PhD Studies

Soon, I'll be leaving my current position and off to oversea again to further my PhD study as a full time student with full scholarship at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Having back to Malaysia for just a year and 4 months, I'm leaving again, for at least another 3 years. Initially I was planning to go at the end of November, however, the plan has been postponed for another month due to the delay of the visa application.

Department of Computing, PolyU

Some people have asked me, why can I just leave my family, friends and career behind and go oversea? The answer is quite subjective and depends on how you look on the issue. I'm leaving none of them. Although I'll be in oversea but it doesn't mean I'll never come back. Family and friends are the one who always giving support to you whenever you need helps from them, although we may not meet that often. I'm not forgetting anyone of my friends, but just expanding my network to knowing more friends from around the world. I've left my career as I prefer to be a full time PhD student so that I can pay full concentration on doing research and hopefully can get my PhD done on time. I've heard from some of my friends their supervisors have promised the PhD could be done in about 2.5 years, on a part time basis. I hardly can believe that as when come to the world of research, there's no guarantee that you could find your answer within a specific period. I'm not sure about the requirements to be awarded for a PhD degree in that university but I believe most of the universities having almost the same criteria - at least 2 Thomson ISI journals. Unless someone has extended his/her master's research otherwise is somehow difficult to complete the PhD within 2.5 years, at least not applicable to me.

Did I so lucky to obtain a scholarship? In some sense, I did. I'm lucky to have met with a few person whom have changed the direction of my life since I was an undergraduate student and they have been my mentors since then. Without them, I definitely wouldn't have the courage to pursue higher degrees. So to some of my juniors from MMU, the scholarship won't automatically come to you, please try to move your first step. Do you know how many emails I'd sent to approach the potential supervisors and also to seek for the sponsorships? The opportunity you must seek by yourself, but not the other way round. There's no harm to have a trial and I see no point of what are you worry and scare of? Worry or scare of being rejected? Worry or scare of lacking of knowledge to pursue higher degree (master)? Those are nonsense. Life is full of failure, more importantly is how to face the failure. You would find yourself know even lesser after you've done your master's degree. Confuse? But is truth.

Good luck.

An unpleasant day ...

Today as usual I went to campus at around 7++am. I had a couple of things to do before noon, and I had hoped could be done latest by noon. First, to draw lots to pick a room in the new building. Luckily I've chosen one facing the lake as it would not as noisy as those facing the corridor, I supposed. Anyhow, I've planned to swap the room with Dr. Cheng due to personal reason, but that would happen only if ... The first thing wouldn't take much time actually, just randomly picking a number in a box only.

Mr. Matahari

However, the thing really bothered me was the meeting chaired by an old man - a "veteran" known as "matahari" has been with this institution for so many years. The meeting as said supposedly to be started at 10am actually, but ended up nobody had shown up on time. I had no choice but got to wait for the rest of the committees. Finally, the chairman came at around 10.15am. However, the first thing he did was not initiate the meeting but went to draw lots to pick his new room, great !!! Then, the next wonder he did was to PREPARE the materials to be used in the meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at 10am, he came late and was just want to preparing the materials for the meeting >_<"'...

Frankly speaking, I don't really like to attend the meeting held by him as I've had a few bad experiences earlier. Just take the last meeting held last two weeks as example, he spent about 1 hour and 45 minutes to discuss only 2 simple issues. He likes to talk a lot of nonsense and more importantly, he don't want to make decision. Can you imagine as being a leader and don't want to make any decision as he don't want to bear any responsibilities on any decision made, what the ... that's why I said he is "veteran", indeed a Tai Chi master.

Tai Chi Master

At around 12.30pm, the meeting was still like endless story and I really couldn't stand with my hunger and anger anymore, felt like going to have gastric soon, and to slap the Matahari.

Can I slap you?

The things discussed in the meeting again were not the big issues but he did not want to make any decision even asked by one of the deputy deans (DD) how he handled the similar kind of things based on his past experiences. The Tai Chi master again showed his power by replying to DD that he couldn't recall anymore and pointed to me to make the decision. I really fed up with the meeting and therefore I just pulled myself off from the meeting without seeking his permission and went to have my lunch. Do not want to bother anymore!!!

Hopefully I'll be relieved from this committee soon!!!

Sunset

On 24 July 2009 (Friday) at around 7 p.m, just before I left the campus I'd got the scenes of sunset captured by my camera at different settings. The God of luck was favored on me that day as I not always carry the camera with me to the workplace. Perhaps next time you should have sent someone together with me to cherish this beautiful moment.

Sunset (taken with different parameters)

Bridge towards the new phase buildings

The path way

New library (according to rumor)

Inequality

Nowadays the term "equal opportunity" is flying around especially has been practicing by most of the organizations to ensure all of their employees are treated fairly without sacrificing (I don't want to use the term "discriminating", though it may be the truth) the basic benefits.

Recently I've been known about the allowances allotted for each lecturer to visit the industrial training students as a routine to assess their performance during the training period. Unfortunately, I've been excluded from the budget list. No single cent has been allocated to me for this visitation, GREAT, isn't it? I'd voiced this issue to my superior and he'd discussed this issue with the acting dean of the faculty I belong. As expected, the proposal has been rejected by the AD. I'm not surprise when I got to know result as the moment my superior promised to raise this issue to him, I knew it not going to work. Why? Because of that old man (AD). He is soft and indecisive, perhaps the balls somehow have been removed by emperor sometimes ago. Sigh~

Inequality

Look at other side, I shouldn't be so mad on this issue as the unfairness has been practicing in this country. What can I expect a university owned by a political party to be fair enough to its employees since the righteousness of the party has been an opened issue in recent years.

Perhaps my loyalty to this organization has been doubted. The consequences of not being loyalty are well reflected to what have happened to me. I apologize here as I've devoted and sworn my loyalty to the McDonald's. I'm truly sorry if I just not fair enough to you ...

Am I fair enough?

Deeper Thought of A Typing Master Program

Finally, I have come out something which is quite different from the assignments usually given to the students. NO ticket reservation system, NO ATM system, NO library management system, NO hotel management system, NO registration system, NO calculator ... and NO ...

I had planned to give 3 assignments to my students as part of their assessments. The first two assignments are intentionally to warm them up which contribute only 5% to the total coursework mark. The first two assignments are actually quite related to each other and are not that difficult. The assignment 1 was due two weeks ago and the due date for assignment 2 is just around the corner. However, somehow I found out some of them are requesting helps from their seniors to write the programs for them. GREAT, aren't them? No worry, I can afford to give them the 5% for the first two assignments, but, please try to think further, would they able to score in the final if they do not even able to come out the programs as simple as the first two assignments given to them. Perhaps they should stay back with their juniors to brush up the fundamental programming techniques.

Despite the aforementioned situations, I believe they have got themselves warmed up (or forced to be warming up) and ready to enter the battle mode for the third assignment. I assure this time their seniors would not show their sympathies anymore as I have shown to them the demo program I done for the assignment 3. I have no doubt on their (seniors) capabilities as they used to be my students in last semester and three of them are 4 flat students. They have their own businesses (assignments) to take care of and would not have time to prove they are merciful.

Typing Master (Demo program)

In this assignment, I require them to form a group of maximum 3 members. There has no much instructions given to them but only the title and a few basic requirements like computing the error rate, accuracy, typing speed and etc. They have been given the room to design how the program should like and implement based on their design. Although the program seems like tough for them as I found out the students here have never done even a small project/system throughout their entire lifespan in university except for the final year project. What a surprise to me when I got to know about this. Therefore, I have decided to train my students to pick up the analytical skills by giving least specification and have them analyzed what would be required for the system during the process they designing the solution. The assignment 3 may cause them hectic, but I believe they would enjoy the sweetness of their fruitful works at the end of this semester. On top of that, they would have at least something to show to the companies during the interviews they might attend in the future and feel proud to express what they have done past few years in their university life.

Students, I would really like to see you all excel. Show others your capabilities; Disprove the claim by Jobstreet.com the undergraduates nowadays have been lacking of analytical skills; Prove yourself and show them you are BOLEH!!!

The End

Finally, the C.P.U workshop which I had mentioned in my previous post had reached a successful ending. The response from the students were quite moderate and we had about 200 students participated on this event.

Basically, this workshop had been divided into two sessions, the first session involved some talks from the invited speakers, studying skills and motivation videos. We had been honoured to invite the representative, Mr. Teoh, from Jobstreet.com to give the speech about the future trend in ICT. I have been impressed by his talk as he had presented an insightful picture about the current and future trend of ICT industries in Malaysia with the statistical data. Definitely I hope all the participants (no matter you are a student or lecturer) would benenited and inspired by his talk.

Representative from Jobstreet.com

While the next session we had actually prepared five games for the participants which required them to form a total of 15 groups before playing the games. Each of the groups was led by one or two helpers who have been the seniors. The role of the lecturers was acted as facilitator to oversee the entire progress and ensure the games were run smoothly within the time frames. The objectives of preparing these games were to cultivate the team work spirit among students, to train them the time management skill as they were required to finish the tasks given to them within the specific time frame. Most importantly, to promote the interaction between the freshmen with their seniors and lecturers.

Last but not least, I would like to extend my greatest gratitude to all my colleagues and student helpers who worked together to bring the glory of this event.

Registration

Division of PA

Security & MC

Speeches by Deputy Dean - Dr. Lim and Mr. Alex Ooi

Games competitions

Helpers and Dr. William (Chairperson of C.P.U)

Group photo - Helpers & Committees

C.P.U Motivation Workshop

The "Competence.Progressive.Upskilling" (aka C.P.U) motivation workshop is just around the corner. The idea of having this event was initiated by my boss which has placed the priority on the new students from our department.

It was quite a surprise to me when I had been told about this event. Indeed, there are plenty of motivation workshops out there to help students. However, none of those I have ever heard was actually organized by a university department. Though the intention is undoubtedly good, what about the outcomes? Would they really appreciate the workshop? Would they really beneficial from the workshop? If yes, to what extents?

Frankly speaking, I am not quite really looking at the brighter side of the outcomes if the students do not change their spoon-feed attitude. They are too passive and expecting to get A-Z from lecturers and never have thought the role an undergraduate supposed to be. Indeed, you may argue that they are paying higher tuition fee if compared to the local universities and should be expecting something in return. Yes, you are right, and you are wrong! Students should not be expecting to get everything from their lecturers, instead, they should take the initiative to explore the new knowledge. The role of a lecturer is nothing but a navigator, to guide the students heading to right directions. University serves as a very good platform for students to share their ideas, to exchange their knowledge and train their personalities. However, after a few months since I been here, I found that only a very limited number of students that could fill up the gap when I taught them only A & Z. They are indeed very good students and I could perceive they have been practicing positive attitudes in their learning process. "We are paying ... " - I know you are paying, does that mean we should pamper you well? To tell you when to study? What to study? How to study? You would never ever want to argue upon this point right in front of me as I used to be a student from a private university and was paying higher tuition fee than yours. Therefore, the reason "we are paying" sounds bad to me and does not make sense at all.

Students, take my advises, change your learning attitude, be dared to explore new knowledge, be dared to share your ideas among friends, behave yourself as a true undergraduate. We are never giving up you, if you are not giving up yourself!

Assignments

I have been scratching my head since the semester started about what assignments are to be given to my students. For this semester, I have planned three assignments as the practical exercises for my students to expose them to the object-oriented (OO) environment.

Currently, I have come out two assignments' topics which are quite related to each other. The first one just requires them to develop a simple programme that takes N integers specified in the parameter and perform some calculations. The second one requires them to modularize the operations they developed in the first assignment. I believe through these assignments they should have ideas in mind about the advantages of practicing the modularity and reusability in developing applications.

For the third assignment, I am still on my way to figuring out. Most probably this assignment would require them to develop a simple graphical user interface (GUI) application. However, my focus definitely will not place on GUI as it just to enhance the user experiences. What I am concerning is to get them understand the most important concepts in the OO world, which are the inheritance, polymorphism and the encapsulation. Therefore, the question should not be focused intensively on developing the GUI but to instill the three pillars of the OO concepts to the students.

So ladies and gentlemen, could you suggest me what would be the third assignment for my students?