Not everybody can say they have built their own racecar — but Akashah certainly can!
For as long as he can remember, he has been fascinated with how gears and machine mechanisms work.
After discovering a love for all things automotive engineering, the road to a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at NUS was perhaps a fairly straightforward one for the proud motorcycle owner. With a passion for engineering that was sparked by a humble Lego toy set, his future plans include starting his own business 3D-printing car parts and exploring the automotive industry in Germany.
Drawing the blueprint
It all began in Primary 2 when he watched a mechanical engineer being interviewed in the documentary “Megafactories — Ferrari”. Enthralled, he asked his mother to buy him a Lego car set. The process of putting together separate parts to form a whole deeply intrigued him, and he soon upgraded to Lego Technic sets, a more advanced version of model cars that include realistic features and movements.
Akashah holds the first Lego car set he asked his mother to buy, while standing next to the semi-disassembled racecar he built with the NUS Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team in 2021. (Photo credit: Joven Thong Jie Wen, Structures and Dynamics Head, NUS FSAE 2023)
His interest kicked into high gear when he was introduced to robotics at primary school. Keen to challenge himself, he began dismantling the electrical appliances in his room to see what was inside — and then reassembling them back together.
He didn’t stop there. Spurred by the encouragement of his close friends and family, Akashah pursued this newfound passion relentlessly, and eventually earned a place at NUS College of Design and Engineering (CDE) as an NUS Global Merit Scholar.
“If you’re considering applying for a scholarship, just do it! Regardless of whether or not you get accepted, at least you’ll know that you tried.”
Fortunately, the Global Merit Scholarship is bond-free, granting Akashah the freedom he desired upon graduation.
He also appreciated the scholarship’s benefits, which included an annual living allowance, a one-time computer allowance upon enrolment and a guaranteed offer of a semester in the Student Exchange Programme (SEP) with one of NUS’ overseas partner universities among other things.
Excited to get acquainted with his upcoming university curriculum, he quickly signed up for FASSTrack Asia 2019 Summer School, which turned out to be a wise decision.
The pre-university course, which included various field trips, allowed him to get a head start in a few courses, which ultimately reduced his academic workload when school officially started.
When he kicked off his first semester, he was also pleased to find that his polytechnic education had provided a strong foundational framework for the heavier theory work he had to learn in university.
“The best part was that (the theories) eventually made sense,” Akashah says. “All these factors helped me understand, in greater depth, the various mechanical engineering concepts.”
A pit stop crew attitude to learning
As part of NUS’ comprehensive curriculum, Akashah and his classmates got to experiment with different kinds of engineering simulation set-ups. Though his solutions did not always work out, every mistake was turned into a learning opportunity, thanks to his nurturing professors and research engineers such as Mr Lim Hong Wee.
“There was always somebody there to guide and explain to me how and why a particular solution succeeded or failed. It can be frustrating, but at the end of it, when you see the whole picture and how everything works together, you appreciate the beauty of it.”
He also attributed much of his positive learning attitude to his Internal Combustion Engine professors, Professor Yang Wenming and Professor Zhang Huangwei, both of whom went above and beyond to ensure he fully comprehended the sometimes-confusing technical concepts.
Akashah was grateful for the guidance of Professor Yang Wenming. (Photo credit: Muhammad Nazirul Syahmi Bin Abdullah (Rosman), Team Leader, NUS FSAE 2023)
Akashah muses that an important lesson he picked up in university is that “when you need help with something, all you need to do is ask.”
Knowing that an interdisciplinary learning experience was key to excelling in his studies, Akashah also took up a second major in Innovation & Design (iDP), through which he acquired a plethora of both hard and soft skills in product development.
“The ideation process taught me how to empathise with the user, which was useful in learning how to evaluate and optimise our products to meet their needs.”
But what he didn’t know yet was that his journey to achieving his lifelong dream was only just ramping up.
Putting the pedal to the metal
In his second year at NUS, as part of the iDP, he was presented the opportunity to join the NUS Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE, now known as SAE) — an annual inter-varsity competition in which undergraduate students design and build Formula-style (open-wheeled and open cockpit) racecars and race in them.
Helmed by Professor Seah Kar Heng, the special programme saw Akashah and the 10 other students receive special evening classes on racecar principles and engineering, as well as hands-on training in turning, milling and a whole host of other workshop techniques.
After building his first car with the team in 2020 to 2021, he thought of taking a break from the programme, but eventually decided to perform research on a newer and more efficient simulation process for a component that could be utilised in future NUS FSAE cars.
Akashah (second from left) with Professor Seah Kar Heng (front) and his batchmates from the team that built the 2021 car. (Photo credit: NUS FSAE Media Team)
In order to keep contributing to the FSAE team, he made the difficult decision in 2019 to turn down his overseas exchange trip to Germany, the part of his Global Merit Scholarship that guaranteed a semester in the Student Exchange Programme (SEP) with one of NUS’ overseas partner universities.
Instead, he remained on the programme to see their project through till the end.
Missing out on the “holy grail” of the NUS student experience did not dampen his spirit. In fact, Akashah is now even more assured that the sacrifice was worth it.
“Even though I didn’t get to see what the state of play was like in Germany, Formula SAE gave me the practical skills needed to know how to function in the industry, should I ever get to go there one day.”
Full speed ahead
Akashah’s journey towards his dreams was accelerated when he secured an internship at the Land Transport Authority Bus Assets Division in his final year. His job was to analyse the performance of their fleet of buses, a role he landed due to his previous hands-on and theoretical experience with automotive engineering — valuable skills he picked up during his time at NUS.
His tasks not only involved complicated thermodynamic calculations for air conditioning systems, but also comparing the different specifications of buses and coming up with hypotheses for the performance of the different buses.
The national-scale project, though challenging, allowed him to demonstrate his natural flair for engineering, and gave him the opportunity to take his application skills one step further.
Racing into the future
Akashah with his two motorcycles – his ride for an upcoming road trip and its mini lego version.
After his final exams, Akashah intends to embark on a road trip with his motorcycle, but has no intention of pulling the brakes on his dream career just yet. Along with the planned business 3D-printing car parts, he says a postgraduate automotive engineering degree at NUS are all on the cards.
Germany has not left Akashah’s mind either. He plans to pick up German at the Goethe Institute Singapore, fully intent on taking advantage of Germany’s Skilled Immigration Act, which allows skilled workers from abroad to live and work there.
All in all, Akashah is grateful for his Global Merit Scholarship, which offers students like him a bond-free tertiary education journey and the freedom to pursue his passions — which Akashah plans to do wholeheartedly.