Release Announcement!

I'm happy to announce the release of Engineering Sovereignty Volume 1 in full-color paperback edition. You can read the back cover to get an idea of its content. To order, simply click on the cover image to go to the Amazon online store.

Instead of pitching my own sales, here's what Gemini says:

"Engineering Sovereignty" is a specialized concept heavily detailed by Singaporean engineer and self-published author Ng Keng Tiong. Known online and within the electronics industry through his blog, Ng uses the term to define how nations or organizations maintain technical self-reliance and operational continuity in an era of rapid obsolescence.

Core Pillars of Engineering Sovereignty

According to the author's framework, engineering sovereignty is not just about copying hardware (reverse engineering) or manufacturing parts; it is an overarching strategy to prevent foreign technology reliance and protect critical infrastructure:

• Beyond Reverse Engineering: It is an intentional pipeline to recapture missing institutional knowledge. When a manufacturer stops supporting a system, engineering sovereignty dictates that an organization must have the capability to map out the system internally.

• Advanced Digital Twins: It relies heavily on deep digital twins. In Ng's definition, a true digital twin doesn't just show a 3D model; it comprehensively catalogs the system's PCB layouts, electrical schematics, firmware code, behavioral simulations, and operational failure histories.

• Mitigating Supply Chain Obsolescence: This philosophy is thoroughly explored in his technical books like Solution to Obsolescence (STO). It serves as a defensive framework for keeping defense systems, industrial machinery, and critical grids alive when original manufacturing blueprints are lost or restricted.

As a Singaporean, the concept mirrors a broader geopolitical and defense discussions in my country's defense philosophy, where maintaining a "technological edge" indigenously has long been considered essential to national survival. This latest specialized literature bridges the island-nation's mindset with the tactical, nuts-and-bolts execution of electronic engineering and hardware diagnostics.

 

Beyond Maintenance

Maintenance, in its classic form, is a noble and necessary craft, concerned with restoring function. You replace a failed component, repair a broken assembly, and return a subsystem to service. These activities are the bedrock of operational engineering. However, they assume a world where replacements exist and repair is possible. We are increasingly confronting scenarios where this is simply not the case.

Documentation is incomplete or missing. The original manufacturer is unable—or unwilling—to help. The critical expertise, the tacit knowledge held in the minds of a generation of engineers, has walked out the door to retirement. In these circumstances, a different kind of response is required. You cannot intervene effectively without first understanding. The organization must do more than just fix the hardware; it must recover and internalize the knowledge upon which that hardware depends.

This is a profound philosophical shift. The engineer must evolve from being a mere maintainer of systems to something far more significant: a steward of the technological knowledge that underpins them. Maintenance is no longer simply about restoring function; it is about preserving and enriching the intellectual foundation that makes function possible in the first place.

 

Restless in the Heat and Haze...

In the past weeks, Singapore has been enveloped by haze from its neighbor Indonesia, as more than 800 hot spots of forest fire were detected by satellite images over Sumatra and Kalimantan regions. The sun is shrouded in amber but its heat is not letting up as the pollution index rises into the unhealthy range.

I'm used to having my morning walk before settling down at my writing desk, but due to the poor air quality outside, I have been homebound for quite a while now. This has definitely affected my inspiration to write but I'm pushing hard to complete and release the first volume of Engineering Sovereignty.

A writer's journey is a lonely one, and the gloomy atmosphere outside isn't helping to uplift my spirit anytime. Hopefully there'll be an occasional shower to lessen the haze and ease the heat a little.

Oh, well, we'll see...

 

Dear Reader

The following is an excerpt from the Preface of my memoir. I have named it Dear Reader to sound personal to those who may decide to pick up the book and read the story of my engineering journey. Here you go...

The book you hold in your hands began not as a book but as a series of moments—small decisions, unexpected turns, challenges faced and overcome. For much of my life, I did not think of my journey as remarkable. I was simply doing what needed to be done: learning my craft, supporting my family, solving the problems that landed on my workbench.

It was only later, after thirty years in the engineering trenches, after I had written six technical books and begun to reflect on the path that brought me there, that I realized my story might have value beyond the circuits and schematics.

This is a book about electronics. But it is also a book about life. The two, I have come to understand, are not so different.

A circuit is a system of connections. Components linked by traces, signals flowing along paths designed for purpose. When the system works, we barely notice it. When it fails, we must face and resolve the issue—tracing the broken connection, identifying the failed component, understanding why the expected behavior has stopped.

Life is the same. 

We are all systems of connections: to family, to work, to dreams and duties and the people who depend on us. When life proceeds smoothly, we take it for granted. When crisis strikes—as it did for me, weeks after my polytechnic graduation, when my father's failing health rewrote my future—we must take charge and make sense of our own existence.

Why am I here? What matters most? Which way do I go when the path I planned is suddenly closed?

I am an engineer. I think in systems, in connections, in causes and effects. But I am also a son, a brother, a husband, a writer, and a witness to my own time. This memoir is my attempt to trace the full schematic of my life—to show you the components, the connections, the unexpected paths that current can take when it encounters resistance.

My life has had its share of setbacks and unforeseen circumstances. Yours likely has as well. That is the human condition—to face challenges we did not ask for, to walk roads we did not choose.

But here is what I have learned:

The road still leads somewhere. The circuit still completes. And the person you become along the way—the skills you develop, the wisdom you gather, the strength you never knew you had—that person is no accident. That person is you, forged by experience, connected to all that came before and all that will follow.

Keep your spirits high, reader. The path ahead may not be the one you planned. But it is yours, and it is leading you exactly where you need to go. Remember: you are never alone. Many have walked the journey before you, and many more will follow after you. "How can you be so sure?" you ask.

Well… I offer my story as proof.

 

Feeling Lost? Get the Memoir!

Recently, an ex-colleague from ST Electronics called me out of the blue. He sounded troubled and not the usual, confident person I knew a decade ago. After talking with him for five minutes, I realized he's feeling lost and apprehensive at the prospect of retirement. He is the same age as me.

Such feeling is not unique to people facing retirement after years of working; it can also happen to young graduates who are just stepping out into the world. What should I do? Which company should I join? Where can I find my place in the industry? And many myriads of questions that overwhelm the mind, be it starting out afresh, changing runway mid-career, or entering into the final phase of a work life.

This is the reason I wrote a book about my own engineering journey that spanned three decades from the air force days to the home-grown defense industry, and into my passion and calling as an author. For the first time, readers of my PCB-RE books can now take a peek into the inner world of the writer and understand why he took the paths, whether through necessity or by appointment. Friends who knew me since the early school days had read it and found gems of inspiration, and a better appreciation for the person I am.

For anyone who has ever wondered how things work—or how a life is built—this memoir offers a rare glimpse into a world of precision, problem-solving, and the hidden connections that shape us all.

Get your copy today! 

The Engineering Sovereignty Ecosystem

These nine elements should not be viewed independently. They are not a checklist of features to be implemented one by one, but the components of an integrated ecosystem in which each element reinforces the others: 

• Leadership shapes culture
• Culture influences governance
• Governance strengthens AI deployment
• AI enriches digital twins
• Digital twins improve training
• Training develops Centers of Excellence
• Centers of Excellence populate knowledge repositories
• Knowledge repositories strengthen strategic partnerships
• Partnerships introduce new knowledge that further informs leadership

Engineering Sovereignty therefore functions as a continuously learning ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated initiatives. Each element depends on the others. Each strengthens the others. The organization becomes more capable not because of any single investment but because of the synergistic interaction of all its components.

 

The Engineer of Tomorrow

The engineer of the future will almost certainly possess tools unimaginable to previous generations. Artificial Intelligence will analyze complex systems in seconds. Digital twins will simulate entire platforms continuously, providing real-time insights into performance and potential failure modes. Augmented reality will overlay engineering knowledge directly onto physical equipment, guiding maintenance and repair with unprecedented precision. Autonomous inspection systems will monitor infrastructure around the clock, detecting anomalies before they become failures.

Yet these advances will not diminish the importance of engineers. Rather, they will elevate their responsibilities. Routine analysis may become increasingly automated, but the need for judgment, creativity, and ethical reasoning will grow. If AI can perform the calculations, engineers must provide the wisdom to interpret them. If digital twins can simulate every scenario, engineers must determine which scenarios matter most. If autonomous systems can monitor infrastructure, engineers must decide what to monitor and why. 

Tomorrow's engineer will therefore spend less time searching for information and more time asking meaningful questions. Less time performing routine calculations and more time exercising judgment. Less time documenting what has been done and more time envisioning what should be done. Understanding will become more important than calculation. Judgment more important than routine analysis. Wisdom more important than information. 

This is not a future in which engineers are replaced by machines. It is a future in which engineers are freed by machines to do what only humans can do: exercise judgment, take responsibility, and act as stewards of knowledge for future generations.

 

Digital Twins

Every reverse engineering project creates valuable engineering knowledge. Every failure analysis yields insights. Every technology refresh generates documentation. Engineering Sovereignty ensures that this knowledge remains accessible through digital representation. Digital twins extend far beyond three-dimensional models. They are comprehensive digital representations that integrate multiple layers of engineering understanding. 

A mature digital twin may include schematics that capture the electrical design of a system. PCB layouts that document the physical implementation. Firmware that defines the system's behavior. Simulation models that enable virtual testing and analysis. Manufacturing information that documents materials and processes. Test procedures that validate performance. Operational history that records how the system has performed over time. Failure analysis that documents what has gone wrong and why. Lifecycle documentation that captures the full history of the system from design to retirement. 

Each digital twin therefore becomes a living engineering reference that continuously supports maintenance, technology refresh, redesign, training, and future innovation. It is not a static archive but a dynamic repository that evolves with the system it represents. It preserves organizational understanding even as the people who created that nderstanding move on.

 

Transformation is Cultural

Many transformation programs focus primarily upon processes and technology. They redesign workflows, implement new software, and invest in equipment. These changes are visible and measurable. They can be planned, budgeted, and executed. Yet Engineering Sovereignty argues that lasting transformation occurs first within culture. 

Culture determines whether documentation is regarded as valuable or as bureaucratic overhead. Whether mentoring is encouraged or viewed as a distraction. Whether questions are welcomed or suppressed. Whether failures become opportunities for learning or occasions for blame. Whether engineers willingly share knowledge rather than protect it as personal capital. 

Without cultural transformation, technological transformation rarely endures. An organization may implement a knowledge management system, but if its culture does not value documentation, the system will remain unused. It may invest in digital twins, but if engineers do not trust the models, they will revert to intuition. It may establish mentoring programs, but if senior engineers are not rewarded for teaching, participation will be minimal.

Culture is not an abstract concept. It is the accumulated habits, values, and assumptions that shape how work gets done. Changing culture is difficult and slow—far more difficult than implementing new technology. Yet it is essential. Engineering Sovereignty cannot be achieved through processes alone. It requires a cultural commitment to learning, preservation, and stewardship that pervades the entire organization.