SINGAPORE: Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said Singapore will need to constantly leverage on science and technology to enhance operational capabilities in homeland security.
One way is to work with youths and tertiary institutions to get them to take "a serious role" in helping to make Singapore safe against security threats.
A group of polytechnic and university students have topped the Novel Automobile Barrier Challenge, which was first launched in September last year. They beat 26 other entries to emerge as the top three winners.
The challenge requires participants to come up with a kind of barrier that will effectively stop a moving vehicle travelling at 60 kilometres per hour, from crashing into a building or a facility.
It is understood that this is the first time that the Home Affairs Ministry has organised such a challenge with a tertiary institution and it said it is the first of many to come.
The winning team from the National University of Singapore walked away with a cash prize of S$8,000. One of the team members, Mr Tan Chun Liang, who is a PhD student from the School of Design and Environment, explains how the barrier works.
Mr Tan said: "The design is extremely portable, and we actually designed it so it does not look like a barrier...car hits metal, metal hits ground and ground hits spike. Car stops."
Some of the other ideas received may also be adopted by the ministry but feasibility studies will still need to be conducted.
Dr Lee Fook Kay, Chief Science and Technology Officer with the Home Affairs Ministry, said: "We have barriers but a lot of the barriers are fixtures that we put in the building. Those which are more portable are not so effective, so that's why we are reaching out to the students to see whether they can come up with good solutions. And I think students also tend to look at the economical way of looking at the problem. So they may not be very expensive solutions but they work.
"If you look at events, people do put barricades but some of these are pretty heavy to transport and they are quite a burden. So the ideas that the students have come up with are really very novel. They are deployable and very portable. Students tend to really think out of the box."
A Memorandum of Understanding with NUS is also on the cards to facilitate sharing of information and ideas in science and technology.
Mr Shanmugam said: "MHA aims to stay ahead of evolving security threats, and ensure that the Home Team is always prepared in the face of an ever-changing security environment. A strong partnership with our educational institutions facilitates capability, expertise development and promotes mutual interest."
Mr Shanmugam added that such partnerships will take Singapore's homeland security capabilities to the next level.
-CNA/ac (
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One way is to work with youths and tertiary institutions to get them to take "a serious role" in helping to make Singapore safe against security threats.
A group of polytechnic and university students have topped the Novel Automobile Barrier Challenge, which was first launched in September last year. They beat 26 other entries to emerge as the top three winners.
The challenge requires participants to come up with a kind of barrier that will effectively stop a moving vehicle travelling at 60 kilometres per hour, from crashing into a building or a facility.
It is understood that this is the first time that the Home Affairs Ministry has organised such a challenge with a tertiary institution and it said it is the first of many to come.
The winning team from the National University of Singapore walked away with a cash prize of S$8,000. One of the team members, Mr Tan Chun Liang, who is a PhD student from the School of Design and Environment, explains how the barrier works.
Mr Tan said: "The design is extremely portable, and we actually designed it so it does not look like a barrier...car hits metal, metal hits ground and ground hits spike. Car stops."
Some of the other ideas received may also be adopted by the ministry but feasibility studies will still need to be conducted.
Dr Lee Fook Kay, Chief Science and Technology Officer with the Home Affairs Ministry, said: "We have barriers but a lot of the barriers are fixtures that we put in the building. Those which are more portable are not so effective, so that's why we are reaching out to the students to see whether they can come up with good solutions. And I think students also tend to look at the economical way of looking at the problem. So they may not be very expensive solutions but they work.
"If you look at events, people do put barricades but some of these are pretty heavy to transport and they are quite a burden. So the ideas that the students have come up with are really very novel. They are deployable and very portable. Students tend to really think out of the box."
A Memorandum of Understanding with NUS is also on the cards to facilitate sharing of information and ideas in science and technology.
Mr Shanmugam said: "MHA aims to stay ahead of evolving security threats, and ensure that the Home Team is always prepared in the face of an ever-changing security environment. A strong partnership with our educational institutions facilitates capability, expertise development and promotes mutual interest."
Mr Shanmugam added that such partnerships will take Singapore's homeland security capabilities to the next level.
-CNA/ac (
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