Day 1, Monday, 6 June 2011,
For the first lecture, I have learnt the statistics of the relevant water problems, but I did not know the greatness it imposes on the society before the talk, which probably is the key takeaway point of the lecture. Also, it was quite enriching to find out and know that the key enablers that drives us forward may also be the famous that drives us backwards.
For the second lecture, I’ve learnt the 9 O’s, but I felt that I got almost nothing from the talks as I do not understand much from the talk. All I know is that there are 9 O’s, Electrical & Biological are combining to become BioNanoElectronics and the people working on this field demands higher salary.
In the third lecture, I’ve learnt that the sizes of organisms are too small than I can imagine. This shows how big the world is as there are so many things and you can just imagine the amount and number of particles in each of the items found. It will roughly shows you a rough gage of how big the world is and do we ‘really have space’?
In the fourth lecture, I was introduced the different types of animations and film making, and how much does each production causes, and what impacts does it have to the society, like offering new jobs or cause an economical burden to the company itself. There was a part where they explain the codes and mathematics equations behind each of the color detail implemented in each frame of the animation depending on the needs of the director and the film itself. I was surprised that 3D films took lesser money and time to produce than 2D films, but I found out that 2D requires more manpower afterwards. There was also the last part which shows me that a 2D image can ‘made’ into 3D with some shading and lighting effects.
In the fifth lecture, which I find was interesting, I was taught why water level was high in some parts of the area even though it was the furthest from where the flooding or melting of glaciers happen. It is mainly because of the weight of the glacier pushing the earth crust down, and when it melted, the melted glaciers will be converted into water and discharged into the sea or water body, and the lighter glacier was cause the earth surface to rebound up because of a drastic change of mass all of a sudden. The water will then be pushed towards the other side because of the energy transferred between the earth crust and the water body. That is perhaps the most interesting point in the whole entire 5 plenary sessions, as it explains why Singapore is still vulnerable, or rather the MOST vulnerable when the sea level is rising because of melting glaciers which also suggest we must not take things for granted and start taking action to prevent this unfortunate incident from really happening in Singapore in our future.
-- Lhu Wen Kai
Day 2, Tuesday, 7 June 2011,
I choose this project because it is quite interesting to be exposed to electrical circuits and trying to solve a world real problem by applying what we have learnt.
My role in my sub group is that I control the equipment like the multimeter and the power source, and I give ideas and suggestions to contribute to the group although I did not do much of the physical and actual setup itself.
We encountered problems ranging from the common ones like the LED lights does not light up because of an open circuit or shot circuit, and others such as not being able to connect the wires properly into the breadboard, putting the LED lights opposite, power supply not one, output not plugged, no current, wrong resistors and calculation of the resistors. We also had some disagreement of ideas along the way but we solved them pretty quickly and we managed to salvage something out in the remaining amount of time. Also, for the other problems, we would try to avoid them if there is a need for it to be used in the experiment(s) again, so we do not waste any extra time trying to figure out what is wrong.
Through this group, I’ve discovered that electrical circuits and connections are not that easy and it also serves as a gentle but great reminder on how much technology has changed in the recent years that everything can be done in a breadboard as a prototype, and later transform and marketed into something smaller like the iPhone. This also goes to show how much hard work need to be put it by the poor people around the world just to make us the simple phone that we think that it is not good enough. Besides the world, I also learn the different equipments and how wires are connected to form a circuit, and the resistors, transistors and what is the appropriate position for everything to be positioned in the breadboard.
I have learnt many things such as mentioned above like wire circuits and such, and with this knowledge, I can finally understand how switches and plugs work, and I can tell my parents, friends and relatives the reason if their switch gets fused or spoiled because of a short circuit or lack of current etc. I can also learn more about connections so it would be a great use if there is a similar project in the future.
After this experience, I do not even want to consider to be in this job as I am not really attracted to this area. The programme structure is well planned as is helps us know a lot of things in a short time, but the information does not suit my understanding well and a lot of times by brain cannot think and figure out how does the wires are supposed to be connected to the breadboard.
-- Lhu Wen Kai
