Importance of Water - Dirty and Clean by Prof Ng Wun Jern
The key learning point i have from this talk is probably awareness when it comes to clean water and sanitary. The professor told us that millions of people have no access to clean water or sanitation, and other shocking statistics. He also elaborated on what is inside dirty water and the consequence of consuming it. This showed the seriousness of this issue and that we should not take dirty water and lack of sanitation lightly but find ways to combat this problem.
Revolution of Microelectronics Technology by Prof Yeo Kiat Seng
The talk talks about the significance of microelectronics in today's life. I learned that the government is focusing on RnD when it comes to this area and in the future, microelectronics will be a very successful industry.
Interactive breakthroughs in Nano-Science and Technology by Prof Ma Jan.
The talk was split into 3 sub-categories, namely nano-technology, bio-technology and defense technology. Nano-technology is mainly about strength through increase in surface area of the same volume by making an object smaller. Bio-technology is about biological inventions such as precision drugs that deliver the drugs directly to the infected cells and nowhere else. Defense technology is about how we can utilize nano-technology or any other scientific advancement to help boost our armed forces be it breakthroughs in camouflage technology from stealth to uniform or armor technologies utilizing the principles of nano-technology
IT for Animation by Prof Seah hock Soon
My key takeaways from the talk is that there are mainly 3 different forms of animation. Stop motion, 2D animation and 3D animation. Stop motion is probably the simplest where one just takes pictures of an object and animate it together. 2D animation cost the most among the 3(shocking but true), as it is labor intensive. An artist has to painfully draw and color out every single frame before animating them together. 3D animation, cheaper than 2D mainly because its less labor intensive involves modeling out characters and background before animating them using a computer software which allows movements of the models.
Disappearing glaciers, rising sea levels, and why gravity is even more important than you think by Asst Prof Emma Hill
The main point of this talk is that the rise of sea level will not be the same everywhere. This is due to various laws of physics such as an object with a larger mass attracts the one with the smaller one. This causes the water level near the glaciers and the tropics to be totally different should the ice caps melt.
The plenary session that left the deepest impression on me is the talk on dirty and clean water. I think the main reason for this content wise is because it opened my eyes to the fact that a huge fraction of the world do not have access to proper sanitation or drinking water. The topic may not be all that interesting, but the way the presenter presented it caught my attention. He was engaging, with an unusual sense of humor that constantly kept me engage. He was focused on his topic and delivered it well, this is probably why it left the greatest impression on me.
I choose this project mainly because unlike the others which focuses on one aspect only, this gives me the opportunity to learn more about two sciences, physics and chemistry. Another reason would be that i enjoy working in a lab for chemistry and also solving real life physics problem. My role in the group for the fastest ball challenge was to reset the timer and push the ball back to the start line. Some of the challenges we encountered while working on the project was the limited time we had but eventually we still managed to meet the dateline. Others include inconsistent results during the fastest ball challenge trial and we had to take extra trails just to overcome this and decide on the best angle. Through this project, i discovered that in order to finish our task we have on hand fast, it is vital that everybody contributes and do he or her part to help the team in order to meet our deadline instead of just one or two people working. As an individual, i have benefited from this program as i have learned new skills and experienced what i could not in school, for example using some of the lab equipment here. I also was exposed to knew knowledge in chemistry and physics.
