Tan Wee Joe, alumnus of Victoria School, was awarded the Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal, Dell Technologies Gold Medal and the Institution of Engineers Gold Medal in May 2023.

• Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal
• Dell Technologies Gold Medal
• Institution of Engineers Gold Medal

Since young, Wee Joe’s inquisitive nature saw him dismantling household items to understand their functions and operations. His father, an engineer, would further pique his interest with simple electronics to tinker with.

He decided to pursue his passion by enrolling in Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) Diploma in Computer Engineering, where his abilities and skills shone through as he led his teammates and represented SP at various international and regional competitions. He led his team to clinch the Special Prize for 13^th NAPROCK Programming Contest 2021 and also participated in the WorldSkills Singapore 2021, even though these two competitions shared concurrent deadlines and were demanding of his time, on top of which he had to still meet his ongoing coursework requirements. During his 22-week internship at the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT), Wee Joe proved his mettle by not only completing a full-stack software engineering project using React Typescript, Java Spring Boot and MongoDB, but also delivering a research paper on how gamification and interactive components could be used to promote product adoption in a work setting. Pleased with his performance, his CSIT supervisor commented: “Wee Joe is a capable and self-directed learner who demonstrated resourcefulness in doing research for his literature review. He referenced dependable sources to identify and apply relevant frameworks and methodologies for his work. These also helped built up our knowledge bases on this topic. Wee Joe carries himself well and does his work professionally. He communicates his ideas clearly and follows up on tasks diligently, whilst asking questions to better clarify his understanding of the project’s requirements. In conclusion, Wee Joe has done exceptionally well for his internship. If an opportunity arises in future, I look forward to working with him again.” The challenge of having to think outside the box to come up with innovative solutions and the opportunity of being given the autonomy to plan, recommend and implement his solutions during the 22-week stint helped him to grow into a more confident, self-directed and creative engineering student, besides shaping his current aspirations and reinforcing his interest in software engineering. He also learnt the value of perseverance and was quick to tackle any obstacle he faced.

An all‐rounder, Wee Joe excelled outside the classroom, contributing actively to his school.  Wearing different leadership hats - as Co-Vice President of the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES)-SP Student Chapter, and serving on the SP Outstanding Talent (SPOT) Management Committee and EEE Student Ambassadors Committee - he actively planned many student-organised events to promote engineering and sustainability, and nurture student talent.  

Mindful of his peers who were struggling in their studies, he served as the chairperson of the school’s Peer Tutoring Clinic in 2021 and helped organise tutoring sessions and manage peer tutors. On his watch, his team successfully contributed towards lowering the attrition rate amongst students repeating their modules. For his outstanding contributions to EEE, he received the SP Excellence Award in 2022 and 2023.

Wee Joe has a passion in giving back to the community. The Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal recipient volunteers his time at Engineering Good (EG), interacting with persons with disabilities (PwDs) to address their problems. For example, as children with autism required constant monitoring by their caretakers, Wee Joe worked with his counterparts at EG to devise a portable tracker which enabled their movements to be tracked through a mobile application.

Recognizing the potential of using the Arduino ecosystem to nurture an interest in engineering and coding, and wanting to give secondary students the opportunity to develop their skills and pursue their interests, Wee Joe was also instrumental in organising a student-led Arduino workshop for secondary school students, ensuring that the programme was accessible and engaging for all participants. In 2020, at the start of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he co-founded a start-up, PixelPro Studios, to provide free photography and videography services to small businesses who were struggling and uncertain how to market themselves online amid the pandemic.  The start-up’s creative portfolio subsequently gained online recognition and resulted in it acquiring paid projects from other organisations.

The soft-spoken and humble leader intends to further his studies in computer science at a university. He shares that he is never satisfied with simply following the status quo and hopes to push the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to creating something truly remarkable. When asked what kinds of projects he would like to contribute to in the future, Wee Joe said, “I would like to work on products which are accessible to any user even if they have visual disabilities or are unable to type. I want to be able to help people in terms of improving their standard of living and making their lives easier.”