engineering design

tadahhhh!!  week 12 has ended! omg omg omg omg I still can't believe it. I'm done with one semester of my third year!! not to mention the freaking robot project and lab test. 

aaaaaand. our robot lost. sigh. okay, it got second place. so I'm still happy I guess? after tedious hours of improvising and repairing and optimizing and testing, our perfected robot still wasn't perfect enough to win. hardware failure. power supply failure. and so it lost in the third round. but it was pretty impressive in the first two rounds, scored 7 in the first, 3 in the second. and then it seemed to get older every passing minute @@ it scored 2 in the third round but lost by 5 to 2. scored 1 in the forth and scored none in the final round. gahhhh.

any how, we really did our very best. considering that I even gave up my beauty sleep to stay up late in the nights to perfect the coding. at the last night before the competition, we stayed in uni to perfect the design up to 1am midnight. half way testing out our robot, the power supply in the corridor was cut off. we continue to test the robot in the dark. but then we were asked to leave by the security guards, since we weren't suppose to use the arena past mid night. oh well. a few teams stayed over for the night since the tutorial rooms are open for 24 hours.

on the big day itself, we had to fix several minor problems, including broken wires, and preparing "spare parts" for the robot just in case of an emergency. during the first round of the competition, I almost got a heart attack when the robot ran up the obstacle placed in the arena. as in literally UP. the obstacle had a sharp edge so the robot wasn't able to avoid it. the vehicle went forward, with the obstacle in between the robot mouth and the vehicle drove up the edge. it was almost verticle and it got stuck there for a while. thankfully this managed to activated the base sensor which triggered the robot to reverse. and so our robot gt down from the sharp edge safely with a loud BANG and was able to continue to function. this was one of the most nerve racking moments during the competition round @@

we lost the first place to the robot called "minion" which used a fan to collect and shoot the ball. it was really impressive and their robot worked consistently. we also lost due to bad luck, our robot wasn't able to encounter any balls in the first half of the third round. so, sigh. frustrated. but anyhow, we got 6 marks deducted but still earned a certificate award for second placing!! 

our perfected bingo

ours is like the ugliest robot, since we put the least effort to design the outer casing. oh well, at least it works fine. @@ I guess it'll be dead boring if I continue to explain the details of the parts of the robot, so I'll just leave it here. 

group photo!! you can compare the ugliness of our robot with the others. it was also one of the smallest. 3 of the robots weren't here though. I especially like the wolverine, which had the most unique outlook design.

proud of our team: pei zhan, who continuously untiringly persistently reminds us to work on our robot. seriously we won't be able to go so far without her. we'll slack and settle for less, no doubt. ahah. and yin wei, who was the main programmer who was so eager to win since the preliminary round. ahahaha seriously I never see him so hardworking before. and agoo. who was always late but gave constructive and helpful comments to improve our robot. ahaha. and yk! who wasn't in our team but helped us lots nevertheless! same goes to wc who helped us in the chassis of the robot. nice fellows they are ^^ so, it's a perfect team I guess. we managed to work happily and achieved so much. thank you! to each and every one of you ^^

so, one unit down!! I have three final papers to sit for in the next few weeks. time to catch up with studying. since, seriously, I had only absorbed 30% for the other units this semester? this happens when we worked too much on our robot. no time to lose! good luck for finals y'all!!

pushing further

pushing and pushing myself further. The semester seems so long and never ending. lost all my motivation and energy already. i'm so bad at multitasking i can't focus on the things at hand. i'm missing my friends when i'm studying. i'm missing studying when i'm outside. and i'm missing chilling when i'm studying. i'm chilling when i'm suppose to be studying. this is BAD.

also, my lecturer teaches so slowly that we are 4 weeks behind schedule. FOUR WEEKS. how am i suppose to swallow everything on top of the other stuff that i have in hand. I want a break. A real break. An empty mind. A peaceful heart. and a good book. argh. 

Week 11. Things are gonna be over soon enough. Dragging myself towards the finishing line. Can't even plan too far ahead since there are too many things at hand. But i have TONNES to do after this semester. Here's part of the list:

1. Trip with family

2. Shop for heels, bag, clothes

3. Read, three books at least

4. Draw, sorta have an idea already

5. Write, sorta have an idea too

6. build an amplifier

7. intern

8. join microsoft student partner??

9. cook. this seems essential.

10. any form of exercise. i'm too weak! yoga again maybe?

11. research on FYP. other means of adding value to my future career.

12. plan a trip with...who wants trip??

13. reorganize my room, my wardrobe, my uni stuff . 

14. Find/ make/ buy a better uni notebook!

15. okay now i can meet up with people stress-free and mindfully!!

sigh. writing a list makes me feel so much better. should have done this much much earlier. okay. ALMOST THERE. CHIONG AAAA.

Post Week 9

Hey, guys. Ya, I'm alive. I survived nine hellish weeks of monash Year 3 sem1. Seriously, I really thought I wouldn't make it through. And guess what? We won the preliminary competition!!! for the robot hockey warrior project! AHA! oops. didn't meant to boast. but that's the biggest achievement for me this year. minus the ELP, and sth else. lol. guess it's a good year for me indeed. more of that later.

Anyways. Days have been so BUSY I couldn't think ahead of more than two days at a time. and I really couldn't emphasize the word BUSY more. EVERYDAY is so FULL of workload and due dates. Besides the same old reports, assignments, and test, we literally CAMP in the lab for freaking long hours, either figuring out how to move the robot, or fix the robot, or debug the program. I could hardly find time to eat and the hours are terribly long and tiring. Two days before the competition, we even lengthen our hours in the uni until late night. Some people even stayed over for the last night. Thankfully, the mid sem break is here, I'm relaxed a little more, yet I still see myself spending the entire week in monash.

Ya, so we won. So at least that part of our hard work has paid off. Not that there will be time to celebrate, it was just the preliminary competition after all. After this week, another three hellish weeks is coming up! not to mention I've zero knowledge of the studies this semester, because of the overflowing assignments. sigh. guess that I won't have time to worry bout it until the three weeks long study break (Thank god for that!). Here's the breakdown of next three weeks:

Week 10: Labview assignment due 10%

Week 11: Engineering design report due 30%

Week 12: Engineering design presentation 10%

                Engineering design final competition 35%

                Computer system Lab test 10%

THREE WEEKS. looks like the same workload for 9 weeks doesn't it? so of course we have to work overtime during mid semester break. what choice do we have left? sigh. but, it's fine. it's really fine. I'm taking a liking to my discipline even more recently ^^ somehow I find electrical people simpler and kinder and nicer than others. I like nice people.

Teaching. oh well.  it's nearing the end of the year, so most of the work I have is just to revise the syllabus. And another student left me recently, pretty sad about it but never mind. I won't have time to teach soon anyway, since I have decided to intern with my mentor this coming holidays. I might have to quit teaching permanently. hmm. might.

And ELP. it feels like its in the way now. in the way of my mid sem break. In the way of my lab assignments. In the way for me enjoying dinner out. and since things have changed, or more like since I've decided for the better for myself, ELP is just no longer fun. but whatever, it'll be over soon enough. I'm still thankful to get to know my mentor through ELP though. not to mention my internship opportunity, and also the opportunity to meet and know so many other new friends.

lastly, say hi to BINGO. tadahhhh.

and, I can FINALLY call myself a programmer. muahahahaha. I'm no longer a computer noob and I can finally consider myself engineer material. BIG ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR ^^

life is near perfect for me now, I guess? I have progressive work which add values to my future (what my mentor always emphasize). I have good people around me. very good people. I ate lala and crab with family recently. and I still managed to squeeze time for my friends sometimes. just a little more time for me to catch up on my sleep and life would be perfect. Oh and I have to change the antisocial attitude of myself. Somehow, too engaged in work I guess? tend to be more antisocial recently.

okay. til then. ciao ^^

make time

indulging myself the the hectic-ness of year 3 engineering. it's no joke. these days, you will either find me with the computer working with reports, or spending hourssss in the lab racking my brain. or teaching. and that's it T.T

and week 5 is just over, I now it's fast, but there's still a long way to go until I complete this semester. gah. ENDLESS assignments. literally ENDLESS until the end of semester. there won't be a day before that which I could say ' yay! I've done all my work!' . NONE. zzz. 

not that it's all suffer. some are interesting and challenging, though not many would agree. because most of them are heck troublesome. anyhow, I'm kept my pace this semester, won't say I've fallen back too much or some what. So, time to MAKE TIME for my friends huh? MAKE TIME. zzzz.

Third Year

Guess that one of the greatest difference of this semester with the rest is independence. Some how this time round we know that when we want something done, we have to make it done by ourselves. Mostly we got scared by the Engineering Design unit. A 100% project based unit. We have to design and build a freaking robot which could play hockey and compete with the rest of the robots by the end of this semester. ONE HUNDRED FREAKING PERCENT project based unit. no wonder we're so scared. gah.

The lecturers, are okay, bt their lectures...some not so. sigh. why is it always like that? there's only dr. mark whom I can really count on. To compensate for the heavy work load, this semester we have no ONLINE QUIZZES. I hate online quizzes. they're so frequent and I have to spend so much time on just the one or two percent they carry. such a pain in the ass. so glad that I'm rid of them this semester!

Also, this semester I started to mix with more different people. the people i used to not talk to, somehow we're talking now. Finally huh. Not sure if its because of the lack of people in my batch. or that we finally managed to break the ice after two years of being course mates. Or that I'm not so nervous speaking to new people now. Or somehow that my confidence got boosted a bit considering the recent change in my life. hee. Or that being 21 is really THAT different with my previous 20 years. Even within my circle of people I could hear some wisdom now instead of just the usual jokes and craps we used to say so much.

Anyhow, I'm glad. I'm not so worried anymore. I'm not so tied up anymore. I'm practically fine just hanging out with anybody. Also, it's my luckiest semester =p 

Since the circumstances have already worked so well for me, I should just grab hold of this opportunity and focus on improving my engineering technical skills right? I have lots to learn and to practice. I need to learn the parts and chips and graphs and codes in different languages. I have to get better at programming. I have to BUILD A FREAKING ROBOT.

I'm half an engineer now, cool huh? guess so ^^

til then.

ciao~

No pain, no gain.

gosh. things are getting serious. internship. FYP. 100 percent project based unit. just stepping into Year 3, I can feel the tension in the air. No last minute studies can save me now. No more chilling break times. No more spacing off in lectures. Every minute counts! By the end of this semester, I must be at least ready for internship and score good grades in my semester. This is all that matters.

And so we meet the seniors again. Not my favorite batch of people. Some how I feel alienated from them, with their super geniuses topics and jokes. I feel like a First Year freshie just being in the same class with them. Also, there's HIM. in every single stupid class. grrrrr testing my patience to the max. 

But oh well, I'm still gonna hate the things I don't like. The only thing I can change is my attitude. Slowly, I guess, thanks to my mentor I'll get to know the seniors better. Then maybe I'll be able to fit in.  No matter what, it will not repeat as it was in Year 2 sem 1. Where I failed in both the assignments and with the people. I'll upgrade myself, I told my friends. I'll study like fatfish if I have to. I'll swallow the unit guides in the first week. I'll treat this like how it was when I was in A levels. Also I could not fit in, and self studied the entire unit of Further Maths. I'll study freaking hard this semester.

Nothing is impossible. Expecially when my 'problems' are only so little and insignificant. ATTITUDE is the key. I'm gonna be very busy. I'm gonna work very hard. I'm gonna skip the useless lecture and camp in the library if I have to. I'm gonna bug the seniors with questions after questions. I'm gonna learn. No pain, no gain.

til then.

ciao.

new

had an inspiring and motivational lunch with my mentor today. gosh, he made me feel guilty over how I spent my holidays. he said I shouldn't chill =\ he mentioned 人生 has all 酸甜苦辣, and so we should go for bitter first, 先苦后甜。university days are the best days to try out things and test our limits. if we don't dare to do anything now, we probably won't in the future. we'll eventually get comfortable with the false sense of security and wouldn't dare change anymore. so, oh well. I should stop walking, and start running! no reason for me to slack and hold back anymore.

and why WHY are the engineering guys so nerd??? they discussed softwares, and lectures and codes over lunch, and don't seem to respond to other topics o.o how is it possible that I am the one who talk the most over lunch in a group of people. this has never happened before. 

anyways, I've decided to intern with my mentor. sounds tough, what they are doing. but sounds like its my job to find the way through it by myself, and only by this way that I'll grow. so, new circle of friends maybe? o.o new attitude and method in my studies. new aim. new direction.

This coming summer break, I shall intern, learn programming. learn to be an engineer. a real one outside the classroom. maybe, maybe I won't end up as a lecturer at all. hmm, still don't know where I'll head to.

everything is so new. I'll take some time to get used to it ^^

til then. 

ciao.