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

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.

Tips For Final Year Project

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!

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 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

Guide to Learning 1: Focus

I'm sure all of us know that focus is the key element to complete any task effectively and efficiently. But why is it that we know but we never really practise it? There are many reasons and personally I feel that the main reason is noise.

Focus in achieving an objective

Noise, or the alternative voice in our lives, is the culprit of pulling us back from advancing towards our goals. One example would be me writing the blog. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, Guide to Learning, I started this blog in 2007. However, I did not follow through my dream. This was due to the noise inside me. The "devil" in me told me that this is redundant, this is a waste of my time, etc etc... I procrastinated and although I kept looking back into this blog, I was just lazy to pick it up and do what I wanted.

So, I would urge everyone who has an objective to just work towards it. To quote the famous Nike slogan, "Just Do It!". What can be the worst outcome? Fail? People laughing at your failure? At least you have tried and have no regret. Imagine you looking back in life when you are old and realise that you have not tried to work towards one of your little dreams. If the reason for not trying was because of the noise inside you, I'm sure you would have regretted big time.

In my case, I would have failed if no one reads my blog, but if at least one other person reads it, I see myself as a success. And now you are reading this post, thank you so much! :)

Focus in achieving a small task

Another reason why we fail to focus would be our physical surrounding. We may be distracted by people walking past, by the (real) noise from footsteps and conversations nearby, and even by the hot weather, especially in Singapore.

My friends always comment that I look very scary when I am doing my work, especially when I am thinking. They don't dare to interrupt me, even if they just wanted to ask me for lunch, because I look like I can devour anyone anytime. Now, how do I overcome these real noises?

My only reply, even if you ask me now, is to train in harsh conditions. There is no air-con at home. I stay less than 10 metres from the ground floor. I stay at a busy location where there are thousands of people walking past each day. I stay near the train station. There used to have a garbage collection point just outside the window in my room.  I'm sure you would have guessed what is it like to do work in my room. Noise, smell, non-stop moving elements. To round it off, I love doing work in my room, facing the moving train.

This "training" has made me used to the harsh conditions which we could face anywhere, anytime. When my house was under renovation with all the drillings and hammering, I was inside my room, with door opened, continuing to do my work as if it was just another normal day.

For students, if you are able to focus in harsh conditions, I'm sure that you will have no problem during examination, in a quiet environment. If this is not enough, one more plus point is that it will definitely serve you well if by any chance, your examination hall is not as quiet as it should be. This happened to me a few times before and I'm sure you have experienced it.

To end off, I feel that everyone is equal and no one is smarter than another. It's the ability to focus that makes the difference, that determines how much time is needed to understand a concept, that makes a person "seemingly smarter" than another.