Speech - Address by Ms Low Khah Gek, CEO of ITE, at the MOU Signing Ceremony Between ITE and OutSystems, on 25 March 2022, at ITE College East

Mr Tan Kiat How

Minister of State, Ministry of Communications & Information and

Ministry of National Development 

Mr Mark Weaser

Vice President, OutSystems Asia Pacific

Industry Partners and Friends from Outsystems 

ITE Colleagues and Students 

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1.         Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities began with these lines:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”  These lines aptly describe the tumultuous times we are in now. There is a pandemic that is not fully tamed yet. We have a war raging in Ukraine. We are grappling with global climate change, high inflation and risk of supply chain disruption. Yet, in the midst of all these uncertainties, we are also experiencing the power of digitalisation and AI, and the immense potential they can unleash in terms of convenience, efficiency, accessibility, inclusion, speed, accuracy and service.  

Development of Mobile and Web Apps

2.         These are exciting times. New mobile and web apps have been created and will continue to create new possibilities and new services, impacting every aspect of our lives such as the way we work, interact, play, entertain, transact, learn, socialise, shop, market, advertise and so on. It is estimated that 3,739 mobile apps are added to the Play Store every day! Last year, an estimated 218 billion app downloads occurred. The pandemic actually creates a conducive environment for app usage.

3.         Apps development is an exciting industry and job. Increasingly, the focus is on speed and ease of developing an app. OutSystems provides a low-code platform to enable agile development of apps. ITE has the pleasure of forging a partnership with OutSystems. ITE students will have access to OutSystems low-code platform to explore building mobile and web apps.  

4.         It is apt that we sign the MOU with OutSystems in this newly re-purposed facility called the Solutioning Centre. Here, students can develop apps to address real-world problems and needs.

Student-Developed Apps

5.         Some students have already started to use OutSystems low-code platform to develop apps. Today, we will see three apps which staff and students have developed with support from OutSystems. The apps are for the healthcare industry:

1. AI Heart Disease Predictor – It is an app that uses a Machine Learning algorithm that analyse tonnes of data and then predict a person’s risk of getting heart diseases.

2. Patient Monitoring Dashboard – This app presents a dashboard to provide visual analytics of patients’ behaviour.

3. Workplace & Mental Healthcare Booking App – This app examines an employee’s profile and steer him/her to book relevant healthcare programmes and services.

6.          Students said using OutSystems low-code platform has given them a deep appreciation and understanding of rapid app development possibilities. They now possess the tools and skill-sets to drastically shorten app development time and are very pleased to very quickly see the end products and can move on to user-experience testing. 

7.          These feedback from our students have given us confidence to organise a low-code apps development competition that is open to all ITE students, from any course and including those without programming knowledge. We have the pleasure of having MOS Tan Kiat How launch the “ITE-OutSystems Coding for All” challenge later this morning. In three months’ time, we can look forward to seeing your creative apps.

Conclusion

8.        On behalf of ITE, I would like to thank MOS Tan for gracing today’s event as well as OutSystems for your partnership to develop ITE students and prepare them for the exciting apps development industry. Thank you.