Tutor: Prof Michael Girard

The bane of my existence for this semester. In groups of 6, we had to design a product and prepare to pitch it at the end of the semester. Under Prof Girard, who had 3 groups under him, we had to design a product for pupil dilation. This meant that we had to actually produce a prototype and make sure that it works during the final presentation. 

Our group managed to get something done using nitinol (which coincidentally was the same thing that his PHD student was working on) which involved a lot of steps from casting to ensuring the expansion works properly. Each group was given a budget which my group obviously busted since we had to import the custom made nitinol wires from the US. There were also other materials that we had to get such as a blow torch, silicon for the coating and cement for casting. It was a very hands-on project and albeit it being very heavy workload, it was very fun working with my team on this. 

We had almost weekly meetings with the prof and his team to check on our idea and each member was in-charge of a different section of the final report. For my portion, I did marketing which required extensive research on the market size, marketing strategies and marketing plans. It was something that I had never expected myself to touch on, especially not focusing so much on, so it was very interesting and useful in the future. 

I hear that there are some changes to this module now that it includes CLEC's components so there might be some changes to the grading and presentations. 

Grades: A- (Thank goodness for this considering all the work and effort)

BN4301 Principles of Tissue Engineering
Lecturer: Prof Toh Yi-Chin (with multiple other guest lecturers)

Sadly this module was discontinued as Prof Toh had left the department recently, so this will be rather short. 

Mainly for this we had a finals and some group presentations that we had to do. Each group had 4-5 members and we got to pick a theme that we wanted to work on. After that prof will assign us with a problem to solve. Our group worked on something related to the eye and had to give a short presentation to the class towards the end of the semester. It was important pay attention to these presentation as they were all included in the open-book finals. There were also 2 lab reports that we had to submit that were rather easy to complete. 

This module covered the basic contents of tissue engineering and it was very interesting for someone who was not previously exposed to this field. The labs also allowed us to have some hands-on work with making scaffolds etc.

Grades: A- (Surprising so it's sad that this module was discontinued)

BN4501 Engineering Biology
Lecturer: Prof Poh Chueh Loo

This module was mainly touching on the topics of gene editing, looking into genetic logic gates and modelling their genetic circuits. This was a rather new module when I took it and it was still developing so the questions back then were rather simple and modified from the lecture notes, so having a good understanding of the lecture notes and being able to manipulate the logic gates will secure most of your grades.

There was a short quiz worth 15% covering mainly the things taught in class. It was rather basic and similar to the tutorial questions. For the modelling section, we did it on MatLab. There were tutorial sessions in the lab where there was a tutor that guided us through the practices. These were important sessions since it was useful for the assignment that we had to complete over recess week. For the assignment, each student had a different set of values so that we cannot copy each other's codes.

For our 25% presentation, we were in groups of 3 and had to look at a previously done project on Engineering Biology and share it with the class. Each group will cover a separate project and provide some suggestions to improve the project. 

Finally, finals made up 35% of the grades. The questions were rather simple and were modified from the tutorials. As long as you paid attention to the classes, it will be simple to complete. There was also a short MatLab code that we had to look at and identify the errors in the code. Overall, it was a simple paper, so make sure to re-do all the tutorials before the paper. 

Grades: A (totally did not expect this...)

GET1042 Sky and Telescopes
Lecturer: Prof Abel Yang

Chose this module since it seemed very interesting. There were multiple Friday evening star gazing sessions where we could get equipment to try to identify stars and planets at the Science field. During lecture sessions, we were taught how to prepare the telescopes and also how to prepare for the star gazing sessions such as prepare star maps and also identify key objects in the sky. 

There are 4 main sections for grading. Firstly, there was a 20% class test which was very theory based and since I didn't put in as much effort, it was rather hard for me especially since it was an MCQ paper. Next, we had 2 main assignments,  which includes a main term paper and an assignment that we had to complete.  Class attendance made up for 10% of the grades and finally, there were observational projects, 2 individual projects that included star gazing and stacking astro images and a video project that could be done as a group. 

The video project was rather interesting to conceptualize and film since we were given a lot of freedom to prepare something to teach our peers. Our group chose to do a video on how to prepare a telescope for star gazing. 

Another key event that was part of this module was the overseas star gazing trip that was optional. I decided to go on a 3D2N trip to Malaysia. It was a seaside resort and we were expecting to see quite a bit of stars, however due to the cloudy and rainy weather, there wasn't much that we could do except stay in the room and play SpaceTeam. Quite an interesting part of this trip was the fact that our group decided to sleep in the carpark lot without knowing that the rest of the groups had returned to their rooms since it was going to rain. 

This was a module that was really fun and educational. Kind of regret not exactly working harder for this model. Also, the prof was really kind and helpful to make sure that we all knew what was going on.

Grades: B- (Not expecting much from this mod since I put in like minimal effort so SU sua)

LAJ1201 Japenese 1
Lecturer: Nagami先生
Tutor: Saito先生 and Loy Wei Peng先生

Never expected myself to take this module but somehow I ended up taking Japanese for fun since I thought that I did not have enough on my plate... 

This module is for those of us who totally have not background in Japanese but there was a good proportion of people in the module that had some sort of background and were doing well so I wasn't expecting to do well *yes I'm talking about all you sneks out there*.

Grading was purely based on CA which meant that every single tutorial was important for your grades. There were weekly vocab quizzes for the content that was covered in the previous lecture. These quizzes were also testing on our grammar and sentence structures. There were also practice sessions during the tutorial sessions where the tutors will encourage you to speak in Japanese as much as possible. 

For this module, students are expected to purchase the whole set of textbooks and workbooks that will be useful for both LAJ1201 & LAJ1202. I decided not to buy the main text since I found it online and was not expecting to continue to the next level, but I highly suggest that if you want to take this module, it's best to buy the relevant books as it will definitely be helpful to have them for revision. 

There are 2 tutorial sessions per week on top of the lecture session that covered most of the vocab and content for the week. Tutorial A was mainly covering the more simple parts of the textbook practices while for tutorial B we normally have more chances to apply what we learn and speak more. Both my tutors were very patient and encouraging. 

Besides the 2 main tests, midterms and finals which were conducted within the semester, the other major grading component was the interview with our tutorial B tutor. The tutor will pair you up with a classmate, normally someone of the same level, and you will be preparing a short introduction of your partner. In order to prepare for this it's important to familiarize yourself with the vocab covered in the lectures. The structure for the interviews were based heavily off the textbook practices so it's good to find time to practice with your assigned partner. Another important section is the topic talk with the partner which is rather impromptu. You and your partner have to come up with a short conversation with the given topic and make sure that you include as many useful vocabulary as possible. Overall, my advice will be have as much practice with partner and really just drown yourself in Japanese for that week or so.  

Grades: A- (much wow from the most non-weebu person)

Glad that I've finally completed this. Hope that it will be useful for any NUS students who might want to take any of this modules.

Cheers, 
Sam

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