out for the top 3 and we had the honour of having our Deputy Director, Mr Ng Koon Seng to present the awards.

With that, it marked the end of the immersion programme. Tired we were, but the degree of satisfaction we got was simply beyond words. To sum it up, it was an unforgettable experience.

Posted by Alex Goh, President of FBI Bonds AY08/09

Trip to IBM Banking Centre

2008-11-20T09:10:00.018+08:00

On Thursday, 13 November, some of the lecturers led us, FBI students to this field trip. There were 8 students and 10 lecturers who went for it. The highlight of that day was the speech made regarding the three zones banks wish to achieve, followed by the systems and equipments they have created, in relation to the 3 different zones- Discovery Zone, Transaction Zone and Fulfillment Zone.

First of all, before going on, do you know what IBM stands for? It stands for International Business Machine. The slogan of this IBM Banking Centre is, “Smarter Banking. Powerful Results.”. Wow, the name says it all! Well, what I got to know from the trip was that IBM is trying to transform the banking sector into an innovative one that will have powerful results.

Now, back to the details, we were first addressed by the owner of the centre. Following that was a presentation on what they hope to achieve by providing banking service solutions. As I have stated earlier on regarding the 3 different zones, he touched on those too. The main aim of Discovery Zone is to give customers more personal touch by addressing them with the latest products, upon their visit to banks.

As for Transaction Zone, it is more of making the transaction process more efficient and effective. Lastly, the Fulfillment Zone aims to provide more security by the use of 2 Factor Authentication and Smart Surveillance Camera.

After the speech, only did I realized that there is an interactive screen and it is being used by one of the banks in Singapore. Basically, it is a thin transparent film that is pasted inside the bank’s transparent door. Customers can “interact” with the screen by placing their hands on the buttons displayed in the screen to know facts such as the interest rates for savings account. I’m sure that you will be curious on how it works. Well, the screen responds due to infrared radiation in our hands. So, we can use this screen 24/7.

We also got to know that some banks are planning to go paperless by adopting online application forms. In the future, there will also be a system whereby people will have this RFID card which has a chip that will enable customer service personnel to identify target customer’s arrival to their bank branch. This will give the prominent customers a better personal touch which will gain more profit.

We were also introduced to 3 different machines. One of it is the usual ATM machine. The other one allows customers to pay their bills while the other comprises of both ATM and cash deposit facilities. That machine can require customers to place their fingers according to the amount they wish to withdraw. This will save the time and manpower used to replenish notes.

Now, you may think what happens if there were to be a shortage of notes. They have a solution for that too! They have a system that allows them to know the quantity of notes for each amount for a particular machine and it will also send a warning message when someone opens the ATM machine. Indeed a great solution.

Lastly, they introduced to us the Smart Surveillance Camera and how it works. Basically, it detects anyone who moves and identifies the parts that are moving. If you are in different positions, there will be different colors to differentiate the location you are in. This camera can help to catch thieves.

Briefly, that was we learnt in that 2 hour session. We got to know that the Banking system will become more efficient and effective in the near future to produce powerful results. It was truly a useful session and I’m sure all of us who attended enjoyed it too! = )

Posted by Aaysha, C207

----------------------------------------------------------
On 13th November 2008, a group of about 20 students and lecturers went down to IBM to see the latest banking system available in IBM. In the whole session, I found it quite interesting especially when we got to scan our finger vessel. I also think that the trip have helped us to increase our knowledge, even though some things that the staff is trying to explain is pretty difficult for us to understand at this stage. This trip has helped us to be aware of the kind of systems the bank will be implementing in the future.

There are many innovative systems that I saw in IBM, such as the Interactive Window, 3-in- 1 ATM etc. I find it quite amusing that fingers can be use for cash withdraw without using any card in the future.

Perhaps next time, if there are any more trips that are similar to this, the school should open to more students. As I think after visiting a company such as IBM, it will help us to have better understanding and stimulate our interest in learning the banking subjects.

Posted by Cindy, C210

A Dream Comes True

2008-11-10T09:14:00.001+08:00

I had long wanted to return to my alma matar to teach. On 1 July 2008, my dreams came true. Emotions of homecoming overwhelmed me as the big TP family welcomed me with open arms. Many of my lecturers, including Mr Daniel Yeow the current director of School of Business and Ms Kathryn Goh from LA, could still recognize me! But it wasn’t too long before reality set in. There were constant discussions about the traits of Gen Y; being self-centered, possess short attention span, egoistic … and even lazy and arrogant. I asked myself repeatedly “Opps, what have I gotten myself into now???!!!”

To be honest, I was pretty uptight about my first lesson. Can I engage my students if I’m not a natural joker or have a great sense of humor? Then the second lesson, the third… I’m now three weeks into teaching. I realized I just have to be myself and not anybody else.

How could I not be motivated when students sat at the first row in LT 10 and told me, “Cher, we’ll sit here. We’ll give you moral support!” Why on earth would I think this might be a wrong decision when students stopped me from going to other groups during a discussion and said, “Cher, this is interesting. Don’t go leh.” I have been enjoying myself and look forward to going to school everyday! (just like when I was a student. Btw, I was a very good one). hee hee hee... There is so much I want to share about life, about my over a decade of banking experience … about so many many things.

PS: As I watched Obama’s victory speech on Youtube last night, I make a mental note to put in a suggestion: Teach all lecturers to speak like Mr Obama. No one will ever complain about the noise level in LT anymore!!!

Posted by Ms Sherlyn

The FBI experience- Freshman year

2008-11-07T09:53:00.000+08:00

The first impression that Temasek Poly gave me was spacious and GREEN! The moment I step into the campus, I fell in love with the environment immediately. It gives me a feeling of warmth and it has an even better view at night!!

On the first day of school, we had Orientation and it was FUN FUN FUN! (p.s I LOVE the water games!) At first, seeing a new bunch of unfamiliar faces during Orientation indeed gave me the jitters but soon, all of us grew from a group of strangers from different schools to one big family!YAY! FBI C210 ALL THE WAY!! Apart from new friends, the subjects learnt in FBI are different from what we have learnt in secondary school. Soon, I found myself actually falling in love with my projects! In the blink of eye, I had spent almost 1 year of my life studying in TP and if you ask me, I would proudly say that I love what I am studying now! (;yes..there are bound to be times when the pressure gets to you, but my teachers and friends never fail to make my day bright again!

Since the day I've entered FBI, I have and will never regret my choice. Apart from the good job prospects that awaits after completing the diploma, I guess I have unknowingly formed an undescribable bond with my class and FBI. Last but not least, FBI ROCKS!!!

Posted by Stacy Goh, C210

The FEDS charge in

2008-11-03T14:55:00.000+08:00

Race day – 31st October 2008

The FEDS

The Sun was hot on Friday afternoon, no signs of the rains we had on previous days. Concerns of dehydration and heat exhaustion were on everyone’s minds. It was time to sign in our team for the 2008 Campus Relay that I had labeled the Feds (FBI). Race time was 5.00 pm sharp.

At the assembly area, no other members of the team were to be seen. Alright that’s a good start, maybe I was just too early and a little too anxious. I signed in the team and picked up the number tags. We were numbered 24 A to H for the eight runners and I was pleased with the team number, 24 was a good and lucky one. I made a mental note to pick up some 4 D tickets over the weekend.

One by one the team members rolled in and soon we were almost there. All were geared up and ready to go. I had my favourite running shoes with me and we had chalked up many a kilometer over the months, I considered hanging them up after today’s race.

Warm up Time!

All participants were next gathered together for a mass warm up session. Two lean and fit looking aerobics instructors took to the stage and launched us on the warm up. Stretch, bend, reach and jump! Soon it seemed as if the warm up was to be worse than the run itself. A small relief when dark grey clouds gathered and cool gusty winds were felt. Finally the long exhausting warm up was done. We took some pre race photos and I was curious to see the before and after race shots.

Race Time!

And we are off – the first runners from all teams were female. The ladies set a blistering pace and very quickly, the runners were stretched out in a line. Very soon the leading pack began to reach the handing over line for the next runner to take over. No sign yet of Huan Hi, the FEDS first runner, and I was next. A little anxiety as more runners came in and changed batons. Still no sign of our runner.

And there she was, bravely pulling in the last few metres to reach the end line with her jocky cap still firmly secured on her head despite strong gusty winds and the pace of the run. My hand reached out for the baton as it came rapidly closer – Change over.

And I was off. Should I go for it and pass as many runners as I could? The pace was very quick and although we were told earlier that it was a fun race, I could soon see that there were runners who took the race very seriously and were running all out to win. Two trim and fit young lads passed me effortlessly without a glance back. I kicked up my pace. By the time I crossed the bridge and was on the track of the reservoir, I was breathing hard and my legs ached. I should have put in a few more practice runs over the weekend. Thankfully, the second bridge leading to the end zone came within sight. I picked up my pace a little more. A group of young people gathered after the bridge and cheered the runners on. The end line came up fast and I stretched out the baton and sprinted for the hand over to Sherlyn.

And off she went!

The first straight stretch towards Mensa block was quickly covered and soon she was out of sight. It wasn’t long before we saw her reaching the hand over point. Charlton Wan grabbed the baton and took off like a bullet. It seemed only moments before he was back to the end line ready to hand over to Winstar Tey. Yet another super quick take off, and I felt the envy of youth and raw energy that was on display this afternoon.

And there was yet another rapid change over. This time it was Jui Peng’s turn to take off and he was really flying off the blocks. Our last runner Prasanna, representing management, came up to me and asked if he was up next to run. I gave a blank stare and admitted that in all the excitement, I had actually lost track. A quick frantic look around found Ernie Ang, our seventh and penultimate runner, ready at the changeover line. And in no time, he was off like the wind. My goodness, can these young lads run! Finally, the last lap was up next and the final pass of the baton was accomplished without incident. The FEDs number eight and final runner was off at last.

And Dir. IT drops over.

She anxiously enquired if all our runners have gone already and I gladly replied that our last one for the team was out. We were happy for the morale boost she provided. I realized that the final lap would be quickly over as it was a little shorter than the other laps. Quietly, I was relived to notice that some of the seventh runners from some of the other teams were only just coming in. Our team has done us proud.

And so it ends.

The FEDs No 8, Prasanna, very quickly pulled in for the final pit stop – that’s it, it’s done and over. We ran well and had finished the race. Smiles and photos went all round and only the official prize giving was left for the day. We would not be going up the stand this year, but it was still a great run completed by a team who put up a great effort, especially the young runners who made up the foundation of the team. Our appreciation also goes out to those who turned up to support.

Great job and you have made IIT/FBI proud of you. The FEDs shall be back next year.

It was not time to hang up those running shoes yet.

FEDS Team Captain

Posted by Mr Edmund

OCBC Securities Stock Challenge 2008

2008-10-29T10:50:00.000+08:00

FBI Participants @ The Launch in NTU

It is our honor and privilege to represent FBI in the OCBC Securities Stock Challenge. Through this competition, we experienced the thrills and excitement of monitoring the shares we bought, hoping that it was the right decision which could bring us good returns.

As the competition lasted for three weeks, we had to seize every opportunity as it comes. We monitored the market closely to identify the stocks that had been very active. These stocks became the potential stocks we wanted to invest in. Hence, our strategy was to keep buying and selling and buying and selling in order to make as much gains as possible within the three weeks.

It was not practical to park our virtual money in any stocks as that would not lead to potential gains. It was really through trial and error that we discovered how to “play” the market. However, we were more conservative and did not take huge risks. From the mistakes we made, we refined our strategies and eventually learnt some “tricks” of the trade. We learnt to make our choice wisely so as not to waste precious trade limits per day. This strengthens our ability to make wise judgments.

Overall, the 3 weeks monitoring the stock market was definitely well-spent as we picked up valuable lessons and experiences at no cost to us since we played with virtual money. In fact, to our surprise, we come in tenth position in the competition and won some prize money. We are very grateful to Ms Sarah and Mr Edmund for guiding and encouraging us. We look forward to participating in more such competitions in future!

Kelvin & Guo Wei (Right)

Busy @ Work

Posted by Guo Wei & Kelvin

Semester Briefing

2008-10-17T15:24:00.000+08:00

Hi all

In the recent financial turmoil, most of you may be wondering if there is still a future in the banking industry. We have created a video to share our insights with you. Hope you enjoy it.

Posted by the FBI team

Start of a new blog...

2008-10-03T16:25:00.000+08:00

We are pleased to inform you that we have just published a new blog :>

If you enjoy blogging, we will love to hear about your experiences and activities in the Diploma in FBI. Do share with us your thoughts, comments, photos and so on.

Posted by Ms.Nami

Experience with Waseda University Guests

2008-09-05T18:02:00.000+08:00

Friday, September 5, 2008

Waseda University Guests with TP students and lecturers

On August 27, students from the Waseda University came to Temasek Polytechnic (TP) to visit our Thomson Reuters Financial Risk Management Centre. Before the start of the presentation, a video on TP was showed to them to give an overview of the courses available. Ms Nami, also explained to them in Japanese to give them a better understanding of TP.

In the beginning of our presentation, we gave a brief introduction on FBI as well as the software available in the Thomson Reuters lab. After which, we explained the basic features of the software available such as Reuters Trader Asia (RTA) and Kondor Plus Suite (K+). To make the presentation more interactive and enriching for the Waseda students, we conducted a demonstration on RTA for the students to get a feel of the basic functions of the software. The students had the opportunity to use some of the basic functions of RTA. Some of the FBI lecturers were there to facilitate the practical session as well.

After the presentation, the students as well as the lecturers from the Waseda University were given the chance to ask questions regarding the software and FBI. One of the students mentioned that what he learnt in his course was conventional and is mostly theoretical in nature. Practical sessions were not often conducted and it is usually when students enter the industry that they will pick up the relevant practical skills. In addition, we exchanged cultural views regarding Japan and Singapore as well as current trends of the financial markets.

At the end of the session, there were some refreshments for the guests. While we were having our refreshments, we exchanged some of our learning experience with the students. From the students, our insights on Japan and their teaching methodologies were broadened. It was an enriching experience for all of us.

Overall, the guests from the University were impressed with our Thomson Reuters lab; the facilities and software that we had in the lab. The whole session was interesting and enriching for the three of us. We were elated to be given this chance to present our Thomson Reuters Financial Risk Management Centre to the guests from the Waseda Unversity.

Posted By Yanda, Uyanga and Leonard

Oracle Academy Data Modelling Competition 2008!

2008-07-31T17:59:00.000+08:00

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The team, lecturers and the high-flyers of Oracle

Over a hundred teams took part in the prestigious Oracle Academy Global Data Modelling Competition 2008, and Temasek Polytechnic's very own made it onto the top honours list!

The team consisting of Teh Xue Fen Shellen, from the Diploma in Internet & Multimedia Development, Koh Jun Kiat and myself, both seniors of our very own Dip FBI, clinched a 6th place finish in the competition. This earned us bragging rights as the only Asian and Singaporean team in the top honours list of 11 teams.

However, the road to this achievement was fraught with much difficulty. The Oracle Academy Global Data Modelling Competition requires participating teams to create a database ERD diagram based on a given topic, for a fictionalised company or organisation of the team’s choosing. For this edition of the competition, the theme was meteorological weather systems, definitely not the ideal topic for amateurs in the field. At this point, it was late November, some 6 weeks to D-Day.

Without any knowledge of such systems, we turned to the National Enviroment Agency (NEA) Meteorological Services to find out more. Despite having busy schedules of their own, they were still willing to take time out to help us through with our data gathering efforts. And this even though we were pretty much clueless on what we needed to find out! For their invaluable help, kudos go out to Mr. Lesley Choo and his colleagues at NEA Meteorological Services.

Information in hand, we moved on to translating it into our ERD "masterpiece". Countless hours were spent drawing up and re-drawing our diagrams. Without a doubt, this was the toughest part. In the space of three weeks, we went through many major revamps, and each revamp had to be done in an even shorter span of time than the last. All this on top of a full-load of school and CCA commitments!

But things started falling into place. Slowly but surely, we began to put together a coherent and solid diagram, one that withstood the rigourous questions from not just ourselves, but the lecturers as well. Along with the diagram, we submitted a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides which detailed the ERD diagram. Finally, on the morning of D-Day, we were done.

After a four month wait, the results were finally released in May, to our great surprise and joy. Our hard work had paid off! But at this point, I must pause to give special thanks to our dear lecturers, Ms How Woan Ling and Ms Cheng Huey Chen. Without their strong support and help, we would not have achieved what we did. To the lecturers we owe a BIG THANK YOU!

By Benny Chng

An Unforgettable Study Tour

2008-07-23T17:51:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Lasting for six days from the 7th June 2008 to the 13th June 2008 , the Global Citizenship (GC) study tour to Paris and London was a successful and fun-filled experience. Lead by Ms Marlina Binte Mastor and Mr Toh Kee Heng, the lecturers, the group of 30 Financial Business Informatics (FBI) students had a great time experiencing the rich culture and history of London, and shop in the hyped-up Paris.The purpose of this trip was to have a cultural exchange with the locals, and to apply what we have learnt during the GC lectures and tutorials in real time situations, which in this case, is the overseas trip. Some of the highlights of the trip were taking a Ferris wheel ride on the London Eye, a cruise night tour around the Eiffel Tower and visiting the University college of London, the Bank of England Museum, Thomson Reuters and having fun in Paris DisneyLand.Footsteps were left behind while memories brought back to Singapore. This study tour is really beneficial in providing me an actual real fact of how living in London and Paris were like, especially in Paris, where we get to live in a hostel. Moreover, our lecturers have also given us the chance to ask around the locals and interact with them. The tour is also offered us a sense of freedom as we get to tour around the city to spend a day on our own doing the activities that we love to. For instance, entering the horrifying London Dungeon and to shop and have our own lunch around the shopping malls, cafes or pubs.In conclusion, I would like to end off my report with some of my personal reflection. Being as a first time traveler to overseas has really widened my horizon and enlarges my vision and thinking. Furthermore, the feeling of traveling to the other side of the world with my best friends and to spend quality time with them really makes this journey an awesome one.

Posted By Chee Meng

Study Trip In London-Paris

2008-07-07T17:26:00.000+08:00

Monday, July 7, 2008

FBI students at University College London, a world class university ranked among the top 10 globally.

Ms Zorbas explaining the courses offered in UCL.

At UCL's Virtual Trading Floor, which is supported by Reuters and 4 leading investment banks - Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

Dr Christopher Clack, Director, Financial Computing and Quantitative Finance at UCL giving a demo on the Reuters 3000 Xtra to FBI students at the UCL's Virtual Trading Floor.

At the Bank of England. Wei Choy, we can see you !

Marlina posing with Paul Julius Reuter.

At London Bridge with Tower Bridge in the background. London Bridge is defintely NOT falling down !

FBI gals, Nicole, Erlianna, Li Zhen, Uyanga, Shu Xian, Huan Yi, Joyce and Valerie at The London Eye.

Gisele, Shawn, Ashwin, Leo, Nadiah and Naqiah enjoying the famous British fish & chips meal.

Shu Xian, Erlianna and Long Jun having dinner in an English pub.

The Bobby at Buckingham Palace - a favourite among the FBI students. Nicole and Huan Yi taking a snap before the changing of the guards.

Travelling on the Eurostar, a high-speed train service from London to Paris. Marlina just before embarking.

Arrival at the Eurostar terminal located at Gare du Nord station in Central Paris.

Eiffel Tower - the icon of France

At Disneyland Paris

Reuters Development Centre in Paris

Mr Mody giving a presentation of the latest state-of-the-art applications and financial solutions at the Reuters Development Centre in Paris.

Reflection Time - Yuan Hong, Wan Ying, Chee Meng, Zhi Yuan and Jonathan.

Graduation 2008

2008-05-23T17:24:00.000+08:00

Friday, May 23, 2008

Today is Graduation Day. Next year this time, our pioneer batch of FBI students will be proudly walking up the stage to receive their diploma. This is the day both students and lecturers are working hard for !
PRESS ON everyone !

FBI Junior Year student Tobi with Guest-of-Honour,
Rear Admiral (NS) Ronnie Tay, the CEO of Infocomm Authority of Singapore
during the reception after the graduation ceremony

Campus Care Network (CCN) Day

2008-05-21T17:11:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

16 May is our CCN Day - an opportunity to raise funds for needy students in TP. See what our FBI freshmen have to put up on that day.

FBI C206 with their delightful home-made "Soya Croquettes". Mind sharing with us your recipe?

Sold out ! Sorry, no more candy floss. Definitely a good day for FBI C207 and Vincent.

Want to try our "French Fries in Cheese" & "Brownies" made by FBI C208?

Jerry taking a rest. Time for a glass of ice-cool "Oreo Milk Shake" from FBI C209.

PCEO stopping to chat with FBI C210.

The New Semester Begins ...

2008-05-06T17:02:00.000+08:00

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

This semester, FBI students get to enjoy TWO new competency centres - the TP-Reuters Financial Risk Management Centre, and the TP-Business Objects Business Intelligence Centre. Cool ! These 2 centres are equiped with state-of-the-art technologies to prepare students for a sucessful career in the financial services and IT industry.

Lesson @ TP-Reuters Financial Risk Management Centre

Our FBI gals from C156 - Shui Jin, Shi Han, Hui Joo, Fiora and Wan Ting

proudly posing @ TP-Business Objects Business Intelligence Centre.

Totally engrossed. Marlina with Jen and Ramizah @ TP-Reuters Financial Risk
Management Centre. Everyone, please look here !

Sophia and Cheyrl taking an unscheduled break for a photoshoot. Say cheeze !

Our senior year FBI guys Chee Seng and Sheng Yang. Hey guys, why are you not in class?

Freshmen Parents' Seminar

2008-05-06T16:53:00.000+08:00

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Freshmen Parents' Seminar was held in the first week. Many parents came to find out more about the courses their children are in.

Shared with parents the various careers in the banking and IT industry that FBI prepares their children for, as well as opportunites for further studies in universities. Parents, your children are in good hands ! In 3 years, we will transform your kids into young adults ready for the industry... and the world.

Couse Coordinator Meng Siew and Care Persons Huey Chen (C206), Vincent (C207), Liang Gek (C208), Kok Yau (C209) and Marlina (C210) chatted with the parents after the sharing session.

Freshmen Orientation 2008

2008-04-19T16:33:00.000+08:00

Saturday, April 19, 2008

This week is week zero and the new acedemic year starts next week. It is a busy week welcoming our Freshmen.The climax of the Freshmen Orientation is the Regatta at the Bedok reservoir. Cheers of never-ending "TP Oei" or "IIT Oei" and "Sart Sart Oei" thunders throughout the event. Even hours after the event ended, I can still hear pockets of the cheers from my office room quite a distance away.

Bumped into our FBI junior year student Surin in her cheering costume. I missed their earlier performance. Surin got Christine and Atiqah together for me to do a photoshoot.

Got to know a few of the FBI freshmen during the regatta - Winstar, Hisham and Ser Han from 206. I hope to know every new FBI student by face and by name. Going to be quite a challenge for my poor memory!

Our gals totally exhausted after the race.

Two of our junior year gals Hariyani and Meiwei all smiles after taking a good rest.

FBI lecturers Ms.Joanna, Ms.Sarah and Mdm. Huey Chen at the regatta.

The FBI Experience

JAE 2012

The University of Adelaide - Singapore Entrepreneurs' Challenge 2011

NE$T competition

Japanese Students came to TP!~

FBI Networking Day - The Talent Search 2011!!! -

FBI freshmen at their stalls on CCN Day

Junior Achievement Company Of The Year Competition

University of Adelaide Entrepreneurship Challenge 2010

Junior Achievement Titan Competition 2010

Straits Times Website on Financial Board Game

12 weeks of Overseas Internship in Vietnam

Trip with KNCT students

OCP to Cambodia

Visit to Asian Civilization Museum

Come back already!

So whatcha gonna do?

Yippee! It's the holidays!!

A Global Challenge

The mayhem continues...

Another Milestone for FBI!

Presenting our Director's Listers!

And another one gets his wings...

Add or drop?

Huh?? So fast??

Take me! Take me!

Sketches

Flying high

One of our stars...

Meet some of the FBI-ians...

So win or not?

Showcasing our best

Happy holidays!

IBM Banking Centre Visit

It's official

Results!

*Sob Sob* Mommy! It's over!!! *Sob Sob*

2 more days...

What is FBI?

JAE 2010

Moment of Truth

Open House 7 - 9 Jan 2010

Exciting times ahead!!

Happy New Year!

An eChallenge...

A Parliament Experience

Japan Study Trip - IT systems used in Tokyo Stock Market

Japan Study Trip - Ueda City Multimedia Centre

Japan Study Trip - Similarities between Japanese culture and Singapore culture

Japan Study Trip - Differences Between Japanese Culture And Singapore Culture

Japan Study Trip - Similarities of Bank of Japan and Monetary Authority of Singapore

Japan Study Trip - Differences between Bank of Japan and Monetary Authority of Singapore

Study Trip in Tokyo - Nagano

Pre-exchange with Tokai University Students

Experience with Waseda University Guests

They now represent Singapore!

Trading Competitively

Our Lee Kuan Yew Award Winner - Benny Chng

History in the making...

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

My first week in TP

Innovate... blow by blow...

Innovation at its best

Orientate Me!

Departing...

Citizens that are global?

The Next LAP

Off to Beijing!

Inter-diploma debate

VTB charity events

The overseas stint

Payment method in Japan

My overseas attachment in Vietnam

FBI Immersion Crystal Reports Challenge

Trip to IBM Banking Centre

A Dream Comes True

The FBI experience- Freshman year

The FEDS charge in

OCBC Securities Stock Challenge 2008

Semester Briefing

Sob Sob Mommy! It's over!!! Sob Sob