Giving back to his alma mater once again

05 Nov 2014

Professor Toh Chai Keong, Assistant Chief Executive (Engineering & Technology) with IDA visited SP on 26 Nov to present a cheque for the establishment of the Toh Heng Kim Scholarship. The scholarship is named in honour of his late father.  Prof Toh graduated with a Technician Diploma in Electronic & Communication Engineering from SP in 1986.

This is not the first time Professor Toh has contributed back to his alma mater. In 2005, the “Quek Tee Thye” Bursary Award was initiated by him, with a generous donation of 5,000 Sterling Pounds. The bursary, worth $2000, is awarded to students who achieved outstanding results despite facing financial difficulties.  This was in appreciation of the assistance he received as a Poly student from the late Mr. Quek Tee Thye, EEE’s Deputy Director who had stepped in as a guarantor for him when he needed to pursue further studies in Britain. Prof Toh did SP proud by topping his class at Manchester University and even scored a scholarship to pursue his PhD at Cambridge University.

Recently, Prof Toh was honoured with the “Alumni Service to SP Award” at the SP@60 Grand Alumni Reunion Dinner in September. It is one of SP’s way of treasuring and recognising the contributions of our alumni. 

During his visit, Professor Toh was brought on a lab tour and visited labs such as Cloud Computing, Broadband communications and Smart Nation & Smart Micro-grid. He also took the opportunity to engage more than 100 of our students in the “Distinguished Alumnus Leadership Talk” where he touched on "Pursuing a Life-long Engineering Career”.

Prof Toh commented that the generosity and kindness he received while at SP has touched him deeply and feels the need to carry on the legacy of assisting needy and outstanding students. This was what led him to the idea of a scholarship award.