EEEAA President Report 2022
For the past 2 years, Singapore has been living with Covid-19 and with the constant adjustments to Safe Management Measures, EEEAA’s 26th Management Committee had to adapt our engagement plans with our members. The desire to hold physical events to connect our members in the real world was felt strongly right at the start of our term in quarter 3 of the year 2021. Our team had planned our 25th AGM to be held in conjunction with an amazing race around Singapore Central Business District (CBD), hoping to finally connect our members together physically. However, after considering the safety of our members at that point in time, the physical aspect of the event had to be scrapped and the whole AGM was moved to a virtual format once again. And that move to online format again marked the start of our term, forcing our team to rely heavily on Connecting with EEEAA DIGITALLY for the rest of the term.
With the help from our beloved alma mater, NTU School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering and EEEAA launched a monthly Alumni Webinar Series in December of 2021 that brought many of our industry experts and professors to speak to our alumni and members via Zoom on exciting topics such as “Impact of AI Technologies: Opportunities & Challenges”, “Wireless Power: Current Status and Future Trend” & “Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency: Revolutionizing the Future of Digital Payments”, etc. Professor Er Meng Hwa, a prominent figure in the NTU community, moderated this meaningful webinar series as part of School of EEE 40th Anniversary Celebration, giving our members deep insights to industry and academic knowledge, best practices and trends on each webinar’s subject matter. We had a good turn out rate for each webinar ranging from 50 to slightly more than 100 alumni members. Our members had taken time off from their busy schedule during office hours to attend and actively participated in the engaging Q&A sessions with experts of each field. The last webinar was held in August 2022. The synopsis of some webinars can be found on our website under the Events sections, in order to provide our members a snapshot of the topics discussed and hopefully bridge our members to the accomplished experts that are ever present amongst the larger NTU EEE Community.
During the term, EEEAA was met with another set back when we organized Angbao Making Online Workshop in quarter 1 of year 2022. The team had put in much effort to plan and had actively publicized the event to our members, providing good value for the event. However, online Zoom fatigue seems apparent from the extremely low signup rate. It was unfortunate that we had to scrap the event to ensure we upkeep our standards of holding highly engaging events that can benefit a larger number of alumni participants, while preserving our resources and not wasting the efforts of our volunteers. We will recommend the 27th and 28th Management Committee to revisit the event plans and host a physical version of this workshop to allow our members to network, at the same time, learn something meaningful with their family.
In Singapore’s transition phase to Covid-19 Resilience, with the new measures from 29 Aug 2022 introduced, EEEAA could organize physical social events with no group size limit and mask wearing. These recent measures were a welcoming change for our exco team and our members as we realized nothing beats enjoying food and drinks together, having casual conversations with face to face interaction with our members. EEEAA Durian Apreciation 2022 event, held on 10 September 2022, helped EEEAA
exco and its members to close off the term strong, with yet another record fast sign up rate, registration was closed on the day the EDM was sent out. We saw 3 sessions of 20 pax each enjoying themselves at the workshop conducted by DurianBB, learning and having fun networking with their fellow alumni members in a physical setting. We had received very positive feedback from the participants after the event. This event is a clear indication EEEAA should keep the momentum of holding physical events and possibly revisit some of anchor events such Quarterly Chillout, E3Spirit Soccer Competition, Durian Tour in Malaysia and holding unique AGMs at Landmark locations to host groups for larger than 100 participants.
I would like to thank the old exco guards who have served over the past many years, providing invaluable guidance to our younger committee members on keeping the tradition being innovative and fun in our approach to connecting the NTU EEE Community. Most importantly, we are grateful for the younger executive committee members, like Mr Neo Duan Kai, Mr Ang Teck Lih, Mr Tan Jiunn Long, Mr Kingsley Low and Mr Tey Jun Yuan, who had stepped up in the past 2 terms and have certainly become a core part of the exco team, always keeping EEEAA’s Mission and Vision in sight. We also thank the recent addition to the team, Mr Gao PeiJi for his immense contribution as Honorary Assistant Treasurer and as a lead for multiple events like the most recent EEE Durian Appreciation 2022. These individuals mentioned above are key contributors of EEEAA 25th and 26th Executive Committee, sacrificing their personal time and putting the extra effort to make things happen for NTU EEE Community.
Thank you.
Cheah Wai Soon
President | EEE Alumni Association
25th- 26th Executive Committee