Pictured from left to right are A/Prof Ivan Lee, Vice President (Industry & Community), SIT, Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President, SIT, Dr K. Iwasaki, President, Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd, Mr K. Orihara, Managing Director, Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd
A Collaboration Agreement (CA) signed today between Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Japanese engineering consulting firm Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd, will see undergraduates from the university’s Engineering degree programme benefit from an applied learning platform and early industry exposure, through the establishment of an Industry Lab (i-Lab).
Leveraging the Soil and Rock Laboratory situated at Kiso-Jiban Singapore’s Kallang Pudding Road premises, the i-Lab will support SIT’s teaching and research in soil investigation, geotechnical instrumentation and laboratory testing. The lab is equipped with advanced automatic testing apparatuses to perform various types of soil and rock tests.
Now established in over 60 countries, Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd are especially well-known for its comprehensive capabilities in the field of geotechnical engineering, which encompasses subsurface investigation, soil and rock mechanics, engineering geology, foundation analysis and design and groundwater management.
"Soil Investigation and Geotechnical Instrumentation are key to all infrastructure and building works. The exposure to Kiso-Jiban’s expertise and resources will be very handy in helping our students have a strong grasp of these disciplines. This tight nexus with our curriculum and the industry will allow SIT to produce highly-skilled Civil Engineers who will be valued by the industry,” said Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President, SIT.
Kiso-Jiban’s President Dr. Iwasaki mentioned that Kiso-Jiban is excited to have this collaboration with SIT and hopes to contribute to nurturing excellent geotechnical engineers in Singapore.
The CA was signed at a Civil Engineering Technical Seminar, ‘Recent Developments in Geotechnical Site Investigation’ on 21 February 2017, jointly organised by SIT and Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd, to provide engineers with an appreciation and awareness of recent developments in site investigation in soil and rock.
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) is Singapore’s autonomous university of applied learning. It aims to be a leader in innovative university education by integrating learning, industry and community as part of its unique pedagogy. Partnering world-class universities, SIT offers applied degree programmes targeted at growth sectors of the economy. SIT also aims to cultivate in its students four distinctive traits, or the SIT-DNA, which will prepare them to be ‘thinking tinkerers’, who are ‘able to learn, unlearn and relearn’, be ‘catalysts for transformation’ and finally, become ‘grounded in the community’.