Reflections by Si Yuan


Day 1 Reflections

In Plenary Session 1, the lesson was pretty engaging and interesting. It was told that the Singapore river was not in a very good condition 50 years back and if people falls inside the river, they will probably not die because of drowning but rather die because of accidental consumption of the polluted water. In polluted water, it harms you in a few ways. First is the smell, followed by chronic diseases and infectious diseases, etc. What I did not know was the astonishing amount of people who has no access to clean water and die due to waterborne diseases. 1.1 billion people in the world has no access to drinking water, 2.4 billion people has no access to toilets; which means that they pollute the drinking water and drink the polluted water. 3.4 million people die each year because of waterborne diseases and another 2 billion people are currently at risk to water-related diseases.


In Plenary Session 2, the lesson was quite awesome. The professor talked about how micro electronics is being used now, and that how it can be improvised and be used in the future. This experience was the first of its kind in my life and it changed my perspective of going to Universities. Before the talk, I thought that going university was kinda useless but afterwards, I found out how interesting and fun universities can be and that we can learn many things at the same time. It is a bit similar to how we are currently doing work in SST a much more complex version. He focused on not only how nano technology can help us in the future, but also how we can make a difference to others by the use of micro electronics. He also talked bio nano electronics which is used to help the blinds’ to see its surroundings and not only does this help the blinds but it also helps people with blood problems, etc.


In Plenary Session 3, the lesson was a bit similar to Plenary Session 2. This lesson has thought me that Nano Science has a very bright future ahead. It is used to clear body odor, clear old spots and even used for some contact lens and more in the near future. I have also learnt something new and it is that the smaller size for a fixed volume = larger surface area. An example of a great use of Nano Science is the carbon nano-tubes. These tubes have the strength of the steel but is only a fraction of its weight. This invention was used during the movie Spider Man and I was very shocked to here that as I thought that that was just a movie and was just superficial. Another shocking discovery was the invisible cloak from the movie “Harry Potter”. I thought that the cloak was just superficial but it turned out to be real. This is what I call Nano Technology. 


In Plenary Session 4, the theme this time is animation. We were introduced to stop motion animation, 2D and 3D animation. He also showed us how mathematics are applied in movies, and motion capture. For me personally, I have some background knowledge of it rom Media Club when I was is Primary School. Hence, this session has just increased my knowledge of this content. Some of the learning points from the session is that everybody can be an inventor; take the first step, start something big; and to keep things simple and perfect it later.


And finally in Plenary Session 5, the topic is about gravity and sea levels, which was very interesting to me and maybe most of the other people. This is probably because I am more into the Earth’s geography. The main key learning point from this session is that sea-level rise will not be the same everywhere. This is due to a very complex process formed by the glacier ‘denting’ the Earth’s crust, which then caused the sea water to be attracted to the glacier. When the glacier melts, the water would flow back into the sea and cause a sea-level rise and that sea level rise will be highest farthest from the glaciers and is different in different parts of the world. 


The Plenary Session that left me the deepest impression was Plenary Session 2. In this session, the professor was very interesting throughout his talk. He concentrated on why we should join Electronic Engineering (EE). His persuasive skills were just too awesome, and it made me want to join EE course when I’m in University. What I find the most interesting about Electronic Engineering is that it can do many unbelievable things, from creating entertainment for kids and teenagers to helping the blind see. Another interesting fact about taking EE courses is that it is encouraged by the government now as they donated 16.1 Billion Singapore dollars for research and innovation enterprise.


Day 3 Reflections
I chose this project because I find mostly anything related to water or air interesting. I think that this is an interesting subject to sign up because in our everyday life, we come into contact with water and in our school, we also come into contact with ethanol and other chemical substances, etc...


Well, everyone in the group took shifts, and hence everyone had equal chances to try out the different jobs during the distillation experiment.


When we were out for lunch, the distillation columns were sabotaged and was set to function abnormally. The challenge was to fix the problem with no guidance whatsoever from the trainers or professors.


Through this project, I discover that operating a distillation column takes a lot of effort and team co-ordination. This is to make sure that each part and component of the apparatus is functioning well, because if just one of the components fail to function properly, the rest of the system will be faulty. I have learnt about many skills on how to operate the apparatus in the pilot room. 


After going through this course, I found some interest in this aspect but I am more interested in Aerospace and aspires to be a Pilot one day.