Our Students - Tan Wang Leng
Post Date: 07 Jan 2019
Tan Wang Leng
School of Informatics & IT
Without a single day of tuition when he was in Punggol Secondary School, Tan Wang Leng aced his O-level examinations and scored an aggregate of 7 points. The only child of a store inspector at ST Aerospace and a homemaker, the avid computer gamer was so curious about how games are written and the programming behind it that he enrolled into TP’s Game & Entertainment Technology course (now known as Game Design & Development) through the Direct Polytechnic Admissions exercise. “I knew my interest was in IT, so there was no point in going to a JC,” says the young man who describes himself as extremely practical and logical.
In addition to the 20 distinctions, 9 A’s and the outstanding cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.94 he amassed, Wang Leng also did brilliantly in the four additional subjects he took under the Diploma Plus Programme and three online courses by Stanford University professors on Coursera. It is no wonder that he is described by his lecturers as self-driven, highly motivated, exceptionally focused and keen to learn.
At TP, he participated in countless competitions. He represented Singapore in Salt Lake City and San Diego in the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft (MS) Office, after emerging as national champion in the Microsoft Office Academic Skills Challenge in MS Excel.
In 2012, he represented TP at the WorldSkills Singapore Competition and emerged Gold Medallist in the IT Software Solutions for Business category. This has earned him a spot in Team Singapore. In July 2013, Wang Leng did Singapore and TP proud when he won the Silver medal at the international WorldSkills competition in Germany.
Having a heart for serving others, he volunteered his time with charitable organisations and the less fortunate. He improved the administrative processes at Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities and trained their staff to use Microsoft technologies more confidently; he also developed a prototype of an Inventory Management System for the St John’s Home for the Elderly. In 2011, he was part of an Overseas Community Project trip to Hainan where he helped improve the facilities of the schools they visited.
Wang Leng also co-founded and served as vice-president of the Microsoft Interest Group in TP and saw to some 500 students participating in its activities. He also co-founded the Game & Entertainment Technology Special Interest Group in 2011.
A young man with a gentle and confident demeanour, Wang Leng has an infectious smile. A reflective thinker, he enjoys puzzles and solving problems. He has the ability to remain calm and think logically under stress – a boon for competitions!
