SEGeTogether 2010

The wait was finally over for all of us. SEGeTogether 2010 was held on the 26^th of June 2010. At 10:30am, all the Cyriva Club members gathered at the W1 Student Forum to prepare their logistics and get ready to start off the event. The event registration started off at 11:30am and participants came rolling in.

The day kicked off with ice-breaking games like, ‘Honey, do you love me?’ and ‘Musical Chairs’. Everyone roared with laughter and squeals as they witness their teammates professing their “love” in a bid to make the “victim” laugh. The rest of the participants had to brave themselves not to laugh so as to not be the next one to profess their so-called “love”. As the hour draws on, the participants decided to proceed ahead with ‘Musical Chairs’, a game that is more popular to the younger generation. It was nerve-wrecking for the participants to make sure that they will get a seat as soon as the music stops, yet they sure had fun as there were laughter here and there.

The Games Section 1 commenced after noon with the game, ‘Search in the Paper’. In this game, participants in each team had to search for selected challenging words that can be found in newspaper articles. It sure was a challenge as there were a lot of teamwork and communication going on. There were around 20 words to be searched in one whole article. Mind you, those were very challenging words!

Moving on to the next game station, which was ‘Snap’, the participants had to overcome their fear of being snapped with rubber band. Participants had to use their mouths to transfer sponge balls from one point to another point. The catch, they were bound by rubber bands. It sure was exhilarating as participants kept praying and hoping that the rubber band won’t snap!

The third game was ‘Crossing Over’. Here, participants had to cross over to the other side of square plots. The fastest team wins. Unfortunately, it was a tie! Instead, we continued with a tie-breaker by challenging each team with the most common and traditional game, ‘Scissors, Paper, Stones!’ The participants were not allowed to speak to play the game. It sure does sound fun!

Refreshments were served after the three games and boy were they exhausted! However, they have yet to know what they were in for, which was the Mass Photo Hunt after. After relaxing here and there, the teams shot off in a bid to be the fastest team and most photos taken during the hunt. The game proved to be exhausting as they ran around the whole school to take the photos!

The last game was ‘Scrabbling’! Here, the participants each had a chance to get their hands wet and soapy! The participants have to form a word from letters that were all in pails of soapy water. It sure was a fun way to get cooled off after the running here and there.

The event ended with a Prize presentation with the winning team winning funky titbits! All of those present there were in for a surprise as the OIC presented everyone with home-made cookies specially made for them! Who knows next year’s SEGeTogether will have more of these?

Welcome Tea for Freshmen 2010

It was the first Club meeting for everyone including the freshmen who become members to the club. Faces of shyness and eagerness can be seen from all around the room. Familiar faces can be found as some of them were from the Freshmen Orientation Camp 2010. The room was buzzing with chatters and laughter as everyone tried their best to be in their comfort zone.

Soon after, everyone was introducing themselves. It was amusing as all of us tries to remember everyone’s names without fail.

Time flies as we have our first meeting with the freshmen. New agendas and events were brought up and expectations were told. Introduction to the Cyriva Club departments made the freshmen ponder on what position they want to be in.

Without them knowing, the Year 2s have actually prepared a surprise welcoming tea for the freshmen! Boy, were they taken in by the surprise! Chocolate éclairs and fried chicken balls were served for them! It was a pleasant moment for them all. We made them feel welcomed into this wonderful club!

SEG Graduates BBQ 2010

Time Flies, it is time for massive shopping for the upcoming graduation BB-Q!!! That is what all of us have been waiting for. What beats being able to have a good gathering with our graduates just before school reopens for the semester.

The day before the BBQ, our club members came down happily to the big Tampines Giant to buy some fresh food for the BBQ. To our amazement, even though it is a weekday, Giant was still filled with chats and laughers which also grew louder as we march in to the Giant with 2 trolleys.

But on the day itself, the laughter and chats grew even more as all of us were very excited about the BBQ! As we waited for the arrival of the graduates, we helped ourselves with the food first. Some of us were bored and started to play games like 'Twister' and 'Honey, do you love me?' It was so much fun as this was also the first event for the freshmen!

In the first pit we had our OIC cooking for our year ones. There were chicken wings and other types of finger food. Some of us had to admit shamefully that it was their first time barbecuing the food. It was funny as they tried their best to barbecue the food without getting the food burnt!

In the Second pit we had our chef cum mentor, Fabian returning to cook for the year twos!! And look at how professional he is! Of course he is, as barbecuing is his forte!

After all the fun and games, guess what’s next? More food!

Well after dinner we have a nice game of dog and bone!! It was the highlight of the day as most of them were very engaged in the game. Things ended around 8pm and everyone started to clean the area. Everyone cooperated in cleaning the area and it was also fun as some of us messed around with each other during the clean-up.

All of us sure can't wait for the next year's SEG Graduates BBQ!!! I'm sure it will be a blast.

LSCMS IG Research Project

Rather than looking for part-time jobs or idling their time away during the 2 weeks term break in June, seven members from the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society IG (LSCMS IG) were involved in a Research project initiated by Supply Chain Asia, an external organization that helps to promote the supply chain industry.

These 7 members were tasked to profile the distribution of trucks delivering to 11 shopping malls island-wide, namely Causeway Point, Suntec City, Vivocity, Plaza Singapura, Parkway Parade, Ngee Ann city, Funan Digital Mall, Northpoint, Jurong Point, Junction 8 and Tampines Mall, and also to find out about the unloading facilities at each of this mall, such as the number of loading docks, cargo lifts and staging areas.

They had to interview truck drivers to find out about their delivery profiles and to ask them about recommendations about the unloading facility and timing at those malls, but some of them were too busy to revert to them, while there were also some who could not be bothered to respond. Besides tackling the drivers, the students had to exercise caution not to incur the wrath of the security personnel at the unloading bays, who deemed the students as interfering. Some of the students were warned or chased, but most of them are able to achieve their objectives to profile the unloading area and interview the drivers, such as by tactically hiding behind or in between trucks while interviewing.

The students also had to bear the weather conditions to time the turnaround time for each truck as well as the stuffy and sometimes dirty conditions at some of the unloading areas, which had a foul smell or even cockroaches running around the place. But, it wasn’t all hard work for the students. Through this study, it really opened up the minds of the students about some of the difficulties which the products had to undergo before it could reach the retail store. None of them actually realized that the queue formed at the unloading area could sometimes take an hour to clear before this study. It helped them to understand better why they were learning certain modules such as Distribution & Transportation, where certain theories could be exercised to improve the conditions.

At the end of the study, the students produced a report that was submitted to Supply Chain Asia, consisting of the information gathered at each of the malls, as well as an analysis of the trend at the urban and suburban malls. For their hard work, they were awarded between 6 to 9 CE points each, and also received $300 each from Supply Chain Asia. It was definitely well worth the time and effort for them!

MEIG CE Visit

CE visit to Fusionworld was conducted successfully on 8^th June 2010 by MEIG.

40 students took part in the CE visit. Students were introduced to the technology showcase of award winning inventions and cutting-edge prototypes from the research teams of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). 2 hour visit to Fusionopolis enabled the students to find out more about how science and engineering disciplines can be fused together to give rise to the various innovations and state-of -the art technologies that can be applied at home, workplace ,healthcare and transportation.

Below are some pictures taken during the visit.

National Skills Finals 2010

Congratulations to Michael Rice from Dundalk IT who won this years Industrial Control Competition. Commiserations to the runners up David Gough, Barry Kenehan & Eoghan McCarthy. A late night was had by examiners on Thursday night so was the high standard of work produced during the week.

Congratulations also to Kieran Doherty on winning the electrical installations competition.

Special word of thanks to all the examiners and support staff at CIT for their help during the week.

Competitors with Minister Batt O Keefe, Lord Mayor of Cork, President of CIT & David Williams Chief Expert.

Winner Michael Rice being presented with the winning trophy.

Industrial Control competitors & examiners.

Underwater Robotics Olympiad 2010

Tamil Murasu, 10 June 2010

Underwater robotics to grow engineering abilities

The School of Engineering from Republic Polytechnic has organised the Underwater Robotics Olympiad for the second year. It was held on 26^th May 2010 for secondary school students.

Students watched eagerly as their robots swam towards the finish line. The robot that completes the race in the shortest time will be the winner of the race.

Article also quotes 14 year old Divya Rebecca, a student from Yishun Town Secondary School as saying “It was quite a challenge for us to create an underwater robot in just 1 day. We also learnt the importance of working together as a team.”

IEEE talk on 5th May organized by MEIG

On 5^th May 2010, MEIG successfully completed a technical IEEE talk by Dr. Yang Heng at RP on The Intelligent Home Device System development based on Windows mobile/ WinCE/ Linux/ ARM with DEMO ” , more than 50 students and staff attended the talk.

SEG students won Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award (TKKYIA) for the 1st time for RP

Berita Harian, 11 June 2010

RP students’ ‘robot’ win young scientist awards

Siti Nurhikma Mohamed Said, 22 years, Wu Meng Jiao, 23 years old of Republic Polytechnic, and Zhang Haihong, 35 years old, won the Tan Kah Kee Young Scientist Award 2010 in the open category under 35 years old. The victory for the Biomedical Electronics students helps RP in achieving the best result among the polytechnics for this award. This is a very meaningful victory not only for the School of Engineering, but for RP too, said their lecturer, Dr Jiang Lijun. Their final year project also won the best Polytechnic Student Research Programme 2010 in RP.

[Click picture to enlarge]

Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award (TKKYIA) 2010

On 5th June, the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award (TKKYIA) 2010 award presentation ceremony was held in Science Centre Singapore. Miss Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Education and Ministry of National Development) graced the event. Two students from DBME of SEG, Wu Mengjiao and Siti, won the Merit Award in open section. This is the 1st time RP won a prize in the reputable award.

Project Writeup

Multi-modality Two-dimensional Brain Computer Interface Control

Zhang Haihong¹, Wu Mengjiao², Siti Nurhikma Mohamed Said²

Project supervisor:  Dr. Guan Cuntai1,   Dr. Jiang Lijun2

1: Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research

2: Republic Polytechnic

Aim/Objective

The device allows users to navigate a mobile robot in 2D space, through performing 2 mental tasks.

Why the need?

Severely disabled people have little to none interaction capability with the real world. Thus, the brain-controlled robotic device can significantly improve their quality of life, and it also solves the expensive user training problem with existing 2D brain-computer interface technology.

How does it work?

1. Put on and prepare an EEG cap connected to the amplifier;

2. Concentrate on the device to initiate/stop it;

3. Imagining right/left hand movement to steer the robot clock-wise/anti-clock-wise;

4. Defocus attention to move it.

( From left to right: Wu Mengiao(RP) , Siti (RP), Dr. Jiang Lijun(RP) , and Dr. Zhang Haihong(I2R) are prearping TKKYIA final presentation demo on 20th Mar 2010 in Biopolis)

The Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award was first mooted by Nobel Laureate Professor C.N. Yang in May 1986. There are categories that cater to different interests and levels of inventors, namely, the Junior Student section, the Student section, the Senior Student section, the Open section and the Defence Science section. Of all the sections, the Open group is the most challenging one, as it's open to all participants who are under 35 years old, meaning that our students have to compete with Ph.D /Master holders from NUS, NTU, and A*Star, etc.

(more details can be found at http://www.tkkfoundation.org.sg/tkk/foundation/young/invest_eng.shtml)

Below is the structure of the TKK award :

1. Gold ( valid for 2010)
2. Silver (1 -3 teams, no poly won for 2010)
3. Merit (3-6 teams, RP won for 2010)
4. Commendation (3-10 teams)

In view of that: 1) There is no gold award in open group this year; 2) No polytechnic won the silver award, 3) The 2 RP students from SEG won the merit award, we can deem that RP won a award which is equivalent to 2nd prize among all the participants and RP team is one of the best performers among the 5 polytechnics.