Home > Media Centre > Press Releases Printer-friendly page

EDUN N25-02-004

02701

5 June 2001

IBM and the Ministry of Education team up to help students invent the future
Technology "jam" brings together 500 students and 25 IBM researchers from around the world

                 To foster a culture of innovation, IBM and the Ministry of Education (MOE) have teamed up to organise Blue "i"s. Blue "i"s, the first of its kind in Singapore, is a two-day technology "jam" which brings together some 500 Singapore students and about 25 IBM researchers from labs around the world, including Nobel Laureate Georg Bednorz. The student participants, aged between 15 and 28, are from secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics, the Institute of Technical Education, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

2                  During the event, students will be engaged in brainstorming and interaction sessions with the IBM researchers, where they will gain insight into the lives of scientists. Students will also be engaged in exercises designed to help them to break out of old thinking modes and develop creative perspectives on important aspects of society such as commerce and education. Please refer to Annex A and Bfor the agenda of the jamming sessions and information on IBM Research.

3                 The event will be officially opened by Senior Minister of State (Education), Dr Aline Wong. Blue "i"s ("i" for innovation, ideas, information technology, infinite possibilities…) will be held at Temasek Convention Centre, Temasek Polytechnic, from 5 - 6 June 2001.

4             Mr Tan Yap Kwang, Director, Educational Technology Division of MOE said, "An event such as Blue "i"s stimulates and nurtures creativity in our students. This is in line with the Ministry's efforts in encouraging students to develop critical and creative thinking skills."

5                Said Janet Ang, Managing Director, IBM Singapore: "As a technology company dedicated to innovation, we want to play our part in encouraging a culture of innovation -- especially among Singapore youth, our future. We hope that Blue 'i's will encourage students to think, explore and discover the vast potential of technology. Through their interactions with our scientists and researchers, we want to give participants an insight into how inventions come into being; and we hope to ignite interest in a career in IT, science and technology or research."

6              Besides MOE and IBM, the National Science & Technology Board is also a sponsor of the event.

A Joint Release by:
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
IBM

Annex A

Jamming agenda

On the agenda are:

"Jam" sessions, where students and researchers interact, debate, discuss, exchange ideas and "invent" the future. 

• A panel discussion featuring innovative industry heavyweights such as:

                    § Mrs Pamela Lim, founder, director and CEO of 3rd Frontier Solutions, "Netrepreneur of the Year, 2001" and "Most Promising Woman Entrepreneur, 2001";

                    § Prof Hang Chang Chieh, Executive Deputy Chairman, NSTB and Founding Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance which pioneers a new paradigm in global graduate education and research;

                   § Dr Brian Chen, Chief Technology Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and owner of two patents; and

• Demos of inventions such as technology that "reads" human emotions and smart, new ways to effectively extract relevant data from the Web. Students will also see an innovative demonstration on human-computer interaction technology when a nifty little robot with "feeling" nicknamed PONG takes to the stage.

Annex B

About IBM Research

IBM Research is the world's largest information technology research organization, with more than 3,000 scientists and engineers at eight labs in six countries. (Locations include New York, San Jose, Austin, Zurich, Haifa, Tokyo, Beijing and Delhi.) IBM has produced more research breakthroughs than any other company in the IT industry. In addition, IBM maintains more than two dozen development labs around the world.

Among the things invented at IBM are: the first disk drive, the first DRAM, the first relational database, the first data encryption standard, Deep Blue, the copper chip, silicon germanium, high-temperature superconductivity.

IBM owns nearly 35,000 patents worldwide, including more than 20,000 in the U.S., with thousands pending. IBM's intellectual property portfolio generates more than $1 billion in revenues annually.

Past and present IBM researchers include five Nobel laureates, honored for their discovery of electron tunneling effect in semiconductors (in 1973), invention of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (in 1986) and for the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity (in 1987).