Electrical & Computer Engineering
Students’ Newsletter
Semester 1 . 2013
Volume 4 . Issue 1
Published by: IEEE Student Branch, School of Engineering ,Curtin University,
Sarawak,Malaysia.
Contents
IEEE Feature
3
Preview of 2013 IEEE Exhibition on
Technology of New Era
IEEE Alumni
4
My Life in Curtin
IEEE Events
6
7
8
9
Formation of EMBS Student Club
Welcoming Party 2013, Semester 1
Luak Bay , Explanade Outing
Annual Programming Competition 2013
Industrial Relations
10
11
12
13
Renewable Energy Project in Bario,Sarawak
DreamCatcher Technical Talk
Shell Resume & Mock Interview
Awan Inspirasi
14
16
18
Curtin Students Attend IEEE Leadership Camp
Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC)
Thoughts on IEEEXtreme 24-hour Programming
Competition
The Multi-directional Wheel Robot
Media Release
21
IEEE Spectrum
23
26
E & T Feature : Jack’s Blog
No Textbooks, Just Ipads
Semester 1 • 2013
Volume 4 • Issue 1
ECE Students’ Newsletter
IEEE Feature :
Preview of 2013 IEEE Exhibition on Technology
of New Era
This exhibition, previously known as ‘Electronic Exhibition,’ is the spearhead event of
the IEEE Student Branch. This year it is jointly organized by our student branch and
IEEE-EMBS Malaysia Chapter. It will take place on: 22-23 August 2013, from 10am4pm at the Recreational Hall, Curtin Sarawak.
What will be happening?
•Over 30 engineering projects to be showcased by students from Curtin, MMU (Multi
media University), UiTM (Univerisiti Teknologi Mara) and UTeM (Univerisiti Teknikal
Melaka)
•
Special talks on getting hired and global opportunities in the IEEE
•
Walk-in interview session by XFab, a leading semi-conductor company
•
Project competitions for exhibitors
•
DoTA Competiton showcase
Why should you come?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Door gifts for early visitors on the first day
Giveaways: F-Secure Antivirus Packs, and surprise gifts
Limited Edition IEEE Exhibition T-Shirts for sale
Meet and network with industry and technology experts from XFab, MDeC, Dream
catcher and IEEE Malaysia network
Meet and network with students from MMU, UiTM and UTeM
Be inspired! to start your own project
This exhibition is open to all students and also the general public.
So, spread the word and get your friends coming!
3 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
IEEE Alumni :
My Life in Curtin
By: Chua Shin Cheng
I
am here to tell a little
story about my life and
experience in Curtin Sarawak Malaysia. I join Curtin
in February 2008 and graduated on November 2011
in Electronic and Communication Engineering. My
university life journey all
started from the very first
day I step into Curtin back
at February 2008 during the
orientation week. I had a
lot of fun during the orientation week. During the orientation week, we get a chance
to tour around the campus;I
was pretty impressed by the
beautiful
scenery
around
and I have always wanted
to have an open and liberating feel to the university life.
Talking about my study experience in Curtin Sarawak, it
was quite a challenging task. I
started directly in Engineering
First Year (EFY); to be honest
I was not used to it and thus
I found it difficult to catch up,
it is a very tedious job and
so the learning process was
tremendous. Later, I began
to see what I was lacking of
and started to overcome them
slowly. I would like to say that
the most important stage
during my studies was during
my first year. Throughout this
year, I learnt many things such
as developing my communication skills, report writing skill
and also fundamental knowledge of engineering studies.
Thanks to all these knowl
Team Preparation during Freescale 2011
edge learnt during this year,
it really helped me throughout my later years of studies.
Perhaps the most enjoying
moment of my university life
is in my second year. I began to get used to system
around and thus able to manage them wisely. I enjoyed
most of the unit offered in
my second year and I found
them really interesting. The
lab sessions are definitely my
favorites. During the lab, we
get to involve in building electronics circuits and program
embedded system such as
calculator, lift or even traffic
light. I remembered at times,
I would request to work alone
on the lab assignment so that
I could enjoy the fun alone.
Of my favorite’s class then is
Electrical Systems 204 which
was taught by A/P Nader (currently a professor in USM). I
have always been excited to
attend his lecture and really
pay attention of his teaching.
He had always made the class
interesting and easy to understand. And his favorites quote
such as “You Study?”, “Your
problem is that you didn’t
study” and “You must study,
you must learn, you must
know how to press the calculator” has always been laughter
in the class and at times we do
imitate him. Besides that, Mr.
Amaluddin (currently working in SHELL) has been a very
helpful lecture. He had helped
all of us throughout our studies. He had alwaysencourages us and showed us how we
can do better to overcome our
areas of weakness. During his
lecture, he would always try
his best to make sure that we
can understand the topic. Regardless of how many times we
question him, he would explain
everything clearly even if we
repeatedly ask him the same
question over and over again.
Apart from academic studies,
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 4
IEEE Alumni :
My Life in Curtin
By: Chua Shin Cheng
I do get involved in various electronics tin and definitely going to miss this place
and robotics projects and competition. and everyone that I have encounter here.
Electronics projects have always been
fun and it is my favorite activities to involve in. Remember back during my high
school, my friends and I enjoying building
those little electronics circuits. We really felt proud when we are able to showcase our successful projects to our friends
and family. I really appreciate that I get
a chances to get involved in electronics
project again in Curtin. During my fourth
year of degree, I get a chance to be involved in various robotics projects and
competitions. Over the time, we have
built several small scale robots for stuA complex robot during ABU Robocon 2010
dent recruitment program which showcase our robots to attach new students to
join Curtin. Besides that, we do take up
project to showcase our electronics and
robotics project in Curtin Open Day and
during Electronics Exhibition. I also get
participate in two international level robotics competition which are the Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon) 2010
(large scale robotics completion in which
the robots are require to build a pyramid
model) and Freescale Cup 2011 (automated intelligence car racing). I really
enjoyed the time we get to team up as
a team and work under high stress comBuilding robot for ABU Robocon 2010
pleting these projects. At times we have
to sacrifice our semester holidays or even
sleep overnight in the lab to rush those
projects. I learnt many important experience, knowledge and moral value that
were never thought in class. And I also
learn that academics marks are important however it does not significant everything. One has to be balance in every area.
I am very thankful to have chosen Curtin Sarawak, and I never thought that I
would have such a balanced university
life in Curtin. I would like to thanks all
lectures and friends that I met during
my four year of studies. Currently, I am
Curtin team in Freescale cup 2011
pursuing my postgraduate study in Cur-
5 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
IEEE Events :
Formation of EMBS Student Club
By: Hanani Shukri
Photographs: Chong Yu Zheng
Group picture
M
iri – 22 February 2013 – The IEEE Curtin
Sarawak Student Branch was granted a
visit by a representative of the Malaysian
IEEE, Dr. Lee Yoot Khuan, earlier last month.
An associate professor in UITM Shah Alam, Dr
Lee gave a presentation regarding the IEEE
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
(EMBS). It gave IEEE Curtin Sarawak members
an insight into the history of EMBS, the various
programs associated with the society as well
as its national and international achievements.
tre. Led by Dr. Alpha Agape Gopalai, a lecturer from the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering of Curtin Sarawak,
the group paid a visit to the centre as part
of their community outreach initiatives.
A few special children from PIBAKIS demonstrated their computer skills with video presentations about the centre, and the group
was then given a tour of the area while the
children engaged in their daily activities.
Lau Siew Hui, a representative from PIBAKIS,
The possible formation of an EMBS Chapter thanked the group for their visit and with the
was discussed, and it was decided that even formation of the new EMBS chapter, IEEE
though Curtin Sarawak does not currently offer Curtin Sarawak is looking forward to hosting
any courses in Medicine or Biology, the univer- more initiatives in support of local charities.
sity will still be capable of supporting the chapter. Following the formation of the IEEE EMBS
Curtin Sarawak, students and lecturers are
encouraged to pursue their interests in these
fields in the form of research papers or projects.
Within the same week, IEEE Curtin collaborated with representatives from MIEEE to
organize a lunch at the Persatuan Ibu Bapa
Kanak-Kanak
Istimewa
(PIBAKIS)
cen-
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 6
IEEE Events :
Welcoming Party 2013,Semester 1
M
iri – 23 March 2013 - The IEEE Curtin Sarawak welcoming party marked
the official introduction of the current
2013 committee to new and existing members. The event, hosted by Sun Veer of B.Tech
Computer System and Networking, brought
the IEEE student body and its advisors together to welcome the new year ahead.
By: Hanani Shukri
Photographs: Nadeen Kamel
Also present was Terence Tan from the
Department of ECE who spoke about the
advantages of being part of IEEE. He emphasized on the benefits it brings to a
student’s future working environment,
the support system provided to the students in terms of assistance and feedbacks
on their projects, as well as the successAn update of recent events was presented es of previous IEEE Curtin Sarawak memwhereby during the IEEE Malaysia Section bers. Furthermore, he encourages anyone
Leadership Camp 2013, current IEEE Curtin with an interest in the field to be a part of
Sarawak President, Esther Ling, has been ap- IEEE, even if they are non-ECE students.
pointed as the Student Representative Elect
of IEEE Malaysia Section for the year 2013. The event closed with a game organized by the
committee members whereby the members
Prof. Ashutosh Kumar Singh, the Head were required to build an electronic quiz board.
of Department of Electrical and ComputThe branch is currently one of the most
er Engineering (ECE), opened the ceremony with a welcoming speech address- active student bodies in Curtin Sarawak,
ing the members present. He touched on leading annual events like the IEEE Electhe past achievements of IEEE Curtin Sar- tronic Exhibition, as well as being the
awak, the hard work placed to bring the hosts of several workshops and compechapter to where it is today, and relayed titions per year. More information on the
his expectations of the current commit- IEEE Curtin Sarawak is available at https://
tee. He hopes the student body will con- www.facebook.com/CurtinSarawak.IEEE.
tinue working towards even bigger success
in order to achieve more than ever before.
Group picture
7 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
IEEE Events :
Luak Bay , Explanade Outing
By: Cassandra Wong Yi
Chyn
Photographs:
Alex Goh
Group picture
I
EEE Curtin Sarawak Student Branch had organized a half-day outing to Luak Bay, Esplanade
on the 4th of May 2013.
The purpose of this outing was
to strengthen the relationship
among the members and build
new relationship with the new
faces as well. Most importantly,
through this event IEEE Curtin
Sarawak Student Branch can
be advertised to more curtinians especially those newly
enrolled student engineers.
Upon arrival, participants were
divided into groups and briefing
was given by the game master. The first game played was
relay race. A twist was added
into the relay race where they
were asked to spin on the spot
for 10 rounds before running
toward their team member.
Next game was dodge ball.
In this game, one member in
each team is chosen as King
and the other members act
as bodyguards. A team was
considered loss if it’s King
was hit by the ball. Howev-
Dodge Ball in Action
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
er, if a bodyguard was hit, he
get eliminated but still able to
help his team by passing the
ball or attack his opponents
from the outside of the court.
After the games, everyone
gathered at the barbeque area
to enjoy their foods. After filling up their stomachs, they
walked down the beach while
enjoying sunset. Some of them
chatted and took photograph
to keep these happy memories.
Everyone enjoyed the outing at Luak Bay, Esplanade.
Barbeque section
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 8
IEEE Events :
Annual Programming Competition 2013
By: Esther Ling
Photographs: Alex Goh
T
he Curtin Annual Programming
Competition was held on 13 April
2013, from 10am-3pm in ICT Lab
3. One of the aims of the competition
was to encourage students to code outside the classroom; thus getting them
into the art of programming. It also
served as a simulation of the 24-Hour
IEEEExtreme Contest, a global IEEE tournament where students worldwide gather the solve questions within 24 hours.
Mr Alex Goh and Dr Garenth Lim King
Hann were the official judges for the
event. The competition format was marks
based; the team with the highest amount
of marks won. There were 3 categories of
questions: easy, intermediate and hard,
worth 5, 15 and 25 marks respectively.
Questions were given out every 20 minutes, regardless of whether the team had
successfully solved the previous question. They were a total of 20 questions.
The winning team was Sim Zee Ang and
Alex Leong Seng Hua, second year students in ECE Department. They won a
cash prize of RM100. First runner-up went
to Rexy and Lingesh Yasotharan, while
3rd place was taken by Deshan Hariharan
and Abdulwahab Mohsen Qusem Saleh.
This year’s Global IEEEXtreme Contest
will be held on 26th October 2013. Interested students can get in touch with
the student branch for more details.
9 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
The First place winner
Group picture
Industrial Relations :
Renewable Energy Project in
Bario,Sarawak
By: Hanani Shukri
Photographs: Nadeen Kamel
M
iri – 18 March 2013 –
Who knew a chance
encounter on a plane
could result in one man changing the lives of a significant
number of villagers in the rural areas of Sarawak? That is
exactly what happened to Dr
Benjamin Wilkinson on a flight
from Doha to Kuala Lumpur. A
passenger seated next to him
commented on his appearance, declaring him a ‘mad
scientist’, to which he replied
that he is in fact a scientist.
The conversation veered towards a solar energy development project in Bario; coincidentally, his work in the
past few years has been in
the renewable energy sector.
Speaking to an audience
comprising of Curtin University Sarawak students and lecturers, he recounted the story of his journey towards the
Sarawakian village in the centre of the Kelabit Highlands.
Upon making his way to
Bario, he experimented with
several methods of producing
energy through hydro power,
wind turbines, photovoltaic
systems, and diesel. Relaying
the difficulties encountered
along the way, he also shared
the methods in which he effectively found solutions. The
challenges he faced included the miscalculation of flow
in regards to the machineries, whereby inconsistencies
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
Dr Benjamin Wilkinson is sharing his experiences in Bario, Sarawak
would result in the electricity
flow disconnecting after just
20 minutes. Wind turbines
also proved to be ineffective as Bario had minimal to
no wind in most of its areas,
while a lack of understanding
among residents resulted in
some solar panels installed
facing away from the sun.
Dr Wilkinson stressed that
although technical problems
can be overcome by experience in the field, other issues
such as the lack of education among villagers and social boundaries were equally
pressing but less textbook
inclined. At the end of the
day, the most viable method
at hand was the photovoltaic systems. His team, along
with the villagers, increased
the number of solar panels by
efficiently utilizing available
infrastructures, with the re-
quirements carefully assessed
beforehand to match the potential power generation.
Towards the end of his
speech, Dr Wilkinson emphasized the importance of
planning in such projects to
make sure there is enough
input for the desired output.
He extended his invitation to
students and researchers interested in photovoltaic systems and rural power generation to sign up for future
fieldworks in Bario. He can
be contacted at benjaminwilkinsonwork@gmail.com.
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 10
Industrial Relations :
DreamCatcher Technical Talk
C
By: Rohan Vijapurapu
Photographs:Shazrizal Zul
urtin University Sarawak – 11th April
2013 – Miri being the “Oil Hub” of Malaysia has motivated many students pursuing degree in School of Engineering and
Science, Curtin Sarawak, to aim for a career
in the oil industry. This motivation escalated
since the introduction of Petroleum Engineering in the university. However, students have
limited sources of information about the job
prospects of their engineering and science discipline in the oil industry. To cater to the need
of awareness among the students, Dr. Garenth
Lim King Hann, a lecturer from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
organised an Industrial Talk on ‘Malaysian Oil
and Gas industry: An Engineer’s Perspective’,
by Dr. Dasline Sinta, CEO and Principal Consultant (Oil & Gas) of Dream Catcher Energy
Sdn. Bhd. The talk was predominantly aimed
at final year students as they are in a crucial
stage of deciding their stream of profession.
neering & Physics, he also acquired Masters in Business Administration and a PhD in
Engineering Technology and Management.
Dr. Sinta has 25 years of experience in oil
and gas industry serving for oil companies
like Shell (Sarawak Shell Berhad & Shell
Oman) and Petra Energy Berhad. Graduating with B.Sc. (Hons) in Electronic Engi-
It was a very informative session and the knowledge gained through it gave a good exposure
and awareness to the students and made it easier for students to decide profession in interest.
In his talk he listed out the various engineering
disciplines that are required in the oil industry,
proceeding to introducing the oil industry by
dividing it into 2 branches: Upstream & Downstream. He explained the roles played by these
two streams in extraction and processing of
oil, then moving his focus to specific processes and studies and linked it to the branch of
engineering & science involved in it. Dr Sinta elaborated on the various designations and
their importance in a project. Upon explaining
the kind of rocks and formations that is usually focused on in exploration and production,
he also shared a few facts about the world of
oil and gas, and the problems faced by the
industry in terms of Exploration & Production
and safety of the reserves and employees.
The speaker , Dr. Sinta
11 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
Industrial Relations :
Shell Resume & Mock Interview
A
career enhancement workshop was organised under the Curtin IEEE Student Branch
banner on May 10, 2013. The workshop consisted of a panel of two Shell officials namely, Mr
James Lee (left), MrLandaleCranfield(right), who
had the task of explaining to Curtin Students how
to write a resumé and the type of behaviour expected during an interview with a professional panel. They were also responsible for informing these
future professionals about the criteria pursued
to hiring fresh graduates in a professional workplace. Since Shell does not hire only engineers,
the workshop welcomed students from all the different fields and part of the attendees were from
Mass Communication and the School of Business
1st hour - Presentation
By: Sun Veer Moollye
Photographs: Nadeen Kamel
Shell Professional Panel: Mr James Lee (left),
Mr LandaleCranfield (right)
2nd hour - Mock interview
Breaking down the workshop, the first hour was a presentation on all the criteria that the company looks
for when hiring fresh graduates. This session also brought to light the simple techniques that can be
used to make one’s resumé more appealing to the hirer. One of the points was to be honest and simple.
The second hour turned towards interviewees and interviewers. Mr James Lee and Mr Landale made an impromptu sketch of an interview where they explained the extremes of what
NOT to do during one. They also brightened up the mood of everyone by relating some of
their personal experiences on how certain interview sessions went and the second half of
the workshop was highly based on Q&A. The students were invited to ask as many questions
as they possibly could so they could have good knowledge on the “how to” of an interview.
Students were also encouraged to bring in their resumé for the workshop and thus the
panel furthered the last session by checking and amending the resumés of the students who brought theirs. There was a very good level of participation from the crowd.
Overall, the workshop was considered engaging, entertaining and most important of all helpful.
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 12
Industrial Relations :
Awan Inspirasi
By: Lee Siew Jiun
Photographs:Nadeen Kamel
O
n the 12th of April 2013, ECE department and IEEE Curtin Sarawak student
branch has organized a field trip to Awan
Inspirasi. Awan Inspirasi is a Malaysian incorporated company which provides offshore helicopter services for transportation of passengers/workers to offshore oil exploration and
development rigs for Oil & Gas companies.
Students are permitted to get into the helicopter
A total of 25 engineering students participated and were led by Dr. Garenth Lim King
Hann. Upon arrival, students were welcomed
by a senior pilot who has shared his experience as a pilot with the students. The interesting part during the site visit is the explanation of career in engineering that provided
by Awan Inspirasi, which is Licensed Aircraft
Maintenance Engineer (LAME). Students get
to explore and learn about the job scope as
an engineer who works in the aircraft industry.
In this visit, students were exposed to the aircraft
industry and learned about the importance of
an engineer in the aircraft industry. Overall, the
students found the visits to an eye-opener as it
enriched their experience as a student engineer.
Senior pilot indroducing the control tower during the tour
Group picture of students and staff from Awan Inspirasi
13 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
Media Release :
Curtin Sarawak Students Attend
IEEE Leadership Camp
(seated right) and Saaveethya (standing, 5th right) posing for a group photo with other camp participants.
M
iri – 16 April 2013 – Two students of
Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia
(Curtin Sarawak) recently represented their varsity’s Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Student
Branch at a leadership camp organised by
IEEE Malaysia Section in Kuala Lumpur.
The students were third-year electrical
power engineering student and IEEE Student Branch chairperson Esther Ling, and
third-year electronics and communications
engineering student and IEEE Student
Branch secretary Saaveethya Sivakumar,
who also happened to be the only representatives from Sarawak at the camp.
The objective of the camp was to bring
together representatives from student
branches and technical chapters of the
IEEE within Malaysia to encourage networking and exchange of ideas. It was also
attended by representatives from Monash
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
University, Nottingham University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Teknologi
Mara, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Malaya and Multimedia University.
During the camp, a student representative and student representative elect were
elected to represent all students in IEEE
Student Branches across Malaysia. Saleh
Javadi, outgoing chair of UKM Student
Branch was elected as this year’s representative, while Ling was elected as next
year’s representative. Both students will
be representing Malaysia’s IEEE student
ambassadors at the IEEE Conference to
be held this July in Hyderabad, India.
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 14
Media Release :
Curtin Sarawak students attend
IEEE Leadership Camp
During the camp, a student representative
and student representative elect were elected to represent all students in IEEE Student
Branches across Malaysia. Saleh Javadi, outgoing chair of UKM Student Branch was elected as this year’s representative, while Ling
was elected as next year’s representative.
Both students will be representing Malaysia’s
IEEE student ambassadors at the IEEE Conference to be held this July in Hyderabad, India.
In addition, the Curtin Sarawak students had
the opportunity to share their experiences
and the events organised by their student
branch. According to Ling, the IEEE Student
Branch of Curtin Sarawak aims to inspire
engineering students to reach their full potential in line with IEEE’s motto of ‘Advancing Technology for Humanity’ and regularly
organises site visits, technical talks, competitions and social activities for its members.
She added that being the only IEEE student branch in Sarawak does pose a minor challenge in that it is difficult for its
members to participate in activities organised by student branches in West Malaysia due to the distance and costs involved.
However, to bridge the gap between the two
regions, the IEEE Student Branch of Curtin
Sarawak and Engineering for Medicine and
Biology (EMB) Malaysia Chapter are co-organising a national-level exhibition at the
Curtin Sarawak campus from 22 to 23 August 2013. It will be open to all IEEE student branches nationwide, as well as students of all universities in Malaysia, and will
feature engineering projects by students
as well as awards in different categories.
The head of the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering (ECE) at Curtin Sarawak, Associate Professor Dr. Ashutosh Kumar Singh, thanked Ling and Saaveethya for
representing the department at the camp.
“I would also like to congratulate Ling on her
appointment. The Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering always encourages its students to take the part in national
and international competitions and to organise workshops and camps to develop their
soft skills,” said Associate Professor Ashutosh.
Ling and Saaveethya discussing ideas with other student representatives
15 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
Media Release :
Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC)
Group picture
M
iri – 28 May 2013 – Students of the
School of Engineering and Science
at Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) recently went on a
study trip to the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) in Seria, Brunei Darussalam.
The OGDC promotes the importance of
science, engineering and technology education through hands-on learning 16experiences such as science, technology, robotic and motivational workshops,
Young Scientist field trips and camps.
The trip, jointly organised by the school
and the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Student Branch
of Curtin Sarawak, involved 35 engineering students who are in their second, third
and fourth-year of study at the university.
electrical and computer engineering Dr.
Garenth Lim King Hann, associate lecturer of electrical and computer engineering Suresh Reuben and lecturer of chemical engineering Dr. John Lau Sie Yon.
The students were taken on a technical tour
of the centre, during which they were briefed
on the Bruneian oil and gas industry and the
drilling equipment used. In addition, they
attended a ‘Route to Professional Engineer’
talk presented by Mike Bridgefoot, registration and standards manager of the Institution
of Engineering and Technology (IET), and
also visited the Billionth Barrel Monument.
They were accompanied by lecturer of
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 16
Media Release :
Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC)
Student is having fun during the site visit
Technology
(IET),
and
also
visited
the
Billionth
Barrel
Monument.
In his talk, Bridgefoot briefed them on the
background of IET, the membership benefits it offers and how it provides students alternative routes to becoming
professional engineer upon graduation.
IET is a professional body based in the
United Kingdom that leads the development of an international engineering and technology community, as well
as shares knowledge to promote science,
engineering and technology worldwide.
Third-year electrical power engineering student Nicole Chan Yu Lynn and second-year
chemical engineering student Irene Mong commented that the trip was very interesting and
they learned a lot about the oil and gas industry.
The IEEE Student Branch of Curtin Sarawak actively organises annual exhibitions,
community outreach activities and educational visits for its members. In September
| ECE
Students’
Newsletter
| ECE
Students’
Newsletter
17
Bridgefoot of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) presenting his talk.
last year, the club organised its largest-ever
electronic exhibition which attracted more
than 700 staff and students of the varsity, students of local secondary schools and
members of the public. Future plans include
a visit to semiconductor factories Agilent
Technologies and Altera Corporation (M)
Sdn. Bhd. in Penang this coming September.
Media Release :
Thoughts on IEEEXtreme 24-hour Programming
Competition
The President of Curtin Sarawak IEEE Student Branch. She has a
passion for writing, and enjoys investigating the more unconventional stories, interesting personalities, especially in the music world
Quick question: ‘How do programmers code’?
Quote from Jack G. Ganssle, “Writing code is
fun. It’s satisfying. We feel we’re making progress on the project. Our bosses, all too often unskilled in the nuances of building firmware, look on approvingly, smiling that we’re
clearly accomplishing something worthwhile.”
W
elcome to the IEEEXtreme 24-hour programming contest. It’s a global tournament where teams pit wits and energy
against the clock to solve the highest number
of problems. This year was the sixth annual
event, and saw a record number of entries –
over 1900 teams. Problems were released every hour, with a total of 20 problems released
at the end of the 24-hours. Code submissions
were done on an online platform, InterviewStreet, where teams could also ask questions
regarding the problems and check leader-board
rankings. A variety of languages were allowed,
such as C, C++, C#, Java, Python, PHP and Perl.
Some teams enter to win, others just for fun
and experience. You could say my reasons were
the latter. I’m no computer science geek, just a
regular student in electrical engineering who did
a bit (pun intended) of programming as part of
my coursework. Being an IEEE student member,
I received an invitation to participate in this competition, and I thought, ‘Why not?’. Alongside me
were two post-grads, Billy and Alex, who had a
thing for programming as well. We formed our
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
plan – to solve as many questions as possible.
Most teams probably had the same plan in mind.
The contest started on 20 October at UTC 00:00,
which converted to 8am local time. As a team,
we mused on the first question: (Summarised)
“Calculate the number of bunnies alive after a
year given an initial number of bunnies.” You
were supposed to get 0 if the initial number
was 444. It was short and looked deceptively
easy. I was tasked to solve it while the other two
worked on the incoming questions. Two hours
later and it still wasn’t solved. Garenth, a lecturer and our designated fast-food delivery guy,
strolled in with a couple of cheese cakes and
cream puffs. A nice diversion to killing bunnies.
I spent another two hours on this question
before I realized the organizers had closed
it. The problem was flawed, apparently. It
drew plenty of flak from participants worldwide who had, like me, spent hours try-
ing to wipe out the bunny population.
Halfway through the tournament, the aim of
our team was slowly changing. “Just solve
one question, just one..” My mind wandered
to a 9gag post: “My code doesn’t work. I
have no idea why. My code works. I have no
idea why.” Admittedly, the questions were
really interesting, and you start out excited when setting out to solve it. But as you
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 18
Media Release :
Thought on IEEEXtreme 24-hour Programming
Competition
code, you slowly realize the enormity of the
task, and when bug after bug appear, you
yearn for your bed more than anything. The
thing about unsolved code problems is that it
stays with you all day – like an itch. You keep
wondering why the wretched code won’t work.
evaluating code submissions, and the official
winners will be announced come 1 November,
2012. The first prize is an all expenses paid trip
to an IEEE Conference of the team’s choice.
Why do people code? The above quote by
Ganssle tells us a little why people code. It’s
My experience is bound not to reflect all the fun and satisfying. And there is the status
participating teams. Through InterviewStreet, element to it. You impress your ‘unskilled’
you saw when other teams successfully solved friends by your knowledge of words and syma question. And the leader-board rankings told bols that somehow have meaning and solves
a problem. That aside, joining the IEEEXtreme Programming Contest was indeed a
good experience, enhancing your programming depth and making you a little more
knowledgeable on what’s buzzing in the field
As a closure, here’s a sample of one
of the questions from the tournament:
Detecting Shapes in a Bitmap
you which teams were leading the competition.
You’d be working endlessly on a problem, while
one team after another from around the world
cracked it. After a while you’d start to wonder if
you were the only dysfunctional team onboard.
Aside from minor question errors (though
some teams may beg to differ) and a little
downtime, the IEEEXtreme tournament was
a well-organized tournament. It housed a total of 150,090 code submissions upon closure
of the tournament. Statistics show that over
1900 teams of three, from 60 different countries participated in the contest, which means
over 5700 students worldwide converged for
24-hours to solve programming questions.
Problem statement:
In image analysis, it is common to analyze a bitmap and observe the shapes present in it. For this problem, design an algorithm to detect shapes in a given bitmap. The
shapes present in the map shall be from the
set Square, Rectangle, Triangle and Parallelogram. In the bitmap each pixel is represented as a bit, 1 – representing black and
0 – representing white. Participants are expected to detect the shapes outlined in black.
Input
The first line will contain the size of the bit
map in pixels represented as (Row,Column).
E.g. 6,8 this means a bit map of 6 rows and
8 columns.
The next line will contain a series of decimal digits from 0 to 255 separated by
At the end of the 24-hours, the unofficial lead- spaces. Each digit will represent a collecing team in the rankings was Team Vikings from tion of 8 binary bits in the bitmap. IE. 55
Belgium, with a total of 14 questions solved. represents a binary pattern 00110111.
The IEEEXtreme Technical Team is currently
19 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
Media Release :
Thought on IEEEXtreme 24-hour Programming
Competition
Note: There can be multiple shapes in
a bitmap and NO shapes shall intersect. However there can be shapes nested with each other without any intersection.
Output
The shapes present in the bitmap in ascending order of their names, separated by a comma and a space.
Eg.
Rectangle,
Square,
Triangle
Note:
There
is
NO
linefeed
or
space
at
the
end
of
the
output
If any shape repeats, the output should contain as many repetitions as in the bitmap.
ie. If there are 2 squares and one triangle,
the output shall be Square, Square, Triangle
Example Set 1
Input:
68
The team after coding for 16 hours. From left: Esther Ling,
Billy Lau, Alex Goh
0 126 66 66 126 0
Output:
Rectangle
Example Set 2
Input:
6 16
0 0 120 120 72 144 73 32 123 192 0 0
Output
Parallelogram, Square
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 20
Media Release :
The Multi-directional Wheel Robot
Jasher Tan , the writer took up Mechanical engineering but has more
of an interest in mechatronics. He used to fancy himself being a pilot,
but when spectacles had to be worn daily, he doggedly clung to the
skies by deciding to become an aircraft engineer instead. However,
Physics, Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Flow Modelling were formidable
challenges, and unlike Dynamic Systems and Automatic Control, the
fun factor wasn’t there at all. So began his journey down the path of
the Machines.
T
he Omniwheel robot, or
more accurately, the Mecanum wheel robot, is
unique in its ability to move
in all directions on a flat surface. In contrast, a car needs
to apply a steering system
to change its direction, and
caterpillar tracks, while able
to pivot on a single spot, are
not able to slide sideways
compared to the Mecanum
wheel system. The Mecanum
wheel is thus able to move in
the customary four basic directions of moving forward,
reversing, turning left, and
turning right, and in addition,
is also able to pivot like a tank
and slide sideways like a crab.
How does it perform all of
these moves? The answer lies
in the wheel. Like the wheels
of the Cherubim in Ezekiel’s
vision that never turn right or
left but go straight forward in
any direction, the Mecanum
wheel takes its inspiration
from this vision, in that the
wheel system, when installed
in at least two opposing pairs
on a rectangular frame, have
no need for a steering system, nor do they need to be
connected by chain-link, but
are rigidly held, save for the
transmission shaft that may
rotate in either direction. The
Mecanum wheel consists of
several rollers mounted along
the rim of a main wheel. Typically, they are positioned at
an angle of 30 to 60 degrees
to the main wheel, with 45 degrees being the most common
angle of tilt for these peripheral rollers. This differentiates
the Mecanum wheel from the
omniwheel, where the peripheral rollers are mounted at
90 degrees. The advantage
of the Mecanum wheel over
the omniwheel lies in its ability to traverse steeper slopes,
where an omniwheel equipped
robot could encounter a situation where the peripheral
rollers, due to their angle of
mounting, cause the robot to
slide down helplessly. The Mecanum wheel addresses this
problem by placing the rollers
21 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
at an angle, and in opposing
directions for forward and aft
pairs of wheels. This distributes the motive action of sliding down an inclined plane in a
V-shape should the Mecanum
wheel robot be moving across
the inclined plane of the slope,
preventing the robot from
sliding down due the parallel
nature of the rollers as encountered in the omniwheel.
A Mecanum wheel. –Courtesy of
AndyMark Systems
Media Release :
The Multi-directional Wheel Robot
This property exhibited by the
angled rollers also allows the
Mecanum wheel to perform
sliding actions. The Mecanum
wheel pairs on the left and
right side of the robot are mirror images of each other, and
at any given moment, each
wheel, when rotated, generates a resultant force in the
direction of the angle of the
rollers. Each resultant force,
however, is made up of components that act perpendicular to each other, that is, in
the X and Y axis. Now, when
the mirror-imaged wheels are
combined together in the following pattern, shown in Fig.
1 below, rotating the wheels
causes specific components
of the resultant force to combine together, creating a new,
dominant
resultant
force,
typically in the forward, reverse or sideways direction.
with the direction of rotation
of each wheel, the Mecanum
wheel robot may be made to
move in almost any direction,
except upwards, skyward, or
downwards, into the ground.
The robot’s frame is constructed from riveted aluminium bars. In addition, a sheet
metal plate, about 2mm thick,
is bolted to the bottom section of the frame. This plate
holds four 12V motorcycle
batteries powering the eight
motors of the robot, with two
motors being slaved to each
wheel. The power from the
batteries is routed through
motor drivers before reaching
the motors, and a limiter to
protect the Arduino microcontroller controlling the drivers.
A wireless Playstation module was also installed, allowing the Mecanum wheel robot to be remotely controlled.
To move sideways, the forward two wheels rotate in
the same direction, while the
rear wheels rotate in the direction counter to that of the
forwards wheels. This has
the effect of ‘corkscrewing ‘,
much like a land-based version of a ship’s propeller. The
dominant resultant force can
be either to the left or to the
right, depending on the rotating direction of the wheels. To
pivot, the wheels on the left
side rotate in one direction,
while the right side rotates
in another, the effect being a
form of ‘skid-steering ‘ , albeit
smoothened out by the assisting rollers. By playing around
Future plans for the Mecanum
robot include upgrading it with
a manipulator, or arm, as well
as sensors and camera systems to allow for autonomous
motion. The robot is indeed a
platform for upgrades and research for students who are
interested in the field of robotics, and it is also hoped that it
fulfils these roles in a way that
also brings fun to and otherwise austere field of study.
The OmniWheel Robot will The completed Mecanum wheel robe on display at the 2013
bot.
IEEE Exhibition on Technology of New Era, on 22-23
August, held at Recreational
Hall Curtin Sarawak. It will be
featured alongside some 25
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
other exhibits showcased by
students. Other activities to
be held at the exhibition are:
talks by XFAB and MDec targeted at school leavers and
university students, talks by
representatives from IEEE
and EMBS, and geek workshops. The exhibition is open
to public and free of charge.
Arrangement of the Mecanum wheels.
–Diegel,Badve et al.
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 22
IEEE Spectrum & IET Magazine :
E&T Feature : Jack’s Blog
By Jack Devine (translated by Jane Maltby) © [2012 E&T] Reprinted, with permission, from IET Magazine Engineering &
Technology www.eandtmagazine.com
E
veryone has their own
way of stacking the dishwasher but only an engineer on holiday with other people would go so far
as to sketch an algorithm of
how to do it, pin it up over
the machine and hide the
dishwasher tablets until everyone agreed to follow it.
This is Dave, my Dad's best
mate, who has brought his
family along to share a huge
Welsh farmhouse with my
parents and sisters in the
name of a summer holiday. I
am here because they don't
make summer holiday jobs for
university students any more
so you can see how much I'm
with the project, although if
I was doing anthropology I'd
probably have enough material for my dissertation right
here. "Struggles for engineering dominance in a domestic setting" or something.
While the rest of us are sniggering over the algorithm Dad
is quite put out he didn't think
of it first, so he keeps annotating it in red biro to show
how teaspoons cannot be allowed to nest, etc. Sooner or
later he will say he just has
to redraw the whole thing
and will claim ownership in
that way - at this point he
will pull me over and say son,
this is one way to get ahead
at work, especially in a project management situation.
And I will say Dad, I'm never
going to work (see employment situation, above) and
furthermore I am never going
to leave home as I can't af- Initially Dave and Dad argued
ford a house. Which will make over whether the spiral stairhim look very thoughtful. case really was turned the
right way if you were a defendMeanwhile, Mum is banned ing knight armed with a sword
from stacking the dishwash- and whether being left hander because she claims she ed was more common than we
can't follow the algorithm and think; they belted over to the
has reduced Dave practically shop to buy wooden swords
to tears by putting the forks and fought up and down the
head down on two consec- stairs for 20 minutes, holding
utive days (she has already up a coach party of Ameripulled me over and pointed can families who thought they
out this is a good passive-ag- were part of the entertaingressive way of delegating ment and pressed several dolstuff at work, at which point I lars into their hands as a tip.
gave her my "I'm never leaving home or working ever" Then they bullied the staff over
speech. Which also made the guide book, which claimed
her look very thoughtful). that boiling oil was dropped
through the machicolations
The twins have contributed on the battlements. Joined by
to the dishwasher situation a holidaying chemical engiin their own anarchic way neer, who couldn't believe his
by easing the control pan- luck that he'd met two kindred
el off and resetting it to give spirits at the information desk,
everything a 24-hour wash, they proved exhaustively, uswhich no-one noticed un- ing pen, paper and the caltil we were down to the last culator on Dad's mobile that
breakfast bowl at 8am this oil smokes well before boiling
morning and there was a lit- and would probably catch fire
eral fight over the cornflakes. before they could pour it anywhere, and that as the smoke
To call a truce we all decid- point can be double that of
ed we needed to get out for water's boil temperature they
the day. Dad and Dave want- wouldn't have had the fuel
ed to go to the castle up the available to get it anywhere
road, which seemed a safe near hot enough. The managbet. I feel this shows Dad is er agreed that he would ask
moving on from his normal for the guide book to be reholiday need to see the near- written to say "warm to hot
est big suspension bridge or oil, depending on the amount
nuclear power plant, broad- of fuel available" although I
ening his horizons to encom- could see he was thinking "as
pass history. An engineer's soon as these people are out
view of history, of course. of sight this information will
23 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
IEEE Spectrum & IET Magazine :
Jack’s Blog : August
By Jack Devine (translated by Jane Maltby) © [2012 E&T] Reprinted, with permission, from IET Magazine Engineering &
Technology www.eandtmagazine.com
disappear from my brain and I am going to
forget this ever happened". The chemical
engineer further upped the ante by pointing out the startling fact that different oils
smoke at different temperatures, and they
had a terrific half an hour speculating what
sort of oil was being boiled in the first place.
Feeling really chipper now, they tried to work
out the motto carved above the fireplace: Ingenio et Industria. The Latin defeated them,
and they had to cave in and ask for help from
the manager, who with a great sigh informed
them it meant: "With talent and diligence".
"And what about," said dad cautiously, "systems engineers who make head of
department?" (He's up for a promotion.
"Dirigo," said the twins, immediately. "I lead."
"Sounds like a Harry Potter spell," said
Mum. "Call it the magic of engineering."
"I don't know about Welsh warriors, sounds
more like a motto for engineers," said Dad.
"No, that would be maior victoria mentis victory of the mind is greater," said the twins,
who did Latin GSCE and retain everything,
like infinite girl-shaped bath sponges. "It's a
consolation for not earning as much as you
think you're worth," they explained, helpfully.
Dad got really interested at this point.
"What would the motto be for project managers?" "Tempus fugit," said the twins.
"Time flies." Dad thought this was hilarious.
"Software engineers?" asked Dave, who is one.
"Ce qui suit je m'en fous." They also did
French. "It means I don't care about who
has to maintain this code after me." At this
point Dad and Dave are rolling around.
"Design engineers?" "Vultus ante munus.
(Form before function)." (Cue Dad beating his
knees - he has no time for design engineers.)
"Electronics?"
"Abundans
cautela
nocet or cavendo tutus, which both
I am so totally risk averse I have
sure this will work first time and
I'm going to go off in a massive
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
non
mean
made
if not
sulk."
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 24
IEEE Spectrum :
No Textbooks , Just Ipads
© [2013] IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from [Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2013]
Lynn University is putting its two-year common-core curriculum entirely on the iPad mini
S
is
pectrum’s
“Techwise
Conversations.”
Steven Cherry: Hi, this
Steven Cherry for IEEE
Tablets are changing the world
of computing in lots of ways—
they’re cutting into the markets
for laptops and e-readers both;
they’re clearly the direction
that newspaper and magazine
publishers need to pursue; and
they’re already babysitters of
our toddlers par excellence pace
a Spectrum feature less than a
year ago that claimed that smartphones would play that role.
There’s also been a lot of talk of
tablets replacing textbooks on
college campuses. But despite
a lot of talking the talk, there’s
been very little walking the walk.
One institution taking some firm
strides down that path is Lynn
University, a private school of
about 2000 students in Boca Raton, Florida, where it’s a balmy 77
degrees Fahrenheit on a February
afternoon, not that I’m envious.
If Lynn University is known at all
to the outside world, it’s probably for having hosted the third
U.S. presidential debate last
year. But beginning this fall, it
should gain some fame for requiring students to get an iPad
mini, which the school will load
up with everything needed for
its common core curriculum. As
the site Inside Higher Ed noted
in a January article, “Lynn is not
the first university to experiment
with the iPad,” but “Lynn’s initiative…appears to be unique in
that it draws on a custom-designed curriculum. And like the
curriculum, iPad use at Lynn will
be standardized across classes.”
My guest today is Lynn University’s vice president for academic affairs, Gregg Cox—
that’s Gregg with two g’s. His
background is fortuitously close
to our corner of the academic
world; he’s also a 30-year veteran professor of mathematics there. He joins us by phone.
Gregg, welcome to the podcast.
Gregg Cox: Well, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Steven Cherry: Gregg, I gather that Lynn came to the iPad
solution through a confluence of
events and circumstances that
include a complete overhaul of
the common core curriculum
that began in 2006, a providential meeting with Apple, and the
aforementioned presidential debate. Let’s take them in turn,
starting with the core curriculum.
Gregg Cox: Okay. Yes, in about
2006, we completely redesigned
our core curriculum, and what
we have now is really a 60-credit
core that spans all four years of
a student’s undergraduate education. And when we did that,
we formulated courses which are
common courses. They’re in five
basic domains: self and society,
belief and reason, justice and
civic life, quantitative reasoning, and the scientific literacy.
And what we’ve done is we’ve
pulled together text pieces, vid-
25 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
eo pieces, and we’ve compiled
our own textbook for three of
those sets of courses: the self
and society, justice and civic
life, and the belief and reason.
Also in the fall, we’re launching
our quantitative reasoning series, so we’ve already had the
content basically we’ve been
accumulating over the past
four years, and that seemed to
make it a reasonable approach
to launch the iPad initiative.
Steven Cherry: I should mention
that my alma mater, Geneseo
College, has a powerful and deep
common core curriculum, and it’s
made it the jewel in the crown of
the State University of New York
system, so you have my best
wishes for that. All right, so you
and some other Lynn officials
happened to be at Apple, this
was last year? What were you
there for, and what happened?
Gregg Cox: Well, what happened
was, backing up a little before,
our president had been there
with another group and was invited back to bring some folks
from Lynn University. So back
in September of 2011, a group
of us went out to Apple and we
talked to them, we talked to
their educational department,
we were very impressed with
sort of their thought leaders. We
talked to them pretty extensively
about challenge-based learning,
and we made the decision while
we were out there to launch
a pilot the following January.
IEEE Spectrum :
No Textbooks, Just Ipads
© [2013] IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from [Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2013]
So we actually did some faculty
training using iPads in December of that year. We took about
20 faculty, gave them an iPad,
then during our January term,
we had them using the iPads for
the January course that we call
the “citizenship project,” which is
required of all freshmen. We did
some analysis after that, and we
found that not only were those
students in the iPad courses
more engaged, but their learning
was actually increased, so we
were pretty excited about that.
about US $150 less. It has actually the same operating system
and the same storage capacity
as the full-size iPad. In fact, I
guess it’s a matter of taste. At
my age you would guess that I
would prefer the full-size iPad
because it’s a little larger and
maybe I could see it better, but
I actually think I like the mini a
little bit better because it’s very
convenient. Believe it or not, if
you don’t have a case on it, you
can slip it in the inside coat pocket of a jacket or a sport coat.
Again in the spring semester
that year, we continued using
the iPads. We found the same
thing to be true in semester-long
courses, so then we sort of made
the decision that we were going
to do this. We didn’t really have
the infrastructure to support it,
but coincidentally we hosted
the presidential debate, as you
mentioned in October of 2012,
which caused us to really upgrade our infrastructure, and we
said, “Aha, now we have what
we need,” so we made the decision to launch the iPads next fall.
Steven Cherry: So will all the
assignments be done electronically?
And
will
there
be any electronic grading?
And then last week a bunch of
us went back to Cupertino to
sort of update Apple, to let them
know what we were doing. And
they, in turn, are helping us
along in terms of our faculty development, because since then
we’ve given iPads to all our faculty, and we’re spending lots and
lots of hours during this spring
term helping faculty learn how
to use the iPad in the classroom.
Steven Cherry: So wouldn’t
the full-size iPad do better?
Why did you go with the mini?
Gregg Cox: Price. The mini is
Gregg Cox: Oh, yes. We use
something called LiveText with all
of our students. That’s our way
of collecting assignments. We’re
also on Blackboard, and, you
know, you can run assignments
through Blackboard, but with
LiveText what we do is that we
collect assignments, and that’s
really how we assess student
progress. We can, for instance,
you can randomly pull, say, 25
essays out of 500 freshman essays, and we will have a group
of maybe three faculty who will
independently grade those essays. So we will, number one,
make sure our grades are truly
reflective of what the students
are doing, but number two, we
can measure student progress.
So, yes, they’ll be sending everything through their iPad mini.
Steven Cherry: Now, for my
part, when it comes to actually
doing an assignment, I’d rather work on a computer than a
tablet. Is that possible here?
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
Gregg Cox: Well, it certainly is.
You can certainly work on it on
a computer. You can send it to
yourself, to your iPad. You can
download it through your email,
you know, there are lots of ways
to do it. Right now I still think
personally that the iPad, that the
tablet platform, is really more
of a consumption tool than it is
a creation tool, and so I would
agree with you that I still think
students will want and will have
their laptops or, well, we don’t
see a lot of desktops anymore,
but I still think they will use
that as their production tool.
Steven Cherry: We had several shows in the past year about
online courses and hybrid online courses. We also had one
show about open-source textbooks. It sounds like all the material you’re using is generated
within Lynn University, but have
you looked at open sourcing
any of that stuff or using other people’s open-source stuff?
Gregg Cox: Oh, absolutely. And
that’s what we’ve got the faculty actually looking at now.
The manager of the bookstore
doesn’t like to hear me talk
about it, but I would like to see
the day when our bookstore sells
basically coffee and T-shirts and
mugs, and the textbook is really a thing of the past. Because
I think there is enough material
out there, primary source material, that you can link students to.
But certainly the open-source
textbooks, the MOOCs if you will,
I mean, right now that’s kind of
an untapped market that we can
send our students to. I mean,
you’ve got a world-famous philosopher talking about some-
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 26
IEEE Spectrum :
No Textbooks , Just Ipads
© [2013] IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from [Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2013]
thing, hey, why not send your
students there and then you can
come back to class and discuss it.
Steven Cherry: Now, you’re
also installing Apple TV in all
the classrooms. What’s that for?
Gregg Cox: So that the faculty can basically stand there, or
the students with their iPad, and
they can do all the presentations
on the TV. So it’s like PowerPoint.
There’s any number of apps that
you can download. Some are fancier than others, but with Apple
TV, all you need is the wireless
and the iPad in the room, and
students can do their presentations the same way. So, Apple
TV…the first time I heard about
Apple TV I thought it was an actual TV. I didn’t realize it was a tiny
device that you hook onto your
monitor, or in our cases, it will be
the screens in the classrooms.
Steven Cherry: So that’s a pretty
significant involvement with Apple, and you’ve had various meetings where you’re advising them
or they’re advising you. Has Apple been subsidizing any of this
or helping out in any other way?
Gregg Cox: No, unfortunately
not. Apple gives us the same,
I suppose it’s an educational
discount, that they give other
institutions, and that is, for instance, if you buy 10 at a time,
they give you a $20 discount
on each iPad or iPad mini. But
other than that, there’s really been no subsidy, although
they have provided training.
You know, back in December of
’11, they provided the training,
and all we really paid for was kind
of the room and board for the
person that was here. And we’ve
also got Apple people coming
during the spring term, and basically we’re just paying their costs.
We’re not really paying them per
se to do it, so in that sense they
certainly are being helpful to us.
Steven Cherry: So Android
makes for a more open and programmable environment, and
there are some nice Android
phones. Has there been any
pushback from students or faculty who would prefer it to iOS?
Gregg Cox: Well, we heard that
a little bit from some faculty in
the very beginning, but the thing
that I hear back is, and I have
faculty who already had other
tablets, and what they said to
me was that this tablet is very
intuitive, the Apple product is
very intuitive. They said, really,
within five minutes I was perfectly comfortable maneuvering with going and finding apps,
with using apps that are already
on there, because we preloaded
them with some apps, you know,
for our faculty. So I think, to me,
that was the most surprising
part. So we really haven’t had a
lot of pushback about that, and I
know with students we may hear
the same thing: “Gee, I’ve got
my Android. Why do you want
me to use this?” And, of course,
our answer is that we need everybody on the common platform for what we’re going to do.
Steven Cherry: And I know if
my daughter were starting college again tomorrow, I’d be
putting a Chrome book in her
backpack to take to class. Did
you think about them at all?
Gregg Cox: We did. But, again,
27 | ECE Students’ Newsletter
we didn’t feel like at the time
we were doing all this that the…
you know, it was so new, particularly back then. It just didn’t
exist, and we kind of felt like,
well, we need time. We need
time with whatever we’re going
to adopt. And, I mean, we may
use the iPad, and in two years
we may switch to some other
platform. I mean, we’re certainly
not wedded to a device. I think
what we’re committed to doing
is using a lot of tablet technology to enhance our courses.
Steven Cherry: Yeah, I guess
all of the other work you’re doing is the important stuff, and
the actual device interface is
the least of it. It’s easy to imagine, at least for most of us, every student with an iPad open in
front of them, that being kind
of diverting a student’s attention in class. But I gather you
think of it sort of the reverse?
Gregg Cox: I do. I actually think
it’s kind of like, if you can’t beat
’em, join ’em. Look, we know
that when we’re teaching classes, whether they have their iPhone out or their iPad out or
their laptop out, we know there
are students there who are really
going to Facebook, who are texting, who are doing other things.
So my philosophy to faculty is
this: Tell them to make sure to
bring their iPad with them, because we’re going to use the iPads in class. We’re all going to
go to a website. We are all going
to search for something, and the
first one that finds it is going to
help the rest of us, and kind of
turn the tables on them and say,
“My gosh, I don’t have time to go
onto Facebook. The guy’s making
me use this for something else.”
IEEE Spectrum :
No Textbooks , Just Ipads
© [2013] IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from [Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2013]
[The
following
omitted
from
section
is
the
audio]
Steven Cherry: One last question: Lynn University has more
than its fair share of students
with learning disabilities. In
fact, I gather it’s sort of a specialty of yours. Tell us about
that, and do you think that
the iPad use will be a plus or
a minus for that population?
Gregg Cox: Okay, good. About
20 years ago, actually, our previous president recognized that
there was a need in higher education to help students who
learned differently. So 20 years
ago, we really started what has
become the Institute for Achievement and Learning. And those
are students with diagnosed
learning
disabilities—certainly academically capable, but as
you know, they learn differently.
And what we find is that the iPad,
we’ve actually been using it with
some of the institute kids—well,
I shouldn’t call them kids, but I
do—for the last couple of years.
In particular, we use an app over
there which helps the students
to organize, because we really
find that the students that, what
they call those “executive functioning skills” are sort of a weakness for a lot of students, whether they’re dyslexic, or whatever
the case may be, ADHD. And
so with this organizing tool held
right on their iPad, it really helps
them to organize, it helps them
to plan their day, it helps them to
plan their assignments, to study
for tests, and things like that.
ulty, training them on the use
of that app so that we can put
that app on all the iPads for
the freshmen in the fall and
have our faculty go in and actually show them how to use it.
You know, what we’ve found in
the last 20 years is that all of
those techniques that we do require our faculty to really learn,
which are techniques particular
to helping students with learning
differences, guess what? Those
techniques help everybody. They
help all students. So it’s kind of a
win-win for us and our students.
[End
ted
of
section
from
omitaudio.]
Steven Cherry: Well, Gregg,
the college experience is near
and dear to a lot of us, whether we’re facing it next year or
paying for it or just remembering it fondly. So if you’re readying for the fall semester with a
bit of trepidation, as well as excitement for the way you’re experimenting with it, I think we
all share those feelings with you
and wish you the best of luck.
speaking with Lynn University vice president for academic affairs Gregg Cox about the
school’s bold push to put its two
years of common core curriculum out of print and onto the
iPad.
For IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise
Conversations,”
I’m
Steven
Cherry.
Read more “Techwise Conversations” or follow us on Twitter.
NOTE: Transcripts are created for the convenience of our
readers and listeners and may
not perfectly match their associated interviews and narratives.
The authoritative record of IEEE
Spectrum’s audio programming
is the audio version.
Gregg Cox: Well, thank you,
thank you. And thank you for
having me on.
Steven
Cherry:
We’ve
been
So, in fact, we’re going to spend
some time with the entire fac-
| ECE Students’ Newsletter
ECE Students’ Newsletter | 28
IEEE - Curtin Sarawak Student branch,
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Semester 1 • 2013
Volume 4• Issue 1
ECE Students’ Newsletter
Semester 1 • 2013
Volume 4 • Issue 1
ECE Students’ Newsletter