The Academy of Engineering, Singapore (SAEng) held its fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) in September 2015, at the Nanyang Executive Centre, Nanyang Technological University. Members of the Executive Committee were elected into positions which were due for review, and Prof Brian Lee was re-appointed as Honorary Auditor for a term of two years.

During the AGM, Academy President Cham Tao Soon reiterated that the Academy’s mandate was to serve as a think tank to deliberate on national agenda and issues related to the engineering profession and SAEng Fellows are role models for the young engineers. He requested the meeting for new nominees to join as Fellows of the Academy.

Prof Yoon Soon Fatt presented the Secretary’s report to the meeting for comments. He welcomed the new Fellows who joined the Academy during the past year, and requested the respective project champions for further comments and inputs, if any, on their projects for the meeting’s information.

Prof Chou Siaw Kiang informed that the project group on Renewable Energy Alternatives for Singapore will be reviewing the proposal and requested Fellows for comments on the project.

Prof Hang Chang Chieh reported that the Science Centre Singapore was keen to seek the Academy’s inputs for new ideas and assistance in implementing future plans inclusive of the engineering innovations proposed in the white paper. It was noted that for the project on “A Call for Action: Engineering a Renaissance and Revival”, the starting pay of engineers was one of the main issues to be addressed by the project group.

President Cham requested the meeting for comments and suggestions on the projects presented in the Secretary’s report.

Prof Lui Pao Chuen updated that the New Science Centre would be an Experimentation Centre to excite and inspire young Singaporeans in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as they could experiment and test the research prototypes from industry and government agencies at the centre.

Prof Low Teck Seng informed that the government is currently looking into an engineering service scheme where salaries will be benchmarked with the other sectors so that engineers’ salaries remain competitive and attractive for Singaporeans to take up the engineering profession.

Members noted that engineers are able to branch out to other sectors as the skills acquired from the broad-based curriculum are transferable to careers in other fields such as financial technology and risk management, and endorsed the Secretary’s report without amendments.

With regard to next steps and future plans, President Cham Tao Soon informed that the Academy will be inviting younger Fellows for a tea session so that Executive Committee members could ascertain how they can contribute their expertise and time to the Academy.