Day 1, Monday, 6 June 2011,
This is what I leant from the five plenary sessions held.
From the first talk, which was about water, I learnt about how many people are going through serious issues concerning water. This has taught me about how fortunate we are to be in a society where this issues do not exist. Then, I learnt about how proper water sanitation dates back to many centuries ago, for example, proper technology for flushing toilets was invented in 1700BC to 1500BC. This taught me that even though this technology seems pretty high-tech today, it was invented a very long time ago. All in all, this talk has enlightened me on how important water is.
In the second talk, which was about microelectronics technology, I learnt about how microelectronics can further improve our way of life, and how technology of computers advanced from the Z-1 in 1936 to the computers we have today in 2011.
In the third talk, which was about nanotechnology, I learnt about how amazing nanotechnology's potential is, like making the strongest and lightest material possible, be able to cure tumors with the cure being as small as a cell and storing tons of data in something as small as a sugar cube.
In the fourth talk, which was about using IT for animation, I learnt that 2D Animation is actually more labour-intensive and expensive than 3D Animation, which was something I did not know until now. Also, I learnt about the steps taken to properly do 2D animation.
In the last talk, which was about how gravity affects the sea level, I learnt about the changes in mass in different areas in the world, and how melting glaciers affect the sea level in many areas in the world.
-- Chan Jia Ler
Day 2, Tuesday, 7 June 2011,
I chose this project because I am very interested in electricity and electrical circuits. I was also interested in the different types of electrical circuits, and how they help the mechanism it powers to allow it to work. My role in this group was to help take down the results of the experiments conducted by us.The challenges we encountered when working on this project in the last 2 days were that we were not sure about how to reverse the polarity in the circuit and make the light turn off when pressure is applied on the FSR. However, once we sought help from the student helpers, they gave us a few hints as to how to do so. Through this project, I discover that electrical circuits are actually very complicated, but also very interesting, and that was just a small part of what the students will learn in that syllabus. I also learnt that every single component in the circuit help the mechanism to function properly. As an individual, I have gained a lot of knowledge about electricity, electrical circuits, the components of a circuit, how they work, and how to use them. We also learnt how to apply this knowledge into situations like this project. This project has given me an insight into what we will learn if we take this subject, and I am really excited to learn more about this subject, but I cannot do this if I do not do well in my studies. So, I must do my best to be able to get into NTU by studying hard.
-- Chan Jia Ler
