Alumni Award Winners 2020
The annual NUS Engineering Alumni Awards recognise the accomplishments and contributions of exemplary NUS Engineering alumni. This year, we are proud to announce that we have one recipient for the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (DEAA), Mr Ngien Hoon Ping, and two recipients, Ms Eng Se Hsieng and Mr Tai Xu Hong, for the Outstanding Engineering Young Alumni Award (OEYAA).
Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (DEAA)
Mr Ngien Hoon Ping, Chief Executive Officer (Supply Chain Business) of FairPrice Group, graduated with a Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from NUS in 2004. He has held several key positions before joining the FairPrice Group in September 2020.
Mr Ngien was the Chief Executive of Singapore’s Land Transport Authority from November 2016 to August 2020 and Deputy Secretary (Performance) in the Ministry of Finance from July 2013 to October 2016. Prior to this, He served for more than 15 years in the fields of maintenance, engineering, logistics and operations. During his stint as Deputy Secretary (Performance) of the Ministry of Finance, he worked with IDA (now GovTech) to implement key initiatives to improve the digital experience of citizens when transacting with Government agencies, which included important services such as the enhanced SingPass and MyInfo application.
As Chief Executive of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Mr Ngien was a key driver of transformation within the organisation and in the larger transport industry. He worked with his colleagues in LTA’s Technology & Industry Development Group to put in place an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) testing regime, the first in the region, which will allow Singapore to systematically test the effectiveness, safety and cyber security of AVs. During the end 2016 to mid 2020 period, together with his team of LTA engineers, SMRT engineers and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) engineers, he worked to turnaround the Singapore MRT system which was facing multiple issues and disruption.
He believes in teamwork and that to achieve lasting impact, a leader must work with and through his team, build them up, and help them develop a deep sense of mission and collaboration. In this way, the work that is achieved today would last into future generations.
Outstanding Engineering Young Alumni Award (OEYAA)
Ms Eng Se-Hsieng, Senior Vice President (Business Development) of SkyLab Services Pte Ltd, received her Bachelor’s (with a Minor in Technopreneurship) and Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from NUS in 2002 and 2003 respectively as part of the NUS-French Grandes Écoles Double Degree Programme.
Ms Eng has led numerous projects for various large organizations prior to taking up her current role in May 2019. She joined Singtel shortly after her graduation in 2003, where she worked 8 years in various departments, ranging from Mobile Network Engineering to International Group while based in various countries including Philippines, Pakistan and the UAE. While in Singtel, she oversaw important projects, such as the launch of 3G Value-Added Services in Singapore (Video Streaming), as well as the nationwide in-building rollout of 3G services within landmark buildings such as VivoCity and Changi Airport Terminal 3.
When she joined Vodafone Group’s Asia-Pacific and Africa headquarters in Singapore in 2011, she was tasked to lead the business-to-business (B2B) commercial deal team to structure commercials and negotiations for contracts between Vodafone and MNC customers in emerging markets. When Vodafone divested from Verizon, Ms Eng was asked to helm an internal programme to identify worthy investment projects in Asia and Africa, leading her to travel for an extended period to Qatar, Johannesburg and the UK.
Thereafter, she led Vodafone’s Internet of Things business in Northern Europe with her family based in the UK before returning to Singapore in 2019.
Mr Tai Xu Hong, Director & Co-founder of Momentus Research Pte Ltd and WOW Kampung Pte Ltd, received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from NUS in 2010, with a Minor in Technopreneurship as part of NUS Overseas College Stockholm which he joined in 2007.
With a strong conviction for entrepreneurship and technological pursuits, he started these two enterprises. Momentus Research Pte Ltd focuses on using humanised technology for behaviour change among corporates, while WOW Kampung Pte Ltd is a social enterprise that designs experiential learning for environmental and wellbeing education in Singapore and Dubai.
He was working for a multi-national corporation before he decided to pursue his belief that his engineering training can also be used in positive culture building and sustaining social change. Applying design thinking and a systems approach, he integrates online platforms with human centered experiences to facilitate individuals to discover the best of themselves. Mr Tai is also representing Singapore as a Global Member in the Dubai Future Council on Education.