By Jake Chng

YOU may soon be able to use a remote control that works without batteries to switch on energy- and cost- saving lights.

The remote control is powered by the force exerted by someone pressing on it. The lights use about four times less energy than regular fluorescent lights.

This product may become a reality because of a new centre that promotes sustainable manufacturing technologies and helps companies interested in them.

Through the Sustainable Manufacturing Centre, the National University of Singapore (NUS) team behind the remote control has joined up with Screentech Display, a company that makes energy-saving lights, to develop products.

The $200,000 centre showcases energy and material- saving manufacturing processes, end products and projects by its 28 industry collaborators.

Through this, it hopes to connect more representatives of different industries to conduct joint-research projects, said its director, Dr Song Bin.

The centre will also work with the Workforce Development Agency to develop a postgraduate manufacturing diploma programme for engineers and managers, which will start in the middle of next year.

Plans to set up the centre were devoloped early last year by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

It was officially launched yesterday by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim.

He said that the centre was going a long way towards helping Singapore achieve its goal of improving its use of resources. The goal is to raise the energy use for each dollar of Singapore's gross domestic product by 35 per cent, from 2005 levels, by 2030.

The NUS team has benefited from the centre's help.

There had been no plans to commercialise the remote control, said NUS electrical-and- computer engineering doctorate student Tan Yen Kheng, 31. But after it was displayed at the centre, it drew Screentech's interest.

"Given the capabilities of the lab, there would have been no way to commercialise the remote control. The opening of the centre has given us opportunities to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation. And I hope we can successfully commercialise the remote control with Screentech," he said.

chngjm@sph.com.sg

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