AY13/14 Sem 1

Oh wow. I just realised that there does not seem to be much module reviews about ESE modules (environmental engineering). Also tried googling engineering and accountancy, to no avail. Hopefully my comments are of some use to prospective NUS students who are considering to take environmental engineering, or DDP in that.

Here are the comments for AY13/14 Semester 1:

General: I took a total of 6 modules (24MCs) this semester, 5 engineering and 1 biz/acc module. Overall, it was still manageable; did not have much project for this semester. The only time-consuming module was LSM1401 Fundamentals of Biochemistry, while rest of the time was spent doing and submitting weekly assignments required for each of the module.

CE2134- Hydraulics
This is by right one of the harder modules I had in terms of the academic rigour and concepts. For the first half of the module, it was taught by Dr Bai Wei and covers fluid statics (such as calculating hydrodynamic forces, stability of floating objects, Bernoulli's equation and conservation of mass-continuity equation). He went through a lot of derivations for the formulas, which are good for understanding purposes but not necessary for examination's sake. He has a unique accent which may not be easy to understand, and there is no webcast for his portion, so the content may not be easy to catch and there is a tendency for students to fall asleep. Content-wise for his portion, it is necessary to understand how to calculate forces acting on an object submerged in water and that of floating bodies as well, application of Bernoulli's equation for hydraulic systems, and good mastery of physics (such as force and equilibrium analysis as encountered in EG1109) is required. As for the second half, it is taught by Prof Cheong and covers in depth laminar and turbulent flow, boundary layer, flow separation and the wake, frictional and form drag. The last part covers similitude and dimensional analysis (which was not examinable for my cohort). Prof Cheong is one of the best lecturer in that he really explains the supposedly complicated concepts in a very easy-to-understand manner. He provides effective and concise summaries of his lesson and can write and draw neat diagrams for students to visualise the abstract concepts that he is teaching. For the assessment, it consists of 10% tutorial submission, 10% lab report, 15% x 2 for two quizzes (one for each half), and 50% finals. In my opinion, it is important to do well for the CAs as the finals tend to be hard. As for my year, the finals were relatively easier than previous years though. Before you take each test (be it quiz or finals), be sure to understand how to apply the concepts to solving problems rather than blindly practising on questions or memorising the answers. Do not merely just mug the past year questions because understanding of concepts is key to scoring for this module, and most likely past year questions will not come out again. As for the lab, carrying out the practical is not a problem (just doing recordings of piezometric heights, etc) and report-writing would be easier if you have a senior's report (I did not have one though).

CE2155- Structural Mechanics and Materials
This is actually a pretty interesting module. It is somewhat an extension of EG1109, with an additional part on materials. The first half of the module is taught by A/P Zhang, who speaks fluent english despite her nationality (no offence). Her part is all about concrete, from properties to composition which in my opinion are pure swallowing of content and not much understanding is required (really boring in my opinion). For her lab, it is actually quite interesting and involves creating and mixing concrete (with necessary calculations performed beforehand) and then monitoring the curing and measuring the strength at end of each time period. For the second half, it is all about structural mechanics and covers similar content to that of EG1109, except that there are slightly more advanced concepts taught such as shear stress calculations, buckling, eccentric loading, stress and strain transformation (Mohr's circle), failure models (Von Mises/Treska Criterion). Content-wise, it is manageable and the finals is an open-book exam, so as long as you understand the concepts and can apply them, you should have no problem in the finals. For the lab, it involves the construction of an I-beam (or other possible designs like an hollow box) and calculating/estimating the predicted failure load. Criteria for grading includes how efficient your beam is (i.e. load that it can take before failure per unit weight of aluminium used), accuracy in terms of predicting the failure load, calculations, etc. A picture for which the beam created by my group was subjected to the loading test is shown here:

After some calculations as taught in beam loading in EG1109, my team predicted the failure load to be 12kN (after factoring in a safety factor of 1.33), and to our surprise, the beam failed at around 11kN! Quite lucky I would say. As for the finals, 40% of the paper is on materials (concrete + steel) and it is important to do the past year papers as the questions are really similar (first on concrete-making similar to that done in the concrete lab) and second question is 10 MCQs). 60% is on mechanics, which was pretty much a killer especially for the buckling question for my batch. I thought I screwed up that 25 mark question, but still managed to do well (guess physics papers like this usually have a friendlier bell curve). Overall, I would say that this module is a good one, with both experiential learning and manageable content. However, the downside to this module is that environmental engineering students do not really need to take this module as it is not really helpful for our FYPs (as compared to LSM1401/CM2142).

CE2409- Engineering & Uncertainty Analyses
This module is split into two halves: the first is on learning numerical methods (e.g. iterative) for solving algebraic and differential equations. Some of the iterative methods include Gaussian Elimination, Gauss-Seidel, Jacobi and SOR, as well as finite difference methods. It was taught by A/P Kevin Kuang, who is pretty much a good lecturer who tries to make his lessons more interesting for the students. The second half deals with probability, statistics and some use of the matlab software to solve the tutorial questions. The lecturer was A/P Jason Cohen. He started off teaching the second half of the module pretty well and was pretty engaging, but fails to keep up with the standard as he sidetracks from his main lesson plan and pretty much waste a lot of time during the lecture. Assessment-wise, first part consist of a mid term quiz (10%), second part consists of two on-the-spot quizzes (5% x 2) and tutorial submission (10% total), with finals taking 70% of the overall grade. In terms of difficulty, this was by far one of the friendlier modules both in the content and bell curve aspects. Just do consistently well for the CAs and practise on the past year papers, get a general gist and understanding of concepts, and you should be able to do well.

ESE2001- Environmental Processes
In my opinion, ESE modules are usually not difficult to understand in terms of academic rigour. However, somehow I always can't do very well for them. Anyway, the module is taught by two lecturers: first half is by A/P Paul Chen, and content taught by him include fundamentals such as parameters, chemical equilibria (calculation of pH of complex systems), while second half is by Prof Bala, focusing more on transport processes such as advection, diffusion, settling, interfacial mass transfer and partitioning. Paul Chen appears to be rather slack and somewhat eccentric in my opinion. Prof Bala appears to be rather passionate but limited by his accent, so overall I actually didn't really find both of them effective in their teaching. Assessment includes a mid term (20%), 2 group lab report (10% x 2), group project + presentation (10%), homework (5%), and finals (45%)- approximately, as I kind of forgotten the actual weightage. As the lab report is group work with perhaps too many people in a group, many ended up slacking and waiting for others to do the job- somewhat like "bystander effect" in which the more the no. of bystanders, the less each of them will help. As per usual, most people would have done well for the mid terms, with finals being the tie-breaker. Thought I did well for the finals, but just not good enough to get an A (got an A-).

LSM1401- Fundamentals of Biochemistry
This is perhaps the most time-consuming module, at least for this semester. A lot of time is spent in preparation of the CAs (3 in total, 30% each), and 3 lab sessions (a total of 10%). The good thing is that there is no finals, which somewhat alleviates the stress during the finals period. Topics covered are similar to that of H2 Biology (which I never took in JC), covering structures and functions of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, enzymes and application in drug use, membranes and bilayer, to the harder topics of signal transduction and regulatory systems. Lab involves the extraction of enzymes from a leaf, testing for proteins using spectrophotometry and Lambert's Law, with the results tabulated in a book to be submitted at the end of each ~4 hour lab session. Just need to focus on doing consistently well for each of the three rather heavy quizzes to score a good overall grade. The cohort is usually with chemical engineering / pharmacy majors, so expect a steep bell curve for each of the quizzes.

DSC2006- Operations Management
In my opinion, this is somewhat a fluffy module which did not really value-add. However, it is one of the slackest biz module in that the assessment is 15% class part, 35% mid terms and 50% finals (all MCQs). Topics covered include process layouts (and terms like Little's Law), capacity, queuing theory, inventory management, and also involves some basic knowledge of statistics such as probability, modelling (e.g. newsboy model), with the last part of the module touching on lean manufacturing, JIT, and brief introduction of supply chain management. As with business modules, you have to prepare adequately for your tutorials and "fight" for a chance to present your answers. Finals and mid terms are pretty similar and manageable. This is pretty much an ideal 6th module for people who wishes to overload in their semester.

Overall, I did very well this semester though I was not satisfied with ESE2001. But academic success is not always guaranteed, as you shall see in the next semester ;'(

AY12/13 Semester 2
This semester was rather hectic for me, mainly due to the OCIP (Project OceaNUS) that i was involved in. Therefore, I still did not overload in this semester. Below are my comments on the modules.

i) ACC1002- Financial Accounting
This is the first module for me in terms of the business/accountancy side. As the first module with considerable weightage in class participation (20%), it naturally became the focus of the semester for the first 12 weeks, mainly in tutorial preparations and project. Topics covered include fundamentals like debit and credit, inventory (FIFO, LIFO, etc), to analysing and preparing financial statements (balance sheets, cash flows, income statement). The project (20%) took up a sizable amount of time as well, with the need to analyse Li Ning's past year financial statements to answer the questions. To me, this module is interesting as I learnt something new and relevant (as compared to maths/science stuff in engineering). I had a very good lecturer, Dr Winston Kwok, who never failed to make every lecture entertaining (and a refreshing change from the usual boring engineering lectures). I also had a decent tutor, Ms Bernadette Chan, whom I always smile at in an attempt to get more class part, lol. Anyway, this module is manageable in my opinion. Just need to focus on doing well for all components of the assessments (mid terms, class part, project, finals). For me, finals was pretty challenging, with the need to memorise financial statements format, with tricky calculations and I ended up not being able to balance the cash flow (25% of the paper). Nevertheless, I focused on doing well for the rest of the questions, and the results came back good as well.

ii) CM1502- General and Physical Chemistry for Engineers
Besides the three lab reports and finals, this module was a breeze in terms of the mastery of content. There is almost nothing new from JC H2 Chemistry; in fact there is no organic chemistry which makes me feel that it is easier than H2 Chemistry. However, the lab reports were really a pain in the ass. For my first formal lab report in my university life, I did not allocate enough time to complete it and ended up sleeping at like 5am in the morning that day, only to wake up by 8am for the OCIP fundraising car wash (had to be present as most people were not available). In the end, the report had some mistakes that I caught only on hindsight, and I got a B for it. After this lesson, I started on the reports much earlier, and also asked my senior for her lab report. My subsequent lab reports got A- and A+ respectively; and I realised that while senior's reports offer a good point of reference, ultimately how well a report is written depends on insightful points and analysis that are unique for each report (with varying results and how well you substantiate or analyse your results). I did very well for mid-terms; average was around 34, and i got 44/50. As for the finals, it was hard but do-able on hindsight; probably because of time constraints that caused most people to screw up. As for me, I had about 15 minutes for the last 25 marks (supposed to take 30 mins), causing me to rush through and probably lost 20 marks in this question. But as per my usual tactic, ensuring that you get the remaining marks is important. I had expected this module to get an A- at best though, but guess mid terms and the labs helped me a lot.

iii) EG1109- Statics and Mechanics of Materials
This is perhaps the trademark module for engineering students, in that it is very hard (it is said that whoever can do 50% of the paper can get an A already). First half of the module on statics involves solving equilibrium problems (particularly taking moments about certain points and applying rotational equilibrium), statically determinate problems with the drawing of free body diagram, involving rigid bodies, pin-jointed frames and cables (cables have always been and will continue to be the killer part of this half), taught by Ang K. K. He is decent in his teachings, in my opinion. The only bad thing is that we were made to buy his textbook, as there were no lecture notes uploaded. As for the second half, taught by Victor Shim (a good and clear lecturer), it covers the mechanics portion, with topics such as stress and strain, compatibility equations, torsion, as well as bending moments and shear force diagrams (for beams). As for the assessment, it involves two quizzes (10%+10%), imparo (15%), class part (10%), and finals (55%). As finals are usually hard to score, my recommendations are to focus on the CAs and do decently for them. For my year, the finals was not as hard as the past year papers, and I manage to do about 3 out of the 4 questions. In my opinion, this is one of the hardest modules as there is no cheat sheet and there are no avenues to earn points by smoking: you just have to be good enough to analyse and calculate based on the given questions.

iv) MA1506- Mathematics II
Somewhat a continuation of MA1505, this module focuses a lot on Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs), such as first order, second order, homogeneous, etc. There are also other concepts taught, such as matrices, linear algebra, laplace transform that are used to help solve DEs. My opinion of this module is somewhat similar to MA1505- abstract, academically rigorous, but if you understood how to do the tutorials and especially past year papers, you should be able to do well. The assessment is as follows: mid term (10 MCQs, 20%) and finals (8x2 questions, 80%). To get or close to getting an A, you probably need at least 8/10 for mid terms, and probably get above 85/100 for the finals, in my opinion. The cohort is super large (~1600 students), which is good for the bell curve. However, as with mathematics modules, there are not much room for errors. An advice is to conscientiously do or look through/understand the questions from the past year papers and tutorials. Understanding is more important than just mindlessly practising on the questions. And take down useful examples for your cheat sheet.

v) MLE1101- Introductory Materials Science and Engineering
This is somewhat a module that I loved and hated at the same time. I loved it as the assessment is simple and ideal: Just a mid terms (25%, MCQs) and finals (75%), lectures are webcasted. Naturally, this became the "cushioning module' for this semester. The bad thing about this module, beside the supposed chemical engineering bell curve, is that the content is really boring, and it is really a torture listening to the webcast by Prof Xue Jun Min. Whereas attending the actual lecture also is a torture as it is very hard to stay awake, probably due to his hypnotic accent. From memory, content of this module include metals, phase diagrams (can be confusing but this is important), ceremics, polymeric materials (e.g. plastics), as well as some common content from EG1109 such as stress and strain. The mid term was a breeze for me; while finals had a few (~20% of the whole paper) which were more tricky. Do note that the bell curve for this module should be pretty steep, as expected for that involving chemical engineering, but as a general rule for doing well, just do your best and try to ace the paper, rather than being obsessed with comparison with other students or with the bell curve.

I did very well this semester; kind of unexpectedly well since I was busy with OCIP and stuff. Yep, so Y1S2 was completed on a happy note. :)

Introduction

Hi all. I've created this blog mainly to share about my experiences in NUS and give some of my personal opinions in terms of modules which I had taken (for the benefit of prospective students considering/taking these modules). Of course, these are just my own experiences for information purposes only and may not be representative of the actual modules. And these are not meant to ridicule the lecturers, people, bell curve or to show off; so feel free to not read on if you are those judgmental/sensitive types.

I was enrolled in the undergraduate programme of Environmental Engineering & Business Administration (Accountancy), which is a double degree programme (DDP) offered by NUS. A seemingly unrelated combination, you would say. For me, it was more for the purpose of learning more, partly because at least a sizable portion of graduates do not end up working in the area they studied. Moreover, engineering is one of the more useful degrees in my opinion, general yet specialised in a way, while biz(acc) is pretty self-explanatory in that life (and money) revolves around businesses (with accountancy as an intrinsic part). Though practically, you wouldn't need to know so much/ in depth, so my recommendation for prospective undergraduates is to either take engineering + business, or just accountancy (unless it is for your own academic interest or that you want to stay as a student longer). The DDP is a 5-year one (without honours for biz(acc)), or 5.5 years for honours in both degrees. You probably would be thinking that the curriculum would be super intense and crazy; my personal take is that it is not easy but it is possible to survive and even do well. Of course, I have only tasted 40% (2 years) of it so what lies ahead will only be known in a matter of time.

Without further ado, lets move on to the modules which I have taken over the two years in NUS:
(Note that I may not remember as well some of the past modules taken a few semesters earlier)

AY12/13 Semester 1
i) CE2409- Computer Applications in Civil Engineering
From memory, this is the shiongest module for me in Y1S1. This module is basically split into two parts: part 1 involves drawing of structures using Microstation (somewhat similar to Autocad i guess). As someone who tends to wait till finals is near before chionging, the weekly lab sessions and tutorials were pretty stressful for me, especially when the PRC tutors were not speaking effectively and also partly due to my slow learning of the software. The group project (25% of overall weightage) involves the drawing of a recreational complex, leaving students free to draw anything which they liked, which makes it more stressful with the seemingly unlimited things one could draw. Below are some of the drawings my group (me and Gordon) have drawn:

Top view of toilets

Entrance of the bowling place

Bowling 

Bowling lanes and pins

 

    Desk with a desktop and keyboard (look carefully)

An overall view of the recreational complex we drawn

Close-up of the pool balls

Tried to draw spiral/curved stairs

The spiral staircase drawn by gordon

Close-up of the bowling pins

I got most of my inspirations from Yishun Safra, which i frequent for playing pool/bowling. I had fun drawing the pool balls as well, arranging them in the formation suitable for playing already. Pretty awesome looking at these images now, but I have forgotten how to draw all of these already. Sad. Gordon was of great help in terms of compiling the final drawing and helping me with some problems in drawing.

As for the second half of the module, it involves the learning of Fortran programming language, perhaps somewhat similar to C programming. An excerpt (incomplete) found in one of my email two years ago is as follows:

PROGRAM Horner
! This program evaluates a polynomial of degree n with given values of n, coefficients of each term, and values of x, 
! using the Horner's method. 
 IMPLICIT NONE
    INTEGER, DIMENSION(:), ALLOCATABLE :: a
    INTEGER :: n, i=0, AllocateStatus
    REAL :: X, Xlow, Xhigh, Step, Cvalue
      
 DO
     PRINT *, "This program evaluates your complicated polynomial for you"
        PRINT *, "Enter value of n (degree of polynomial)"
        READ *, n
        IF (n>=1) THEN
         ALLOCATE (a(0:n), STAT = AllocateStatus)
            IF (AllocateStatus /= 0) STOP "**Program has no memory for u ;)**"
            EXIT
        END IF
        PRINT *, "U cannot key in such a value. Your mum don't run this program"
    END DO
    PRINT *, "Enter value of coefficients, starting from constant"
    READ *, a
    PRINT *, "Enter range of values of x: lower, upper, incr"
 READ *, Xlow, Xhigh, Step
 ! Initialise value of X
    X = Xlow
    DO WHILE (X <= Xhigh)
    ! Initialise value

Basically, the second half involves a quiz on coding, and a project assignment using fortran to solve a typical engineering problem. This half is relatively more manageable for me, without the weekly graded lab/ tutorial sessions exerting a constant stress on me.

Sadly, I did not do very well for this module. Got a B+ which i guess is due to the fact that I did not do exceptionally well for any of the components of  this module.

ii) ES1531 (formerly EG1413) : Critical thinking and writing
This was a slack module, used as a 'cushion' to complement other relatively more academically rigorous/tedious modules like CE2409, MA1505 and PC1431. Basically there are three components: Assignment 1 which is writing a critique essay (800 words; 20%), Position Paper (including Written Report, oral defence, etc; 35%), class participation (5%), finals (40%). The main takeaway for this module is learning how to write academic papers, proper referencing and using NUS library to find the 'proper' sources instead of just googling. If you can think and write logically, you should be able to do well for this module. I did well for assignment 1; average for Position Paper, probably somewhat well for finals as I got an A- for it.

iii) ESE1001: Environmental Engineering Fundamentals
I thought this was a pretty chill and slack module. Basically you learn everything covered in environmental engineering, somewhat briefly as it is more of an exposure module focusing on the breadth aspect. Topics that I remember in this module include microbiology, chemical kinetics, introduction to reactors (e.g. CSTR, Plug flow). Assessment-wise, it includes two quizzes, term paper (on any environmental issues), and finals. The finals for my year was somewhat a killer, unconventional open-ended questions that rendered my two double-sided cheatsheets almost useless.

iv) MA1505: Mathematics I
I actually forgot most of what was taught in this module, except that it is a pretty academically rigorous module with many abstract concepts. After looking back at my online lecture notes, topics covered include differentiation and integration, multivariate functions, series (taylor), coordinate geometry. Basically an extension of A level H2 maths with some new topics like evaluating double or triple integrals. The first test after my 2+ years of hiatus, I sort of screwed up the mid terms (10 MCQs), held in multiple MPSHs at around 8pm, with an impressive cohort size of ~1600 (all engineering students and some science students take that). The mid terms has a 20% weightage; rather significant I would say. I myself got an unimpressive 7/10; mean was around 6.5.  As for finals, I remembered using my cheatsheet effectively by copying down tutorial/past year examples during the finals. I think I did well for finals in the end to cover up for the screw-up in mid terms.

v) PC1431: Physics IE
My impression of this module is that the tutorials are super hard. Topics covered revolve around mechanics and for the later part, thermodynamics. Of particular significance is conservation of linear & angular momentum, rotational kinematics (pretty confusing sometimes), moment of inertia and center of mass, while the second half deals with internal energy, first/second law of thermodynamics, etc. For my year, the finals was hard especially for linear momentum question (something like a ball rolling over and on top of the stairs, which i skipped and gave up 6/60 of the paper which is 60% of overall grade) while thermodynamics was supposed to be the life-saver. I did well for the CA, while finals I thought I didnt do well with many uncertainties in the answer. My conclusion for this module after getting back the result and comparing it with friends: physics module tend to have an easier bell curve as it is really the unambiguous "can/cannot do" type and not really "smokable".

Shall continue the review for other semesters in the next post. (Note: As per NUS's policy of lessening the obsession with grades, I shall not reveal my grades though in general I managed to do well (for the first three semesters at least).