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Inspired by Spiderman and Batman’s superhero abilities, Kenneth Chen Ko Han started his programming journey at 11 years old, tweaking his character in a video game, Minecraft, which he was playing at the time. This later evolved into a curiosity about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how to make AI bots in video games. Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) Diploma in Applied AI and Analytics (DAAA) resonated with his interest in understanding how to innovatively tailor AI technologies through its structured and well-curated curriculum. Also influenced by the positive experiences shared by his father, uncle and cousin, who are SP alumni, he chose SP as his first choice.

He was a competitive programmer in his former secondary school in Myanmar, Network International School. He carried the same competitive spirit to Singapore, where he clinched the Champion title at a GovTech’s competition, GeekOut! Bootcamp and Hackathon in 2022 for his development of a Computer Vision and Text-to-Speech function for the visually impaired to find objects easily. More notably, at the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) international programming competition, TCS CodeVita, he came in 17th place out of over 100,000 global tertiary students from outstanding universities.

Bringing this spirit into SP, the SP Scholar founded the Competitive Programmers branch under the Sharing, Exploration, Enrichment, and Development (S.E.E.D) Interest Group under the School of Computing (SoC) to foster programming interest among his peers. He dedicated his time to creating a community where students could come together to develop their communication and technical skills and network with one another through attending insightful workshops and competitions, which he spearheaded. The then vice-president of SP’s AI Interest Group also organised SoC’s first national-scale AI hackathon sponsored by AI Singapore and Google, amongst other workshops and hackathon projects. He believed in building a community where students could expand their knowledge and develop successful habits.

During his internship at GovTech, where he enhanced National Parks Board (NParks) officers’ operational efficiency through technology, coded AI solutions for Municipal Services Office’s (MSO) OneService App, and helped in the development of GovTech’s AI Image Detector, he realised his aspiration for giving back to the community. He served in organisations such as the Red Cross, GoodHood, and the Republic of Singapore Air Forces (RSAF). Masterfully combining his heart, hand, and mind in a volunteering opportunity with RAiD, a start-up of RSAF, as an AI engineer, he enhanced procurement processes using AI technology. His heart for the community was also shaped by his unique Singaporean-Burmese background, which motivated him to bring and blend Myanmar's caring culture with Singapore’s own.

Kenneth attributes his success to the support and encouragement of his parents, who are working and living in Myanmar. Without them, he would not have considered leaving Myanmar to pursue his education in Singapore.

After graduation, Kenneth will work with Bifrost AI as an AI engineer intern before serving his national duties. He intends to further his studies in Data Science and AI, as he aspires to be in the AI industry to make technology more accessible to people regardless of privilege and background. He believes that this will empower them.