27 July 2012 – When Gordon Lee signed up to participate in Spatial Challenge 2011, he had only a vague idea of what GeoSpatial Information and Technology (GIT) entailed. One year on and piqued by his interest in GIT, he decided to embark on a career in GIT. The former Singapore Polytechnic student is now an intern at Quantum Inventions, a company that provides next generation dynamic navigation systems that are highly responsive to real-time information such as traffic data, road incident information and dynamic road pricing amongst others.

2. Gordon said: “What made me decide to participate in Spatial Challenge was the thrill of new technology, knowledge and the experience that I’ll be exposed to. Based on mutual interest and good performance in the competition, I chose to join Quantum Inventions. I have been exposed to more GIT programming and picking up real projects ranging from local to overseas companies. It’s not about development of new technologies but rather how we integrate the technologies into our daily lives.”

3. The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) recognises the need to equip people with the relevant competencies and skills in order to build our geospatial capacity. One of the best ways to start is through organising Spatial Challenge competitions among our schoolchildren to increase geospatial awareness.

4. 33 teams of students from 18 institutions took part in this year’s Spatial Challenge. The teams gave their final presentations at Hort Park, on 27 July 2012, marking the culmination of six months of hard work. Guest-Of-Honour, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Law, Ms Sim Ann, presented the prizes to the winners at the closing ceremony.

5. The winner in the Pre-University GIS Analysis category is Team Geogability (Catholic Junior College). The first and second runners-up are Team Space Invaders (Hwa Chong Institution (College Section) and Team Nanyang Geographers (Nanyang Junior College) respectively. The winner in the Tertiary GIS Analysis category is Team GeoTrio (National Institute of Education), while the first and second runners-up are Team 117570 (National University of Singapore) and Team GTMS (National Institute of Education). The winner in the Tertiary GIS Application category is Team Edify (Nanyang Polytechnic), while the first and second runners-up are Team Mapwork (Singapore Management University) and Team Razzle Dazzle (SIM University).

6. Ms Sim said: “Against an international backdrop of growing emphasis on GIT, Singapore, too, intends to build up our geospatial capacity. SLA and the Ministry of Education (MOE) are exploring the development of a web-based application for A-level Geography students. SLA is also formulating a Geospatial Competency Framework in consultation with academic, industry and public agency partners.”

7. The Spatial Challenge competition was first introduced in 2008 with the aim of increasing the awareness of geospatial technology among students and encouraging the innovative use of GIT in schools. It is supported by the Ministry of Education. Each year, the competition starts in March, with training sessions for both teachers and students conducted by SLA and Esri Singapore, the main sponsor and the world’s leading GIS software company.

8. The synopsis of the winning projects can be found in Annex A and the list of schools participating can be found at Annex B. Details of the competition can be found in Annex C.

-End-

Issued by:
The Singapore Land Authority
27 July 2012

Attachments:
Annex A: List of winners
Annex B: List of participating schools
Annex C: About SLA Spatial Challenge

About SLA
Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is a statutory board with the Ministry of Law. Its mission is to optimise land resources for the economic and social development of Singapore. SLA is responsible for the direct management of some 14,000 hectares of State land and about 5,000 buildings. It is also in charge of land sales, leases, acquisitions and allocation, developing and marketing land-related information, and maintaining the national land information database through digitised land information services. SLA is also the national land registration authority for property transactions, and the issuance and guarantee of land titles in Singapore. It also manages and maintains the national land survey system, including the defining of boundaries or legal limits of properties based on a coordinated cadastre survey system. For more details, visit www.sla.gov.sg.