Bringing out the engineer in you
I believe The Radical motion simulator project was a subject of interest for my of my juniors in the Singapore Polytechnic doing their FYP now. It been about 5 months since I graduated from SP as a Mechanical engineering student in Singapore polytechnic (SP), but that didn’t stop the fair bit of feedback I constantly get from my visitors, representatives from other educational institutions as well as commercial enquires from the public.

Furthermore, this project sparked interest of quite a few students researching to major in the Engineering field, and I am glad to be a mentor to this handful of prospective students considering engineering as a major (it is an interesting and fun field). It just make my day to share and light up these individual interests in the field of Engineering- making it hip and trendy to as opposed what people think of it (Engineering is not a boring field juniors!).

Personally, I never thought it to take so far off to be considered a case study by itself. This project was mainly kept secrecy at the request of my project supervisor while in development, so I never had a chance to share my experiences of the project which may prove invaluable to anyone out there looking to learn more about the project, especially for final year project students not to mention the story behind my project and the team behind it. However, since now it was featured to the public, papers and on TV during the Singapore Polytechnic Spinnovex Senior’s final year project earlier in February in this year, hey it’s no longer a secret anyone.

The simulator was featured just last month as a highlight in the Singapore Science center’s “Formula 1 Science of speed exhibition” so you might catch it there in action if you were there. So without further ago, finally got the time to actually sit down and write an entry about my final year project which was really the pride and joy for my team, the polytechnic and myself.

The finished simulator

Cockpit area and screen

Our display booth on the Feb 08 exhibition day

The radical project
This simulator was created with my team of 3 over a period of 14 weeks from scratch to finish (including testing, so technically we had like 12 weeks to build with 2 weeks to test). So without further ado, I will introduce my team members who put through the whole project thick and thin, the project will be never near what it was it it weren’t for them and their efforts.

Team Radical Members (previously known as Team Radicurl)

Lee Khowming
My course and classmate in my diploma in Engineering course. He has a technical education background in secondary school, which makes him a rather good fabricator when it comes to putting up pieces of the simulator together. On top of this engineering diploma, he is a diploma plus student who took a minor in computer programming, so that helped alot in lightening the software programming load (including the endless code debugging) where I could delegate my time to design refinement and the directional plans for the team. He is very loyal & focused to the team’s need & extremely hard- working- a very positive force to be reckoned, though sometimes you have to help point the force in the right direction at times.

Danson Han
Danson Han is the electrical guy in the team, having built and raced a mini solar car himself in this general elective modules, this guy is just one electronics guru- He can solder and fix up any electric problems as fast as a gun-slinging sheriff.

He is very much responsible of most of the electrical and lighting systems. This car crazy and racing fanatic is also our chief game analyzer and test driver who feels very much at home in school given the need to test the platform with lots of PC racing, flight and computer simulation games. This feedback were invaluable in the development and refinement of the project itself. After all, what’s better than coming to school everyday and having your job playing games everyday right?

Shaun Chng
Well I no picture needed here! My role was very much the driving force and chief engineer of the project. I was the team leader and mainly responsible of the design, concept, putting together all the design requirements and feedback from my lecturer and team on Pro-engineer CAD. I was also the one responsible for all the multimedia content as well as ensuring quality, it was a fairly hectic job which I strangely enjoyed doing. As I was fairly more experienced with designing and inventing contraptions, I have my side role there as a mentor for my teammates and teaching new things out of the book as well free-rein delegation and guiding them on their tasks if they needed any help, I picked out many new skills in soldering as well as metal work myself.

It’s a whole team effort working hand in hand and learning from each other. It’s this closely linked bond of teamwork and knowing the strengths and weakness of each of which really made this team go.

How it stated out- A car/boat you want? why not everything?
The project started out from a list of current industry need and school projects. One of the items was a force displacement motion simulator. We were allocated that as we initially highlighted to our supervisor that we wanted to build a twin seater amphibious electric Eco-racer, something like cross between a boat and a car with electric regenerative abilities- a clean energy vehicle, but we can only stick to the industry projects and that was the closest one we could see in relation to.

The build process
Planning took a rather long time, a 360 degree rotating simulator was a rather cool idea to start off- minus the possibly of simulator-induced brain trauma. The 360 simulator was something my team including myself were very excited about. But there were many restrictions our project supervisor had in place for us- especially the ones on the compact size and weight he wanted, which was puzzling as that actually added to the project complexity and cost, which we had only a mere $6000 SGD in total. Later do we know the true meaning in the later of our project what our supervisor actually meant.

Some of the engineering drawings

One of the many assembly drawings

Our rapid prototype model

Trade-offs
So after almost a hundred hours on the drawing board, Pro-engineer CAD, material selection, finite element (stress) analysis, rapid model prototyping and 5 major design revisions later, we settled for a 4 degree of motion cockpit mounted on 2 axis with an intermediate coupling superstructure holding the top and base together. This will give it 50 degrees of rotational freedom for both the pitch and roll axis.

We used pneumatics for mechanical actuation in place of the favorable electric linear actuators due to cost and time constraints (our calculated force requirement will require a shipment of electrical actuators from Germany taking 8 weeks), so we settled for large 63mm dia coupled to Festo pneumatic 5/3 middle closed maxi valves who had their stock in their Singapore warehouse.

How it works
Ok since you know it runs on pneumatics (air power, the same stuff which opens and closed bus doors), everything which goes on was rather straight forward, and there was no turning back. With our planned an prototype model in place to confirm all the dimension and a serious lack of time, all the mounting points and component housing were all welded and pre-made to fit the dimension specifications of the cylinders and required components even before they were delivered. Then as everything made, it’s just putting them all together like a giant plastic model piece. The dual PC setup (ethernet-networked), the 24 volt, 12 volt power supply units, as well as the central relays and power distribution unit to run peripherals such as the monitors, speakers, lighting and cooling systems. Since many of the items are custom made to fit, we saw ourselves spending quite alot of time in the workshop fabricating custom mounts and brackets to get everything all in securely in place given the forces they may encounter on a moving simulator.

You can view more on how it works, in the promotional multimedia video I’ve created for the project below:

Murphy we have a problem!
There was a brief dark moment 3 weeks before the deadline during testing where a stray current shorted the whole simulator, that caused quite a major overhaul to find the source of the short, which was later traced to a burnt IC chip in our custom built USB-pneumatic control board for the valves. The incident taught us not only much on Murphy law, but also on effective cable management (which we overlooked) and catering for troubleshooting as well.

Homerun
It’s simply great pleasure having to see all your conceptualizations, drawings and work come up to life day after day. Each day is simply just a challenge of it’s own as the deadline draws near. Simply just seeing your project rise from the nada to something which makes people go “wow” at the end of the day simply makes it all worth it- and man we were finished, on time as well! We made few minor touch-ups and refinements on top of the usual testing just before the exhibition. We even sourced a budget but authentic blue Sparco seat to finish it all up, that included an air- compressor which we loaned within campus. Thereafter was the planning phase for the exhibition booth management, so that included the creation of promotional items such as brochures, our team video, posters, setting and planning up of booth, etc. So there was always work to do. The big day finally came!

Spinnovex Exhibition!
The simulator was actually kept small and compact so that it can still be used in the confines of the exhibition area. Later do we fully understand the space requirement. The exhibition was the thing we had been looking forward to even before we started the project, the dream of showcasing out pride and joy. The exhibition was an eye opener, yet a very tense moment for me and my team given any new problems we could possibility face in the heat of the exhibition given the last shorting incident.

The endless crowds

University visitors

Crowds love us

Moreover, it was also the first time which our simulator prototype underwent a stress test- 3 continuous days of operation for the public with riders always getting in and out (with at any one time a long queue) which was really test of the simulator built and design. Prepared for anything, we were ready with spare parts and always on standby for any problems, which unexpectedly, do occur- There was once where our compressor had condensation problems and some minor electrical problems, but we always got them all repaired on the spot with minimal downtime (most 10 minutes). The event tent power supply was rather quirky as well, as they were running on off-site diesel generators rather than the mains, so the occasional blackouts and unsteady current for all the projects at the main exhibition tent took quite an electrical beating as well. Glad ours went through without a hitch.

We’ve got some trade visitors on exhibition day, some from Japanese universities as well as some from New Zealand. It interesting to note that few university professors who came to the exhibition were surprised at the size and complexity of the project, also considering the 14 week timeline and tight budget to get it all built from scratch. Many were commenting that this project even exceed what some university students do even on their Final year project (and we were only diploma students).

Actual life video at Spinnovex

Project judging
The project judging lasted the 3 whole days of the exhibition, where judges will pop by randomly at planned random times during the day in the public and industry visitors to ask questions and a demonstration of the project. They can catch you at anytime, even during lunch. Luckily our simulator was always up and running without much downtime, so that didn’t hinder us much one bit. The press was around as well and interviewed few of the project groups as well. I was even featured in the Channel News Asia’s “Emerging Asia” programme for the project as well!

At the end of the judging round the bronze and silver awards were given out, the awards signify the tele-ed votes from all the judges over the whole exhibition duration and is award to the best project showcase. To our amazement my project came in the Gold category!

What I learned from this build
This project simply just sets a new milestone in my contribution to the polytechnic and this new engineering design course which many jokingly say “I helped build”. This engineering design course when I studied on my last year of specialization was still a rather new course, which never really saw the light with a disappointing intake my engineering design, but it was through my recommendations (e.g use of software, multimedia etc) and contributions to this new course which propelled it beyond it’s infant stages to what it is brimming with enrollment today.

I can’t deny the project is not perfect- the were few areas that were no built the way we wanted, some LEDs in the lighting system blew, the rear surround speaker don’t sit straight, even the boarding steps and wires were duct-taped instead of drilled or cable tied, but it is what that works effectively which matter. The project really made me overcome the perfectionist in me.

This project also taught me few rather new thing sin life, is that you can lose the battle to win the war. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices in light for the good. Minor things like staying in school from 8am to 9pm every day, even coming back during public holidays and weekends just to get the project finished are just part and parcel in the darkest weeks of our project. Though our project is nothing within international standards, I am glad that we produced an engineering creation built within our own steam and ingenuity- and that is what we were proud to accomplish at the end of the day.

It simply just made the engineer in me and it will always be my passion. I am glad my project will be a continued source of motivational for anyone looking to study in the engineering field.

Every visit back to SP now is always like a treasured moment- something I do not do very often much as taking it for granted for everyday when I was a student there. Whether it is saying meeting my lecturers and student officers there or catching up on happenings around campus, it seems that things are very much different from what it was previously seen as a student and the contacts you make will go a long way.

Infrastructure wise, it seems that much has changed around the area now, especially with the new rebranding efforts around the campus. From the new signs flaunting outside every corner of campus, to the new improvement works around the area such as Food court 1, food court 2 and now, food court 3. The campus is really taking quite a major face lift bit by bit. Food court 3 was particularly interesting as it will be the 2nd and next food court to be air-conditioned. Also considering that the only food tendants there being KFC and Pizza hut (who already have their own enclosed air-conditioned area), the new food court spots new relocated dedicated washing areas previously where the garage area. Presumably all the eating areas will be open and shared between Pizza hut as well as KFC just like those 3 in 1 KFC-Pizza-Taco bell restaurants we see in town. The area might offer new glass windows all round and views of the pool area. With shared air-conditioning, the popular book shop as well as the stores lined along FC3 will definitely see open door policies from now on.

Happened to drop by Track training over one the active days. Training is still all largely focused on specific training for events, especially with the IVP currently on. You can still make out the few distinctive groups training all round the track, each having their own dedicated space around the track area for their respective group training.

I can say that training is rather more focused now, and the degree of specialization offered by each of the coaches for specific events is far better than what it was previously done with only one coach. So rather than having training like a jack of all trades, now we can see the team doing more events than what it can do previously such as more field events like discus, high jump an javelin- events we didn’t even consider doing many years back. Everything looks promising and I believe we can seniors can leave it in the hands of the current coaches and juniors too.

My previous blog posts has been talking about the chalet last friday but not in detail, so this post will fill up the part about it as I feel this should deserve it’s own post.

Track and field BBQ 3th October
So what other better way to ease up on the friday-weekend but to go for a chalet organized by the Track team? At least that kept me about a day away from work haha. Though organized by the seniors, everyone was invited to the rather small by cozy chalet at Pasir-ris coasta sands resort with about an estimated 30 people turning up for the BBQ night. Got the chance to try walking from Pasir-ris MRT to the venue with a cup of green tea for hydration after my NYAA prize presentation.

Got to meet some of the new trackers, especially those I know largely by face but do not have the chance to interact with them and catching up on the latest developments in SP track, considering the absence of most of the seniors in regular training since we graduated. Come to think about it, it had been about 1 year since I went for active training since last year’s FYP, man time do pass.

Track drifting apart?
Many of them are closing their first year in track, but it seems that the club was not as cohesive as what it was before, comprising of 3 coaches training different parts of the team which is though focuses on each member’s key area of the sport and diversifying rather than lumping everybody in for generic mass training, it seems that the club is now segregated in 3 distinctive “clans” who will most of the time only come together in the teams formed to represent SP.

True that the juniors will get the specific training they deserve, so the strong can improve with tailored training for them, but I find the atmosphere largely “selfish” now with everyman for themselves- which I find largely is against the spirit of sportsmanship and competition even which could be a breeding ground for internal conflicts. Not to mention the obvious gap between the juniors and seniors.

The thing lacking now a certain form of “track spirit” which is unique and had always been a uniting factor of track and field for generations.

Speaking from a graduate perspective, sometimes you need to come to realize that your time in track as a CCA won’t last forever, but the friendships you make and cherish over the years of training together which gives you the homely feel and belonging to the group, sometimes these can far outweigh what you win in competitions, let be even a medal in the IVP, after all that is just a medal- period, one which will always be received by someone in the same event again every year. Whether you see it as a more important thing in your life as to being a sports man and bagging achievements, I think no medal can buy the unity and friendship you have, after all as the saying goes “no man is an island”.

For this generation, only one can only look back and reminiscence the glory days where track was all together in one family, or let be capable role models not pulled into power just based on favoritism or lack of options or successor. I feel that it had been a failure on our part to retain the culture within the Club after we left which is track and field- the one which we all come to know and grown into a family. Personally, we are not doing justice or just being it’s simply unfair of depriving our juniors of that culture.

However, there is the possibility of the culture only existing within the people who created it- Is the bond and culture so strong that it is one which just leave the club the moment we pass out? We must understand that with change comes major change as well. which too involves the revamping and killing of all existing culture with it. Faced with resistance and change (especially with the new coaches) that was too a major contributing factor to the present segregation. Something beyond our reach and authority of intervention given our graduate statues, but that of course is not an excuse for negligence on our part either, we still have the interest of the club at heart.

Sometimes but as what my ex coach once said, it’s very difficult to please everybody, so sometimes what we see now could be an inevitable result of “survival of the fittest”.

Looking at the start of the week, it had been a very hectic start for me, namely with work and stuff, even my horoscope is telling me to get out and exercising more, something which I see myself doing less often these days.

Nevertheless, I was on the news again, together with my mugshots on the SP website on the DSTA scholarship prize presentation ceremony. You can read the article here dated on the 15th July. Apparently, our Principal was very proud of us 4 graduates who clinched the defense scholarship in numbers, even with the standard and number comparable to the other “branded” junior colleges such as HCJC and RJC. The other interesting notable fact is that, there were no other Polys who had a presence as strong or bonded as ours there, with the exception of a few commendable 1-2, but I won’t make any conclusion from there as there may be the possibility of the lack of applicants on their part.

This news came much of a surprise for me, laughably I didn’t know about it till I was informed on it by some of my Poly friends. Later do I know, got another call from Fullstop magazine asking to do another interview again for their next month’s publication. Busy busy.

Oh yes, for the record, umm I “would” be running Poly 50 this year again, my official 3rd Poly 50 race.

Yesterday (Saturday) night was our planned coach birthday celebrations and it was a secret very well kept in place for our “host” friend who faked her birthday so that we can deceive our coach into attending the party last night. Everybody knew that, except well… coach until last night haha.

Held in home premises at the Holland area, the gathering saw the reunion of new and old track and field members (about 30 of us) all either while serving army or working. It’s was a good time to meet up with everybody and keep ourselves updated as a whole. Got to know how many of our track mates are doing in the army now, especially those who are starting their Pro-term after completing their service term in OCS. So for the guys, it’s mostly army talk while it’s mostly university and plans for the girls.

Much of the early part of the day is spend lazying around by the house pool and garden swing with Ahlong and Elrick while waiting for the rest of the Alumni track team to finish training in SP and make their way to Holland Rise. No one wanted to swim, so our other variant of “pool” in the basement kept us occupied for most of the time.

A day by the pool, swings and durian trees

Some Pool to spend the time

And oh no our cake is discovered!

The girls did an excellent job on the cake as well as the presents all done up so nicely. Everyone chipped in a sum each for both the catered buffet dinner as well as the cake and presents as a whole. We got everyone in a room together with coach where we sang the birthday song to HIM, at first he didn’t know how did his name Robin came into the birthday song, till he later found out that the purpose of the whole celebration was for him! Man was he surprised! Cake was served together with dinner thereafter.

We present the cake for the night!

The cake is for me?

Birthday group shot!

The rest of the night was spent with games and slacking in the home cinema room. Alvin and Alec came as well, but not till later. Jonathan and Elrick was there with their fair share of army Commando experiences from their side, especially with their interesting topic of heli and air-borne operations.

Derrick was just, well being himself most of the time and did quite a good job in giving us the impression of technician work in the SAF being more prestigious than it really sounds.

Weijian is now studying in PSB and KC’s stories of police life in the ops room paints so much of how complaintive Singaporeans can be with our 999 hotline over the slightest things, let be the flux of dumber than dumb calls from the public on Mas Selamat.

Richard who lived nearby came as usual in his yellow Ferrari F430 convertible, making his usual loud entrance by the house gates and joined us for the cake cutting session and dinner before staying for some chats before promptly making his departure, he’s always a busy person.

Well wishes going out to Alex who cannot make it down for today’s celebrations as he’s recovering from a viral lung infection and was previously in ICU. We wish him all the best in speedy recovery.

Met up with my old workshop TSO on my last Tuesday’s visit to school and since the Segway debate is still under the wraps of being a legal car alternative in Singapore, I will just touch on abit of the issue here, elaborating and stating the facts on how I find much our current country-wide strict regulations still being a strong deterrent factor for our youth to flourish their ideas and creativity.

Let be an isolated case, I was together with few current students there working on their final year project in the project area. Was told that they are working on a Segway pram project which involves modifying one together a speed regulation control as well with, yes you guessed it, with a baby pram attached. Knowing about the Segway, I told them about my concerns of it having children on board and the safety measures they can take on top of how it actually works and ride, together with the locking key for beginners and the unlock for maximum speed.

As fun and promising that project can be, actually half the battle of that project was already lost with our current Laws and Regulations in place- It’s also a fact that for the project to be successful, they have to get the green lights from the LTA and NEA for the Segway to be used on our sideways and parks, as laughingly worldwide, it is still not legal to ride a Segway human transporter in Singapore, go figure.

Their product can only see life within the confines of private parks and properties for now, even if their project is completely marketable, it will be a marketing nightmare to sell it here now. There seem to be more than it meets the eye, but it looks like they have to get the authorities to be aware of the Segway problem before moving any further in such developments.

In the meantime, we can always bring the ideas out of Singapore, after all, “foreign talent” can always take our places.

As part of the Open House on this week, I will be giving a short talk segment from 1 to 1.30pm at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Center tomorrow. I thank the SP media communications department for inviting me to speak. It will be focused mainly on the life and experiences of choosing the Polytechnic route compared to JC with my experiences to share, having gone to both of them. It will cover largely from a student’s perspective.

We will be expecting an 1,200 odd full house in the convention center for this part of the day, also being the last day of the open house. So if you are an ‘O’ level leaver this year and still at the cross roads between these 2 routes between JC or Poly before University, feel free to drop by for a free tip or two which will help you decide on your choices.

The official photos of last week’s SP Graduation are out! Haha these are the few good ones I’ve picked up. You can view more on the SP grad day photos gallery as well.

Institute winners group photo shoot

Institute winners group photo

Nice view of the convention center

Some photos shot during the post graduation food reception with my family:

Family Photo with RAdm Lui Tuck Yew

With our Principal Mr Tan Hang Cheong

With our previous SP Principal Mr Low Wong Fook

There we have it, my graduation at the 48th Singapore Polytechnic Graduation Ceremony 2008. The opening of the first session was witnessed by our guest of honor, RAdm Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, who also presented the institution prizes (3 Lee Kuan Yew Awards, The Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal, The Low Guan Onn Gold Medal, The Chua Chor Teck Gold Medal and The Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal) to the 7 award winners as well. This ceremony was also held in same session where the Chemical and Life Sciences diplomas were presented as well.

After the institutional awards, I was rather fortunate to have my diploma award ceremony at the second session, in other words right at the next slot, so that beats having to come back later or another day for the 2nd half of my graduation. It was during my second session in the afternoon where I received my other remaining awards, namely the Shell, Micron Semiconductor, Institution of Engineers, MMI Holdings and the OCBC prizes.

I was touched and moved by the response of the crowd when I was last on stage for the award- after the speaker went through my whole list of awards before saying my name (the cue to move forward to collect your diploma), I was greeted by the loud cheers, applause and classmates/aquantinces calling out my name, which thundered throughout the convention center.

It was almost an unreal moment, despite it being just a moment across the stage, it felt like an eternal symphony through a sea of camera flashes as I made my way towards our smiling and overjoyed guest of honor. He congratulated me with a short question about my future plans on-stage before handling me my award file, medal and both of us turning to the cameras. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and a big THANK YOU to everyone attending the session today for your great support!

Every session ends with an air-conditioned reception above the auditorium where we get to mingle with the guest of honor for that session, the principal, board of directors as well as lecturers. A hot topic there will be much on our future plans, let be national service or plans to further our studies, thats besides the on-going photo session with all the VIPs as well. The press was there as well who did an article on the 6 groups of twins graduating as well.

I believe today will be one of the few very memorable days of my life- I never thought I would come so far in my chosen path in Polytechnic, let be excelling in the dragon baby year/cohort. I believe I would never had gotten so far without my family, my lecturers and my friends who were always there for me and behind me when I needed them. Many thanks to all the guest of honors, directors, lecturers, classmates and even ex-course mates who sent their well wishes and congrats. You rock!

I was not able to get any good photos to date, but they will be sent by the official photographers of the event. Those photos taken by my parents are rather distant from where they were sitting in the convention center, so I will post the better ones once I get hold of them.

On a sidenote, interestingly, each of all the 7 institution medalists have a life-sized cardboard print out, showing us welding a red circle disc listing our awards within. We were amazed when we first saw that and didn’t saw that coming from our group photo-shoot few weeks ago. Personally I found that was rather neat idea our media department went out in creating, we were honored. Laughingly we were so amazed at looking at each others cutouts, I remembered one of the marshals jokingly telling us that maybe we could take “ourselves” back at the end of the whole graduation.

Without further ado, here is my media writeup, as also featured in the graduation booklet, campus fullstop publication as well as the alumni SPAN magazine:

You can check out more of the graduation at the SP’s graduation website.

Oh yes, last but not least, I am on TV again!

I believe graduation day will be the day everyone in SP for the 2005 batch is looking forward to. You’ve came a long way to witness this final day and to receive your Diploma. Give yourself a pat on back for you’ve made it, there is a whole lot more awaiting for you ahead after graduation.

I will in campus from the morning throughout the afternoon with 2 sessions to attend in all. for the day. Will I have lots to catch up with my classmates tomorrow. Will update more of the ceremony tomorrow.

Picture a scenario of you washing you hands at the toilet sink and doing your hair thereafter in front of the mirror when a picture simply just appears right in front of your face asking you to buy a particular product, catch Rambo 4 or join the Navy.

I think that could be the of many things to come with the new mirrors we spot in SP toilets now- The panel is a see-through one way mirror system, with embedded images behind the reflective pane backlit by lights located at various points on the panel. These spots containing the ads can be triggered independently or running sequence as a loop. The mirror appears completely normal to anyone (unless if you observe the details) when turned off so it can fool anybody into using it (and who knows can be motion-triggered once it detects someone in front of it) as how intrusive as it sounds, its creepy as well.

The only tell-tale sign is the thickness of the mirror panel- not all mirrors have a maintenance keyhole and access latch on the sides! So thats a giveaway by itself You can call this part of toilvoltuion, or “toilet evolution” as it can be known as- a period where toilets are able to run to self-sufficiently from the possible earnings they can gain financially from showcasing such advertisements.

The school like got these installed for about a week now. And I am glad they are not using them in replacement of the main vanity mirrors in front of the sinks, it not that will stink! With all these invasion in our toilets, I won’t be amused if we get toilet cubicle walls (and doors) which can like change slides just like those advertisements in the orchard MRT tunnel. Who knows?

Oh yes, lastly on a side note, I’ve uploaded my southern ridges walk photos on the photo gallery already, its one the journey from Mt Faber to west coast park through the new southern ridges park connectors. Feel free to check them out! I am in the midst of writing another running route review on that 9km route, should be able to get it done by the weekend.

Oh yes, nothing like “news” but hey my invitation cards for the upcoming SP graduation had arrived in the mail few days ago. They are all clad glossy-esthetique on paper board- it does not look cheap, goes to show how much SP puts into their collaterals… Though it will be better if we don’t actually to have to write our own names in the cards before presenting it to ourselves. The invitation will encompass 2 sessions, one at 9.30am in the morning for awards with the built design diploma presentation, followed by my course diploma presentation slot in the afternoon. It is all held on the 27th this month, currently it seems that there is no need to prepare a speech!

SP sent me another letter of commendation yesterday, its being in the H’roll the 2007/2008 semester 2, presumably for my FYP semester, so thats another in the bag. Oh yes, similarly, got a letter from NUS saying that they are offering me their scholarship and they are awaiting my acceptance of it. They’ve been quite pokey lately too- I’ve been getting emails and SMSes on their upcoming campus and orientation events, it’s like I am already a student with them even before I accepted their placement offer! Creepy…

I believed I mentioned briefly about my model student award presentation in a dated blog post last month, but didn’t actually managed to get any photos of it till recently- It was not until I chanced upon it when surfing the SP website after finally getting my NYAA booklet and reports written and submitted today, having literally slaved the past few months on it. With that in hand, behold! the photo of all the award winners together with our school directors:

In case you are wondering, I am the 4th from the left on the last row, the only one in a yellow tie!

And wow I am also featured on the SP graduation website as well. (To be said in “overly” surprised tone) Oh wow… is that a coincidence or what?

In the spade of the Myanmar Hurricane Relief efforts going on. Singapore polytechnic students will conduct a class to class fund raising to aid the relief efforts within campus grounds itself. It will mainly be led by volunteer students from Myanmar themselves so please show your support if they come around tomorrow asking for donations. Besides the flag day tomorrow, here are other links you can contribute to the relief efforts as well:
Samaritian’s Purse
World Vision
Singapore Red Cross
UNICEF

12/05/2008 Flag day update - We’ve raised about $14,000 SGD over the short time span of one day. Thanks all who helped out in the efforts!

For those who were wondering where I am these days, I am in school working part time- ummm distributing Ez-link cards. Ok it’s not really my definition of a wise way to spend my time there given the opportunity costs, but hey I had to be in school anyway to finish my national youth achievement (NYAA) reports for submission, so why not?

Moreover, the student development officer there who invited me to work there not only allowed me to bring all my barang barang there to work on my report but freelance jobs while I man the Ez-link distribution tables. I can even have stand-ins when I need to leave the table for awhile to meet clients and meetings in town. Now is that cool or what.

SP Moberly block will be having their official opening this friday as well, so part of my job there is to prepare some items for the event itself. I became rather proficient in making Kejum buteh cones for the Kejum buteh snack store after being tasked to make like 300 cones in 2 days (man was that so time consuming).

There was a photo taking session today as well in Moberly for all the gradation award winners as well and got to meet the other 2 of the 3 musketeers- Andrew and Cliff who were there as well, but only for a short while as we are all very busy people.

Got to know many of the SAA staff better since I was in and out the Student alumni office. It was kinda fun knowing almost all of this year’s juniors as well. This batch will be mostly the students born on the year of 1990-1991 and it seems that almost a large 20-30% of the applicants are foreigners, mostly coming from PRC based on the name list and records. Moreover, it seems that it’s more of a fad for modern Chinese local families to give their children Christian middle names, forgoing the usual 2 syllable chines name, so it’s like Matthew Daniel Yeo for instance. Though the norm in the west, in Singapore schools it’s like having the bragging rights of 2 names!

Oh yes, lastly, the SP graduation website is up already as well too, check that out!

Today is SP’s flag day and we were everywhere, including being highlighted on today’s TV news as well. If you’ve missed us, well, then where have you been? My spot was at raffles place early in the morning, there I got to meet my “class tutor” Mr Teng who I got recommended by my Materials Lecturer, Mrs Lim who joined us for the flag day as well.

Commendably as I come to learn, Mr Teng was apparently the top class fund raiser for several consecutive years, no wonder- he’s a veteran in the field with his own form of tips, tricks and motivational tools to get us all fired up for raising funds and hitting the records. No wonder some of my class members managed to even get into our 2nd donation tins even before the morning ended, with more coming in for the lunch period. I got to know the DME class I was attached too better and as a mentor- sharing experiences and highlighting critical choices they will have to make during the important streaming periods for end of year 1 and 2. Overall they are a very cheerful bunch with a rather positive attitude, a rather good start prior to their first week of school next week. I wish them all the best.

The thing about selling flags in the central business district the obvious difference and disposable expenditure of the people generally working around the area. You can get an average to a dollar, $2 to even single $10 donations from a single person, contrary to $0.20, $0.50 and the most $2 you get around orchard or general heartland mall areas. We caught the rush peak hour from 8am to 9.30am as well as the first bulk of the lunch crowd which contributed the bulk of our donations.

Got around back at campus around 4pm for collection counting, the thing of this flag day being different from the rest is the ability to actually count your earnings at the end of the day. Collected a descent pool of about $70, above our class target of $50 each and way above the recommended $20 and $35 average, though I felt that I could have actually collected more, it simply does not go in hand with some students I heard from other classes even submitting a single $0.20 for a whole day’s of earnings. After all it’s the values and skills learnt which far outweighs the material value earned in the event as part of inculcating the SP core values. In all, my class got the best overall collection for another year round and another achievement for Mr Teng himself. The event ended with students and lecturers all meeting up for tea at the MM office, allowing me to meet up and catch up on old times with all my previous lecturers where I got to learn more of their opinions of studying aboard, particularly UK universities like Cambridge or Imperial College London.

And juts when the day was over, managed to squeeze in some gym session till late, and catching up with the gym aunite on what to expect on the upcoming graduation, which went on to another 15mins plus conversation. Apparently you can still use the gym at designated hours with an SP alumni card, but they will always welcome us old regulars to use the sport facilities anytime given priority to existing full time students and staff, good to see the flexibility on their part.

Lastly, got a call from the SP Acad department, and was also similarly informed about it through the mail today as well, with one letter addressed to me and another to my parents. And no it’s not anything bad considering how I phased it, but rather something regarding awards. I won’t be listing down the awards here however as I never like to brag about my achievements, but don’t feel suspended as you will know, come SP graduation in May.

Along with the line of back to back interviews of the week, just came back today from an interview with the SP EXPAN reporter (the previous ones were from the other corporate comms department), they are doing up a write up of outstanding model students as well as those who won awards at institutional level, not that I was informed of an institutional award, but apparently I was teased into knowing that I won a rather prestigious award- Only awarded to the top 3 of the whole Singapore Polytechnic cohort of 05.

Ok ok, I am not playing dumb here, but I roughly know what I’ve got but can’t release any info as of yet till I get the official letter from the school itself. And no they are not telling, yet, despite receiving lots of emails and calls of congratulations: “good news is coming your way!”. Thanks everyone for your support!

Got a call from Josh Lim, the boss of Advertlets today while in the Gym in the afternoon, will talk more about that in a future blog post.

The interview for my Defence Science Technology Agency (DSTA) scholarship was on this morning at Science park. Being a restricted government agency, security was tight and you had to get authorizations to get in. There, candidates were greeted by rather professional staff who directed us to a candidate reception area with food and goodies. They were quite a few tests conducted to determine your personality and leadership type followed by the main panel interview.

Apparently, this interview is the first step of the 3 step process in candidate selection going till end April where the results will be announced. The step next would be a series of more tests on the computers again then the final interview. Got about meeting up with some other candidates in the reception, including getting to know some who were in SP as well as those from JC, generally those from Poly tend to be more sociable and talkative, contrasting to the so coped-up and quiet ones from JC. I didn’t know I was rather “popular” in SP as well, as the SP students there know about the one fella in the school of MM with the “perfect GPA”… and oh ummm…. yes that fella is me.

The interview was done in a rather casual setting. I felt that I did relatively well in the interview, be it being smooth and confident through and an occasional laughing joke or two- goes a long way! Interestingly they asked me on what universities I planned to study in, so I spontaneously told them on my shortlisted MIT and Stanford. The senior interviewer was open and he gave me some good advise on university selections as well. On top of them telling me that I am a rather interesting individual, they said that I have a bright future ahead of me as well.

Sounds good!

Submitted the remainder of my NUS application yesterday together with my global scholarship application, but I have not accepted their offer yet as I needed sometime to fully consider my other options till the 2nd June deadline. Furthermore I’ve been shortlisted for a preliminary interview at DSTA the coming next Monday, so that is where I can set my hopes and ambition of having my overseas undergrad studies sponsored under their scholarship and push forward with overseas applications.

The thing I desire is the edge to do my degree I choose, especially in the research sector, a typical local degree cannot bring you far, so that is where overseas education gives. I’ve shortlisted few universities I would be applying and hopefully studying in:

Stanford University
Massachusetts institute of technology
Imperial College London
Cambridge

There is about a handful of about 30 people listed for my interview for the day and judging by their IC numbers, most are from the JC batch (which having gone through JC myself, but not totally overgeneralizing, are mainly textbook regurgitators). However, it is heartening to know that scholarship places for DSTA are also on the rise, with 73 places offered last year compared to 22 in 2000 (source). So I am pretty confident for the interview provided if I do not blunder.

As part of my ongoing research, did some enquires in the SP’s career guidance center on application processes to UK and the US. Apparently unlike a central local body (like idp for Australian universities) one need to apply to UCAS in and for UK universities itself. Universities in the States are done direct to the colleges themselves. I remembered reading about a Poly student featured recently in the papers who got into Stanford, so I think I will stand a good chance too.

With the exception of the Imperial College London in UK, I don’t think I will be up for Cambridge or Oxford, as it’s incredibly difficult to enter (or so it is haha). Their admissions departments all mentioned that straight As and Distinctions can’t even secure you a place in these 2 universities, let be Harvard. Also, besides having a more familiar colonial setting and the recognition of the queen (i.e right hand drive roads and 3 pin plugs), the thing which I do not like about the Imperial College London is it being not exactly a proper college- it’s very similar to a city campus like SMU, which I do not fancy considering that I will mostly probably be accommodated in dorms around the area. A good environment or proper campus is what I desire for a fulfilling college life, which brings me to another part of the world, the States.

For an engineering major there , I am torn between MIT and Stanford. One will of course argue that MIT will be the choice for engineering given it being a technical university (Just like NUS contrary to NTU in Singapore). While Stanford have it pluses in sciences (physics) and communications. Both are evenly matched in rankings and have proper college facilities such as full campus buildings and sport facilities, however I personally find Stanford more of an exception.

Stanford university is pretty, it like what a university should be- nice big rolling hills and fantastic setting. What more its about an hour’s drive away from San Fransisco and about 3-4 hours from LA and Las Vegas. The place is very conducive, judging from the photos, it seems that walking through the place can simply make your day, not to mention having a much stronger sporting background being endowed with not only few baseball pitches, 3 swimming pools, a full track stadium but a 50,000 seater football stadium as well. And man if I ever get the chance on summer vacation periods, I can definitely visit Hollywood again or catch up on my long childhood memories I have of sunny California. Or maybe I will get building my own air powered car, something we can’t do here in Singapore.

Stanford Palm Drive

James Clark Center for research

Stanford Stadium

But things are rather preliminary too. Application for US universities will start Q3 around September 2008, by then I will have a more firm decision of my options available.

Lastly, received a call today from the SP Principals office today about an award interview coming on next Thursday as well. Was told it’s up for one of the 4 awards given out during the graduation ceremony. I am aiming for the Lee Kuan Yew award, hope all goes well!

I always remembered the date 27th Feb being the release of the semester results, but I was too busy with work, projects, running and university application(s) to even remember it now- As naive as it sounded, I simply just went “huh?” each time anybody reached me about my results when I am out today, having to apologize to everyone who called up as I have not checked it yet, only till late today when I can log on to do so.

Logged into the SAS and checked it this evening. Being a pure FYP semester for me, there isn’t so much glitter as compared to my last- Just some very few humble grades this semester. So here’s the result: *dodges tomatoes & taupoks*

Final Year Project: Dist
Co-Circular Activities: Dist (333 Points)
NAPFA: Gold

I am not sure of the CCA part result being out so soon, is the CCA component a grade given in the whole Poly level? That is one I simply not sure about.

Nevertheless, there we have it the last of the results out for my time as an active student in Singapore Polytechnic. Though we had unofficially “graduated” I guess I will still be seeing myself quite occasionally in and out of school, especially with the alumni club where I can still can make use of the track, gym and swimming pool whenever I am around the area. Also especially helping out my lecturers and possibility being a mentor for my course juniors in the CIE “Alumni club”.

Was around NUS last week to submit my application, my 3rd time in fact. Only this time I wasn’t as anxious about it as what I did many years back, having been rejected 2 times in a row. Seeing all the first timers there all lost in the admissions makes me wonder how naive I was back then.

Looking back
It just makes me wonder and reminds me how harsh this world of applications are, together with why we use grades as an indicator for education in the first place. I’ve seen rejection and appeals all to the dumps, to other spectrum where college admissions boards actually coaxing top students and locking their application firmly into their university as if their lives depends on it. I’ve seen confused faces of students graduating with grades so low, they do not where to carry on from. It’s all just part and parcel of this phase in life again, the crossroads.

You may know me an a Cambridge Advanced (’A’ level) grad who studied Physics, Economics and Further Maths when I was in middle-high who was ironically unable to enter any local university due to my grades, but was strangely welcomed openly into Australian universities such as Monash, RMIT to name a few- but all not my cup of tea especially having to do foundation, not to mention very expensive indeed.

The dollars and cents – Scholarships
I learnt alot during my term in Poly, particularly exposing me more to the commercial world of education, it’s apparent that Scholarships is mainly the answer for something which not only can flourish your portfolio with but breeze you through without paying for your semester fees at all. After all university fees are not cheap either.

Crossing the borders
Let be saturated Australia, I’ve always known and recommended that overseas education elsewhere is the edge for an individual. This is in contrast to what I used think- stubborn about studying overseas. However, that is where I come to learn that mindsets have to change together as expectations and possibilities grows. Known is the bombastic prestige you get from studying overseas, but heck that’s not what I am in for, neither was I ever egoistic in school about my grades. After all the nail which sticks out gets hammered. It’s the exposure which is deserving.

Globalisation? Thats broad.
For me, a scholarship is the answer again, so I applied for the DSTA scholarship last month hoping I can sponsored to study. I am really looking forward to study engineering in my shortlisted universities, namely Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University or the Imperial College London as part of my attempts to globalise.

What I need is a deserving education to feed my passion for designing and inventing contraptions to change and make the world a better place to live in. So if I do not sound much like Obama reassuring change you can believe in, it’s more of a quality factor I personally believe in- quality education. Only time will tell will I create another invention better than my last.

A person who fails to plan plans to fail, even with contingencies- If all else fails, well at least I was NUS admissions last week- I would be able have a place in NUS doing a double degree (Hons) hopefully under their bond free scholarship. Only that there won’t be the edge.

The MM annual dinner and dance cum 50th anniversary celebrations was held last week at Raffles town club on the 15th (Feb) of this month. It’s not a poly-wide event but rather one for the school itself in mark of the long way the SP’s school of MM had came around. The event started with a reception where we can mingle with our old lecturers and catch up on times. The ballroom is decked with about 32 tables with seating planned by the organizers themselves- It comprises of an even mix of tables consisting either all students or staff.

They did quite a good job in keeping the guests entertained throughout the dinner. In fact there was never a dull moment that we would even have time to get on the food- There were lucky draws conducted throughout together with OMG performances by lecturers, not to mention pop quizzes such as guess the song, etc. There were contests put up for the best dressed male and female where turns out much into a battle for prize where they were pitted with humorous stage up tasks to get the best response from the audience haha.

Inside the rather small Ballroom

The food spread

Each table gets a birthday cake lol!

As mentioned, the crowd consisted of an even mix of students and lecturers, though the guy to girl ratio is a little bit off given the nature of engineering duh (now wait till we see the accountancy school dinners!). My table was a Muslim table with only 3 Chinese in the table of 10, so we Chinese were literally served like an al-la carte menu individually while the everybody had their servings off the rotating platter on the table (platter servings are so for all non-mixed tables). This came very much as a blessing in disguise despite the small Chinese portions served to us- we had more variety and able to share the food with our Muslim friends! The bad is no red wine is served on our table only sparking juice duh!

I got a pair of Jetstar Asia Tickets to KL from the lucky draw which I won’t see myself using at all. Just when we thought desserts are enough, The event ended with a MM birthday cake for each table- talking about down to details for the event haha!

Whats more a way to end the Poly semester but with a reunion chalet with my old class of 25. However, just like many others during the vacation, it’s the time to work prior to enlistment to the army or university. Despite all these, many Cheers going tout to many who took the time off to drop by the chalet, during the BBQ, especially to catch up on the times since our class where stream into different diploma streams almost 2 years ago.

Yea unhealthy food!

Starting the fire

Few of those who managed to drop by

There was ample of BBQ food for all, even last 2 nights. But contrary to plans, didn’t managed to get any free KFC fast food from a classmate of mine who happens to work there too. They always have plenty of “leftovers” they say where they bring back for all to chow, looks like this time is an exception. But hey at least we do not have to feel guilty from all the excess calories!

Visit to old Changi Hospital
It was a full moon on our first night, and what other better way to pass the midnight but at the old CGH, well this time it’s not as dramatic as the visit one of my friends did previously with 25 groups of 2 raiding the area. The place bring back alot of memories of scenes from silent hill, not to mention freaking my friends out after raiding the various floors of the old military hospital which served largely during the war before converted to a civilian one, with it come it’s tales of the mortuary and war torture chamber. Nope we did not see anything, but we did kinda freaked out a group who was visiting the area before us on their exit.

Stairwell just like from silent hill!

Who is going in first?

Many of the ruins and vandalism

Everything is largely pitch black in there, you can’t see your hands in front of you. but thankful to the full moon night vision is excellent in there with the exception of my camera cum torch unable to snap pictures of anything more than a meter in front of it. Soon, funny I found myself leading the group everywhere, with me going in first into all kinds of rooms and manholes. But I am no stranger to dark places and love them especially in jungles and built up areas during my reconnaissance days in the army. The thing which freaks people up is mostly the mind where you can build up tension then thats where people start to imagine things- the girls are expert at that!

The view from the roof top is excellent, coupled with the seasonal wind, the view over to neighboring islands to Johor with the sea in front of your, lit by the moon is breathtaking.

The highlight was definitely supper at Changi Village, not to mention giving some our our sua-kuo friends how the red-light business goes on at Changi Village carparks. Then there was the 8km over walk back to the pasir-ris chalets – in slippers!

The last night is spent at Pasir Ris park with lots of more long walks and fun at the playgrounds. Then theres the excellent sea breeze there, very calming, peaceful and makes you want to savour every moment and reflect on life there.

Thats all I have on this chalet here. Time to get some rest!

Been all round Singapore and visiting grans in the afternoon. The rain kinda dampened the need to drop by Chinatown to check out the festive happenings and goodies there. Then there was the Track and field outing in the evening.

It was a short dinner gathering at Hongkong Street cafe at East coast with most of the track team there. There were beach side games earlier in the afternoon which I wasn’t able to make. But otherwise was told it was put short due to the rain in the area (Not to mention the jams all round the marine parade area which made me late as well too).

Had their trademark Chicken and Pork shop curry rice, topped with some dim sum for a modest $14, got to catch up with my juniors and alumni members such as Ronald who is in the internet telephony mlm business. The gathering also saw a reunion of some long lost seniors where most of us going “MIA” since the hectic final year project period.

As with every track and field tradition, each senior is presented with an intricately hand-made card personalized to the given impression and milestones we had contributed. It’s also interesting to see how who are portrayed from the eyes of our juniors.

Just to name a few of the rather interesting drawings, Zhongyan our jumper also like to drink and chomp on other people’s food especially after race lunches, thus he’s drawn running who refreshments at the finish as a bait, Weiwen was drawn as a gorilla given his “on the surface I look like I will kill you look” & Shunqiang, being named Xiaoqiang was drawn a cockroach.

I was drawn as shown on the left, quite accurate I would say, haha if that means standing way ahead of everybody for the ummmm, “top student” part, but thats some defined 6 packs I’ve got there haha!

We all made our way and gathered round the marine parade community club top floor basketball court to chill out interact with out juniors, with each senior taking turns wishing and sending their regards to the juniors before bidding officially farewell to all.

We have the especially the organisers to thank for this event. Though it’s a simple event with no fancy BBQs and stuffs, it did get the intention and objective through- to officially send off the seniors in a cohesive and memorable way.

Was around school today (for one of the few last times) with the team to collect my Spinnovex gold certificate. Theres alot to catch up not to mention bidding farewell to many of our anticipative lecturers (not to mention many photos as well) who took us during our course of studies. I apologize for my absence over the last week as the period spanning from last Tuesday to Thursday as that was my class end-semester chalet period. Nevertheless, managed to find some time to get an entry for the event up:

Less than satisfying BBQ
The first day started with a simple check in and setting up the place for everybody. Contrary to shopping and preparing food ourselves, our organisers ordered catered BBQ for dinner, which was rather a big the disappointment as the bbq wholesale center with catered food is not only expensve (about $120 for one night) but only offered enough food for the labeled “20 people”. The spread only encompassed a a single tray of beehoon, few satays, hotdogs, crabsticks, fishballs and rice balls which can’t even feed us all fully at all. I did not interfere with the organsing this time round but from my own experience of organising and going through countless BBQs, $120 for food brought by yourself and prepared by yourself can even feed 20 people for 2 consecutive nights of BBQ, but I was a guest haha… so relax bah!

Fret not as there was more food!
Thankfully, there was our classmate Ryan to the rescue with his connections and having worked in a fast food outlet in Downtown east itself, we managed to get a large abundance of (yet guilty-ly) fast food leftovers later that night (enough to feed an entire army) all sent to our chalet unit itself, where most of us pigged out over supper and playing cards and playstation console games.

Endless card games

And few PS2s to boot!

1st Night BBQ

Night suppers and walks
Moreover, for those who still cannot get enough of food, there was a planned late night walk cum supper to the nearby neighboring 24hours coffee shops in the area followed by a walk along pasir ris park with ghost stores to tell.

Waterbomb teamgames
Field games, especially ‘monkey’ and waterbombs were played during the whole our the following afternoon to pass the time, with the bomb fight ending with lots of wet and bruises bodies, not to mention sun burn taking the biggest toll among most of us there. There was team based “capture the ball” almost like paintball using some built up sheds and tables for cover, otherwise there was the “free for all” bomb fight to end the afternoon with. Dinner was the same fast food together before calling the night with more late night card games, outdoor walks and not to mention disgusting forfeits.

Waterbombs aways

Roar Gorilla domination!

Football club shot

We definably could not get enough of the Macdonald’s $2 breakfast meal for the morning where we checked out. Though the chalet was not totally the well-organised and that aside it definitely satisfied it’s objective as a closing event organised to celebrate the end of the semester and Spinnovex. And man do I have to run more to rid all those excess calories taken in from the fastfood!

Lol, was just told by my intelligence network that I appeared on Tonight TV news, Channel News Asia a few moments ago, that one was the interview about my FYP motion simulator project I got the exhibition gold award for. They said I was professional on TV haha, with the exception of some acne… (haha maybe which popped out given the last few weeks of stress trying to deliver the project on time). Otherwise everything was great, haha…

Though I have not seen it in person yet, I think it would be quite difficult to actually source out any archives for that. I think Mediacorp do reruns on the various news channels and TV mobile so maybe I might coincidentally catch it while on the bus. Otherwise, I think I might give that a miss, considering I knew exactly what I said!

Today is the last day of the SP Open house Spinnovex 2008 final year project showcase. The day started off as a lazy but otherwise smooth morning prior the opening of the event. There was an air of fatigue hanging around the tent (given the late industry night the day before and considering it being our 6th consecutive day in the white tentage already) but otherwise also coupled with a sense of fulfilling victory being our last fruitful day for all our efforts put to date.

It was cold with lots of cold wet condensate falling on the outside over the night making the air rather still and musky in the tent, well till the air conditioning was turned on. The previous wet morning didn’t affect our outdoor air compressor to some extent and kept on delivering operating pressure through the early part of the day and became more stable later in the day as the weather started to warm up.

Thereafter, the crowds starting to pour in around the late morning. From there, the fun begins all over again with the crowds around our booth, prying eyes and impressive looks of amazement all written upon the looks on almost every visitor’s face who passed by our booth. Some are simply just fascinated to the extent of even finding hard to believe that we actually built this for our project, especially teaching staff and lecturers. Some professors and lecturers from NTU also came and chatted with us on the project, they too were amazed. Is such a project actually quite hard to come by now?

We also got our youngest guest for the whole event as well, maybe about 6-7 years old- He’s so small that even with the seat completely forward, he still can’t even reach the pedals!

But that didn’t stop us from giving him a ride after consent by his parents- Danson carried him on his lap and rode the simulator with the kid, controlling the pedals while the child steer, remarkably he was able to complete the whole course without even getting busted by the police in the game, something even some grown ups couldn’t do themselves! I’ve got a video of this kid riding our simulator in a video below, you can check it down there:

RMS-1 Day 3

Physio beans demo to the principal

We are missin’ half a car!

It’s still pleasing to know that each of us still get about 15-20 comments a day from strangers from the general public commending us about our project, even the principal was around to take alook at the projects for the day. Mine and Danson’s parents came yesterday, today, it’s Khowming’s parents turn to take the spotlight and we gave him some time off the booth so that he could show his parents around.

Some of my old track and field friends and alumni seniors were down in the afternoon, so I brought them around SP for lunch and at the same time, catch up on the exhibits around the area. The design studio exhibits are kinda cool, together with those in the T14 dreamhome where I could check out the skateboard game the EEE team our buddy CIE team worked with.

Besides some other interesting items such as the “half car” which makes everybody go huh? Met up with Darius in the EEE project area where he showed me his version of the “Cappobrewis” automated PLC toast and coffee maker, only that this one seems to have all it’s guts splattered all over the table.

Our team was amazed that our simulator prototype actually pulled through 3 full exhibition days of back-to-back operation with guest continuously in-and out without any major problems at all. Even if there was any, it was mainly an electrical problem which we were prepared for given the unstable current produced by our external turbo diesel generators powering the whole tent area. A quick 2-3 minute fix was all it needed to be back into business and serving the crowd again.

The closing of the 3 third day of Spinnovex marks also the closing of the whole week of ordeal, not to mention sore feet having to stand up and put up a good show and impression to every visitor fairly without displaying any form of fatigue, but it was rewarding in the end. And man was it- few lecturers came down and paid us a visit prior the ending of the exhibition and start of the closing ceremony (Spinnovex prize award presentation), many said they can’t reveal much but they reassured and told us that we “will be pleased” with the final results.

The convention center

Prize Presentation – Gold!

Team CIE!

And there we have it, the Spinnovex gold award presented to us. Khowming parents were there, so I gave him the honor on my behalf as team leader to go up the stage and collect the prize. But don’t worry I was there too to take pictures of course! I think my team deserved the award more than I do and I am just glad I saw them throughout whole to this very day which I believe they will always remember at heart.

My heartfelt thanks going to my Teammates, Danson Han & Lee Khowming for being so corporative as committed team members, not to mention being tolerant of the demands of the short project timeline, project troubleshooting and me a persistent team leader. We are such a close knit group I guess it’s that which set it apart from other groups.

With that in hand, other few people to thank, in no particular order:

Mr Gary Lee, our Industrial Automation lecturer on his shared experiences in the pneumatics field.
Mdm Goh, our IA lab and pneumatics expert for sharing of experiences and loan of equipment.
Mr Ang The Machine development center TSO who helped us with our test cylinders and misc stickers.

Thats all folks for the exhibition report.

Multimedia animation video shown during the exhibition

Event and happenings video

The second day of Spinnovex started with us finally able to get hold of our goodie bags and finally some ice-cream to chow on- allowing us to relax after working a whole day on foot at the exhibition. Today is the last day of judging with one specially for us CIE groups in the morning (the results will be out tomorrow), the rest of the day is open to the public for tryouts and demonstrations.

Remarkably, our simulator project exhibit stood up and took on the crowds in and out running whole day without any problems at all. Being a cold morning before, we managed to get our outdoor compressor condensation problems settled even before being able to redefine any part of Murphy’s law, thanks to our IPC TSO Mr Suhami.

We received many more good feedback from students and the general public who tried our simulator, so far all were positive.

Moreover, our simulator was exceptionally popular with secondary school students, which we largely catered for as part of our Spinnovex showcase planning process. This was also something our immediate aeronautical competitors finally realized who swapped their old game to a more appealing no-frills arcade-styled one (well it’s not the first nor last time they copied ideas from us!).

Our demo rides are short 3 minutes sprint races in the game: Need for speed- Most wanted which kept our “test drivers” occupied with the aim and objective of showcasing our simulators force feedback to the full potential and degree without compromising a long ride and long snakey queues to ride.

We got crowds!

Adults tryouts

And lots of kids as well!

I guess my teammates, after a whole day of work are more than qualified to work as amusement park ride operators! There were visitors from all ages, from grown up adults to middle aged people to even seven year olds who can hardly reach the foot pedals even with the seat fully brought forward. Moreover, we saw a group of visiting secondary school students being rather regular riders of our gaming simulator, even up to seven times just to better their race timings between their classmates on our laptime powerboard, amazing!

We had catered buffet dinner at T11A under the house as part of the group staying back into the night for the industry visit. My parents were able to pop by in the evening for a short visit, where I managed to get them invited into the main tent and tour the area, especially viewing our buddy 5 CIE projects in the tent as well.

The industry visit saw several interested parties from several organizations such as PSA and ST Kinetics just to name afew. Strangely, I was even offered a job in financial with Prudential Singapore, though I saw no relations to it with our project.

The highlight of the night have to be Singapore Polytechnic Board of Governors Chairman visiting my booth as part of the planned tours with his Drs and Profs. “Very impressive” he said with thumbs up.

My Parents at the booth

Industry night dinner!

The industry and VVIP night

It’s late now, I did better get some rest for tomorrow. Will post more especially a video as an update to this blog entry tomorrow.

It was a good day today, with one more to go tomorrow!

Today is the 1st public opening day of the SP open house and Spinnovex 2008. That is also when the crowds start flooding in to view all the various exhibited items on display as part of student’s final year projects.

The whole event started in a bang with our guest of honor & nominated MP, Mr Edwin Khew visiting our project on display as part his guided tour. Glad our department director chose our project as part of the featured items in the open house itself, really appreciated that.

My team’s project is a force displacement gaming simulator, it’s very much like a motion simulator, only tailored for gaming. The simulator is able to take on almost any force feedback racing or flight PC games you can buy off the store shelfs. It works by pulling all the game’s Direct-X forces transmitted to force feedback racing wheels/joysticks and translates them in numerical values which our Visual Basic simulator software is able to compute, plot and tailor on force graphs which in turn activates the motion actuators to move the simulator in real time. So for example if you drive into an object or obstacles, the system will respond accordingly and “throw” you forward in the simulator, this is also true for G-forces as well.

The 2nd day of judging was held in the morning prior the visit of the VIPS, thereafter our project is open for the public to try out and ride for the whole afternoon. As our project is still largely a prototype, never before had we placed our simulator in actual service conditions, so I was rather super cautious the moment we opened up for the public (safety was another big concern as well). But amazingly it stood out firmly and operated flawlessly for the whole day with thrill riders in and out non-stop without any problems (even with a long queue forming at our booth). That has allowed us to fully understand the stress capabilities of our invention. With some refinement and maintenance first thing tomorrow, I am confident it will go on strong for the whole of tomorrow as well.

Even the press were invited- they were they all our my project as well. Besides official school photographers and video crews, SPH Digital Life reporter came and did an interview about our project. Even Channel News Asia was there to film and conduct a camera interview with me.

Our gaming simulator booth in the main white tent

Details check!

And man were we a crowd magnet!

For today, I have very much our student support group and TSO to thank today for getting most of the admin items running smoothly for us in the background, such as tools and the printing of brochures, I do not know how our project would have been without them. Moreover, I really really appreciate the many commendation we got today on our project, not only from students but even strangers from the public as well,

Today was a good day, so was the day before, may tomorrow be an even better one!

SP official press release on the SP main website:

After many long weeks, not to mention Saturday and Sundays (Thanks going to our TSO) working on my final year project, today is the day where we get to move into the main exhibition tentage! My team’s project was not really fully completed yet and we wanted to go in early so we can use up the rest of the day to finish it up. Also given the instructions to go in early. Little do we know that upon moving in first thing in the morning, no one is actually there yet! Whoa we are few of the first!

I cannot reveal much of my project at the moment, so I am pretty vague at the moment, what you should know is that it’s a freakin’ cool gaming motion simulator for the SP open house cum Spinnovex Exhibition.

Got about the whole morning setting up the booth and testing our simulator spanning into the evening, well, till the security had to chase us out at 6pm as they are closing up the place.

Spinnovex 2008 main tentage

Inside the tent, time to fill da spaces!

Moving all our projects in

Being in the main tentage, we definitely have lots to deliver, not to mention meeting lots of expectations and being under the scrutiny of the judges, industry leaders and general public.

For today, I am quite satisfied with the project. We got “interviewed” by some of the staff members who are looking for projects to be featured in the media and papers. Moreover, we also did a live demonstration to our Japanese professors we got to know last year who are visiting again. Even our supervisor was pleased with our progress so far. All I can say, our project did really attract quite alot of attention in the tent, even passer bys- it’s kinda pressurizing but otherwise good attention I guess as a whole. I believe my team will pull through together the whole exhibition with our system without any problems. I have all trust in them and in our work.

The Spinnovex 2008 exhibition will be open this Wednesday to trade visitors only, it will be open to the public this Thursday onwards to Saturday, so do pay us a visit at the SP open house this week!