As promised in the previous post, I will do a brief module review on as many Technical Electives as I can. I do not know the full details, what is covered and the mode of grading for some of them but I will give a review based on feedback from friends who took the module. I will do Module Reviews for TEs on Sem 1 at a later time.
CN4201R: Petroleum Refining
This module is a good exposure for those who want to go into the oil & gas industry because the lecturers are all external lecturers (From SRC I believe) and they will share really valuable information on the petroleum process itself. I believe that the examinations are closed book and you will need to conceptualize the things learnt. My friends who took this module say that it is very interesting and you will learn much more advanced forms of separation processes, the post-processing and probably the mass/energy balances performed for the necessary calculations. A rather popular module too. Strongly recommended if you like this industry and do speak with the lecturers to gain deeper insight into the industry itself
CN4205R: Pinch Analysis and Process Integration
This is by far one of the most difficult TEs as even my dean-lister friend faced much difficulty in mastering the concepts. However, the payoff for him was good because he gained very important process knowledge which is useful for not only your design project but also for industrial purposes. This module has 3 tests, 1 project and no finals. The first part of pinch analysis is taught by Prof Rangaiah while the second part is taught by Dr. Sachin. You will learn Pinch Analysis, Process Integration and data reconciliation as well. Not recommended for the weak unless you are willing to take the challenge.
CN4211R: Petrochemicals and Processing Technologies
This module's lecturer is now changed to A/Prof Hong Liang. Therefore, I do not have any information and will have to see in this semester what is being taught and whether it is consistent with the previous information I have.
Previously this module focuses on refining, steam cracking, steam reforming, polymerization, heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis.
CN4227R: Advanced Process Control
This module is taught my A/Prof Chiu Min-sen who was also your lecturer for CN3121. He will go much deeper into process control by teaching you the various advance techniques of modelling the controllers such as using the Nyquist diagram as well as some exposure to how modern industry programs such feedback controllers. Probably good for people who intend to take a process control related FYP, especially if you are under him.
CN4246R: Chemical and Bio-Catalysis
This module is taught my A/Prof Kawi and is based on both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts. You will learn the structure, cycle, material, kinetics, reaction mechanisms of the various catalysts (In particular zeolites). My friend didn't recommend this module because it is rather concept heavy and I guess because he was doing a biology-related FYP, he didn't find it useful. However, this module is probably useful depending if you are doing a catalyst-based FYP (Usually the professors who offer such FYPs are Zhao Dan, Yan Ning and Kawi) or if your Design Project require some catalysts for the reactor section. Thus, I recommend this module only if it is relevant to your FYP/Design Project. I think the mode of grading is probably a project, a midterm and finals, need to double check and will update when I get the information
CN4248: Sustainable Process Development
This module it taught by 3 professors, Prof Lee Jim Yang, Prof Neoh KG, Prof Farooq. They will mainly cover Green Chemistry, Sustainable Engineering Concepts, Product Life Cycle. Green Chemistry is mainly a very popular branch, especially in Japan and Europe, where they emphasize on the renewablility of the materials and waste minimization, youtube has some examples so you can go watch and read up more on this field, I really find it very interesting. Sustainability concepts are based on risk assessment, environmental impacts and assessments and finally Life Cycle is similar to what you learnt in CN3135 but in greater detail and probably with some calculations. The module has 3 tests (15% each), 45% project and 10% class participation. This module was said to be very heavy, close to project engineering. For those who are unaware, Prof Lee and Prof Farooq have very good "smoking" detectors and so don't try to play around because you will end up getting "self-fragged",
so you need to be cautious in your project.
CN5173: Downstream Processing of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Products
This module is supposedly a part 2 of CN5172 Biochemical Engineering. CN5172 deals with the upstream process while CN5173 deals with the downstream (as suggested by the title). It will be taught by the same lecturer A/Prof Loh Kai Chee. In terms of content, there is not much new concepts to be learnt because most of it is derivations from the question and you need a strong foundation of your previous fundamentals such as Heat/Mass Transfer, Reactor Kinetics, Separation and most importantly Mass & Energy Balances. Thus, if you take this module, your fundamentals of chemical engineering principles must be strong otherwise you may face some struggles while doing the tutorials and examination questions. A/Prof Loh is known for setting extremely difficult finals of which most people tend to be only able to do about 2 out of 4 questions, thus be prepared for a tough finals. Otherwise, he is a very passionate and engaging lecturer and most people enjoy taking his module even though the finals can be quite a killer. I would not recommend this unless you are sure you are capable of handling your fundamentals, do take a look at the exam papers for CN5173 in the NUSlibrary too for a feel of what type of exam questions he set. Trust me, this module is not "muggable", you must know your stuff or you won't even be able to start the question at all.
Sunday, 3 January 2016
Year 3 Semester 2 (AY 14/15)
The modules taken were in AY 14/15, in addition, I was doing my Industrial Attachment (EG3601) during this period and hence I was only able to take 2 modules. I will review the other night modules as well. In addition, I will be posting a module review for AY 15/16 Technical Electives (TEs) and some of my thoughts on it. I am NOT taking any of those TEs because I've cleared my requirements and I would not like to subject myself to more existential absurdities and existential crisis doing those modules (Yes, it is that exhaustive for me).
Module 1: CN4223R (Microelectronic Thin Films)
Brief Overview:
This module is one of the very few modules in Chemical Engineering that deals with semiconductors. Most of the professors in Chemical Engineering deal with mainly process engineering, biomolecular/biochemical engineering, thus if you are very interested in semiconductors I strongly recommend this module. Alternatively, I believe you are eligible to take cross-faculty TEs from EEE/Mech Eng for semiconductor-related, you need to email the relevant professors to confirm this as well as the attain the department's approval (for both taking the cross-TEs and mapping it as part of your undergrad requirements for clearing TEs)
1) Film Deposition in Vacuum & in Atmospheric Conditions
2) Physical & Chemical Vapour Deposition
3) Cleaning Technologies
4) Dielectrics (Low and High k)
5) Thin Film Growth
6) Metals and Metal Silicides
Mode of Grading:
2 x 20% CA (1 20-MCQ Test, 1 Structured Question Test, Both Open Book)
60% Finals
Lecturer:
Adjunct Professor Simon Chooi
Comments:
This module is taught by an external lecturer who has a lot of experience in the semiconductor industry. Prof Simon is a very engaging and excellent professor who is really passionate about teaching this module and does his best to help you conceptualize the content. If you are really interested in the industry as well, you can approach him to ask industrial related stuff in both semiconductors and petroleum (He is working in Shell, in 2015 when I took this module, in a safety-related field I believe).
Most of his questions including the tests and exams are closely related to the tutorials, so as long as you listen in class and do his tutorials, it should be very manageable. One downfall of this module is that it is now conducted on saturdays from 2pm-5pm which is very exhausting for people like me who took IA during that semester. It used to be on Friday night until Project Engineering took over. Anyway, this module is good for people who are interested in semiconductors as well as for clearing your TE requirements because there is no project and it has a rather light workload. In addition, the professor is a very great lecturer so you will at least be entertained on your saturday afternoon!
Module 2: CN5191 (Project Engineering)
Brief Overview:
This module is extremely good if you are interested in joining a design-based engineering firms and even as a process engineer, it is good that you learn these fundamentals now so that should you ever take up a position as project engineer, you are aware of how to manage and handle such stuff
1) Role of Project Engineer & the other various heads
2) CPM and PERT Analysis
3) Project Planning and Cost
4) Project Execution (Various stages in the project, the types of contract/bidding etc.)
5) Procurement (PNID, PFD, Ordering of Materials etc.)
6) Health, Safety, Environment
7) Commissioning & Setup
Mode of Grading:
2x 20% MCQ Tests (Closed book and negative marking)
60% Project
Lecturer:
Mr Satendra Singh (External Lecturer from Foster Wheeler)
Prof I.A Karimi
Comments:
This module is very intensive for the project because you must ensure that your team members are aware of the process and know how to do the various things like constructing the PFD/PNIDs as well as the mechanical designs of the various piping/valves/columns etc., material balancing, HAZOP, HAZID, Plot Plan, QRA, Control Philosophies, Costing etc. Yeap, its very tough if one or two of your members are either (i) Freeloaders and Blur or (ii) Likes to argue with you and gets no work done, additionally screws up his part. As you have guessed, that was what happened for our project group, so it was sort of a 4-man effort to construct the whole report plus the PFDs, PNIDs. Thankfully, the 4 of us managed to split the additional workload and support each other throughout the 13-weeks of hell. It was worth it in the end because you learn a lot of things from doing this that has EXTREMELY valuable experience for your CN4123 (Design Project). If you think this module is difficult, then CN4123 is going to be 10x harder (I kid not). Take this module only if you have 5 other competent members who are willing to put in effort. I strongly recommend taking it if you have a team because this is very good for Year 3s who are going to do design project. If you are doing design project, I suggest not taking this module unless you are absolutely sure you can balance your workload.
For the tests, it will mostly be from the notes. Thankfully I had some industrial relevant experience and knowledge so I didn't need to study for the tests. For the project, you are expected to submit an interim report, a presentation of your project and of course a written report. So to summarize, this module has extremely heavy workload but you will reap the benefits for your design project and if you intend to go to process/design-related industries.
Module 1: CN4223R (Microelectronic Thin Films)
Brief Overview:
This module is one of the very few modules in Chemical Engineering that deals with semiconductors. Most of the professors in Chemical Engineering deal with mainly process engineering, biomolecular/biochemical engineering, thus if you are very interested in semiconductors I strongly recommend this module. Alternatively, I believe you are eligible to take cross-faculty TEs from EEE/Mech Eng for semiconductor-related, you need to email the relevant professors to confirm this as well as the attain the department's approval (for both taking the cross-TEs and mapping it as part of your undergrad requirements for clearing TEs)
1) Film Deposition in Vacuum & in Atmospheric Conditions
2) Physical & Chemical Vapour Deposition
3) Cleaning Technologies
4) Dielectrics (Low and High k)
5) Thin Film Growth
6) Metals and Metal Silicides
Mode of Grading:
2 x 20% CA (1 20-MCQ Test, 1 Structured Question Test, Both Open Book)
60% Finals
Lecturer:
Adjunct Professor Simon Chooi
Comments:
This module is taught by an external lecturer who has a lot of experience in the semiconductor industry. Prof Simon is a very engaging and excellent professor who is really passionate about teaching this module and does his best to help you conceptualize the content. If you are really interested in the industry as well, you can approach him to ask industrial related stuff in both semiconductors and petroleum (He is working in Shell, in 2015 when I took this module, in a safety-related field I believe).
Most of his questions including the tests and exams are closely related to the tutorials, so as long as you listen in class and do his tutorials, it should be very manageable. One downfall of this module is that it is now conducted on saturdays from 2pm-5pm which is very exhausting for people like me who took IA during that semester. It used to be on Friday night until Project Engineering took over. Anyway, this module is good for people who are interested in semiconductors as well as for clearing your TE requirements because there is no project and it has a rather light workload. In addition, the professor is a very great lecturer so you will at least be entertained on your saturday afternoon!
Module 2: CN5191 (Project Engineering)
Brief Overview:
This module is extremely good if you are interested in joining a design-based engineering firms and even as a process engineer, it is good that you learn these fundamentals now so that should you ever take up a position as project engineer, you are aware of how to manage and handle such stuff
1) Role of Project Engineer & the other various heads
2) CPM and PERT Analysis
3) Project Planning and Cost
4) Project Execution (Various stages in the project, the types of contract/bidding etc.)
5) Procurement (PNID, PFD, Ordering of Materials etc.)
6) Health, Safety, Environment
7) Commissioning & Setup
Mode of Grading:
2x 20% MCQ Tests (Closed book and negative marking)
60% Project
Lecturer:
Mr Satendra Singh (External Lecturer from Foster Wheeler)
Prof I.A Karimi
Comments:
This module is very intensive for the project because you must ensure that your team members are aware of the process and know how to do the various things like constructing the PFD/PNIDs as well as the mechanical designs of the various piping/valves/columns etc., material balancing, HAZOP, HAZID, Plot Plan, QRA, Control Philosophies, Costing etc. Yeap, its very tough if one or two of your members are either (i) Freeloaders and Blur or (ii) Likes to argue with you and gets no work done, additionally screws up his part. As you have guessed, that was what happened for our project group, so it was sort of a 4-man effort to construct the whole report plus the PFDs, PNIDs. Thankfully, the 4 of us managed to split the additional workload and support each other throughout the 13-weeks of hell. It was worth it in the end because you learn a lot of things from doing this that has EXTREMELY valuable experience for your CN4123 (Design Project). If you think this module is difficult, then CN4123 is going to be 10x harder (I kid not). Take this module only if you have 5 other competent members who are willing to put in effort. I strongly recommend taking it if you have a team because this is very good for Year 3s who are going to do design project. If you are doing design project, I suggest not taking this module unless you are absolutely sure you can balance your workload.
For the tests, it will mostly be from the notes. Thankfully I had some industrial relevant experience and knowledge so I didn't need to study for the tests. For the project, you are expected to submit an interim report, a presentation of your project and of course a written report. So to summarize, this module has extremely heavy workload but you will reap the benefits for your design project and if you intend to go to process/design-related industries.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Year 2 Semester 2 (AY 13/14)
The following modules which I will review are taking in AY13/14, I will update them if possible.
Module 1: CN2116 (Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design)
Brief Overview:
1) Kinetics (Differential, Integral, Power & Non-Power Law)
2) Reactor Design (PFR, CSTR, Single/Multiple Reactors, Isothermal Reactors)
3) Residence Time Distribution
4) Parameter Models (Segregation Model, Tank-In-Series, Dispersion, Compartments)
5) Heterogeneous Catalyst (Adsorption, Langmuir-Hinshelwood, Catalyst Deactivation)
6) Catalytic Reactor Design (Mass Transfer, Diffusivity)
Mode of Grading:
10% Assignments (Weekly Assignments)
2 x 20% CA (Open Book)
50% Finals (Open Book, 15 MCQ and 3 structured questions)
Lecturer:
Prof Lee Jim Yang
A/Prof Xie Jian Ping
***Update as of AY15/16
Only A/Prof Xie Jian Ping will lecture the module.
***Note: This module is also offered in Semester 1
The lecturers are Dr. Satyen Gautem and Dr. Eldin (for AY14/15)
Mode of grading is 10% class participation, 2x20% Midterms, 50% Finals
Comments:
This module is extremely important for your Design Project (CN4123) because there will always be a section for the "Reactor". Not only do you have to code it out, you must determine the various design parameters and whatnot for it, thus this module is very crucial for your design project.
Prof Lee Jim Yang will lecture 1 - 2 while A/Prof Xie Jian Ping lectures points 3 - 6, all lectures were webcasted. Prof Lee is a good lecturer because he makes the concepts very clear and concise. It is very important that you conceptualize the PFR and CSTR design because these will appear in your other modules like CN3421 (Process Modeling and Numerical Simulations), CN5172 (Biochemical Engineering) and other Technical Electives and of course CN4123 (Design Project). A/Prof Xie Jian Ping goes more into catalytic reactors which can get a little confusing because there are so many things he has to go through and sometimes he tends to speed up. Thus, you may want to read before going for his lecture or spend time to internalize it. Most of it has some links to your CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer) concept, so it should not be too bad.
The weekly assignments can be rather tough, Prof Lee's ones tend to take quite a lot of time to solve while A/Prof Xie's ones are a little better. You can discuss with your friends and hand up the same answer (Like 1 answer sheet with all your names on it). The midterms were pretty straightfoward and doable. The finals were very tricky for Prof Lee's part because its about 15 MCQ and the answers tend to be close to each other, so stay sharp. A/Prof Xie's part is quite doable as long as you understand what is going on in the lecture notes and if you do your tutorials and assignments.
Module 2: CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer)
Brief Overview:
1) Fundamentals of Heat Transfer (Conduction, Convection, Radiation)
2) Steady and Unsteady State Conduction
3) Convective Heat Transfer and Correlations
4) Boiling and Condensation
5) Molecular Diffusion and Convective Mass Transfer
6) Radiation
Mode of Grading:15% CA (3 Homework Assignments and 1 Mini-Project)
25% Test (2 Tests, both are after recess week, one week 7 the other week 12 for my year)
60% Finals (Open Book, about 10 structured questions)
Lecturer:
Prof Wang Chi-Hwa
A/Prof Praveen Linga
Comments:
As I did mention in my module review for MA1506, you will see a lot of ODEs and boundary conditions for this module. It is quite manageable in my opinion as long as you attempt the tutorial questions and listen during the lecture (They are webcasted too). The homework assignments are based off the textbook's questions, so if you have the solutions, it should be easy. The mini-project is to use heat transfer concepts in real life applications, the easiest of course is cooking. For my year, Prof Wang set one of the tests as a noodle-cooking question and used it as an example of what the project should be like. So basically, you use the heat transfer models and apply it to anything in real life. Mine was a chocolate lava cake so it was quite interesting because you had to hit the right temperature and right timing to make it.
Prof Wang is a very entertaining lecturer who does his best to make the concepts understandable. For tutorials, Prof Wang will ask you to present the answers, so make sure you do them! Some of his jokes are really cold at times and he likes to introduce the numerical constants (Reynold's Number, Pradtl's Number etc.) as "friends". And trust me, you will make a lot of these "friends". You may want to make your own "cheatsheet" to summarize the millions of equations and whatnot for the finals to avoid wasting time flipping the textbook. A/Prof Praveen is a decent lecturer but he likes to say his questions are "very easy", don't fall that trap, it is still quite challenging. For this module, I strongly recommend you summarize the formulas and whatnot in a "cheatsheet" and learn how to use the graphs that are provided to solve the questions. Hence, doing your tutorials will help greatly for this module.
Module 3: CN2108 (Chemical Engineering Laboratory I)
Brief Overview:
6 Labs based on Biochemistry, Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics (2 labs each).
Mode of Grading:60% Lab report (10% per report)
25% Viva (On-the-spot questions)
10% Safety Test (You will take this before you do your lab)
5% Peer Review
Lecturer:
Dr. Karthiga will lecture on safety.
Comments:
A very deceiving module that is 2MC but is actually super annoying and tiring. The experiments are quite straightforward except the biochem ones because half the things you use are probably not taught. For your lab report, format it neatly and answer all the discussion questions in your experiment sheet provided in as much detail as you can. If you have not enough space to write your report, you can always consider throwing the graphs into the appendix. As long as you put in effort, it is very easy to score an A for this module. You will be grouped with 2-3 other students and it is based on the luck-of-the-draw. One of the guys in my lab was very helpful and cooperative while the other person was rather lazy and always handed her part super last minute for me to compile. Therefore, if you don't trust your teammates, just do the whole report yourself, if you spend 1 day sitting down and typing it out, you should be able to finish it.
For the lab viva, I strongly recommend you ask Mr. Qin Zhen any question before the viva itself. Mr. Qin Zhen usually wears a blue lab coat and will walk around the lab to help you if you need assistance, the TAs don't usually know whats going on so don't bother, only one or two bother to teach and help you usually. Make sure you know what the experiment is about, the theoretical information and most importantly the assumptions made. For the bio labs, you are expected to know how the machine functions, what are the substances used (like for MALDI-TOV, HPLC etc.) and their limitations. The person who conducted the viva is Dr. Satyen Gautum, he is very forgiving and usually guides you to the answer if you are unsure. Even if you falter, take it as a learning opportunity.
Module 4: CN3124 (Particle Technology)
Brief Overview:
1) Particle Size Analysis
2) Sedimentation
3) Packed Beds and Filtration
4) Fluidization
5) Pneumatic Transport
6) Gas Cyclones
Mode of Grading:2x 10% Quiz (Open Book)
20% Project
60% Finals (Open Book)
Lecturer:
Dr. Eldin Lim
Comments:
This module's content is not too much things to digest honestly. It is mainly a more advanced form of fluid mechanics. Dr. Eldin is a very good lecturer who guides your understanding and provides videos during the lecture to help you visualize the concepts. Sadly, for this module there is no webcast so you may miss out some of his points during lecture. Fortunately, Dr. Eldin is very approachable and helpful so feel free to consult him if you are unsure of anything. He replies emails rather promptly so it is usually easy to book a consultation slot with him. He was even nice enough to provide his contact number and skype (which I will not be posting here in due respect of his privacy). I really respect Dr. Eldin because he is a very rare professor who actually cares and sympathizes with the students.
The quizzes are quite manageable, as long as you listen in lecture, it should be doable. The project is rather hard because it involves you writing something like a mini-research paper. You can take any of the topics provided in a list and write a mini research paper on it, it can be a little rigorous but I strongly encourage you to do it, especially as preparation for your FYP CN4118R. It exposes you to what a research paper looks like, how to do actual research and deeper understanding of the module. Find the correct teammates because this can be quite time-consuming, as usual my group had muggers who were busy studying so me and the other 2 guys soloed this.
The finals set by Dr. Eldin are meant to kill you, so don't be too discouraged if you couldn't finish the paper. For AY13/14 he set 4 questions, 1 involving integration with fluidization (it was a real nightmare and consisted of 40 marks!!!), 1 dealing with filtration, 1 packed bed (I think) and the last was gas cyclone. They are extremely difficult to do so I strongly recommend for his papers, don't hog on one question, just do as many as you can.
Module 5: CN3135 (Process Safety, Health and Environment)
Brief Overview:
1) Toxicology and Probits
2) Dispersion Modelling (Plume, Plum etc.)
3) Flammability
4) HAZOP
5) Fault Trees, Reliability and Conditional Probabilities
6) Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability
Mode of Grading:
20% Take Home Quiz
20% HAZOP Project
60% Finals (Open Book)
***NOTE: This module is supposed to be taken in Semester 1 so the grading may differ. From what my friends told me, it is the same only that the Take Home Quiz was changed to Midterm.
Lecturer:
Prof Reginald Tan
***For Semester 1, I heard the lecturers are all guest lecturers, not from the faculty.
Comments:
This module is very calculation-intensive and there are a lot of models, constants, graphs, formulas etc. that you need to refer to during the exam and lecture, so it is strongly recommend you buy the textbook and bring it for the lecture, otherwise you will only see the formula in your lecture notes as "Equation XXX" or "Refer to Page XXX". Most of the concepts learnt are based on engineering design philosophies and may require you to have some basic understanding of process control, separation process, fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer. Therefore, taking it in Year 2 may pose some challenges but I still managed it quite well.
Prof Reginald can be a little soft during the lecture so consider sitting in the front rows, no webcast too. He explains the concepts very well and sometimes provides videos to show some safety-related incidents in real life plants (You will come across some of it in EG2401 too). His questions for the exams are quite straightforward as well. It is mainly 2 structured questions and 1 mini-essay question. As long as you have done his tutorials and don't be careless, you should be able to do well for this module.
Module 6: ES2331 (Communicating Engineering)
Brief Overview:
This module is aimed to help you attain the relevant presentation skills to help your other modules, in particular your FYP. Some techniques will be taught to you and the way the class may be structured will be varied because there are many tutors for this module so their way of teaching may change.
Mode of Grading:
20% Class Participation
35% CEP 1 (Panel Discussion)
35% CEP 2 (Speech)
2 x 5% Reflection (After CEP 1 and 2)
Lecturer:
Ms Amy Toh
Comments:
As stated earlier, this module is mainly aimed to improve your presentation skills. For your panel discussion and speech, you are expected to do some engineering-related topic unfortunately, so sadly no philosophy, sociology, politics, psychology, economics etc. (SIGHS, yes its a huge disappointment for me).
For your panel discussion, there will be 4 topics to discuss on. You have to also conduct an interview with an engineer prior to this panel discussion (Try to find your relative or something). You will want to read up beforehand some of the relevant news related to your topic and more importantly, use the transition words the tutor taught. You must try not to be too dominant in the panel discussion and don't talk rubbish/smoke/deviate from the topic because its very easily detectable.
For your speech, you must select any one engineering topic to speak on. Typical presentation skills needed to score well, use analogies, dress up (you may get penalized if you don't) and make the content fun and enjoyable!
Reflections are not too hard to do, just follow the samples given. For class participation, there will always be those "wayang" kings/queens who will keep trying to suck up to the teacher for marks. One of my classmates wayang to the extent that he gave the teacher chocolates. Just answer questions whenever you feel comfortable and answer them relevantly, don't smoke and go off topic too. Very chill module, so should not put too much stress on it.
Module 1: CN2116 (Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design)
Brief Overview:
1) Kinetics (Differential, Integral, Power & Non-Power Law)
2) Reactor Design (PFR, CSTR, Single/Multiple Reactors, Isothermal Reactors)
3) Residence Time Distribution
4) Parameter Models (Segregation Model, Tank-In-Series, Dispersion, Compartments)
5) Heterogeneous Catalyst (Adsorption, Langmuir-Hinshelwood, Catalyst Deactivation)
6) Catalytic Reactor Design (Mass Transfer, Diffusivity)
Mode of Grading:
10% Assignments (Weekly Assignments)
2 x 20% CA (Open Book)
50% Finals (Open Book, 15 MCQ and 3 structured questions)
Lecturer:
Prof Lee Jim Yang
A/Prof Xie Jian Ping
***Update as of AY15/16
Only A/Prof Xie Jian Ping will lecture the module.
***Note: This module is also offered in Semester 1
The lecturers are Dr. Satyen Gautem and Dr. Eldin (for AY14/15)
Mode of grading is 10% class participation, 2x20% Midterms, 50% Finals
Comments:
This module is extremely important for your Design Project (CN4123) because there will always be a section for the "Reactor". Not only do you have to code it out, you must determine the various design parameters and whatnot for it, thus this module is very crucial for your design project.
Prof Lee Jim Yang will lecture 1 - 2 while A/Prof Xie Jian Ping lectures points 3 - 6, all lectures were webcasted. Prof Lee is a good lecturer because he makes the concepts very clear and concise. It is very important that you conceptualize the PFR and CSTR design because these will appear in your other modules like CN3421 (Process Modeling and Numerical Simulations), CN5172 (Biochemical Engineering) and other Technical Electives and of course CN4123 (Design Project). A/Prof Xie Jian Ping goes more into catalytic reactors which can get a little confusing because there are so many things he has to go through and sometimes he tends to speed up. Thus, you may want to read before going for his lecture or spend time to internalize it. Most of it has some links to your CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer) concept, so it should not be too bad.
The weekly assignments can be rather tough, Prof Lee's ones tend to take quite a lot of time to solve while A/Prof Xie's ones are a little better. You can discuss with your friends and hand up the same answer (Like 1 answer sheet with all your names on it). The midterms were pretty straightfoward and doable. The finals were very tricky for Prof Lee's part because its about 15 MCQ and the answers tend to be close to each other, so stay sharp. A/Prof Xie's part is quite doable as long as you understand what is going on in the lecture notes and if you do your tutorials and assignments.
Module 2: CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer)
Brief Overview:
1) Fundamentals of Heat Transfer (Conduction, Convection, Radiation)
2) Steady and Unsteady State Conduction
3) Convective Heat Transfer and Correlations
4) Boiling and Condensation
5) Molecular Diffusion and Convective Mass Transfer
6) Radiation
Mode of Grading:15% CA (3 Homework Assignments and 1 Mini-Project)
25% Test (2 Tests, both are after recess week, one week 7 the other week 12 for my year)
60% Finals (Open Book, about 10 structured questions)
Lecturer:
Prof Wang Chi-Hwa
A/Prof Praveen Linga
Comments:
As I did mention in my module review for MA1506, you will see a lot of ODEs and boundary conditions for this module. It is quite manageable in my opinion as long as you attempt the tutorial questions and listen during the lecture (They are webcasted too). The homework assignments are based off the textbook's questions, so if you have the solutions, it should be easy. The mini-project is to use heat transfer concepts in real life applications, the easiest of course is cooking. For my year, Prof Wang set one of the tests as a noodle-cooking question and used it as an example of what the project should be like. So basically, you use the heat transfer models and apply it to anything in real life. Mine was a chocolate lava cake so it was quite interesting because you had to hit the right temperature and right timing to make it.
Prof Wang is a very entertaining lecturer who does his best to make the concepts understandable. For tutorials, Prof Wang will ask you to present the answers, so make sure you do them! Some of his jokes are really cold at times and he likes to introduce the numerical constants (Reynold's Number, Pradtl's Number etc.) as "friends". And trust me, you will make a lot of these "friends". You may want to make your own "cheatsheet" to summarize the millions of equations and whatnot for the finals to avoid wasting time flipping the textbook. A/Prof Praveen is a decent lecturer but he likes to say his questions are "very easy", don't fall that trap, it is still quite challenging. For this module, I strongly recommend you summarize the formulas and whatnot in a "cheatsheet" and learn how to use the graphs that are provided to solve the questions. Hence, doing your tutorials will help greatly for this module.
Module 3: CN2108 (Chemical Engineering Laboratory I)
Brief Overview:
6 Labs based on Biochemistry, Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics (2 labs each).
Mode of Grading:60% Lab report (10% per report)
25% Viva (On-the-spot questions)
10% Safety Test (You will take this before you do your lab)
5% Peer Review
Lecturer:
Dr. Karthiga will lecture on safety.
Comments:
A very deceiving module that is 2MC but is actually super annoying and tiring. The experiments are quite straightforward except the biochem ones because half the things you use are probably not taught. For your lab report, format it neatly and answer all the discussion questions in your experiment sheet provided in as much detail as you can. If you have not enough space to write your report, you can always consider throwing the graphs into the appendix. As long as you put in effort, it is very easy to score an A for this module. You will be grouped with 2-3 other students and it is based on the luck-of-the-draw. One of the guys in my lab was very helpful and cooperative while the other person was rather lazy and always handed her part super last minute for me to compile. Therefore, if you don't trust your teammates, just do the whole report yourself, if you spend 1 day sitting down and typing it out, you should be able to finish it.
For the lab viva, I strongly recommend you ask Mr. Qin Zhen any question before the viva itself. Mr. Qin Zhen usually wears a blue lab coat and will walk around the lab to help you if you need assistance, the TAs don't usually know whats going on so don't bother, only one or two bother to teach and help you usually. Make sure you know what the experiment is about, the theoretical information and most importantly the assumptions made. For the bio labs, you are expected to know how the machine functions, what are the substances used (like for MALDI-TOV, HPLC etc.) and their limitations. The person who conducted the viva is Dr. Satyen Gautum, he is very forgiving and usually guides you to the answer if you are unsure. Even if you falter, take it as a learning opportunity.
Module 4: CN3124 (Particle Technology)
Brief Overview:
1) Particle Size Analysis
2) Sedimentation
3) Packed Beds and Filtration
4) Fluidization
5) Pneumatic Transport
6) Gas Cyclones
Mode of Grading:2x 10% Quiz (Open Book)
20% Project
60% Finals (Open Book)
Lecturer:
Dr. Eldin Lim
Comments:
This module's content is not too much things to digest honestly. It is mainly a more advanced form of fluid mechanics. Dr. Eldin is a very good lecturer who guides your understanding and provides videos during the lecture to help you visualize the concepts. Sadly, for this module there is no webcast so you may miss out some of his points during lecture. Fortunately, Dr. Eldin is very approachable and helpful so feel free to consult him if you are unsure of anything. He replies emails rather promptly so it is usually easy to book a consultation slot with him. He was even nice enough to provide his contact number and skype (which I will not be posting here in due respect of his privacy). I really respect Dr. Eldin because he is a very rare professor who actually cares and sympathizes with the students.
The quizzes are quite manageable, as long as you listen in lecture, it should be doable. The project is rather hard because it involves you writing something like a mini-research paper. You can take any of the topics provided in a list and write a mini research paper on it, it can be a little rigorous but I strongly encourage you to do it, especially as preparation for your FYP CN4118R. It exposes you to what a research paper looks like, how to do actual research and deeper understanding of the module. Find the correct teammates because this can be quite time-consuming, as usual my group had muggers who were busy studying so me and the other 2 guys soloed this.
The finals set by Dr. Eldin are meant to kill you, so don't be too discouraged if you couldn't finish the paper. For AY13/14 he set 4 questions, 1 involving integration with fluidization (it was a real nightmare and consisted of 40 marks!!!), 1 dealing with filtration, 1 packed bed (I think) and the last was gas cyclone. They are extremely difficult to do so I strongly recommend for his papers, don't hog on one question, just do as many as you can.
Module 5: CN3135 (Process Safety, Health and Environment)
Brief Overview:
1) Toxicology and Probits
2) Dispersion Modelling (Plume, Plum etc.)
3) Flammability
4) HAZOP
5) Fault Trees, Reliability and Conditional Probabilities
6) Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability
Mode of Grading:
20% Take Home Quiz
20% HAZOP Project
60% Finals (Open Book)
***NOTE: This module is supposed to be taken in Semester 1 so the grading may differ. From what my friends told me, it is the same only that the Take Home Quiz was changed to Midterm.
Lecturer:
Prof Reginald Tan
***For Semester 1, I heard the lecturers are all guest lecturers, not from the faculty.
Comments:
This module is very calculation-intensive and there are a lot of models, constants, graphs, formulas etc. that you need to refer to during the exam and lecture, so it is strongly recommend you buy the textbook and bring it for the lecture, otherwise you will only see the formula in your lecture notes as "Equation XXX" or "Refer to Page XXX". Most of the concepts learnt are based on engineering design philosophies and may require you to have some basic understanding of process control, separation process, fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer. Therefore, taking it in Year 2 may pose some challenges but I still managed it quite well.
Prof Reginald can be a little soft during the lecture so consider sitting in the front rows, no webcast too. He explains the concepts very well and sometimes provides videos to show some safety-related incidents in real life plants (You will come across some of it in EG2401 too). His questions for the exams are quite straightforward as well. It is mainly 2 structured questions and 1 mini-essay question. As long as you have done his tutorials and don't be careless, you should be able to do well for this module.
Module 6: ES2331 (Communicating Engineering)
Brief Overview:
This module is aimed to help you attain the relevant presentation skills to help your other modules, in particular your FYP. Some techniques will be taught to you and the way the class may be structured will be varied because there are many tutors for this module so their way of teaching may change.
Mode of Grading:
20% Class Participation
35% CEP 1 (Panel Discussion)
35% CEP 2 (Speech)
2 x 5% Reflection (After CEP 1 and 2)
Lecturer:
Ms Amy Toh
Comments:
As stated earlier, this module is mainly aimed to improve your presentation skills. For your panel discussion and speech, you are expected to do some engineering-related topic unfortunately, so sadly no philosophy, sociology, politics, psychology, economics etc. (SIGHS, yes its a huge disappointment for me).
For your panel discussion, there will be 4 topics to discuss on. You have to also conduct an interview with an engineer prior to this panel discussion (Try to find your relative or something). You will want to read up beforehand some of the relevant news related to your topic and more importantly, use the transition words the tutor taught. You must try not to be too dominant in the panel discussion and don't talk rubbish/smoke/deviate from the topic because its very easily detectable.
For your speech, you must select any one engineering topic to speak on. Typical presentation skills needed to score well, use analogies, dress up (you may get penalized if you don't) and make the content fun and enjoyable!
Reflections are not too hard to do, just follow the samples given. For class participation, there will always be those "wayang" kings/queens who will keep trying to suck up to the teacher for marks. One of my classmates wayang to the extent that he gave the teacher chocolates. Just answer questions whenever you feel comfortable and answer them relevantly, don't smoke and go off topic too. Very chill module, so should not put too much stress on it.
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Year 1 Semester 2 (AY 12/13 with updates for AY15/16)
FYI These modules were done in AY 12/13, I will update as according to the latest information I receive.
Module 1: CM1502 (General and Physical Chemistry for Engineers)
Brief Overview:
1) Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure
2) Electron Configuration and Chemical Periodicity
3) Models of Chemistry Bonding
4) Shapes of Molecules
5) Theories of Covalent Bonding
6) Equilibrium
7) Acid-Base Equilibria
8) Ionic Equilibria
9) Kinetics
10) Thermochemistry
11) Thermodynamics
12) Electrochemistry
***Update as of AY15/16
1) Atomic and molecular structures – Quantum theory: dual nature of light, wave-particle duality of matter and energy, uncertainty principle. Atomic structures: exclusion principle, Bohr model, Hydrogen atomic spectrum; Periodicity: electronic configuration, quantum mechanical model and the periodic table, trends in atomic size, ionization energy and electron affinity. Molecular structures: molecular orbital theory, resonance and electron delocalization.
2) Bonding and interactions - Basic forces and interactions in molecules and extended structures (solids and surfaces). Bond polarity, electronegativity and dipole moment. Weak bonding and interactions associated with soft (biological) materials, membranes, interfaces and colloids. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions, non-equilibrium interactions.
3) Spectroscopy and applications - Energy quantization and spectroscopy. Principles and applications of ultraviolet visible (UV-VIS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS).
4) Equilibrium - Reaction quotient, equilibrium constant, Le Chatelier’s principle. Acid base equilibria: acid dissocation constant, acid strength, autoionization of water, proton transfer, Bronsted-Lowry definition, polyprotic acids, acid-base properties of salts. Ionic equilibria in aqueous solution – buffer solution, Henderson-Hasselbach equation, acid-base titration curves, indicators. Equilibria involving slightly soluble ionic compounds, solubility product, equilibria involving complex ions.
5) Kinetics - Rates, reaction orders, rate constant, rate laws, half-life, effect of temperature, Arrhenius equation, collision theory, transition-state theory, reaction mechanisms, catalysis.
6) Common molecules and their transformations - Major organic functional groups and their reactivities, important reactions in chemical and pharmaceutical industry, fundamentals of chemical and photochemical transformation reactions.
Mode of Grading:
20% Midterm
20% Lab
60% Finals
***Update as of AY15/16
30% CA (Midterm + Quizzes)
20% Lab
50% Finals
As of what I know, the lab is still 3 sessions and may be the same experiments. For my year, we did the lab work with a partner. So you will be sharing the same results to write the report (but don't copy each other because there is plagiarism checks)
Lecturers:
Ms Saradha Thyagarajan
***Update as of AY15/16
A/Prof Chin Wee Shong
Comments:
As you can see, the first half is mainly A level H2 Chemistry again (The physical and inorganic Chemistry part), the additional things you learn like Spectroscopy is VERY useful for your FYP if you are doing an experimental FYP because you will use a lot of these instruments to do analysis so do not throw them away! For the lab, it should be quite easy to score B+ to A range if you do everything properly and format it nicely. For my year, they released the score of all 3 labs to everyone so we could see what grades we got, not sure if the new lecturer will practice this too. Finals was 5 structured questions. Closed book but they will provide a list of formulas to use, thus you need not memorize formulas. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you understand what is going on in the module so that you can tackle the questions easily without the need to memorize things. The structured questions can be quite long and tedious but you should be able to finish it within the time limit. If I am not mistaken, there was 4 structured questions to answer. Not too heavy a workload in my opinion, especially if you are strong in chemistry
Module 2: MA1506 (Mathematics 2)
Brief Overview:
1) Differential Equations (1st/2nd Order, Non-Homogeneous/Homogeneous, and many more)
2) Oscillations (Applications of ODEs)
3) Mathematical Modelling (Population stuff)
4) Laplace
5) Matrices
6) Linear Transformation (Advanced Vectors stuff)
7) Systems of First Order ODE (Eigenvalue, Eigenvectors, Nodal Sink/Source, Spiral Sink/Source)
8) PDEs
Mode of Grading:
20% Midterms (10 MCQs)
80% Finals (About 8 questions and 1 per topic, Closed Book 2 page cheatsheet)
Lecturer:
Prof Brett Mcinnes
A/Prof Fred Leung
A/Prof Chew Tuan Seng
Similar to MA1505, theres 4 lecture slots and you can choose to go for any one of it. And likewise for Polytechnic students, you will take this module in Year 2 Semester 1, therefore, the lecturer will only be A/Prof Chew Tuan Seng.
Comments:
First off, the lecturers. I personally enjoyed Prof Brett Mcinnes lectures because his style of teaching is very unique and he dives deep into the mathematical concepts to help you visualize what in the world all these crazy formulas and stuff are for. Of course, there are some people who find it too deep and boring and thus dislikes his lectures but I personally loved it. If you are keen to widen your knowledge, go for his lectures, trust me you won't be disappointed. For A/Prof Chew, he is very structured in his teaching, thus is good for people who tend to lag behind and not understand what is going on in the formulas and stuff. If you need a step-by-step explanation, go for his lecture, he is very detailed and will take the effort to go through slowly. I didn't attend A/Prof Fred Leung's lectures for MA1505 and MA1506 so I'm not sure for his case.
The module is not too intensive in my opinion because I understood a lot from Prof Brett's lectures so it helped me conceptualize things much faster and clearer. The bell curve is very steep as usual because everyone will mug like crazy for the finals. Trust me, 1 question can make a vast difference in your grades. Therefore, if you are looking to score well for this module, you must internalize the concepts so that answering the finals is a breeze for you. Once again, having a strong mathematical background makes things much easier and for chemical engineers, this module is quite important as well for CN3121 (Process Dynamics and Control) and CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer). You will encounter a lot of ODEs and PDEs in CN2125 while for CN3121 Laplace's Demon will haunt you again (hur hur...). So I strongly recommend you keep the notes and your cheatsheet.
Module 3: MLE1101 (Introduction to Material Science and Engineering)
Brief Overview:
1) Atomic Structure and Bonding
2) Crystal Structure and Geometry
3) Solidification and Imperfections
4) Diffusion
5) Phase Diagrams
6) Mechanic Properties
7) Corrosion (Was removed for my year)
8) Metallic Alloys
9) Polymeric Materials
10) Ceramic Materials
Mode of Grading:
30% Midterm
70% Finals
All are Closed Book.
Lecturer:
A/Prof Xue Jue Min
Comments:
A rather visual module as well, especially the later part when you have to deal with all the crystal lattice structure of whatever materials are taught. It can be quite frustrating but with time you will be able to understand the concepts. The problem is that this is yet another closed book examination thus you will have to memorize some of the contents if you can't grasp what is going on. I didn't attend the lecture much because it was 8am and it was at U-town, a real pain to get there too in the morning. The lecture is rather dry as well. So, if you are confident you can self-study this module or just webcast the lecture. The most important concept to grasp from here is the Phase Diagrams because you will be seeing this nefarious diagrams again in CN2121 (Thermodynamics) and CN3132 (Separation Processes), it is very easy to confuse yourself so be careful. Finals were quite manageable in my opinion, I recall that its a few easy calculation questions and there will be phase diagrams and the martensite chart thingy, can't remember the rest of the paper but I managed to finish it within the time limit.
Module 4: HY2229/SSA2204 (Nation Building in Singapore
Brief Overview:
1) Pre-Merger, Merger and Post-merger
2) Policies for various sectors:
a) Education
b) Economy
c) Culture, Language, Ethnicity
d) Housing
e) Civil Society
Mode of Grading:
20% Tutorial Participation (Inclusive of posting comments on forum, think it consists of 10%)
20% Midterms
60% Finals
Midterms and Finals are Closed Book
***Update as of AY15/16
I am not entirely sure of the new basis but from what my friends feedback, there is no more midterms and instead there are now 2 term papers. Weightage might vary a bit but I'm pretty positive the finals will still be around 50-60% weightage.
Lecturer:
Mr. Edgar Liao
***Update as of AY15/16
A/Prof Albert Lau will lecture this module instead of Mr Edgar Liao
Comments:
For my year AY12/13, I found this module very slack because I intended to S/U it in the first place (I didn't in the end). Basically, if you recall all your SS in Secondary 3 and 4, this module is easily a walk in the park for you. The only pain you will face is memorizing the name of the people, the name of their policies and the dates. But don't worry, you can "craft" your essay around what you know, thus what I did was I memorized only the critical stuff that can be used cross-chapters, the minor details I left most of it out.
Mr. Edgar Liao is a very engaging and funny lecturer and I enjoyed his lectures much more than when I learnt it in secondary school. He was very helpful in tutorials as well in facilitating your learning. He will also go through with every student their midterms when you collect it. As for the new lecturer I'm not sure if he will do it for his term papers. If you are someone who absolutely hates memorizing and you are allergic to writing essays, you might want to reconsider taking another SS module. I didn't do well for the midterms (Got a B-) so I kinda gambled with the finals (Don't do it unless you are a fortune teller) and won (A very good jAckpot).
Module 5: GEK1508/PC1325 (Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness)
Brief Overview:
1) Relativity
2) Simultaneity
3) Astronomy (A bit of star reading and other star stuff like their life cycles and supernova etc.)
4) Black Holes (I enjoyed this one!)
5) Double-Slit Experiment (Wave-Particle Duality)
6) Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
7) Particle Physics
8) Quantum Field Theory
Mode of Grading:
5% Star Gazing (Attend 2 out of 4)
5% Tutorial Attendence
2x20% Tests
30% Term Paper
Note: I might have jumbled up the weightage a bit because I do not have the grading scheme (It was on IVLE but is long gone). The star gazing is quite simple, go there, see a bit mark attendance. Tutorials is quite slack too, the tutor will guide you to the in-class assignment to the point that its very easy to score full marks. The tests is open book and for term paper you can choose to either do a fictional story or do a critical assessment on a physics-based book.
Lecturer:
A/Prof Phil Chan
Comments:
The module is rather easy-going because first of all, there is almost no calculations. The formulas given are for understanding, you need not memorize it (exam is open book too anyway). This is a more conceptual module than a calculative one. Therefore, if you are a FASS student who hates calculations, this module can be a good science GEM because its mainly concept-based, the more you read, the better. Moreover, the professor likes to test very strange things in the exams for example, he will give you a picture of one of the nobel prize winners in physics and ask you for his name. Or he can give a you quote from one of the famous scientists and ask you who said this quote. (All can be found in his lecture notes, it's only whether you bother to dig it out or not) The other questions are straightforward and he often hints in the lecture what he will test, so expect a steep bell curve for the 2 CAs.
The term paper is a rather fun one if you choose to write a fictional story (I did that). You will either group in 2s or 3s to write your own fictional story of not more than 2000 words with a caveat that you must include whatever quantum stuff you learnt in the lecture. You can venture out to other concepts out of the notes as a bonus. As for the critical assessment of a physics-based book, I did not have any friends who did that (because it is obviously going to be much harder than writing your own story!) but I suppose if you know which book has loopholes and you have the other relevant sources to back you up, it should be doable (Somewhat like a mini-thesis paper I suppose?).
The lecturer is great, loved all his lectures. Very engaging and lots of fun in learning the quantum physics. You can consult him for your term paper too if you are unsure or stuck. I'm not too sure if this module is offered still (Because I couldn't find it in AY15/16). But it is a very easy-going science GEM and you will have lotsa fun learning I hope!
Module 1: CM1502 (General and Physical Chemistry for Engineers)
Brief Overview:
1) Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure
2) Electron Configuration and Chemical Periodicity
3) Models of Chemistry Bonding
4) Shapes of Molecules
5) Theories of Covalent Bonding
6) Equilibrium
7) Acid-Base Equilibria
8) Ionic Equilibria
9) Kinetics
10) Thermochemistry
11) Thermodynamics
12) Electrochemistry
***Update as of AY15/16
1) Atomic and molecular structures – Quantum theory: dual nature of light, wave-particle duality of matter and energy, uncertainty principle. Atomic structures: exclusion principle, Bohr model, Hydrogen atomic spectrum; Periodicity: electronic configuration, quantum mechanical model and the periodic table, trends in atomic size, ionization energy and electron affinity. Molecular structures: molecular orbital theory, resonance and electron delocalization.
2) Bonding and interactions - Basic forces and interactions in molecules and extended structures (solids and surfaces). Bond polarity, electronegativity and dipole moment. Weak bonding and interactions associated with soft (biological) materials, membranes, interfaces and colloids. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions, non-equilibrium interactions.
3) Spectroscopy and applications - Energy quantization and spectroscopy. Principles and applications of ultraviolet visible (UV-VIS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS).
4) Equilibrium - Reaction quotient, equilibrium constant, Le Chatelier’s principle. Acid base equilibria: acid dissocation constant, acid strength, autoionization of water, proton transfer, Bronsted-Lowry definition, polyprotic acids, acid-base properties of salts. Ionic equilibria in aqueous solution – buffer solution, Henderson-Hasselbach equation, acid-base titration curves, indicators. Equilibria involving slightly soluble ionic compounds, solubility product, equilibria involving complex ions.
5) Kinetics - Rates, reaction orders, rate constant, rate laws, half-life, effect of temperature, Arrhenius equation, collision theory, transition-state theory, reaction mechanisms, catalysis.
6) Common molecules and their transformations - Major organic functional groups and their reactivities, important reactions in chemical and pharmaceutical industry, fundamentals of chemical and photochemical transformation reactions.
Mode of Grading:
20% Midterm
20% Lab
60% Finals
***Update as of AY15/16
30% CA (Midterm + Quizzes)
20% Lab
50% Finals
As of what I know, the lab is still 3 sessions and may be the same experiments. For my year, we did the lab work with a partner. So you will be sharing the same results to write the report (but don't copy each other because there is plagiarism checks)
Lecturers:
Ms Saradha Thyagarajan
***Update as of AY15/16
A/Prof Chin Wee Shong
Comments:
As you can see, the first half is mainly A level H2 Chemistry again (The physical and inorganic Chemistry part), the additional things you learn like Spectroscopy is VERY useful for your FYP if you are doing an experimental FYP because you will use a lot of these instruments to do analysis so do not throw them away! For the lab, it should be quite easy to score B+ to A range if you do everything properly and format it nicely. For my year, they released the score of all 3 labs to everyone so we could see what grades we got, not sure if the new lecturer will practice this too. Finals was 5 structured questions. Closed book but they will provide a list of formulas to use, thus you need not memorize formulas. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you understand what is going on in the module so that you can tackle the questions easily without the need to memorize things. The structured questions can be quite long and tedious but you should be able to finish it within the time limit. If I am not mistaken, there was 4 structured questions to answer. Not too heavy a workload in my opinion, especially if you are strong in chemistry
Module 2: MA1506 (Mathematics 2)
Brief Overview:
1) Differential Equations (1st/2nd Order, Non-Homogeneous/Homogeneous, and many more)
2) Oscillations (Applications of ODEs)
3) Mathematical Modelling (Population stuff)
4) Laplace
5) Matrices
6) Linear Transformation (Advanced Vectors stuff)
7) Systems of First Order ODE (Eigenvalue, Eigenvectors, Nodal Sink/Source, Spiral Sink/Source)
8) PDEs
Mode of Grading:
20% Midterms (10 MCQs)
80% Finals (About 8 questions and 1 per topic, Closed Book 2 page cheatsheet)
Lecturer:
Prof Brett Mcinnes
A/Prof Fred Leung
A/Prof Chew Tuan Seng
Similar to MA1505, theres 4 lecture slots and you can choose to go for any one of it. And likewise for Polytechnic students, you will take this module in Year 2 Semester 1, therefore, the lecturer will only be A/Prof Chew Tuan Seng.
Comments:
First off, the lecturers. I personally enjoyed Prof Brett Mcinnes lectures because his style of teaching is very unique and he dives deep into the mathematical concepts to help you visualize what in the world all these crazy formulas and stuff are for. Of course, there are some people who find it too deep and boring and thus dislikes his lectures but I personally loved it. If you are keen to widen your knowledge, go for his lectures, trust me you won't be disappointed. For A/Prof Chew, he is very structured in his teaching, thus is good for people who tend to lag behind and not understand what is going on in the formulas and stuff. If you need a step-by-step explanation, go for his lecture, he is very detailed and will take the effort to go through slowly. I didn't attend A/Prof Fred Leung's lectures for MA1505 and MA1506 so I'm not sure for his case.
The module is not too intensive in my opinion because I understood a lot from Prof Brett's lectures so it helped me conceptualize things much faster and clearer. The bell curve is very steep as usual because everyone will mug like crazy for the finals. Trust me, 1 question can make a vast difference in your grades. Therefore, if you are looking to score well for this module, you must internalize the concepts so that answering the finals is a breeze for you. Once again, having a strong mathematical background makes things much easier and for chemical engineers, this module is quite important as well for CN3121 (Process Dynamics and Control) and CN2125 (Heat and Mass Transfer). You will encounter a lot of ODEs and PDEs in CN2125 while for CN3121 Laplace's Demon will haunt you again (hur hur...). So I strongly recommend you keep the notes and your cheatsheet.
Module 3: MLE1101 (Introduction to Material Science and Engineering)
Brief Overview:
1) Atomic Structure and Bonding
2) Crystal Structure and Geometry
3) Solidification and Imperfections
4) Diffusion
5) Phase Diagrams
6) Mechanic Properties
7) Corrosion (Was removed for my year)
8) Metallic Alloys
9) Polymeric Materials
10) Ceramic Materials
Mode of Grading:
30% Midterm
70% Finals
All are Closed Book.
Lecturer:
A/Prof Xue Jue Min
Comments:
A rather visual module as well, especially the later part when you have to deal with all the crystal lattice structure of whatever materials are taught. It can be quite frustrating but with time you will be able to understand the concepts. The problem is that this is yet another closed book examination thus you will have to memorize some of the contents if you can't grasp what is going on. I didn't attend the lecture much because it was 8am and it was at U-town, a real pain to get there too in the morning. The lecture is rather dry as well. So, if you are confident you can self-study this module or just webcast the lecture. The most important concept to grasp from here is the Phase Diagrams because you will be seeing this nefarious diagrams again in CN2121 (Thermodynamics) and CN3132 (Separation Processes), it is very easy to confuse yourself so be careful. Finals were quite manageable in my opinion, I recall that its a few easy calculation questions and there will be phase diagrams and the martensite chart thingy, can't remember the rest of the paper but I managed to finish it within the time limit.
Module 4: HY2229/SSA2204 (Nation Building in Singapore
Brief Overview:
1) Pre-Merger, Merger and Post-merger
2) Policies for various sectors:
a) Education
b) Economy
c) Culture, Language, Ethnicity
d) Housing
e) Civil Society
Mode of Grading:
20% Tutorial Participation (Inclusive of posting comments on forum, think it consists of 10%)
20% Midterms
60% Finals
Midterms and Finals are Closed Book
***Update as of AY15/16
I am not entirely sure of the new basis but from what my friends feedback, there is no more midterms and instead there are now 2 term papers. Weightage might vary a bit but I'm pretty positive the finals will still be around 50-60% weightage.
Lecturer:
Mr. Edgar Liao
***Update as of AY15/16
A/Prof Albert Lau will lecture this module instead of Mr Edgar Liao
Comments:
For my year AY12/13, I found this module very slack because I intended to S/U it in the first place (I didn't in the end). Basically, if you recall all your SS in Secondary 3 and 4, this module is easily a walk in the park for you. The only pain you will face is memorizing the name of the people, the name of their policies and the dates. But don't worry, you can "craft" your essay around what you know, thus what I did was I memorized only the critical stuff that can be used cross-chapters, the minor details I left most of it out.
Mr. Edgar Liao is a very engaging and funny lecturer and I enjoyed his lectures much more than when I learnt it in secondary school. He was very helpful in tutorials as well in facilitating your learning. He will also go through with every student their midterms when you collect it. As for the new lecturer I'm not sure if he will do it for his term papers. If you are someone who absolutely hates memorizing and you are allergic to writing essays, you might want to reconsider taking another SS module. I didn't do well for the midterms (Got a B-) so I kinda gambled with the finals (Don't do it unless you are a fortune teller) and won (A very good jAckpot).
Module 5: GEK1508/PC1325 (Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness)
Brief Overview:
1) Relativity
2) Simultaneity
3) Astronomy (A bit of star reading and other star stuff like their life cycles and supernova etc.)
4) Black Holes (I enjoyed this one!)
5) Double-Slit Experiment (Wave-Particle Duality)
6) Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
7) Particle Physics
8) Quantum Field Theory
Mode of Grading:
5% Star Gazing (Attend 2 out of 4)
5% Tutorial Attendence
10% Forum Posts
10% Assignments (In tutorial)2x20% Tests
30% Term Paper
Note: I might have jumbled up the weightage a bit because I do not have the grading scheme (It was on IVLE but is long gone). The star gazing is quite simple, go there, see a bit mark attendance. Tutorials is quite slack too, the tutor will guide you to the in-class assignment to the point that its very easy to score full marks. The tests is open book and for term paper you can choose to either do a fictional story or do a critical assessment on a physics-based book.
Lecturer:
A/Prof Phil Chan
Comments:
The module is rather easy-going because first of all, there is almost no calculations. The formulas given are for understanding, you need not memorize it (exam is open book too anyway). This is a more conceptual module than a calculative one. Therefore, if you are a FASS student who hates calculations, this module can be a good science GEM because its mainly concept-based, the more you read, the better. Moreover, the professor likes to test very strange things in the exams for example, he will give you a picture of one of the nobel prize winners in physics and ask you for his name. Or he can give a you quote from one of the famous scientists and ask you who said this quote. (All can be found in his lecture notes, it's only whether you bother to dig it out or not) The other questions are straightforward and he often hints in the lecture what he will test, so expect a steep bell curve for the 2 CAs.
The term paper is a rather fun one if you choose to write a fictional story (I did that). You will either group in 2s or 3s to write your own fictional story of not more than 2000 words with a caveat that you must include whatever quantum stuff you learnt in the lecture. You can venture out to other concepts out of the notes as a bonus. As for the critical assessment of a physics-based book, I did not have any friends who did that (because it is obviously going to be much harder than writing your own story!) but I suppose if you know which book has loopholes and you have the other relevant sources to back you up, it should be doable (Somewhat like a mini-thesis paper I suppose?).
The lecturer is great, loved all his lectures. Very engaging and lots of fun in learning the quantum physics. You can consult him for your term paper too if you are unsure or stuck. I'm not too sure if this module is offered still (Because I couldn't find it in AY15/16). But it is a very easy-going science GEM and you will have lotsa fun learning I hope!
To-Do List
As most of you are probably aware, Semester 2 is just around the corner, I will do my best to update as many Semester 2 Modules as I can before the term starts. I apologize if I'm unable to because right now I'm rushing my FYP Final Report (It is a real headache trust me...) as well as reading up for my design project (You will understand when the time comes!)
I'll drop some tips for FYP and Design while we're at it.
CN4118R B.Eng Dissertation
There are sort of 4 types of FYP you can do namely, theoretical, computational, experimental, materials-related (Semicon stuff).
So choose what you are confident in, if you are unsure about what the FYP is about, do a quick background check on what the topic is on. You have about a few weeks to actually view the topics available before balloting for them.
If you have strong computational background, then I recommend you go for the computational FYPs because they are mainly based on optimization and simulations.
Experimental is dependent on which prof, what topic and your mentor. It is really a luck of the draw thing because you can get a good prof, a good topic, but if your mentor decides to be a complete male-donkey (Go figure), it can still be a hell-hole for you. Typically, if you can get results for experimental FYPs it'd puts you in a better position. Otherwise, try to demonstrate some form of critical thinking for example explaining why you think the experiment didn't work out, what can be improved, postulate something to reason why it was different etc. The list is very exhaustive and I will try to cover as much as I can when I go more detailed into CN4118R
CN4123 Design Project
Now, 95% of the cohort will be very ignorant of what this is and probably delete the design project email that the department mails you in Year 2 Semester 1/2 (I can't remember which semester). Fortunately, for a kiasu person like me, I actually kept the design statement and in Year 3/4 you will see a lot of people panicking for Design because they will be like "Huh?! What design statement?! How come I never receive? Where you get from?!" etc. So my advice right here, right now, if you are reading this, SAVE THE DESIGN STATEMENT THAT YOU GET IN YEAR 2.
Form your groups early, pick teammates you trust. Make sure at least one of them is good at computation and coding because you will need to code out stuff like your reactor. The best time to see who is "worthy" to be in your group is Year 2 and Year 3 when all the group project kicks in. Trust me, there will be friends who act very "bro" and stuff, but when it comes to the project, just because its a mere 10% - 20%, they will act like they are very busy and go "I need to study for my midterm", "I am not free, I got something on tonight", "I need to do tutorial", "I am taking 6 modules, so I'm very busy, cannot do" and the plethora of excuses go on and on and on to the point you just have to solo the project. Yeap, this happened to me for Year 2 and Year 3, and wow did it help for my design project group formation, self filtered themselves! The best was the "I am taking 6 modules" excuse because that semester I took 7 modules and that dude dared to give that excuse in front of me to not do the project (WOW!).
So TL;DR - TRUSTWORTHY teammates, good coders, keep design statement when you get it in year 2. Game is half won.
I recommend that in the semester you are doing IA, while you are a little more "free" assuming you don't take too many night modules, go read up the design statement. See the recommended papers in the statement, read them and search other papers. Then start reading up on design textbooks like Gavin Towler or Turton. Learn your Aspen Hysys module well and if possible adventure into Aspen Plus in the computer labs.
I'll drop some tips for FYP and Design while we're at it.
CN4118R B.Eng Dissertation
There are sort of 4 types of FYP you can do namely, theoretical, computational, experimental, materials-related (Semicon stuff).
So choose what you are confident in, if you are unsure about what the FYP is about, do a quick background check on what the topic is on. You have about a few weeks to actually view the topics available before balloting for them.
If you have strong computational background, then I recommend you go for the computational FYPs because they are mainly based on optimization and simulations.
Experimental is dependent on which prof, what topic and your mentor. It is really a luck of the draw thing because you can get a good prof, a good topic, but if your mentor decides to be a complete male-donkey (Go figure), it can still be a hell-hole for you. Typically, if you can get results for experimental FYPs it'd puts you in a better position. Otherwise, try to demonstrate some form of critical thinking for example explaining why you think the experiment didn't work out, what can be improved, postulate something to reason why it was different etc. The list is very exhaustive and I will try to cover as much as I can when I go more detailed into CN4118R
CN4123 Design Project
Now, 95% of the cohort will be very ignorant of what this is and probably delete the design project email that the department mails you in Year 2 Semester 1/2 (I can't remember which semester). Fortunately, for a kiasu person like me, I actually kept the design statement and in Year 3/4 you will see a lot of people panicking for Design because they will be like "Huh?! What design statement?! How come I never receive? Where you get from?!" etc. So my advice right here, right now, if you are reading this, SAVE THE DESIGN STATEMENT THAT YOU GET IN YEAR 2.
Form your groups early, pick teammates you trust. Make sure at least one of them is good at computation and coding because you will need to code out stuff like your reactor. The best time to see who is "worthy" to be in your group is Year 2 and Year 3 when all the group project kicks in. Trust me, there will be friends who act very "bro" and stuff, but when it comes to the project, just because its a mere 10% - 20%, they will act like they are very busy and go "I need to study for my midterm", "I am not free, I got something on tonight", "I need to do tutorial", "I am taking 6 modules, so I'm very busy, cannot do" and the plethora of excuses go on and on and on to the point you just have to solo the project. Yeap, this happened to me for Year 2 and Year 3, and wow did it help for my design project group formation, self filtered themselves! The best was the "I am taking 6 modules" excuse because that semester I took 7 modules and that dude dared to give that excuse in front of me to not do the project (WOW!).
So TL;DR - TRUSTWORTHY teammates, good coders, keep design statement when you get it in year 2. Game is half won.
I recommend that in the semester you are doing IA, while you are a little more "free" assuming you don't take too many night modules, go read up the design statement. See the recommended papers in the statement, read them and search other papers. Then start reading up on design textbooks like Gavin Towler or Turton. Learn your Aspen Hysys module well and if possible adventure into Aspen Plus in the computer labs.
Year 1 Semester 1 (AY 12/13, with some updates for AY 15/16)
Just FYI, I matriculated in AY12/13 into NUS Chemical Engineering which is a 4 year direct honours course. This post is probably like super super super old but I hope that it would at least help. I will also include a particular update on some modules which I received on the modules.
***The mode of grading is now changed to (Updated as of AY15/16):
All are Open Book Examinations.
Lecturers:
The CA comprises of the following: 6 Lab Sessions, Random In-Class quizzes (SO DON'T PON LECTURE! You can discuss with your friends I believe), Online Assignments (MCQ, quite easy and doable)
Module 1: CN1111 (Chemical Engineering Principles)
Brief Overview of Module:
This module is the most basic and extremely important fundamental concept that you will learn and absolutely must never abandon throughout your 4 years in your existential journey of Chemical Engineering. If you do, then be prepared to go through multiple existential crisis! The concepts you will learn are mainly:
(i) Dimensional Analysis
Balancing the type of units on the equation to ensure that your formula in the correct terms. For example, you will be expected to convert from SI units to American System Units and vice versa and a whole plethora of other strange units. Don't be careless, it is very easy to make mistakes so do the unit conversion STEPWISE, do not attempt to convert it in a go unless you are very confident
(ii) Vapour Pressure
Initially one of the most puzzling things I've ever come across, if you are unsure, I strongly recommend you to go to Khanacademy or Coursera to help you solidify this concept. This concept will be used throughout your subsequent years in Chemical Engineering like Thermodynamics, Separation Process etc. So its better that you ground this now rather than half way through your 2nd or 3rd year. Raoult's Law and Henry's Law will haunt you from this day forth too, go watch the necessary videos to solidify their concept too. Always remember how these equations come about (Derivation of the equation) and their assumptions, internalize them!
(iii) Mass and Energy Balance
Sounds easy at first sight, but when you get the question, it can be frustrating to deal with all the unknowns in the multiple blocks that you need to balance out. This is somewhat like a Sudoku puzzle, so if you find your starting point, you have won half the battle. The professor will teach you a method called the "Degree of Freedom" to determine which is your starting block, but if you are someone who is lazy to do that like me, you can use intuition to identify the starting block easily (NOT RECOMMENDED unless you know what you are doing). You will also have to deal with this thing called the "Steam Table" and it will be your best friend for this whole section. Master it, know where to find the information from the various types of tables provided and practice, practice, practice! The professor loves to make you scramble around to look for the information from the steam table in both her tutorial and exam questions. Fortunately, if you know the methods of reading the steam table, it will be a breeze. Expect to linear interpolate a lot as well.
Mode of Grading:
30% Midterm (Dimensional Analysis, Vapour Pressure, Mass Balance, no steam table and energy balance)
70% Finals (Everything)
70% Finals (Everything)
***The mode of grading is now changed to (Updated as of AY15/16):
20% CA1 (Dimensional Analysis, Vapour Pressure, Raoult/Henry Law)
20% CA2 (Mass and Energy Balance)
60% Finals (Everything)
All are Open Book Examinations.
Lecturers:
The lecturers are different for Semester 1 and Semester 2.
Semester 1:
A/Prof Lu Xian Mao (Covers Concept i and ii)
Dr. Photinon (Covers Mass and Energy Balance)
Semseter 2:
Semseter 2:
A/Prof Liu Bin (Covers Concept i and ii)
Prof Zeng Hua Chun (Mass and Energy Balance)
Comments:
Since I only took the module in Semester 1, I can give a more accurate description on the lecturers. Semester 2's feedback is based on my peers and other seniors. Both semesters have NO webcasts!
Semester 1's Lecturers
A/Prof Lu is a rather dry lecturer, often he tends to mumble and with his accent it can be a little tough to grasp what he is saying at times. He also can be rather cynical when you consult him questions, but if you can get past that, he will still help answer your questions.
Dr. Photinon is a very lively and funny lecturer, she is very helpful and encouraging whenever you ask her questions and will do to the best of her ability to help you understand the concept or bridge any gaps you have. However, be warned that her questions can be rather tricky and difficult so you will need to be an expert "sudoku master" in mass and energy balance to solve her questions. Other than that, I really enjoyed this part of the lecture, she is also nice to give out chocolates and sweets during the lecture! :)
Semester 2's Lecturers (Based on Feedback):
A/Prof Liu Bin is somewhat like A/Prof Lu's counterpart for Semester 2. Very dry and reads off the slides usually. However, she is more friendly and approachable when you consult her so you might want to consider consulting her if you are very lost in the lecture.
Likewise, Prof Zeng is Dr.Photinon's counterpart, making lectures more lively and enjoyable. He is clear and concise in his explanation, approach him if you are unsure of anything.
Module 2: CM1501 (Organic Chemistry for Engineers)
Brief Overview of Module:
Ok, because the module has like the whole list of what is being taught I'm just going to spam it here. (The syllabus changed a bit compared to AY12/13, it was previous pure organic chemistry from A level and bit of additional stuff, but from what i see they added macromolecules and spectroscopy)
(1) Structure and Bonding
(2) Acids and Bases
(3) Introduction to Organic Molecules & Functional Groups
(4) Alkanes
(5) Stereochemistry
(6) Understanding Organic Reactions
(7) Alkyl Halides and Nucleophilic Substitution
(8) Alkyl Halides and Elimination Substitution
(9) Alcohols, Ethers and Epoxides
(10) Principles of Spectroscopy: IR, UV & NMR (NEW)
(11) Alkenes
(12) Alkynes
(13) Conjugation, Resonance and Dienes
(14) Benzene and Aromatic Compounds
(15) Carboxylic Acids and the Acidity of the O-H Bond
(16) Carboxylic acids and Their Derivatives
(17) Aldehydes and Ketones
(18) Amines
(19) Polymers (NEW)
Brief Overview of Module:
Ok, because the module has like the whole list of what is being taught I'm just going to spam it here. (The syllabus changed a bit compared to AY12/13, it was previous pure organic chemistry from A level and bit of additional stuff, but from what i see they added macromolecules and spectroscopy)
(1) Structure and Bonding
(2) Acids and Bases
(3) Introduction to Organic Molecules & Functional Groups
(4) Alkanes
(5) Stereochemistry
(6) Understanding Organic Reactions
(7) Alkyl Halides and Nucleophilic Substitution
(8) Alkyl Halides and Elimination Substitution
(9) Alcohols, Ethers and Epoxides
(10) Principles of Spectroscopy: IR, UV & NMR (NEW)
(11) Alkenes
(12) Alkynes
(13) Conjugation, Resonance and Dienes
(14) Benzene and Aromatic Compounds
(15) Carboxylic Acids and the Acidity of the O-H Bond
(16) Carboxylic acids and Their Derivatives
(17) Aldehydes and Ketones
(18) Amines
(19) Polymers (NEW)
Alright, basically TL:DR, A level H2 chemistry + some extra stuff. If you are good in A level H2 chemistry, this should be a breeze for you.
Mode of Grading:
30% Midterm
20% Lab
50% Finals
NOTE: The midterm and finals is closed book so you may want to memorize the mechanisms and stuff. I sort of used some form of logic to derive some mechanisms because memorizing all of it would definitely be too crazy for one person to handle (Especially when you are taking another 4 modules!). I basically grounded my knowledge on the 4 types of reactions that occurs - Electrophilic Addition/Substitution and Nucleophilic Addition/Substitution. Everything else more or less revolves around these 4 things. Otherwise, what you can do is you see how the electron "moves" in the reactions. I correlated how they "move" to human nature, so for example the electron will always take the easiest route (Basically laziness) or going through a short unstable intermediate to achieve a more stable state at the end of the reaction (Like suffer now enjoy later sorta thing). It's a bit hard to explain here honestly but try to establish links with human nature and see the magic of it!
For lab, the lab manual should be the same 2 experiments, first experiment only needs 1 session, second experiment needs 2 sessions. Then you submit the report and solve some short answers. Very doable, should be able to obtain senior's reports for the lab too.
***Update as of AY 15/16
The mode of assessment is:
20% Midterm
30% Lab
50% Finals
Small shift in weightage but roughly still as important. Closed Book
Lecturers:
Dr. Zeng Huaqiang
Ms Ong Yue Ying (Tutor)
***Update as of AY15/16
Ms Ong Yue Ying will lecture Points 1-9
A/Prof Lai will lecture Points 10 - 19
Tutors are supposedly post-grad students
Comments:
After seeing the changes I guess there's not much point in comments. However, for Ms Ong I'd say she is a decent lecturer and tutor, I consulted her once and found it quite useful. She's quite approachable so do clarify concepts with her. Other than that, try to be logical when studying for organic chemistry, if you can see the flow of the electrons, it will be quite doable. Otherwise always fall back to the 4 basic concepts for mechanisms. It was quite tough because if I remember correct, midterm was 60 questions 1hour 30mins and finals was 80 questions 2 hours. All MCQ, closed book so be prepared, it is very mentally exhausting.
Module 3: IT1005 (Introduction to Programming with MATLAB)
Brief Overview of Module:
This is a computational module, so I strongly recommend you do not "mug" this and instead try to practice and be creative! This module can be an early indicator whether you are suitable for a computational FYP or not (to some extent, not completely!). If you have some programming background, this should be much easier compared to HTML, Java, C+ etc. because most of the functions are pre-programmed, you just need to know how to call them and use them accordingly. The trap here is that the 2 examiners like to set very very very tough questions, one being more mathematical, the other more related to chemical processes. Therefore, it is recommended you have a strong mathematical background to grasp the stuff here as well.
Mainly what you will be learning from MATLAB is some basic functions, matrices, graphing techniques, ode45 solver, euler method, newton-raphson and some other differential equation stuff. So as you can see, its very mathematical based, so know your maths it can help with the flow of coding! And another point to note is BE VERY OPEN. There are many ways to code the same function/program/whatever, so be flexible!
Mode of Grading:
15% Assignments
20% CA1
25% CA2
40% Finals
***Update as of AY15/16
5% Class Participation (In tutorials)
15% Assignments
20% CA1
20% CA2
40% Finals
Not much change to be honest. All Open Book.
Lecturers:
A/Prof Steven Halim
A/Prof Saif Khan
***Update as of AY15/16
A/Prof Henry Chia has taken over A/Prof Steven Halim.
Comments:
Since A/Prof Steven Halim is gone, I do not know how "mathematical" the new lecturer is but he may continue A/Prof Steven Halim's legacy for all we know! For A/Prof Saif Khan, at first sight his questions may seem to be quite structured for ode45 and the other ode solvers, but in the finals, it will be significantly more harder and challenging. Hence, like I said, having the computational background and a strong mathematical background will help greatly for this module. A/Prof Saif Khan will tend to set questions related to an industrial setting, thus I encourage you to be open, be creative and think out of the box.
Module 4: MA1505 (Mathematics I)
Brief Overview of Module:
This module will deal with mainly:
(I) Differentiation and Integration
(II) Taylor Series, Maclaurin Series, Fourier Series
(III) Vectors
(IV) Line and Surface Integrals, Green and Stoke's Theory
(V) Double and Triple Integration
Mode of Grading:
20% Midterm (10 MCQ)
80% Finals (Structured Questions, about 7-8 questions I believe, 1 per topic, Closed Book 2 page cheatsheet)
If I am not mistaken, all Past Year Papers and their solutions will be given by the lecturer. Otherwise, PYP are available on NUSlibrary, the answers you can consult your tutor to check for you.
Lecturers:
A/Prof Graeme Wilkin
A/Prof Fred Leung
Dr. Yap Weng Yin
There are 4 lecture slots, so you get to choose one. Go for Dr. Yap's lecture because I feel that he gives the clearest explanation and the jokes he cracks... well you'll find it out... I won't say much about it (lol).
***NOTE for polytechnic students
***NOTE for polytechnic students
If I'm not wrong, your schedule will ask you all to do this module in Semester 2, which will only be lectured by Dr. Yap. Same topics and same mode of assessment.
Comments:
The first bit is mainly A level H2 Maths, so it should be rather doable. The second half is what kills most people and sadly, you will see quite a lot of these again in the later years of your engineering course. It's a nightmare trust me, you need good visualization for the second part as well as understand the mathematical rigor behind the formula. Otherwise, you will not be able to do the questions in the final exam.
Module 5: LSM1301 (General Biology)
Brief Overview of Module:
***NOTE: If you took A level H2 Biology, you CANNOT take this module because it is a preclusion! So those who took H2 Bio and want to take this as a UEM, I'm sorry the university doesn't allow it! :/
Topics covered:
1) Science of Biology
2) Chemistry of Life
3) Cell Structure and Function
4) Energy and Life
5) DNA and Heredity
6) Gene Expression
7) Biotechnology
8) Evolution
9) Biodiversity
10) Plant Form and Function
11) Animal Form and Function
12) Ecology
Mode of Grading:
NOTE: The mode of grading is different for Semester 1 and 2
40% CA
60% Finals
***Update as of AY15/16
For Semester 1:
60% CA
40% Finals
The CA comprises of the following: 6 Lab Sessions, Random In-Class quizzes (SO DON'T PON LECTURE! You can discuss with your friends I believe), Online Assignments (MCQ, quite easy and doable)
Finals is 60 MCQ, open book. I heard its now open-laptop so it becomes even more interesting...
For Semester 2:
40% CA (Lab, Midterms)
60% Finals (60 MCQ)
I didn't take this in Semester 2 so I don't really know much about the midterm.
Lecturers:
The lecturers are different for Semester 1 and Semester 2.
Semester 1:
Dr. Seow Teck Keong
Dr. Mary Rose Posa
Semester 2:
A/Prof Loh Chiang Shiong
Dr. Wu Jinlu
Comments:
Semester 1:
Dr. Seow is a very engaging and interesting professor. He makes the learning simple and concise, uses a lot of good analogies to teach, thus allowing the students to understand the content better, and even brings some samples for viewing in the lecture for the later part of his lectures. He teaches points 1 - 7. However, be warned that the questions he sets for the finals are very tricky. He likes to set answers that are "close to correct but not exactly correct" so you need to be sharp to pick out the actual answer. He tends to test rather out-of-the-box questions, so try to ground your fundamentals well.
Dr. Mary Rose Posa takes the remaining lectures. She is a decent lecturer but some of the content she teach can be very dry so bear with it. Her questions are more straightforward and doable. Both lecturers are very friendly and approachable, so do not hesitate to consult them.
For the lab, there are 6 sessions and for my AY12/13 they are as follows:
Lab 1: Microscopy
Lab 2: Living Cells
Lab 3: Respiration
Lab 4: DNA, RNA, Proteins
Lab 5: Plants and People
Lab 6: Visit to the Raffles Museum in Science (Quiz will be uploaded and you must do something like a "treasure hunt" to find out the answers, print the question sheet and bring it there to do) This "lab" session is own-time-own-target with a 3-week window if I remember correct, go with your friends, it makes the answer hunting way easier.
For all lab modules, you are expected to print the question paper and submit the answer sheet in a word doc format. You can try to squeeze out the answers for the lab questions from the TA. Usually they will hint you the answer and won't tell you directly but it should be easy enough to be done. Lab work is usually in a group, I think like 3 people? I went alone so I usually end up with 2 other random students but most are workable with so hope you get good partners! If I remember correct, Lab 4 is like a "lego" session where you build a DNA molecule with some lego-like toy so its pretty fun!
All in all, it was a very enjoyable module, not too heavy on workload and was fun for me. I do not know much about semester 2 but from what I hear from my seniors/peers/juniors, they say Semester 2 is sort of "worse off", this you may want to verify with other people who took the module in Semester 2. Check other module reviews/blogs for Semester 2's review before planning! But I highly recommend this module as a UEM because it is honestly very managable and most importantly enjoyable.
Semester 1:
Dr. Seow Teck Keong
Dr. Mary Rose Posa
Semester 2:
A/Prof Loh Chiang Shiong
Dr. Wu Jinlu
Comments:
Semester 1:
Dr. Seow is a very engaging and interesting professor. He makes the learning simple and concise, uses a lot of good analogies to teach, thus allowing the students to understand the content better, and even brings some samples for viewing in the lecture for the later part of his lectures. He teaches points 1 - 7. However, be warned that the questions he sets for the finals are very tricky. He likes to set answers that are "close to correct but not exactly correct" so you need to be sharp to pick out the actual answer. He tends to test rather out-of-the-box questions, so try to ground your fundamentals well.
Dr. Mary Rose Posa takes the remaining lectures. She is a decent lecturer but some of the content she teach can be very dry so bear with it. Her questions are more straightforward and doable. Both lecturers are very friendly and approachable, so do not hesitate to consult them.
For the lab, there are 6 sessions and for my AY12/13 they are as follows:
Lab 1: Microscopy
Lab 2: Living Cells
Lab 3: Respiration
Lab 4: DNA, RNA, Proteins
Lab 5: Plants and People
Lab 6: Visit to the Raffles Museum in Science (Quiz will be uploaded and you must do something like a "treasure hunt" to find out the answers, print the question sheet and bring it there to do) This "lab" session is own-time-own-target with a 3-week window if I remember correct, go with your friends, it makes the answer hunting way easier.
For all lab modules, you are expected to print the question paper and submit the answer sheet in a word doc format. You can try to squeeze out the answers for the lab questions from the TA. Usually they will hint you the answer and won't tell you directly but it should be easy enough to be done. Lab work is usually in a group, I think like 3 people? I went alone so I usually end up with 2 other random students but most are workable with so hope you get good partners! If I remember correct, Lab 4 is like a "lego" session where you build a DNA molecule with some lego-like toy so its pretty fun!
All in all, it was a very enjoyable module, not too heavy on workload and was fun for me. I do not know much about semester 2 but from what I hear from my seniors/peers/juniors, they say Semester 2 is sort of "worse off", this you may want to verify with other people who took the module in Semester 2. Check other module reviews/blogs for Semester 2's review before planning! But I highly recommend this module as a UEM because it is honestly very managable and most importantly enjoyable.
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
I Post, therefore I am
"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." a famous quote by Socrates while on his quest for knowledge. Likewise, the philosophical plebeian is just your average joe on an existential journey to find out what it means to exist in this absurd world!
What would you expect from this blog?
2) My own existential rants
1) Module Reviews
The main reason I made this blog was because a certain student-led community decided to be a bunch of lazy bumps despite the amount of module reviews I submit each semester and not publish what I send! :@ Thus, I felt that this is depriving the junior batches of the course and decided to myself that I shan't be as lazy and post the module reviews as well for their viewing (mainly Chemical Engineering Modules because it's my major, I did crash some FASS modules because I love it and will post about them, probably only the content and lecturer since I don't needa do the term papers or assignments)! Do take note that whichever modules I post is based on that semester itself that I took it and is subject to change depending on who is the lecturer and whether they decided to revamp the syllabus/mode of grading. Of course, I will pass down some tips that I used for those modules and hopefully you will be able to use them to your advantage against the almighty odds of the bell curve!
2) My own existential rants
We all have come across junctions in our life where we face gruesome trials and tribulations that lead to anxiety and some form of existential crisis. And being a philosophical plebeian, I dislike sharing my thoughts to some of my friends because I often get this reply: "You think too much". Well, on one hand, they are not entirely wrong so I won't totally fault them. But, they often think too shallow and like to live in their delusional world. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you need to be pessimistic and skeptical like me but maintain some form of balance in your thoughts, don't always look at one side of the coin, think deeper!
3) Random anime posts
Yes, I am close to a fanatic and I love it when the anime has some deep, and hopefully dark, messages to convey to the people who watch it. I have posted a few posts on another platform and probably will import them over here to share with the world on what I think, feel free to debate, I'm not a philosopher/sociologist/psychologist by training so it'd be great to discuss.
If not, enjoy the blog!
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