“…getting on calls, preparing presentations, reading blogs/news, playing with our products, facebooking, talking with colleagues in the US office and customer meetings during the day. This could start as early as 7am as it will already be 10am in New York. I then try to hit the gym or cook dinner in the evenings to de-stress and get some thinking time in before getting online again at 8pm (which is noon in Singapore) where emails and calls from my Singapore headquarters will start pouring in. I typically stay online till about 2am (6pm in Singapore, 10am in Germany) with a little TV + wine + chocolate breaks in between.”
Whew!
Of course, he wasn’t always a businessman, Terence is actually an engineer cum jazz pianist dosed with curiosity. It all came together when he designed beat detection and emotional index algorithms to map the emotional strength of music. Those algorithms ultimately became Muvee in 2001.
But how does it all gel together for him? That’s what we’re here to find out…
FYI, the man took part in the Langkawi Ironman where he swam 3.8km, biked 180km and ran 42km. Why? “Cos I enjoy eating but still need to fit in an economy class seat…and also for lifetime bragging rights.”
When did you want to be an engineer?
I was about 12 when I was so fascinated with flight and I tried to learn everything about flying. I built my own remote control plane from scratch. This was pre-Internet, pre-Wikipedia and pre-Google. So my research was done at the old National Library at Stamford Road.
What’s the best part of Engineering?
An engineering mindset becomes a way of life. You look around you and find that you are able to figure things out quickly and instinctively, and that often gives you a leg up in everyday life – from basic stuff like figuring out which queue at NTUC will clear up faster to landing a plane if you lose both engines.
Why Electrical Engineering?
I had a lot of interest in Mechanical Engineering as I always liked to figure out how physical machines work. However, I realized many such things can be picked up by observation. However, in Electrical Engineering, you work with atoms and electrons and electricity and electronics…all of which are abstract objects and concepts. Not something that staring at a strip of wire or a silicon chip will help you figure out. Of course, I have always been interested in computers and software, and Electrical Engineering gave me the opportunity to study computing concepts.
Music seems important to you. Why?
Playing Jazz piano gives you discipline and yet creativity. There are chord progressions and scales in Jazz that you need to obey, and yet there are many different approaches for any song. It can be very different whenever you play it. This is very much like building innovative products and a business: each day is different, each problem is unique, yet they have fixed constraints, so figuring a way out of that tight spot is what a good engineer (and musician) will be good at.
What’s your advice for an aspiring engineer?
Dream, listen, watch, observe…then dream some more.
What’s next for you?
There are loads more for muvee and me to achieve. We have our work cut out for us this year and next. I wish I can tell you more, but I will have to shoot you…and that can get quite messy. [O.o]
Got a question for Terence? Drop us an email and we’ll get back to you ASAP!
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