Day 1- 31 May 2010

Click on the links below

Talk 1- ROPE Robot
Tea Break
Talk 2- Fluid Mechanics and the Weather System
Talk 3- Renewable Energy
Lunch
Talk on design
Tea Break
Check in at Raffles Hall /Dinner /Night program


Day 2- 1 Jun 2010

Competition time!

A snail

Followed by a long bus ride, which made us think that we went out of NUS, all the way to some remote place called Prince George Park Residences.

We thought our hostels were great, until we saw this.

There always seems to be that only 1 food out of the total 3 food offered to us was enticing. For the 1st teabreak, it was the chicken nugget; for the 2nd teabreak, it was the cheesecake.

The cheesecake had a smooth, creamy cheese layer. Many students tried to take a plate-full of 'em. By the time we wanted to go for a second round, the favourite cheesecake plate was already empty.

Our energy were depleted after the 2nd talk and we had to replenish it. There were more food this time and we had a variety of dishes to choose from. There were...
fried rice, chicken, fish, curry, nuggets, tofu and almond n'longan dessert.

All of these were great food that filled up our stomachs. We wanted to eat more, but we decided to resist the temptation and wait for the next teabreak.

This talk was a rather short one- 45 minutes, encompassing a very important point:

THE DESIGN PROCESS

1. Recognition of need (What do people want?)


2. Identification of constraints and functions (What does the product do?)


3. Requirements and specifications (What do we want the product to do?)


4. Generate solutions (What are the possible designs? What is the best designs amongst this?)


5. Concept design (How does my design work?)


6. Prototyping (Does my design really work?)


7. Detailed design (What are its details? - Engineering Drawings to complement)

We find this design process very interesting, as it goes through the entire journey from conceptualisation to manufacturing. The process eliminates unneccessary time that may be spent on trial and error.

Also, if we had known this method earlier, we might not have performed badly during our Year 1 Innovation Programme, where we had to do similar designing and prototyping. And if Thomas Edison had known this process and done step 2, 3, 4 instead of going straight to step 6 (prototyping), he might have invented the light bulb earlier.

We hope that this method would be useful to us tomorrow during the designing competition, which we hope to win first :D

Design desirables vs design thinking

In this talk, we talked about the most talked topic- Climate change.

It might be a little to cliche to talk about it, especially in a talk, as many people feel, but in actual fact, that is the harsh reality.

It is going to come, and we cannot escape for sure.

To put it short: Climate change is mainly the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, leading to raising atmospheric temperatures, which causes the earth surface to heat up further, resulting in the melting of the polar ice caps, bringing about a huge raise in sea levels.

So with the raise of sea levels, it basically implies that Singapore, being an island nation, is in danger of becoming Atlantis, a submerged city.

And the carbon dioxide emissions arise mainly from the burning of fossil fuels to provide electricity, which is continuously in high demand. And that, is an addiction we have to STOP. Furthermore, with recent oil spills near and far, it is shown that oil is not a clean energy source for both electricity and cars, and it pollutes the environment.

So to curb this addiction, we just have to turn to a simple alternative- renewable sources, such as:

1. 'Wind' energy




2. Geothermal energy






3. Biomasses




4. Solar energy
   
   The talk emphasised more on the photovoltaic cells (PV cells), which are currently under much research following the local government's focus on solar energy.
   

To put a long story short, there are mainly a few types of PV cells- the single-crystal ones; polycrystalline ones; amphorous silicon ones; and dye-sensitized ones. And with all these technology available to us, it is once again up to our generation to make use of these for a sustainable future for not only Singapore, but also the world.

We also learnt about energy storage, such as Lithium (Li)- ion batteries, and how we are able to create an efficient battery for electricity-run cars, and other future inventions. However, the production cost of these currently is way too high for the ordinary folk to afford, and that, should be the first problem we must tackle as innovators.

Peugeot car powered by Li-ion batteries

And so, we went on to talk about the weather.

Did you know?

• Weather is affected by the temperature at different altitudes


• The amount of water vapour in a region, as condensation releases heat/energy into the atomsphere, causing all the changes in the weather system


• The clouds are supported by an updraft, or just wind, which allows time for the cloud to form bigger and bigger droplets


• If the updraft is strong enough, the rain would just form larger pieces of ice
  

Now try starting a conversation with that, and enjoy the response.

Then we moved on to downdraft, where a thundercloud would focus the wind like this:

Maybe not that focused. But anyway, it still does that over a small region directly underneath the cloud, screwing up the flight of any little paper plane that you happen to be throwing. Then with an airplane, you would see something like this:

Then we learnt that the toilet bowls in the northern hemisphere goes counter-clockwise, and vice versa! No not really, but it does apply to the water left in your sink and your hurricanes. It is called coriolis effect, go read it up for yourself.

First talk of the day was about the humanoid robots, which greatly fascinated us, especially with competitions such as the Robocup and the FIRA, and also how they might help us economically in the service and entertainment industry

It was also interesting to note about the humanoid robot soccer players being able to fully compete with the 2050 FIFA World Cup champions, though much work still has to be done.

At least for the moment, most humanoid robots are able to perform simple locomotion and to break falls, together with push recovery and fall reactions.

Yet, if we are to meet our 2050 target, we will definitely require:

1. advanced locomotion skills to be programmed into the humanoid robots, such as agility and better recovery


2. more advanced intelligence to be programmed into the humanoid robot such that it is able to make rationale decisions and learn new skills


3. a more efficient energy source


4. safety- to ensure that with the advanced technology, they do not turn against us.

In short, the big question is:

How do we advance from this:

to this:

And also, we could always explore other sports such as basketball, baseball, hockey, etc. to be held in Robocup as well.

Let's talk about the food. The first teabreak came at the right time because it was at the time when our stomachs started to growl. Food was not that impressive, but the chicken nuggets were the best. The hot tea and coffee warmed us up before we entered the chilly auditorium.