EG1471

Last Post.

2009-04-15T07:37:00.004+08:00

Describe what ways the recent university graduates can contribute to improving health, security, joy in life or the environment.

In my opinion, the university graduates are currently contributing their time to reach out to other graduates to unite as an alumni club/committee. With this group and teamwork, activities could be carried out to improve health, security, joy in life or the environment.

To contribute in health, friendly competition could be held per semester for different sports to encourage undergraduates to take part. Talks regarding health could also be held in lectures and those who participate would be given CCA points. It is important that undergraduates, graduates, lectures and in fact everyone to take care of their health!

Security could be improved with a stable monthly income. Graduates could set up employment agency for the graduates or future graduates who are in need of jobs.
Graduates could also conduct entrepreneur workshops to encourage business-minded students to achieve further.
Security could also be improved in terms of emotional comfort. Counseling sessions, or perhaps stress management workshops could be held to help for those who are in need of a listening ear.

Donation and humanitarian drives could be another route to contribute in fulfilling joy in lives. Helping others reward us with a unique sense of satisfaction.

We could achieve joy in life when we are surrounded with our love ones, when we are healthy and when we are financially stable. =)

3 Common Grammar Mistakes

2009-04-07T00:29:00.002+08:00

These are my three common grammar mistakes:

(1) Its vs It's

"Its going to be sunny tomorrow."

This is INCORRECT.

It’s is the contraction of It is:

* "It’s going to be sunny tomorrow."

This is CORRECT.

"What’s that? I can’t remember it’s name."

This is INCORRECT.

Its is a possessive pronoun that modifies a noun:

* "What’s that? I can’t remember its name."

This is CORRECT.

(2) Present perfect

"He has took the train."

This is INCORRECT.

The correct form for the present perfect is:

would + have + past participle

* "He has taken the train."

This is CORRECT.

(3) Went vs Gone

"I should have went to school yesterday."

This is INCORRECT.

The correct form is:

should + have + past participle

* "I should have gone to school yesterday."

This is CORRECT.

Round Table Discussion

2009-04-06T23:41:00.002+08:00

The topic of our Round Table Discussion was "In recent years,collaborative research has evolved into more common institutional practice. For instance, recent research by Mitchell and Just(2008) utilized computational modeling in brain studies which yielded a much clearer understanding of how human brain processes information and thoughts. While such research has positive effects on society, it poses potential adverse effects. Should institutions or governments regulate the use of this or other technologies? why or why not?"

Supporting this topic were Angela and Alicia(believe that government should regulate computational modeling), whereas Jian Feng, Shuai Xiang and Jia Ru were against it. 'Ain was the moderator.

Due to misunderstanding of the topic, Jian Feng, Shuai Xiang and Jia Ru supported the topic. Hence, the discussion was filled with many supporting reasons.

For centuries, the concept of mind readers was strictly the domain of folklore and science fiction. But according to new research published today in the journal Science scientists are closer to knowing how specific thoughts activate our brains. The findings demonstrate the power of computational modeling to improve our understanding of how the brain processes information and thoughts.

Angela believed that computational modeling could be used for crime investigations. Using this technology, criminals could be detected by scanning their brains. Therefore, government should regulate this technology, police investigators should not be allowed to scan the suspect's brain without his/her permission because the suspect might not be a criminal but being charged due to misreading or inaccuracy of this technology. This technology has not been guaranteed to be accurate. It is still not ready for public use.

Alicia stated that medical areas will benefit most from this technology.
According to "Ethics and Mapping the Brain", Emerging technologies that map the brain are bringing us closer to a world where blindness is overcome with visual prostheses and Alzheimer's disease is understood, but it may not be a place where we want to live. With this technology, more cures for diseases will be discovered.

Without the regulation the doctors could scan anyone's brain without their permission, this could lead to intrusion of privacy said Jia Ru. She believes that government should regulation the use of this technology by having rules.

Jian Feng shared an article on the possibility of others reading people's mind and getting their personal information or thoughts exposed without the regulation of this technology. Therefore, government should regulate this technology, identify and allow only certain groups of people to use this technology.

Shuai Xiang talked about parents using this technology to detect their child's strengths and weaknesses. This could lead to a grave consequences if the technology is inaccurate. Therefore, this technology is not yet stable for public or common use.

Ethics and Mapping the brain

2009-03-10T11:49:00.001+08:00

Summary of Ethics and mapping the brain:

The arising of new technologies that map the brain is providing us with brighter chances of understanding diseases and finding a cure for it. The same technology that enable some deaf people to hear could reveal the contents of a person’s memory, predict mental disorders of gifted-ness, and tell whether the person is lying.

One technology which shows the active parts of the brain by tracking changes in blood oxygen levels is functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.

However, the author believes that this technology is not ready yet. He stated that the information that correlates complicated behaviour with brain states is not developed but it is coming. Also, he believes that both positive and negative rates of this technology are both too high right now.

The author talks about ethical issues that might arise from using this technology. There are many questions that the society has to answer about who will be tested, why they will be tested and how the results will be used.

Vocabulary:

1. Hypothetical: assumed by hypothesis; supposed

2. Genomic: the study of all of the nucleotide sequences, including structural genes, regulatory sequences, and non-coding DNA segments, in the chromosomes of an organism.

3. Juggernaut: overpowering, destructive force or object

4. Pedophilia: sexual desire in an adult for a child.

5. Alludes: to make an indirect reference

Citation:

Marano, L. (2003, June 3) Ethics and mapping the brain (an abridged version of the original in the Washington Times). Retrieved August 6, 2008, from the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics Web Site: http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/brain_mapping_ethics.htm

Summary of the Lecture in 30th January

2009-02-01T22:17:00.002+08:00

The first speaker is Professor Andrew Palmer. His topic was mainly carbon dioxide capture and storage technology and politics. He pointed out that a few of us might like to live in an energy-poor pre-industrial society but most of us do not and will not. Therefore we could adapt fuel efficiency and conservation, switch to alternative energy sources or capture and store carbon dioxide.
He explained that carbon dioxide could be capture from the atmosphere, liquidize it and store it in the ocean. However, the carbon dioxide can in long run diffuse into the ocean and makes it more acidic with severe biological effects.

I was very interested when he talked about capturing carbon dioxide. It did not cross my mind that carbon dioxide can be captured and thus reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, there is a downside for this solution and hence it cannot be used.

The second speaker is Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool. His topic was "Using STS to Address Energy and Technological Problems". He shared with us the importance of identifying the different clubs and interest involved in technology to suggest who activists should approach and deal with. By identifying the relational aspects between people, artefacts and knowledge, they can also help show that there is no one person or institution masterfully manipulating the course of military technology.

The interesting part of this lecture is when Dr Banjamin K. Sovacool introduced the Electric vehicles. He covered the discovery of the early transportation and the pros and cons of them.

The third speaker is Professor Rajasekhar Bala. His topic was about climate change and mitigation. He explained that water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are natural greenhouse gases. Global warming happens when there is an increase in the amount of the natural greenhouse gases. He also shared with us the evidence that supports Global Warming. The arctic temperature have risen twice as fast, sea level rises and changes in the rainfall pattern are some of the evidence. He ended the lecture by providing some suggestions that might help combat Global Warming. Those were by taxing industries that produce greenhouse gas emission, subsidizing energy efficiency and renewable energy,cooperating internationally and by individual playing their part to sharply reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Professor Bala's lecture was very detailed and succinct. He covered many grounds regarding Global Warming. He pointed out that Global Warming is a political issue that should be handled together as a world, every country have to play their role.

An Inconvenient Truth

2009-01-27T20:09:00.011+08:00

What are existing or possible roles of environmental and special interest groups in contributing to or solving global warming?

Mr Al Gore is an American environmental activist and was also the 45th Vice President of United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. His initial interest in climate started when he took a course on climate science from Roger Revelle in Harvard University. His interest in climate was reborn when his son, Albert met into an accident.

In An Inconvenient Truth, Mr Al Gore discussed about Global Warming, The Greenhouse Effect and its consequences. Global Warming is the increase in average temperature of the Earth near-surface air and oceans. He described Global Warming as the after-effect of human activities namely manufacturing of machines, deforestation and transportation that causes the earth's atmosphere to thicken and increase in the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the earth's atmosphere. With the thickening of Earth's atmosphere, more heat is trap on Earth, causing the temperature to rise. This is also known as the greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse effects have fatal and dramatically altered consequences. Glaciers are melting every single day, lakes are drying up, hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons were formed due to increase of ocean temperature, polar bears are drowning due to ice melting, new diseases were introduced and even the old diseases that was under control re-emerge. The increase of global population is also putting pressure on the Earth's surface.

All these are happening even while I am writing this report, the Earth is suffocating. Currently, US are the highest contributor to Global Warming, and I believe that Al Gore has done a tremendous job by sharing his knowledge and expertise to move America and the world to start taking actions and save our Earth.

There are many organizations that are combating global warming such as Global Warming Solution Organization, Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientist, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, World Resources Institute, World Wildlife Fund and many more. Some of the methods use to rescue Earth are campaigns like "Think Green and Go Green" and "Reuse,Reduce and Recycle".

These organizations play an important role in defending and restoring biodiversity, protecting the environment and encouraging others to do likewise. I truly believe that each and every one of us has to play a part. We could start by reducing the amount of paper and plastics used in our daily lives, cut down on the electricity and the amount of water used. Support the campaign of Reduce Reuse and Recycle. Let's take every action we can to limit greenhouse emissions.

The Expanding World of Engineer

2009-01-20T10:34:00.001+08:00

In my opinion, an engineer accomplishes the systematic approach in designing solutions and analytical thinking due to the tertiary education that was brought upon them as what Prof Ramakrishna had stated in his article. With the more demanding needs of engineers around the world due to its broad influence in other sectors namely manufacturing and service industries, the tertiary education itself has expand its platform to a more analytical approach in educating the engineers . More problem based learning methods were introduced to enhance analytical thinking and at the same time systematic ways of solving technical problems to compliment the job scope thereafter.

In an article excerpted from Engineers today: Multiple levels of expertise”, published in Oct 2006, Keith Nobusch shared his views in the role of engineers today. He mentioned that the engineers today needs to be more than a technical expert and that he or she needs to truly understand the impact of manufacturing and services on the overall business strategy.

This is mainly due to the collaboration of different departments in a company and having the engineers to have the expertise in multiple disciplines. I believe engineer today needs to be more than a technical expert; engineers have to truly understand the impact of manufacturing and services on the overall business strategy. Engineers need to be able to see the big picture of their role in the field and that the ability to take systems approach to problem solving is mandatory.

While these fundamental skills are necessary, engineers today are expected to complement their technical knowledge and ability with several other skills, both to add value to their contributions to the organisation and enjoy personal achievement and success.