Polys push students to develop for the market

25 Jan 2016

The Straits Times, 25 Jan 2016 - Article mentioned that polytechnics have been clinching more licensing deals with companies, filling more patents and starting entrepreneurship programmes for students. Several, including NYP, have piloted schemes to protect students’ projects as they have noticed a growing interest from companies to adopt their work. Director of NYP’s Centre for Technology Innovation and Commercialisation Dr Valdew Singh and SP’s Food Innovation Resource Centre senior manager Dr Lee Mun Wai opined on the importance of involving students in industry projects. The article also mentioned the number of patents filed by the respective polys. Among the polytechnics, NYP has filed the most number of patents – about 160 patents in the last 10 years and 57 from 1998 to 2004. It also clinched 60 licensing deals since 2009. TP filed 51 patents – six of which were awarded- in the last five years. Article also featured NP’s innovation and entrepreneurship office The Sandbox. NP’s third-year business studies student shared how NP and the Sandbox helped him to develop two of his ideas – sustainable cardbox packaging and integrated smart terminal. Another student project featured was the diagnostic kit developed by RP biotechnology students to differentiate between the dengue and chikungunya viruses in a single test.