Extracurricular Activities:International student
What career or personal update would you like to give to your fellow Florida Tech Panthers alumni?
I'm a freelancer now moving into semi-retirement. Had been in the corporate world with HP, Motorola, Delphi Automotive, and Shell for over 20 years. Peter LOH is a creative strategist across different industries – Hewlett-Packard, Delphi Automotive, Motorola, and Shell Eastern Petroleum. He has gained over 20 years of experience in different functions including quality, marketing, supply chain management, business intelligence and planning. Peter aims to be an innovative disruptor moving forward with his focus on IoT and Big Data, leveraging his years of cross functional experience as well as regional exposures.
How did your time at Florida Tech help get you to where you are today?
Studying overseas brought new perspectives and understanding of other cultures. In the former FIT, there were many foreign students from worldwide - Labanese, Thai, Koreans, Japanese, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, the Caribbean islands, South Americans, etc. In my cohort, we have ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Peru, Perto Rico. A few of us are still in contact reminiscing the our times at FIT. It helps with my career working in American global MNCs where I have travelled to Corvalis (OR), Phoenix (AZ), Shaumberg (IL), Houston (TX), San Jose (CA).
What is your favorite Florida Tech memory?
My first flight out of Singapore to FIT was a 36-hour marathon flight - Singapore, Hong Kong, Honolulu, San Francisco, Atlanta, Orlando. The original flight plan was to transit at Atlanta to Melbourne regional airport. I was lucky to have met 1 pastor transiting from Hong Kong to San Francisco, where his destination was Orlando. He helped me to change my flight plan from Atlanta-Melbourne to Atlanta-Orlando. He gave me a ride from Orlando to Melbourne, saving me the long transit of 7-hours at Atlanta. Another memorable occasion was when I studied for my final term test in the physics labs with my house-mate who was the PhD student in the Physics department. We were taking a short break looking out into the sky from the admin building (think it was level 4) and saw a most beautiful sunset, like an Orange eyeyolk over the roof tops of the neighbourhood's houses - reminded me of the song "The Eye in the Sky" by Toto. There were other wonderful memories of me and my 2 housemates driving crosscountry from Melbourne to LA - stopovers at Mobile (Alabama), Houston & Dallas (TX), Zion national park (AZ), Grand Canyon, Las Vegas (Nevada), before LA. Driven across Louisianna, New Mexico, Utah.
Was there a mentor or professor who had a big impact on you personally and/or professionally?
Honoray Professor Gordon Patterson - whom I associated with the professor character in Raiders of the Lost Tomb, acted by Harrison Ford. I took Human Imperative, Ancient and Modern Civilisation (3 modules) with him. I had an A grade, my first and only A grade in an English language subject my entire student life. We became friends and I gave him a Chinese water color painting by my father of a tropical fruit, rumbutan, that he framed and hanged in his living room. I learned a lot from him which presently I using the concepts of Classical and Romantic understanding for my skills development training I'm conducting.
Please share any advice you have for current Florida Tech students.
Sadly, I think today's college students are too engrossed in digital technological apps, and the financial markets, with little focus on the fundamentals in the developments behind them.
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