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Problem-solver

MR JACKSON Oh considers himself a doer and has found the right job to keep him busy. An executive engineer with the Fare System Division of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), he was involved in the system design for the Symphony for e-Payments (SeP) project which supports the new Contactless ePurse Application (Cepas) cards for travel, retail and other services.

"With the on-going card mass replacement, it feels great to witness the public making use of the upgraded fare systems," he says, adding that his division's hard work to ensure a smooth transition was not in vain.

The 27-year-old is now working on a bigger project. Acquired by LTA-subsidiary MSI Global, the project involves developing an automatic fare collection system for the Dublin Railway Procurement Agency.

He says: "I lead a small development team which collects client requirements and analyses them. Then, we will design a back-end system software. This will integrate the buses and rails of outer Dublin mainline in-terstate with inner Dublin trams."

Mr Oh graduated with a Bachelor of Computing in Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore three years ago.

He received good grounding in mathematics, science and essential training to become a "systematic problem-solver", which has proved to be handy at his workplace, he says.

"I go by the philosophy that everything can be solved," Mr Oh says. "I prefer to break big problems into smaller bits to solve them one at a time, especially those that I understand.

"If I can’t achieve a 99 per cent success rate, at least 85 per cent is good."

He began tackling problems during his days at Anderson Secondary School where he participated in the National Police Cadet Corp (NPCC). He received the highest rank of station inspector and also clinched the SPF-NPCC national award. He says that it trained him to be a doer and to get things done right away when faced with a problem.

The need to be in the buzz of activity was why he opted for a scholarship and a career with the LTA.

He explains: "I looked at the various scholarships offered by the statutory boards requiring professional expertise to get things going. I also wanted to see concrete things happening, like being responsible for new buildings or laying new rails."

Upon graduating, Mr Oh started serving his four-year bond with the LTA as a systems engineer. He was roped into the ongoing Cepas project and tasked to inspect the quality of newly manufactured cards. He then moved on to understanding card standards and did back-end programming for a year.

"I enjoyed that experience as it was my core expertise. I am satisfied with the work in LTA because I got to practise what I learnt," he says.

After two years, he was promoted to executive engineer and is now keen to look at new processes. In particular, he finds the Dublin project a great opportunity to excel in.

Next on his agenda, further studies and exploring new technologies used in transit-related services. "This could be in the field of smart cards, communications or green technologies," he says.

His motivation comes from seeing how beneficial and convenient his work has made the lives of others.

"LTA is for the common good of the people living or working here, and making a positive difference to their lives gives me additional job satisfaction," Mr Oh says.

Away from work, he enjoys playing the harmonica, an interest he developed during his primary school years.

He is an alumni performer with the NUS Harmonica Orchestra, which he helped pioneer during his university days. He rehearses every week with the group and is now preparing for a concert in March.