My Second RSE Program Two Years Later: An Executive’s Perspective
December 2016: The end of a tutorial for the summer offering of the old COMP1927. Still in my first year, I decided to stay back at uni with a friend and eventually head up to this interesting event I found on Facebook: The STEM Leaders Program 2016 Presentation & Networking Night…
July 2017: Having just completed the program I had been longing to participate in for the past 7 months, I couldn’t stop there with this incredible group of individuals. Halfway through my second year, I knew I was in need of some more unique experiences and I believed RSE had the right people to mentor and guide me through this STEM journey. So I decided to join their team as a program coordinator, to better shape the 5 day intensive experience I had, and provide exposure to students of a more diverse STEM background, particularly Mathematics.
Little did I know I was about to embark on an even bigger journey as I stayed on.
Fast forward to 16 months later…
An team-wide announcement was made to participate in, or coordinate, a brand new international program, the brain-child of an RSE co-founder, and an opportunity that gave me a chance to try something even more daring than I’ve been offered before.
When asked if I wanted to help coordinate this program, I said no. I’ve been in the middle of upskilling myself to take on a VP role within the organisation, and I’ve spent so much time organising programs that I missed the fun in actually participating in one. So I chose to do that instead.
And so began the Engineering Power-up Program
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Instead of delving into my experiences with each of the two phases, I wanted to focus more on the experience itself and lessons I learnt, particularly from my two weeks in Singapore from May 19th to June 2nd. Even as someone who’s been working with RSE and other societies as long as I have, there was still so much to experience and learn from the outside. Here are my three main takeaways:
1. Don’t think you are limited to learning only from your degree
The longer you are at university, the more you will realise that what you learn in the classroom, albeit being extensive, is still only a limited experience. The only way to stand out from your own university peers is to extend your knowledge and do more than the norm through various online (Udemy, Lynda, Coursera) and offline (programs/workshops) means. The first part of this EPuP journey involved upskilling in Python, CAD and Arduino, which I believe is the perfect combination of materials for a mechatronics engineering student such as myself to learn.
But what surprised me even more was the sheer volume of mechanical, software, chemical and civil engineering students who decided to take this challenge of learning, despite much of it having very little relevance to their degrees. They were all very active and curious in learning about cyber security, blockchain, quantum computing and data science. Overall, they all shone through the Singapore phase, developing automated waste management systems and driver fatigue alarms using Arduino boards, as well as websites and apps for financial literacy using their newly developed python skills.
This really goes to show that anyone can learn what we all learnt to get to the stage we are at. All it takes is some drive and a regular commitment to stay on top of your tasks and manage your time, dedicating a fair portion of it to your own upskilling. That is what will build your portfolio of projects and skills, and that is what will make you stand out in your current and future job hunts.
2. The best impact comes from research
In Singapore, our groups were tasked with creating a product for social impact on a potentially global scale. As the focus was more technical between us, we had the opportunity to develop working prototypes to pitch at the end of the program.
If you think the first thing we did was think of a product idea and work our way into developing it, then think again!
Throughout the program, we had multiple workshops dedicated towards not only technical upskilling, but also the mindset of an entrepreneur.
Fun fact: Here are some traits for startups that fail:
- Entrepreneur self-awareness is lacking
- Co-founder conflict (runway issues)
- Not being reflective enough (e.g. run out of money but why?)
- Sometimes the product isn’t good
- Sometimes the product is good but no one wants it
The last point is the number one killer for startups, known as premature scale. You may have a killer idea, raise money, find co-founders, CTOs, etc. Programmers create the code quick, marketing is killer, everything is killer. In the end, all your customers leave because you misunderstood their needs. Congratulations! You just made an awesome product that no one wants…
There are various methodologies and frameworks to assist in overcoming the hurdles of identifying customer needs. Think of the lean startup model, where you focus on experimentation and customer feedback over elaborate internal-planning. Think of agile management and build-measure-learn loops; make guesses, bounce these off your market and get feedback in a way such that you always have a working product you can improve on a day-to-day basis.
How do you convince someone to buy your product? Either they already identify that they need it, or you convince them that they need it, by showing them why. That’s where your research comes in.
This is why my group decided to turn the tables and go non-technical with our social impact product, by instead focusing on a simple idea and researching it like crazy by talking to the general public and updating our MVP as we built a case around it to present at our final pitches. The idea came from choosing a problem to tackle, rather then the solution, before doing the market research, which I believe is the first step to any successful startup.
3. Having a global perspective will open your mind to many more opportunities
I may have visited Singapore a few years ago with my family, but this trip took my international exposure to a whole other level entirely…
Building upon the previous point, I think the best part of doing our market research for our product wasn’t getting continual feedback, but mostly having conversations with the locals from another country and simply observing their behaviour in various environments. It came as not only a cultural shock, but also a cultural enrichment for all of us, especially every time we ate out for ramen, hot pot, KBBQ and chilli crab.
Singapore as a whole has such a rich presence of entrepreneurs and other individuals who are more than happy to talk ideas and culture. We were given lots of opportunities to connect with leaders from upcoming startups, more established technical firms and even representatives from government initiatives like the NEA.
Ask anyone from my team, and we will tell you that one major highlight for us came from talking to a man at our nearest hawker stall (food centre) who turned out to be a chairman for Singapore’s largest home-grown PR consultancy. In our 45 minute conversation, he both enlightened and embarrassed us by his knowledge of not only Singapore, but of other countries including Australia. In doing so, he provided one of the biggest global perspectives we could have attained for our project as well as our own general knowledge, and every minute talking to him was an absolute pleasure.
There are limitless opportunities that everyone needs to seize outside their home country at least once. Go on exchange or do an international program, and trust me it will be one of the most rewarding things you do.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Well and truly, the Engineering Power-up Program is one of the best ways for exposing yourself to new mindsets and environments, upskilling yourself technically and professionally, and connecting with people all around the globe. As someone who was fasting for the duration of the trip, it was certainly a challenge keeping up to date with my project work and workshops while there. Plus, not being able to try different breakfast and lunch time meals was starting to crush me a bit. Nonetheless, this was still a one-of-a-kind opportunity, and RSE was the perfect platform to experience this form of enrichment.
It was a terrific complement to my STEM Leaders experience back in 2017 and anyone looking for a shorter term international experience needs to consider this program the next time it happens. It will only grow bigger and better than its first run. It was an absolute pleasure to participate, executive or not, and I could not thank the EPuP team and participants enough for the incredible experience. So thank you to:
- Ajay, the mastermind behind the concept of EPuP
- Alvin, the program manager who made everything possible
- David, Vivian and Linda for coordinating and supporting all of us during the past 6 months of work
- Clarissa, Shalini, Jason and William for being an awesome project team and showing me how much there was to explore and learn during our trip.
- Anthony for some mad photos and vids! Check them out on our Instagram and LinkedIN
- Tribe Theory, Quadrant, Google, Entropica Labs, NewCampus, Reapra, SGInnovate and all of the other partners that provided this unique experience for us.
- Martin Z, Ivan, Kevin, Jono, Martin P, Barseen, Zac, Callum, Matt, Jackie, Swaps, Harry, Ben, Abigail, Denise, Laymond, Tamara, Daniel and Winston for being awesome roommates and comrades for the full two weeks!
Take every opportunity you can, and try all the flavours of the ice cream before you pick your favourite. And so to those who can’t wait for the next EPuP, fear not, for it is on its way! So give it a shot. I’m sure it will be worth your while as it was for me!
That’s all from me. Signing out.
