Fencer Li is down now, like your MRT today

Despite having the ability to respond to stimuli like attack of virus in the body, those eukaryotic cells in the great fencer's body of me still fails to self-regulate and evolve to deal with the the single-stranded DNA/ RNA containing, stupid virus. After spending 4 hours of sleeping time to rush the proposal, my body is finally tamed by the at most lipid and capsid enveloping pathogens. With the use their surface proteins, the t-even bacteriophage virus shamelessly carry out lytic infection on my poorly immuned body, with fever and coughings as signs of my loss. Now, after having to rush my work, I ultimately understand the importance of me the pharmaceutical engineer to savage the world from the shameless parasites!

Fig. 1 - Photo  from Singapore Polytechnic Fencing Club showing signs of good health and strength of Fencer Li

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207368203777025&set=a.10207368192376740.1073741830.1044270703&type=3&theater)

Primary Research is a Great Tool for Generation of News of Today!

As a company not specialised in the infrastructural engineering, Channel 5 (2015) did the right thing tonight by looking for someone to explain the complicated decision of forming the "better integration between designers, builders and operators of MRT lines" (Tan, 2015). Such primary research can enhance the credibility of the news. Most importantly, our friends in Singapore Institute of Technology can have alternative source when carrying out the secondary research, so that they will not have breakdown on proposal drafting like the MRT lines!

Figure 1 - Expert from SIT explaining the "better integration between designers, builders and operators of MRT lines (Channel 5, 2015)" (Tan, 2015)

References

Too selfish to tell you!!

Letter of Transmittal

19 November 2015

Mr. Chew Hock Yong

Chief of Executive

Land Transport Authority

10 Sin Ming Drive, 
Singapore 575701

Dear Mr. Chew,

RE: Proposal to place piezoelectric materials underneath Singapore’s road surfaces

This letter is to inform you of our acknowledgement and response to your letter of authorization. We are pleased to present you with the proposal to harvest energy from vehicles movement using piezoelectric materials on Orchard Road.

As a resource-constrained country, Singapore has limitations on the development of alternative energy sources. Therefore, we came up with the idea of discover unused energies that can be utilized and converted into electricity as a potential energy source. To achieve this goal, our report shows a comprehensive analysis of the possible benefits and feasibility on the utilization of vibrational energy compared to the consumption of fossil fuel. Vibrational energy produced from the vehicles were converted to useful electricity by the piezoelectric materials that are placed underneath the road surfaces. The installation of piezoelectric materials underneath road surfaces has not been adopted in Singapore yet.

We would like to thank you for taking the time to read through the proposal, and hope that you will take our suggestions into considerations to make Singapore more prosperous in a greener way.

Yours Sincerely,

Li Jun Xuan Hinnessy 
(Mister) Team 
Member

On Behalf of Team “Energy Discovery”

Personal Statement

Li Jun Xuan Hinnessy:

 

Hinnessy is a student from Pharmaceutical Engineering programme in Singapore Institute of Technology. Having experienced the situations of haze and realizing the need to have constant power supply for the industrial growth of his field, he understands the need to look for an alternative energy source in Singapore that can contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions. Although Singapore is constrained in natural resources due to its small size, he believes through the use of technology, the nation can find a new way to sustain its growth.

Executive Summary

Currently, Singapore depends on fossil fuels as the main method of electricity generation to cater to its energy demand. In order to cater to this demand, the rate of the burning of fossil fuels which a nonrenewable resource is rapid.  This causes high carbon emissions which will lead to serious environmental problems. Singapore needs to find more alternative energy sources through the discovery of unutilized energy and choose a suitable and clean alternative energy source. This will not only cause less damage to our environment but also sustain Singapore’s future development. Our proposal suggests an approach that can be adopted by the Land Transport Authority to implement piezoelectric materials underneath the road surface of Orchard road, so as to make use of the vibrational energy unused by vehicles on the roads to obtain a renewable source of alternative energy.

To assess the feasibility of our proposed approach through the implementation of piezoelectric materials underneath the surface of Orchard Road, our team calculated on the cost of electricity generated per day and the payback period. In addition, our team has also listed down the possible benefits on the usage of piezoelectric materials to further support the feasibility of our approach.

Thinking

Someone Who Inspired Me

“The reason is not I only look nice in female suit, but I look nice, so I wear like a female,” says the man in the music video showing his determination to continue his own way of life. Echoing with the man’s will to continue being himself, I was at the edge of tearing again when watching the music video in a concert.

The music video “Gypsy in Memory” (Teamear, 2013) is about the stories of pursuing a way of life of ones’ own despite facing challenges and desperations. The song is complimented by four persons of different backgrounds to enhance the feeling of desperation and determination, including the man in feminine suit. Despite disliking the work the man himself does, he needs to continue working hard in proper business suit to look for customers to support his life. However, once ended work, the man wears feminine clothes and enjoys “being a lady”. Unfortunately, he is noticed and beaten perhaps for his feminine look. Nevertheless, the man still chooses to enjoy “being a lady” bravely despite suffering the bullying. The music video successfully demonstrates how the man faces the stereotyping of the society and follows his own will liberally.

Figure 1 – Once ended work, the man wears feminine clothes and enjoys “being a lady” (Teamear, 2013)

Stereotyping allows people to simplify the society. However, it brings “social categorisation” which is the reason for “prejudice attitude”, according to McLeod (2008). We are living in the world of stereotyping, which is especially true when you feel it is the “most appropriate” for the man in the music video to have his business suit for work. Unfortunately, this is not the upper limit of stereotyping. As shown in the video, the man in feminine suit is recognised by a man who then beats him for no reason. Why does this happen? The time you can answer it, the time you have stereotyping. Unfortunately, we need to make use of our experiences to make judgements (McLeod, 2008). In this case, stereotyping is inevitable. However, if the man in the video is beaten just for his feminine look, it only reflects the intolerance of differences and non-compromising stereotyping of the bully. Similarly, when I was told to throw away my socks of several torn holes for upholding the “honour” of myself, when I was perceived “ugly” for wearing the clothes I was unwilling to throw, when I was asked to drop the fencing sport for my lack of achievements in the relevant field, when I was signalled to look for a girlfriend when someone else of my age was having their marriages, I did have the same feeling of the man in the video.

Despite facing unfair treatment due to the stereotyping, the man in the video chooses to continue following his will by going out in feminine clothes again. He is determined not to be interfered by the stereotyping of the society. “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage” (ThinkExist.com, 2015). Caring about others’ opinions, I admire his determination. As I was at the edge of sobbing when watching the music video, my will to be myself became stronger. Understanding the prevalent existence of stereotyping in the society, I decide to bring another successful example beside the man to encourage more people to be themselves bravely.

“Everyone has the world on his shoulder”. Perhaps we have another world in our minds, we still need to continue our life with the real world (Teamear, 2013). However, inspired by the man in the video, I decide to be braver in the journey of life by following my heart. Most importantly, I should keep my stereotyping to allow people around me to be themselves. After all, “those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves”, according to Lincoln (1859), the president of America.

References

Lincoln, A. (1859). Letter to Henry L. Pierce and others. Abraham Lincoln Online. Retrieved December 3,2015 from http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/pierce.htm

McLeod, S. (2008). Stereotypes. SimplyPsychology. Retrieved December 3,2015 from http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html  

Teamear. (2013). 陳綺貞 - 流浪者之歌 (Official Music Video) [Cheer Chen – Gypsy in memory (Official Music Video)][Online video]. YouTube. Retrieved December 3,2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SygkJv51Ixs

ThinkExist.com Quotations (2015). Freedom quotes. Retrieved December 3,2015 from http://en.thinkexist.com/quotations/freedom/

Critical Reflection on Peer and Tutor Feedback

I believe each of us is unique. Besides attempting to follow the “perfect models” shown during the lesson, we should prosper with uniqueness of ourselves to create our varieties in life. “Variety is the spice of life” as mentioned by my lecturer, Brad, has highlighted the especially important role of variety played in communication modules. The uniqueness can be achieved by the obtaining feedbacks from tutors and peers instead. This is especially true for my oral presentation.

According to Brad, Haiqing, and Fan, (2015), the meaningless gestures, random body movements, tense facial expression and fast speaking speed of me, due to my nervousness, were also some of the critical distraction for them to have a satisfying experience during my presentation. Although I tried to utilise the power of gestures to guide the audiences through the presentation, the effect of stage fear caused me to mess up my gestures. Moreover, my meaningless movements as the common sign of my nervousness might have misled the audiences during the presentation. Most seriously, my tense face might have deprived my audiences of having a pleasant experience from the presentation. Furthermore, the lack of fluency and accuracy of my words as well as the lack of clarity of my sentences due to the inadequate preparation created a challenge for my audiences to understand my points as fed back by Fan (2015).

Fortunately, it is never too late to learn my mistakes now since I need to have a lot of presentations to sell your ideas in study and work as mentioned by my lecturer. Since the inadequate preparation for the presentation reflects “practicing makes perfect”, I should contribute more effort in practicing. This does not mean compromising my time on other modules. Instead, I should practice smartly by distributing more time of the given limited time for practicing formally in front of groupmates and friends to gather their views and feedbacks. From the feedback of my presentation, I understand that the reason of my audiences for failing to get the best experiences of my presentation is not that I was not charming or my ideas were not brilliant. I believe eye contacts and facial expressions played a part in people’s perception of my performance. According to Farnam (2015), eye contact is important to show the honesty, charms and intelligence of a person. On the other hand, as the goal of “self-presentation”, facial expression is utilized by humans to increase the accuracy what they want to show (Schmidt & Cohn, 2001). As a result, I should always remind myself to treat my audiences like engaging with my friends by maintaining eye contacts and facial impressions that can coordinate with my information during the practices of the my presentation until such engagements can be performed subconsciously. Talking about the “freight or flight”, controlling my nervousness and calming myself down are the keys. Measures including reaching the venue of my presentation 10 minutes earlier, setting up the visualizers and laptop as early as possible must be adapted to give myself more time to calm down before the presentation starts in the future. Besides taking measures on the day of presentation, I should also have more practices so that I can get used to the embarrassment and the process of presentations, which is suggested by Calm Clinic, (n.d.). Most fundamentally, sleeping well the day before the presentation must be ensured. Furthermore, I should believe in myself in being able to give the audiences the best experiences so that I can do what I can imagine to do to succeed in the presentation (Taylor, 2011). Believing yourself is similar to doing the “superman” pose before the presentation as encouraged by Brad,which can enable yourself to at least perform with less interference of nervousness. Moreover, group practicing should be carried out more frequently. Such practices can allow other members of the group to understand each other’s slides better and most essentially, enhance teamwork.

Notwithstanding the huge improvement I can do for the future presentation, I should retain some of the strength of showing my enthusiasm and passion with informative slides and deep understanding as praised by Fan (2015) and Goh (2015). Fuelled by the approval of my lecturer and peers, I was able to raise my enthusiasm and passion from the joy of studying the module for the presentation. Excelled with the help and feedback of my lecturer and peers, I was able to work hard with my team to make the presentation informative for the audiences. Hence, I should keep what I learnt from my lecturer and keep my joy, enthusiasm and hard work for every single presentation in the future. 

On the other hand, I am determined to utilise the power of the peer and tutor feedback in field not only on the field of presentations. Feedback is always useful in knowing one's self in many ways. A higher amount of feedback obtained is like a statistic of one's self in the eyes of the public. Therefore, I am able to be more careful on my own work and life to achieve a better quality, based on the previous feedback. I am able to ask myself why I should ask some many questions during interviews. 
--------"Are these interview questions relevant to what I need?"

Fig.1 - Best demonstration of my art of messiness in secondary school

I am able to question myself the presentability of my work.
--------"Does it look messy to my boss?" These are some true examples based on the feedbacks of people on my irrelevant answer for questions, the messiness of my work. Furthermore, the feedback process done in the module allows me to place more attention on others' words and more respects to others' opinions. After all, people are to give you feedbacks for sake of you to improve yourself. As a result, I am more proactive to think about others' opinions with greater focus on the positive outcomes based on the opinions, rather than being stubborn and facing the failures as a result. For instance, I am able to think critically why my fencing coach scolds me when I am too lazy or tired to warm myself up before engaging in fencing. Instead of feeling the coach disliking me, I should understand my coach is trying to reduce the risk of injury of me during the match. You may not think rationally if you are controlled by your negative emotion rather than you controlling your emotion.

Besides feeling grateful for having opportunities to improve myself with the feedbacks from my tutor and peers, I should continue to make use of the power of the feedbacking system to achieve many more goals in my life. Let me improve myself in the journey of life through learning from the feedbacks, unlearning the wrong practices done and relearning my strengt appreciated by others!

References

Calm Clinic. (n.d.). How to overcome nervousness. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/overcoming-nervousness

Fan, R. (2015). SIE2016/PEV2011 _ Oral presentation evaluation form. Singapore Institute of Technology. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TcIEJWC4aquDfPnhdeMRlj-uHruL8iWH2EB4xy7xd_g/edit

Farnam, A. A. (2015). Do blind people make facial expressions like sighted people? Quora. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from https://www.quora.com/Do-blind-people-make-facial-expressions-like-sighted-people

Goh, P. Y. (2015). SIE2016/PEV2011 _ Oral presentation evaluation form. Singapore Institute of Technology. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WIsMwOnM-vVEXG9GgD7Mbw7VetxcIibf0Lqy5OuIY4M/edit?usp=drive_web

Panic Disorder, (n.d.). What is the fight or flight syndrome? Retrieved December 3, 2015 from http://www.panicrecoverycenter.com/fight.html

Schmidt, K. L. & Cohn, J. F. (2001). Human facial expressions as adaptations: evolutionary questions in facial expression research. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Suppl 33, 3-24. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from http://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.2001

Taylor, M. (2011). 6 ways to destroy nervousness. PickTheBrain. Retrieved December 3, 2015 from http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/6-ways-to-destroy-nervousness/