A school library overhaul enabled by cybersecurity, analytics and digital twin software. This might sound like a job for the professionals, but it might surprise you to know that it’s none other than students themselves who are at the helm of the transformation.
The reason why this exciting initiative is possible: a partnership between Beatty Secondary School and Rockwell Automation. Through a mentorship programme that ran from May 2024 to January 2025, 15 Secondary 3 students were paired with seven mentors from Rockwell Automation. Every fortnight, the students and mentors met to work on school-based challenges.
For a start, the students chose from one of three projects based on their interests. One group opted to utilise three digital twin software to optimise the library’s layout, analyse borrowing patterns and create a book location system. Another group looked into automating the borrowing system and ensuring that information is secure in the process, picking up technical tools such as encryption and hashing. Meanwhile, the third group delved into sustainability and waste management technology.
Learning about the real world
The projects may seem to plunge students into an industrial field they are yet far from entering – but that is precisely the intention. After all, the school’s Applied Learning Programme (ALP) in STEM seeks to expose students to real-world technology applications on top of coding and basic computing know-how. This helps to get them ready for the future of the working world.
As Mr Tay Boon Leong, the Subject Head of Student Innovation at Beatty Secondary explains, students need to recognise the applicability of what they learn in school. “In fact, they have to know that what school teaches you is not enough. You have to go out to see the real world and its demands.”
That’s where Rockwell Automation’s mentors came in, providing valuable expertise, guiding students on how to use the necessary software, and demystifying topics that seemed alien to students – in short, acting as a bridge to connect the academic knowledge and skills that students have learnt with real-world applications. “Rockwell Automation helped open students’ eyes to how exciting this area could be – that there’s really relevance to what they are learning in the ALP,” explains Mdm Low Beng Hong, Beatty Secondary’s Subject Head of Character and Citizenship Education (CCE).
Even the teachers have benefited from this partnership, says Mdm Low. Not only did being involved in the programme expose her to new STEM concepts, it also led her to brush up on her engineering knowledge by doing a work attachment at Science Centre Singapore. Such new insights into the industrial world funnel back into teaching that keeps pulse of our dynamic world.
A journey of personal growth for everyone
While it could have been easy for the students to fall back, follow the mentors’ lead, and be passive receptors of information and instructions, that did not happen. In fact, the students had a great deal of agency in determining the scopes of the projects. The onus was on them to propose ideas and seek their mentors’ advice, so they could be challenged to grow in initiative and confidence. “It is not easy for Secondary 3 students to work with someone they are not familiar with, or to reach out to these mentors who are not their teachers, asking for help and arranging for meetings,” explains Mdm Low.
Nevertheless, the students rose to the challenge – even when they faced unexpected hurdles. For instance, the sustainability team scrapped initial ideas of energy conservation infrastructure after discussions with their mentors revealed that the idea could not align with the school’s financial and time constraints. Thereafter, they arrived at the final iteration of the project: an AI pattern recognition programme that would detect contamination in recycled bottles. The best part was that they even created their own sensor.
“They really adapted and learnt along the way, found the best solutions they could,” says Mdm Low, who also describes it as “a journey of discovery for the students, to explore their interests further and strengthen their own knowledge”.
“Mentoring the school sustainability project was an incredibly rewarding and amazing experience,” says Mr Abhishek Sharma, Asia Pacific Business Development Manager at Rockwell Automation. “We created a sample tool for improving the recycling of plastic bottles using available free tools, and also solved problems on identification and risk mitigation, among others. I am certain that this learning will inspire the students to take ownership of sustainable change in the future.”
The programme has also fostered the 21st century skills it had intended to nurture, as one of the participating students Keith Yang testifies. During the programme, he honed and developed skills in communication and collaboration, as well as time management, as he learnt how to balance schoolwork with the tasks given. The brainstorming sessions were also helpful, he says, adding that “while some ideas were impractical, the sessions fostered our creativity and critical thinking”.
The mentors, surprisingly, say they picked up skills from the partnership too. Navigating a younger demographic required a certain dexterity from them, as they needed to understand the students’ perspectives to better communicate with them and keep them engaged and interested. Even negotiating with the teens’ sometimes wild ideas stretched the mentors’ minds and challenged their beliefs.
“Many of the mentors are also parents. So for themselves, it’s also a learning journey, like they’re teaching their kids,” elaborates Ms Serene Wong, Southeast Asia Business Manager at Rockwell Automation.
Ms Mudita Singh, who mentors the cybersecurity team, seconds Ms Wong’s sentiments. “There was reverse mentoring for us to stay curious, hopeful and excited about amazing opportunities that lie for the future. This generation brings in a lot of resourcefulness, environmental awareness and willingness to make the Earth a better place,” says Ms Singh, Asia Pacific Regional Ops Manager.
Going above, beyond and further into the future
The months of collaboration and project development culminated in a final presentation, where students showcased their findings and proposals to parents, teachers and the Rockwell Automation management team. As one might imagine, presenting to such a large crowd was a new and unnerving experience for some of the teens.
Despite this, they impressed the audience with their efforts and ingenuity, says Ms Wong, who also oversaw the coordination of the partnership. She gives the example of the cybersecurity team, which shared about how they integrated various open-source software into the library’s cybersecurity system. She recalls their mentor’s surprise at the complexity of his mentees’ efforts, and their resourcefulness in finding the necessary software to implement for the school.
Mdm Low agrees. “I’m really surprised and proud of their growth. It was amazing to see how they have managed to learn so much together,” she fondly reflects.
Needless to say, the programme has been a resounding success thus far. In fact, Beatty Secondary and Rockwell Automation have made plans to continue and even expand the mentorship programme to open it up to more students. As Mr Kai Chuen Ho, the mentor of the digital twin team and Southeast Asia Technical Consultant Manager at Rockwell puts it, “This symbiotic relationship enriches both the mentor and the mentee, and paves the way for future engineers in the industry.”
Ms Wong cites the importance of continuing to inspire an interest in STEM and engineering among youths, saying, “It’s not easy to find people from the next generation who are interested to enter or stay in this industry. Seeding interest from a young age is important, so we hope to trigger that passion when they’re young.”
