Life at HTX: Meet young officers thriving in science and AI

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From insect robots that navigate the chaos of a catastrophe to synthetic intelligence methods that perceive the nuances of on a regular basis speech, the applied sciences that HTX advances are something however bizarre.

The Home Team Science and Technology Agency brings collectively individuals from numerous disciplines to construct instruments that Home Team officers rely upon, utilizing science, engineering and the most recent applied sciences.

Both HTX staff profiled listed below are beneath the age of 30, however have been entrusted with tasks that assist improve public security and front-line operations.

They say it’s the work atmosphere at HTX that empowers them: mentorship and coaching that speed up private and skilled progress, the liberty to experiment and, most of all, the possibility to contribute to a bigger mission.

Those qualities have helped make HTX one of Singapore’s best employers, in an inventory compiled by global research firm Statista in collaboration with The Straits Times.

Ms Aw Rui Huan has at all times harboured a deep-seated worry of cockroaches. Yet, for 4 years, she set these fears apart to work on a challenge that put her in proximity with Madagascar hissing cockroaches – every about 6cm lengthy.

The challenge concerned becoming these bugs with circuitry and sensors to allow them to scuttle via catastrophe zones in search of survivors. Electrical alerts despatched to the cockroach’s neuromuscular system direct its motion, and cameras and sensors collect data processed by a machine-learning algorithm to find out if there are indicators of life.

“When I was first told about the project in 2021, I thought I would be working with a robot that was made to look like a cockroach,” says the 28-year-old engineer.

But Ms Aw didn’t let her phobia overcome her.

“When you know that the purpose of this project is search and rescue, you try to focus on the goal at hand. So, I had to keep telling myself that the project was not as scary as I thought, that it would be very useful in the future,” she says.

Being conscious of the mission and affect of each challenge at HTX is what drives its improvement groups.

Ms Aw works at the Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems Centre of Expertise, the staff behind improvements similar to teleoperated humanoids that may carry out hazardous duties, and airport patrol robotic Gibson, which is being trialled at Changi Airport Terminal 4.

Across these tasks, staff are challenged to consider how they’ll make the world a safer place utilizing the most recent applied sciences.

The insect-hybrid robotic that Ms Aw was engaged on was deployed in earthquake-hit Myanmar in 2025 to seek for survivors, reaching tight areas that rescuers and bigger machines could not be capable to entry.

While the staff encountered technical challenges on website, they pushed via and took away helpful insights for future deployments.

“As a team, we all understood the challenge and encouraged one another not to give up,” she says.

Following the Myanmar operation, they continued for months in a steady cycle of trial and refinement primarily based on operational suggestions, till they discovered a wi-fi know-how that labored higher.

Mentorship and autonomy are additionally key drivers of innovation at HTX.

As a part of HTX’s Associate Programme, Ms Aw was mentored by her deputy director on a self-conceptualised Greenfield Project, a key requirement of the programme.

She designed an automation system for the Central Narcotics Bureau to interchange the labour-intensive exhibit photo-taking process, the place officers would manually {photograph} tons of of proof objects for as much as 15 hours at a stretch.

Guidance from her deputy director apart, she led the challenge and steadily dealt with numerous technical duties. “I had the opportunity to take ownership of the innovation process,” she says.

Ms Aw is now engaged on an embodied AI cell manipulator, the place she integrates multimodal methods right into a robotic so it will probably reply to pure language instructions, determine objects with out prior coaching and execute complicated duties.

This might help operations similar to police patrols, the place officers might have a robotic to evaluate a scene rapidly and determine doubtlessly harmful objects.

“I find it fulfilling to know that my engineering skills will contribute directly to public safety,” she says. “This aligns with my personal goal to use my technical skills for meaningful work.”

What units HTX other than different science and tech companies, in Ms Aw’s view, is the company’s willingness to embrace uncertainty and failure as a part of the method.

“If we realise that the path that we are taking may not be the best, we take it as lessons learnt and move ahead in seeking better solutions,” she says.

That mindset is mirrored in HTX’s Undaunted Award, which recognises officers who take a look at new concepts even when they don’t succeed.

Ms Aw, who’s heartened by such incentives, provides: “We are still recognised for our effort and courage to even try.”

Mr Clarence Teo, 27, by no means anticipated that having a linguistics diploma would lead him to affix the sphere of engineering. But at HTX, that specialised talent turned out to be precisely what was wanted.

As an engineer in the Language AI Development staff beneath HTX’s AI R&D xData group, Mr Teo works with colleagues from completely different disciplines to assist machines perceive Singaporean lingo.

“We build language AI capabilities that can understand and speak in Singapore’s colloquial languages,” he says. “This is necessary because everyday speech in Singapore is layered with accents, dialects such as Hokkien and Teochew, and informal expressions.”

The AI agent is already being utilized by a number of groups throughout the Home Team, together with in instruments that help police work, similar to transcribing interviews and different spoken interactions for police information.

“We have different registers of Singapore English,” says Mr Teo. “Sometimes, the police officers use a lower register – a more colloquial form of the way we speak. And there are insertions of dialect words into their sentences.”

In front-line settings, capturing speech precisely can cut back miscommunication and give officers clearer data to reply successfully.

Mr Teo can also be engaged on a group engagement robotic that may detect its viewers’s age and play applicable crime prevention movies, as an example. It could also be deployed at all police headquarters throughout Singapore.

At college, Mr Teo specialised in computational linguistics, specializing in how language will be modelled via laptop science. He had meant to pursue postgraduate research, however an internship at HTX modified his thoughts.

“They needed someone with linguistic expertise to help solve language problems in an engineering-dominated environment,” he recollects. “That drew me in. I was always interested in using my skills on projects that went beyond the classroom or laboratory, where I could see real use cases in action.”

To strengthen his specialist data in generative speech applied sciences, Mr Teo has taken sponsored programs in deep studying and AI deployment. He additionally signed up for HTX’s a number of studying paths, which embrace free Udemy programs and common engagement with trade specialists, similar to Google builders.

“The training programmes in HTX are quite comprehensive,” he says. “They allow me to continuously upskill myself throughout my time here.”

Being concerned in main HTX occasions is one other means Mr Teo has enriched himself. As a part of the organising committee for the upcoming Milipol TechX Summit (MTX) 2026, a conference that gathers international trade specialists and thought leaders to alternate concepts on public security, he leads the developer zone that includes improvements from throughout HTX.

MTX might be held at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre from Apr 28 to 30. The expertise has given him a broader view of how completely different groups apply AI to operational wants.

Mr Teo has additionally benefited from abroad work journeys. In 2025, he attended Interspeech in Rotterdam, one of many world’s main conferences in speech know-how.

“It was unreal to be there in person,” he says. “I was learning from and exchanging ideas with researchers behind the papers I used to read in university.”

Apart from the area to develop professionally, Mr Teo values the sense of connection at HTX. He has bonded with colleagues via company-wide actions similar to film screenings, in addition to via Communities of Interest, self-initiated teams that convey collectively employees from throughout divisions over shared hobbies.

He and a colleague not too long ago began a Coffee Community of Interest for fellow fans.

“What I appreciate is that people here genuinely make time to connect, whether it is through organised activities or something as simple as having a coffee together,” he provides.