Who Are You Calling "Geeks"?!

How exciting can the lives of engineers get? Seriously. All they do is sit in front of the computer doing their own thing. Alright. Give them credit for being meticulous, methodological and efficiently mathematical. But who wants to be called a 'geek' or 'nerd'?

Eat your words!!!

Eight engineers in the private sector are standing up and fighting back. They've not only launched an uber cool portal complete with cool and snazzy Manga animation to make a statement about how chic and creative engineers can be, but decided to come on air to debunk damaging perceptions to the masses from our living room.

(from l-r: Pam, Terence, Khai, Justin & Stan)

Our three guests yesterday (two engineers and an engineering undergrad) broke every stereotypical convention and impression one ever had of engineers.

One is an Ironman and finds it thrilling hiking up active volcanoes, another plays the electric and acoustic guitar, and the youngest among them has not only started a club where wannabe deejays are turn-tabling, but was also a Cleo Bachelor last year! They are Terence Swee (Founder & CEO of muvee Technologies), Justin Chiam (Engineering Executive at SIA Engineering) and Mohd Khairudeen (Chemical Engineering Undergrad at NUS) respectively.

If Terence, Justin & Khai decided to take it up one notch, they'd be able to assemble a band in the quickest time. I can almost visualise the concert emcee announcing, "And that's Terence on the keyboard (Editor's note: we forgot to tell you his fingers glide over the ivory on the piano like a hot knife through butter!), Justin on bass and Khai on the effects board!"

Before the guys left us after a most hearty Friday chat, Prisita from Ogilvy turned to me and asked, "Hey, you sing right?" I do, but...that's another story. Almost immediately, they proclaimed me the lead singer of the band. [Thanks guys, but you haven't even heard me sing! If you did, you might have even more stinging remarks than Simon's spewed in all the seasons of AI put together.]

What an utterly wacky bunch of engineers!

From henceforth, let it be decreed that engineers shall be stripped of geekhood and be celebrated among the pride of this land!