PRISM

Brought to you by

FRESHMEN EDITION

Nervous about school? Find out what seniors say about the modules that you are about to take!CURRICULUM THOUGHTS

Is this school all about coding? Check out our past years event highlights planned just for SIS students!KEY EVENTS

Glean insights from our very own student entrepeneur Lee Xiang Rui!

OPPORTUNITIES

1FRESHMEN EDITION

~ Editor In Chief ~Terence Long

~ Design Editor ~Ong Zhi MinShaun Teh

~ Designers~Chris Yan

Derrick GohEileen Soh

Stanley SohWong Jia Wei

~ Writers ~Alex Ng

Lee Cheng YiMelvin Leong

~ Contributors ~Andre Ng

Basith AbdulHenry Tang

Jonathan LeeLam Kee WeiLee Xiang Rui

Lek Guan ZhouLim Yi ShengTommy Soh

Project Sunshine V

~ Photographers ~Robert Chai

EDITOR’SMessage

2

As most seniors always say, SIS is a small but tight-knitted family. Despite the long hours we put in at school, you will soon find that the source of your motivation and encouragement stems from the friendship you forged with one another. The bonds that will be forged and tempered throughout your student life will not only be tested but also essential for getting you through the four years of university life here at SIS.

Bored of life in school? Fear not as there are opportunities aplenty for you to have fun outside of school. From overseas exchange to study missions, internships and community services, do sign up as the opportunity presents itself and immerse yourself in an experi-ence unlike any other.

So what should you do this year? The choice is yours. Most importantly, remember to have fun; enjoy your life here at SIS to the fullest. Follow your passion, be it your academic life or CCAs, make tons friends and have a social life.

In this issue of PRISM, you will find out the various activities that we do and how versatile we can be in giving our all to the SIS community. We hope your experience here at SIS will be filled with the meaningful times we share with one another.

It’s back to school season and I hope you are all geared up for the exciting time ahead here at SIS. While I know that most of us probably wish summer vacation never end, let’s not just focus on the academic aspect of it. Yes, there will be exams and projects coming your way but who says your university life must just be about mugging? Instead, expect your life at SIS to be filled with fun and excitement as you start a brand new year with us.

SMU School of Information Systems (SISS) has arranged a series of events throughout the entire semester for SIS students. Indulge yourselves in events such as the Back-to-School welfare drive and the Grand Feast where students get to enjoy free food ranging from sashimi to Starbucks coffee.

Terence Long

3

3CONTENT PAGE

4

5

6

7

8

9

13

22

16

17

19

20

21

23

24

25

27

28

2829

Glow ‘ 13

30

Dean’s Message

MetamorphoSIS’13

Grand Feast

10 10 Anniversary

Core IS modules

2nd majors modules

Internship

Final Year Project

Overseas Community Service

Study Exchange

Overseas Internship

“Flashwants“ & “Guess the word SG” App

Credit Suisse

CodeXtremeApps

InnnovateIT

BIA (Business Intelligence & Analytics)

WhiteHats Society

Macness

2014 Events Timeline

KEY EVENTS CASE COMPETITIONS

CURRICULUMSTUDENT INTEREST GROUPS

OPPORTUNITIES

DEAN’s MESSAGE

4

SIS celebrated its 10th anniversary on 10th October 2013 with a fun event for our students, alumni, faculty and staff. It is also a moment for all of us to reflect on the past 10 years and how far we have come. The best way to measure our achievements is to look at our first batch of SIS students who started with us in August 2003 and who graduated in 2007 and joined the work force.

A few have started their own business and are now thriv-ing and striving e.g. Leonard LIN (Tyler Projects), Shashank NIGAM (SimpliFlying), Vincent LAI & Andy SOH (Tocco Stu-dios). A few enjoyed their undergraduate days so much and have returned to embark on our Masters in IT Business pro-grammes after several years of working in various industries.

Some have remained in contact with me personally via LinkedIn and other social media. Varun Khanna started his BSc(ISM) degree in 2006 and graduated in 2010. He started in Credit Suisse in the IT Architecture, Enter-prise Architecture Group. Then he took on the role of an Outsourcing Manager. His latest position is that of a Global Sourcing Solutions Expert, based in London!

And in December 2013, I have a proud father sending me Seasons’ Greetings and an update that his son is doing well in Barclays Capital, Singapore. He added that the son just got engaged and the “marriage is proposed anytime within 2014”. I can feel the pride and happiness in his email and I am equally proud and happy to know that SIS has given him a valuable, solid foundation. Besides students, alumni and parents, I have daily encounters with the industry and it gives me great pleas-ure to listen to their compliments about our programme and alumni.

Sentosa Leisure Group’s Divisional Director, Information Technology, Mr EU Kwang Chin said

“I’m very impressed with the quality of work delivered by SMU SIS graduates. There is a strong discipline within them to document critical project information such as cost benefit analysis before proceeding to design and implement the relevant system improvements. Though they are new to leisure business, they have an excellent learning attitude to seek to understand first, before jumping to any conclusions or sug-gestions to provide solutions. I’ve also observed a very balanced approach within them in handling end users. Instead of being too technically oriented, they tend to listen first, and then patiently and profession-ally educate and guide less IT savvy users to adopt the right technology to improve their work productivity. This balanced approach places them well to guide business to adopt appropriate technology solution and to guide business users through the change journey.” To our existing students: keep up the good work on your courses, your IS480 projects and your internships.

For potential applicants: we welcome you to our SIS community. Come see how SIS has done so much to create opportunities for our alumni and current students.

Message from Dean Steven MILLER PRISM 2014 (Open House edition)

Credit Suisse

CodeXtremeApps

InnnovateIT

BIA (Business Intelligence & Analytics)

WhiteHats Society

Macness

4

MetamorphoSIS’13

By: Melvin Leong What is MetamorphoSIS 2013 all about?MetamorphoSIS camp is about welcoming the SIS freshmen into the SIS family. Our goal was simply to deliver the best camp experience to help freshmen start off their time here on a high note. It is also all about getting to know more people in SIS. The friends you make during your time here at Meta-morphoSIS will be the ones you come to depend on and work with.

What are the key events of this camp?The key events for MetamorphoSIS 2013 were Tower Defense, Zombie Run, Amazing Race at Sentosa and lastly our Finale Night. Not forgetting the food and drinks that were sponsored to us, such as Pezzo Pizza that most freshmen came back for seconds on Social Night.

5

Serving as a follow up to MetamorphoSIS Camp, not only is GLOW ’13 the freshman bash organ-ized specially for SIS students to bond with the new friends they made, it also saw the crowning of Mr and Ms SIS through a series of pageant activities. Lastly, in SIS, we not only work hard but we play hard as well. Hence, Glow also serves as the last time a freshmen is able to let loose and party with friends, new and old, before their very first university term starts.

As a result of intensive polling by close to 400 students each egging on their own favourites to win, GLOW ’13 saw the crowning of Tay Guang Wen and Mandes Sim as Mr and Ms SIS 2013 respectively. However, the ones having fun were not only the pageant candidates. GLOW ’13 also had many stage games and a lucky draw which hailed many attractive prizes to be won!

What did the organizing committee hope to bring into MetamorphoSIS 2013?I guess one of the X-factor that the organizing committee had was our willingness to “dream big”. We did not want to just run the same old camp as the years before. We wanted something fresh, so we got down to the drawing board to craft out a whole new experience for the freshmen.

What do you hope to see in MetamorphoSIS 2014?As always, I think that for MetamorphoSIS 2014, I want to see new and fresh ideas. Try not to just recycle previous year’s ideas. Dare to try new ideas and bring in new experiences. Needless to say, for every freshmen camp, I hope the freshmen get to experience loads of great fun when they join MetamorphoSIS.

What were the challenges you face when it comes to planning?Two of the main challenges we faced in execut-ing and planning for the camp were trying to fit all the preparation activities into everyone’s summer plans as well as sourcing for sponsor-ships.

When summer comes, the facilitators and organizing committee members all have varied plans, be it going on OCSP or family holidays. So it was really a challenge to arrange our preparation activities to fit everyone’s sched-ule. In order to have great events, we need to have great sponsors. It was really difficult to win sponsors over. However, at the end of the day, the awesome sponsorship team from MetamorphoSIS and Glow managed to get us some of the best sponsors around.

Yet this event was a result of much hard work put in by the organizing committee of GLOW ’13. Hosted at Avalon (now Genesis), it had the reputation of being the “first ever school bash held at one of the more exquisite clubs in Singapore” to uphold.

The idea of sponsorships for the event was another big hurdle for the team. In spite of that, GLOW ’13 boasted an array of attractive prizes such as a brand new Samsung note 8.0 and Sam-sung Tab3, which President of the organizing committee Oh Peng Ho credits to the hard work of the Sponsorship Directors Koh Bi Fang and Leong ZhiZhong.

Considered by Peng Ho to be an “exceptional learning experience for the entire committee”, he says that his greatest takeaway would be satisfied faces of the freshmen who attended the event and seeing the meticulously planned events carried out smoothly despite the dampening weather at the start of the event that initially prevented the participants from making their way to the venue. This, he said, was attributed to the committee’s quick response to the situation.

What is MetamorphoSIS 2013 all about?MetamorphoSIS camp is about welcoming the SIS freshmen into the SIS family. Our goal was simply to deliver the best camp experience to help freshmen start off their time here on a high note. It is also all about getting to know more people in SIS. The friends you make during your time here at Meta-morphoSIS will be the ones you come to depend on and work with.

What are the key events of this camp?The key events for MetamorphoSIS 2013 were Tower Defense, Zombie Run, Amazing Race at Sentosa and lastly our Finale Night. Not forgetting the food and drinks that were sponsored to us, such as Pezzo Pizza that most freshmen came back for seconds on Social Night.

GLOW’13

Serving as a follow up to MetamorphoSIS Camp, not only is GLOW ’13 the freshman bash organ-ized specially for SIS students to bond with the new friends they made, it also saw the crowning of Mr and Ms SIS through a series of pageant activities. Lastly, in SIS, we not only work hard but we play hard as well. Hence, Glow also serves as the last time a freshmen is able to let loose and party with friends, new and old, before their very first university term starts.

As a result of intensive polling by close to 400 students each egging on their own favourites to win, GLOW ’13 saw the crowning of Tay Guang Wen and Mandes Sim as Mr and Ms SIS 2013 respectively. However, the ones having fun were not only the pageant candidates. GLOW ’13 also had many stage games and a lucky draw which hailed many attractive prizes to be won!

66

By: Lee Cheng Yi

What did the organizing committee hope to bring into MetamorphoSIS 2013?I guess one of the X-factor that the organizing committee had was our willingness to “dream big”. We did not want to just run the same old camp as the years before. We wanted something fresh, so we got down to the drawing board to craft out a whole new experience for the freshmen.

What do you hope to see in MetamorphoSIS 2014?As always, I think that for MetamorphoSIS 2014, I want to see new and fresh ideas. Try not to just recycle previous year’s ideas. Dare to try new ideas and bring in new experiences. Needless to say, for every freshmen camp, I hope the freshmen get to experience loads of great fun when they join MetamorphoSIS.

Yet this event was a result of much hard work put in by the organizing committee of GLOW ’13. Hosted at Avalon (now Genesis), it had the reputation of being the “first ever school bash held at one of the more exquisite clubs in Singapore” to uphold.

The idea of sponsorships for the event was another big hurdle for the team. In spite of that, GLOW ’13 boasted an array of attractive prizes such as a brand new Samsung note 8.0 and Sam-sung Tab3, which President of the organizing committee Oh Peng Ho credits to the hard work of the Sponsorship Directors Koh Bi Fang and Leong ZhiZhong.

Considered by Peng Ho to be an “exceptional learning experience for the entire committee”, he says that his greatest takeaway would be satisfied faces of the freshmen who attended the event and seeing the meticulously planned events carried out smoothly despite the dampening weather at the start of the event that initially prevented the participants from making their way to the venue. This, he said, was attributed to the committee’s quick response to the situation.

What were the challenges faced by the team?Since this was the first time something of such a scale was being done, not only was there was no general template to follow, there were certain skills the whole committee had to pick up since everyone was involved in securing sponsorships. Coordinating the timing for all 10 dishes at 10 different locations proved daunting as we had to match the schedule of various stakeholder before being able to deliver for Grand Feast. Even up to the Grand Feast itself we were nervous and worried whether we would be able to adhere to the standards and promise we made to the student body. We managed to pull through this with the feedback and support given by not just the committee alone but also our friends from the SIS community. Some even volunteered to help deliver the food on the day itself.

What were some of the key moments of the Grand Feast?Seeing the crowd swelling in size, students sitting on the Big Steps enjoying their food even during a hectic Week 13 made us felt like we made a difference to the SIS community. The turnout was so good that we had to call for more food from some of the caterers

What kind of mindset did the team and you have throughout this event?We wanted to achieve something after assuming our respective roles in SISS. We had an aim of doing things bigger and better right from the start for the SIS community. Although there may be naysayers, however, never let them pull you down as there will always be a way to get through it. Don’t be afraid to step up to the challenge and op-portunities that come along your way.

Not just the Grand Feast, but there was Grand Feast 2.0. What motivated the team to keeping pushing forward?We had the satisfaction of seeing the students enjoying themselves during the 1st Grand Feast and were glad that people were having a good time. With that in mind, we wanted to replicate its success once more, but this time with prior experience and a general plan on hand, we aimed to perfect whatever flaws that occurred during the 1st Grand Feast, hoping to end on a good note before we hand over the baton to the next SISS committee. Even with all the commitments we had, the ones that motivated me the most were the committee members, having pulled through thick and thin together, we were encouraging and motivating one another throughout the event.

7 The Grand Feast

However, the highlight of the event was the “Drunken Coding” which was greatly anticipated by the students. Fighting off multiple other contenders and armed only with his keyboard, Lim Yi Sheng finally fought his way to going up against the “final boss”, the man hailed in SIS as the “Java God”, Prof Lee Yeow Leong. As the rules decreed, both men had to successfully complete coding a solution to the given problem while downing mugs of beer every two minutes. In addition, in a bid to ensure that the audience could play a greater part in the competition than just observing, the creative solutions department of the 9th management committee spent long hours coding out the platform on which the crowd could vote for the many different interruptions for the competitors, such as a faux “Blue screen of death” or having to wear rubber gloves to code.

Despite the overwhelming success of the event (with some even willing to sit on the steps so as to gain entry to the event), 9th School of Information Systems Management Committee Vice President Jeremy Zhong credits the huge success of the event to the whole management committee who persevered through “brain-storming crazy engaging ideas and eventually liaising with different stakeholders” and “6 months of sheer hard work and sleepless nights amidst of academics that the committee members had put in. Some of our committee members’ studies took a hit but thankfully several committee members were willing to stay back and help one another.”

That is the spirit of the SIS family.

Welfare drives held throughout the semester has always been a key highlight in a student’s life. This proved ever more so with the introduction of the 1st ever mouth-watering Grand Feast brought to us by the 9th Welfare Director of SISS, Basith.

What is the Grand Feast all about?We usually distribute food for welfare drives but during our time in SISS, we wanted to challenge ourselves by doing something different and something that no school has tried before. We also realized that apart from FTB and Meta camp, there was not much student bonding and activities we can connect with as a school. Hence, we wanted to give stu-dents an occasion to meet and socialize and not just take the food and walk off. The Grand Feast is the event we wanted for such purpose. Held at the Big Steps of our school on Week 13, we wanted students to relax and mingle together while “attacking” a line of food choices without restrain.

By: Melvin Leong

By: Lee Cheng Yi

What does beer and coding have in common?

Not very much, but they were both part of the School of Information System’s 10th anniversary celebra-tions. Cleverly dubbed “10.10”, it saw the whole SIS family (profs, students, faculty and alumnus) gather at Joyden Hall at Bugis+ to celebrate at a scale never seen before at any SIS annivasary.

What were the challenges faced by the team?Since this was the first time something of such a scale was being done, not only was there was no general template to follow, there were certain skills the whole committee had to pick up since everyone was involved in securing sponsorships. Coordinating the timing for all 10 dishes at 10 different locations proved daunting as we had to match the schedule of various stakeholder before being able to deliver for Grand Feast. Even up to the Grand Feast itself we were nervous and worried whether we would be able to adhere to the standards and promise we made to the student body. We managed to pull through this with the feedback and support given by not just the committee alone but also our friends from the SIS community. Some even volunteered to help deliver the food on the day itself.

What were some of the key moments of the Grand Feast?Seeing the crowd swelling in size, students sitting on the Big Steps enjoying their food even during a hectic Week 13 made us felt like we made a difference to the SIS community. The turnout was so good that we had to call for more food from some of the caterers

What kind of mindset did the team and you have throughout this event?We wanted to achieve something after assuming our respective roles in SISS. We had an aim of doing things bigger and better right from the start for the SIS community. Although there may be naysayers, however, never let them pull you down as there will always be a way to get through it. Don’t be afraid to step up to the challenge and op-portunities that come along your way.

Not just the Grand Feast, but there was Grand Feast 2.0. What motivated the team to keeping pushing forward?We had the satisfaction of seeing the students enjoying themselves during the 1st Grand Feast and were glad that people were having a good time. With that in mind, we wanted to replicate its success once more, but this time with prior experience and a general plan on hand, we aimed to perfect whatever flaws that occurred during the 1st Grand Feast, hoping to end on a good note before we hand over the baton to the next SISS committee. Even with all the commitments we had, the ones that motivated me the most were the committee members, having pulled through thick and thin together, we were encouraging and motivating one another throughout the event.

8 10.10 Anniversary

However, the highlight of the event was the “Drunken Coding” which was greatly anticipated by the students. Fighting off multiple other contenders and armed only with his keyboard, Lim Yi Sheng finally fought his way to going up against the “final boss”, the man hailed in SIS as the “Java God”, Prof Lee Yeow Leong. As the rules decreed, both men had to successfully complete coding a solution to the given problem while downing mugs of beer every two minutes. In addition, in a bid to ensure that the audience could play a greater part in the competition than just observing, the creative solutions department of the 9th management committee spent long hours coding out the platform on which the crowd could vote for the many different interruptions for the competitors, such as a faux “Blue screen of death” or having to wear rubber gloves to code.

Despite the overwhelming success of the event (with some even willing to sit on the steps so as to gain entry to the event), 9th School of Information Systems Management Committee Vice President Jeremy Zhong credits the huge success of the event to the whole management committee who persevered through “brain-storming crazy engaging ideas and eventually liaising with different stakeholders” and “6 months of sheer hard work and sleepless nights amidst of academics that the committee members had put in. Some of our committee members’ studies took a hit but thankfully several committee members were willing to stay back and help one another.”

That is the spirit of the SIS family.

Welfare drives held throughout the semester has always been a key highlight in a student’s life. This proved ever more so with the introduction of the 1st ever mouth-watering Grand Feast brought to us by the 9th Welfare Director of SISS, Basith.

What is the Grand Feast all about?We usually distribute food for welfare drives but during our time in SISS, we wanted to challenge ourselves by doing something different and something that no school has tried before. We also realized that apart from FTB and Meta camp, there was not much student bonding and activities we can connect with as a school. Hence, we wanted to give stu-dents an occasion to meet and socialize and not just take the food and walk off. The Grand Feast is the event we wanted for such purpose. Held at the Big Steps of our school on Week 13, we wanted students to relax and mingle together while “attacking” a line of food choices without restrain.

By: Melvin Leong

By: Lee Cheng Yi

What does beer and coding have in common?

Not very much, but they were both part of the School of Information System’s 10th anniversary celebra-tions. Cleverly dubbed “10.10”, it saw the whole SIS family (profs, students, faculty and alumnus) gather at Joyden Hall at Bugis+ to celebrate at a scale never seen before at any SIS annivasary.

Starting weeks before the actual event, short clips that followed the storyline of MetamorphoSIS camp featuring a kidnapped dean were released by the 9th Information Systems Manage-ment Committee urging the SIS family to guess who the phan-tom that kidnapped the dean was. This would ultimately lead up to the actual day on 10 October where close to 700 attendees were urged to vote for who they thought the phantom was and stand a chance to win an iPad.

But the festivities did not end there.

Hosted by the witty Muttons, other events consisted of Profes-sor Chris Boesch singing alongside SMU Voix, Professor Kevin Steppe’s fire juggling that had the SIS Family on the edge of their seats as well as the SIS Awards Ceremony where we showed our appreciation to those who have taught us well. All these was before ending the event with a huge lucky draw that hailed an Macbook air and iMac as its ultimate prizes.

IS202: Database Management

IS201: Object Oriented Application Development

IS203: Software Engineering

9IS101: Seminar on Information Systems

IS200: IS Software Foundations

IS103: Computational Thinking

Curriculum

There’s good reason why IS101 is paired with IS200 for the first semester – just as the latter introduces you to the ‘technology’ side, IS101 introduces you to the ‘business’ side of the course.

Personally, this course really brought out how IT can be used to create val-ue for a business. That sounds like corporate-speak, but creating value is really very important to everyone, because that’s where your salary/profit comes from! Even if you don’t have any experience in a business or IT con-text, fret not, because the whole series of business case discussions lined up throughout the term will provide a great variety of business situations and systems for you to look at. As long as you come in with an open mind, and you’re prepared to actively participate in the seminar-style learning pro-cess, you will definitely find this a fruitful experience.

Lee Chiang Fong

Computational Thinking has taught me to look at the things we do in life in another manner. It is not simply restricted to computer engineers and can be applied by anyone to solve problems in life in a more efficient manner. One example would be if you want to find a name in a directory. You can either choose to go through every single name in the directory or apply the binary search algorithm to narrow down your search quickly.

Despite requiring a lot of analytical skills, you don’t have to fret if you are not strong in the area yet because the course will mould you in that area. You will definitely come out of it as a more logical person!

I find it fascinating how computational thinking can make us so much smarter! I never fail to be amazed by how the people can think of those really cool algorithms to solve problems and make things more efficient.

Koh Kar Chian

Only one word could describe how I felt when I witnessed my very first program compile and run successfully: Wow. I was really amazed that even someone like me, who had no prior programming background, could write such programs. IS200 was the first class where I was exposed to the world of programming. Although learning programming from scratch may seem to be a daunting task for many, the presence of friendly professors and instructors helped as they would always try their best to ensure that we understand the important concepts.

My greatest take away from this module would have to be problem solving skills as I learnt that there were a thousand and one ways to create a simple console applica-tion. Furthermore, IS200 is designed for students to gain fundamentals about the building blocks of Information Systems.

That being said, taking this first step is no easy task. At some point of time, you may feel frustrated with yourself but that is entirely normal as you need to have the pa-tience to solve particular problems. Additionally, doing well in this module does not depend solely on how well you listen in class but also requires you to practice dili-gently outside of class. However, I believe that the idea of being able to experiment using the concepts taught in class is ultimately what makes the IS200 journey a fun and memorable one!

Andrew Lim Chang Jun

10

IS202: Database Management

IS201: Object Oriented Application Development

IS203: Software Engineering

Curriculum

There is so much more to Java than System.out.println(). The concept of object-oriented programming was my greatest take away – a concept that you’ll soon realize will totally save your life – if you get it right – in Software Engineering (SE).

By grasping the foundation of OOAD, I was able to better understand frameworks as well. You need to have discipline. You’ll need to be able to force yourself to sit down and visualize (or maybe write out) the concept of object-oriented design. If you don’t have the discipline to force yourself down until you grasp this concept, there is absolutely no way that you’re going to do well in it.

Rohith Misir

My greatest takeaway from IS202 is that I began to appreciate the impor-tance of data by utilizing different tools and techniques to organize and an-alyze them. I did not truly know how much I have learned from this module until I started on projects in the following semesters. It has shaped the way I approach the design of a solution and the way I analyze the information available to me to produce meaningful insights.

I found this course particularly interesting as I was able to apply what I’ve learnt to what I’m doing outside of class - query contact sheets for inter-esting information, extract information from movie databases etc. Even though having prior knowledge of PHP/MySQL will be helpful, I believe that a curious mind and structural thinking are the keys to doing well in this module.

Damien Ng Xuan Wei

When SIS students mention the module “Software Engineering”, many would describe it as “infamously tough and tedious”. Although it may be true that SE is indeed tough, the lessons I learnt from SE was invaluable.

Software engineering was exciting to me because it was the first time I’d be involved the building of an application from scratch with 4 other group mates. While technical capabilities and project management skills were es-sential, I felt that the module also gave me the chance to develop other soft skills such as people management and negotiation skills. These soft skills were essential in managing the expectations of both our team and our cli-ent (supervisor).

Definitely, this module gave me valuable insights on managing a project in reality, and the importance of being meticulous in managing a project. Sloppy planning and deliverables would result in huge delays ultimately. Also, it also taught me the importance of being conservative with the plan-ning of project schedule as things will go wrong!

Fan Wei Liang

There’s good reason why IS101 is paired with IS200 for the first semester – just as the latter introduces you to the ‘technology’ side, IS101 introduces you to the ‘business’ side of the course.

Personally, this course really brought out how IT can be used to create val-ue for a business. That sounds like corporate-speak, but creating value is really very important to everyone, because that’s where your salary/profit comes from! Even if you don’t have any experience in a business or IT con-text, fret not, because the whole series of business case discussions lined up throughout the term will provide a great variety of business situations and systems for you to look at. As long as you come in with an open mind, and you’re prepared to actively participate in the seminar-style learning pro-cess, you will definitely find this a fruitful experience.

Lee Chiang Fong

Computational Thinking has taught me to look at the things we do in life in another manner. It is not simply restricted to computer engineers and can be applied by anyone to solve problems in life in a more efficient manner. One example would be if you want to find a name in a directory. You can either choose to go through every single name in the directory or apply the binary search algorithm to narrow down your search quickly.

Despite requiring a lot of analytical skills, you don’t have to fret if you are not strong in the area yet because the course will mould you in that area. You will definitely come out of it as a more logical person!

I find it fascinating how computational thinking can make us so much smarter! I never fail to be amazed by how the people can think of those really cool algorithms to solve problems and make things more efficient.

Koh Kar Chian

Only one word could describe how I felt when I witnessed my very first program compile and run successfully: Wow. I was really amazed that even someone like me, who had no prior programming background, could write such programs. IS200 was the first class where I was exposed to the world of programming. Although learning programming from scratch may seem to be a daunting task for many, the presence of friendly professors and instructors helped as they would always try their best to ensure that we understand the important concepts.

My greatest take away from this module would have to be problem solving skills as I learnt that there were a thousand and one ways to create a simple console applica-tion. Furthermore, IS200 is designed for students to gain fundamentals about the building blocks of Information Systems.

That being said, taking this first step is no easy task. At some point of time, you may feel frustrated with yourself but that is entirely normal as you need to have the pa-tience to solve particular problems. Additionally, doing well in this module does not depend solely on how well you listen in class but also requires you to practice dili-gently outside of class. However, I believe that the idea of being able to experiment using the concepts taught in class is ultimately what makes the IS200 journey a fun and memorable one!

Andrew Lim Chang Jun

IS303: Architectural Analysis

IS305: Enterprise Web Solutions

IS306: Interaction Design and Prototyping

11IS301: Enterprise Integration

IS302: Information Security and Trust

IS304: Process Modelling & Solutions Blueprinting

Curriculum

Greatest take away from this module is understanding and developing inte-gration solutions for a given business requirement. Besides thinking of how you can program some function that will be noteworthy, the module tend to question you on how you are going to integrate such a function into a single platform, and how it will fulfil to the business requirements in any ways.

This module is not about following a list of requirement and developing ac-cordingly, but is to dive deep down into the business processes and realize on how you can improve it with the appropriate software tools and benefits the business requirements. System integration is never an easy process es-pecially for large corporation, but this modules will enlighten you to see how system integration may be possible in corporation. Leon Lee Quee Leong

Through Information Security and Trust, I have learnt more about simple security models and algorithms and most importantly, some of the securi-ty requirements and constraints that are present in real world applications. I am more aware now of the current and future trends in security applica-tions and is more concerned of security issues that may be affecting me in my everyday life.

For this module, one does not really need to have a strong background in IT or programming. Rather, you should go to class and be open about the idea of learning new stuff! We are able to work on very interesting topics and explore areas of security that you would not normally get to learn in class. My group did a presentation on security on social network and we showed how a person can be tracked easily by just crawling data from Facebook.

Chia Sheng Yang

In Architectural Analysis (AA), I learnt that when we prioritize making a system work fast with high throughput and low response times, we may have to sacrifice a little on the correctness and reliability of the system. We can find ways to maximize all of these requirements, but at some point we have to make a choice, and when that happens it all depends on what you think The Business needs most.

This is definitely a technically challenging and time-demanding module. While most of the high-level concepts are taught in class, the technical de-tails involved in using the technologies required for our project are not. I thought learning MapReduce during this module was pretty cool. It is a programming paradigm which is Google’s way of distributing the work of processing a large data set to many different computers working in paral-lel.

Also, the AA project requires a lot of self-proposed experimentation, hence good experiment design skills as well as data analysis skills are needed.

Geoffrey Goh

12

IS305: Enterprise Web Solutions

IS306: Interaction Design and Prototyping

Curriculum

I have learnt how to utilize the tools and models needed to analyze various inefficiencies in the As-Is process and come up with initiatives to implement an improved To-Be process.The skills that I’ve learnt from this module will definitely be useful in coming up with optimized business processes to cut costs and save time. This is an important skill in today’s business world.

We had alot of freedom while develop with initiatives on our own during the PMSB project, and this resulted in different groups coming up with a wide variety of insightful ideas even though every group received an identical scenario. I feel that this really personifies the learning culture in SIS, where students are not only able to learn from professors, but from their peers as well.

Ng Yew Hwee

Interaction Design and Prototyping (IDP) is undoubtedly the hands-on experience of the process of bringing to life a unique user interface from paper to life! Throw in a blend of psychology, a slice of statistics, along with generous servings of arts-and-craft and good-old coding, and you get an absolute blast.

We could gather feedback from people whom we have shown the lo-fi, and in a matter of minutes, show them a greatly improved rendition of our app interfaces! The speed of which we could switch between critiquing and modifying an interface design was incredibly awesome and practical. IDP, requires one to be willing to explore as many ideas as possible, to experi-ment with designs that break away from any conventions. If you want to have fun, just let your mind roam!

It was also amazing to have to chance to pitch our final product to external experts in UX Design (Alex Kang, Founder of Designius Pte. Ltd and Anna Himmanen, Regional Director & Lead Consultant at Cresense).

Victor Chua Bing Huan

IS304: Process Modelling & Solutions Blueprinting

Greatest take away from this module is understanding and developing inte-gration solutions for a given business requirement. Besides thinking of how you can program some function that will be noteworthy, the module tend to question you on how you are going to integrate such a function into a single platform, and how it will fulfil to the business requirements in any ways.

This module is not about following a list of requirement and developing ac-cordingly, but is to dive deep down into the business processes and realize on how you can improve it with the appropriate software tools and benefits the business requirements. System integration is never an easy process es-pecially for large corporation, but this modules will enlighten you to see how system integration may be possible in corporation. Leon Lee Quee Leong

Through Information Security and Trust, I have learnt more about simple security models and algorithms and most importantly, some of the securi-ty requirements and constraints that are present in real world applications. I am more aware now of the current and future trends in security applica-tions and is more concerned of security issues that may be affecting me in my everyday life.

For this module, one does not really need to have a strong background in IT or programming. Rather, you should go to class and be open about the idea of learning new stuff! We are able to work on very interesting topics and explore areas of security that you would not normally get to learn in class. My group did a presentation on security on social network and we showed how a person can be tracked easily by just crawling data from Facebook.

Chia Sheng Yang

In Architectural Analysis (AA), I learnt that when we prioritize making a system work fast with high throughput and low response times, we may have to sacrifice a little on the correctness and reliability of the system. We can find ways to maximize all of these requirements, but at some point we have to make a choice, and when that happens it all depends on what you think The Business needs most.

This is definitely a technically challenging and time-demanding module. While most of the high-level concepts are taught in class, the technical de-tails involved in using the technologies required for our project are not. I thought learning MapReduce during this module was pretty cool. It is a programming paradigm which is Google’s way of distributing the work of processing a large data set to many different computers working in paral-lel.

Also, the AA project requires a lot of self-proposed experimentation, hence good experiment design skills as well as data analysis skills are needed.

Geoffrey Goh

We all know sharepoint as one of Microsoft’s great products. But it is only when you get your hands dirty that you realize its brilliance. You will be sur-prised how easy it is to build a complex solution using an enterprise portal. After 14 weeks of labs and assignments, you will be able to easily build a portal of your own.

In this module, you be given the liberty to define your own topic, scope, scenario and functionalities of your application. You will also naturally learn to find a way out when there is no turning back on your decisions. However, while main concepts are covered in class, you will be expected to research and learn outside of the classroom. Additionally, apart from picking up a new language(c#) ,you are taught to leverage on the tons of information available online to produce unique solutions for your project!

Abdul Basith S/O MOHAMED H M Y

Being involved in Operations Management (OM) is not something trivial or easy to dismiss. It is a life filled with possibilities of excitement and different challenges as you tackle the roles and responsibilities undertaken by the very people who design and manage activities that transform how companies oper-ate. Be prepared to work with different people who are involved in different aspect of the company’s production of goods and services, and learn about complex business problems related to the transition taken by good and services as it travels from supplier to the end users.

Operations Management provides a systematic way of looking at organizational process. It applies methods to design and manage the operations, processes, products & services and demand & supply chain of an organization. Work on real problems that requires application knowledge you won’t find lacking here in SMU. Regardless of your degree, OM easily complements it, ensuring your learning is well rounded, allowing you to work in your choice of industry with ease of transition as no one knows how the company works better than you.

Those of you from School of Information Systems (SIS) are vital to businesses as the 2 disciplines are closely related fields of study. While you will learn how to apply methods on how to solve business prob-lems in OM, a degree in IS enables you to leverage on the evolving information technology so as to sup-port the solutions you apply to an organization. You will bridge the gap between information technol-ogy and business management as you incorporate solutions and designs to the versatile problems face by the organization. The opportunities and variety of firms in versatile fields are endless when equipped with a degree from SIS coupled with a 2nd Major in Operations Management.Getting to understand the complexity and the varying systems employed by them is made possible dur-ing your course of study here at SIS. Similar to people involve in OM, as you work in teams for your pro-ject, you will get to communicate with different people with varying skillsets. Understanding, working with them and even leading them will be learned naturally as you embark the journey on your chosen degree with us here at SIS.

When the time comes for you to choose your 2nd Major, choose Operations Management for that is the Science of making things Better.

Are you a problem solver? Or do you generally like puzzles and games involving logical thinking? Do you have a passion toward making an impact through your work? If your answer those questions are a yes, then perhaps hav-ing a 2nd Major in Analytics is the right choice for you.

With the amount of data collected increasing exponentially, analyzing these data sets, making sense of it and transforming it into intelligence report will be essential in a competitive business landscape as it highlights key areas to stimulate productivity, growth and innovation to companies harnessing the power of Big Data.

At SIS, we prepare our students to take on the role and challenge of analyzing Big Data. With 5 distinct tracks to choose from in our Analytics 2nd Major, students will pick up skills in processing, managing, analyzing and making sense of large amount of data.

Marketing AnalyticsDo you know social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter can solve problems face by organizations? By applying what you learn in Analytics, we are able to help organizations better engage, market and offer products to much valued consumers. You will learn to understand and evaluate current marketing initiatives and transform them along with the trends and preferences of consumers.

Operational AnalyticsChallenges facing operations management can be addressed by applying knowledge to solve problems such as resource planning, scheduling and coordination. Its applications include service operations such as logistics, sup-ply chain management, e-Commerce, transportation, health-care operations, and hospitality. Operational analytics brings together models, computational methods, tools, decision support concepts and systems that enable a deci-sion maker to react adaptively to dynamically changing and uncertain business environments.

Accounting AnalyticsTake your understanding of accounting to a whole new level. With analytics applied to cost analysis, revenue trends and the overall profitability of various components of the enterprise. Such analysis of cash obligations of an organization along with the overall understanding of revenue to make key business investment decisions and provides visibility to how various key performance indicators of cost and budget affect the different stakeholders of the organization.

Urban & Regional AnalyticsWorried by the increase in dengue around your neighbourhood? Or simply just wondering about the frequency of transportation breakdown? This track deals with the learning of analytics applied to the public sector and societal concerns. Such as the understanding of crime patterns, housing needs, social services and transportation service delivery.

Advanced Technology for AnalyticsInterested in learning more about the software, system and methods used in empowering analytics across differ-ent fields? This track deals with data, its mining, storage, visualization and analysis. You will get to use analytics application examples from marketing, operations, urban & regional analytics and other areas as well.

No TrackHave the freedom and flexibility to choose what to learn. By choosing this option, you will learn about concepts and application without special focus on a particular domain or field and will be able to pick up courses of choice under the broader analytical category.

13 Curriculum

AnalyticsOperations Management

Being involved in Operations Management (OM) is not something trivial or easy to dismiss. It is a life filled with possibilities of excitement and different challenges as you tackle the roles and responsibilities undertaken by the very people who design and manage activities that transform how companies oper-ate. Be prepared to work with different people who are involved in different aspect of the company’s production of goods and services, and learn about complex business problems related to the transition taken by good and services as it travels from supplier to the end users.

Operations Management provides a systematic way of looking at organizational process. It applies methods to design and manage the operations, processes, products & services and demand & supply chain of an organization. Work on real problems that requires application knowledge you won’t find lacking here in SMU. Regardless of your degree, OM easily complements it, ensuring your learning is well rounded, allowing you to work in your choice of industry with ease of transition as no one knows how the company works better than you.

Those of you from School of Information Systems (SIS) are vital to businesses as the 2 disciplines are closely related fields of study. While you will learn how to apply methods on how to solve business prob-lems in OM, a degree in IS enables you to leverage on the evolving information technology so as to sup-port the solutions you apply to an organization. You will bridge the gap between information technol-ogy and business management as you incorporate solutions and designs to the versatile problems face by the organization. The opportunities and variety of firms in versatile fields are endless when equipped with a degree from SIS coupled with a 2nd Major in Operations Management.Getting to understand the complexity and the varying systems employed by them is made possible dur-ing your course of study here at SIS. Similar to people involve in OM, as you work in teams for your pro-ject, you will get to communicate with different people with varying skillsets. Understanding, working with them and even leading them will be learned naturally as you embark the journey on your chosen degree with us here at SIS.

When the time comes for you to choose your 2nd Major, choose Operations Management for that is the Science of making things Better.

Are you a problem solver? Or do you generally like puzzles and games involving logical thinking? Do you have a passion toward making an impact through your work? If your answer those questions are a yes, then perhaps hav-ing a 2nd Major in Analytics is the right choice for you.

With the amount of data collected increasing exponentially, analyzing these data sets, making sense of it and transforming it into intelligence report will be essential in a competitive business landscape as it highlights key areas to stimulate productivity, growth and innovation to companies harnessing the power of Big Data.

At SIS, we prepare our students to take on the role and challenge of analyzing Big Data. With 5 distinct tracks to choose from in our Analytics 2nd Major, students will pick up skills in processing, managing, analyzing and making sense of large amount of data.

Marketing AnalyticsDo you know social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter can solve problems face by organizations? By applying what you learn in Analytics, we are able to help organizations better engage, market and offer products to much valued consumers. You will learn to understand and evaluate current marketing initiatives and transform them along with the trends and preferences of consumers.

Operational AnalyticsChallenges facing operations management can be addressed by applying knowledge to solve problems such as resource planning, scheduling and coordination. Its applications include service operations such as logistics, sup-ply chain management, e-Commerce, transportation, health-care operations, and hospitality. Operational analytics brings together models, computational methods, tools, decision support concepts and systems that enable a deci-sion maker to react adaptively to dynamically changing and uncertain business environments.

Accounting AnalyticsTake your understanding of accounting to a whole new level. With analytics applied to cost analysis, revenue trends and the overall profitability of various components of the enterprise. Such analysis of cash obligations of an organization along with the overall understanding of revenue to make key business investment decisions and provides visibility to how various key performance indicators of cost and budget affect the different stakeholders of the organization.

Urban & Regional AnalyticsWorried by the increase in dengue around your neighbourhood? Or simply just wondering about the frequency of transportation breakdown? This track deals with the learning of analytics applied to the public sector and societal concerns. Such as the understanding of crime patterns, housing needs, social services and transportation service delivery.

Advanced Technology for AnalyticsInterested in learning more about the software, system and methods used in empowering analytics across differ-ent fields? This track deals with data, its mining, storage, visualization and analysis. You will get to use analytics application examples from marketing, operations, urban & regional analytics and other areas as well.

No TrackHave the freedom and flexibility to choose what to learn. By choosing this option, you will learn about concepts and application without special focus on a particular domain or field and will be able to pick up courses of choice under the broader analytical category.

14Curriculum

AnalyticsOperations Management

By: Puan Youshuang

IS480: IS Application Project

An interview was conducted with Team Zircon – their hard work has clinched them the “Best IS480 Project” award, now let us look at what they have to say.

1. Could you talk us through the general process of a typical IS480 project?Generally, a team of 4-6 is formed and sourcing of projects starts at least 3 months before proposal submission. After a project has been decided, information such as project description and sponsor is emailed to the course coordinator. Teams must pre-pare a 2-page proposal for submission and start working on the project to prepare for acceptance. There are still milestones such as mid-term presentation, final presentation and poster day.

2. How was your team formed?We first met when we were assigned to the same group in MetamorphoSIS, the annual freshman camp held for SIS students. We forged bonds and continued to maintain our friendship after the camp, learning and growing together throughout our SIS journey. After working well together in modules such as Process Modelling and Solution Blueprinting, Enterprise Integra-tion and Architectural Analysis, etc., we naturallyformed a team for our IS Applica-tion Project.

3. Who was your sponsor and what was your team's project about?Our sponsor was the SMU-TCS iCity Lab, a joint initiative between SMU and TATA Consultancy Services. Our project, the Travel Patterns Analytics Systems (TPAS), is an interactive web-based application that visu-alizes and analyses spatial-temporal trends of bus commuters in Singapore. This appli-cation utilized EZ-link data from LTA to map service quality trends such as overcrowding and supply of bus services in regions.

By: Alex Ng

15 Curriculum

Advanced Business Technology (ABT) is all about the learning of tools, software or hardware, that aid in the business goals of a company. SIS offers this 2nd Major with 4 different tracks, inclusive of a no track option for students

Banking Processes & Technology TrackInterested in the Financial Services Industry? This track enables students to better appreciate how IT is effectively used to support the banking and financial industry. Apart from learning about the banking architecture and environment, emphasis is also placed on the understanding of the vari-ous IT solutions in place that support banking products and processes

Enterprise Systems & Solutions TrackWith a focus on integrating core and supporting business process, thus making them more flex-ible and agile in meeting the demands of businesses, students of this track will be expected to have hands-on experience on enterprise system organizations use, while working on business solutions to real-world problems.

Technopreneurship TrackAspiring entrepreneurs seeking to equip themselves with skills to start a technology and innova-tive based company should seriously consider taking up this track. Not only do students have a chance to develop their own technology-based business innovation, there will be given exposure to immersive experiences gained through the Technopreneurship Study Mission and a related internship.

Information Security & Assurance TrackWith the cost of cybercrime expected to grow at an increasing rate worldwide, this track develop skills that enables the support of critical infrastructure services across various sector of our soci-ety. Students will be trained and educated in areas of protection, security and the analysis so as to assess, mitigate and manage security risks

No TrackThe no track option allows students seeking both flexibility and a less restrictive approach to learning. It enables students to have a breadth of knowledge rather than specializing in a specific domain as compared to the other 4 tracks.With the technical know-how to better implement or improve upon existing business solutions across the various industries, SIS students majoring in ABT are better equipped with skillsets that enable them to better leverage on existing technologies to tackle daily problems.

Advanced Business Technology

16Opportunities

STUDENT INTEREST GROUP

By: Puan Youshuang

IS480: IS Application Project

An interview was conducted with Team Zircon – their hard work has clinched them the “Best IS480 Project” award, now let us look at what they have to say.

1. Could you talk us through the general process of a typical IS480 project?Generally, a team of 4-6 is formed and sourcing of projects starts at least 3 months before proposal submission. After a project has been decided, information such as project description and sponsor is emailed to the course coordinator. Teams must pre-pare a 2-page proposal for submission and start working on the project to prepare for acceptance. There are still milestones such as mid-term presentation, final presentation and poster day.

2. How was your team formed?We first met when we were assigned to the same group in MetamorphoSIS, the annual freshman camp held for SIS students. We forged bonds and continued to maintain our friendship after the camp, learning and growing together throughout our SIS journey. After working well together in modules such as Process Modelling and Solution Blueprinting, Enterprise Integra-tion and Architectural Analysis, etc., we naturallyformed a team for our IS Applica-tion Project.

IS480: IS Application Project – This module is one of the major milestones that every student in SIS has to go through. Essentially, students are all required to apply whatever they have learnt in SIS to build an IT system as part of a team project. Teams are made up of 4 – 6 members and the choosing of team members is up to the students’ discretions.

Kenneth CHNG Soo Hau, Alayne PANG Hui Xian, CHAN Suk Lum Edwin LIM Sheng Xian, Jonathan TAY Jiun Yang, CAI Yanru

3. Who was your sponsor and what was your team's project about?Our sponsor was the SMU-TCS iCity Lab, a joint initiative between SMU and TATA Consultancy Services. Our project, the Travel Patterns Analytics Systems (TPAS), is an interactive web-based application that visu-alizes and analyses spatial-temporal trends of bus commuters in Singapore. This appli-cation utilized EZ-link data from LTA to map service quality trends such as overcrowding and supply of bus services in regions.

4. What are some of the challenges your team faced?We were faced with a steep learning curve as none of us had experience developing a geospatial application. Dealing with big data and high performance while running the application were other challenges faced. It is also a challenge to convince faculties on the worth of our project as some of them do not appreciate the value of a geospatial information system.

5. What are some of the aspects in which your team did well?We were able to expose our project TPAS to possible end users such as the LTA and URA with the help from Dr. Kam Tin Seong and Mr. Alfred Wu, our sponsor from iCity. They were very impressed and gave us positive feedback on ways to improve the applica-tion.

6. What are some of your takeaways from this module?Handling various stakeholders is definitely one of the major takeaways in this module. Not only do we have to deliver our client’s request, we also have to keep an eye on the module’s requirement as they do contradict at times. It is also a great learning experi-ence to develop an application that will be of good use to an organization by under-standing and aligning our project to their strategic goals.

7. How do you feel about receiving the Best IS480 Project award?The award is a form of validation and rec-ognition of our efforts and it is always great to have that pat on your back, saying “well done”, as the award did for us.

8. Any advice you could give for your fellow SIS juniors?Have faith in your ideas, work hard and sell the niche of your application well.

9. Any other interesting things that you wish to highlight?As the application is developed for the client, we naturally held their requirements and specifications in the highest regard and priority to be addressed. However, it is not uncommon to have to compromise and alter the application in order to tailor it to what the faculties want to see. Due to the differing interests between these stakehold-ers and the resultant accommodations that have to be made, it is difficult to complete an application that completely satisfies both parties. This dilemma can be quite unset-tling, as it may lead one to ponder on who the application is being developed for.

By: Alex Ng

Advanced Business Technology (ABT) is all about the learning of tools, software or hardware, that aid in the business goals of a company. SIS offers this 2nd Major with 4 different tracks, inclusive of a no track option for students

Banking Processes & Technology TrackInterested in the Financial Services Industry? This track enables students to better appreciate how IT is effectively used to support the banking and financial industry. Apart from learning about the banking architecture and environment, emphasis is also placed on the understanding of the vari-ous IT solutions in place that support banking products and processes

Enterprise Systems & Solutions TrackWith a focus on integrating core and supporting business process, thus making them more flex-ible and agile in meeting the demands of businesses, students of this track will be expected to have hands-on experience on enterprise system organizations use, while working on business solutions to real-world problems.

Technopreneurship TrackAspiring entrepreneurs seeking to equip themselves with skills to start a technology and innova-tive based company should seriously consider taking up this track. Not only do students have a chance to develop their own technology-based business innovation, there will be given exposure to immersive experiences gained through the Technopreneurship Study Mission and a related internship.

Information Security & Assurance TrackWith the cost of cybercrime expected to grow at an increasing rate worldwide, this track develop skills that enables the support of critical infrastructure services across various sector of our soci-ety. Students will be trained and educated in areas of protection, security and the analysis so as to assess, mitigate and manage security risks

No TrackThe no track option allows students seeking both flexibility and a less restrictive approach to learning. It enables students to have a breadth of knowledge rather than specializing in a specific domain as compared to the other 4 tracks.With the technical know-how to better implement or improve upon existing business solutions across the various industries, SIS students majoring in ABT are better equipped with skillsets that enable them to better leverage on existing technologies to tackle daily problems.

Advanced Business Technology

17 OpportunitiesOverseas Community Service Project

What is your OCSP about?Project Sunshine 5 is a student initiated OCSP that is in its fifth instal-ment. We went to Ban Pong Song, Laos in December 2013. In the village, we were engaged in a construction project for a district’s nursery school and we also shared our IT knowledge with the Ministry of Education’s teachers by teaching them Microsoft Office skills. On top of that, we taught the students English using an English handbook that was edited and printed by our team and phonic CDs to aid their learn-ing.

What motivated you to take up a leadership role in your OCSP?Gratefulness to others and the wanting to make a continual difference was what spurred me on to take up this leadership role. The experi-ence we had when making a difference in the lives of the team and the host community through this project made me grateful to my loved ones around me. Hence through this platform, we wanted to ensure the propagation of this fun yet enriching experience that was made in the previous instalment. Through this OCSP, we wanted SMU students to engage in a meaningful service learning experience. Furthermore, the challenge in learning and leading a team was something new and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone to push myself more and hope-fully, grow and mature in the process.

What are your roles and responsibilities?As leaders, we delegated the tasks among us evenly and according to what we excel in. We constantly have decisions to make to ensure the smooth and safe running of the entire project, to be accountable for any communication or liaison with the external stakeholders, and to ensure that the finances are in the proper order. Other than the admin-istrative matters, I also have to lead daily sessions where participants would share their reflections with one another.

Were there any difficulties you faced prior to the trip? How did you all overcome it?One of the main concerns we had was to decide whether or not to continue our R&R trip to Bangkok as there was a riot going on dur-ing that period. It was an urgent matter that occurred during our final exam. Hence, contingency plans had to be developed during the crunch period. By speaking to the various parties and communicating our intentions together with new safety measures in place, we went ahead with our plans. The key thing is to always remain clear headed and think of the different situations that could occur before making a justifiable decision.

What have you learnt after your OCSP experience?OCSP is not just about rendering service to our beneficiaries overseas. More importantly, it is about learning from them and understanding how we are in fact more inadequate than them in many ways we don't expect. To quote one of our members, "We went there to learn but instead were taught."

What would you say to future OCSP leaders?A lot of times we wonder if we are up for the task; whether or not we can succeed in making it great. But life is too short for any regret, so don’t live with the fact that you let this awesome chance slip by without doing a thing about it. Many of us have other commitments, and it’s all about managing your priorities and time. If you have decided to lead, believe in yourself that you can do it. Only by believing, coupled with the passion to see you through this tough journey, will your efforts pay off when you see what positive impact your project has done for your team and the host community. It won't be an easy task. However, remember that nothing great comes easy.

Any advice for our freshmen?Project Sunshine has been one of my most important choices that I have made in my SMU journey. If possible, do sign up for an OCSP at least once, to broaden your horizon and experience a different culture and lifestyle.

What is Beijing TSM about?Beijing TSM is a one-course unit Information Systems Management Depth Elective (ISDME) that is delivered and managed in close collaboration with the SMU’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE). It is a fundamental course that seeks to inculcate students with a better appreciation of the broader aspects of Technopreneurship through visiting high tech startups around China (Beijing). Beijing TSM is a recommended course for those who are planning to undertake the Technopreneurship Track.

What did you do during the trip?We visited various technological companies ranging from small scale startups to large companies like Micro-soft China, Sogou and the infamous Xiao Mi. On top of company visits, we got to tour around the campus of Tsinghua University, toted as one of the most beautiful campus in the world, and even got to scale the spec-tacular Great Wall of China. It was all in all, an enriching and fun-filled trip.

Any interesting takeaways?Through this trip, I gained a better understanding and appreciation of the entrepreneurship scene in Bejing. Everyone knows that China’s market is extremely diverse given her population. But what is left unknown to all is that this diversity introduces a wide spectrum in terms of consumer preference. As such, it is impossible to have a one-fit-all business that will cater to the masses. This means that any entrepreneurs looking to invest in China would probably have to identify a specific target audience, or the idiosyncrasy of their target audience before venturing further.

Any advice for incoming batch of freshmen who are considering taking up TSM?TSM trip is really fun and enriching at the same time. You just need to keep an open mind and ask any burning questions you have about entrepreneurship. The lecturers are generally very open and will do their utmost to answer all doubts and queries.

By: Alex Ng

18OpportunitiesOverseas Community Service Project

Study Mission

What have you learnt after your OCSP experience?OCSP is not just about rendering service to our beneficiaries overseas. More importantly, it is about learning from them and understanding how we are in fact more inadequate than them in many ways we don't expect. To quote one of our members, "We went there to learn but instead were taught."

What would you say to future OCSP leaders?A lot of times we wonder if we are up for the task; whether or not we can succeed in making it great. But life is too short for any regret, so don’t live with the fact that you let this awesome chance slip by without doing a thing about it. Many of us have other commitments, and it’s all about managing your priorities and time. If you have decided to lead, believe in yourself that you can do it. Only by believing, coupled with the passion to see you through this tough journey, will your efforts pay off when you see what positive impact your project has done for your team and the host community. It won't be an easy task. However, remember that nothing great comes easy.

Any advice for our freshmen?Project Sunshine has been one of my most important choices that I have made in my SMU journey. If possible, do sign up for an OCSP at least once, to broaden your horizon and experience a different culture and lifestyle.

What is Beijing TSM about?Beijing TSM is a one-course unit Information Systems Management Depth Elective (ISDME) that is delivered and managed in close collaboration with the SMU’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE). It is a fundamental course that seeks to inculcate students with a better appreciation of the broader aspects of Technopreneurship through visiting high tech startups around China (Beijing). Beijing TSM is a recommended course for those who are planning to undertake the Technopreneurship Track.

What did you do during the trip?We visited various technological companies ranging from small scale startups to large companies like Micro-soft China, Sogou and the infamous Xiao Mi. On top of company visits, we got to tour around the campus of Tsinghua University, toted as one of the most beautiful campus in the world, and even got to scale the spec-tacular Great Wall of China. It was all in all, an enriching and fun-filled trip.

Any interesting takeaways?Through this trip, I gained a better understanding and appreciation of the entrepreneurship scene in Bejing. Everyone knows that China’s market is extremely diverse given her population. But what is left unknown to all is that this diversity introduces a wide spectrum in terms of consumer preference. As such, it is impossible to have a one-fit-all business that will cater to the masses. This means that any entrepreneurs looking to invest in China would probably have to identify a specific target audience, or the idiosyncrasy of their target audience before venturing further.

Any advice for incoming batch of freshmen who are considering taking up TSM?TSM trip is really fun and enriching at the same time. You just need to keep an open mind and ask any burning questions you have about entrepreneurship. The lecturers are generally very open and will do their utmost to answer all doubts and queries.

By: Lee Cheng Yi

19 OpportunitiesStudy Exchange

By: Lee Cheng Yi

What made you decide to go on an overseas exchange?There are countless of reasons that had motivated me to go on an overseas exchange. Of which, benefits such as cultivating cross-cultural experience, en-joyment of study and travel at the same time, building up my resume and the ability to practice “S/U” options on the modules taken in the outbound univer-sity had crossed my mind. But all in all, I wanted to experience the vibrant and holistic education that SMU is providing.

Where did you go and what did you do over there?My exchange semester in Thailand, Mahidol University International College (MUIC) was a completely new and fresh experience for me. MUIC campus is situated in a small lonely province on the outskirt of Bangkok, thus everything tends to move at a much slower and comfortable pace as compared to SMU. The three months exchange term allowed me to understand the local culture and gave me the chance to explore everything that Thailand has to offer. Being a photography enthusiast, I had dedicated my free hours to document down my impression of Thailand, and that includes their exquisite pagodas, temples, riverside markets as well as their highly populous capital, Bangkok.

My most memorable journey was the trip to Ko Pha Ngan island and other sister islands that is located at the Southern part of Thailand. Together with a few other international students, we embarked on the long journey for 18 straight hours by train, bus and ferry. The long journey was definitely worthwhile for the next 3 days of island-like lifestyle and the famous full moon party that is installed for us.

What have you gained from this experience?It gave me the opportunity to interact with people from other background and society that is different from my own. The cross-cultural experiences also helped me to understand why these people think and behave the way they did. I believed that such tacit knowledge requires first-hand experience and will be very difficult to be acquired through books or any other form of documentations.

What are some of the things you find interesting in this module?I find Thai language rather interesting. There could be up to 8 different tones for each syllable and each of them represents different meaning all together. As such it is very common for me (a beginner) to mix up similar pro-nunciation, such as chicken and egg, while ordering food thus messing up the food order.

What do you think are some of the qualities one should possess to go on an overseas ex-change?The main attribute that one should possess would be the ability to work independently. Overseas exchange will require you to be able to independently organize your daily activities that consist of your study and travel experience as well as time and personal finance management.

Any advice for our SIS students who wish/do not wish to go for an overseas exchange?Good for you if you are already planning to go for an overseas exchange. Plan and complete the online ex-change worksheet application as early as possible and try to avoid last minute arrangement. Make full use of the overseas exchange by traveling a lot, really a lot. Organize weekly weekend trips with other international students to different places. It will be good if you can include some local students to bring you around. Avoid being a “closet” mugger as you are not out there to own their bell curve.

Lek Guan Zhou – Year 3

By: Alex Ng

As SMU prides itself in being a Management University, internship is considered to be one of the most integral parts of the university experience. Not only does it allow a peek into one’s prospective career, it also enables one to hone their skills and understand the relevance of what is being taught in school with industry practice. Tommy Soh, a year 3 senior pursuing a degree in Information Systems tells us his overseas internship experience.

Where did you Intern at?I interned in San Francisco, California at a company located in the Silicon Valley, JumpCam, a collaborative social media application. Similar to Vine, you record a short clip repeatedly and make it into a single video. Imagine this with multiple users and all of them work together to create a single video. An individual clip is 10 seconds as a constraint to promote concise valuable seconds of video.

How did you manage to land such an internship opportunity?David, JumpCam’s CEO was introduced to me by Prof Chris Bosch in SMU. Prof Chris Bosch was hosting a series of SIS Tournament Circuit for Javascript, Ruby and Java and I won the Ruby one. After which, he connected me via email to David and there was a series of interviews.

Why the Silicon Valley?Well, Silicon Valley is the best IT Place and when I say best they are really good. Only the best people working in IT will go there and the culture there is different. The culture is geeky and they have a culture that is pro-technology and pro people working in technology. So that is very different from Singapore or in fact, any other country. If you worked in tech, you probably will get the feeling that people will look down on you. But in US, it is totally different. In fact, only in the Silicon Valley is the IT Department the main department of the entire company. Their pay there is almost two or three times the pay here and the welfare there is good to attract talents as they have severe lack of tech developers. They are constantly boosting their own welfare funds, like that of Facebook and Google’s welfare.

What are some of the challenges you faced there and how did you overcome them?In terms of work, they generally do not take interns who do not know the programming language they need. I knew Java but I did not know Android. Hence as Android and Java are a little different, I had to learn it on the job, which was a little difficult. For such internships in the Silicon Valley, if they were to hire you and you don’t know the things they need you to do, they have high expectations of you to learn on the job. So if you are unable to, it would be disappointing to them and to yourself. In terms of living there, searching for houses in San Francisco is a known problem as many tech developers are there. But because their jobs are well paying, they can pay up to three thou-sand for an apartment. As an intern, you cannot afford that. Hence housing was a huge issue.

What advice would you give to people who are looking towards undertaking an internship similar to yours?Just go. There is no reason for you hesitate. This internship was supposed to be a summer internship but due to my scholarship requirement for another summer internship, I took an LOA from school and had to delay a semester for graduation. No regrets, other than not going earlier.

Overseas Internship

By: Lee Cheng Yi

Where did you go and what did you do over there?My exchange semester in Thailand, Mahidol University International College (MUIC) was a completely new and fresh experience for me. MUIC campus is situated in a small lonely province on the outskirt of Bangkok, thus everything tends to move at a much slower and comfortable pace as compared to SMU. The three months exchange term allowed me to understand the local culture and gave me the chance to explore everything that Thailand has to offer. Being a photography enthusiast, I had dedicated my free hours to document down my impression of Thailand, and that includes their exquisite pagodas, temples, riverside markets as well as their highly populous capital, Bangkok.

My most memorable journey was the trip to Ko Pha Ngan island and other sister islands that is located at the Southern part of Thailand. Together with a few other international students, we embarked on the long journey for 18 straight hours by train, bus and ferry. The long journey was definitely worthwhile for the next 3 days of island-like lifestyle and the famous full moon party that is installed for us.

What have you gained from this experience?It gave me the opportunity to interact with people from other background and society that is different from my own. The cross-cultural experiences also helped me to understand why these people think and behave the way they did. I believed that such tacit knowledge requires first-hand experience and will be very difficult to be acquired through books or any other form of documentations.

What are some of the things you find interesting in this module?I find Thai language rather interesting. There could be up to 8 different tones for each syllable and each of them represents different meaning all together. As such it is very common for me (a beginner) to mix up similar pro-nunciation, such as chicken and egg, while ordering food thus messing up the food order.

What do you think are some of the qualities one should possess to go on an overseas ex-change?The main attribute that one should possess would be the ability to work independently. Overseas exchange will require you to be able to independently organize your daily activities that consist of your study and travel experience as well as time and personal finance management.

Any advice for our SIS students who wish/do not wish to go for an overseas exchange?Good for you if you are already planning to go for an overseas exchange. Plan and complete the online ex-change worksheet application as early as possible and try to avoid last minute arrangement. Make full use of the overseas exchange by traveling a lot, really a lot. Organize weekly weekend trips with other international students to different places. It will be good if you can include some local students to bring you around. Avoid being a “closet” mugger as you are not out there to own their bell curve.

Lek Guan Zhou – Year 3

By: Alex Ng

20Opportunities

As SMU prides itself in being a Management University, internship is considered to be one of the most integral parts of the university experience. Not only does it allow a peek into one’s prospective career, it also enables one to hone their skills and understand the relevance of what is being taught in school with industry practice. Tommy Soh, a year 3 senior pursuing a degree in Information Systems tells us his overseas internship experience.

Where did you Intern at?I interned in San Francisco, California at a company located in the Silicon Valley, JumpCam, a collaborative social media application. Similar to Vine, you record a short clip repeatedly and make it into a single video. Imagine this with multiple users and all of them work together to create a single video. An individual clip is 10 seconds as a constraint to promote concise valuable seconds of video.

How did you manage to land such an internship opportunity?David, JumpCam’s CEO was introduced to me by Prof Chris Bosch in SMU. Prof Chris Bosch was hosting a series of SIS Tournament Circuit for Javascript, Ruby and Java and I won the Ruby one. After which, he connected me via email to David and there was a series of interviews.

Why the Silicon Valley?Well, Silicon Valley is the best IT Place and when I say best they are really good. Only the best people working in IT will go there and the culture there is different. The culture is geeky and they have a culture that is pro-technology and pro people working in technology. So that is very different from Singapore or in fact, any other country. If you worked in tech, you probably will get the feeling that people will look down on you. But in US, it is totally different. In fact, only in the Silicon Valley is the IT Department the main department of the entire company. Their pay there is almost two or three times the pay here and the welfare there is good to attract talents as they have severe lack of tech developers. They are constantly boosting their own welfare funds, like that of Facebook and Google’s welfare.

What are some of the challenges you faced there and how did you overcome them?In terms of work, they generally do not take interns who do not know the programming language they need. I knew Java but I did not know Android. Hence as Android and Java are a little different, I had to learn it on the job, which was a little difficult. For such internships in the Silicon Valley, if they were to hire you and you don’t know the things they need you to do, they have high expectations of you to learn on the job. So if you are unable to, it would be disappointing to them and to yourself. In terms of living there, searching for houses in San Francisco is a known problem as many tech developers are there. But because their jobs are well paying, they can pay up to three thou-sand for an apartment. As an intern, you cannot afford that. Hence housing was a huge issue.

What advice would you give to people who are looking towards undertaking an internship similar to yours?Just go. There is no reason for you hesitate. This internship was supposed to be a summer internship but due to my scholarship requirement for another summer internship, I took an LOA from school and had to delay a semester for graduation. No regrets, other than not going earlier.

Overseas Internship

2321 Opportunities

Established in 2013, Nectary Studios has since release 2 applications; Flashwants and Guess the Word SG. We interviewed Xiang Rui, a Year 3 SIS student, one of the founders of Nectary Studios to gain some insight on his experiences and the applications he developed.

What sparked off the development of the 2 applications?We see many social media platform out there that does not do enough to promote physical interaction of friends or family. Flashwants was developed to fill in that gap by giving a platform for users to display what they want, be it a movie, food or events, thus triggering more gathering of friends or family so as to fulfil that want.

As for Guess the Word SG, it was a spontaneous development. We were watching the “Guess the word” game being played on The Ellen DeGeneres Show when it dawned upon us to have a Singaporean version so that all of us can better relate to the themes and words. We wanted something that everyone can connect to and since Christmas and the New Year was coming; we worked hard to ensure that it was available by the

Were there any difficulties experienced by you?Conflict of commitments would be one of the challenges I have. As I am still studying, I have to juggle between my job and school work, not forgetting that I have to balance my time with my family and friends as well. I must say that throughout this difficult phase, I have to thank my family and friends for being very understanding and con-tinuously supporting me through small actions such as grabbing a meal with me near my office so as to suit my schedule.Another difficulty is the fact that we are a small team and each of us have limited technical skills and business know-how in the development and management of Nectary Studios. Most of our learning takes place outside of the classroom, SMU IIE has provided us with a great en-vironment for our company to grow and we have our business mentors to guide us in that aspect. Our friends too have played a part in helping out in our focus group discussions and vetting words and terminologies for us in the development of our applications.

How has your learning in SIS con-tribute in the development of the applications?

SIS has definitely taught me well in learn-ing to learn and it proved exceptionally useful as we have to learn most of the technical skills ourselves when develop-ing the applications. Completing modules like Software Engineering (SE) and Visual Analytics (VA) have enabled me to learn better outside of the classroom since these modules encourage us students to learn and apply more than what was taught. Also, the learning of Java has helped me to pick up other program-ming languages faster through the foundation provided by the school.

What do you hope to see in the future of Nectary Studios?I want Nectary Studio to continue growing and be a success in the SG entrepreneur landscape and that by the time I graduate, I want to be able to devote myself fully to Nectary Studios.

We aim to bring another application that will greatly impact a person’s life, just like how Facebook or Instagram has done. Cur-rently we are working on User Interface (UI) design for MediaCorp and develop-ing Guess The Word TW for the Taiwan market. Do drop us an email if you have any ideas.

Any words of advice for freshmen joining SIS?Opportunities and help abound in SIS. Dream big and work hard towards your goal and you’ll make it. Never settle for anything less than what you can achieveDon’t be too caught up with the GPA rat race. Don’t neglect other things like friends.

If you have yet to experi-ence what these applica-tions have to offer, get them now on your smart phone. Flashwants is available on iTunes App Store and Guess The Word SG on both iTunes App Store and Google

Any memorable experience you had upon the release of the applications?Being able to meet the people who actively use our applications nearly brought tears to my eyes. I was fortunate to see 2 females happily playing Guess The Word SG during a bus ride.

As for Flashwants, we held an event to award 10 people with the best wants throughout Singapore. With 120 bottles of beer in a car, we went around giving out beers to our users while giving live updates as we drove around.

By: Melvin Leong

Ever wonder how working in an IT industry will be? Want to have a head start in your own career de-velopment with an SIS degree? With us today is Henry Tang, a Year 3 SIS student who shares with us his Internship experience with IBM, one of the major international firm in the IT industry.

What were your roles and responsibili-ties as an intern at IBM?I interned in IBM’s Solutions Delivery Team, implementing IBM solutions for clients. My entire internship revolved around a major project undertaken by IBM. For the project, I assisted my mentors and seniors with the scripting, configurations and mappings of the servers, and the rerouting of network, as such throughout my internship; I was stationed at the client’s side with the project team.

Any challenges faced?I would say changing my working style to fit into the team dynamics. What I learned here in SIS had to be fine-tuned so as to bring across my ideas and solutions across to my mentor and seniors. Flexibility is the key to ensure good working relationship with them and it takes time to adjust myself to the team’s culture. Fortunately there was an SIS alumnus in my team and he showed me the ropes by preparing me to in areas I lacked. In addition, as I was an intern, I had to prove myself to be competent in handling more than mundane task and it was a challenge as I had to build the trust and credibility among my colleagues. The important point is to learn from your mistakes and to take a step back to understand the overall picture in what you are trying to achieve.

How did you prepare for your Internship?The implication when interning can be much worse as compared to the learning environment of SIS. However, there are several things that we learn in SIS when doing projects, such as the clarification of requirements with our superiors, its best to ask when in doubt. Also, being able to learn to find your own resources to problems is a huge asset in any situation as it reflects how reliable you are when approach and solving any task given.

Any words of advice to the Freshmen?SIS provides a good platform to explore and learn as it is comparable to the real world out there where conditions are much more intense and you are expected to be able to handle most situations. Don’t expect to be spoon fed and never be afraid to raise concerns. As such take your projects seri-ously as it is a great starting point for you to begin inculcating values and skills such as discipline into your daily life.

21

Established in 2013, Nectary Studios has since release 2 applications; Flashwants and Guess the Word SG. We interviewed Xiang Rui, a Year 3 SIS student, one of the founders of Nectary Studios to gain some insight on his experiences and the applications he developed.

What do you hope to see in the future of Nectary Studios?I want Nectary Studio to continue growing and be a success in the SG entrepreneur landscape and that by the time I graduate, I want to be able to devote myself fully to Nectary Studios.

We aim to bring another application that will greatly impact a person’s life, just like how Facebook or Instagram has done. Cur-rently we are working on User Interface (UI) design for MediaCorp and develop-ing Guess The Word TW for the Taiwan market. Do drop us an email if you have any ideas.

Any words of advice for freshmen joining SIS?Opportunities and help abound in SIS. Dream big and work hard towards your goal and you’ll make it. Never settle for anything less than what you can achieveDon’t be too caught up with the GPA rat race. Don’t neglect other things like friends.

If you have yet to experi-ence what these applica-tions have to offer, get them now on your smart phone. Flashwants is available on iTunes App Store and Guess The Word SG on both iTunes App Store and Google

22

By: Melvin Leong

Ever wonder how working in an IT industry will be? Want to have a head start in your own career de-velopment with an SIS degree? With us today is Henry Tang, a Year 3 SIS student who shares with us his Internship experience with IBM, one of the major international firm in the IT industry.

What were your roles and responsibili-ties as an intern at IBM?I interned in IBM’s Solutions Delivery Team, implementing IBM solutions for clients. My entire internship revolved around a major project undertaken by IBM. For the project, I assisted my mentors and seniors with the scripting, configurations and mappings of the servers, and the rerouting of network, as such throughout my internship; I was stationed at the client’s side with the project team.

What were the key takeaways during your internship experience?Knowing how to balance and meet the expectations of my colleagues and superiors and communicating with them was some-thing I learned as there were times I knew my limits and had to approach my mentor or colleagues to voice out my concerns and update them of my progress.

Any challenges faced?I would say changing my working style to fit into the team dynamics. What I learned here in SIS had to be fine-tuned so as to bring across my ideas and solutions across to my mentor and seniors. Flexibility is the key to ensure good working relationship with them and it takes time to adjust myself to the team’s culture. Fortunately there was an SIS alumnus in my team and he showed me the ropes by preparing me to in areas I lacked. In addition, as I was an intern, I had to prove myself to be competent in handling more than mundane task and it was a challenge as I had to build the trust and credibility among my colleagues. The important point is to learn from your mistakes and to take a step back to understand the overall picture in what you are trying to achieve.

What makes your internship experience dif-ferent from others?I was very lucky to be able to explore and in-tern at the client’s side. As I was dispatched out to the client’s company instead of being at IBM headquarter, I was able to experience and understand the problems faced by the end users when it comes to the deployment phase of a large scale project. Although we were given daily tasks to complete, being based in the client’s company means we had to react responsively to the changing requirements and environments.

What were the highlights of your experi-ence?Being able to see the fruition of the project is not something every intern is able to experience. For this project, I managed to witness the process of how it was being deployed live. As the deployment and migration requires long period of time, spanning across days, I was part of the team that stayed into the night to monitor the progress of it.

How did you prepare for your Internship?The implication when interning can be much worse as compared to the learning environment of SIS. However, there are several things that we learn in SIS when doing projects, such as the clarification of requirements with our superiors, its best to ask when in doubt. Also, being able to learn to find your own resources to problems is a huge asset in any situation as it reflects how reliable you are when approach and solving any task given.

Any words of advice to the Freshmen?SIS provides a good platform to explore and learn as it is comparable to the real world out there where conditions are much more intense and you are expected to be able to handle most situations. Don’t expect to be spoon fed and never be afraid to raise concerns. As such take your projects seri-ously as it is a great starting point for you to begin inculcating values and skills such as discipline into your daily life.

Opportunities

23 Competitions

“This feels like an SE meeting.”

That was the first thing the team said upon entering the interview room. This was the team that overcame the seeming incompatibility of a pre-assigned group to clinch first place in the Credit Suisse sponsored SMU Software Engineering Star Competition. Now in its third year, this competition showcases the top teams for Software Engineering. PRISM catches up with the top team of 2013 consisting of Leon, Sherman, Ama-bel, Carina and Zi Hua to find out how they managed to conquer their differences to come out top.

InnovateIT is a business IT competition, founded in 2006. It aims to promote the use of IT to im-prove business value in a fun and engaging manner and to attract tertiary students to join SMU SIS. The motivation is to inspire students to come up with innovative ideas and in the process build interest in IT.

Teams will be invited down for a business case briefing a month before the actual competition. On the competition day, teams are required to pitch their innovative ideas and convince judges to adopt their solutions. This is also a good platform for teams to meet with industry profession-als. There is no need for excellent technical skills or knowledge. What you require is just the idea, an innovative solution to everyday problems. Who knows, the team might just possess the next billion-dollar idea?

In an interview with KHIEW Shi Kai, Marketing Director for InnovateIT’14, when asked about what made him decide to join InnovateIT’14 as part of the organising committee, he said, “Be-cause I was a helper for InnovateIT’13 and I enjoyed myself being part of the event. So this year when Safi (InnovateIT’14 president) told me about the chance of joining the organising commit-tee, I gladly accepted the offer.”

People belonging to any tertiary institutions (ITE, JC, Polytechnics) who dare to dream big and are willing to challenge themselves to greater heights to solve first-world problems are en-couraged to take part in this competition. There is a different theme for each year, and for In-novateIT’14, the theme will be kept confidential until March 2014. There is a possibility that the theme could be related to the latest news.

“Creative ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, so always keep an open mind. Innovation keeps us motivated by inventing great ideas and these ideas bring huge impacts to our lives.” – KHIEW Shi Kai

Organized by:

Supported by:

24Competitions

“This feels like an SE meeting.”

That was the first thing the team said upon entering the interview room. This was the team that overcame the seeming incompatibility of a pre-assigned group to clinch first place in the Credit Suisse sponsored SMU Software Engineering Star Competition. Now in its third year, this competition showcases the top teams for Software Engineering. PRISM catches up with the top team of 2013 consisting of Leon, Sherman, Ama-bel, Carina and Zi Hua to find out how they managed to conquer their differences to come out top.

Team Photo (from L to R):Leon Lim, Amabel Lau, Prof Lee Yeow Leong, Carina Hu,Instructor Thiang Lay Foo, Sherman Yong

What difficulties did you face as a group with different working styles and how did you overcome that?One of the main differences our group had was probably the “working” hours, for instance, there were quite a number of meetings whereby we would meet in the morning but some of us actually work better in the night. Hence, we compromised and sometimes we met up in the afternoon instead. Additionally, it was initially difficult for us to delegate work as it was a big project and we did not have prior experience with regards to the project and project management. However, our members eventually stepped up and did whatever was needed to be done as they were willing to commit to the project.

What did you learn from this experience?Right from the start, this project has been considered a “new thing” as we have never done Project Management before and we have never planned how to go about doing a web application (such as bug testing, domain diagrams). At least not on such a scale. Hence, we would say that we have learnt how to accept things and accept the challenge instead of shying away from them, in terms of the magnitude of the project or the dynamics of the team. Time management was also important to us as we met very often and group members eventually became task oriented to focus and prioritise the more important things of the project. We would also say that by overcoming our fears while doing the project, you learn new things about yourself and reach a new level of confidence and skills set.

Did you all have to spend more time to make up for the lack of experience and the skills required for Software Engineering?Not really. Most of us focused on different things and we later came together to share the different things we learnt. To us, each of us were “experts” in our own areas and we would take turns to drive the work in each areas, taking turns to “share the load” of the learn-ing curve. Looking at the time frame, it is quite impossible to be superb at everything unless you have had prior experience. Before each iteration or function, we would also clarify what was ambiguous about what was being done, such as the logic so that when we pair programmed, we would have a clear idea as to how to do it and not spend unnecessary time trying to figure out the way to begin.

What would you consider to be the most memorable out of this experience?The whole journey is memorable. Looking back, we spent almost every day together and it was those days where we worked very late and catch our last train that was the most impressionable. The anticipation of seeing what new ideas our group has come up with and seeing each other every day would also be considered a memorable experience as we it is more common to dread work be-ing allocated to us. Quoting Leon, what we wanted out of this project was to “just have fun”. Hence, the attitude we had towards this project is also memorable to us!

Do you have any advice for students hoping to do well in Software Engineering?It does not matter who you are working with and keep an open mind. Instead, it matters whether the group wants to work together or not. If everyone is committed to the project, I would think that the project would eventually turn out good. It is also most impor-tant to not just have the attitude to just want to score for Software Engineering and instead just indulge in it to enjoy the process. Another thing would be to really stay committed to the project as it is ultimately a group project and to be involved in it even if you think that your coding skills are not on par with your other team members. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and try to learn from them or even share with them. Be willing to help your group mates despite different working styles and understanding and don’t abandon them to complete their tasks if they are unable to do so.

By: Lee Cheng Yi

InnovateIT is a business IT competition, founded in 2006. It aims to promote the use of IT to im-prove business value in a fun and engaging manner and to attract tertiary students to join SMU SIS. The motivation is to inspire students to come up with innovative ideas and in the process build interest in IT.

Teams will be invited down for a business case briefing a month before the actual competition. On the competition day, teams are required to pitch their innovative ideas and convince judges to adopt their solutions. This is also a good platform for teams to meet with industry profession-als. There is no need for excellent technical skills or knowledge. What you require is just the idea, an innovative solution to everyday problems. Who knows, the team might just possess the next billion-dollar idea?

In an interview with KHIEW Shi Kai, Marketing Director for InnovateIT’14, when asked about what made him decide to join InnovateIT’14 as part of the organising committee, he said, “Be-cause I was a helper for InnovateIT’13 and I enjoyed myself being part of the event. So this year when Safi (InnovateIT’14 president) told me about the chance of joining the organising commit-tee, I gladly accepted the offer.”

People belonging to any tertiary institutions (ITE, JC, Polytechnics) who dare to dream big and are willing to challenge themselves to greater heights to solve first-world problems are en-couraged to take part in this competition. There is a different theme for each year, and for In-novateIT’14, the theme will be kept confidential until March 2014. There is a possibility that the theme could be related to the latest news.

“Creative ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, so always keep an open mind. Innovation keeps us motivated by inventing great ideas and these ideas bring huge impacts to our lives.” – KHIEW Shi Kai

Organized by:

Supported by:

25 Competitions

Just last year, 3 of our SIS students took part in codeXtremeApps2013, an annual 24-hour, round-the-clock computer programming/code jam competition organized by the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC), an in-dustry partnership supported by IDA Singapore and SPRING Singapore. We had an interesting interview with 1 of the team members, Lim Yi Sheng. Let us look at what he had to say.

What made you decide to join this competition?

It was a very spur of the moment thing for me. I remembered Kee Wei and Andre walking up to me one day and go-ing, “Hey, wanna do this competition with us?” And I happened to be free during the period. I was never really into programming before (the only software I really frequently used was cs.exe or war3.exe), and I felt it would be a good learning experience. Furthermore, I thought it was just a 24-hour day, what could the deal be all about…? I can safely say now, that I was so wrong.

What was the theme for codeXtremeApps2013? Could you also talk us through the competition’s process?

The theme was “Smart Living – Build. Code. Play.”, where we were asked to develop solutions aimed at improving an aspect of everyday life. We were supposed to integrate software platforms with hardware platforms i.e. Raspberry Pi, Arduino Uno and Makey Makey.

Sometime before the start of the competition, when we registered, we were given Raspberry Pis to play with. Those are small, but really powerful computers, that we were supposed to use to do something. We were given time to dis-cuss, come up with a few ideas, before we were dumped with a scenario.

The time given is 24 hours. Within 24 hours, you have to try and shift your ideas as much as possible to fit the scenario, program accordingly, and get the Raspberry Pi to work. The integration is usually the hardest part. I remembered the back-end, middle and front-end was done using different programming languages, with JSON holding things together, along with spit and wishes. After 24 hours, teams are required to do a 5 minute pitching to a team of judges that walked about the room. The shortlisted candidates are given a day to come up with a presentation (no touching of codes anymore), to present on the day after, where the judges will do a final selection.

What did your team do?

We did a sensor suite. It basically senses movement, heat, etc., and based on a fixed set of user defined rules, it will perform actions. For example, if it senses movement in the room, it may take a picture and email it to you; switch on a fan, etc. It can control any product that uses a 3 pin plug and is modular in nature, meaning you can expand the sen-sors as you deem fit.

We also have a user interface for users to custom make rules, and the actions etc. We have a mobile and web-based interface so as to ensure that users can access it wherever they go.

What was the motivation behind the development of your product?

Let us be honest. It is hard work to be lazy. Hence, we decided to create a sensor suite to basically be lazy. I am kidding. Automation is a big part of everyday life nowadays. Why do manual chores such as switching off the lights, when a small affordable sensor suite can do it for you? We envision a smart future, and a smart future starts from a smart home. We aim to make life easy, and to make stupid things, like a fan for example, smart.

Were there any challenges that you or your team had to face?

Oh yes. So many. The competition used many popular hardware platforms, so it attracted many professionals to compete. We have had people bringing in a whole bag of hardware; one guy who had a Kickstarter project funded, etc. With these professionals coming into the picture, we felt totally outclassed.

The time pressure was insane, and I, at least, was not that comfortable with programming in so many different languages yet. But my teammates were awesome, and they helped to pull me through.

The real challenge kicks in at 3am. When you are all tired, woozy, and you feel like Death itself. I know there are many opinions on pair programming, but I can safely say, it is the most useful thing to do at 3am. Can you imagine, two horribly tired people, slowly scanning line after line of code, in a language they are unfamiliar with? Yeah, you would want an extra pair of eyes. When you are trying to get Twitter to work at 5am, but nothing seems to work, and you have to abandon ship. Or when your friend sits outside the GSR with a bunny sticking out of his chest, and he refuses to talk to anyone. You get to know crazy stuff about people, and what they do when they are tired. Or you just slowly doze off as your friends program their part.

I can still clearly remember the day we got shortlisted. We spent the last 15 minutes lugging more than 10 kilograms of equipment, changing into our blazers, shaving and brushing our teeth. It was hectic, it was horribly packed, but so, so fulfilling.

Do you have any advice for your fellow SIS students who wish to participate in codeXtremeApps?

Oh, it is a love hate thing. You will hate yourself at 3am. But when the moment is over, so much bliss. You really do learn a lot. Year 2 going to do SE? Please give codeXtremeApps a try. SE will be a lot easier when you tackle it. It worked for me at least.

26Competitions

Just last year, 3 of our SIS students took part in codeXtremeApps2013, an annual 24-hour, round-the-clock computer programming/code jam competition organized by the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC), an in-dustry partnership supported by IDA Singapore and SPRING Singapore. We had an interesting interview with 1 of the team members, Lim Yi Sheng. Let us look at what he had to say.

What made you decide to join this competition?

It was a very spur of the moment thing for me. I remembered Kee Wei and Andre walking up to me one day and go-ing, “Hey, wanna do this competition with us?” And I happened to be free during the period. I was never really into programming before (the only software I really frequently used was cs.exe or war3.exe), and I felt it would be a good learning experience. Furthermore, I thought it was just a 24-hour day, what could the deal be all about…? I can safely say now, that I was so wrong.

What was the theme for codeXtremeApps2013? Could you also talk us through the competition’s process?

The theme was “Smart Living – Build. Code. Play.”, where we were asked to develop solutions aimed at improving an aspect of everyday life. We were supposed to integrate software platforms with hardware platforms i.e. Raspberry Pi, Arduino Uno and Makey Makey.

Sometime before the start of the competition, when we registered, we were given Raspberry Pis to play with. Those are small, but really powerful computers, that we were supposed to use to do something. We were given time to dis-cuss, come up with a few ideas, before we were dumped with a scenario.

The time given is 24 hours. Within 24 hours, you have to try and shift your ideas as much as possible to fit the scenario, program accordingly, and get the Raspberry Pi to work. The integration is usually the hardest part. I remembered the back-end, middle and front-end was done using different programming languages, with JSON holding things together, along with spit and wishes. After 24 hours, teams are required to do a 5 minute pitching to a team of judges that walked about the room. The shortlisted candidates are given a day to come up with a presentation (no touching of codes anymore), to present on the day after, where the judges will do a final selection.

What did your team do?

We did a sensor suite. It basically senses movement, heat, etc., and based on a fixed set of user defined rules, it will perform actions. For example, if it senses movement in the room, it may take a picture and email it to you; switch on a fan, etc. It can control any product that uses a 3 pin plug and is modular in nature, meaning you can expand the sen-sors as you deem fit.

We also have a user interface for users to custom make rules, and the actions etc. We have a mobile and web-based interface so as to ensure that users can access it wherever they go.

What was the motivation behind the development of your product?

Let us be honest. It is hard work to be lazy. Hence, we decided to create a sensor suite to basically be lazy. I am kidding. Automation is a big part of everyday life nowadays. Why do manual chores such as switching off the lights, when a small affordable sensor suite can do it for you? We envision a smart future, and a smart future starts from a smart home. We aim to make life easy, and to make stupid things, like a fan for example, smart.

Were there any challenges that you or your team had to face?

Oh yes. So many. The competition used many popular hardware platforms, so it attracted many professionals to compete. We have had people bringing in a whole bag of hardware; one guy who had a Kickstarter project funded, etc. With these professionals coming into the picture, we felt totally outclassed.

The time pressure was insane, and I, at least, was not that comfortable with programming in so many different languages yet. But my teammates were awesome, and they helped to pull me through.

The real challenge kicks in at 3am. When you are all tired, woozy, and you feel like Death itself. I know there are many opinions on pair programming, but I can safely say, it is the most useful thing to do at 3am. Can you imagine, two horribly tired people, slowly scanning line after line of code, in a language they are unfamiliar with? Yeah, you would want an extra pair of eyes. When you are trying to get Twitter to work at 5am, but nothing seems to work, and you have to abandon ship. Or when your friend sits outside the GSR with a bunny sticking out of his chest, and he refuses to talk to anyone. You get to know crazy stuff about people, and what they do when they are tired. Or you just slowly doze off as your friends program their part.

I can still clearly remember the day we got shortlisted. We spent the last 15 minutes lugging more than 10 kilograms of equipment, changing into our blazers, shaving and brushing our teeth. It was hectic, it was horribly packed, but so, so fulfilling.

Do you have any advice for your fellow SIS students who wish to participate in codeXtremeApps?

Oh, it is a love hate thing. You will hate yourself at 3am. But when the moment is over, so much bliss. You really do learn a lot. Year 2 going to do SE? Please give codeXtremeApps a try. SE will be a lot easier when you tackle it. It worked for me at least.

27 Special Interest Groups

By: Terence LongWhat are the main objectives of BIA?BIA-SIG aims to be a Business Intelligence (BI) Hub in SMU to better inform students about the various aspects of BI, including its technological and industrial domains. It acts as a channel of feedback and pro-vides students with information and means to develop and enhance their skills in business analytics. BIA-SIG aims to provide students with more opportunities to learn about, create, apply and leverage leading-edge solutions for Business Intelligence & Analytics.

What motivated you to join BIA?I believe that business analytics is essential for an organization to continually innovate and succeed. I decided to study Business Intelligence & Analytics as my second major in order to pursue my interest and better prepare for a future in analytics. That was when I first learned about BIA from Dr. Kam Tin Seong, the faculty advisor for the SIG. I also talked to a few seniors in the club who told me more about thelearning and networking opportunities the club presented. This motivated me to join BIA, and to eventually apply for a leadership position in the SIG.

What can prospective members stand to learn from BIA?The BIA-SIG assists in conducting workshops to better equip students with hands-on experience of the enterprise software. We also provide our members the opportunity to go for relevant industry talks that are usually only offered to students in the MITB classes. Through this SIG, members are able to meet and network with like-minded individuals with the passion for analytics.

Tell us about some of your upcoming eventsBIA-SIG has been working with NUS and SAS for the past six months to organize a case challenge. More information about the competition can be found here: http://bmi-asia.com/SAS_Analytics/. For the finale, there will be an award ceremony was held on 8th Feb 2014 where several guests of honour were invited, including Dean Miller who delivered the opening address. We have also invited a few professionals to this event to speak on the use of analytics in the industry. After the SAS Analytics Competition, BIA-SIG will be holding our elections and AGM. Future events will depend on the incoming committee, though we do plan to make the SAS Analyics Competition an annual keynote event.

Any other words you want to share with our freshmen?Analytics is really an exciting area with limitless potential for growth. Do join BIA-SIG and our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/BIASIG/ where our members share interesting news related to analytics.

BIA (Business Intelligence & Analytics)BIA (Business Intelligence & Analytics)1. Could you tell us more about what WhiteHats is about?

The objectives of WhiteHats Society are as follows:

• To be the student representative body for informa-tion security to both internal and external parties. • To promote information security awareness in SMU and encourage research involving the field of informa-tion security. • To promote information security as a profession.

Whitehats Society has plenty to offer to its members. We offer the chance for the students in SMU to learn more about the information security profession and experience the Information Security landscape in Sin-gapore. We achieve this through constant liaison with industry professionals, non-profit communities as well as spreading awareness and knowledge. We have se-cured internships and scholarships for our members who wish to pursue a career in Information Security.

2. Could you take us through some of the events that have been organised by WhiteHats?

Once in a while we would conduct hands-on “hack-ing workshops”, the largest so far was one semes-ter ago (2012/2013 Semester 2). The name of the workshop was “CyberCrime101” where we intro-duced tools to manipulate network traffic data and sniff passwords from sites like Hotmail, as well as data encryption and privacy. It was so popular that we had to open two SRs to cope with the numbers.

3. How did you wind up being part of WhiteHats?

Since my polytechnic days, I have always been in touch with the IT security community within Singa-pore. Some of the initiatives that I am involved include Edgis-Security.org and goSafeOnline.sg.

We had an interview with President of WhiteHats Society, Andre NG Hao Yuan to find out more on what this student interest group is all about.

28Special Interest Groups

By: Terence LongWhat are the main objectives of BIA?BIA-SIG aims to be a Business Intelligence (BI) Hub in SMU to better inform students about the various aspects of BI, including its technological and industrial domains. It acts as a channel of feedback and pro-vides students with information and means to develop and enhance their skills in business analytics. BIA-SIG aims to provide students with more opportunities to learn about, create, apply and leverage leading-edge solutions for Business Intelligence & Analytics.

What motivated you to join BIA?I believe that business analytics is essential for an organization to continually innovate and succeed. I decided to study Business Intelligence & Analytics as my second major in order to pursue my interest and better prepare for a future in analytics. That was when I first learned about BIA from Dr. Kam Tin Seong, the faculty advisor for the SIG. I also talked to a few seniors in the club who told me more about thelearning and networking opportunities the club presented. This motivated me to join BIA, and to eventually apply for a leadership position in the SIG.

What can prospective members stand to learn from BIA?The BIA-SIG assists in conducting workshops to better equip students with hands-on experience of the enterprise software. We also provide our members the opportunity to go for relevant industry talks that are usually only offered to students in the MITB classes. Through this SIG, members are able to meet and network with like-minded individuals with the passion for analytics.

Tell us about some of your upcoming eventsBIA-SIG has been working with NUS and SAS for the past six months to organize a case challenge. More information about the competition can be found here: http://bmi-asia.com/SAS_Analytics/. For the finale, there will be an award ceremony was held on 8th Feb 2014 where several guests of honour were invited, including Dean Miller who delivered the opening address. We have also invited a few professionals to this event to speak on the use of analytics in the industry. After the SAS Analytics Competition, BIA-SIG will be holding our elections and AGM. Future events will depend on the incoming committee, though we do plan to make the SAS Analyics Competition an annual keynote event.

Any other words you want to share with our freshmen?Analytics is really an exciting area with limitless potential for growth. Do join BIA-SIG and our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/BIASIG/ where our members share interesting news related to analytics.

4. What kind of people are you looking for to be part of WhiteHats?

We are looking for people who are enthusiastic about IT security / People who are interested in pursuing a career in IT Security.

5. What are some of the learning points that you have gotten out of WhiteHats?

Being with WhiteHats Society allows me to meet and in-teract with like-minded professionals and enthusiast. I have benefited a great deal in terms of exposure and in-sights that are shared during these information/network-ing sessions with external parties. Last but not least, I have learnt much about working with large groups of people (my team leaders and members).

6. How is this leadership different?

Members of WhiteHats can look forward to more opportu-nities to make an impact within this interest group. There will be more opportunities, more learning, more action and more fun. With a horizontal hierarchy there will be no directives, only facilitators.

7. Any other things you wish to highlight?

We have a Data Privacy event in week 9 (tentative) of this semester. We have invited a speaker from Deniable Secu-rity to talk about data privacy and how one can effectively prevent their data from falling into the wrong hands. ISC2 Singapore Chapter will also be invited to share on their insights and experiences as a professional in the Informa-tion Security industry.

1. Could you tell us more about what WhiteHats is about?

The objectives of WhiteHats Society are as follows:

• To be the student representative body for informa-tion security to both internal and external parties. • To promote information security awareness in SMU and encourage research involving the field of informa-tion security. • To promote information security as a profession.

Whitehats Society has plenty to offer to its members. We offer the chance for the students in SMU to learn more about the information security profession and experience the Information Security landscape in Sin-gapore. We achieve this through constant liaison with industry professionals, non-profit communities as well as spreading awareness and knowledge. We have se-cured internships and scholarships for our members who wish to pursue a career in Information Security.

2. Could you take us through some of the events that have been organised by WhiteHats?

Once in a while we would conduct hands-on “hack-ing workshops”, the largest so far was one semes-ter ago (2012/2013 Semester 2). The name of the workshop was “CyberCrime101” where we intro-duced tools to manipulate network traffic data and sniff passwords from sites like Hotmail, as well as data encryption and privacy. It was so popular that we had to open two SRs to cope with the numbers.

3. How did you wind up being part of WhiteHats?

Since my polytechnic days, I have always been in touch with the IT security community within Singa-pore. Some of the initiatives that I am involved include Edgis-Security.org and goSafeOnline.sg.

We had an interview with President of WhiteHats Society, Andre NG Hao Yuan to find out more on what this student interest group is all about.

WhiteHats Society

29 Special Interest Groups

DOTA 2 TournamentSchool of Information Systems is not just about Studying In School or Sleeping In School, we want our school mates to have fun too! Building on the success of last year’s Aftershock Counter-Strike Championship, SISS is looking to build upon the success and introduce DOTA 2 this year, with the rising popularity of the number one multiplayer online battle arena game, Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) promotes strategy and teamwork from all team members.

In our previous MetamorphoSIS camp, we had a full camp of agents hunting for our dean who was kidnapped, bound and gagged by the scheming Crab villain. Watch out for more news about the next MetamorphoSIS camp as we bring to you a brand new theme that transcends beyond anything you have ever seen.

Let your hair down, because it’s time to loosen ‘em neckties and party! Amidst a myriad of activities like pageant, drink, mingle and dance up a storm to your heart’s content till the early light. Do you have the groove it takes?

Back to School WelfareTired of thinking of what to wear to school early in the morning? Come dressed in your school uniform as the school takes a refreshing twist back to nostalgic school uniform days. And for all you know, there may be privileges for those in uniform that day!

Halloween EventCome prepared as the school is transformed to a Halloween theme. Come trick or treating or even dress up as your favorite Halloween character and spice up the school!

SIS Day 2014Our SIS annual birthday celebration, look forward to a fun filled events filled with award presentations to our favorite Professors, as well as great food and performances.

JANUARY - APRIL

AUGUST - DECEMBER

“Wanna do cool things with the best computer in the world? Join Macness” Macness strives to create a community of Mac enthusiasts who are interested in using the power of the Mac to achieving greater productivity with the best computer in the world.

Like-minded people seeking to explore and maximise the potential of your Mac products, seek no further than Macness, the essential club in SMU to be actively engaged in the de-velopment and learning of the full benefits a Mac has to offer in your daily life.

From workshops and seminars ranging from the Macness Configuration Session to iOS De-velopment Workshop, Macness cater to all level of Mac proficiency. Even if you are a new Mac user seeking to simply leverage on some of the applications a Mac has to offer, be prepared to be amazed by the Keynote and Parallels Desktop 7 Workshop held by Macness as they guide Mac users on how to improve their way to work using the great apps and software made available. All you need is a love for Mac.

With a burgeoning number of Mac users in SMU, Macness has also established itself as a place where every Mac user goes to for troubleshooting problems. With a fun and vi-brant environment for learning, coupled with its technical expertise, Macness aims to enrich the student’s SMU life.

For those who are not inclined towards the technical aspect of Macness, worry not for this group caters to those also in-terested in its publicity and marketing programs. As Mac-ness also participates in product launches, you could very well be the first to review and talk about new iOS and Mac products.

Freshmen joining our SIS community, when faced with the choice of choosing a platform for your SIS journey ahead, think of Mac and iOS, visualize what it can do for you and the guaranteed support you can receive from Macness.

Do check out Macness’s website at smumacness.com/ or Facebook page at facebook.com/smumacness to find out more.

MetamorphoSIS’14

GLOW ’14

30

2014 Event Timeline

DOTA 2 TournamentSchool of Information Systems is not just about Studying In School or Sleeping In School, we want our school mates to have fun too! Building on the success of last year’s Aftershock Counter-Strike Championship, SISS is looking to build upon the success and introduce DOTA 2 this year, with the rising popularity of the number one multiplayer online battle arena game, Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) promotes strategy and teamwork from all team members.

In our previous MetamorphoSIS camp, we had a full camp of agents hunting for our dean who was kidnapped, bound and gagged by the scheming Crab villain. Watch out for more news about the next MetamorphoSIS camp as we bring to you a brand new theme that transcends beyond anything you have ever seen.

Let your hair down, because it’s time to loosen ‘em neckties and party! Amidst a myriad of activities like pageant, drink, mingle and dance up a storm to your heart’s content till the early light. Do you have the groove it takes?

Back to School WelfareTired of thinking of what to wear to school early in the morning? Come dressed in your school uniform as the school takes a refreshing twist back to nostalgic school uniform days. And for all you know, there may be privileges for those in uniform that day!

Halloween EventCome prepared as the school is transformed to a Halloween theme. Come trick or treating or even dress up as your favorite Halloween character and spice up the school!

SIS Day 2014Our SIS annual birthday celebration, look forward to a fun filled events filled with award presentations to our favorite Professors, as well as great food and performances.

JANUARY - APRIL

AUGUST - DECEMBER

MetamorphoSIS’14

GLOW ’14

30

P R I S MF R E S H M E N E D I T I O N