After experiencing a semester full of ups and downs, at this moment now, I’m feeling kind of emotional.
To summarize my 2nd semester...(ps: Can you find Wally?)
No, I’m not feeling sad. On the contrary, I’m feeling motivated, and everyone should be too, as this is just the beginning of our journey. Instead of feeling sad over what we left behind, bring it with you into the future and look forward to it.
What I have learnt over the course of this semester would most definitely be useful in my future endeavours (be it looking for jobs or hanging on to my job). Here’s a general rundown of what I’ve learnt:
I learnt how to write codes of massive scales.
I learnt how to make a robot.
I learnt how to write codes of an even massive scale.
I learnt how to make another robot.
I learnt about Nuclear Energy.
I learnt that we have a lot of useless floating voltage all around us.
ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/
This is the robot I built..... I wish.
Other than the boring academic knowledge, there are so much more that I have gained over the past semester. Two skills that were particularly worth mentioning: Communications and Teamwork (No big surprise here, thanks to the big white words at the top of my blog).The importance of these 2 skills are probably the equivalent of bringing a spear and a shield into the middle of an epic Spartan battle.
arkangel.posterous.com
What would happen if one of these guys is missing a spear or a shield?
With the sudden increase in project assignments (especially in this semester), I find myself polishing the above 2 skills in a much faster rate than ever before.
I realized the importance of listening to others, the art of listening to others, and the art of making others listen to you.
I realized how people with different cultural backgrounds can have potential problems when coordinating in a team, and how I can solve these problems by just simply being open-minded.
I realized that for a team to function properly, we need to have functioning leaders and members. Though seemingly simple, it took me awhile to figure it out.
Finally I realized how numerous small body movements can easily cause distractions in the audience.
nose-digging, chickenwing-flapping, pen-spinning, pen-clicking..... anyone?
Notice the face of the culprit is left out... to protect his identity.
Who knows, we might be passing these knowledge down to our grandkids.
Off Topic:
List of links and sources where i got my awesome pictures:
plymouthbb.wordpress.com
arkangel.posterous.com
ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/
blog.movieset.com www.risosa.co.za/toshiba.aspx
http://tanqinxiancg1413.blogspot.com/
www.gaiaonline.com
http://kirbycat.glogster.com/Pokemon-Cuties/
shld.deviantart.com/
http://selfmademinds.com
http://www.tressugar.com/
http://seobyswaby.wordpress.com
craftbox.blogspot.com
And Lastly, a big Thank You to everyone!
Hi Zhenyong,
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to hear that CG1413 has motivated you; and yes, the ending of this semester is just the beginning. Now that we are equipped with the fundamentals of communication, teamwork, and other theories from different modules, we are even more ready to continue with our battle for the NUS Degree Scroll.
Communication has always been an inevitable part of life. We all communicate at all times. Teamwork has become an inevitable integrated concept in a typical Computer Engineer due to the increasingly complex systems that the career requires.
With all of these newly-designed modules, we could become very well-trained to be competitive in the globalized marketplace in the future. Just as you have realized, all of these practical knowledge are very valuable, not only now, but more so in the future. It is never enough to know the ”Whats” only but the “Hows”, most especially. What the real world needs are people who can apply the theories efficiently, communicate ideas to a group of people effectively, and work out the solutions with the team successfully.
All the best with your future endeavors! Keep being motivated!
Regards,
Paul
Hello Zhen Yong,
ReplyDeleteIt brings me pleasure to say hello to you for the last time in a blog comment (for this semester at least). This will be the final set of blog comments as well!
I agree with you that the project assignments that were tasked to us during semester 2 did help in accelerating the learning curve for our communication skills. It provided a lot of "practice sessions" for us to work on these skills.
Being your group member for 2 projects, I thought you excelled in team communications. You were also able to utilize the skills that were taught in CG1413. I must commend you on that.
Taking this quote, "Instead of feeling sad over what we left behind, bring it with you into the future and look forward to it." I thought it was very meaningful. After all, this is only the end of semester 2, only the end of the first year. We still have 3 more years to go. Knowledge from year 1 will definitely be called upon again in the future. Speaking of this, I hope I do not forget what I have learned during the long awaited 3 months break!
On an ending note, I wish you good luck for the exams. Enjoy the well-deserved break after that!
PS: I'm taking a wild guess that Wally's at the pokemon picture!
Cheers,
Qinxian
Hi Zhen Yong,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that the skills we gained from this module are superior to the academic knowledge we gained from the modules. These are the skills which will be tested in our stay in NUS and when “looking for jobs or hanging on to” them.
Though there was a tremendous of workload this semester, I feel that the authorities had cleverly planned out this semester for the CEG students. On one side they had given us a learning platform in the form of CG1413 and on the other hand they had freshly designed modules like CG1102 and CG1108, to help us apply the skills we learn in the CG1413 class. This made sure that whatever we learnt was immediately put to use, thereby following the principle “practice makes a man perfect”.
The team settings we had in this semester gave the opportunity to work in multicultural groups. Like you, even I realized how important it is to get our point across and at the same time trying to understand what the other person is trying to say. In such situations one needs to set aside personal differences and work together as a team.
I would like to wish you all the best in your future endeavors. It was pleasant experience sharing the class with you.
Cheers,
Saurabh Arora
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Zhen Yong,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that though it is the end of this sem, whatever we learnt from this module will surely help in our upcoming years in nus and also when looking for jobs, etc. and I agree with you that the two key words namely Communication and Teamwork will continue to have huge impact on us throughout our life.
To be honest, CG1413 was an eye opening to all of us as it highlighted all our weakness and luckily being in the first year givex us enough time to correct our mistakes and whatever skills we gained from the CG1413 course immensely helped in our project related modules namely CG1102, CG1413 & CG1108.
The best part which most of us gained the most was from our Oral Presentation and I personally felt that recording the presentation was a good initiative as it helped us to notice and correct our mistakes and it was nice to see that your performance was improving with every presentation.
This semester gave us an opportunity to work with multicultural group and especially here, I felt that Effective Communication plays a key role as we need to make sure that our idea is clearly understood by our team members and we need to make sure that we set aside our personal differences and work as a team.
It was a pleasant experience working with you and let’s make sure we apply our skills efficiently in our upcoming years and all the best for your exams.
Regards,
Santhosh