DSTA Academy aims to equip Engineering and Scientific Personnel (ESP) with deep professional knowledge necessary to deliver complex systems as well as raise their professional standing in Singapore.

Due to the complexity of defence capability development in Singapore as well as SAF’s unique operational requirements, our ESP must not only be technically competent in their respective professions but they also need to be good systems thinkers and systems engineering practitioners.

We review our programmes and refresh them with new and relevant teaching cases regularly. Lessons learned from projects are incorporated into case studies and shared with our students. To ensure effective learning, we are always seeking out new learning technologies, methodologies and tools to better engage our younger learners.

Academy also promotes a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing. Experienced staff from Academy’s Information Resources Centre (IRC) and Faculty Heads curate useful resources from the web for our lecturers to use and source for external courses to help them improve their lecturing skills and effectiveness in engaging their students.

Tan Yang How
President DSTA Academy

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• Design and deliver Milestone and Specialised courses for engineering staff in the defence technology community

• Provide course participants with an immersive environment to learn project management and systems engineering

• Develop project case studies as part of systematic knowledge management for the purpose of learning and education

• Publish DSTA Horizons, a repository of DSTA’s diverse expertise in technology and innovative engineering work done

• Provide relevant print and electronic information resources that staff can access conveniently and support research

Faculty Head Zee Sow Wai

“I have learnt many new concepts, adult learning theories, facilitation techniques and design of courses; and believe that using real case studies makes the training relevant, current and practical.”

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Head Course Development Leonard Chia

“To make lessons more engaging and effective, we leverage game-based learning approaches and engage participants in the co-creation of their learning experience.”

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Head Course Development Goh Yong Han

“Beyond simply imparting knowledge, we focus on honing the skills of the learners and developing their competencies.”

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Head Course Development Kwok Yoong Fui

“We help young engineers gain a foothold in the foundations of Systems Engineering and project management as they embark on their journey to achieve technical competency.”

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Head Course Development Edward Pang

“We work very closely with course participants and lecturers to facilitate good class engagement and effective learning outcomes.”

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Head Course Development Telly Poh

“We inculcate a learning mindset in our course participants to enable them to always be prepared for the future.”

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DSTA Academy’s courses are practice-oriented and customised for MINDEF/SAF/DSTA. These include:

Milestone Courses

The milestone courses aim to transfer the unique knowledge and experiences accumulated from decades of delivering technological solutions to the SAF. They provide training for the engineering and scientific professionals as they progress in their careers.

There are three milestone courses: Basic Systems Engineering & Management (BSEM) Course, Intermediate Systems Engineering & Management (ISEM) Course, and the Advanced Systems Engineering & Management (ASEM) Course. Together, these courses build up core competencies in project management and systems engineering practice for capability development and systems delivery.

Specialised Courses

The specialised courses, such as Analytic Hierarchy Process, Integrated Logistics Support and System Safety, Combat Systems Integration, and Systems Architecting, are short courses that cover more comprehensively and provide hands-on skills training for specialised systems engineering topics.

DSTA Academy also supports DSTA management in the curation and conduct of workshops as part of continuous learning at the executive level, such as Senior Programme Managers, Head Capability Development and Head Engineering. These workshops not only keep the participants updated on technological and organisational development, they also engender collaboration across domains for effective capability conceptualisation and programme deliveries.

Courses for Military Domain Experts Scheme (MDES) Officers

DSTA Academy has been entrusted to conduct Route of Advancement courses for MDES officers to acquire requisite systems engineering and project management competencies. The courses are conducted in conjunction with Academy’s milestone courses and aim to prepare the MDES engineers for higher appointments as they progress in their professional careers in the SAF.

Joint Certification Programme in Procurement Management

In collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, DSTA established a joint certification programme in procurement management for the Public Service with the Singapore University of Social Sciences. The programme aims to leverage DSTA’s procurement expertise to raise the capabilities of procurement professionals in the Public Service by deepening their knowledge across various procurement domains. In the first three runs, about 450 officers from 66 ministries and government agencies attended the programme.

DSTA Lunchtime Tech Talk series

The Lunchtime Tech Talk series, launched in 2018, is another platform to encourage staff to share their knowledge with others in the organisation. Some of the subject areas covered include blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, behavioural science, data lake, 5G communications, underground space development, smart nation and maritime security.

DSTA Horizons

First published in April 2005, DSTA Horizons is our effort to share DSTA’s innovative engineering work and lessons learnt with the larger defence and technology communities. It also serves as a repository for our diverse expertise and knowledge in various fields of technology.

The DSTA Information Resource Centre (IRC) is an integral part of DSTA Academy. IRC adopts a three-pronged approach to support DSTA management and staff:

1. Build a Relevant Collection.  To enable staff’s search for information, IRC works with technical domain leads to create an up-to-date collection of information resources that goes beyond books, periodicals, and databases – to include standards, MOOCs and DSTA authors and their publications.

2. Enhance Access to Information Resources.  Building a collection is only half the battle won – to extend the collection’s reach, IRC goes beyond the traditional library outreach activities to make the collection more accessible via the use of taxonomies, integrated IT systems, and an upcoming open concept library.

3. Technology Watch and Research Support.  To expand staff’s research, IRC builds upon our librarians’ reference training to leverage on information resource subscriptions and horizon scanning tools to aggregate news and highlight possible trends. 

The DSTA Lecture Series serves as a platform for eminent international and local speakers, as well as technology leaders to share their thoughts and experiences on leadership, innovation, organisation change management and technology adoption.

Towards Robust Artificial Intelligence At a DSTA Lecture, Dr David Cox, Director of the MIT-IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence Lab, shared how the world is moving towards a new era of robust and verifiable AI models. READ MORE	The Importance of Play Dr John Maxwell Cohn, IBM Fellow in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Research Group, shared his perspective about how innovation, fun and passion could go hand in hand in the workplace. READ MORE	Keeping Peace with AI Mr Amir Husain, founder and Chief Executive Officer of SparkCognition, spoke about how advances in artificial intelligence would transform defence and fuel hyperwar. READ MORE
Managing Info Overload Dr Vivian Chan, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sparrho, elaborated on how the use of a content engine could help resolve the information overload epidemic. READ MORE	Going Beyond in the Final Frontier Dr Christer Fuglesang, Sweden's only astronaut, shared about his astronomical career. READ MORE	Alternative Blockchain Technology Professor Silvio Micali, Ford professor of Engineering from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shared his expertise in blockchain. READ MORE