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The Singapore-Industry Scholarship (SgIS) award ceremony was held on 29 July at SUTD. This year, a total of 196 students received the scholarship. Yu Junxian, a first-year student at the NUS’ Faculty of Engineering, was awarded the scholarship sponsored by SMRT. In an interview, he admitted that his upbringing had been challenging. “My parents had a troubled relationship. I was cared for by my grandmother from the age of three or four. They divorced before I entered primary school and each went on to start their own families. During that period, we struggled financially, and life was difficult.” He said that as a child, he was not very focused on academics—his goal was to graduate quickly and start working to ease the family’s burden. Yu went to ITE, and later enrolled in SP, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. “Initially, I didn’t have a clear goal. I chose the course by chance. But during my studies, I developed a strong interest in robotics and how different mechanical systems work.” Yu will intern at SMRT in his third year. “Public transport is deeply integrated into the daily lives of Singaporeans. I hope to make it even more convenient, reliable, and efficient in the future. It’s not that the current system isn’t good—I just believe that even the best systems can be improved.”

[Lianhe Zaobao]