Wednesday 28 August 2013

Free Physics Education Till 21st September 2013

Quoting from the website

"Another great initiative by IOPscience publishing to let their articles go free access for a month or so. Go download, it is free access for another 20+days! Another reason why I send my manuscripts to IOPscience. enjoy!"


free physics education


Very interesting and it's really kind of them.
Get yours now! :) :) :)

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Enjoy The Process of Acquiring Knowledge

Studying is a process of learning new stuff, acquiring new knowledge. The time period for this process varies, from 2 years in Junior College to 6 years in Primary School, or maybe even more for other certifications. In any case, the time taken is not short, so enjoying the process is of utmost importance.

Do with friends

samuel in lecture with friends
samuel graduates with friends

When I was doing the module EE2011 (Engineering Electromagnetics) back in 2008, I quite hated it because of the intensive calculations. Double and triple integrations were inevitable and this was already considered the easiest task. The more difficult task was to form the equation in the first place. Throughout the course, I remember that I got none of my tutorial questions totally correct and this was very turn off for me. I nearly gave up. Luckily for me, I had my best friend WJ to depend on and WC for support. We worked together, we learned together, we made mistakes together. Doing with 1 or 2 friends will be good. As an added note, personally I don't really like bigger group as we will tend to get rowdy (you know what I mean) and get little or no work done in the end.

Do not think about the end
What is the end? Of course examination! I realise something over the years. Many people like going to school, some because it allows us to mingle with friends, some because we get to learn interesting things in class which we would not otherwise come across. But, most of us have one thing in common, we hate examination. Learning new things is fun. Sitting down and memorising them for the sake of the 2 hours in the examination hall is not. Many times, especially when the examination period is around the corner, we tend to get more and more worked up. This is normal because that's what we have been working for. And that's precisely why we are stress. So, let's try to focus on the process, treat everyday like the third week of school (usually the first two weeks are too slack, in NUS at least). Learn happily, learn without 'toxic thoughts'.

Take criticism positively
We improve only when we know our mistakes or weaknesses. Sometimes, we realise ourselves, at other times, we need another person to tell us. I know a few friends who cannot take criticism and I admit that sometimes me too. I feel that we should listen to all criticisms and think about them. Filter out those which are just out to put us down, act on those which are meant to help us. Remember, only true friends criticise constructively, so don't hate them just because they criticise you.

Move forward
The moment you walked out of the exam hall, the paper is over. The moment you got the result, that paper is totally history. Just like in life, always look forward. If you did well in an exam, celebrate a while and move forward. Acquire new knowledge, build up existing ones. Don't get complacent. If you did badly, learn from it and move forward. Don't get depressed. There is no need to harp over a badly done paper. One paper is not going to determine your future, as said by PM Lee in the National Day Rally 2013. Or like what Warren Buffett said, 'Never look back'. Take failures easy, move forward. When the whole world rejects you, upgrade yourself.

Friday 9 August 2013

Tips For Final Year Project

samuel thesis

Now is about time for NUS final year students (or students in university with similar academic year) to start their Final Year Project, or Thesis. In this post, I will share about the things that I did when I was doing my FYP in 2011. Nothing in this post is unique, I find them to be normal stuff that students should do, but more likely than not, we tend to forget and need some reminders, and hence this post. :)

Choose what you like, or like what you do.

As FYP is a one-year commitment, and it is basically our daily activity, especially for engineering students from NUS (I don't know about other fields), we need to be doing what we like or like what we do, otherwise we will be literally miserable for one full year. We don't always get to do the project we put as first choice, so, it's time to think different and like what you do. Instead of focusing on the topic, why not focus on your supervisor who is there to guide you along? Instead of lamenting that you can't get your first choice, why not focus your energy into learning the selected topic? The only reason why you hate the topic is because you are not comfortable with it. Give it a chance, learn it and I am sure that you will grow 'good feeling' for it.

Focus

As written in one of my previous posts, focus is the keyword no matter what you do, and FYP is no different. In fact, you need more focus in FYP more than any other module. In FYP, there is no one to continuously teach you and there is usually no friend to take the same topic as you. Put it in an extreme way, you are all alone (I will contradict myself in the next section). As you would know from my previous post, I used to spend a lot of time on my FYP, basically all my non-lecture time in the FYP lab and work towards the goals my supervisor and I set for myself, away from all distractions. Is FYP really worth the effort? Definitely yes. My opinion is that knowing the topic well is not the main aim of FYP, instead it is more about self discipline and whether you are independent and mature enough to handle a project by yourself. You will soon find out that you are doing things which you did not think you can, and you are pushing yourself past the boundary which you always thought you are limited to.

Enjoy the process. Take things easy.

To survive the one year, you have to enjoy, otherwise you will be living in hell for a year, which is unhealthy. I remember that I spent about 3 weeks trying to simulate a phenomenon which occurs in HEMT [1], the current collapse. I would stay in the lab and do all I can, read, write code, simulate. However, all the results showed only failures. To make things worse, the time for each simulation ranged from a few minutes to a few hours. I was really upset but I tried to motivate myself. No one in the team had done it, so I would be the first to simulate that. That would be the best achievement.

Do lots of research. Read!


samuel research

Read for knowledge. In FYP, you need lots of knowledge. For me, I was mainly in research and hence reading was of utmost importance to me. I have read not less than 70 published papers throughout the one year, in addition to some textbooks and manuals. Sounds scary? No worries. I did not fully understand everything. I only read in depth a few papers, the few important ones for my research. The others were merely to have a general knowledge of what is going on and to sift out certain useful important information for my research. Like I have always said, in my own words,
You do not need to know a lot about a lot, you need to know a little about a lot and a lot on one or two important topics.


Hands-on, stop reading.


hands-on

Hands-on is a must for FYP. More likely than not, you will be required to produce something, either a helicopter, a robot or simulated results. Whatever it is, do it! Reading is for knowledge, but trust me, even if you follow closely the published papers and do what they say, you will not get the same result immediately (at least I did not). You will face another set of new issues once you start to get your hands dirty. And that's where the fun comes in. Start early, fail early, try again!

Ask
Your supervisor is there to help you. Don't feel embarrassed to ask. I was lucky to have a good supervisor in A.Prof Tan Leng Seow from the NUS ECE department. I used to have a one-on-one meeting with him every week, sometimes he requested, at other times me. On top of that, we had a weekly group meeting (with PhD candidates, research students and another supervisor, Dr Yeo Yee Chia, from the NUS ECE department). Through these group meetings, I got to know the smarter and more experienced students and they were very willing to help me whenever I needed help. I consider myself very lucky to be in the group. But first, I must help myself first by opening my mouth to ask. I am very sure that there are people around you who can help you, just look around proactively, just ask around.
Remember this: You may not get what you want, but you never know if you never ask.

Since I am on the topic of FYP, I would like to take this chance to thank the people who have helped me in one way or another again. Prof Tan, Dr Yeo, Mr Edwin Low Kim Fong, Dr Liu Zhihong, Mr Pannirselvam and Mr Liu Xinke. Thank you so much! :D

[1] HEMT: High Electron Mobility Transistor

Thursday 8 August 2013

Selamat Hari Raya & Happy National Day

I wish all Selamat Hari Raya and Happy National Day!!! Enjoy the holiday! :)


singapore flag

selamat hari raya



Having have been busy at work for the past few weeks, I have not written any post. However, do look out for my next post on tips for