In a world brimming with career choices, Ong Si Ci and Matthew Ryan Teo were driven by a deep-seated aspiration to pursue meaningful work that makes a positive impact on the community. For Si Ci, the enjoyment she found in giving back to the community as a student inspired her to seek a rewarding career in public service. Matthew, on the other hand, was keen to contribute to Singapore’s national development as he found serving the public sector to be a purposeful endeavour. This led them to apply for the Public Service Scholarship (PSC) and embark on careers in public service.

Their journeys eventually brought them to HTX (Home Team Science and Technology Agency), where they channel their passion for science and technology into impactful action and help transform the homeland security landscape to keep Singapore safe.

As the first agency of its kind in the world, HTX integrates science and engineering capabilities to develop cutting-edge technologies that exponentially empower the daily operations of Home Team departments.

From Passion to Proficiency

Si Ci’s journey began with a youthful curiosity in science and technology that led her to participate in research projects with institutions like Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Defence Science and Technology Agency and the National Institute of Education. These experiences fuelled her passion for innovation. Inspired by a project involving the synthesising of zinc oxide and nanowires during her junior college days, she went on to pursue Materials Science and Engineering at Imperial College London.

Reflecting on her transformative experience studying overseas, she shared, “It was an eye-opening experience to live abroad. The one thing I’ve picked up over the years is learning the importance of continuously pursuing a better version of myself!”

Upon joining HTX after graduation, Si Ci seized opportunities to acquire essential computer science and AI skills, and actively pursued courses and programmes that helped her excel in her current role as a Lead Engineer in AI Engineering.

“With the support of HTX’s Training and Learning course sponsorships, I’ve obtained three Graduate Certificates for NUS-ISS in Intelligent Sensing Systems, Pattern Recognition Systems and Intelligent Reasoning Systems,” she elaborated.

Si Ci will also be pursuing a Master of Science in Computing later this year courtesy of a sponsorship by HTX.

For Matthew, the interest in computer science was sparked during National Service when he discovered free online courses. The interest in this field eventually grew so large that he spent 10 weekends learning the basics of computer science and programming.

“As I progressed through the course, I picked up different coding languages and built a few projects. I still remember the immense sense of fulfilment derived from creating something from scratch. Most importantly, I found it impressive that a few lines of code could be transformed into programmes that have purpose and tangible impact!” he exclaimed.

Matthew has graduated from his degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and will be pursuing his Master’s in Technology Policy programme at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

“The PSC scholarship has given me the opportunity to pursue my undergraduate and postgraduate education at overseas institutions. This experience has expanded my world view, taught me different teaching pedagogies and allowed me to be immersed in different cultural environments,” he noted.

Making Real-World Impact Through Innovation

As an intern at Q Team Centre of Expertise, Matthew was given the opportunity to contribute to projects that enhanced the operations of Singapore’s Home Team agencies. During this time, Matthew interacted with like-minded peers, received mentorship and guidance and gained professional experience working on HTX projects while pursuing his studies.

One notable project that he worked on involved developing a Multi-Modal Image and Video Captioning Software to improve operational efficiency for teams and agencies engaged in surveillance, monitoring, and data management.

“Under the guidance of my mentors, I proposed and built a captioning pipeline containing computer vision models and a large language model that generated descriptive captions and identified key objects in the image, which was part of efforts to build a smart database where users can query for images and videos via text inputs,” he elaborated.

Another project he worked on involved fine-tuning a specialised computer vision model to accurately detect humans in infrared images and videos. This model is used to help the AI-enhanced video security system for SCDF’s marine vessels detect intruders.

Similarly, as the Lead Engineer in AI Engineering at the Sense-making & Surveillance Centre of Expertise (S&S COE), Si Ci is constantly working on projects that impact homeland security. One of her proudest achievements to date is AlchemiX, an audio and video deepfake detection tool independently developed by HTX.

For this project, Si Ci took charge of the technical team responsible for the development of the video deepfake detection module and adaptation of the backend module pipeline. She also had the chance to rub shoulders with counterparts from other countries, including Professor Hany Farid from the University of California, Berkeley, who imparted learnings about SOTA detection methods. The team was even able to translate some of his research work into AlchemiX.

So innovative was AlchemiX that Si Ci and her team were later invited to showcase the creation at Milipol Asia Pacific – TechX Summit (MAP-TXS) 2024 in front of 1,000 attendees.

Another innovation Si Ci had a hand in developing was ICA’s e-Wristband for Stay-Home Notice (SHN) monitoring, which contributed greatly to curbing the spread of COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic in Singapore.

A Thriving Culture of Learning and Collaboration

One aspect of HTX that Si Ci greatly appreciates is the open work culture, which encourages a free sharing of ideas that allows everyone to learn new things every day.

“Among the engineers, we always look to one another for help and guidance whenever needed. There are also regular cross-departmental and division exchanges for us to learn from one another,” she enthused. “The bosses are also very receptive to our opinions, even if these opinions are in opposition to their own point of view.”

Matthew shares the same sentiments. “HTX has an extremely welcoming and nurturing work environment. In the two Centres of Expertise that I have interned at, the teams were close-knit and there was a lot of collaboration going on.”

The two PSC scholars have also learned that it isn’t all work and no play at HTX, pointing out that there are many events throughout the year, including Family Day and the Annual Walk & Run/Cycle, that help forge strong bonds between staff.

There are also various Community of Interest (COI) Groups such as badminton, table tennis and board games that come together regularly to relax and have fun.

Si Ci quipped, “I’m part of the Table Tennis COI group where we get to play alongside senior management. In fact, I play table tennis regularly with one of the Deputy Chief Executives!”