ECE Participation at the Aviation Open House 2011
ECE participated at the Aviation Open House 2011 which was held on 3-5 November 2011 at Downtown East.
The Aviation Open House (AOH) 2011 showcased the multi-faceted aviation industry and presented the career, education and training opportunities available. "Held in a special year when Singapore is celebrating 100 years of aviation, the AOH 2011 aims to ignite young Singaporeans' passion for aviation. It will give them a comprehensive panorama of the many exciting and rewarding opportunities provided by the aviation industry, and allow them to experience the buzz of aviation. With its manpower demands set to increase further, encouraging young Singaporeans to join the industry is essential to developing and sustaining the talent and human resource pool for the industry’s further growth," said Mr Yap Ong Heng, Director-General, CAAS.
In line with ECE’s vision of reaching out to the general public and school students to interest them in the Engineering profession, the Department participated in the Aviation Open House 2011. The ECE booth includes 2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and a NUS ECE human vision R&D development.
The award winning ECE-UAV team has been working on various research projects related to defense technologies since 2003. The main focus is on unmanned rotorcraft systems and other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles, and to explore the potentials of the next generation intelligent UAVs in various applications. Current technology and state of the art algorithms for real-time flight control in both indoor and outdoor terrains which is largely relevance to the defence industry were showcased. The exhibits were well received by the visitors.
Another attraction at the ECE booth was the Eye-tracking system developed by Dr Yen Shih-Cheng. The eye tracking system make use of eye movements to control an on-screen cursor so that users can interact with a computer simply by moving their eyes around. The eye-tracking system is applicable for the aviation industry as it will allow fighter pilots to control their weapon targeting systems with their eyes. This way, they can aim and shoot their targets just by looking at them. It garner great interest from the crowd, many of the young visitors were fascinated by the exhibits at the booth.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CASS), over 11,000 visitors attended the event. There was positive feedback from many saying the event was useful to them, and that it showcased the vibrancy of the sector and anticipated that in the long-run, this will translate into the students making Aviation their educational and career choice.
As ECE Outreach team continues their efforts to reach out and cultivate students’ interest in Engineering from young, the Department looks forward to participate in more of these exciting roadshows and events targeted at schools and public.