Design & Innovation Project (DIP) is a year 2.2 project module that weighs 3AU...for us admitted into NTU in AY 2011/2012. The next batch of EEE students will do it in their Year 3 and the module will only weigh 2AUs :( Haha.
I must say that through DIP, I have learnt how to apply the engineering concepts I've learnt practically. What we see and MEMORIZE in our textbooks now come to life in our design considerations. After applying them, these concepts are now not so abstract, but framed with an application in mind which makes memorizing much easier.
Above and beyond that, the best takeaway from this module is the new friends that I made! :) DIP officially ended on the 10th May 2012 - after the assessment by our moderator and the final judging by the panel of 7 professors. However, our friendships live on :) DUH...haha!
Ok, let me try to recall the DIP journey :) I will start by introducing you the all members in my group E030 - Solar Hybrid Car - pictured below :)
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| From left: ME, Kai Sen, Hui Ping, Joy Chua, Kah Wei, Yong Jian, Chor Seng, Sam Jing Qing, Tian Rui, Yong Qiang :) |
This picture is one significant landmark in our DIP journey :) Why? It's taken on Valentine's Day! :) HAHA! Yes, we sort of celebrated Valentine's Day :) Our 2 awesomely sweet ladies in our DIP group bought all of us Valentine's Day chocolates and other gifts! :D
Of course, the rest of us chivalrous macho men also bought them pretty macarons in return :D So the 2 rectangular boxes in the picture above is the macarons we bought for 2 of them :D
Even before Valentine's Day we also celebrated Chinese New Year together! :D Haha...we bought Chinese New Year goodies like pineapple tarts, biscuits and best of all, BA KUA!!!
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| Ba Kwa at our workstation!! LOL! :) |
Yes, right beside the ba kwa is the soldering iron...LOL...We celebrated CNY while making progress in our project :) Munching away at the ba kwa whilst soldering circuits...LOL!! The ba kwa disappeared pretty quickly and the culprit is pretty obvious when you look at the previous picture and look at the one below........HAHAHA!! :D
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| From full of ba kwa to 1 ba kwa left!! Same guy in the picture...Hmmm...Wonder if Chor Seng gobbled them all...LOL :D |
Oh and beside our DIP lab - characterization laboratory - there is a cleanroom. A cleanroom does a lot of processes using many types of chemicals and gases and they need to be released. So one of the gas release valves there shoots out nitrogen (I think) gas daily.
We got a little creative and the next few photos will show you how we attain peace and enlightenment...LOL!
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| Kai Sen going INSIDE as his shirt says...LOL! |
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| Abbot Jonavan does his specialty...MONSTER FART!! LOL!! |
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| Ohhh...the peace and wisdom that comes from meditation...HAHA! |
Those are a few interesting moments of our DIP captured on film...the rest was all work, designing, cracking our heads and putting everything together :)
Our prototype is shown below...This is just half our project....the other half will be shown later...Mainly we need to be able to charge the battery of this car WIRELESSLY via induction while harnessing SOLAR ENERGY :) Not an easy task...
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| Our Solar Hybrid Car! :) In faint background is ME! :D LOL! |
JUDGEMENT DAY has arrived on 10th May 2012!! LOL! Ok, not judgement day but rather, our competition day has come! After lunch we all anxiously took the lift...
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| All of us dressed in formal attire...taking the lift up to our lab to give a final presentation! :D |
When the lift door opened...*BOOM* we were right in the heart of our presentation!!! And I found myself rattling away about the main problems faced by our project!
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| Me presenting the part on the main challenges faced by our project :D |
Ok, drama aside...we strolled confidently back to our lab and readied ourselves for presentation...I was kinda stressed and so were my fellow presenters Tian Rui, Yong Jian and Joy :D
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| Tian Rui, Me, Joy & Yong Jian :) |
The picture above was taken after presentation...If not we wouldn't look that relaxed and happy...LOL!! Joy was really stressed out and we all kept telling her that she was doing awesome...In actual fact, SHE REALLY IS...I don't mince my words...we are all fantastic speakers.
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| The stunning 1st slide of our project presentation :) |
Referencing the picture above you can see 2 coils - one dangling from the roof of our charging station and the other mounted on the roof of the car. If you're an engineer, physicist or whatever...you'll know that the primary coil is on top and the secondary coil is on the car.
Inside that box or what we call the charging station are all the circuitry that makes the wireless inductive charging happen while harnessing solar energy :D Yup, the solar panels are pretty visible...they're right at the top of the whole thing...Duh...LOL
Yup, as mentioned earlier, the car is only half the project...not even half actually. All the circuitry housed in the charging station is all the science behind the success of this project :)
The next logical question to ask is...What position were we in after the DIP competition? Well the SMS from our project's supervisor made us break into SMILES :D
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| WE CAME IN SECOND PLACE!!! WHOO-HOOO! :D |
We were SO CLOOOSSSEEEE to winning the competition!! Oh well, we weren't aiming to win it anyway...To NOT aim for 1st place and still get so close to the TOP is in itself a remarkable achievement! Well done guys! :D
Here's a shot of all of us after the competition with our super friendly and approachable project supervisor, Asst. Prof Wang Qijie :D
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| From left: Professor Wang Qijie, Joy, Huiping, Kai Sen, Yong Jian, Sam, Me & Tian Rui...I think Kah Wei & Yong Qiang ran off to keep the solar panels or something...haha |
Yup, after everything I had to take a photo with every impressive individual in my group...without which this project wouldn't have bagged second place.
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| Me & Hui Ping :D |
This is Hui Ping, a really nice and sort of soft-spoken girl :D She is super nice...always buying things for us and rejecting any form of reimbursement from us...The CNY goodies were sponsored by her and Tian Rui.
Without her awesome photoshop and photography skills, our project wouldn't have that pictorial punch that took us all the way up to 2nd place :D
On top of that, I'll never forget the ride back home from NTU to my place! HAHA! Hui Ping resides in the far eastern side at Pasir Ris while I stay in Tampines...so I hitched a ride once when her father came to fetch her
So why will I always remember that ride? Because when I stepped into her dad's car, I tried to strike up a conversation with him which failed terribly...HAHAHA! I went in said my "hello!" and asked her dad "So uncle you came from work ah?"
Guess what was his reply? No reply -_-" Hui Ping's mum have to tell her dad that I'm talking to him...LOL! Then came his reply "Ya"...All I can say is that he is a man of few words...haha. Her mum looks more smiley and talkative but after that failed attempt to strike up a conversation with them, I didn't try again. HAHAHA! Oh well, her parents are really nice...nice enough to fetch me :)
Yup, that's Hui Ping :D
The next awesome lady is Miss Chua Chun Jia, Joy...LOL! She bluffed me that her chinese name was Chun Jia -.- I didn't realize until she told me that Joi Chua Chun Jia is our very own local artiste...LOL...I actually put "Chun Jia" in our official DIP report -.-" Thank God she was seated next to me and saw that her joke became a blunder in my hands...LOL!
Joy is shy girl...Our very first meeting even before the semester started, she hardly breathed...LOL! No sound, nothing...but after months of knowing her...that initial image was totally non-existent. Here's a pic of shy joy below...haha
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| Jovial Jon & Shy Joy...LOL... |
Well, shyness is but an initial characteristic she shows...here's a few takes without her "shyness" overcoming her...LOL
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| Joy & myself right after the presentation :D |
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| Take 2 with her iPhone :) |
This is one of the closest new friend I've made since my enrollment into NTU :) I never thought I'd become such good friends with this super quiet girl. But after months of doing reports side by side, friendship inevitably unfolded :)
Seated beside me are Joy and next to her is Hui Ping...the admin side...LOL! Our friendship started out by me eavesdropping on Joy & HuiPing's conversations to openly viewing their facebook profiles in front of them...HAHAHA!
From there conversations became much easier and communication was just a casual statement away :) Yup, from there I got a new found friend with many little things in common :D
So she is now the excited, kinda drama-mama, talkative and so-very-random Joy. Haha. Joy & Hui Ping are now both in the US doing their summer studies so can't wait to hear their western stories when they return :) haha.
Yup, next up in the picture roll is Sam Qing Jing :) We've known each other since poly year 2...so our friendship lasts for almost half a decade already :D
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| Sam & I :) |
What to say of Sam? He is the super nice guy with a really soft heart. Generous in his acts of services like driving us home...or somewhere convenient to go home, doesn't mind treating us, always offering to buy us drinks, etc...haha
He is one of those friends that have kept me sane throughout my stay in NTU. Everyday is just about STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. Wake up in hall, go lecture STUDY...go tutorials STUDY...go back hall STUDY -.-"
But in between those STUDY are the awesome meal times we have together where we chat our lives away. We can simply sit in front of one another, say nothing and don't feel awkward kinda friend. That's the level of friendship the group of us possess :) And when we do talk, we also talk deep knowing that we won't attack one another if we reveal the deeper side of ourselves :D
Yup, 2 more awesome years with my dear Sam :) haha...I actually disturbed his girlfriend on facebook saying "outside of NTU he is your hubby, inside NTU he is my hubby" :D HAHAHA! So he's MINE! LOL!
Up next is Yong Qiang, Sam's very own army mate for 2 years :D He is indeed a man of few words when in a group...but not that few when talking with him individually. Haha.
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| Yong Qiang & I :D |
He is my hall 6 neighbour...LOL. Neighbour in a sense that he stays a floor below me :D He has witnessed some of the "horrors" I've done in my hall...like boiling lizards and cockroaches, etc...HAHAHAHA!
He always tells me not to kill them and "what have they done to you?" kinda thing...but I still go on removing these "pests" from my hall...LOL!
His workspace in hall consists of TWO SCREENS!! One relatively huge TV screen and another laptop screen!! One screen for study, one screen for play...LOL! Yup, that was our very own Ven Aw Yong Qiang :D haha
Up next is one member of the 3 musketeer - Charles Ho! HAHAHA! He still leaves the name "Charles" on his MSN nick...so I shall go with that...HAHA!
Also a friend since poly year 2 together with Sam, we've known each other for almost half a decade :D
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| Chor Seng & Myself :D |
Another meal-time buddy of mine that helps to keep the academic-load from taking its toll in my brain. As always, he is pretty involved in CCA in school. He's the person who pulled me in to join Atomic Club in TP and once again, he's also the person to pull me in to join NTU ODAC.
I'm usually not all too interested in the CCA scene but I've never regretted joining them :) Like in TP, I've made soooo many good friends through the CCA and we still keep in touch :) I think the same will be in NTU ODAC :) Enjoying the life there thus far :D
Yup, I'm also glad that my years of novice preaching to him has paid off in his dedication of his life back to the creator of it. Haha.
The next member of the musketeer group is Kai Sen! He is Chor Seng's airforce friend. Through Chor Seng, Kai Sen is also part of our TP clique in NTU...haha
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| Me & Kai Sen :D |
Apart from bringing Kai Sen to our clique, Chor Seng also brought him to Heart of God church! :D He came consistently for 1 or 2 weeks before we finally sat him down to talk about the doubts he have about Christianity.
Well, that's my specialty...LOL! I'm also a heavy skeptic and like to justify my beliefs. So that chat with Kai Sen together with Chor Seng paid off and he is now an on-fire believer ready to rock planet Earth with a heavenly calling :)
Haha...Yes he's also a meal-time-stress-reliever as we talk about many things ranging from philosophy, relationships to homework and how our China lecturers made it to a top-tier university like NTU. HAHAHA!
The next guy I'm gonna cover is Yong Jian :D In a nutshell, he is the god of EEE. LOL!
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| Yong Jian & I :D |
His near perfect CGPA has always been an inspiration or rather, a dream number to most of us...HAHAHA! In semester 1 he was saying how tough it was...but along the way, his quiz results showed otherwise...But we still gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was a mortal like one of us.
But when final results were out...we knew we were not dealing with a mortal, a god was amongst us! A EEE god! LOL! In semester 2, our 24AUs workload was SUPER TOUGH and once again Yong Jian was telling us about how tough it was....
Guess what? Sem 2 final results out and HE PULLED UP HIS GOD-LIKE CGPA!!! We are never going to believe his "Whoa, very hard lei" talk anymore...LOL!! HAHAHAHA!
He is also a JCRC member of Hall 1 and an avid church member...that's what makes his CGPA more unbelievable...But oh well, when you have God in the picture and good discipline in your blood, achieving such feats are but nominal.
Yup, he's a super humble, nice guy that never fails to patiently explain engineering concepts to us mortals. Haha! A very steady guy that always makes you feel good, he always speaks words of encouragement even when things go awry...He really is an awesome friend indeed.
Ok, I've given him a lot of paragraphs here...haha! But without him, my CGPA would've dropped even more because he spent hours teaching me! So really thanks a lot Yong Jian! :D
Next on the line is Yong Qiang's ROOMY in hall 6...KAH WEI! :D Yup, he stays one floor below me together with Ven :D Haha.
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| Me & Kah Wei :D |
I thought he was a quiet guy...Well, he is quiet from far...but far from quiet...LOL! After getting to know him through DIP, I learnt that he was one hell of a joker like me...Haha! Outings with him is never quiet because you know a splash of jokes is round the corner when Kah Wei's around. Haha.
He's a really chillax, good-natured guy that has a HUGE FLAME for cars...When you step into his car, you know what I mean. Haha.
Talking about cars...the most memorable moment we had was when we went for dinner or supper...we went to eat at the famous "ah-lian bee hoon" at pioneer MRT. On our way back, on the way to Chor Seng's hall, I encountered my first every CAR ACCIDENT!!!
At the roundabout toward ADM, there was this dumb-ass taxi driver that simply drove straight and hit his backside! His car was already clearing the turn but the taxi from the filter lane into the roundabout didn't brake!
What happened next? The car's backside was hit and the back of the car swerved as Kah Wei swung the wheel to the opposite direction to prevent the car from spinning. It happened SO FAST! Now I know what it's like to encounter an accident. In the blink of an eye, you are at the mercy of the laws of physics.
Thank God the accident wasn't a serious one...Kah Wei's car sustained super minimal damage...damage that you will notice only upon scrutiny. Well, the blind taxi driver paid him $100 for the damage...which was relatively little. But oh well, the damage wasn't that bad either.
Yup, that was the most exciting, unforgettable and memorable event we had together...LOL! We also always meet unintentionally at our hall's toilet. Once he even caught me splashing hot water at a lizard! LOL LOL LOL!!!
Yupyup, must say he was an awesome friend made :) I also owe him a few favours because he dropped me off a few times and drove me to NTU several times...HAHA! Thanks a lot Mr. Leung! LOL!
Yup...I've saved the best for the last...The man behind the success of our Design & Innovation Project is our very own DIP LEADER - GAN TIAN RUI!! :)
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| Me & Tian Rui :D |
He was the brains behind the whole project. He fielded the 7 competition judges onslaught of questions...They really asked to kill but Tian Rui was well-prepared for their bullets...Haha!
Yup, he really got everything together. The project idea was birthed by him...and the main research was done by him. Yes we did research too but they were just to touch up the foundation he has already laid.
Yup, he really bore the brunt of the whole project...fighting with NTU's system of reimbursement. Whenever we bought something for our project, a hefty amount of emails and paperwork had to be done before money trickled back into his pockets.
Liaising with Prof Qi Jie also took some effort on his part...like when a change in our project design was unanimously decided upon, approval also has to be sought from our supervisor and all.
Above and beyond that, he is also a super humble friend. He never flaunts his creative ability and he always serves us...especially when assholes like myself and Chor Seng forget to clear our food trays, he'll do it without one breath of complaining...haha.
We like to play "leave the tray and walk away" game and see who will clear it...sometimes we'll walk back and clear it but sometimes Tian Rui will just do it. Haha. When you need things done, he is also ever-ready to sacrifice his time to go and meet you or meet lab technicians to get things done.
He is a man of servant-hood and sacrifice, something which will see him to greater places in life! :) Yup, that is my long-time secondary school friend, poly friend and current university mate :) Haha :D
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| All of us with our awesome lab-technician Fauzi :) |
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| Take 2 :) |
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| A shot with our project supervisor Prof Qi Jie :D |
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| All of us! :) |
Right after our presentation, we all headed to Swensen's for dinner! :) We took a couple of shots but they were all pretty rabak so I'll only show this sleepy photo of Kai Sen, myself and Joy :D
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| Kai Sen, Me & Joy overcome with fatigue...haha |
Anyway, the whole DIP group treated the 4 of us presenters to dinner at Swensen's - Tian Rui, Yong Jian, Joy and myself :) Thanks alot! Haha.
Another outing we had was our "Avengers" outing :D We all watched The Avengers movie together at The Cathay and later had dinner at the chicken rice stall nearby :)
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| Chicken Rice dinner! :) |
We ended our DIP with a karaoke session at Joy's condominium at Lakeside :) Travelling there took a little endurance because we haven't travelled to NTU in a long time...HAHAHA!
Kai Sen, Yong Jian and myself came from work in Tampines some more...but it was alright because Joy came to fetch us in her glossy black Mercedes :D :D An indicator of affluence...HAHAHA!
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| All of us at Joy's condo at Lakeside... |
Yup, I must really say a big THANK YOU to all of you guys for making DIP such an enjoyable 3AU module! :) We were seriously funny and funnily serious and we made it to second place on our power category...haha.
See you guys next semester and may our CGPAs ever be increasing!! :) HAHAHAHA! See you all around! :) <3
