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.
Effective Communication
Hello peeps!
Friday 4 December 2015
Letter of Transmittal
Triple N
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive, SG: 138683
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
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
Saturday 28 November 2015
“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 21st 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
Saturday 21 November 2015
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.
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.
Thursday 19 November 2015
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.
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.
Thursday 22 October 2015
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 21st 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
.
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