THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER - Institution of Engineers Singapore

IES UPDATE
Er. Ho Siong Hin
Engineer (Er.) Ho Siong Hin, currently the
Commissioner for Workplace Safety and
Health with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM),
is the present President of IES and a member
of the Professional Engineers Board. He chairs
the Advisory Committee to the Chemical
Engineering Department of Ngee Ann
Er. Ho Siong Hin.
Polytechnic and is also a member of the Singapore Accreditation
Council which is managed under the aegis of SPRING Singapore
and chairs the Council Committee on Inspection Bodies.
After graduating from the University of Auckland, New Zealand,
with a Mechanical Engineering degree, Er. Ho joined MOM in 1982,
and in 1984 joined IES as a Graduate Member. He was a member of
the Graduates and Students Executive Committee, soon becoming
the Chairman of the Committee the next year and held the post
for a year. He also contributed to IES by being part of various
committees over the years: the Community Service Committee,
which organised the Annual General Meetings, Dinner and Dance
and Members’ Night; the IES Building Project Committee, which
was instrumental in developing the present IES Building; and the
Joint Activities Committee. After many years of active participation
in the organisation, he became a Fellow of IES in 2002.
In 2007, Er. Ho was elected as a Council Member and was appointed
Chairman of the Membership Group. In his position of Chairman,
he looked after the Social and Community Services Committee,
Qualification and Membership Committee, Technopreneurship
& Professional Development Committee, Young Members
Committee, Awards Task Force and Toastmasters Interest Group.
Er. Ho was elected as Vice President of IES for the 2008/09 Session
and Deputy President for 2009/10. He took over as IES’s 23 rd
President in May 2010. During his tenure as the President, Er. Ho
helped to raise awareness and interest in the Engineering industry
through the creation of National Engineers Day. The inaugural event
in 2010 brought together 19 co-organisers and resulted in a fourday
exhibition, with workshops and industrial visits which had the
participation of thousands of students. He also oversaw the growth
of both IES Academy and the IES Professional Registries during his
years as President.
Er. Ho was appointed to his current position in MOM to lead
OSH reform in Singapore in 2005. In the time since then, he was
instrumental in the formation of the WSH Council in which he is a
member and also oversaw the establishment of the WSH Institute
with a mission to enhance WSH through Knowledge, Innovation
and Solution.
In the regional and international arena, Er. Ho has presented papers
on OSH matters in many places, including China, Hong Kong,
Canada, Europe, Republic of Sprska, Slovakia and Australia. He was
elected Vice President of the International Association of Labour
Inspection (IALI) in 2008 and re-elected in 2011.
Er. Ho is also an active member of the ASEAN OSHNET and played
an instrumental role in capability building of OSH Inspection in
ASEAN, especially in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He chaired the
ASEAN OSH Policy Dialogue held in 2007 and 2011. Some of the
achievements at these dialogues were the agreements by all ASEAN
member countries to implement the OSH national framework and
the benchmarking of each country’s OSH performances.
Dr Foo Say Wei –
Leading with Initiative
Dr Foo Say Wei joined the Institution of Engineers,
Singapore (IES) in 1977. He was first elected as a
Council Member in 1988. He went on to serve
in various capacities in IES, as Chair of Electronics
Engineering Technical Committee, Chair of
Defence Engineering Technical Committee, Chair of
Dr Foo Say Wei. Computer Engineering and Information Technology
Committee, Chair of Qualification and Membership Committee,
Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary, Vice-President, Deputy
President and eventually President of the Institution (2004 to 2006).
Dr Foo has a flair for doing things differently and is always up for new
initiatives. When he was serving as the Territorial Chairman of the Pan
South East Asia (Pan-SEA) Toastmasters Territory, he founded the IES
Toastmasters Club for members to hone their public speaking skills.
He was elected as IES TM Club’s first President in 1991.
When he became the President of IES, Dr Foo made full use of his
role by starting and overseeing many initiatives that are still in place
today. In 2005, he started the get-together dinner during the Lunar
New Year festivities, with the traditional dragon and lion dance
performances. He also seized the opportunity to use this annual
occasion to invite representatives of the neighbouring institutions,
schools and organisations to the celebration to help foster greater
neighbourliness and friendship with them.
Furthermore, he tried to optimise the use of IES premises by setting
up a manned karaoke lounge for members to meet and interact.
Unfortunately, the patronage by members was not enough for a
private operator to keep it running for more than a few months.
Since the use of the lounge for recreation fell through, Dr Foo
sought the Council’s approval to lease the space to IES’s immediate
neighbour, the German European Secondary School. The deal
brought in substantial income for IES. With this new source of stable
income, IES is able to expand further.
Travelling to the IES premises at Bukit Tinggi for work and activities
had always been a problem for both members and staff without
their own means of transport as the place is not accessible by public
transport. To solve this problem, Dr Foo secured the approval of
the Council to purchase the first IES van for ferrying members and
staff and for official deliveries. In addition, an IES Town Office near
the Tanjong Pagar MRT was also set up for greater convenience of
members. At the same time, the IES Academy was formally established
to take charge of the Town Office and run courses in the premises.
Dr Foo has also been interested in genealogy and was instrumental
in producing the first ever Compact Disc (CD) version of Foo’s
Genealogy, compressing 36 volumes of print into one CD for
easy storage and searches. With the experience gained from his
involvement in the genealogy project, he oversaw the publication of
the first ever ‘Who’s Who in Engineering’ published by IES.
Dr Foo is currently the Deputy Director of Nanyang Technopreneurship
Centre (NTC), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The
Centre runs courses in innovation and entrepreneurship for both
undergraduates and postgraduates. Recently, a full scholarship worth
S$45,000 has been offered to members of AFEO (Asean Federation
of Engineering Organisations) to do a Master of Science degree in
Technopreneurship and Innovation, a programme run by NTC. This
is another initiative for and contribution to the engineering fraternity.
04 THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER April 2012