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aajin
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Name: aaajin
Metro:
Gender: Male
Interests: Macross & Badminton
Expertise: System Design & Controls...though I'm just a grad student
Occupation: Grad Student
Industry: Mechanical Engineering special
Message: message me
Member Since:
11/28/2004
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| Fuih, its been a while since I last blogged. Things are very hectic over here, but at least the works done are very interesting (I mean very-very-very). Cant wait to blog about em but both my hands are tied with even more works!. I just got off from writing another conference paper (well, at least its done for peer reviewing), which also make up the last part of my Master's thesis. This would be my 4th conference paper, which is also my 5th publications, including a journal paper that would be published soon. The works done are all mainly on automotive transmission, specifically on the automatic transmission clutch actuation controls. Its interesting to know that, hidden in a dull-n-plain looking clutch mechanism, are many things of wonders. So much engineering efforts and works are spent on designing the mechanism with so many improvements and iterations and still, it is but a single device that make up the whole transmission mechanism.
Some people asked, why did I extend my stay in Minnesota till September when Im supposed to be done with school in August?. My answer is simple. Or rather my answers are simple. First, its mainly because I like what Im doing here in Minnesota. I love the research work done during the whole Masters program. There are many challenges, some are well predicted while some unforseen. As these problems are solved, bits-by-bits, the lesson learned after each problem is solved is priceless. To me, it is always the process, the way the problems are tackled, that really matters. I really learned a lot, especially when setting up the experimental fixture to test a clutch mechanism. From selecting the power supply, reading manuals, finding parts specifications, machining parts, researching and selecting sensors, actuators and parts, calibrating sensors, selecting pipe adapters, hoses, dealing with manufacturers and distributors, controlling actuators with an I/O board, performing system identification, setting up a target computer for an experimental setup and many more that I can't think of right now. Not to mention all the analytical works done to verify the results, prior to experimenting. With all the experience, skills and knowledge gained, the time used on all the works are well worth spent, every second nonetheless.
A lot of uncertainties have to be dealt with, most of which are not predictable. And with all these uncertainties, we still managed to put out a relatively good results from the experiment. Although there are some delays, due to hardware change etc2 (if a hardware/setup has to be modified, depending on the parts, it could take up to 1 month to order the needed parts, and hence the delays) we even managed to make it on time for yet another conference paper.
I guess I flew off the handle on that one. Back to my point, secondly, JPA did sponsored me till Sept. So, why the rush when I can use that extra time; albeit only a month, to do more things, rather than going back to Malaysia and eat nasik lemak everyday for the whole month. Right? Its not like the jobs are running away. Jobs! wait for me!
Now I need to finish up my presentation slides for tomorrow's research group meeting and this weekend will be filled with yet more thesis writing. At least now I can finish up the last part of my thesis, which is on the clutch mechanism experiment that Ive been working on the last few months. The chapter should be ready in a couple of days, since the results are already included in the conference paper. Need to go to sleep now. Its 2 a.m. Ill just pull out parts of my thesis for tomorrow's presentation. I guess Im just too tired today after spending the whole day in the lab.
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| Happy Chinese New Year to all my Chinese friends, though many of whom would not know about this site. Whenever Deepavali or Chinese New Year draws near, there will always be TV ads/commercials posted on youtube and other video hosting sites and its always fun and refreshing to watch them especially the funny ones. I would admit that I enjoy watching these commercials, especially the ones from malaysia and for whatever reasons, they often take me back to my childhood days.
Back when I was still in primary school, there were Teng Hoong, Tan Chee Sin (I cant get his name off my head cause from what I was told, Chee Sin means "orang gila" in Chinese), Balan, Rueben, Kuharajan (gagak hitam), Suhanthan (kaki panjang), Vikneswaran (smart, very2 smart girl), Devan, Justin, Michelle, Anand (the bulu man), Lai Kok Keong (our football captain), Jeganathan, Sivanesan, Caroline, Mathan, Sureshdip just to name a few (of course I would not forget all my Malay friends but it is a little bit out of context to mention you guys in this post - so please dont feel offended ya)
I remember I would always ride my bike to Justin's house, which was just a few blocks from mine (not sure if he still lives there but I can still pinpoint his house using google map!). Whenever I came over, he would have to lock his dog in its cage and ask the dog to shut the hell up (the dogs cant seem to stop yapping everytime Im in front of the gates). I cant really recall what I did there but I think its because he had a lot of PC games and I guess I was just "helping myself out" by coming over after school to play the games.
And then there's Balan, whose father (he passed away when we were in high school, may peace be upon him) was a very successful businessman but who was also very short tempered. I always went to his house to...hm...let me see...I think I actually went to there to watch tamil movies!. I dunno why but during that time, most of my Indian friends were very fond of Tamil movies, around the time when the guy-who-sings-and-dances-on-top-of-a-school-bus-and-girls-would-scream-all-over-him was very popular (If youre an Indian then you should know him well). I got dragged into watching the movies since Balan and his cousin, who is also around our age but went to a different school, would drag me to watch with them. The movies weren't all that bad, in fact they kicked ass, well, minus the dancing & singing parts! But the part I hated most was when he (Balan) or his cousin would rewind the tape just to re-watch every ass-kicking moment in the movie...and I was err...ok thats cool...but I dared not to tell them how everytime the hero punches the villain, every single law and rules that guides our physical world; be it the law of gravity, newton second law, conservation of momentum, would all be replaced by a single rule : punch-fly-scream. The actions will always be overly exaggerated with flying bad guys all over the place.
I never would miss going over to Balan's house during Deepavali every year and see all the colorful clothes that he and his family would don in the morning. In fact, one Deepavali, I found myself in a very...hmmm how I would say this..."uncomfortable" situation for going to his house too early in the morning. His late father had to wake up, still in his pagoda shirt and dothi, just to open the gate to let me in. "Balan ada dekat bilik" (Balan's in his room) he said. And of course he was still sleeping. I felt like I was not supposed to be there but since I was invited in, I didnt say a word. And so, that morning, I became their very first guest. Today, I coudnt imagine how his mother's face, or any of his family member's face, would look like, seeing me, watching the TV in the middle of the living room in the morning of Deepavali....I mean, before they could even get prepared!. For them, I must've been a "foreign object" with red tape wrapped all over my body and a neon light flashing on top of my head ...."Haiyo yo...." said a voice from the kitchen...and later I got to eat toosai!
to b continued...
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| Things get busier after each passing day last week. After recovering from one of the busiest weeks in this semester (and hoping that it was the last one too!), I had another 2 assignments that I had to hand in last Wednesday and Friday. The assignment on Friday was relatively much easier than the one that was due on Wednesday. And so, I spent the whole weekend reading the materials, trying to understand the materials as much as I could before beginning the assignment. I spent days reading through my lecture notes, online notes, watching online lectures from Stanford (thanks to their free youtube broadcast of previous years courses) and notes from MIT (thanks to their open-source courses) because the materials that were covered the week before was the one I was most unfamiliar with. And so, after days of struggle, I managed to get it done on time (though after discussing it with a few class mates, I found out that some of my answers were hmm..how do I put it...misleading?).
Then I started to work on my Friday's homework (Im calling it Friday's homework not because I started doing it on the day it was due, but because I don't want to keep repeating the same words to explain the same things over and over again, especially if the words are lengthy. And hey, aren't I'm contradicting myself now?). The homework was posted on the course website in a sequential order, with the most current one posted at the bottom of the page. Being so used to just copying down the bottom most set of questions (question numbers from the text book) and by assuming that it would be due the same week, I didn't even glance at the date it was due.
And so, I worked out all the problems for the whole following 2 days. I had to read both my lecture notes and the textbook because I found that relying on lecture notes alone for this class may not help me much with the assignments. This is because the professor might use different notations or proof of concepts that are totally different that the ones used in the textbook. Not to mention that one day, when I asked him about some discrepancies in his lecture notes with the textbook, he told me that he had taught the wrong thing to the whole class that day!. The professor seems to be a little bit unorganized. I'm saying this because I once went to his office, in my "quest" to search for my lost homework. It was quite a scene - that his office was a pile of mess. After rummaging through countless piles of papers on the floor, nonchalantly, with a face devoid of even a tad of emotion, he said it straight to my face that he could not find the assignment (now imagine the look on my face). As his words pierced through my eardrums, which translated the vibrations into electric pulses, which then went through labyrinth after labyrinth of neuron circuits in my brain, I was dumbfounded. It was a direct slap in my face. In fact, it felt as if he was slapping my face at an increasing rate. Luckily a few days later, he told me that the grader had a record that I had handed it in.
Anyways, lets get back to the series of events that I had eagerly wanted to write about. And so, on Thursday night, (well actually it was Friday morning, around 2 am) I double-checked the class website to make sure that I did not miss anything before handing in my homework. To my surprise, the homework that I had spent my 2-days on, was actually due the following week! At first I was worried that I might not able to finish all the assignments but after scanning through all the problems, I found that they were all actually pretty easy compared to the ones that I had worked on. I guess all those readings were not for nothing. I was glad that I took the time to read and understand the materials first, instead of going head-on with the assignments. Nevertheless, I had to stay up for another 3 hours before finally going to bed. The day that followed was a tiring one (classes, meetings, discussion meetings, playing badminton) and in the end of the day I slept for almost 10 hours....phew...
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| It has been a while since I wrote anything on my blog. This week will be pretty crazy for me as I will be having a midterm, a paper due(done! lega...) & presentation this Friday. And tomorrow I''m going to a career fair hosted by the Society of Black Engineers. So I spent almost the whole day today (minus classes, meetings, editing the paper etc2) to make final touch ups on my resume. This will be my first time marketing myself using a 2-page resume. Before, I only had a 1-page resume but things can get crowded pretty easily when you only update your resume couple of times in a year...heh, I guess other things have been keeping me preoccupied. Ok. tido. Ciao
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| Last week I bought a textbook for my next semester course on ebay. After paying for it, I asked the seller to leave me a feedback rating. Here's what I wrote: Hi there,
Just wondering if you could please leave me a feedback rating
on ebay? I have paid you promptly for the item as a buyer and have done my
part of the transaction responsibly.
I will leave you your feedback
once I get my item.
Thanks, A couple of hours later I received a reply from the seller (props to him/her for being prompt) : Hello
Ok..I will leave you the feedback asap
Regards
After a week passed by, still no feedback. So I contacted the seller again to remind him/her to leave me a feedback : Hi there,
Just a friendly reminder that you still have not given me my
feedback
Thanks Checked my email a couple of minutes ago and this email showed up in my email inbox : Hello
I have leave feedback now. Please do same in
fever
Thanks
Sanna Guess I have to have a fever first before I can leave him a feedback  | | |
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