A fire-fighter who pursued a master’s degree under Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs Postgraduate Scholarship, Yong Kai, a Singapore citizen, graduates in MSc Fire Safety Engineering from Ulster University Belfast, attaining both the ‘Best Student’ and ‘Best Dissertation’ awards.
Reflecting on his MSc journey, Yong Kai shares:
“I thoroughly enjoyed learning from the knowledgeable lecturers in their respective fields and making new friends from diverse nationalities and backgrounds. The team project during our Fire Safety Engineering Design 2 module, where we collaborated on the fire safety design of a real building, was a particularly memorable experience. It gave us the opportunity to learn from one another, sharing our technical knowledge, engineering skills and different cultural perspectives.”
Before pursuing his MSc, Yong Kai served in various key roles within the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), including Commander of a Fire Station, Head of Operations in a land division, and Senior Assistant Director in Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, focusing on crisis preparedness and Homefront crisis coordination. He is currently the Senior Assistant Director of the fire safety management branch in the SCDF Fire Safety Department.
Yong Kai's extensive career experience and dedication to protect fire-fighters fuelled his passion to further enhance fire-fighters’ occupational safety. His studies at Ulster University culminated in a detailed novel investigation into the penetration mechanism of fire effluent toxicants through fire-fighters’ protective clothing. He shares:
“While studying at Ulster, I conducted a comprehensive investigation during my dissertation where I examined the penetration mechanism of fire effluent toxicants through fire-fighters' protective clothing, with the aim of protecting fire-fighters from dermal exposure to these hazardous materials.”
One of the greatest challenges Yong Kai overcame during his research was mastering advanced analytical chemistry techniques (liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) within a short period of time to analyse chemical protection afforded by different protective gears.
“I am proud of mastering advanced analytical chemistry techniques within a short period of time. I am told this usually takes at least one semester for an analytical chemistry student to grasp the main principles of these complex methodologies. However, with my strong background in chemistry attributed to my prior education and experiences in Singapore and SCDF’s professional training, I managed to overcome the challenge and successfully completed the comprehensive analysis within two months.”
His research findings were presented in October 2024 at the Fire Safety Conference in Dublin, organised by the Institution of Fire Engineers, and received excellent feedback from more than 230 attendees.
Yong Kai reflects on the impact of his research:
“My dissertation supervisor has secured research funding to conduct a more in-depth study on this topic. The recommendations stemming from these findings would further safeguard fire-fighters from dermal exposure to these hazardous materials.”