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Excelling in Myriad Ways:
SoC @ NUS Student Achievement Awards 2007 |
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Celebrating diversity in excellence among its students, NUS
School of Computing (SoC) is proud to note that nine of its
students have emerged winners of this year’s NUS Student
Achievement Awards. Organised by the University’s Office of
Student Affairs, the Awards
is a yearly event in recognition of
individual students or student groups for their outstanding
contributions in activities outside the
academic curriculum. |
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SoC third-year undergraduate Jayaraj s/o Dirilokaraj won the
Individual Award in Community Service. The other eight – Cheong Kah
Meng, Chuah Chong Yunn, Chris Henry, Hong Gancheng, Tan Hui Ling
Charlotte, Tan Weilong Nash, Wu Di and Zhuo Xian Kan – bagged Group
Awards in various areas, from community service to choir and dance,
and right through to entrepreneurship and even cheerleading.
Jayaraj is a second-time winner, having clinched the trophy in the
same category for the first time in 2005. While the award may be a
repeat for
him, its significance has certainly not paled.
Jayaraj
commented: “In addition to the rewards of completing the projects
that I undertook, I’m glad that an individual can be recognised by
the Varsity not just once, but for each and every of his or her
efforts across the years.”
During the period of review for the 2007 Awards, Jayaraj served as
Saadhana (A-Level Tuition Project) Coordinator of the NUS Tamil
Language Society (TLS).
He was also Assistant Producer for Sangae Muzhangu 2007, a biennial
cultural event organised by TLS that attracted an audience of some
1,700 at the University Cultural Centre.
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Jayaraj
s/o Dirilokaraj (left) accepting his Award from
NUS Deputy President and Provost, Professor Tan Eng Chye
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Yet Jayaraj was careful to emphasise the equally
great if not greater joy to be derived from the projects:
“Working as part of the
Saadhana team has provided me with an
avenue to help the under-privileged by bringing ‘A’ level
tuition to them at a very low cost.
Working as part of the Sangae Muzhangu team has given me an avenue to help promote the
Tamil language and Indian cultural traits.”
Also being acknowledged for her sustained contribution was
Charlotte Tan. She won a Group Award for her involvement in the
NUS Choir. An enthusiastic performer on stage, the third-year
Computer Science major appeared to be quiet and unassuming
off-stage when asked about her win: “I was pleasantly surprised
to find out that I had won the Award. I understand that the
criteria for winning the Award are very strict, and feel very
privileged and honoured to have won.” Yet no one could miss
Charlotte’s enthusiasm for the Choir: “During my first year in
NUS, I joined the NUS Choir because of my love of singing. I
wanted to meet like-minded people and also to develop my singing
abilities.”
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Charlotte Tan
(front row second from right) with the NUS Choir at one of its
performances |
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From what Charlotte described, the wish was more
than fulfilled: “This year, we performed in quite a number of
events, one of which was ‘PLAY! A Video Game Symphony’, where
together with the Singapore Festival Orchestra, we performed
songs from various video games such as Final Fantasy, World of
Warcraft, Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog and many
others. We also performed in ‘Voices of Harmony’ in
collaboration with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. More
recently, in June, we took part in an international competition,
‘The Third Voyage of Songs’, where we won golds in both the
categories in which we participated.”
Fellow Group Award winner Wu Di was equally enthusiastic when
asked about pursuing his passion. For the third-year Bachelor of
Computing (Business Focus) undergraduate, that means
entrepreneurship. “Winning the award is definitely proof that
the unconventional things I'm doing have made an impact. This is
a milestone for both my company Exoro Pte Ltd and myself,” he
said. |
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NUS Deputy President and Provost, Professor Tan Eng Chye (left)
with Wu Di (centre), Cheong Kah Meng (second from right) and two
other members of the Exoro team |
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Wu Di won a Group Award in the enterprise
category, along with fellow SoC undergraduate Cheong Kah Meng,
and three team mates
from the Faculty of Engineering with whom he has set up Exoro, a
student startup. To others who may harbour similar dreams of
entrepreneurship, he has this to share: “After failing thousands
of times, I finally discovered that I'm strongly passionate
about entrepreneurship, computing, education and entertainment.
Exoro is where my interests converge, and I'm fully committed in
growing
it from a student startup into a multinational company listed on
stock exchange.”
As to how he intends to achieve the goal, Wu Di had this to say:
“I always spend 1% of my time in dreams, and the remaining 99%
realising them.” More about Wu Di and Exoro may be found at
http://www.exorogame.com/
The Awards given out this year covered the period of 7 August
2006 to 5 August 2007. Other winners from the School and the
categories that they have won in are:
Nash Tan Weilong, Group Award for NUS Dance Blast!
Chuah Chong Yunn, Group Award for Kent Ridge Hall Steppers
Cheerleading Team
Chris Heny, Group Award for Kent Ridge Hall Steppers
Cheerleading Team
Zhuo Xian Kan, Group Award for NUS Students’ Union Volunteer
Action Committeee (NVAC)
Hong Gancheng, Group Award for Eusoff Voluntary Corps (Elderly
Service Team).
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Page Maintained by: SoC
CorpComm
Last Modified on: 16 November 2007 |
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