Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA)

DSTA is a statutory board created under the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) in 2000. Its role in defending Singapore is to “harness and exploit Science and Technology” in order to help their biggest partner, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), meet the national security needs of Singapore. In order to provide the required technological and engineering support, DSTA’s 3000 employees have the responsibility of designing, developing, acquiring and integrating various operations together and also maintain the weapon systems of the SAF over their operational lifespan. With a focus on innovation and inspiring engineers, DSTA embodies the values of “Integrity, Professionalism, Excellence, Respect and Teamwork".

Enterprise IT

DSTA is organised into many different programme centers, each specialising in a different sector. For our internship, we were attached to the Enterprise IT programme centre. Their aim is to make use of information technology in novel and creative ways in order to not only benefit MINDEF and the SAF but also improve the National Service (NS) experience. With its users in mind, they build analytics models and go through the entire process of ideation, development and maintenance of integrated IT solutions across a myriad of uses. For our attachment, we were a part of DSTA’s Young Defence Scientists Programme which aims to expose students to the world of Science and Technology. Through “challenging and meaningful projects” as well as their camps and activities, its aim is to fuel students’ passions for Science and Technology while helping them apply their knowledge to real-life challenges.