*StarDust*

Surprise for students of Nanyang Poly's School of Engineering: Their projects will be used for military purposes

By Andre Yeo
April 03, 2008

ALL polytechnic student Wu Jing Rui knew was that he would be working on a chip for image processing.


(From left) Students James Pinto, Samuel Ng and Wu Jing Rui (seated centre) with Nanyang Polytechnic's Mr Nah Kiat Hong. Picture: KUA CHEE SIONG

So, when the 24-year-old electrical engineering student agreed to be interviewed for this story and was about to pose for a picture with his work, he was surprised to learn that his chip would be used in top secret military equipment.

On 29 Feb, Defence Minister Mr Teo Chee Hean told Parliament that Nanyang Polytechnic was working with the ministry on advanced integrated circuits for Singapore's unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

These pilotless planes are used for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Fifteen students from the poly's School of Engineering (Electronics) were chosen to work on the project with DSO National Laboratories, Singapore's national defence research developmental organisation.

The students were picked because their lecturers believed they could contribute the most to the project.

DSO had been working with the poly since 2002 on other projects. The arrangement for this latest project was a simple one.

DSO's program director (networks division), Dr Yan Chye Hwang, 41, said the Nanyang Poly's students and lecturers would do the basic fundamental research and come up with a prototype circuit board for a generic video processing application.

Because of its secretive nature, poly staff were initially not told what it would be used for. DSO's engineers would then improve on the board and then customise it to suit their needs.

BENEFICIAL ARRANGEMENT
Both sides benefit from the pact.


File picture of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The students get exposed to real-life projects, while DSO's researchers can concentrate on more complex work.

Mr Wu, a final-year student, was told he would be working on an imaging project to track images like vehicles or moving objects.

Another final-year student, Mr James Pinto, 21, was only told he would be working on an embedded system which would allow images to be viewed on a laptop computer.

Separately, their projects might not mean much. But taken as a whole, they perfectly describe what a UAV does - capturing images and transmitting them to a computer screen hundreds of kilometres away.

The poly's manager (integrated circuits design centre) for the School of Engineering (Electronics), Mr Nah Kiat Hong, 43, said: 'We break up the project into blocks or parts and tell each student which part they are to work on.

'Because of the sensitive nature of the projects, we don't tell them the sum of it all. Even my staff and I did not know it would be for the UAV until much later.'

So, when both students were asked to pose with a circuit board, they were reluctant to do so, until they were told it was their own work.

Said Mr Wu: 'I am glad because I am doing something that is used in a good product.'

Mr Pinto said he was happy his project had been given an after-life as it would actually be used.

He said: 'Even though they will improve on it, that's fine with me as I am still contributing to the military.'

The circuit board is a prototype and not the actual one to be used for the UAV. In fact, none of the students' work will actually be used on an UAV.

Instead, Dr Yan said they will be used at the UAV command centre to process video images captured by a flying UAV.

VARIOUS USES
He said: 'We don't tell the poly the specific usage because it can be used in many different ways like homeland security, to detect people, among other things. We can program it for other applications. One of its uses is for video-processing for UAV surveillance.'

He added that once DSO identifies a basic concept of the board provided by the poly, their own engineers would re-design it into a military-grade board that can take harsh temperatures and humidity levels.

He said: 'About 10 to 20 per cent of the stuff produced by the students can be re-used on the final system. We'd have to improve on the rest.'

He added that depending on the project, it can take two to six years to come up with a final system.

DSO turned to the poly because of a manpower shortage at DSO to do basic research, Dr Yan said.

'Because Nanyang Poly is good in their field, we can focus on more sensitive and more military areas.'

DSO's corporate communications manager, Ms Vivien Goh, 36, added that such projects also help them to identify potential talent from the poly.

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...60956,00.html?