IT IS wonderful to see primary schools embrace the Code for Fun enrichment programme ("Software coding initiative reaches 19,000 in schools"; last Tuesday).
Computer programming and electronics - as seen in the littleBits electronic kits in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's Lab on Wheels - teach system planning as well as logic skills. I can see children only benefiting from such lessons.
I hope the effort is sustained as technology today is so miniaturised and specialised that people have become block builders rather than down-to-the-basics designers.
And once the blocks are done with, seasoned professionals who have done it all are needed to share their expertise with the children.
Mathematics and science do matter. Designers, builders, applicators - they are all needed in a Smart Nation.
And what of that child who marries technology with art?
Is Singapore able to spot and groom someone like Theo Jansen (who builds skeletal monsters) or Tim Lewis (who makes abstract mechanical contraptions)? Their works inspire a "Thinking Nation".
For a start, the IDA Lab on Wheels might want to get professionals to Skype from their workplace. This will make the experience seem more "real" and inspire children to become the next Ayah Bdeir, Cathryn Mataga or even Leo Warner, who uses technology to great visual effect.
Singapore desperately needs more engineers. Promoting the artistic and imaginative side of engineering may attract more to fields like holography, augmented reality and architecture involving "intelligent skins".
Lai Tuck Chong
Computer programming and electronics - as seen in the littleBits electronic kits in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's Lab on Wheels - teach system planning as well as logic skills. I can see children only benefiting from such lessons.
I hope the effort is sustained as technology today is so miniaturised and specialised that people have become block builders rather than down-to-the-basics designers.
And once the blocks are done with, seasoned professionals who have done it all are needed to share their expertise with the children.
Mathematics and science do matter. Designers, builders, applicators - they are all needed in a Smart Nation.
And what of that child who marries technology with art?
Is Singapore able to spot and groom someone like Theo Jansen (who builds skeletal monsters) or Tim Lewis (who makes abstract mechanical contraptions)? Their works inspire a "Thinking Nation".
For a start, the IDA Lab on Wheels might want to get professionals to Skype from their workplace. This will make the experience seem more "real" and inspire children to become the next Ayah Bdeir, Cathryn Mataga or even Leo Warner, who uses technology to great visual effect.
Singapore desperately needs more engineers. Promoting the artistic and imaginative side of engineering may attract more to fields like holography, augmented reality and architecture involving "intelligent skins".
Lai Tuck Chong
