Hey there! I am See Ting, Co-founder and Chief Executive of Pitchspot — your global launchpad for ideas. To start off, me as an entrepreneur? I’ve never had thought of that as a plausible career all my life! I wasn’t sure if I even had what it takes to build a startup; after all, I just graduated from National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in (Computational) Engineering Science.

I served as a Software Engineer in Data Storage Institute, and as a Nanotechnology Engineer in C3nano in my sophomore and senior years; one significant university experience was when I spearheaded organizing a University Orientation Camp — ESPEC Camp 2014 and led a Student Club whilst in NUS — NUS Engineering Science Programme (ESP) Student Club. Even so, I was barely ready to face the world. How did I end up co-founding Pitchspot? Why didn’t I take up a full-time job instead? Why did I reject seven job offers? Why was I building castles in the air, knowing full well the uncertainty that came along with building a startup?

My fellow resident assistant only had this to say when I shared with him the motivation and underlying principles of Pitchspot:

“I hope this is something worthwhile pursuing. If not, then you’re just gonna waste your time; otherwise, prove me wrong in a few years yeah?”

I would say it was partly due to my year-long experience in 2016 with NUS Overseas Colleges Programme in Silicon Valley that has changed my perspectives of innovation today. The culture in the Valley has been engraved in my heart and it was precisely that that made me decide to dedicate the next 5 years to work on something that I am truly passionate about, and change the innovation culture around the world for the better.

Perhaps, it was a calling (maybe from God?) — but hand-to-heart, it was really tough to make a decision like that. To those before me who’ve dropped out of school or quit their high-paying job to build a startup from scratch, I just can’t wrap my head around why. Crazy, ain’t it? On the other hand, I have been part of and also witnessed many talents and teams with ideas, prototypes, and products that had been fully developed — but sadly, they were all shelved.

Maybe there was no one in the team that was willing to take it up as their full-time job. Or maybe they had too many personal commitments, or to their families and loved ones? Simply put, there are always trade-offs in everything we do. We can’t maximise profit and maximise wages for employees, nor can we run a startup and commit to a full-time job. Like what I’ve always emphasised at Pitchspot Weekly’s (our weekly huddles to discuss individual OKRs and bring each other up to speed):

“The survival of a startup is highly dependent on the team’s commitment to push through his vision.”

We can’t always depend solely on just luck and a half-committed team to make things happen. When things are starting to pick up or get busy, it will be too little, too late. Speed means everything to a startup; what I’m trying to say is this: the purpose of building a startup is about picturing a better world and starting a movement, rather than just relying on a one-hit-wonder, seemingly-innovative, fad-ish product or service. It may be innovative today, but tomorrow it might well be obsolete.

To build a startup is a movement which you truly believe in, building products around it to fulfill and achieve your vision. That’s why most founders/co-founders are indispensable to the vision and the direction of the startup. There will be a lot of pivotal points along the way to achieve the vision, which may be difficult and not many entrepreneurs can see this through to fruition; it is always difficult to gauge success in a highly uncertain environment.

“A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

— The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries

Understandably, many are not willing to walk this path of uncertainty, resulting in many good ideas/products being shelved. I personally find this to be a huge problem for innovation in the world where there is too many cases of untapped potential and huge amount of innovation waste.

At Pitchspot, our mission is to get into the core of innovation waste and create the right tools such as data analytics, to allow innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists alike, to better understand and innovate for the world. We’re working on something truly exciting that is usable for all budding entrepreneurs to gauge the feasibility of your ideas. So if you have an idea or a project you’re dying (living) to work on, check Pitchspot out, and let us know any feedback you might have for us.

Oh, and one last thing: “Move fast. Break things. Learn from it.”

Hi ESPians! My name is John and I was from the graduating class of 2017 in the Photonics and Optics specialisation. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD in SUTD, which is an opportunity and privilege that I am very grateful for, thanks to the support from professors at NUS. Right now, I am working on printing large-area, high-resolution integral images. An integral image is essentially a set of encoded discrete 2D images taken from different perspectives to project a 3D image. Different images are seen by the observer as the viewing position is changed. The display of an integral image is “autostereoscopic”, meaning that it does not require the observer to wear cross-polarized glasses like those in 3D movies. Furthermore, an integral image can be viewed under incoherent light, which makes it a simple and convenient way of viewing 3D. The pictures below illustrate one of my attempts at creating a printed integral image. However, current integral images suffer from poor resolution by commercial standards and improving that would be the focus of my research. My sincere word of encouragement to all ESPians is that not everything is about GPA, but to believe and persevere in whatever you do. If you would like to stay in touch, you are welcomed to email me at john2_chan@mymail.sutd.edu.sg. Cheers!

ESP Almnus Tan Huei Ming and Muhammad Ibnur was featured in an article entitled “Kampung innovators protect the Earth” in the Straits Times dated 27 July 2012. Please click here to read about their efforts to protect the environment.

“Engineering Science, being a multidisciplinary course, required us to adapt and be quick learners – These are extremely valuable skills at the workplace. The very-hands on and design project heavy curriculum prepared me well to tackle and turn challenges into opportunities that helped me grow in the various management roles in my career in the solar industry. I am grateful that my efforts and passion have been recognized and I will continue to be a positive driver in the industry”

ESP congratulates Raghav on been recently featured in the Renewable Energy Worlds Global Solar 40 Under 40 list. He was recognized as 1 of the 40 professionals, who stand out as drivers and growth for the solar industry, in Renewable Energy World’s first ever 40 under 40 list. The full list of winners can be found here:

https://solar40under40.renewableenergyworld.com/winners/

Raghav is from the ESP Class of 2013 and he did his specialisation in Energy systems. ESP gave Raghav the platform to carry out his final year research project with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore as well as work in China as a part of the Solar Decathlon – a multi-university competition to build solar houses.  He is currently the Head of Project Management at Cleantech Solar (Part of the founding team). They are now the leading  Independent Power Producer for Solar Energy in Asia for commercial and industrial clients.

I feel lucky to be a member of the ESP family. ESP provides me the necessary training in fundamental science and great flexibility to plan my undergraduate study. I was able to work with multiple faculty members in different fields, which emboldened me to pursue ambitious research in my PhD study.

Currently, I am working in Nano Engineering Group under the guidance of Professor Gang Chen at MIT. My research focuses on material transport property with the methods developed from physics, mathematic and data science. With the developed   computational tools, we successfully predicted that a novel transport phenomenon can occur in graphite at a much higher temperature which is recently observed experimentally by our research group. Note that this phenomenon has only been reported below 10 K, but our results predict 100 K. In the course of research, we also found a new insight with regard to the origin of thermal resistance. The conventional wisdom stated in many textbooks of thermal resistance become problematic in the study of anisotropic materials and we provide ways to correct it.  The most importance lesson I learned from these projects is to remain critical as even the well-established statements can be inaccurate.  So far, I am pleased to report that I have published 20+ papers which have attracted 300+ citations. My current h-index is 10.

I wish to advise my ESP juniors to:

• Think big: ESP has provided you almost all the resource, learn to make use of it and make ambitious plans
• Stay positive: We should cherish the opportunities we have. Work hard to change what could be changed and ready to accept what cannot be changed
• Be happy: Only by staying happy can you make the most of your potential

ESP Almnus Tan Yi Han was featured in an article entitled “Saving water: Move beyond price to focus on public education” in the Today Paper dated 6 March 2017. Please click here to read about his view on getting Singaporeans to care about saving water.