8/11/2019 Prithvi Tabla 20140905

1/1

EDUCATION

Page

1O

September

5,2014

tabt

EDWINA JEREMIAH

ACH

year,

the

Ministry of

Education

gives

out Special

Awards

to

rec-

ognise students for their achievements in both academic and non-aca-

demic

spheres.

A

total of 122 students received this

year's

Special

Awards from

Senior Minister of State for Law iind

Education

Indranee Ra-

jah

at the 2014 Special Awards Presentation Ceremony.

Among the awards

given

out was

The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathe-

matics and Science. Introduced in1992, the award is

given

to students who

have

achieved outstanding

performance

in Mathematics and Science under

three categories

-

Secondary, Pre-University and Polytechnic.

Surya

Mathialagalt,17, from

NUS

High

received

the

award

in

the

Sec-

ondary category. A

veteran of

maths olympiads, she has represented Singa-

pore

internationally several times, clinching

the silver medal at last

year's

China Girls'Mathematical Olympiad and a

gold

at the Australian Informat-

ics Olympiad.

My

school has

put

a lot of trust.in me and

given

me many opportunities.

.I

would like to channel my skills to benefit society

in a meaningful way,

said Surya.

Her proud.mum, Mrs

Sudha

Mathialagan, said:

We're

ecstatic, we

didn't expect this.

Surya

works very hard and we're very

happy for her.

Prithvi

Gundlapalli,

19, from

Saint

Andrew's Junior College, received

the award in the Pre-University category. Last

year

he represented Singa-

pore

at the

pres-

tigious Intel

In-

ternational Sci-

ence

and

Engi-

neering

Fair

with

his lithium

ion

battery re-

search

project.

His research

focused on

tri-

pling

the capaci-

ty

of

rechargea-

ble batteries

and

won two

pizes,

a First

Award rm-

der the Special

Award category

and the Second

Award in

the

Chemistry

cate-

gory.

It was the

first

time a Singa-

porean

has

ever

come

first in the

Special Award

category.

Since then his

research

paper

on the

project

has been accept-

ed and was

pub-

lished

by the

American

Chemical Society in January and he was awarded the Agency for

Science, Technology and Research scholarship to

pursue

his undergraduate

studies in

physics.

Prithvi said:

The

last

year

and a

half of my life has

been

filled with

hard

work, excitement and the satisfaction of achieving my

goals.

I am confident

that through dedication and

hard work,

a

pe$on

can

achieve success in

their dreams.

Divesh

Singaraju, 21, studied aeronautical engineering

at

Singapore

Poly-

technic and received the award in the Polytechnic category. A student with

an indomitable

spirit, Divesh beat cancer

twice to top his

poly

course with a

4.0 GPA.

In addition

to being

a

class

leader,

he was an

organising member

of the SP

Engineering

Show 2013 and the Youth

Model ASEAN

Confer-

ence.

Despite his

busy academic schedule, Divesh

found time to serve

the com-

munity both locally

and

internationally. In

Singapore

he co-founded

Youth