Genevieve's presentation was on her innovative electronic system for identifying the spectral characteristics of light in the home for treating jaundice in newborn children.
With other competitors from Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, Genevieve was runner-up only to Abigail Arulandu, the representative from New Zealand, who will go on to represent the Asia-Pacific region at the International Final in London later this year.
Everyone from the IET Australia Forum wishes to congratulate Genevieve on her outstanding success in the IET Present Around The World competition!
--------
Following is an edited excerpt from the IET Singapore Local Network's report of the event, held on Sunday August 19, 2012 :
The Singapore Local Network had the honour this year of hosting the eight regional finalists and their supporters for a stimulating and inspiring day of talks.
The contestants, judges, organisers and a number of local student members convened on the preceding evening for a dinner and a visit to the Singapore Night Safari. They were welcomed to Singapore by Prof Lin Weisi, 2011–12 Chair of the Singapore Local Network, and by Winnie Lee from IET Hong Kong. Everyone in attendance enjoyed the experience of seeing nocturnal animals in a reasonably close approximation to their natural habitat.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the following morning, everyone gathered at the YMCA on Orchard Road, where the competition was to be held. All the contestants had clearly polished their talks with great care: the slides were slick, and the talks were well-timed, with almost no one running more than a few seconds over their allotted 10 minutes.
The topics of the presentations spanned computing, energy, medicine, transportation, and consumer electronics. Kitty Tse’s (Hong Kong) Audience Response System was remarkably sophisticated, and she explained it very clearly with the help of her beautifully animated slides. Genevieve Beart (Australia), the eventual runner-up, presented her innovative electronic system for identifying the spectral characteristics of light in the home for treating jaundice in newborn children.
Abigail Arulandu (New Zealand), who won the day and will proceed to the global final in London, brought a perfect blend of wit and professionalism to her talk. She explained her use of magneto-rheological actuators in stroke rehabilitation. Stroke patients often need to do physical exercises as part of their treatment, and the variable compliance of these actuators allows the amount of damping in the exercise system to be dynamically controlled, so that the exercises can be tailored to the patient.
We were fortunate to have three highly conscientious and dedicated judges. Marvin Hixson, a managing director, has lived in Singapore since 1983. David Dyer, formerly of the University of Warwick and now a Principal Scientist at Nanyang Technological University, has been involved in the IET for many years and is a former UK local network chair. Stephen Scowcroft is with the Sectors and Communities team at IET Stevenage, and sacrificed a day of his holiday in Singapore to help us out. The Singapore Young Professionals Section is immensely grateful to the judges for their time and effort.
During the breaks we heard talks from Stephen Scowcroft, and from David Leong, Chair of the IET’s Young Professionals Coordination Team. The international audience was very interested to learn about the IET’s continuing efforts to make it easier for professionals from geographically scattered networks to interact.
The Singapore Local Network would certainly not have been able to organise this competition without the tireless assistance of our local administrative officer, Yvonne Ko. Yvonne arranged accommodation, catering, Night Safari tickets, and transport, as well as coordinating our responses to enquiries from many quarters. We hope that the contestants enjoyed their few days in Singapore and managed to find some time to explore the city. We wish Abigail the very best for the London final.
Hayden Taylor
Singapore YPS Vice-Chair, 2011–12; YPS Chair, 2012–13.