JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014 - 30

awards
Tapping into the potential of composite materials for the future at
Republic Polytechnic
Republic Polytechnic is the first educational institution in Singapore to leverage the
Problem-based Learning approach for all its
diploma programmes, offering thirty-nine
diplomas in Applied Science, Engineering,
Enterprise and Communication, Events and
Hospitality, Infocomm, Sports, Health &
Leisure, and Technology for the Arts.
Republic Polytechnic has introduced a
Specialist Diploma in Advanced Composites
(SDAC) as a continuous education and
training course, the first of its kind among
Singapore's institutes of higher learning. Targeted at developing technical expertise for the
composites industry, the course has received
support from organisations such as DSO
National Laboratories, ST Kinetics and Rolls
Royce, which have sponsored the full course
fees for their staff participants.
To explore the potential of composites, RP
has developed strong capabilities in advanced
composite materials design, manufacturing

and characterisation through the setup of
laboratories. The School of Applied Science
recently partnered with Future Cities Laboratories (FCL), an interdisciplinary research
centre established by the ETH-Zurich and
Singapore's National Research Foundation.
RP students and FCL researchers are jointly
developing bamboo composites with high
tensile strength and durability comparable
to steel. Furthermore, lecturers from the
School of Engineering and the School of
Applied Science are working closely with the
researchers from the Newcastle University
International Singapore to develop techniques
for in-situ healing of damaged composites
aero-structures. The project is funded by
Ministry of Education Singapore and once
it's ready, the technology will be used to repair
damaged aircraft structures.
In order to deepen partnerships between
industry, business and the educational sectors
on advanced composites materials, the New

Tong-Earn Tay, head of the Department
of Mechanical Engineering at NUS
T.E. (Tong-Earn) Tay is a Professor and Head of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, National
University of Singapore. He is the
founding Director of the Centre for
Aerospace Engineering at the department. Previously, he was ViceDean for Research at the Faculty of
Engineering. Prof. Tay obtained his
Bachelors of Engineering (First Class)
and PhD in Solid Mechanics from the
University of Melbourne, Australia.
He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Reinforced Plastics & Composites, and serves on the editorial boards
of the Journal of Composite Materials, International Journal of Damage
Mechanics and Applied Composite
Materials.
He has also served on a number of
scientific advisory committees of
international conferences on com-

Winner: Republic Polytechnic, School of
Applied Science (Singapore)

Materials Technology Centre (NMTC) at the
School of Applied Science also organised an
Industry Forum on 5th September 2014 at
Republic Polytechnic. 125 participants from
55 organizations benefitted from industry
talks and a panel discussion comprising four
keynote speakers from Newcastle University,
Composite Cluster Singapore (CCS), 3M
Corporate Research Lab, Nanyang Technological University and the National University of
Singapore.

Life Achievement Award

posites and reviewed articles for 18
journals. His current research interests are in progressive damage, failure,
fracture, impact and computational
analysis of composite materials and
structures, and multi-scale modeling
and molecular mechanics of polymers
and composites. He is the author or
co-author of more than 90 international journal papers and 170 conference and seminar presentations. Over
the years, he has obtained significant
research funding from agencies and
industry, including Airbus, Boeing,
Vestas, Air Force Office of Scientific
Research, A-Star SERC, Defense
Science Organization, Marine Port
Authority and Ministry of Education.
He has graduated 12 PhD students,
20 Masters students, 15 postdoctoral research fellows and 6 research
engineers to date. In the university, he

30 jec composites magazine / No93 December 2014

Academic

currently teaches a course on Aircraft
Structures, but he has also taught
Mechanics of Composite Materials
to students and engineers locally and
abroad. Prof Tay is also a registered
professional engineer.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #93 - December 2014