Five Year 4 students reading the SIT-DigiPen Systems Engineering (ElectroMechanical Systems) programme, or SEEMS, have passed their systems engineering knowledge examination for the INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering) certification and are now qualified as INCOSE's Associate Systems Engineering Professional (ASEP).
ASEP is a professional qualification targeted at junior systems engineers and recent graduates with limited systems engineering work experience. Candidates are required to sit for a written examination consisting of 120 questions in two hours. Topics cover systems engineering thinking, its life cycles, technical and project processes, as well as specialty engineering activities.
The five SITizens – Eyrica Lee Min Wei, He Zhenyang, Tan Zong Hong, Kok Zheng and Goh Yong Kiat – went through three days of intensive training for the ASEP paper after their final SIT examinations. Their systems engineering experience accumulated over their course of study have served them well as the examination assumes that candidates have practiced systems engineering at a junior engineer level.
"As the certification is designed for systems engineers with practising experience, for undergraduates to pass the exam is very rare. It is a remarkable achievement that our students are the first few undergraduates who have achieved ASEP globally. This demonstrates that SIT is on the right track in our applied learning approach to nurture industry-ready graduates," said Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President.
For Eyrica Lee, the ASEP exam took her four years to prepare, and her education at SIT has enabled her to attain practical experience on top of theoretical knowledge, which greatly helped in the learning of these concepts.
"My education at SIT, coupled with the ASEP qualification, has made me better equipped in terms of technical skills and knowledge. I felt more confident that I would be able to contribute to the society with my systems thinking and concepts. These experiences will in turn benefit me in my future projects and work tasks," said Eyrica, who has recently started work in a German company, Uhlmann Singapore.
As a designer, her role is to provide mechanical solutions for pharmaceutical machines and customer-specific machine tooling.
Another ASEP certified SITizen, Tan Zong Hong, said that the certification will be an asset for him to solve complex problems through an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. Similar to Eyrica, he is grateful that SIT's applied learning has helped him to prepare for the industry.
"In every trimester, I had at least one project which allowed me to apply what I had learnt. I also spent one year in Pepperl+Fuchs for my Integrated Work Study Programme. With the extended period, I was able to contribute to the company and, at the same time, expose myself to the work culture and industry developments," said Zong Hong.
Zong Hong has started his full-time job at Land Transport Authority as an engineer in the System Architecture and Assurance Division in August.
Congratulations to the SITizens for making SIT proud, and we wish them all the best in their career!
