you know why i love reading so much? it's probably because i seem to find that there's always bits of me in it.

i just finished "catcher in the rye" by j.d. salinger and it got me a teeny bit depressed cuz holden caufield (the protaganist) who is also the narrator is seriously talking to me and telling me his story. holden doesn't like phony people and tells me he's yellow (which in this case doesn't mean chinese, it means someone with no guts). he made me giggle, made me laugh out loud, made me feel like crying and simply made me sad. i had no idea what the title meant initially till im almost done with the book and it's really a simple yet somewhat noble dream that holden has.

i wouldn't wanna spoil it for you and tell you what holden's story is all about cuz firstly there really isn't any of those epilogue or synopsis or whatever you call it that describes the contents of the book; you're supposed to pick it up and start reading and discover it for yourself. secondly, i'll be doing the author a grave injustice by telling you what the story's about cuz there's obviously a reason why he chose not to put the epilogue or synopsis or the whatever-you-call-it in the book in the first place. so go read it yourself and if you've read it, good on you. you'll know never to say "good luck" to anybody ever again.

im just thankful i can devour books once again; proper novels, not textbooks or lecture notes. since im done with the only new novel i have i think i'll hit the bigger screens now and allow jen's dvds and vcds entertain me. i need to watch a couple of movies in the cinema too, it's been way too long.

it's official. my sister and brother in law are leaving for bordeaux, france, on 17th dec! wheee.. im more excited than the both of them combined, i think. im just really happy they have the chance to go away for at least two years, experience france earlier than i will, speak french everyday (wheeeee!) and my sister gets to just be the little "expat" housewife and sign up for french cooking classes, take french language classes, take flower arrangement classes, drive the car to carrefour one hour away and grocery shop. im just ecstatic. it also means i'll get to go there earlier! thats my bonus. :)
but im gonna miss her though, no more bantering, bickering, impulsive shopping trips, the way she says "whaaaaat!?" instead of "hello?" when i call her. her absence will be sorely missed. i guess she'll just have to nag at me via skype then. :)

I find the weirdest times to do certain things. It's 2:20am and I'm trying to do thermodynamics. I listen to my jazz music of which i had become very alienated from. And i realised why i enjoy it so much. It speaks to the very core of my soul and can jus make everythin everythin everythin go away. I found myself jus grinning to myself.... just because. It's been a while since ive been able to do that. I feel centered and whole again....its a nice feeling. :) Its almost like one of those real romantic moments...nice jazz...nice ambience in my room...its cold outside..jus short of snowing... jus need me some candles and me lady and im set. Instead..I have thermo to keep me company! :) Its ok nothin can spoil this now..not even the Otto cycle.

One of those nice winter days last year

it's hard to believe that you're dead, not that i'm especially close to him nor am i big fan of his. but his death evoked a feeling of sadness, maybe even some distant memories. he's not good looking, not tall, speaked with ear bitting acccent and not much of a muscle to wrestle when he first debuted at then wwf. never liked his character nor the image he portrayed..always the back stabbing latino dude, some sort of a ah beng in the wrestling scene.. thrash talking and picking fight with dudes twice his size, using unscrupulous methods to gain advantage. he's the bad dude. the funny dude.the dude who drew the crowd to hate his guts and built a reputation as one of the the most loved to hate guy in wwe recent history. his death was a shock. just 3 weeks ago i was by my lonely self in bunk flipping through the channel searching 4 company and then at 2am in the morning tv2 braodcast wwe on tv and there he was. eddie in a tagged match vying for the wwe tag team championship. That was the last time i saw him fight, the last time i saw him alive. you belong to the 'born free' kodak commercial, transformers, captain planet, kurt cobain,owen hart, mother theresa, theresa tung and krusty(my neighbour deceased chiwawa). i grow old in your company and you left an impression on me. Eddie Guerrero 1967-2005 , incredible talent, great charisma and unstoppable energy.
 

It's official.
Ghim Moh Secondary School is gonna merged wif jintai in year 2007....................
How sad...
Tts where we all 1st met...
pls pay ur last visit to the sch whenever possible...

hey guys! hurry back home!
we have great plans in december! we are planning a christmas party at chen's temporary new place. cause his current house is under renovations!
plus i was thinking of going up to malaysia. we can take the bus and book the first class seats which are super duper good, give the planes a run for their money.

first paper on friday. argh, i am so stressed.

Weigh in Motion for trucks ---------------------------
Currently a common method of detecting truck weight is to use a force transducer(s) placed across the road. However oscillations of the vehicle load can lead to erroneous readings with accuracy as poor as +- 20%. This project will investigate introducing a known disturbance before the transducer and using a computer vision system to track the resulting movement of the truck body as it passes over several force transducers, in order to better estimate the true load of the truck. This project will involve the use of LabView and one of the extensions will be the incorporation of license plate identification technology to identify vehicles. (Note: prior experience with LabView is not essential).

This project sucks man.... systems controls and labview are a big turn off for me. Alot of research work also and not much innovation required. The guidelines are set out for you already and basically its jus doing busy work.

Design of a moving fluoroscopy system ---------------------------------------
Fluoroscopy is a technique for obtaining live x-ray images in a living patient. This project will involve the costing and design of a system that will move along a fixed track in the biomechanics lab and keep up with a patient as they walk in a straight line. In principle, it is similar to the technology used to take TV images of swimmers from the bottom of the pool or 100m runners during their events. A controller will be used in order to close the loop and ensure the camera moves at the same rate as the patient. The fully built system will replace the need for up to six cameras in a biomechanics laboratory to track movement of limbs. It is anticipated that Labview may be used as the interface, although previous experience is not essential.

Not my cup of tea either man. But sounds more interesting than the first one.

Drive cycle implementation through engine computer (with Ford Motor Company) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During a fuel economy or emissions test vehicles have to follow the drive trace within a certain limit. The tolerance band of the legal drive cycle is relatively small (± 2 kph) but even in this small tolerance band individual deviations of the test driver are inevitable. These deviations strongly influence the accuracy and repeatability of the measurements. In this project, the vehicle's own engine control modules should control the actuation of electric throttle body and brake during an emission test. For this purpose a calibration tool can be used. These calibration tools are normally used during development tests anyway to record and manipulate data from the control module. The calibration tool needs to be programmed with a script file accordingly and an interface from the calibration tool to the chassis dyno needs to be implemented. [This project is subject to confirmation]

Alot of research going into this one so its a bit yuck also. Although it will be a little more interesting because you actually get to work with a company who might like you so much that they take you on as an intern or better yet as a full time employee. It would be good to consider this one.

Set up of a distributed computing environment using Dymola and Corba. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many optimisation techniques require intensive repeated iterations of plant models to develp correct control strategies. This can be extremely time consuming when a single processor is used and the plant models are complex (e.g. an internal combustion engine, or a biomechanical system). This project will attempt to design a framework whereby a plant model in Modelica can be run on multiple workstations that share information over TCP/IP via a CORBA program. This project requires good knowledge of C++, and is primarily for students who are looking for a software based project.

OMG kelvin this is so your thing...so geek! so chic! so you!!

Classification of patient movement ----------------------------------
A hypothesis is that intensive physiotherapy given to stroke patients shortly after their stroke will result in improved limb function in the longer term. Presently however there is no automated way of measuring limb functionality in a stroke patient (the common approach is an observer goes to the patients home and notes every movement they make – which is clearly labour intensive and can violate the integrity of the experiment). In 2005, a project involving the use of a 3-D accelerometer and 3-D gyroscope wireless device was run that sought to measure functional activity in a stroke patient when they have left hospital by analysing the sensor outputs and attempting to classify the data into a type of movement. This project will seek to extend on those results and improve the classification techniques to make the prototype device useful in a clinical setting. Research projects ------------------ Primarily for students interested in pursuing postgraduate degrees and can be discussed upon request, and tailored to the student(s). Typical areas of research projects I offer are applied control (in automotive and biomedical areas), classification, estimation (intelligent and optimal) and optimisation (typically applied to a particular problem).

This one sounds the most chim man. And very open ended so its more like a research thesis almost.

Wah piang why your course so research based one! So no fun!!! but then youre more of a research guy than i am so maybe you like. Does sound interesting though!

On another note, my senior design project is goin down the shit hole man. We're having to make parts all over again and shit keeps breaking man. But im in charge of getting the engine to run and it turned over a couple times today and its wicked scary fast! 30,000 rpm don pray pray! and it fits in the palm of your hand man. The risk management department at Purdue hasn't ok-ed us running the thing when we get done though and i doubt they will. So itll be shitty. But I'll try to get pictures of it when we're done. :)

Hi there dear beautiful people. Just got a list of some of the interesting projects being offered to us students here. just though i'd share it with you guys in case any of u wondered what it is that i am supposed to be studying. (Unlikely that i will get any of them cuz of my crap results)

but yeah, they sure do sound interesting. hope it is an interesting read

Weigh in Motion for trucks
---------------------------
Currently a common method of detecting truck weight is to use a force transducer(s) placed across the road. However oscillations of the vehicle load can lead to erroneous readings with accuracy as poor as +- 20%. This project will investigate introducing a known disturbance before the transducer and using a computer vision system to track the resulting movement of the truck body as it passes over several force transducers, in order to better estimate the true load of the truck. This project will involve the use of LabView and one of the extensions will be the incorporation of license plate identification technology to identify vehicles. (Note: prior experience with LabView is not essential).

Design of a moving fluoroscopy system
---------------------------------------
Fluoroscopy is a technique for obtaining live x-ray images in a living patient. This project will involve the costing and design of a system that will move along a fixed track in the biomechanics lab and keep up with a patient as they walk in a straight line. In principle, it is similar to the technology used to take TV images of swimmers from the bottom of the pool or 100m runners during their events. A controller will be used in order to close the loop and ensure the camera moves at the same rate as the patient. The fully built system will replace the need for up to six cameras in a biomechanics laboratory to track movement of limbs. It is anticipated that Labview may be used as the interface, although previous experience is not essential.

Drive cycle implementation through engine computer (with Ford Motor Company)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During a fuel economy or emissions test vehicles have to follow the drive trace within a certain limit. The tolerance band of the legal drive cycle is relatively small (± 2 kph) but even in this small tolerance band individual deviations of the test driver are inevitable. These deviations strongly influence the accuracy and repeatability of the measurements.
In this project, the vehicle's own engine control modules should control the actuation of electric throttle body and brake during an emission test. For this purpose a calibration tool can be used. These calibration tools are normally used during development tests anyway to record and manipulate data from the control module. The calibration tool needs to be programmed with a script file accordingly and an interface from the calibration tool to the chassis dyno needs to be implemented.
[This project is subject to confirmation]

Set up of a distributed computing environment using Dymola and Corba.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many optimisation techniques require intensive repeated iterations of plant models to develp correct control strategies. This can be extremely time consuming when a single processor is used and the plant models are complex (e.g. an internal combustion engine, or a biomechanical system). This project will attempt to design a framework whereby a plant model in Modelica can be run on multiple workstations that share information over TCP/IP via a CORBA program. This project requires good knowledge of C++, and is primarily for students who are looking for a software based project.

Classification of patient movement
----------------------------------
A hypothesis is that intensive physiotherapy given to stroke patients shortly after their stroke will result in improved limb function in the longer term. Presently however there is no automated way of measuring limb functionality in a stroke patient (the common approach is an observer goes to the patients home and notes every movement they make – which is clearly labour intensive and can violate the integrity of the experiment). In 2005, a project involving the use of a 3-D accelerometer and 3-D gyroscope wireless device was run that sought to measure functional activity in a stroke patient when they have left hospital by analysing the sensor outputs and attempting to classify the data into a type of movement. This project will seek to extend on those results and improve the classification techniques to make the prototype device useful in a clinical setting.

Research projects
------------------
Primarily for students interested in pursuing postgraduate degrees and can be discussed upon request, and tailored to the student(s). Typical areas of research projects I offer are applied control (in automotive and biomedical areas), classification, estimation (intelligent and optimal) and optimisation (typically applied to a particular problem).

i'm faded but you're different 

oh goody here i am again. blogging (meaning that i have lots of time to spare, envy me?)
anyways it is this time of the year again, where we rejoice and celebrate the exams! can't you feel how happy i am. yeah right. i am so irritated over the fact that xl finishes her paper 5 days eralier than me, plus she only has like 3 papers and i have 5! can you imagine, pure torture i tell you! she always finishes earlier than me, damn it. next sem i am going to make sure that i am done earlier so i can gloat.

i guess you guys are having exams too! (except those in the army)
good luck everyone.
i need my coffee fix. someone, anyone?!