Zack — Tat Leong — Yu Fei
We wanted to share the amazing stories and motivations behind the alumni who gave to the #SUTD25KCHALLENGE.
New week, new stories!
Be part of the campaign!
Zack:
1) Why did you give back to the SUTD AA fund?
Being a recipient of financial aid in the form of Bursaries and Study Awards, it is felt right to do my part in a way that would allow the subsistence of financial aid to needy students
2) What’s your favourite past time in SUTD?
Playing board games with your friends and going out of school for a meal with friends after an intense week
3) What’s a part of the SUTD spirit which you greatly resonated with and hope will be carried on?
Helping out fellow students in need academically by guiding them so that no one is left behind
4) What’s the one thing you wish you did or said in ur SUTD life. Basically what did you regret not doing!
I regret not taking AI mod because it clashed with robotics. Even after i went through a tedious process to get the AI prof to accept me into his class(not very useful for this campaign)
I guess make full use of all the opportunities that SUTD provides. From small things like auditing to sit in, to financial aid. If you don’t ask, you won’t know the answer.
Tat Leong:
Experience that shaped me
Definitely the campus builders’ program. You can build the university that you are studying in, how cool is that?!
When SUTD first started, I remember it occupied just a few offices on level 4 of MOE Ghim Moh building. Initially, I joined the SUTD Campus Builders’ programme for fun (and never had the intention of studying there) as I had to wait 18 months before the school officially starts.
It turned out that those 18 months totally blew my mind away — that of a noob JC kid with his tiny view of the world. During my time there, I got to interact with graduate students and professors doing cool products like the Leveraged Freedom Wheelchair and mind-boggling research like generative design. The passion they have is so contagious that it sucked me into the world of design and engineering. I even had the opportunity to go to ZJU and MIT, experiencing 2 very different design cultures from the East & West, making my experience at SUTD very holistic. It was all these valuable lessons and a fuzzy, homely vibe at SUTD that made it a fantastic undergraduate experience.
Past time
My favourite past time in SUTD was poker nights with friends or getting drunk on other nights and doing stupid stuff that college kids usually do. (let’s not get into that)
Spirit to keep
As the pioneer batch, we had to build everything from scratch. We created our own orientation, our fifth row clubs, our identity. I hope that this pioneering spirit will live on forever in future SUTD students. Have no fear. Break new grounds. Keep testing the system. Hack it, break it, fix it. If something does not exist, stop complaining and start building.
Something i wish i did
I wish I started Codomo earlier with my team. It would have given us a valuable opportunity to develop & test new ideas, possibly benefitting the learning experience in SUTD.
Yu Fei:
I wanted to do something for SUTD since I benefited from it. Same as Sisui basically.
One of the experiences in SUTD that greatly shaped me was when…
I was running out of time and was busy working on the Physical World 2D project. My friends and I helped each other as we worked late into the night (till 4am, or maybe even later) and that experience really highlights the teamwork and spirit of collaboration that we have here in SUTD. From then on, I knew I could count on my friends when I needed help and I will do the same for them too.
My favourite past time is…
Talking to my friends and bouncing ideas off them. That and DOTA.
The part of the SUTD spirit which I hope lives on is…
Collaboration/ teamwork
I regret not…
Meeting and talking to more people in SUTD
