EG1471

E-portfolio 7

2009-04-21T12:59:00.003+08:00

What difficulties do you have writing in university classes? How to resolve these difficulties? How will you continue to improve?

Its coming to an end of my second semester and thanks to EG1471 i was able to improve my written english. The difficulties i have writing in university classes is to organise and support my points and of course grammar mistakes will follow as well. As we are all humans and we tend to make mistakes here and there, sometimes more then usual and sometimes very little.

The first difficulty about organising my points and supporting them is that when i start writing my essay, i would be following the outline which i have came up with. But when i am writing, my brain tends to generate and throw new points relating to what i am writing and i start adding it into the current point which i am writing about. It most of the time seems okay with me, but my teacher would say that it makes things complicated, confusing or this is another point which should be by itself.
To resolve this problem of mine, i have been trying to follow strictly to my outline and if more ideas come along, i would note it down separately and will try to see how to add the point into my essay without disturbing the follow and organisation of the essay.

The next difficulty is my grammar, always making mistake by using wrong word, subject verb agreement and sometimes it affects the reader to understand the point i am trying to bring across. And the reader would be left to wonder, what i was trying to say.
This grammar problem of mine has to be solved and can be done so by reading more books, read different type or material as it will expose myself to the different style of writing and how the grammar is being used. The next way is to practice editing text for grammar errors. As there is a saying "Practice makes perfect".

If i carry on reading more books and write essays and edit it myself, i think that would be a way for myself to improve over time.

Last but and the least, i thank you Ms Dara Richard for teaching this module and helping us to improve our English language.

E-portfolio 6 : Identification of 3 common grammar mistakes

2009-04-06T01:17:00.006+08:00

English is a language I have been speaking since young so i must be good at it right. Yes, i dont have diffuculty with oral english but my problems is with written english. There is famous saying "old habits die hard", and so it is same for my written english. The 3 most common mistake i have is subject verb agreement, wrong word/word from and punctuation.

The first mistake of mine is subject verb agreement (SVA), the subject and verb should match one another. In short if the subject is single then the verb must also be single, and so subject plural, verb plural.

1a) The drinks is sponsored by Joe. (wrong)
1b) The drinks are sponsored by Joe. (correct).

The next mistake of mine is wrong word(WW)/word from(WF). This mistake happens a bit here and there in my essays.

WF
2a) These two points leads me to say that using algae as bio-fuel will allow more land to be used to harvest crops and lesser carbon emissions, making Earth a clearner place to live.

2b)These two points leads me to say that using algae as bio-fuel will allow more land to be used to harvest crops and less carbon emissions, making Earth a clearner place to live.

WW
3a) Therefore, bio-fuel now is part of the solution to global warming and to meet our increasing demand of power.

3b) Therefore, bio-fuel now is part of the solution to global warming and to meet our increasing demand for power.

Summary of roundtable discussion

2009-04-05T23:59:00.003+08:00

During the roundtable discussion, on the 9th of March, 4 different topic were covered. They were bio-fuel, followed by green chemistry, RFID chips and carbon capture and storage. Since my group discussed bio-fuel, I would be giving a summary on the other 3 topics.

First of all green chemistry is a technology that helps prevent and reduce pollution. The supporting side says green chemistry is a must as it will tackle global warming and green house gas emission problems. This can be done by taking used and unwanted plastic bottles and reducing it into carbon microsphere, which is said to be stronger then diamond. Green chemistry is a technology that ensures that during process and the final production of the product does not not harm the environment in anyway. While on the other hand the opponents argued that green chemistry techonlogy is difficult and very expensive to sustain during this global economic crisis time. They also said that it is not worth for Sigapore to invest due to its limitation like land, cost and the recent economic crisis. Instead of developed countries using green chemistry, they suggested developing countries to use it instead. When i heard that, i was like how can a developing country use green chemistry when it is expensive for developed countries to support it.

The topic was about implantation of micro-chips into every human. This chips would be used as a mean of identification, storage of one's medical history, could be used as a tracking device to locate people lost in natural disaster, to track wanted criminals. However, the opposing side argued that, this micro-chips may seem useful but at the same time dangerous. As hackers could hack their way and steal every individual information. Next is privacy as government or some organisation tracks movement of its own people, and human rights group are against it. There is also the cost of implementing this technology and running it as not every country would be able to afford it.

The last topic was about low-pressure carbon filter process technology. Basically it is carbon capture, as from the name suggest to collect and trap carbon emission will help to reduce carbon emission in the atmosphere and reduce global warming. The supporting side main arguement was to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by using this low-pressure carbon filter and using the collected carbon emission for enhace oil and methane recovery. The opposing side argued that this technology will provide benefit if it is implemented on a large scale and to have it on a lager scale, cost of implementation will be huge. The long pipes used may leak and so well maintence is need. I personally felt that the against was weak and did not have a proper arguement on why he opposes.

This roundtable discussion help me to understand the other topic for WA2 and also the various technolgies.

e-portfolio 4 - Summary of 2 articles

2009-03-15T23:39:00.004+08:00

While preparing for the roundtable discussion, i had come across many articles about biofuel and i am going to share 2 of them with you.

The first article is about "A Promising Oil Alternative: Algae Energy", it talks about algae being used for biofuel and why it is better than the 1st generation of biofuel. The article starts by stating petroleum quantity is decreasing and we have to find a better and greener subsitute. That is where biofuel comes into the picture; biofuel is currently being produce using corn, soybean, sugar cane and other crops. A much more greener way to use biofuel is to use algae, as it has a rapid reproduction rate, it yields 30 times more energy per acre than other crops and it can be processed into fuel oil. The best thing about algae is that it can grow almost anywhere even in harsh conditions. By using algae instead of crops, amount of land needed will be much lesser. Some power plants are testing algae to be carbon absorber by feeding the algae directly with carbon dioxide. The article also says that even though it is feasible, it will still take years before we can use it to fuel our vehicles.

The second article is about "Are Biofuels a Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels?", the main purpose of the article is to inform people that biofuel is not that green as they think. The article starts of with food issues in poor countries and the main point is the food vs fuel issue. It says that global warming is the main driving factor that leads the production of biofuel. When biofuel is produced, food available to feed people decreases and in some countries, places, people are starving because of it. Deforestation will also start to take place as more land is needed for crops to produce fuel and food. The article ends saying there are better alternative then biofuel, what is lacking is the political will and humanity which goes beyond economy.

This two article gave me lots of inside about biofuel, its pros and cons, and help me to write my WA 2.

References:

Alternative Energy (2008, April,22). Are Biofuels a Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels?. http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/biofuels-alternative-fossil-fuels/

Hartman,E.(2008,January,6). A Promising Oil Alternative: Algae Energy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303907.html

Summary of each Lecturer presentation

2009-01-31T11:28:00.006+08:00

Andrew C. Palmer, Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool and Rajasekhar Bala presented issues relating to global warming and steps taken to fight against global warming. In general, global warming is becoming more severe due to massive amount of carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere.

Professor Andrew C. Palmer is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Chartered Engineer. He discussed about carbon dioxide emission and how its emission quatity has grown over the years and in the past 20 years it has increased exponentially, to the extent that 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide is being dumped every second. Carbon dioxide emission has to be reduced to 500 parts per million and has to be kept at that level if not the consequences will be great.

One of the way to tackle this issue is by carbon dioxide capture and storage option. The gas will be captured from factories, industries, vehicles and then all the captured carbon dioxide will be pumped into the ocean. In the long run this can be troublesome as carbon dioxide will diffuse into the ocean and it will be too acidic resulting a in biological effect on marine life as well as ours. Therefore one of his colleagues have came up with an idea to store all the liquid carbon dioxide in a membrane called 'sausage'. Another way to deal with the problem was to scatter sulphate particles into the atmosphere, thereby reducing the amount of infra radiation from the Sun to Earth, this will help to keep the Earth surface temperature cooler. This is an efficient method but is very costly to implement unless there is involvement and participation by developed and developing countries.

The second speaker, Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His main point was using STS to solve energy and technological problems. Then he presented two case studies, the first one on Renewable Power and the second case on Electrical Vehicles. Using both the cases he gave us an analysised view of the two cases which showed us that technology can succeed but sometime it is the society which fails them. Other factors which act like barrier are economical cost, political, regulatory, cultural and society behaviour. He ended his presentation by concluding how STS methods provide a useful lens to evaluate new technologies. This method make people think about technology, the social science way.

The final speaker was, Associate Professor Rajasekhar Bala, Division of Environmental Science & Engineering. He addressed the factors for global warming, steps the government can take and have been doing and what we as an individual can do to help reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emission. He informed us why global warming is taking place and provided evidence that global warming is taking place. Like the report by IPCC made in 2007, rise in global surface temperature, 13 warmest years since 1990, Artic temperature have risen twice as fast and land glaciers which are melting. The potential consequences of enhanced global warming are tremedously huge as lots of damage would be done and may take many years before the damage can be healed.

From the three presentation, what I found interesting was that global warming is not a battle that can be fought over easily. It is like a never ending war between us, humans, and global warming. Many people are working on this issue coming up with new ideas and way to reduce greenhouse gas emission, storage of greenhouse gas, to reduce the intensity of the infra radiation that is coming from the Sun to the Earth, working on renewable energy which is sustaniable and cost effective. There are many such lone 'warriors' or 'clans' around the world trying to do that to save the Earth. This can only happened and take place worldwide if governments of different countries, developed and developing get together, put aside economic gains and benefits for themselves or their country aside and attend to the bigger problem.

Global Warming

2009-01-29T22:56:00.007+08:00

After watching "An Inconvenient Truth" a documentary by Albert Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States of America from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton then, zooms in on a critical issue. This issue is Global Warming and its effects are serious. Global warming is a process where the overall temperature of planet Earth rises, this happens because the heat which is radiated by the Earth is not able to escape the Earth's atmosphere as it is prevented by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxiode, which has been accumulating over the years.

As global warming take place, its effects are felt everywhere in the world in the form of natural disasters like droughts, floods, hurricanes, melting of glaciers at North and South pole. Taking a look at Singapore, she has yet to suffer any natural disaster due to its geographical location, but her people should not make a mistake by not taking global warming seriously. As it is every person and every country duty to tackle and cut down the sources that contribute to global warming. All of us living on Earth, its our only home and we have to protect it and make it a better place.

Singapore's goverment has taken part in the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty intended to bring countries together to reduce global warming, in April 2006. This is just one step that Singapore have taken in combating global warming. Other measures Singapore has taken such as having tax incentives given out to people who purchases hybrid cars, as they tend to be more environmental friendly and also provide better mileage. Broadcasting advertisement on television informing people that turn off electrical appliances when not needed, set your air-con temperature at 25 degree Celsius and so money can be saved. Encouraging people to take public transportation and encourage people to recycle unwanted products. By setting up bins which collect paper, plastic and metal rubbish in the neighbourhood.

The National Environmental Agency in Singapore has also enforce limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that industry can release into the air. When it comes to deal with global warming, it is like a balancing act as every government running their country they would look at their economy first and then global warming.

This is the mindset that needs to be change as global warming is everybody problem. I personally feel that developed countries should do more in the fight against global warming and we humans should not be greedy and use only what we need.

For every tree that is cut down, the same species of tree should be planted. Our future depends on planet Earth so we have to care for it.

"The Expanding World of Engineers"

2009-01-18T18:10:00.008+08:00

From the article, I agree with Professor Seeram Ramakrishna views on the changing face of engineering. This is due to the engineering tertiary education system, which is design in such a way that is helps to train the mind of engineers to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach for designing solutions.

These trainings help engineers prepare themselves to face real problems at their workplace. Problems like making sure the final product or solution is cost effective, user friendly, is the product environmentally friendly, can the production be done or solution to the problem found in the given time frame. Problems will keep arising as globalisation continues to take place and to deal with these problems, engineers must come into the picture and play their role.

All the training is provided by the university as they want future engineers to excel in their respective fields. The university provides the infrastructure, services and support needed for the student to build and master their core engineering knowledge and then carry out practices at laboratory work where students are required to use their knowledge and put to practical work. Then there are also industrial attachment programs where one get to encounter real time problems and feel how is the life of an engineer like. As this will give them sufficient experience and would be able to design proper solutions.

Having core engineering knowledge is important but soft skills are equally important as well. Since engineers work in groups, they should be able to interact, share their idea and thoughts, work as a team, teams' should have good leader who can motivate and drive their team to perform in their task.

Once one is an engineer he or she has to keep upgrading themselves with new set of skills for their respective line and also with the latest technology advancement. This would help an engineer's mind to analyze complex information and apply better designing solutions relevant with time. With all this benefits or gains, it would not be surprising that tertiary engineering education would be become the next "' liberal arts education' of today and tomorrow" (Ramakrishna, 2007).

Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.