Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) graduate Penny Tan has rewritten history. The Biomedical Science graduate is the first polytechnic student in Singapore to be selected into a medical degree programme without obtaining a biomedical science degree first. Penny, NP’s top graduate in 2005, is currently at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, pursuing a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery course.

Elaine Chua, a Ngee Ann graduate and full-time sailor completed the Mini Transat in 2005. Elaine is the first-ever Asian female competitor in the Mini Transat, an arduous solo yacht race across the Atlantic Ocean.

She is also the first Singaporean to complete the BT (British Telecom) Global Challenge, deemed “The World’s Toughest Yacht Race”, in September 2000.

Aloysius Goh Kun Yi and Wong Fu Yau won the Samsung DigitAll Hope 2005 Award with their final-year project, Glovology.

The School of InfoComm Technology graduates’ mobile assistive application enables hearing-impaired persons to bridge the communication gap.

Ngee Ann students have won the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy (BYEE) award every year since it started in Singapore six years ago. The winners are Jamie Yeo (2006), Oliver Goh (2005) (left), Ng Wai Ling (2004), Ramanathan Thurairajoo (2003), Koh Shiang Loong (2002) and Peter Lee (2001).

Film, Sound & Video graduate Gloria Chee’s debut film, Smell of Rain, premiered at the Picturehouse in March 2006. She went on to direct the National Day Parade theme song music video that year.

Fellow FSV graduate Anthony Chen’s (left) debut film, G-23, was screened at the 59th Cannes Film Festival in 2006. The film also won him the New Filmmaker Award at the 3rd Asiana International Short Film Festival.

Goh Qiu Bin was named Sportsman of the Year at the 2006 Singapore Sports Award ceremony. The three-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Gold medallist (taijiquan) is a Horticulture & Landscape Management graduate.

Fellow wushu exponent Jenee Sae-Tang, an Outstanding Sports Woman Award recipient, won the silver medal in taijijian at the 2003 SEA Games.

A total of 11 NP graduates have received scholarships from the Nanyang Technological University.

The NP alumni, who received their scholarships on 19 August, bear testimony to the quality of polytechnic education – scholarships were awarded to the top 1% of this year’s cohort of 5,500 undergraduates.

Darran Nathan is the CEO of Progeniq, which launched produced a data processing accelerator for global giant Apple Computer in 2006.

The Electronic & Computer Engineering graduate received the IT Youth Award at the IT Leaders Awards in 2002.

While at Ngee Ann, he was part of Project Proteus, which developed a supercomputing platform that drastically reduces data processing time and costs. The team clinched $50,000 in funding from SPRING Singapore.

Graduate Aaron Tan clinched the IT Youth Award, conferred by the Singapore Computer Society for outstanding IT accomplishment and creativity. Aaron had previously won the Gold award for Web Design at the World Skills Singapore 2004 competition and has represented Singapore for the World Skills International Competition in Finland.

School of Life Sciences & Chemical Technology graduate of 2000 Lindi Tan is the first polytechnic student to win the US$51,000 scholarship from the prestigious John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland to pursue a PhD course on infectious diseases. The scholarship came shortly after Lindi completed her education at London’s Imperial College, with a first-class degree in Biochemistry.