"Congratulations!"

The barrage of well-wishes was a joke, Ong Sim Goh thought. She figured that it was just the typical teasing of her friends.

But it was no joke. She had beaten 40 students around the world to clinch the second prize in the prestigious EDPA Student Exhibit Design Competition 2001/2002.

Whispered the excited Ong Sim Goh, a 2002 TP graduate (Diploma in Interior & Architectural Design), "I really didn't expect to win!"

The Exhibit Designers and Producers Association (EDPA) hosts an annual competition in which participants were required to come up with exhibit concepts based on a bogus theme set by the association. For the competition in 2001/2002, student entrants were to design an interactive exhibit to introduce a new make-believe company, ROBOT-Z, to the media, which happens to be the investors, among others.

After EDPA received the entries, well-known judges would then convened to decide on the winners.

For Sim Goh, what was perhaps the most difficult part of the competition was coming up with a concept which attempted to bridge technologically advanced robotics with DNA. (see video clip )

Sim Goh introducing her work at the award-presentation ceremony: A journey from the reception area of fictitious company, ROBOT-Z, to beyond.

"I had to translate the language of science into design! I struggled somewhat with the gaps in-between translations."

Indeed it had been difficult. Her lecturers, Rachna and Aida, from her Interior & Architectural Design course, helped by compiling her powerpoint slides and burning the graphics onto CD-ROMs.

Said Rachna: "She has good skills in drawing. She is also very committed and hardworking." Sim Goh had earlier spent much of her time researching and conceptualising a possible link between robotics and DNA. Once that hurdle was overcome, the rest became smooth-sailing. For her efforts, she won second prize and $3,000 worth of scholarship.

If that was not good enough, her work was showcased alongside four other winners, at US-based "Exhibition Show 2002" in March this year.

This is an enormous achievement indeed for a young lady who started out with no inkling of a win, just her talents as a tool.

*Pictures & video clip courtesy of Sim Goh and lecturers, Rachna and Aida