Chitchat The interesting story of A*Star - after 17 years

[scroobal]

Can you remember how we were going into biomedical and bioscience in major way and be a major hub. Billions went into it - new buildings, Biopolis, Fusionopolis, millions of dollars in overseas scholarships granted to Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans all the way to PHD, sent to the best Universities around the world. Hordes of eminent and not so eminent scientists, researchers etc including giving jobs for their spouses to attract them here. Contracts awarded without tenders being called etc.

17 years have passed, thousands of research papers published, thousands of patents filed, and what have wee shown for it?

If you go to their website and check their milestone and except for the A*Star creation and the Genome Lab formation, there is nothing to report.

The only achievement that I can think of is Philip Yeo's son doing his post grad work with Nobel Laurette Sydney Brenner. And Tony Tan's son having a place to enjoy his hobby and look important.

So what's plan B? Will cover that in next post.

 

[winnipegjets]

Can you remember how we were going into biomedical and bioscience in major way and be a major hub. Billions went into it - new buildings, Biopolis, Fusionopolis, millions of dollars in overseas scholarships granted to Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans all the way to PHD, sent to the best Universities around the world. Hordes of eminent and not so eminent scientists, researchers etc including giving jobs for their spouses to attract them here. Contracts awarded without tenders being called etc.

17 years have passed, thousands of research papers published, thousands of patents filed, and what have wee shown for it?

If you go to their website and check their milestone and except for the A*Star creation and the Genome Lab formation, there is nothing to report.

The only achievement that I can think of is Philip Yeo's son doing his post grad work with Nobel Laurette Sydney Brenner. And Tony Tan's son having a place to enjoy his hobby and look important.

So what's plan B? Will cover that in next post.

Not many of those scholarships went to sinkees ...at least 80 percent went to foreigners - Ah Tiongs, Ah Nehs and Mudlanders. The PAP can hide this fact because after their bachelors, the foreigners are required to become sinkeporeans to continue on with the scholarships. So, the statistics will show that the scholarships went to the sinkees.

 

[shittypore]

Not many of those scholarships went to sinkees ...at least 80 percent went to foreigners - Ah Tiongs, Ah Nehs and Mudlanders. The PAP can hide this fact because after their bachelors, the foreigners are required to become sinkeporeans to continue on with the scholarships. So, the statistics will show that the scholarships went to the sinkees.

We had a Sinkie who walk naked in HV to prove shes frm A Star, u ref to her?

 

[scroobal]

Take the case of this A*Star employee and see her write-up. She calls herself as serial entrepreneur. You can do online research on her claims. She is from Johor, went to Canada to study and then joined A*Star. She is now a citizen. Why are we seeding funds for things that do not bring any benefit to Singapore.



Dr Sidney Yee
Executive Vice President
Incubation and Startup Management Division

Sidney, a trained chemist and research scholar, is currently CEO for the Diagnostics Development Hub and Executive Vice President at ETPL. She works with her team to productise innovative diagnostic technologies at DxD Hub and leads the Incubation and Start-up Management team at ETPL to advise and support startup activities.

She is a serial entrepreneur, who had led and co-led fund-raising activities for biotech startups such as Vanda Pharma and Paradigm Therapeutics, which exited through IPO and acquisition. She is also a member of SPRING Singapore’s Network of MedTech Advisors, a member on the Creativity and Innovation Consultative Panel of Malaysia Productivity Corporation as well as a non-executive board member of INEX Innovations Exchange Pte Ltd, FENIX Pte Ltd, and Mediven Sdn Bhd .

 

[lifeafter41]

Can you remember how we were going into biomedical and bioscience in major way and be a major hub. Billions went into it - new buildings, Biopolis, Fusionopolis, millions of dollars in overseas scholarships granted to Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans all the way to PHD, sent to the best Universities around the world. Hordes of eminent and not so eminent scientists, researchers etc including giving jobs for their spouses to attract them here. Contracts awarded without tenders being called etc.

17 years have passed, thousands of research papers published, thousands of patents filed, and what have wee shown for it?

If you go to their website and check their milestone and except for the A*Star creation and the Genome Lab formation, there is nothing to report.

The only achievement that I can think of is Philip Yeo's son doing his post grad work with Nobel Laurette Sydney Brenner. And Tony Tan's son having a place to enjoy his hobby and look important.

So what's plan B? Will cover that in next post.

The whole place is infested with PRC.......

 

[winchester88]

Those lanjiao PRC professors never wash their hands after visiting the toilet...
Most of them basically just do nothing and keep hiring their own people....

 

[blissquek]

Can you remember how we were going into biomedical and bioscience in major way and be a major hub. Billions went into it - new buildings, Biopolis, Fusionopolis, millions of dollars in overseas scholarships granted to Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans all the way to PHD, sent to the best Universities around the world. Hordes of eminent and not so eminent scientists, researchers etc including giving jobs for their spouses to attract them here. Contracts awarded without tenders being called etc.

17 years have passed, thousands of research papers published, thousands of patents filed, and what have wee shown for it?

If you go to their website and check their milestone and except for the A*Star creation and the Genome Lab formation, there is nothing to report.

The only achievement that I can think of is Philip Yeo's son doing his post grad work with Nobel Laurette Sydney Brenner. And Tony Tan's son having a place to enjoy his hobby and look important.

So what's plan B? Will cover that in next post.

We have a scholar who had a spat with Philip Yeo some 10 years back..

Read his cv...very impressive 12 pages with lots of awards and publications but given very low profile because he is not on the same page with the MIW.. He is Jiahao Chen.

He is on Dean"s list every semesters and sadly we lose a true blooded Singaporean to another country.

Wonder if Philip will kowtow and ask him to return.?

 

[scroobal]

I remember that incident. Yes, the allegations by the chap was true - we were throwing money at the US universities to take our researchers into their programme. Chen wrote that when he was doing his PHD in the very university that was lucky recipient of our tax payers money.

We have a scholar who had a spat with Philip Yeo some 10 years back..

Read his cv...very impressive 12 pages with lots of awards and publications but given very low profile because he is not on the same page with the MIW.. He is Jiahao Chen.

He is on Dean"s list every semesters and sadly we lose a true blooded Singaporean to another country.

Wonder if Philip will kowtow and ask him to return.?

 

[zhihau]

So what's plan B? Will cover that in next post.

I will save his own words for him: looks like A*Star is a criminal waste of resources!

 

[frenchbriefs]

Turns out LKY' fantasy of a tiny league of geniuses,a elite bridgade of physically and mentally endowed super humans,spearheading singapores advantage in the competition in the asean economy turns out to be a flop.turns out all they needed was whole bunch of third world cheaper better faster cheap garbage to power the economy to ever great heights.hundreds of thousands of pinoys indos banglas shitskins myanmars tiongs.

 

[zhihau]

hundreds of thousands of pinoys indos banglas shitskins myanmars tiongs.

人海战术。How to survive the tsunami? Every single one of them spit at us we'll be drowning in their saliva.

 

[halsey02]

We have a scholar who had a spat with Philip Yeo some 10 years back..

Read his cv...very impressive 12 pages with lots of awards and publications but given very low profile because he is not on the same page with the MIW.. He is Jiahao Chen.

He is on Dean"s list every semesters and sadly we lose a true blooded Singaporean to another country.

Wonder if Philip will kowtow and ask him to return.?

You dare insult Philip?, the matchmaker to the "li" "Imperial Court"...wah!...you 'got eyes, no see Tarzan"..

 

[Narong Wongwan]

If most of those ft scholars became sinkies then that's the reward.....more votes for pap

 

[Rogue Trader]

The project was truly about building a world class business park with nice fountains, fancy cafes and free Wi-Fi. Any ground breaking patents are just bonus prizes

 

[zhihau]

The project was truly about building a world class business park with nice fountains, fancy cafes and free Wi-Fi. Any ground breaking patents are just bonus prizes

Why didn't I think of that? You could be right, you know?

 

[enterprise2]

Well couple of Biotech MNCs came and setup shop here but it's the same old story like electronics. Big MNC come but no local player. Name me a Local Biotech player emerging... I don't think anyone can! Astar! It's now a joke that they become a outsource provider for the MNCs ...anything they don't like to do they throw it to Astar! So this is what our monies r spent on developing!

 

[halsey02]

Well couple of Biotech MNCs came and setup shop here but it's the same old story like electronics. Big MNC come but no local player. Name me a Local Biotech player emerging... I don't think anyone can! Astar! It's now a joke that they become a outsource provider for the MNCs ...anything they don't like to do they throw it to Astar! So this is what our monies r spent on developing!

How about highf$#$^k ?....the water treatment company...

 

[frenchbriefs]

Well couple of Biotech MNCs came and setup shop here but it's the same old story like electronics. Big MNC come but no local player. Name me a Local Biotech player emerging... I don't think anyone can! Astar! It's now a joke that they become a outsource provider for the MNCs ...anything they don't like to do they throw it to Astar! So this is what our monies r spent on developing!

any company that comes are here for the sole purpose of tax evasion and money laundering,they aint here to do any bioshit.

 

[winnipegjets]

I will save his own words for him: looks like A*Star is a criminal waste of resources!

They spend $1 million to create a naturalized sinkees, hoping this group will become loyal PAP supporters forever.

 

[scroobal]

Part 2

Making no progress in biomedical and realising the prophecy of Lee Wei Ling when she clashed with Philip Yeo over its mission resulting in her father having to make the statement, the compass arrow shifted sometime ago in a stealthy manner.

The new fad is Science and Engineeering Research. You must be wondering why the rather generic title of old. Well the title is to stop them painting themselves into a corner as Science and Engineering does not tie you down if you really do not know where you are going. But you can't change the leopard's spot, can you. So the single biggest research entity and bigger than any in biomedical field is Institute of Infocomm Research and the official title is I2R ( pronounced as I squared R). Just on this new title I suppose you can get the Nobel Prize for innovation.

Why Infocomm Research? Why not when the eldest son of PM and his wife has expressed an interest to pursue this as a career. An unlike Biomedical where the daughter of the Old Man voiced her concerns, this has huge supporters. Temasek is setting up an Office in Silicon valley. They are heavily recruiting interns and graduates and heavily advertised in US campuses holding talks. Temasek is also winding down much of its listed assets and moving funds into tech start-ups. EDB, Govt and the first couple have been regular trips to the Silicon valley in the last 4 years to entice the big boys to bite and setup shop in Singapore and also visiting the second son who is working in Silicon Valley in Dropbox.

So what exactly does the Institute of Infocomm Research (I2R) do besides having a fancy title. Well they are developing for instance the Autonomous Car which Google and Tesla and rat of other companies are trialling. A demonstration was recently held for MOT.

Here are series of questions
1.Why did Biomedical Research fail and did we do a deep dive post mortem and gather learnings.
2. Is there a need to continue the charade and see money going down the drain on a mission that is no longer tenable
3. We have hundreds of eminent scientists and leaders of academic and industry that is sitting on councils, boards and also involved in various research projects. The cost is running into millions a year. Should there not be an exit plan to cull these people who everyone knows never left their previous place of employment and in fact collaborating rather than totally involved in A*Star.
4. Should not a review paper be published and debated in Parliament as billions of dollars were pumped into biomedical science.