Personal Statement

Living in a HDB flat, we usually dry our wet clothes by hanging them outside using bamboo poles. There were times where I didn't manage to get to the kitchen on time to bring in the bamboo poles during sudden rainfall. I think this new technology will be very beneficial for me and my neighbors.

Letter of Transmittal

Triple N
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive, SG: 138683

20 October 2015

Mr. Brad Franklin Blackstone
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive, SG: 138683
6592 8154

Dear Brad,

Re: Proposal for Sensor on Retractable Clothing Hanger

We are submitting to you the report due on 19 November, 2015 as requested. We are pleased to present the following proposal on the implementation of EZ Hangz that uses sensor technology on retractable clothing hangers in HDB flats in Singapore, for your kind consideration. This report has been prepared with the intention to improve the efficiency of clothing hangers mainly in HDB flats through EZ Hangz.

The report comprises the motivations behind the proposed solutions, as well as a comprehensive summary of all the related primary and secondary research.

We would like to thank you for taking the time to read through our proposal. We hope that you will take kindly to our suggestions in this implementation to improve the efficiency of clothing hangers in HDB flats in Singapore through EZ Hangz.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

 Triple N

“For You, for you and you”

My mother is my inspiration. She was the one who taught me my first word, how to walk and many more. She taught me the importance of loving yourself and always reminding me to be nice to people even when they treated me badly. I didn't do well in both primary and secondary school. I remembered crying upon getting my GCE Os result. I remembered feeling like a failure and just really disappointed in myself. Living in Singapore, I was told that without education, you can't really survive. With my results, I couldn't enter a Junior College (JC) and can only enter a few courses in Temasek Polytechnic. I couldn't enter the course I was interested in which was Biomedical Informatics and Engineering. My mother was the one who assured me that it’s totally fine and said that God had other plans for me. She kept saying she was proud of me and that she's grateful that I passed. We even went to get pizza after that to celebrate. From then onwards, I had this motivation to do well. I did pretty well in polytechnic. Now being in University, it’s hard. Most of my poly friends in University are either planning to withdraw or has already withdrawn. I can’t possibly give up now. School is tough but Diyanah isn’t a quitter. I really want to make my parents proud. Each time I feel down or at the point of breaking down, my mother comes to mind. The thought of seeing her proud smile gets me motivated.

I remembered going to my parents’ room and I saw my mother asleep. Looking at her, I whispered to myself, “For You, for you and you”. Her happiness is the key to Allah’s pleasure and mercy towards me. And therefore, I ask Allah that He enables me to continuously make her happy.

[Final] Reader Response to "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) claims that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. The improvement in performance and flexibility of infrastructure must adapt to the 21^st century extreme urban context. Infrastructures in this era should improve a community’s quality of life. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability Rating System, an evaluation tool that measures the performance of infrastructure and its impact on the community. She further shares her experiences in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) project and the key challenges of urbanization. She hopes that the right project will help any community and city to function as a whole. While I agree with Cho on the importance of considering urban challenges in infrastructure planning, the examples she provided lacked details and was not convincing enough.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries like Peru and Mexico managed to build the awarded infrastructure. Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision such as water and education before moving towards sustainability. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Cho should have addressed the issue of the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. Also, the challenges faced by both the developing and developed countries are different. With different challenges, the actions taken by both countries will be different. While Cho does mention projects in Peru and Mexico, both of which are ‘middle income developing countries’ according to the World Bank (The World Bank, 2015). She could certainly have given more detail especially the process in building the awarded infrastructure.

The second reason is because of the lack of explanation about her own KAEC project and how the Envision Sustainability Rating System is applied to it. Cho only mentioned her aims of KAEC sustainable infrastructure using the Envision certification process and how this process allowed the infrastructure to achieve the Infrastructure 360 degrees award. Envision has 60 criteria that is broken down into 5 different sections: quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, natural world and climate and risk (Beach, n.d.). It would have been better for Cho to address how she plans to improve KAEC so as to achieve the points. Under Envision Rating System, awards given based on credits. There are four tiers to achievement, based on a minimum percentage of all applicable Envision credits: Bronze, Silver, Gold and platinum awards (Beach, n.d.). Cho could have mention her target for KAEC and which award she plans to achieve. Only then will it seem more realistic and believable. Cho kept mentioning that she wants to apply the Envision Rating System to KAEC but she did not mention how she is planning to do it.

In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article lacked detail especially the process of applying the Envision Rating System to KAEC and which award she plans to achieve. Also, it would have been more realistic to also touch on both the successful and unsuccessful stories of building these infrastructures as not everything has a happy ending.

References

H Cho (2014, December 17). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. [Blog post]. Retrieved November 1, 2015 from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

P Amoateng (2015, March 30). Sustainable development in developing countries: ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. [Blog post]. Retrieved November 1, 2015 from http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054

S Beach, S. (n.d.). Isi envision: sustainable infrastructure rating system. [Blog post]. Retrieved December 28, 2015 from http://www.permatrak.com/news-events/bid/100073/ISI-Envision-Sustainable-Infrastructure-Rating-System

The World Bank. (2015). Mexico Retrieved December 28, 2015 from http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mexico

The role of Peer & Tutor feedback

I have been writing since young. I think my writing skills have improved since my poly days. I did a lot of reports back in my poly days. Once the report is submitted, I will usually receive a grade. But my lecturer does not  really feedback on my report.  At the end of that module, I will not know what I missed out in my report. For example;

what I did well? Any areas I can work on? Whether my content was good or lacking? With no proper feedback, I will not know which areas I am lacking in and where I can improve. 

With this module, Effective Communication, getting feedback is something done for every assignment and tasks.

Honestly, for myself, when I got my first feedback, I believed it was for the summary of Cho's article. I thought I did well. But when I received the feedback , it turns out I was lacking. I missed out the main point of the article. Its good that they were specific so I know where exactly I went wrong. However, It was quite upsetting and I felt that the comments were quite harsh. For most of my feedback, I had to look at them with an open mind. I had to have this mindset that they want me to get my A. 

When a classmate gives a valuable feedback, it feels like they are cheer leading from the sidelines. I now truly appreciate every feedback I got where they were honest and did not sugarcoat any parts of my work. With this kind of feedback, that classmate is taking a risk, knowing its something I do not really want to hear and that I might be upset. However, If I were to take in the feedback, I can definitely improve. 

Most of my module requires at least 1 report this trimester. I found myself referring to the links Brad shared and notes for most of the report. For most of the report, the prof wanted them in APA style. I kept referring to the links given by Brad. Most of the time, its the references and the report format and style links.  I was able to transfer most of the skills taught by Brad to my other module assignment. There will definitely be more reports coming my way throughout my university studies and future career. As an Engineering student, writing report is something common so the writing skills will not be forgotten. I cannot deny the importance of these sets of writing skills. 

Thank you Brad for teaching us this set of skills and also making the lesson enjoyable.

Reflection on presentation

Our group, Triple N recently finished our proposal presentation. Yayy effective communication is done. I thought we did quite well and we're all satisfied with our performance.

Although I thought we did well, there were still areas that needs improvement. Reading the feedback from my classmates, as a team, we were really selling our idea. Individually, I felt that I messed up my part a little at the end . I laughed and my hand gestures were crazy and all over the place.

With regards to the crazy hand gestures, I thought my hand movements were good but turns out it was very distracting for some of my classmates. For my next presentation, I will try to have more control for my hand. I am someone who cannot sit still. I have to like move and its honestly uncomfortable to just stand with my hands at one place. But I'll try my best to exercise more hand control.

Another interesting comment by a classmate was that I was too cheerful that I started laughing. Honestly, its my first time hearing that. While I was presenting, I saw a classmate laughing and I just felt like laughing. I laugh easily so I need to learn to maintain.

Slide wise, a classmate commented that my slide was clear and neat. I was glad to hear that. I wanted the audience to focus on me. I didn't want them to get distracted by our slides so I only had 4 pictures there.

 In conclusion,  I thought our group did a great job and we're very happy.

Reader Response to “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) claims that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. The improvement in performance and flexibility of infrastructure must adapt to the 21^st century extreme urban context. Infrastructures in this era should improve the community’s quality of life. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability Rating System, an evaluation tool that measures the performance of infrastructure and their impact on the community. She further shares her experiences in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) project and the key challenges of urbanization. She hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. While I agree with Cho on the importance of considering urban challenges in infrastructure planning, the examples she provided lacked details and wasn’t convincing enough.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries like Peru and Mexico managed to build the awarded infrastructure. Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision such as water and education before moving towards sustainability. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Cho should have addressed the issue on the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. While Cho does mention projects in Peru and Mexico, both of which are ‘middle income developing countries’ according to the World Bank, she could certainly have given more detail especially the process in building the awarded infrastructure.

The second reason is because Cho did not state what developing countries like Peru and Mexico should not do when building its infrastructure. The challenges faced by both the developing and developed countries are different. With different challenges, the actions taken by both countries will be different. As it’s different, they should work and act efficiently. Though poverty conditions have compounded and weakened the capability of developing countries in achieving sustainability, they still should not ignore sustainability in their development and just continue striving for it (Kiamba, 2012). Cho only mentioned the successful stories of infrastructure. It would have been more realistic to mention both the successful and unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure. Cho should have included more details on the unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure for both the developed and developing countries.

In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article lacked detail especially the process of creating infrastructure for both the developed and developing countries. Also, it would have been more realistic to also touch on both the successful and unsuccessful stories of building these infrastructure as not everything has a happy ending.

References

Heidi, C. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/ .

Anita, K. (2012). The sustainability of urban development in developing economies. The Journal of Sustainable Development, 8, 20-25.

Paul, A. (2015). Sustainable development in developing countries: Ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. Retrieved from http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054 .

Reader Response Draft 2 [edited ]

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. While I agree with Cho on the importance of inputting urban challenges in infrastructure planning, I think that her points on dealing with rapid urban growth are incomplete. Her explanations seem to only address developed countries.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries deal with its rapid urban growth through sustainability. Cho only mentioned how countries with resources deal with its urban challenge and left out how developing countries will achieve sustainable development. Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision before moving towards sustainability. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Cho should have addressed the issue on the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. She should have provided examples of successful infrastructure stories from developing countries.

The second reason is because Cho did not state what developing countries should not do when coping with its rapid urban growth. The challenges faced by both the developing and developed countries are different. With different challenges, the actions taken by both countries will be different. As it’s different, they should work and act efficiently. Though poverty conditions have compounded and weakened the capability of developing countries in achieving sustainability, they still should not ignore sustainability in their development and just continue striving for it (Kiamba, 2012). Cho also mentioned the success stories of “the Nuevo Necaxa Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico and Highways Vias Nuevas De Lima in Peru”. I liked that the infrastructure mentioned by her was from the list of developing countries. However, it would have been more realistic to mention both the success and unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure. From the unsuccessful stories, other developing countries can efficiently strive for sustainability by learning from their failure.

 In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article was incomplete as her points seem to only address developed countries. It would have been better and more realistic to touch on how both developing and developed countries work towards achieving sustainability. Sustainability shouldn’t just be applicable to developed countries. Developing countries should also work towards it.

References

Heidi, Cho. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. Retrieved from

http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Kiamba, Anita(2012). The sustainability of urban development in developing economies . The Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(1),20-25.

Paul Amoateng.(2015).Sustainable development in developing countries: ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. Retrieved from

http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054

Draft Reader Response 2 to "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. While I agree with Cho on the importance of inputting urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure planning, I feel that her points on dealing with rapid urban growth are incomplete. Her explanations seem to only address developed countries.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries deal with its rapid urban growth through sustainability. Cho only mentioned how countries with resources deal with its urban challenge and left out how developing countries will achieve sustainable development. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision such as before moving towards sustainability. Cho should have addressed the issue on the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. She should have provided examples of the success stories on how developing countries like China managed to improve their people quality of life (Fu Jing, 2008).

The second reason is because Cho did not state what developing countries should not do when coping with its rapid urban growth. Though poverty conditions have compounded and weakened the capability of developing countries in achieving sustainability, they still should not ignore sustainability in their development and just continue striving for it (Kiamba, 2012). Cho only mentioned the success stories of sustainable development; the Nuevo Necaxa Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico and Highways Vias Nuevas De Lima in Peru. I liked how the successful infrastructure mentioned by her was from the list of developing countries. However, it would have been more realistic to mention both the success and unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure. From the unsuccessful stories, other countries can efficiently strive for sustainability by learning from their failure. Urban development can be seen in all developing countries. However, successful sustainable development can be rarely identified (Amoateng, 2015).

In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article was incomplete as her points seem to only support developed countries which are economically stable. It would have been better and more realistic to touch on how developing countries work towards achieving sustainability. Also, the actions developing countries should and should not do in working towards sustainability and combating rapid urban growth.

References

Heidi, Cho. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. Retrieved from

http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

 Fu Jing (2008,August 28).Chinese see dramatic rise in quality of life : economist.. China Daily. Retrieved from

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-08/28/content_6977384.htm

Kiamba, Anita(2012). The sustainability of urban development in developing economies . The Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(1),20-25.

Paul Amoateng.(2015).Sustainable development in developing countries: ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. Retrieved from

http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054

Draft Reader Response to "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. With the soaring number of successful sustainable infrastructure around the globe, I strongly agree with

 Cho on the need to input urban challenges in the construction of any development.

Infrastructures that are blindly built, will be useless when it’s no longer needed. Infrastructures built this way will be left purposeless and be eventually demolished. This will be a total waste of resources in both the building and demolishing process. Architect and developers must fully research and understand their infrastructure outcome well. What works for a certain country might not work for another country. Likewise, architects must create infrastructure within the context of their city’s environment and resources. It must also be built in such a way that they can be repurposed over time to meet the needs of the community (Geis and Kutzmark, 2006). Cho even shared the success stories of 2 awarded infrastructures; Highway Vias De Lima in Peru and Nuevo Necaxa Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico. These 2 development are currently serving the citizens well and has allowed integration through transportation and neighbourhood hubs, connecting the people. These developments have provided ease for their people, shortening distance time and meeting their needs.

The writer’s current project, KAEC also proves the importance of including urban challenges in infrastructure planning. Saudi is expecting a high population growth and in response, KAEC plans to build 2 million homes and create 20,000 jobs for their people. KAEC is also expected to boost Saudi tourism. With this, Saudi won’t be relying 100% on their oil money as it will run out in the years to come (Mclelland, 2015). Looking at the writer’s current involvement and influence in KAEC, it further proves how important it is in creating infrastructure by working with the peoples need and fully maximising the infrastructure capability. She also shared her belief that Saudi KAEC ‘can evolve to lay the groundwork for a broader sustainability platform that will serve communities for generations to come.’ Other than boosting their economy, advanced transportation has also been included in KAEC. As ‘Speed is integral to KAEC’s vision for future’, high-speed rail systems is included and aims to lessen demands on roads and will be a safer ride for the people (Sylvia Smith, 2015). The train network will link KAEC with Mecca and Medina and is expected to reduce journey time from Jeddah to 30 minutes.

In conclusion, inputting urban challenges in infrastructure planning is very important. Maximising the infrastructure capability is very important so that we can better provide and serve the people. The example provided by Cho was ambitious and as proven above will be benefitting Saudi in all aspect. Planning infrastructure now is more than just having that on the map, it involves having a good relationship with both the people and its environment. Infrastructure created with this approach will be unbreakable.

References

 Don Geis., Tammy Kutzmark.(2006). Developing Sustainable Communities: The Future is Now. Retrieved from http://www.freshstart.ncat.org/articles/future.htm

 Heidi Cho.(2014,December 14). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

 Jennifer Lee.(2014). Case study of Nuevo Necaxa-Ávila Camacho Highway, Mexico. Retrieved from http://research.gsd.harvard.edu/zofnass/menu/current-research/infrastructure-360/nuevo-necaxa-avila-camacho-highway-mexico/

 Euan Mclelland.(2015,May 23).The city springing up in the desert. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3094052/The-city-springing-DESERT-New-pictures-67billion-project-house-two-million-people-Saudi-Arabia-2035.html

 Sylvia Smith.(2015, March 20). Saudi Arabia's new desert megacity. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31867727

Final Summary of "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole.

Draft Summary of "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the rating system that is created to ensure performance. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole.

My English Language Journey

Being a Singaporean student, you cannot deny the importance of English. English is a common language that we all know. At least for most of us. For me, English was my second language. I liked English but I dislike the grammar and composition classes. They were just boring and just troublesome. Throughout my education years, getting a C grade for English was something I’m okay with. My mindset was that I just have to pass.

As I got older and discovered my interest in being a building service engineer, things started to change. I wanted to be a successful engineer. Being in this field, report writing is something I definitely will do. I had a taste of that during my polytechnic years. It was frustrating having to re-edit my report a couple of times. My lecturer then was someone with high expectations and he’ll reject any report that didn’t meet his expectation. Due to those rejections, I managed to improve my report writing skills. Now, I realized the importance of English. I do regret neglecting my English foundation classes in primary school but it’s never too late to get it right.