Ng Zi Gen Derrick

Derrick Ng

Academic Year: 2
Degree: BSc in Information Systems Management
2nd Major: ABT - Technopreneurship

Hobbies: Watching Korean variety shows and drama, computer games(mostly DotA), basketball, watching movies, reading manga, daydreaming, thinking of original ideas that nobody agrees on.

Why TSM South Korea?

I've already visited South Korea three times in my life but I am still itching to go there again. When I knew that there was a technopreneurship study mission to South Korea in year 1, I was really excited to go for it. After all, it is a combination of my interest in technopreneurship as well as South Korea. The best part about going for a South Korea Technopreneurship study mission is that there are many huge tech companies like Samsung and LG. Aside from that, many of my favourite online games I have played in the past were spurned from Korean companies like Softnyx(Gunbound), Wizet/Nexon(Maplestory) and Gravity(Ragnorak Online). It's also my dream to start a gaming and application development company of my own so the study mission seems really exciting to me. Actually, I also hope to be able to get the chance to have an exchange to America or Korea because all the most interesting(personal opinion) tech companies are from these 2 countries. So if I don't get to have an exchange to either, I hope that I can at least go for a study mission.

Internship Opportunities

I think it would be really cool to get an internship at game development companies like Nexon(they are currently investing in Dota 2!) so I wonder if there would be a chance to get to see and experience what goes on in there. Of course, internship at Samsung would be awesome as well, maybe it's even possible to be able to test out all those new products they would be developing.

Starting a business

I have a lot of dreams, ideas and goals in my life, and most of them revolves around starting businesses. In fact, I have thoughts of starting a restaurant, an amusement park, a gaming company and a design company. However, I also recognise that I probably would not be able to do so many of these things but I know that I can start small. As of now I have also found several individuals in school that are keen on a start-up with me. Although we do not have an actual plan at the moment, we do hope to be able to think of something revolutionary while in school. Through the study mission I also be able to learn something crucial about starting my own tech business.

Past Experience

I've ever interned as a Management Trainee at a company called Standard Heat Treatment Pte Ltd. Small companies like these in Tuas tend to have most of their work/documents done in a paper-based format. While I was interning there, I noticed a lot of bottlenecks and because I was getting annoyed with them and I wanted to make my own job easier, I came up with ideas to reduce those bottlenecks. I taught some of the executives and even helped them to write a simple inventory management program with the use of excel and bar code scanners. It was very beneficial for them but without enough technical knowledge, it was limited to just what excel could do. Still, they were rather impressed because it helped them a lot. This experience led me to know that even though everybody knows what technology can achieve, not everybody has the means to obtain it and that there are a more people who's jobs can be made better with technology.