Innovate, innovate, innovate - that seems to be the key message driving much of Singapore's education reforms today.

The need to focus on research and development, even at the polytechnic level, was raised recently at the meeting of the International Academic Advisory Panel.

In this week's Project Schoolhouse, we take a look at just how some polytechnics are doing that and more, through their Centres of Innovation (COI).

In Nanyang Polytechnic, students are becoming more than just average gamers.

From simulation games for military training to specially designed ones for autistic children, they have done them all, through their school's Games Creation Community.

First mooted by the Economic Development Board, Nanyang Polytechnic's Games Creation Community aims to provide a supportive environment for the development of products from its initial conceptualisation to its commercialisation.

The 1,000 students from its School of Interactive Digital Media work closely with staff and industry partners to develop games for commercial use.

Nanyang Poly says the collaborations position its students to exploit the fast-expanding IDM sector, set to grow from $3.8 billion now to $10 billion in just three years.

Daniel Tan, Director, School of Interactive and Digital Media, Nanyang Polytechnic, said: "This very supportive industry has allowed this networking platform to come about. Through this platform we were able to do technological sharing and technology transfer. This games creation community is also useful for students because it provides an avenue for students to work in industry and for industry to share with us their needs in terms of manpower."

Polytechnics - each leveraging on existing infrastructure and staff expertise - have approached their Centres of Innovation differently.

For instance Ngee Ann Polytechnic's two Centre of Innovations, costing $13 million in total and supported by Spring Singapore, are focused on marine and offshore technology, as well as environmental and water technology while Singapore Polytechnic's COI focus on the food manufacturing industry.

They get ideas from staff and SMEs keen to exploit the research facilities of the polys but the over-riding aim is to provide a platform for the testing of research ideas that could turn into commercially-viable innovations.

One example is the Omega-Three ice-cream, jointly developed by Republic Polytechnic students and a local gourmet ice-cream maker.

It is an innovation that taps into a global market for functional foods worth at least $114 billion.

Plant research takes pride of place at Temasek Polytechnic's School of Applied Science which produces tissue culture plantlets for sale to landscape companies and orchid nurseries.

The poly's students are also working to uncover the reason for the cancer-killing properties of herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Samantha Li, Third Year Student, Biomedical Science, Temasek Poly, said: "For my final year project I was given three options. One was to get sent out to a hospital to get attached to a clinical lab. The other option was to do research work in a research lab outside of school. The third option was to do my student internship programme in-house. I decided to do my internship in-house because I felt that I was given the freedom to express my own creativity in designing my own experiments."

Temasek Poly says these projects mark an important step up in the research exposure available to students, compared to the past.

Dr Ong Seng Poon, Deputy Director, School of Applied Science, Temasek Poly, said: "For the students who have participated in these projects, they are doing projects that are of similar level as undergraduate upper division, so when they graduate from our polytechnic, they are in good position to join the workforce, and also go for further studies."

With talk about boosting Singapore's R&D capabilities, these Centres of Innovation play a key role in enhancing the research climate in Singapore's education landscape.