Page 60 - Scholarship Guide Feb 2020

58 SCHOLAR’S PROFILE

The Diverse World

Of Computer
The main reason why I wished to study
overseas as a Computer Science student is the
buzzword: “exposure”. I meant this in the sense
of wanting to experience diverse places and
cultures. To me, the environment contributes
Science for a Computer Science degree. I also believe
greatly to the university experience, even
that the prime time to experience more of
the world is during one’s youth. Being able
to study while exploring more of the world
allows me to achieve these “life goals” of
URA SCHOLAR, WILSON CHUA SETS TO mine.

ACHIEVE DIGITAL FLUENCY AND GLOBAL Another reason was that Imperial College
London’s computing course is pretty unique!
EXPOSURE AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE The fi rst programming language taught
is Haskell, a truly fascinating functional
LONDON programming language that is usually more fun
to think about than to code in. To engineering
geeks like myself, the most attractive part of
the course was its comprehensive exposure
to practical aspects of computing, which I
prefer to a more theoretical focus. It seemed
to be a perfect place to improve my technical
programming ability.

Hence, I researched online for scholarships
that might help me achieve my aspiration
to get into the Imperial College London.
With the enormous demand for “technology
talent”, there are many organisations offering
Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) related scholarships. However, having
done Geographic Information System (GIS)
work previously, I had an inclination for
spatial data analysis. This naturally led me
to the Urban Redevelopment Authority
(URA) Scholarship. For the more data science-
oriented people, there is an increasing demand
in URA for expertise in this fi eld of work, i.e.
analysing data sets to drive planning decisions.
URA is highly supportive of me honing my
skills based on my own interests. When I
asked my senior in URA about what courses
I should take in relation to my future work at
URA, the reply was that I should choose what
I am passionate about. While this might seem
vague, the wisdom behind this is that the
fi eld of computing is highly volatile. You will
never know which fi eld might be storming the
industry next. It might be that your interest
in robotics or video game development
suddenly becomes hugely relevant and gives
you the edge in a trending fi eld. With that, I
am personally looking to explore and expand
my knowledge base. Being able to take on