A toy helicopter piqued his interest. Now he’s building drones

SINGAPORE – When Shafriel Nur Iman received a toy helicopter from his father for his sixth birthday, no one knew it would spark a passion that would lead him to represent Singapore at the biggest international competition for skills.

He will be pitting his drone knowledge and abilities against 10 competitors from other countries, such as China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, at the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai from Sept 22 to 27.

The competition will assess him on the various stages of assembly, repair, programming and piloting over four days, with the longest session lasting over four hours.

This is the first time unmanned aerial systems are featured at the event, the world’s largest competition aimed at advancing technical and vocational education.

Shafriel, 18, said his accountant dad knew he was interested in flying generally and bought him toy helicopters every year.

When he was in kindergarten, he encountered a flight simulator in a cockpit while on a school trip to the Singapore Flyer. This sparked in him the desire to become a pilot “because I thought (at the time) that was the best part in the aviation industry and the only part”, he recalled.

Later, Shafriel learnt about drones in his secondary school’s applied learning programme about the future of transportation.

As he looked up the different jobs related to flying, he felt a career in drones was a good fit for him, as he liked physics and mathematics, which are relevant to aerodynamics, coding and measurement for drones.

He is now an aviation management student at Republic Polytechnic (RP) and has a particular interest in the use of drones in the security and defence sectors.

“Outside of warfare, there are good uses (for drones) like search and rescue, and monitoring – police drones can go over a crowd of people to watch for any suspicious activities,” said Shafriel.

He has ambitions to study aerospace engineering in university and eventually help advance drone technology, such as increasing the devices’ flight time.

Drone systems are gaining prominence in a range of applications, including military and environmental uses, disaster recovery, infrastructure assessment and wildlife monitoring.

Chance of a lifetime

When invited to compete in WorldSkills Shanghai around February, Shafriel chose it over an offer he received to intern in customer service at Changi Airport. He had been in the middle of training for drone soccer, in which he has represented Singapore, when his coaches approached him about the new WorldSkills category.

“I saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I thought it should be good for my future,” he said.

He also did not want any distractions during his full-time training, which started in March. He trains at RP’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Centre, where he also supports operations such as charging and maintaining batteries.

During training, Shafriel studies theory and does timed practice for the different stages of the competition.

It is a bonus that his training for WorldSkills will fulfil the compulsory internship requirement of his course, and RP pays him as well.

Programming, which is largely missing from his course curriculum, was Shafriel’s biggest challenge. He had to learn it from scratch for WorldSkills.

He learnt Python, a programming language, from an RP robotics lecturer and YouTube videos.

“I don’t know the logic. Because it’s scripted, it’s fast, and like Python... just to get it set up is already a headache,” he said of programming.

Another challenge for him: staying focused and not fiddling with his phone.

“My tactic is to zone out everything else, shut off my brain and work like a robot,” he said.

“When I feel stressed, I talk to myself in the third person. I mumble to myself, and tell myself inside jokes. It helps me relax.”