My life for this period of 2013

Can't think of a good title quick enough, can't think of something cool to write for now, so let's have some update of my life.

Wow, the last time I did an update on my life was just 1 year ago. This is insane. Either my ego has gone down, or I've been on a minor depressive episode, or I've not have real stress for over a year or I'm too addicted to instant entertainment to want to blog about myself. Maybe it's all of them.

Well, so I guess this is telling you guys what happened for the last 12 months. So in August 2012 I.....
Nope, can't be bothered to remember even the most important things that happened each month. Ok, I will but maybe it's better to recall it backwards...I'm going to use facebook to help me too. Man no one will read this, the whole article is too long and the months are either too long or too short. Well, anyway it's a good record.

August 2013:
Resumed my flexible timetable to discipline myself, I'm still a little bit lagging behind, but it works well so far.
I attended NUSBS AGM for the election of the 35th MC, had 32nd MC reunion dinner, there's this PMT Symposium for 3 masters one tradition....

It's boring to just list it all down and inputting no comments on them right? But it's too many events... Oh well.

Minh came back to pack up a few things, we had dinner with the Physics guys together, the 4 French people came back! It's interesting to see Arifin help to fix up my earphone (thanks bud!).

Oh and I helped out at the SPS NOC, as a Group Orientation Leader. It's a bunch of normal kids so far as I can see. And not much pretty girls... Ok, quite a few already. (Man this is going to generate a lot of gossip) Well, I mean, there's no point of chasing any of them even though my cousins pointed out that I'm the one who has the most chance of getting a girlfriend if I wanted to. I have a personal rule laid down after getting rejected the first time: be friends with the girl for at least 1 year or until I am sure that she's single, Buddhist, and not averse to me, whichever one that's later. So it's kinda fun being just friends with girls and losing the ability to flirt.

Next, also this PMT M.U.S.I.C. group which Hung is part of is getting to be more and more prominent as I've attended quite a few of their performances in a lot of places. It started in January and I didn't get pass the interview, but I kinda know almost everyone in the group already. Well, anyway looking back, I'm glad I didn't get in. My interest in Buddhism lies more along the way of intellectual and practise rather than spreading the Dhamma via music. Well, I did suggest such an event to NUSBS too.

Oh ya, I also got invited to speak at the Campaign Ehi Passiko as one of the speaker for their events. It's a small group, but it's kinda cool to be invited like that. Speaking of which I also did a 5 precepts presentation in MDC! Cool.

Also work wise, I dropped in a couple of days in this event: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/ias/upcomingevents/FMDS/Pages/default.aspx It kinda inspire me to start a map of Physics. More on that when I'm done with it.

Wow, I guess when I do think about it, I've done a lot in a month. I should totally update my life more frequently, it's good for self-esteem!

July:
I've went for Hair for Hope, shaving my head to raise fund for Children with Cancer. https://www.hairforhope.org.sg/index.php?/shavee/idetails/374 And I raised $70! Yay! Should have used this blog for more publicity, but anyway...

I've went back to Malaysia for a weekend reunion of cousins, and celebrating 55th Anniversary of the wedding of my paternal grandparents! Awesome event of a dinner where I've met a lot of elderly!

I can remember the Awaken Challenge! I was the main question setter and this marks the reason I've joined in the PMT Youth Group as a Committee member. Man I've not done the handover stuffs to wrap this thing up. Anyway, I've met http://chademeng.com/ Chade Meng and he talks about bringing world peace by teaching everyone meditation! Make sense. He also confess that it might well be an impossible goal, but someone's gotta do it anyway. That is impressive.

Further into the past, there was a lot of weekend events that made me busy... Also made us pushed back the dates of the Awaken Challenge. This includes: 8th Global Conference on Buddhism and the next one was on June, so stay tuned.
http://www.buddhistfellowship.org/cms/index.php?/Conference/8th-global-conference-on-buddhism.html
There, we had this two resolutions that are voted to pass, with more than 90% of the votes I believe.

8th GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON BUDDHISM PASSES RESOLUTIONS AGAINST VIOLENCE IN
BUDDHIST COUNTRIES, AND BOMBING IN INDIA
Delegates from Singapore and overseas attended the two-day 8th Global Conference on
Buddhism, held in Singapore on 6 and 7 July 2013. Drawing on the presence of 1,200
delegates from the various Buddhist traditions, the Conference culminated in the passing of
two resolutions concerning the on-going violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries,
and the bombing of the MahaBodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India on 7 July 2013.
The resolutions were a response from the Buddhist community towards these international
incidents, and passed with an overwhelming majority of more than 95% voting in favour.

Resolution on the violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries
“We hereby wish to inform our Muslim brothers and sisters that as Buddhists, we are
deeply concerned by the violent treatment of Muslims at the hands of people claiming
to be Buddhists.
Islam is a religion of peace and Buddhism a religion of non-violence. These are ideals
for all mankind, regardless of differences in beliefs and customs. We call upon the
leaders of the Buddhist and Muslim communities to condemn all acts of violence and
to use their influence to encourage all to be gentle and act with compassion. We also
call on governments to take firm measures against murder, assault, arson, rape and
other acts of violence and incitement to violence, and take the appropriate action
against offenders, whatever their social status.”

Resolution on the bombing in India
“We are deeply saddened but we forgive those responsible for bombing the
Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya.
You may damage the most important temple in Buddhism but you will not destroy our
faith in forgiveness and compassion. “

 “Buddhism is a religion of compassion and wisdom,” said Ms Angie Chew Monksfield,
organising chairperson of the Global Conference on Buddhism and President of Buddhist
Fellowship, said: “While we are saddened by the violence in Myanmar and the bombings in
India, we recognise that the only lasting solution towards such acts of violence is
forgiveness. The resolutions are a concrete way of demonstrating our commitment to
peace. We hope that these resolutions will contribute towards resolving the conflicts in a
peaceful and effective manner.”
Datuk Dr Victor Wee, President of Buddhist Gem Fellowship Malaysia, said: “I am
heartened to see Buddhists from all traditions using this opportunity to engage each
other on current issues of critical importance. We have discussed and passed public
resolutions on these two issues, based on the Buddhist principles of kindness and
wisdom.”
The Conference included topics and presenters such as “Search Inside Yourself” by Mr Tan
Chade-Meng of Google, “Challenges to Buddhism: Taking the Buddha Seriously” by
Professor Richard Gombrich of Oxford University, and “Buddhist Bioethics in Medicine and
Research” by Dr Ho Eu Chin.
About the Organiser of the Conference - Buddhist Fellowship
Buddhist Fellowship is a non-sectarian English speaking Buddhist group that focuses on the
learning of the Buddha’s Teachings and the practice of meditation. It has over 5,000
members and has been a dynamic force in the Buddhist community in advocating
modernization and bringing issues into the open for discussion and resolution.

This is also the month that I've gotten myself into a pen-and-paper role-playing game, only this age, we use https://app.roll20.net/sessions/new for online communication without having to physically get together to play. The setting's based on the Song of Ice and Fire or the Game of Thrones as it is called in the TV version. Too much sexual stuffs in it for me to want to pick up the TV or the books, but the story seems cool, and the world cruel. We've just finished a chapter and I'm playing the good guy who doesn't even want to kill.

Also I think I've presented in MDC on different types of Meditation Retreats.

June:
The Metta convention was attended and it was very cool! http://mettaroundtheworld.org/blog/2013/05/20/metta-convention-29-30-june-2013/
Other than that... I've joined in the NUSBS Meditation Retreat in Bekok! It's the nicest retreat I've been to yet, but I'm currently slacking behind on my daily meditation schedule.

This was also the month of the Haze, and the month I found my new roommate JerJer.

May:
was a bad month for me. Secondly, (because it happened after the first, and I'm recalling it backwards) it's because I've been scammed. Articles: http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/i-got-scammed.html
http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/street-smart-20-advises-to-not-get.html
I've been very prejudiced and cynical on a lot of outside things from then on. Also I've potentially saved someone from being scammed in KL just recently.

And firstly, Malaysia's opposition lost by an unfair election: http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/a-superhero-response-to-malaysias.html despite me going back to vote: http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/my-voting-experience.html

April:
was a good month for me! I've gotten my Nintendo 3DS then. It's a time sucker, please do not get it so soon, even when Pokemon X and Y is due on October 12. Or else there's a ton of games that you can play with it, the advertising strategy for games they use for the 3DS is awesome and amazing. Blame the low flow of articles on this blog on it too.

And there's the usual NUSBS Dana Lunch and Congress. Oh and my sister came to Singapore to work! It's been 5 months!

March:

I've joined in this:

IAS Workshops/Conferences:

25 to 27 March 2013

1st IAS-CERN Workshop on Particle Physics and Cosmology - Status, Implications and Technology

My cousins are in Singapore! But I've just attended very little activities with them. Like the Shan You Family Day. I've joined in the NTUBS 1 day meditation retreat, and got burned out to attend any more Buddhist activities earlier. But there was the social event of celebrating Jian Hong's Birthday by the 34th MC. Somehow I got in there (by being busybody in their Open House).

Also
Institute of Physics Singapore Meeting, which is mostly talking about Condensed Matter Physics
http://www.ipsmeeting.org/index.html

February:
Ah facebook does help, there's these events:
Linda's Graduation, Cousin's Wedding, Poh Ming Tse CNY Lunch
And making badges in Buddhism Awareness Week, going back for CNY....

January:
I was busy looking for a new laptop, which I got a tentative one on Feb or March, I go back about once a month on average now? And I volunteered for Alms and Sangha Offering 2013 on the first day of Jan. 
Also there's the announcement for Pokemon X and Y that month, I offered to mentor an Alcubierre Drive Lit Review (which became part of my research now). And I sat in for some modules (Advanced Dynamics and Quantum Field Theory)

December 2012:
There was a meditation retreat at Pengerang, by Kwan Yin Chan Lin, I met Mike (who was part of Awaken Challenge organizer team) there and straight after the retreat, I was involved in the Spiritual Countdown at KMSPKS then stayed overnight for the Alms offering the next day. It was crazy! Anyway in the Spiritual Countdown, I got famous again... in being shameless in singing! Apparently I went back home again for another reunion... and there was the NUSBS Dhamma Camp which I stayed over for the last night. And there was a Pokemon event that I attended. I was playing Pokemon White 2 then which I got during  October.

November:
I deactivated my facebook then, so not much information about this month. But I remember going for the retreat in Genting Highlands of the Plum Village tradition. Oh maybe the deactivation was for the NanoWrimo! I got in and won again! Cheated a bit at that.

October:
Got Pokemon White 2. Joined in Intervarsity Dhamma Camp. I think 2 girls are having a crush on me at that time. Joined in a Vero race, was very very active in bringing people out via the Temple Explorers Singapore Group. And started Class at Mangala Vihara on Diploma at Buddhist and Pali College Singapore where I volunteered to be Class Representative.

September:
Joined in an Abhidhamma Course straight after a course on Visuddhi magga, and spent a lot on movies at the Buddhist Film Festival.

SPS

Prologue
This is the post from my blog introducing the Special Programme in Science (SPS) in National University of Singapore (NUS). This post is mainly intended for those who are potentially interested in applying to NUS to do a science major under the Science faculty. Also this can serve as an informal advertisement and encouragement to apply for the programme (not that it needs this ad), and guidance to newbies in SPS and also for existing and past SPS members to appreciate should they want to, but they don't need to.

Introduction
SPS as you can gather from the website, http://sps.nus.edu.sg/ is a multidisciplinary science and research programme, intended to cultivate undergraduates so that they would eventually have an leaning towards becoming a scientist. SPS has a room, and accepts about 40 students per batch, from the first year Science students, Pharmacy and Food Science people excluded due to their busy schedule. The views from below are based on my personal perspective, and ultimate accuracy has to be from the (other) people in SPS itself and the official website.

History
So here's what I heard: SPS was back from 1996 or so, where there was the talent development programme (TDP) for almost every faculty. Those TDP eventually merge to become USP, while the science one remained independent and changed its name to SPS. The current SPS room, a very spacious place where its students hang out used to be much more spacious but undergone a renovation in 2009 where it was partitioned into the library and seminar room area and has 4 long tables complete with sockets for the students to sit and study. The Library has mostly science books so that SPS people doesn't have to compete for the books with others at the Science Library (I use the Science Library more often). There's also a printer which is specially for SPS students to print for free (toner limited, once per month) but mainly for SPS related stuffs. The students has to provide their own paper and are asked to be considerate in using it. Personally I think it's a waste of paper to print lecture notes, and a waste of ink if it is printed with the SPS printer.

Syllabus
SPS syllabus also underwent changes in 2010, where an integrated science programme with multidisciplinary themes are introduced for the students to take. They are: Atoms to Molecules, The Cell, The Earth, and The Universe. Adding in 2 other modules that focuses on research, SPS now has 6 modules for the first 2 years of the students. Previously, we only had 5 modules, one per semester, and it is almost completely student run. Now, there are dedicated lecturers for each of the 4 modules they learn. From Atoms to molecules, they learn about Quantum Physics to a bit of Chemistry and nanoscience, The Cell has the most Life Science content but information theory and Physics are present too, The Earth produced this: https://sites.google.com/a/sps.nus.edu.sg/the_earth/, The Universe has Astronomy to Cosmology in it.

Structure
The structure of SPS is that it is headed by SPS Director Dr. Adrian Lee, assisted by Assistant Director, Andreas Dewanto, and 4 staff mentors for each of the integrated Science modules, then the head mentors (usually 3) headed by the year 4 students. There are graduate mentors, consisting of graduate students, student mentors, the year 4 students, and the junior mentors (usually the year 3 students). By looking at the alumni page, almost half of the people http://sps.nus.edu.sg/wiki/SPS_Alumni_in_Academia/Industry are in research after graduation.

Literature review
The research modules are intended as an introduction to the world of research at an earlier opportunity with guidance. For the first semester, the students figure out what area of research they are interested in and write a proposal for literature review for the next semester. The second semester is where the students read up on the papers available on the particular research topic that they are interested in. This can include pure physics projects like time travel, to multidisciplinary projects like the nanomachines to deliver drugs in biological systems. The papers reading are meant to familiarize the future researchers on what's out there and what's known before venturing into the unknown. As such, there is no need for hypothesis in the literature review proposal, as the students wouldn't have enough knowledge on what is there to research on before doing the literature review. (SPS first year students, please take note.) At the end of the literature review, the students are to present their review in a report no longer than 30 pages, a congress presentation where they train their presentation skills and a viva where the mentors question them about their work in detail (some viva can last upto 3 hours). Working in a group of 3 (or 2, I recommend working in 3) the students are also guided by their mentors who are the 3-4 year students and the graduate students who had previously experienced the same structure before. Thus, SPS students have their first opportunity to do research in SPS in a friendly, caring, guided environment. The other students in Science may experience their first research in University in UROPS or Honours project, both of which SPS students are encouraged to take up too after they finish their SPS research project.

Research
The third semester is their SPS research project, they are to seek out a staff mentor (a professor, lecturer etc) and asked for some guidance in doing reasonable work within a semester. They still have the student mentors with them and while most choose to continue on the literature review topic, it is possible to completely change the research project into another topic. Also the grouping of three people would reevaluate their ability to teamwork and then decide if they are to continue for one more semester or split up and choose another group (if there are other groups who are willing to split up too.) It was at this juncture that my group decided to stick together, and now I have two very special people in Physics that I kinda always feel like a good close friend to even after so many years. The research component is doing something, for the life scientists, chemists and experimental physicists, most of them are out in the Lab, for the computational and theoretical physicists, we have our computer, pencil, paper, and brain. They deliver their research in a report no longer than 30 pages, a congress presentation where they train their presentation skills, posters in which they summarize their work for a semester in a page and a viva where the mentors question them about their work in detail. If the research is good enough, it may even get published in a scientific journal. It's rare that this happens, so don't worry about it and just have fun doing your first research.

People
Next I want to talk about the people in SPS, by majors. Most of the batches after mine has been Life Science dominated, with over 50% of them, followed by Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The rest of the major are as rare as Mathematics, or more common. The female to male gender ratio is quite balanced, at least initially, with a tendency to have more boys than girls. It's not that there's a quota for the majors, it's more of the ratio of the people who applied, and the people we think are suitable for SPS makes it like this. So if (a lot of) you're reading this and want to go into Physics in NUS and especially if you are a female (you're a rare type now), do apply for SPS. The same goes for the rarer majors. This is not a discouragement for Life Science people, if you really think you're made for SPS, by all means apply regardless of your major (precludes Pharmacy and Food Science and Technology majors as mentioned above) and gender. Also when you go for your interview, do make sure you be yourself and do not pretend. What we want are people with the right attitude towards science and research. So if you are very averse to Physics or Life Science, SPS might not be the right programme for you.

Personalities
SPS has a lot of unique personalities. I shall focus on the more weird ones as I was one of them. There's people who say hi to every newbie (guess who), there's people who... ok it's really hard to describe personalities of people without making it into a novel or offending some people. Oh well, there are people who talk to themselves, out loud, who study non-stop as if life is for study (I call them the human study machines), who play a lot (now I'm one of them, but people would say I'm always one of them), who have all sorts of weird behaviour, not understanding cultural norms... Ok wait, I should just say, there are Seldon-like people in SPS, but the % of population is not so big, mainly just me (last time I was much weirder). As long as you got the right attitude, the personality is secondary. However, we do learn our social norms and
mature along in SPS. Or else....

More personal stuffs...
Well, I was stopped from becoming a junior mentor in my whole of year 3 because of some perceived irresponsibility and my reputation to be weird (wherein I was just pretending to be weird). It was the single most hurtful event in SPS that I had experienced. Eventually, I managed to convince the people in power to give me the mentorship thing in my year 4 (it's a position of quite heavy respectable power I learned) as I behaved more normally and showed responsibility and passion by mentoring groups for free as an unofficial mentor for a year. So mentors, appreciate your positions. As far as I am aware of, I was the only one they tried to prevent to become a mentor, although I can see some other people who does not have the right attitude to become mentors as well, I dunno things that happen behind the scenes. Now I still come back to help out for things like junior mentors training and even helped to become one of the unofficial mentors (I'm not a grad student) of a lit review group in Physics.

Mentors
So mentors, what do they do? In all of the integrated science modules, the mentors are there to help the lecturers out and to explain stuffs to the students. If the mentors doesn't know the stuffs, they can at least refer the students to someone who knows. For the literature review modules, the roles of the mentors are the most crucial in helping the students read and select the suitable paper and direction for the literature review process. The mentors also help out in teaching the students how to do a nice proper scientific presentation, poster, do the viva, read and mark the reports, interview the incoming batch of students, train the next batch of junior mentors, all sorts of stuffs! The head mentors especially are tasked with the coordination and detailed managing of the SPS academic stuffs.

Annual events
Knowing and seeing just how much the mentors work (they are paid) and pay the learning forward to the juniors, there is this annual event called the Mentors Appreciation Night at the end of the second semesters in Uni. There, awards like the most.... mentors are given out and each group can prepare something as a token of appreciation to their mentors. This is one of the few events that is organised by the SPS committee. The other two more prominent annual activity are: The Newbie Orientation Camp, NOC at the weekend of week 1, and the Dean's Tea around week 10 of the first semester. The NOC is filled with fun games and is meant to let the newbies to get to know each other and their seniors in SPS before all the hard work really starts. And the Dean's Tea is where SPS students who had finished the curriculum are given their certificates. Both of these events feature performances by the newbies and good free food!

SPS committee and seats
The people behind these events are the SPS committee, typically elected in their year 1 second semester and last for one term, the committee is responsible for most of the other non-academic stuffs around SPS. For example, the logistic team is responsible for making sure the SPS room is clean. The system in place now is that there is a spring cleaning every semester during the holidays and people who participate in it get to choose a permanent seat for one semester at three of the four tables in SPS. The remaining table is free seating. Those who has a permanent seat typically comes to SPS more often and leave books and stuffs on their desks, but also has to help in the regular duty roster in cleaning.

Subcultures
Finally, I shall come to the very unofficial part of this article. Or the officially unofficial part. The subcultures in SPS. Disclaimer: I'm just saying what happens here, please don't apply to SPS because of these subculture, which are liable to change depending if there are people in each generation to live them. Apply to SPS because of the academic reasons.

Board and Card Games
Bridge was one of the most enduring culture in SPS. 4 person, late night or after dinner, or just during lunch time, people gather around and have a pack of cards to start on the Singaporean culture of bridge game. This is only part of the larger culture (with less people playing) of board and card games. Bang used to be a favourite, as well as various non-traditional board games like Settlers of Catan, Small world, 7 wonders, Citadels, The new science, etc.... to many to be listed. Also card games like Dominion, Magic the Gathering and others... There are of course traditional games as well, like monopoly, chess, risk, etc... lately traditional pen and paper RPG is getting some people in SPS to engage in them.

Video Games
The next category is the video game culture, specifically the people who owns a Nintendo 3DS. The Streetpass functionality plus SPS room means the more people in this subculture, the more fun it is! And quite a number of people are planning to play Pokemon X or Y soon!

FDDP
Of course there's the study culture too, the Human Study Machines. Especially amongst the people who take the France Double Degree Programme (FDDP), the most prestigious programme you can take in NUS academically that will send you to the best school in France to learn cool Mathematics and Physics in French. It is very hard to be in SPS and the FDDP at the same time, but there are a few of these brave people in SPS, not every year but those who do take it do really think that life=study. Well, for the most part, they also participate in the bridge culture.

Staying over
SPS is kind to its members, so that if they study late at night until there's no more transportation back home (even for those who stay in campus), they can stay over in SPS until the next dawn and so on.... So, yes SPS is open 24/7 and only its members can access the room and the number of people staying over usually peaks the night before the final report is due or congress presentation. While it is all cool to fall asleep at your desk and in front of your laptop, it is better to sleep on the sofas, the ledge inside the library or just three chairs clumped together. Usually the number of people who stay over often then and again are just those familiar few, and those who do stay over (especially the FDDP people) stay so often that I call them the SPS PR (permanent resident), which I am one of them.

Free Food
Every so often at night when we stay over, we feel the pangs of hunger, and we are always grateful to the extra free food that is available. Having a Fridge in SPS helps too as well as the strategic location of SPS being just beside LT31 where lunch time events with buffets are frequently held. Other than that, there are many events of SPS that provides free food for its own members, including the annual events stated above and the congress where the students present from morning until late afternoon. There is an important ethics in going for free food events that are not SPS's own one, that is to wait until the people to whom the food is for has finished taking their share and the food that's left is going to the trash if not taken. Thus the important job of scavenging for food and finishing them falls upon the people in SPS. Free Food!

Couples
And last but not least, there is a tendency for couples to form in SPS. Of course, in a close knit community with a room to hang out in in between lectures, close friendships can often progress further on. One important thing to note is that it is not possible for mentors to have a boy-girl relationship with the first or second year students. If such cases do happen, they will have to not be a mentor until the student finishes SPS, or the relationship fizzles. This they made clear to the mentors, and I put it here to tell the first and second year students not to begin your relationship with a mentor, should you happen to fall in love with one, until you can (at least third year), unless the mentor is willing to give up the role...

Finale
Ok I had covered almost every important aspect of SPS and why it is worth to come to NUS to study Science just to get into the programme. Maybe a final point to make is that the students in SPS are not elitist society in the sense that we don't feel that we are more entitled to stuffs (only the SPS room, and scavenging the free food) more than the rest of the science faculty... We are still humble students, and the few (and not many) of the SPS members who scored and maintain a perfect CAP would had done so anyway even if they are not in the programme. Or vice-versa. Well, I hope this lets you guys from outside of SPS to get to know what's really behind that mysterious wooden door beside LT 31 that spawns scavengers.

My recent weekends

This coming weekend will be spend in Malaysia.

My recent weekends were spend this way:

18-19th Aug: SPS Newbie Orientation Camp, I was the game master, for two of the most fun games in the camp (in my opinion) and got to know quite a lot of the newbies.

11-12th Aug: Helped in LDW for Saturday morning, afternoon at Buddhist Fellowship with Chriswini Tanaka and Jasper Ang, night celebrating The Return of Thuan Beng and Mukthar, Sunday morning gone treetop walk, afternoon at Tergar Singapore in Tai Pei Buddhist Centre, night relax, play and time for facebook and me.

The ones before that was non-working period, so not so remarkable. 

More remarkable is that the next weekend, 1st-2nd Sep, I will be joining "Joy of Living" by Tergar Singapore, missing out both Tzu Chi one-day camp (which I went twice already) and NUSBS MC handover day (which I had 3 already). 

More Money or Interest?

Received an email a while back and now I'm posting this. 

Good evening,

How are you doing? Alvin Poh Leong Ann here... My apology for the late reply and for all the trouble caused. Yes, I do have a rough idea of it now. Recently I was away very often. I had attended several orientations organized by the Engineering Faculty and the NUS MSL. I’m glad I have read your blog. It gave a better insight of the Physics programme in NUS.

As mentioned earlier, I intended to further my studies in Physics however I’m offered to study Electrical Engineering instead. I would like to inquire, are there many differences between them? Are there more research and academic enhancement programmes such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) and Special Programme in Science (SPS) for students who opt to do a Science degree? I have read about the SPS. Is it a recommended programme for research students? Engineering students wouldn’t be able to join, right?  I come to realize the Summer Programmes for NUS Science Students include many research orientated places in the prestigious university around the world, isn’t it?

I’m offered to do EE with a scholarship. I’m uncertain whether the switching of courses is allowed. I do understand that taking a double major is different. However, do you think is advisable? I inquired about it through a senior during my orientation. He did mention in such cases, students will have to overload each semester with more modules.

My main interest lies in the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics. When I was young, I aspire to be part of CERN research team despite the fact that it is quite farfetched. Anyhow, I’m uncertain of how to even get there. Being in EE, do I lack a lot academically? Will it be a disadvantage for me? It is most appealing to me that the Centre of Quantum Technology is affiliated to NUS. However, does it only involve Physics students in NUS?

Besides, are you graduating soon? Will you be doing your graduate studies? Will you be around in NUS?

I’m glad to meet you. Recent years not many students from Malacca High School are studying in NUS. You have been very helpful. Thank you very much!

Have a nice day! =)

My reply:

 Cool. Good that you've known MSL.

First off I would like to say that even Engineering Science studies nothing close to what we pure science students do, much less Electrical Engineering. From what limited experiences I had in USP about EE is that it mainly focuses on manipulation of electrical fields, wiring, etc...go google it. It's a bit boring to me. And nowhere close to the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics. So a double major is not a replacement for a pure major in Physics.

Only thing that you might get closer to Physics is to do the France Double Degree Program. It's extremely prestigious and hard. Full of pure maths and then physics and you'll have to learn them in France. It's open to Physics, Maths and Engin students. You'll spend your Saturdays studying with these people, and mainly become a study machine. For 1 and a half year from sem 2 onwards. Then 2 years in France and back for masters. But I'm not sure if you're going to study the same thing as a pure Physics student over there.

Secondly, SPS is not something to overlook here. It's only for Science students, it's tough, it's designed for research students and although I haven't described it fully in my blog yet, it's the main thing in Uni that I am glad to have and never regretted. In fact, I'm in SPS room writing to you right now. Summer Programmes, ya, lots of cool places to go to. See my Imperial experiences. I do believe there's a similar programme for Engin students, focusing on Engin stuffs. Go find out.

Third, Scholarship. Now the money factor comes in.
If you're an idealist, you'll switch to Science, no matter what it cost and will follow your passion to the end.
If you're a realist, then here's the deal: if you're so desperate for Physics as to want to turn down this Scholarship, you'll have to have loans. Assuming you'll already have Tuition Grant, so locked in Singapore for 3 year after graduating. Tuition Fee Loan, Study Loan, Student Assistant Loan. Amongst the 3 of them, you'll cover the tuition fees, Accommodation and might need a bit of money for food and others. (I don't buy books or printer, so I save from there.) The occasional Summer trips, Global Programmes, Summer Programmes, you'll either have to find the ones that gives you net money (i.e. you work there), or you'll have to ask from your parents. (about $900 for most of them, once a year.) Or you can just do a part time job. It's not that hard to work and study at the same time. There's demo lab, and SPS Mentor (year 3 and 4 only), and Physics lab (year 4 only), and others. Or summer internship etc....
And most of all, after graduating, the interest will start to count and you'll have to pay all the loans back. To make it comfortable, you'll have to pay more than 3 years. That's what I'm in now. But it's ok for me, I'll just continue paying it using my PhD. Scholarship, when I get it. You'll be poorer than most of your peers, but if you're pursuing further studies... then there's not much difference anyway, you'll stay poor until you graduate from PhD.
Overall, this is not a small factor to discount. It's your life: compromise your passion for money, or money for passion. Your choice. Your parents and family will prefer if you chose the first one. My style is the second one.
Fourth, there's no way in NUS, even in Engineering Science that you'll get a good exposure to the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics if you choose Engin. Ok you can always self study or take the France thing. Ok, just ask my friends over there. You can take mostly Physics over there, including things like energy, mostly about nuclear, environment friendly energy and management stuff. But it's not guaranteed that you'll get into a School. It's hard to get in and it's harder than SPS. And you've to be super intelligent with good CAP in your first sem to get invited to the programme. And super hardworking for the next 1 and a half years.

Fifth, to get to CERN, they need technicians and physicists too. So as an EE you can go there too! Just visit their website, build up your profile, etc, apply there....Just that you might have to do maintenance stuffs more than the real Science. But there's no guarantee that you'll make a better Physicists too, cause research is not really as cool as in Iron Man 2. To do what Tony Stark can do, go Engin. Research in CERN mostly involves analyzing whole chunks of data, not as exciting as they show in the movies. In EE, you know you can't do theoretical Physics then (see the unless above). But if you do theoretical Physics, you don't need to go to CERN, you can do it anywhere. CQT works with people from Computer Science too, to get a different perspective. If you go for Physics major, you'll most likely end up here, at least for a short while. I'm going to be here for 3 years.

That's about all. I really can't decide for you, so I hope I made this email not too bias either way. You'll have to decide for yourself and try not to get influenced by the tone of the email but rather consider the facts and make the choice that your heart tells you to make. Or your logical mind. You see, I'm still mixing up the tones here.

I later found out that his Scholarship allows him to change the faculty if he wants, but he prefers Engin, and not a fan of too many maths he sees in Physics. So he's doing Engin now. 

But anyway, food for thought. What's your choice? More Money or Interest?

Job

So, I'm posting this for fun. For now. Again. After so long of talking about other stuffs, it's back to me. The Ego. Oh well, school has just started, and it shouldn't affect me, but that I get to meet a lot of new people. Both in SPS and NUSBS, not so much on USP cause I don't go there.

Well, it seems a bit strange, I had started work on week 0 itself and I should be getting to know the people in CQT rather than my old attachments. Well, for that matter, a lot of the people I met asked me where do I work after the introduction that I'm an alumni.

Here's what I tell people:
Me: I'm working as a Research Assistant in Centre for Quantum Technologies now, yes it is in NUS.
Questioner: What am I researching on?
Me: Physics
Questioner: Which field?
Me: Theoretical Physics
Questioner: What topic? 
Me: (If not physics people then I think: Do you really wanna know?) Quantum Entanglement in General Relativity.
Questioner: (Blank look or amazed look if not physicist) So what do you do in it?
Me: (If I know it would not be called research is it?) Oh, I read papers, do the maths, get ideas, do the maths, write papers etc....

It's actually different people added together from above. Well, anyway, don't feel bad if you are one of them and reading this. I'm just letting you know my inner state.

On a cooler note, I am discovering more and more people who reads my blog! People who are going to enroll/join in SPS, USP, NUSBS, Physics, etc... Thanks for reading people! It's inspiring to know, so do leave comments, that way I can know that the post is read there and then! (Instead of having to meet you guys in NUS one by one and having a long enough conversation to come to the topic of my blog, it's nice, but it's only once a year!)

Awaken Challenge 2012

Awaken Challenge, an Inter Buddhist Youth Competition was started in 2010. Back then I was one of the four who was supposed to represent NUSBS to participate in this. There is two books to read up for the preliminary round and then 3 out of 5 teams where to go to the finals where the question can ask about anything in Buddhism.

That morning I woke up late, due to unhealthy sleeping patterns and habits, and Jasper had to replace me. NUSBS didn’t got to the finals, and when I saw the questions of the finals, I was glad we didn’t make it. I couldn’t answer half of the questions asked! Even through I prided my self as having read a lot of Buddhism during my secondary years.

When I found out that NTUBS team who won first prize would have their names put up on the Poh Ming Tse temple libraries’ wall, I was so jealous and a bit regretted for not treating the Competition more seriously and important. I promised myself that I would join in again if there is another chance and put my name there. Over the next two years, people would recall this story of how I woke up late and might have caused NUSBS to not get into the finals. I myself am not so attached to this particular mistake. What’s done is done.

In 2011, I was in London when Awaken Challenge was held. But I helped designed a lot of questions for the participants:

Based on the books for 2011:
1) “What Buddhists Believe” By Dr. K. Sri Dhammanada
2) “Buddhism for Beginners”

I had designed 40 questions taken from random and unseemly places throughout the books. I initially shared it to the NUSBS team, then to the rest of Singapore via the Awaken Challenge facebook group.

Here’s what I wrote in the quiz: Prepared by Ng Xin Zhao, NUSBS. Everyone (including non-NUSBS members) is welcomed to test their Dharma Knowledge here! So don't email me just to ask. It will be harder than MCQ for tougher preparations. Please do read everything in the two books before attempting to answer and be honest with yourself. Time allocated: 3 hours. (40 questions, most of them involves listing down things.) Go back now and read the books! Once you click on the next page, you have started!

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFpTdUF6UENVbTZQV0V3ZnRZRGY4RlE6MQ#gid=0

Then recalling the insane difficulty of the finals, I designed this quiz: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFlYaGxhcUoyZVhNdEVSUHFQUTNpaHc6MQ#gid=0

This is opened ended and mostly based on my then knowledge from 3 years of experience with NUSBS and before. Because of these quizzes, I was asked to be part of the organising committee for Awaken Challenge 2012, but I had to say no.

In 2012, just before I attend my graduation ceremony I was determined to represent NUSBS, and win the first place.

During the NUSBS Melaka trip in the beginning of May (story’s coming up soon), the final round up for the members of the team to represent NUSBS was determined. Zi Hao and Dhi-Zen, the two SPS juniors which had known about this competition from Fang Cheng and Wai Kit when we had one of our dinners in Utown. Was two choice in. And Ren Huan, as Damon is training him to be in the MC is in too. I am very familiar with the two SPS guys, but Ren Huan… I do see him in NUSBS events much more often than when I was Vice President. So this is a good opportunity to get to work with the younger generations and teach what I can to them via example. Well, I wasn’t the best example, but still, I was more interested in making sure that their basic Dharma knowledge is well and solid for the next batch of MC.

So after the Melaka trip and me going to Singapore, I called each of them. I didn’t asked if they wanted to represent NUSBS in Awaken Challenge, I just told them that they are in the team and if they are free to join in the Competition. Then I arranged for a common time to meet. As I am almost totally free, from having finished my official undergraduate works, the schedule conflict was with the two SPS guys and Ren Huan. I decided to meet them separately anyway and set the meeting place at Poh Ming Tse, the temple where we will be battling.

First up, I met Dhi-Zen and Zi Hao, I showed them how to travel to Poh Ming Tse and pointed out the transparent glass display that has two teams of NTUBS names craved on it for both 2010 and 2011. They were saying that if we won then first place, it’ll be our names up there! It was the only motivation I wanted to give them. I smiled and go through the basics of Buddhism with them, matching from what limited knowledge we have the English version of the terms I know to the Chinese version of the terms they know. A few days later I went through this with Ren Huan again. The display and the highlighting of the important basic teachings of the Buddha.

They are:

• Four Noble Truths,
• 8 Fold path,
• 4 Right speech,
• …
• 10 Wholesome Karma,
• 10 Unwholesome Karma,
• 31 Realms of Existence,
• 6 Realms of Existence,
• …
• 4 Brahma Viharas…

And many more. The day that I met Ren Huan was also the Sunday when Tzu Chi celebrates Mother’s Day, Buddha’s Day and World Tzu Chi’s Day. I went off with 陈宽杰 to the Stadium afterwards, but that’s another story.

Then we finally meet together as a team on Monday night, just before MDC. Johan, Wen Xin, Damon and Andrew were kind enough to drop by and observe. We when through the requirements for the Awaken Challenge including the format, the Special Projects, the motivation for wanting to do this, some more basic Buddhism, including the 5, 8 and 10 precepts. To counter the final and semi-final rounds of open questions, we divided up our job to study further about each tradition as follows:

• Ren Huan-Theravada
• Me-Vajrayana
• Dhi-Zen-Mahayana
• Zi Hao-Modern Buddhism, later on changed to Ancient Buddhism including the details of the life of Buddha and the Buddhist Councils.

Then we set the date for the next meeting, I shared the two quizzes I made last year, and aim to finish the two books within two weeks. We had to meet online for the next meeting as only Ren Huan is the Singaporean in the group and three of us are Malaysians. After that meeting, my next adventure was to Kuan Yin Chan Lin Zen Meditation Centre for NUSBS meditation retreat. But then that’s another story too.

Two weeks later, on the next meeting, after I came back from the retreat with a deeper understanding of Zen Buddhism, we had another meeting. Johan and Wen Xin dropped by too and helped me to finish up a lot of food that was given to me from Pa-Auk Meditation Centre activity at McRitchie Reservoir the night before, again another story. Dhi-Zen was at the screen, and the rest of us was in SPS room discussing about the 40 questions that I had created last year.

Then I went back home to Petaling Jaya, knowing that I again had to come back to Singapore two weeks later mainly for the Awaken Challenge. During the time I was in Malaysia, celebrating my birthday amongst other things, I suggested that we each take turns to come out with a quiz a day based on the 2 books:

1) “What Buddhists Believe” By Dr. K. Sri Dhammanada
2) Be a lamp upon yourself

Then after 4 quizzes based on the books, we had 4 more based on the traditions and open. Just a nice number to countdown to the day of the challenge. It was ambitious. But here’s our quizzes:

10 questions book Ng Xin Zhao 2012 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG96bHZkLUVjS1N6ejdPZWhseU81Umc6MQ#gid=0
10 questions book Ooi Zi Hao 2012 https://docs.google.com/a/sps.nus.edu.sg/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGhNNHVzVmVLOTE1VEx4WHhqOHpIcHc6MQ
10 questions book Lee Ren Huan 2012 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGd5VXFQZHo3VTNsNWtENzNNek4zY1E6MQ
10 questions Theravada Ng Xin Zhao 2012 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE9BZjlXMWEzLVdLbDVkR3d2VzVfc3c6MQ#gid=0
10 questions book Ooi Zi Hao 2012 https://docs.google.com/a/sps.nus.edu.sg/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDBSQTZ6cll6S3Y3b2hTdEh0dTFwWlE6MQ#gid=0
10 questions Mahayana Ooi Zi Hao 2012 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFNVa1czYzZDbDhYUDEtdHdHcXlXdmc6MQ
10 questions open Lee Ren Huan 2012 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHphTm01dkw5VGx1VzBfNGllSlFvUFE6MQ

We had a final meeting on the night before the Awaken Challenge itself in SPS room. This time all four of us are there again, along with Johan and Wen Xin. I got to say they are dedicated President and Vice President. We shared on our knowledge about the various traditions and Ancient Buddhism. Then we go through the slides that were to be presented as our special project: Flash Mob Meditation.

That night was as usual. I tempted destiny and luck. I slept late. Andrew had to wake me up! And 50+ miss calls! From a lot of people. When I woke up and noted that there is still time to go to Poh Ming Tse, I managed to stop feeling bad and set my priority on going to the temple. On the way there by bus, there was a lot of worry and calls from my fellow friends in NUSBS that helped to settle the rest of the things. I concentrated on calming myself down. And touched the pen drive in my pocket that contains the slides. Eventually, I called each of those who missed called me multiple times and apologized. Some were in the bus accompanying me to the temple. I managed to get back on track with staying calm and having a clean slate before the competition. On hindsight, Was this what I was testing myself with? At such great risk? Well, it was not that great a risk to me as I was not as attached to the Awaken Challenge as the rest of NUSBS is. Was I testing them? But is it fair to hurt them like this?

Good thing we managed to get to the temple in time, a few minutes before registration closes. The other three were there already, studying up last minute, using the answer sheet that we prepared for the 40 questions as last minute help sheet.

I didn’t wanted to do last minute study. Not really my style. My style was last day study. Well, jokes aside, I didn’t had the right mood to meet and know new people. I just went around and greeted those that I already knew, from previous activities together or from facebook. Then I went up to the toilet and shaved. Readying myself for the Awaken Challenge.

The preliminary will be by individual, we played a game to choose our ordering. Ren Huan got first, followed by Dhi-Zen, Zi Hao and finally me. I think it was not important. What is important is to keep calm and not be agitated whether or not our teammates got a question right. I also told the team to practise the 4 Brahma Viharas, no matter if we win or lose. I sat in a meditating posture, trying not to be too excited about the questions asked. Some of them are so easy I smiled from ear to ear. I just could not sit still, looking at how simple the questions were. Then I constantly reminded myself to calm down and shut my eyes. I’ll just listen to the questions and answers read by the Emcees. It was rare but some of the question I self answered, I got wrong. And those were the ones that my teammates got right!

As the first candidate goes to the second and the third, I was amazed by some teams like Buddhist Fellowship Youth, Singapore Buddhist Federation Youth and Thekchen Choling Youth. They got a lot of 9 out of 10. Awaken Challenge 2010 only had the Tertiary Institution Buddhist Society, perhaps that was partly why I was surprized at their capabilities. This however was played at my peripheral consciousness, my main focus was to calm down and meditate. There was fear too. Fear of getting discouraged by comparison, hence I try to close my eyes as much as possible and avert my gaze on the score board. Fear of getting arrogant by the easy questions, hence I let go of the questions, not bothered by it whether my teammates had gotten it right or wrong. It was all I could do to keep on breathing in and breathing out.

When it was my turn, NUSBS had gotten 23 marks out of 30. My aim: 10 out of 10. It does not matter if we don’t get into the semi-finals, I’ll just do my part. It doesn’t matter if I failed to do my part, I’ll just concentrate on one question as it comes.

And one by one, I tried very hard not to get cocky as I got the answer to the easy ones almost immediately. I looked up to the ceiling and breathe in hard, breathe out hard. Keeping calm all the way, my mind will be calm even when my body is a bit shaky.

There was this one question that almost got me. I changed my answer halfway, and raised up the right one just before everyone from each of the 10 participating teams are required to raise up our answers in unison. When I raised my answers up, it was always open my eyes to check if it was the correct one I was holding and keep my gaze on my area, not looking and comparing to see who’s competing with me, not at the scoreboard. If I know about the scoreboard, it was peripheral thinking again. Didn’t register with the main brain. Didn’t know what it meant. Didn’t interpret it. Caught the perception at the contact, not allowing the feeling to arise. Or if feeling has arisen, not having craving for the wanting or not wanting of the feeling. Just concentrate on keeping calm.

The last question was tricky. What did the Buddha told Ananda just before parinibbana? There were two correct answers there. I was a bit hesitant, and decided to use my luck as I had gotten 9 correct so far. So I’m not so attached to whether I got this right or wrong. Then the Emcee emphasised “to Ananda”. And I smiled. Knowing the right right answer from amongst the two potentially correct answer: “The Dharma and the Discipline will be your teacher when I am gone.”. Instead of “All component things are subject to vanish, strive on with earnestness.”  I finally allowed myself to smile as if this one was given to the others, they might have gotten it wrong as I emphasised to them about the Buddha’s last words as “All component things are subject to vanish, strive on with earnestness.” and did not go through with them the Maha Parinibbana Sutta. (Right besides me now.) I haven’t read it fully too, just an impression I had.

And so I allowed myself to look at the scoreboard. It was just nice that NUSBS got 33 out of 40 and qualifies to enter the semi-final as the third one in! The highest score was 34! And the lowest for semi-final was 32. That was a close one. And then I realised that I was the only one amongst 40 participants who got all 10 out of 10 correct. Lucky me! And tried very hard not to think about this to avoid getting arrogant.

Zi Hao and me were at the semi-finals, ready to cooperate and look at one question at a time until we got into the finals. The open questions were tough! I didn’t know half of it and all five of us got it wrong for the 2 Vajrayana questions. It took some discipline not to casually look backwards or to listen carefully for the (overzealous) suggestions from the ones in the audience who knows the answer. It does seems that I had not studied the Vajrayana tradition correctly as I don’t know the answers to them! Well, we got 7 out of 10 correct in the end, with the other two teams who got into the finals at 8 out of 10 each.

It was finally time for lunch! I just had a good bread provided by Damon (thanks!) for breakfast before the semi-final and now the lunch was super a lot and delicious. I was not my usual talkative-getting-to-know-everyone self. I took the time instead to eat slowly and sit with NUSBS people and catch up with Claron. Claron was a fellow novice monk with me 2 and a half years ago. He is representing Singapore Buddhist Federation now, along with NTUBS, we are the three finalist.

After lunch is over, the NUSBS team came up and practised on the slides for the Special projects part. As far as I could tell, I was a studying last minute trying to learn more about Vajrayana Buddhism. Not that it did any good later on.

When it was time for the finals, I represented NUSBS to come and take one of three signs, indicating which will be the first team to go. We happened to be the first one. There wasn’t really enough time for the Emcees, including Wai Kit to interview us before the questions begin. 10 questions, 4 choices as usual, but with 3 helplines. I was calm at that time, confident along with the others. Taking it one question at a time and not letting questions bother us. The first question was about Vajrayana. Again I didn’t know about it! So instead of trying to look at Wen Xin who’s busy trying to mouth the answer to us (I think? Sorry if I’m wrong, was only out of the corner of my eye), I convinced the team to opt for the phone a friend helpline. We asked Wen Xin and sure enough we got it right. The others were not so sure about using the helplines so early. My reasoning was that we take it one step at a time, when we need it.

Before the 5th question is up, we already used the 50:50 option too. However, the other ones were relatively easy, or at least the ones we know. One of them concerns about the Buddhist Flag, when was it designed and when was it used as the symbol for Buddhism. The first question we got wrong was another Vajrayana question. Well, I was glad anyway, my personality is such that I couldn’t blame myself, but if the others had taken the Vajrayana reading responsibility, I might worry about them blaming themselves or worry about me blaming them for not studying properly. As such, there is no internal conflict within me. The team noted that it’s amazing that we got our first wrong after the half way mark and near to the end.

At the very last question, we had a tough one, concerning Mahayana tradition. Dhi-Zen and Zi Hao were discussing amongst themselves. And we have one more helpline left. So I asked for the helpline to be used: Audience opinion. And I told our team to keep on thinking ourselves, eliminate the impossible ones first, then we might make use of the polls. Dhi-Zen and Zi Hao eliminated option C, and was between B and D when the results came in.

C was the highest followed by B. It was good that our team eliminated option C already. Then we took the decision with B. It was correct. 9 out of 10! We were smiling and shaking each other’s hand. No matter whatever happens later on, the stress is off. I can become nervous again. Finally. (My post exam nervousness strategy) Well. It was a bit unfair on the psychological pressure on the latter two teams. NTUBS came close, with two questions wrong at the start, but all the rest correct. When they got the first one wrong, we were preparing ourselves for the death match question. Then it was a good thing they got the second one wrong earlier too. Or else a lot of unwholesome thoughts might have arisen in my mind. It was really difficult to restrain the mind at that time.

I immediately took my camera out (just remembered that I had one with me) and took our victory smile.

I could saw words of congratulations being exchanged between the audience side, where NTUBS shook hands with Johan and the others. My other three teammates smiled a lot and I reminded them about practising the 4 Brahma Viharas. Equanimity is most apt now. I felt a bit of joy, but didn’t really get overjoyed. It was calm, before, during and after the Awaken Challenge.

The other questions of the finals were not that easy to us too! We were just glad that we got what we got.

Then we had the time of presenting our slides, we were pretty convincing, I think. However, I am glad that NUSBS does not have to suffer another one of my crazy ideas to carry it out when SIMBB won the Special Projects!

The feeling of getting the final prize later on was nothing much. I let the other three get close to the cheque. It’s not the first time I got this kinda thing.

The after feeling was awesome, I do remember to keep on saying that it was a team effort that got us the first prize (it’s true, I don’t know about half of the questions in the final.) when people start to congratulate me. They knew about two years ago. The reality of our names being emblazoned at PMT for posterity has not struck me too deeply yet. Not my first time too. (at elsewhere, but it’s the first that I have earned properly)

Then we had Fang Cheng Birthday Celebration, Photo takings, announcement of something big next year, and cleaning up by the champion team. I was thinking of the present moment while cleaning, but still got distracted by things I don’t remember now.

The only thing that I felt incomplete of the event was that I had not had the opportunity, or mood to get to know more new people.

I then took off with dinner from the leftover lunch, to Tzu Chi and then back in my uncle’s home, I SMSed the other three. Telling them that we should go back to Poh Ming Tse someday and take our photos with our names.

Here I would like to thank all who are involved in the Awaken Challenge, especially the ones who woke me up, and my family and relatives. Especially NUSBS for the ever forgiving attitude.

Responses for Yearbook

Please answer all of them, some of the responses will be put inside the yearbook. Thanks!! :)


Why do you wish to study Physics in the first place?
I want to know the deep secrets of the Universe. Inspired by Popular Science books and the International Physics Olympiad, I definitely know my major in University will be Physics. 


How do you feel about graduating from NUS?
Like normal. There is no significant change in the fabric of spacetime for this insignificant event. Ok more seriously, undergraduate education is as I suspected. Not enough. My quest for the secrets of the Universe goes on.


Where is your favourite hangout place in NUS? 
Special Programme in Science room. In SPS room, there are almost always friends there 24/7. I have my own table space, lots of free food opportunities, strategic location in Science Faculty, and the option to stay overnight to do work... or play.


What are your memorable moments in NUS?

1. The time when I fell in love.

2. All those overnight stays in SPS.

3. Being in the committee of NUS Buddhist Society and doing lots of work!

4. The two semesters when I overloaded seven and a half modules.

What are the unforgettable experiences you have in NUS Physics Department? 

1. Being in Physics Society Committee.

2. Doing a level 5 module, Quantum Information and Computation.

3. The Summer Exchange to London. 

4. Rushing for reports for the research modules, not the Experimental modules.

What are the things you want to do in NUS but didn't do?

Explore every single place, hidden rooms and corridors in NUS, for every campus. I haven't been to Bukit Timah campus! Or Duke NUS.


Do you have any message for your fellow graduating friends?
For all the good and bad times we had together, let us recall how they made us a more matured and better person. Let us use this university experience to learn and live a meaningful life.


Who would you like to thank the most in the Physics Department and why? Can be your classmates, profs, staff in deptHariom, my classmate, for being there when it mattered and constantly inspiring me.

My Certs

Hey all,

I’ve not been updating on my personal life for quite long now. But this is not one of the post where I go through all the thing I had done since the last post.

This is about the certs which I had chosen to present for my job application. There are so many certificates by the time you graduate and you’ll realise that to put all these in your CV is totally ridiculous. Some certs like participation in a Scouts Camp during your secondary days and motivation workshop for the national examinations are not even worth mentioning. Here I’ve selected the most important and relevant certs so far for the application of this first job. Only in the first job would these matter, hence the timing of this writing.

There are ten of them in total and I shall go through them one by one, giving perhaps the link to the past posts too.

 

Firstly, the programmes that I am in: Bachelor of Science Course.

1. Dean’s List for meritorious performance in the AY 2008/09 Sem 2 of the Bachelor of Science Course. Link.

This one I had gotten during my sem 2. For the achievement of 4.75 Semester Average Points (SAP). Well, you might think I should had gotten it for every semester. However… there are too many things to handle in a semester, and this was the one where I put almost all my free time into studies. It teaches me that this is not the way I wished to spend my university life: I don’t want to become a Study Machine. So at least I have one. It represents my main course in NUS. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 3^rd one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 3. I put it first because of the 6+5+5+6=22 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next programme is University Scholars Programme.

2. Honour Roll for meritorious academic performance and contributions and achievements beyond the classroom in Academic Year 2009-2010. Link.

This one was because I finished 4 out of 8 first tier modules in USP and also joined in the Buddhism in Asia Global Programme. I felt the most undeserving of this cert, as it is unexpected and I didn’t really did any real work to get it. Plus I am not so close to the USP community. This teaches me that a cert does not represent how exactly the person who has it feels about having one. It represents me being in USP, wherein that time, I do not feel a sense of belonging to. It also teaches me that appreciation may come from the most unexpected places, so appreciate them. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 6^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 5. I put it second because of the 12 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next one I am however extremely proud of.

3. Special Programme in Science. This is to certify that Ng Xin Zhao has successfully completed the Special Programme in Science.

(on the back) The Special Programme in Science (SPS) is an intense programme in the Faculty of Science that seeks to nurture talents among budding scientists. It is specifically directed at the academically talented students who cherish outstanding scholarship, and delight in the rigorous training of the mind and character.

The Programme introduces students to some of the broad areas of science through seminars, discussions, laboratory and fieldwork. With strong emphasis placed on interdisciplinary science, it offers abundant opportunities for those motivated to embark on in-depth studies of advanced topics that are at the forefront of modern scientific endeavours.

Innovative teaching methods, through peer learning and mentoring, form the basis with which creative and critical thinking is fostered. This dynamism is largely sustained by the passion and enthusiasm that the participants have for intellectual pursuits. Apart from their academic curriculum, students in the Programme are also involved in many enrichment activities organized by the faculty.

Quite the description at the back of the cert! Well, they forgot to mention that SPS has a 24/7 room with bookable table spaces for you for each whole semesters and free food are found not-too-rarely just outside SPS room.

Well, it was my 5 modules that I took for this and it represents one of the hardest achievements in my university life. And one of the most worthwhile achievement too. The mentorship experience certainly opened my eyes to how does it felt like grading, teaching, guiding, mentoring, and being normal (instead of extremely weird). Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 9^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 7.

Next up is an internship!

4. Certificate of participation. This certificate is awarded to Mr Ng Xin Zhao of NUS for participating in the Vacation Internship Programme at the Data Storage Institute from 10 May 2010- 20 July 2010. Project: Study of Nanophotonic Integration Technology. Supervisor’s commendation: The student has demonstrated resourcefulness and great skills in theoretical study and programming. He has good attitude in learning and working with the unknown.

This internship lasted less than 12 weeks, between sem 4 and 5, with a meditation retreat in the middle. It was with the A Star. I touched a bit on applied physics here and get to experience the working life of clocking in and out at the exact timing. In my opinion, the work I did in SPS during my sem 3 surpasses the work I got to do here. This experience told me I am not suitable for industry research. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 4^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

After that I had joined in an International event at the beginning of sem 5. It was:

5. 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games 14-26 August 2010 In recognition of your achievements and contribution to the success of the 1^st Summer Youth Olympic Games.

For this event, I travelled to NTU for a few times during the beginning of the semester to help teach the young athletes (teenagers) how to fold origami. It was yet another International event that enabled me to relive for a moment the awesome feeling of being in one. It also has an interesting backstory, involving the Universal Studios ticket that we got for free, that almost came to be but it did not happened. And I am glad it did not happen. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 5^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

When I mentioned the international programme that I was in, it was:

6. The Academic Committee of 38^th International Physics Olympiad Awards to Xin Zhao Ng from Malaysia Honorable Mention 13 to 22 July, 2007, Isfahan, Iran.

It was the one that changed my life, took me away from depression, made me extremely famous in my high school, got me brimming with confidence and turned into arrogance, and put me on the path to become a Physicist. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 1^st one I obtained chronologically, during my high school years, 1 year before entering NUS.

The second one I obtained would be one year later, just before matriculating into NUS.

7. The International Board of the IPhO awards the Silver Medal to Ng Xin Zhao from Malaysia at the 39^th International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi, Vietnam July 20-29, 2008.

It was the one that got me into newspaper at last! And the one that I bragged on (in)famously during my first (and second) year in NUS. It was also the time when I learned that my name sounds similar to “Hello” in Vietnam. Making me famous there too. It was partially also with this confidence in the interview that got me into SPS.

Now you had seen: First 4 University Programmes, next 3 International Programmes, and the next 3 are the ones that I treasure the most: Spiritual development, or for those without religion, Co-curricular activities.

8. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao for services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Deputy Dharma Director of the 31^st Management Committee. February 12, 2011.

This cert represents a lot of hours attending and organizing NUSBS weekly and annual activities with 14 other friends who are kind and nice. It gives me meaning in my second year of University life and gradually changed me from the Study Machine into someone who is balanced and happy!

One of the toughest moments in my NUSBS life that I burned out, but rekindled in the next cert you see. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 7^th one I obtained chronologically, during the Dana Lunch 2011, middle of sem 6 for services rendered during sem 3 and 4.

9. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For his services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Vice President of the 32^nd Management Committee AY 2010/11

This is the year when I was at my peak in NUSBS. Doing more jobs than I did in the past year that I did not thought possible, fulfilling a lot of successful events, managed a cool team of people who are nice and kind and good in their own way, and the one year that made me prouder than ever for being in NUSBS. It does gives me a lot of work to let go later on. However, while it lasted, it was nice. Nice to the full end of nice. I miss the 32^nd MC! (Which we have been keeping in touch too, more of that next time.)

It was also reminder of one of the few events in NUSBS that I helped out after stepping down. Yup, hard for me to let go…Dana Lunch 2012 where this cert was given was one such event, making this the last of the cert that I chronologically obtained, in the middle of sem 8. Another activity that I helped out was a bit earlier, it was:

10. Certificate of Participation Awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For the successful completion of Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011 (24 to 25^th September)

One of the few things that made this event and Dana Lunch 2012 worth mentioning is that it is when a lot of Buddhist Organizations were involved. In Dana Lunch 2012, the TIBS was invited with 12 External Buddhist Organizations sharing about themselves. In the Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011, it was Fo Guang Shan who hosted the TIBS in assisting us to share our common problems and solutions to them. It was a tremendous morale boost to all who participated and I was glad to be one of the few who represented NUSBS in the planning stage, and in the sharing stage. Being the 8^th cert I got, in the middle of sem 7, it also serves as a reminder to not delude myself, and a dangerous reminder of just how easy it was to fall back into delusion without a proper ending to safeguard the mind and senses. Perhaps only one person would understand this, but oh well. I’ll still put it here.

Now that you’ve seen my University life, you can roughly conclude that I was:

Playful and arrogant during Sem 1, so I didn’t got Dean’s List then,

A Study Machine in Sem 2, so I got the Dean’s List,

A research intensive person in Sem 3, part of the reason I am proud to be in SPS,

Getting into more Spirituality in Sem 4, with a meditation retreat in the middle of my internship!

Receiving and making good fortunes in Sem 5, where I got a recognition I didn’t anticipated, and decided to be Vice President of NUSBS,

Got more involved in spirituality than in studies in Sem 6, wherein I still didn’t get Dean’s List and was planning for big things to happen (Intervarsity Dharma Camp and Dana Lunch 2012).

Trying to let go, very hard no less, in Sem 7, wherein I was still involved in NUSBS and

Finally, involved in mentoring in Sem 8, as mentioned in the SPS part.

Done.

Preface to My Final Year Project

Thomas Precession: A Fibre Bundle Approach

The understanding of fibre bundles is essential for any theoretical physicists who are serious in thinking about the Standard Model, String Theory and beyond. That is my main motivation in choosing this project. At the end of this project, after applying fibre bundles to describe Thomas Precession, I started to wonder if this can be the start of a simple way of teaching young budding Physicists about fibre bundles. It would be one of the first few steps before progressing into quantum eld theories of gauge invariance. And yet, before
taking on this project, I had no idea that there is such a thing as Thomas Precession. So maybe it would be simple, provided that undergraduates can read this thesis and understand it.

If you need to brush up on Differential Geometry, Lie Groups, Coset Manifolds and Fibre Bundles, by all means do skim through the appendix, as it will be heavily referenced in the main paper. I would like to take this page to acknowledge the unfailing, dedicated, patient care of Dr. Kuldip Singh towards making sure that I understand this relatively di fficult branch mathematics and seeing me through the project. I had learned in this one year what most undergraduates will not: the foundations for theoretical and mathematical Physics. In this project also, I learn to see the motivation for solving a problem from the mathematical point of view instead of always asking for a physical connection. As well as the way a mathematical Physicist work.

My gratefulness extends to the Special Programme in Science (SPS), for providing such a nice and comfortable environment, both physically and socially not only for the duration of the writing of this thesis, but also for the whole of my four years being an undergraduate. Not to forget is University Scholars Programme (USP) for providing the opportunity during my final year to stay in the same building as my supervisor, making it easy to ask for guidance.

A special mention to the NUS Physics Department for having such a wide and interesting range of topics for research, and to Prof. Valerio Scarani for arranging for the Physics Honours Projects of the academic year 2011/12. Also thanks to the whole National University of Singapore for providing my undergraduate education, in one more step towards the expansion of the human knowledge, starting from the expansion of one individual.

My Undergraduate Physics

I'm here just to see what I would write, a random post that you mostly will not get too often.

So what's up? Physics has just became an important part of my life. Again. After so long. Haha. Maybe I wasn't too unhappy with the marriage with Physics. It's been 4 years since I started my undergraduate life, and although I learned a lot of Physics, I still find that the things I truly want to work on is still far out of reach.

Those things that you read on a popular science book, like a Brief History of Time, or the Elegant Universe, and most recently, the Fabric of the Cosmos (a documentary being screened in Utown in these weeks), those amazing stuffs, I only got a slight glimpse of the mathematics of it, even after knowing the concepts for so long.

It's just that before knowing the mathematics, I can fool myself into thinking that the concepts are fully explained by those popular science books or documentaries. But I know it is not true. Most of the subtleties are in the mathematics.

Now doing my final year project, I still don't understand most of the theorems that I got from the mathematics. There are just too many abstract proving to do, and that had been done by mathematicians. We physicists just look at the equations, the concepts behind the mathematics, see which part of Physics it can describe, and link them together. Or rather that is the job of a mathematical physicist. I'm kinda looking at that now. Amazing how it is done, amazing how much calculations that mathematicians leaves out after identifying the structures. Even more amazing is that after we described the phenomena using the mathematics developed by mathematicians, the engineers would have to put in the actual numbers and lots of detailed calculations for things to really work.

Well, back to the physics I learned in NUS... I did touch on cool subjects I am interested in early on. Nuclear Astrophysics, Particle Physics by 2nd year, Cosmology by 3rd year, but some of the most interesting stuffs are from the special programmes that I took like time travel in General Relativity by 2nd and 3rd semester, Black Hole information Paradox by 3rd year, and even a bonus quantum information of which I only knew about EPR and Bell's inequality before coming to NUS on my 4th, 5th and 6th semester. I have been doing amazing stuffs all along during my undergraduate years! Partly thanks to SPS and USP, mostly to Physics department of NUS, and some to Mathematics department.

Now, continuing from the studies of my 6th semester on Mathematical Methods 3, I am working on Thomas Precession, a Fibre Bundle Approach. Both terms were foreign to me before this year, and now I am half-expert on them. Half because there is just too many stuffs to read up and study before understanding either of them! It's crazy just how much I wrote for my thesis up to now. I didn't expected it to be that long! 50 pages now, and going strong, I think it might hit 70 pages. With Monday as the deadline, I better work on it now. See ya then. Now the title will be changed to My undergraduate Physics.

So overall, if you want to do Physics in NUS, not only it's not a bad choice, it's an excellent choice! Provided you're in SPS.