would you clap for the little girl who sang to you in the lift? I know this may seem like the most out of character thing for me to do, but I did. She seemed like a ball of fun, belting out one number after another. Perhaps she was recently inspired by the getai songstresses. Though at her age she is probably only capable of singing nursery rhymes, she has no problem singing and wriggling along to them at the same time. I remembered the last time I sang for someone, I croaked, choked on my own voice and swallowed my words. I practically totally took the joy out of the birthday song and strangled it with the metal guitar string. But hey, people like me make k box session fun ok and it's usually the people who can't sing who have the most fun. any audience? let me serenade you.
on second thought, I better take a leaf from the little girl's (song)book and stick to nursery rhymes for now.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
again
Again, I had to pushed a slightly crazy idea out of my head. For a while, I have been thinking if I should invest in a bicycle and cycle to school everyday. Since school is only 10km away and cycling to and fro definitely beats running to to and fro. Other than the money issue, I thought about whether I want to cycle in the peak hour traffic and whether I want to arrive in school sweaty. Nonetheless, the idea will be floated again when my euros get transferred into my local bank account. Yes, and then there is the issue of my missing euros.
For 3 months, I religiously checked my local account to see if the funds has been transferred over from Europe. Not yet it seems. It has been 3 months since I closed by bank account in France, and I am still waiting. I shall send them another email before I call them. One thing I have learnt in during my two years in France is to take the slow administration in stride. Long slow stride. This delay in transfer isn't unexpected in a country that took 6 months to process and send me my residence permit. I had to renew my temporary residence permit once and walk around in Paris as an illegal immigrant for 1 week (cos I refuse to renew my residence permit for a second time and go back the week after to collect my 1 year residence permit). More correctly, my 1/2 year residence permit (they effected it from the moment I applied).
Email sent. Hopefully, this will be the last of the tangling tentacles to remind me of the laisse faire attitude which has plagued me during my 2 year sejour.
Bring back, oh bring back, bring back my money to me to me.
For 3 months, I religiously checked my local account to see if the funds has been transferred over from Europe. Not yet it seems. It has been 3 months since I closed by bank account in France, and I am still waiting. I shall send them another email before I call them. One thing I have learnt in during my two years in France is to take the slow administration in stride. Long slow stride. This delay in transfer isn't unexpected in a country that took 6 months to process and send me my residence permit. I had to renew my temporary residence permit once and walk around in Paris as an illegal immigrant for 1 week (cos I refuse to renew my residence permit for a second time and go back the week after to collect my 1 year residence permit). More correctly, my 1/2 year residence permit (they effected it from the moment I applied).
Email sent. Hopefully, this will be the last of the tangling tentacles to remind me of the laisse faire attitude which has plagued me during my 2 year sejour.
Bring back, oh bring back, bring back my money to me to me.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
i found myself
Lately, I find myself ...
... enjoying every moment I am at work.
... looking forward to every morning.
... talking to neighbors in the lifts.
... going reading up on Computational Intelligence whenever I am free.
... greeting the bus drivers.
... busy most of the time, but happy.
... mentalogically (the new word i coined last month) solving the data mining problem on the bus ride home.
... wanting to tell anyone about anything.
... taking part in case competition amidst the workload.
... spending more time talking to my parents.
... enjoying my friends' company.
... going for long dinners.
... running at night.
... letting hurtful remarks slide.
... baking cakes.
... in full control of my life.
... happier.
I found myself.
... enjoying every moment I am at work.
... looking forward to every morning.
... talking to neighbors in the lifts.
... going reading up on Computational Intelligence whenever I am free.
... greeting the bus drivers.
... busy most of the time, but happy.
... mentalogically (the new word i coined last month) solving the data mining problem on the bus ride home.
... wanting to tell anyone about anything.
... taking part in case competition amidst the workload.
... spending more time talking to my parents.
... enjoying my friends' company.
... going for long dinners.
... running at night.
... letting hurtful remarks slide.
... baking cakes.
... in full control of my life.
... happier.
I found myself.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
the energy case
The case challenge wrapped up the two day energy summit. It's my first time participating in a case challenge, but I am glad to say that it turned out well above my expectations. The long hours we spent in the NUS computer center, the midnight Macdonalds\ Fong Seng suppers, the rehearsals and the typo errors in french, they all added to the fun of participating in the case challenge. I witnessed for myself the strength of my friends when it comes to the organization of the presentation slides. To me powerpoint slides presentation was no frills, clean, simple and without any animation. They showed my how to capture the audience attention with pictorial representation of ideas. Nickel. Thankfully, all our hard work paid off. We progressed to semi finals and then the finals.
The case challenge presentation itself, it was even more eye opening. For the same one case, I was shown how to approach the problem in 5 different ways. Each presentation carried with them their own style, their strengths and their weaknesses. Some had very presentors with a huge stage presence, some were ministerial style formal, some were aggressive, some were heavy on their situational analysis and some just blow you away with their super high tech and chic presentation. I was spell bound from the start till the end of the event, captivated by the presentation of each of the finalist. In the end, I have to say that the monetary bonus was incomparable to the learning experience which came with the participation in the case challenge. Just as important, we derived so much fun from it.
go google my full name + chevron.
The case challenge presentation itself, it was even more eye opening. For the same one case, I was shown how to approach the problem in 5 different ways. Each presentation carried with them their own style, their strengths and their weaknesses. Some had very presentors with a huge stage presence, some were ministerial style formal, some were aggressive, some were heavy on their situational analysis and some just blow you away with their super high tech and chic presentation. I was spell bound from the start till the end of the event, captivated by the presentation of each of the finalist. In the end, I have to say that the monetary bonus was incomparable to the learning experience which came with the participation in the case challenge. Just as important, we derived so much fun from it.
go google my full name + chevron.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
what do you do at work?
Recently, I have a lot of people asking me what do I do at work. I always hesitate telling people that I doing research. The words PHD\ Masters seem come with them a whole cocktail of conundrum and a whole string of related uncool vocabulary. This whole ingrained misconception of research being uncool, I came up with a hypotheses. Sour grapes. So this was how a conversation went one day, as I try to distance myself from the real nature of my work. I saw someone doing this on youtube, so I decide to test it out myself.
she : "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I model stuffs."
she : "Woah. you model! what do you model?"
me: "I model genes."
she : "Levis jeans?"
Hur. You never know you can make genetic algorithm modeling of multi objectives prototypes sounds so cool huh. But it eventually backfires. But maybe 5years from now. I can try this next one.
she: "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I am a doctor."
she : "Woah! what do you specialize in?"
me : "genetics."
she : "what exactly do you do at work?"
me : "Crossovers, mutation and recombination of chromosomes."
she : "where do you work?"
me : "sometimes on a platform with Dr Java."
she : "Woah an operating platform. and Dr Java I have no idea who is he. but can I visit you at work sometime?"
me : "of cos. when there is no coding to take care of."
she : "you deal with patients' code blue situation too! you must have a lot of responsibilities."
me : "yup. my doctor's work tends to have several objectives."
imagination. what's life without it.
she : "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I model stuffs."
she : "Woah. you model! what do you model?"
me: "I model genes."
she : "Levis jeans?"
Hur. You never know you can make genetic algorithm modeling of multi objectives prototypes sounds so cool huh. But it eventually backfires. But maybe 5years from now. I can try this next one.
she: "Hey, hi nice to meet you. what do you do for a living?"
me : "I am a doctor."
she : "Woah! what do you specialize in?"
me : "genetics."
she : "what exactly do you do at work?"
me : "Crossovers, mutation and recombination of chromosomes."
she : "where do you work?"
me : "sometimes on a platform with Dr Java."
she : "Woah an operating platform. and Dr Java I have no idea who is he. but can I visit you at work sometime?"
me : "of cos. when there is no coding to take care of."
she : "you deal with patients' code blue situation too! you must have a lot of responsibilities."
me : "yup. my doctor's work tends to have several objectives."
imagination. what's life without it.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Teaching Strategy
Dear Teachers,
"Neural Networks are being used to determine the significance of a seating arrangement in a classroom learning environment. In this application, neural networks have proven that there is a correlation between the location of high and low-performing students in the room and how well they do in the class. An article in Complexity explains that when low-performing students are seated in the front, their chance to do better increases. The results of high-performing students who are seated in the back are not affected. In addition, when high-performing students are seated in the outer four corners, the performance of the class as a whole increases."
(Ref: Monterola, C., Roxas, R.M., and Carreon-Monterola, S. (2008). Characterizing the Effect of Seating Arrangement on Classroom Learning Using Neural Networks. Complexity, 14(4), 26-33. ISSN 1076-2782.)
neural networks in computational science. we simulate and we stimulate learning.
"Neural Networks are being used to determine the significance of a seating arrangement in a classroom learning environment. In this application, neural networks have proven that there is a correlation between the location of high and low-performing students in the room and how well they do in the class. An article in Complexity explains that when low-performing students are seated in the front, their chance to do better increases. The results of high-performing students who are seated in the back are not affected. In addition, when high-performing students are seated in the outer four corners, the performance of the class as a whole increases."
(Ref: Monterola, C., Roxas, R.M., and Carreon-Monterola, S. (2008). Characterizing the Effect of Seating Arrangement on Classroom Learning Using Neural Networks. Complexity, 14(4), 26-33. ISSN 1076-2782.)
neural networks in computational science. we simulate and we stimulate learning.
Friday, September 4, 2009
computational science
That's what I am doing. More specifically, I would be dealing with real world constraints optimization problems and solving them using multi objectives evolutionary optimization techniques. The title is a mouthful and it's a lots of technical jargon to squeeze into one sentence; but that's the clearest way I can express it whilst keeping it concise.
I never really manage to establish the direct relationship between Research and Cool until a few days ago. Let's not make it a sweeping statement. I still think that research in semiconductor, pure mathematics or thermodynamics is still not cool. But there are "Research that are Cool"; or at least mine is. I talked to a few of my seniors who worked in the same area. They gave me a lot of insight to the potential of computational science. It is a really big umbrella of science which can be branched into computational finance, computational linguistic, computational chemistry, computational economics and etc etc. Computational students are prep to solve real life problems. Problems in which people are forced to make decisions that require an optimization of resources allocation or choose between conflicting objectives.
In my case, surrogate modeling of a product(or any product) will(or can) be done using neural networks. The process will make use of a constrained multi objective optimization to search for the best solution in the feasible solution space. My seniors, I was told, work in diverse fields. From portfolio management, risk management and financial forecasting to operations research, product design and Artificial Intelligence; they are essentially equipped with the basic skill set which allows them to excel in these areas. Its our job to always look for the best feasible solutions.
But here is what is most cool. We do not go back to labs on weekends, because we are trained to be efficient. We optimize our time. We have short flexible working hours; we just need to get the work done. But sometimes, the cool will lapse and we tell uncool jokes like this, "Do you know why we (people in the Control and Simulation Lab) are all optimist?".
Cos we optimize.
I never really manage to establish the direct relationship between Research and Cool until a few days ago. Let's not make it a sweeping statement. I still think that research in semiconductor, pure mathematics or thermodynamics is still not cool. But there are "Research that are Cool"; or at least mine is. I talked to a few of my seniors who worked in the same area. They gave me a lot of insight to the potential of computational science. It is a really big umbrella of science which can be branched into computational finance, computational linguistic, computational chemistry, computational economics and etc etc. Computational students are prep to solve real life problems. Problems in which people are forced to make decisions that require an optimization of resources allocation or choose between conflicting objectives.
In my case, surrogate modeling of a product(or any product) will(or can) be done using neural networks. The process will make use of a constrained multi objective optimization to search for the best solution in the feasible solution space. My seniors, I was told, work in diverse fields. From portfolio management, risk management and financial forecasting to operations research, product design and Artificial Intelligence; they are essentially equipped with the basic skill set which allows them to excel in these areas. Its our job to always look for the best feasible solutions.
But here is what is most cool. We do not go back to labs on weekends, because we are trained to be efficient. We optimize our time. We have short flexible working hours; we just need to get the work done. But sometimes, the cool will lapse and we tell uncool jokes like this, "Do you know why we (people in the Control and Simulation Lab) are all optimist?".
Cos we optimize.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
home run
there was no hint of disapproval when my mum found out i ran home from school. consider yourself warned kids. Not all mum approves of their kids running away from school.
1hr 15min.
1hr 15min.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
neighbors
Hoping to develop a routine in my life, I left home early this morning. At the lift lobby, I bumped into the neighbor who stays right at the other end of the level. This was the first time I talked to him after I reached back to Singapore and it surprised how much he knew about my family and I. It shamed me to know how little I know about him. All the basic information about him - I knew. To me, basically he is the insurance man who married a teacher and they have 3 daughters. However, to him, I am a person with a life. He knows that I just came back fom Paris, he knows that I doing my Master's in NUS, he knows that my dad was sick, he knows that I like to take photos, more surprising, he knows that I am single. It didn't take long to figure out the neighborly goodwill which my mother has accumulated for the family.
So instead of having bunch in school, I asked if he wanted to join me for breakfast at the market. Probably surprised by my gesture, he agreed. "Insurance is flexi-hours", he said. We spent the next half hour talking about france and his clients. He really met a lot of interesting people in his line of work. He told me how he cooly rejected troublesome clients, debunking the myth that I had about 'all insurance agents care about is their bottom line'. Perhaps I what happened yesterday was still fresh in my head, I readily agree with him that some people are just not worth the trouble. We continued for a while more and he offered to drive me to school.
I can teach your daughter french. I offered.
So instead of having bunch in school, I asked if he wanted to join me for breakfast at the market. Probably surprised by my gesture, he agreed. "Insurance is flexi-hours", he said. We spent the next half hour talking about france and his clients. He really met a lot of interesting people in his line of work. He told me how he cooly rejected troublesome clients, debunking the myth that I had about 'all insurance agents care about is their bottom line'. Perhaps I what happened yesterday was still fresh in my head, I readily agree with him that some people are just not worth the trouble. We continued for a while more and he offered to drive me to school.
I can teach your daughter french. I offered.
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