SIAA Outreach
SIAA (Singapore Industrial Automation Association) aims to be the leading hub for knowledge in the application of automation technology and business catalyst in the region. As part of the Local Enterprise and Association Development Program (LEAD) for industry development, SPRING-IE Singapore has provided a grant to SIAA to organise training courses and outreach programmes for students.
The purpose is to address the decline in students entering the Engineering and Automation Profession, and to give students a clearer view of the industry. Through their program, they hope to inspire student interests in Engineering and Technology and demonstrate that Engineering is essential to developing products and services that improve our daily lives.
Based on initial feedback, we realise that for the program to be successful, it must be fun, has creative elements, low cost and easy to use.
- Fun – there is no doubt that students are familiar with phones and it may be easier to interest them to explore how they can use it to solve engineering problems compared to say the PLC or the embedded controller.
- Creative elements – the PC as the instrumentation platform has been exploited for some time now but for the smartphone it is just the beginning. Everyday we read about the interest generated by applications written for the iPhone, the google Android, Windows Mobile and the soon to be open source Symbian S60. Even Intel admits that its competitor is not AMD but ARM, whose processor found in most smartphones.
- Low Cost – the EMANT380 is US$159
- Easy to use – with the IE Singapore funding, we intend to provide workshops for both students and staff.
Some application areas that can be considered and aligned with existing government initiatives include
- elderly monitoring (silver hair program)
- energy conservation instrumentation
- gaming human interfaces
- SIAA M2M Portal