How a graduate diploma in Systems Analysis helps this tech consultant address human problems with innovative solutions
The Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis at the Institute of Systems Science, NUS (NUS-ISS) was instrumental in helping Jane Lee realise her lifelong passion
BY BRYANT CHAN
July 7, 2021
Since she was a teenager, Ms Jane Lee, 26, was fascinated by the intersection of technology and humanity.
She says: “My dream was to design technological solutions for real people. I wanted to become an architect who synthesised the best of technology and humanity together, addressing human problems with technological solutions.”
After graduating with a diploma in business informatics from polytechnic, she went on to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology at SMU to try and reconcile her technology background with more human concerns.
“I felt a bit disconnected from humanity after studying tech for three years,” she says. “I was beginning to lose sight of the whole reason I wanted to create these solutions in the first place.” However, on graduation, she found many doors at tech companies closed to her, as she lacked a degree in a tech-related field. She found work as a data analyst, but the job lacked meaningful impact for her.
There were also incidents that strengthened her resolve to revive her dream. For example, her sister was frustrated about the difficulty of consolidating oncology research data from different hospitals and labs. This made her envision a reality in which researchers could freely share resources through a single, unified software.
She set about looking for ways to improve her qualifications, and in 2020, decided to enroll in the Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis (GDipSA) at the Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS).
This full-time one-year programme boasts a robust curriculum, offering digital solutions development in foundational techniques, design, web, mobile and machine-learning applications. Students can also explore a more flexible stackable graduate certificate programme, which comprises a series of five certificates, capstone project and internship that will stack up toward the Graduate Diploma of Systems Analysis.
“I was impressed by the course coverage – how real-world relevant they are and how the course material was continuously refreshed to keep it as up-to-date as possible,” she recalls.
“I was impressed by (GDipSA's) course coverage – how real-world relevant they are and how the course material was continuously refreshed to keep it as up-to-date as possible." – Ms Jane Lee
For instance, for Ms Lee’s intake, the faculty had chosen to compress modules on fundamental programming languages into a shorter time-frame so as to spend more time on the languages more commonly used in the software development scene.
Perhaps most crucially, the GDipSA also allowed Ms Lee to take the first step towards providing those solutions she had wanted to create for so long. Her five-month internship at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine gave her and her project partner the opportunity to create a proof-of-concept for a data collection and analysis software tool to facilitate the sharing of clinical trial data between hospitals.
Today, she is an associate application consultant at technology solutions provider NTT DATA Singapore, where she is currently migrating a fintech communication system for an international bank from a legacy system to an Amazon Web Services-based one.
“It’s a really big thing for me, working on code that I knew was going to be used by such a huge bank,” she says. “Part of me still can’t believe that my code can make a difference in people’s lives.”
Application for NUS-ISS GDipSA is now open. For more information, visit www.iss.nus.edu.sg/graduate-programmes/programme/detail/graduate-diploma-in-systems-analysis.
