CHAPTER 9 - Leading Lights in the IT Industry

Summary

“The banking transaction system is complex and great care must be taken to ensure the integrity of all data.”

— Liau Hon Chung, EEE Pioneer

SINCE GRADUATION IN 1985 Francis Tay Teck Leong never left campus and he is not in academia. He returned to NTI to join GINTIC as a communication engineer. The company deals with computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). GINTIC is now known as the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology. His most memorable moment at work was dealing with the Nimda virus on 18 September 2001. The virus hogged bandwidth, destabilised gateway routers and was spreading like wildfire. If not stopped, it could paralyse the GINTIC corporate network. Francis swung into action. He mobilised his staff and cut off network access to any infected computer. They contained the virus and prevented any network disruption. Francis recalled, “It was a crisis that demanded my problem solving skills that were learnt at NTI. My background in electrical and electronics engineering helps my IT work. Both deal with hardware and software.” He rose through the ranks to become deputy director. In 2009, Francis received a National Day Long Service Award from Minister of Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang.

Another IT veteran is Ho Lip Tse. He started out as a systems analyst with the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore. The Singapore-born Australian citizen based in Melbourne is a solution support architect with SAP Australia. SAP is the world leader in enterprise applications software that helps companies run better. Lip Tse provides risk mitigation consulting services for complex projects. His strong interest in this field prompted him to do his PhD at the University of South Australia. Prior to SAP, the mechanical engineer by training was working for Motorola Singapore where he was responsible for equipment maintenance, process engineering, shop floor integration and IT. He became a certified SAP consultant at Motorola. That enabled him to join SAP in 1999.

Liau Hon Chung's IT expertise enabled the smooth running of banking transactions. The importance of his work came through in one incident. At the back end, someone missed a semi-colon in the command, causing two commands to be combined. That destroyed the root file system causing the critical server to crash, and the bank's opening was only eight hours away.