Portfolio 5 - Minimize potential unethical abuses of brain mapping

People have been thinking of reading a person's mind throughout centuries. With the aid of advanced technologies, especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we have successfully to execute some simple mind readings. However, as we meet the success in brain mapping more and more frequently, ethical issues arise, especially when we talk about the potential abuses that may unavoidably occur. Once this advantageous technology is being abused or misused, it will become dangerous. For example, terrorists may capture a military officer, scan the officer's brain, obtain any top military secret and plan for their next attack. Therefore, minimizing potential unethical abuses of this technology is crucial; we should at least have strict rules and regulations on its usage, typically by whom and to whom it is allowed.

First, the ownership of related machines should be with the government, that is, no any individual or non-governmental organisation (NGO) is allowed to own such device; even the manufacturing role is to be restricted. By having this rule, the access to this technology will be controllable. We can have a trace of who has accessed it. Some may suggest restricting the ownership and accessibility by licensing; however, licenses do not promise us the “real” user of the device is authorised, so licensing is not a good solution.

Second, we should identify to whom this technology can be used. The most important requirement is the permission by the one whose brain is to be mapped. We cannot force anyone, who is unwilling, to be brain-mapped. Besides, this technology should be used only on those who really need a brain mapping, such as Pick’s disease patient, as we still don’t know whether if there is any side effect to the mapped brain.

In conclusion, brain mapping is naturally a beneficial technology. The pros or cons that it will bring rely completely on by whom and to whom it is used. To eliminate any possibility of abuse, rules and regulations must be made, and more importantly, we must follow them.

Portfolio 4 - Difficulties In Engineering Writing

Time passes without mercy, more than two months have passed since my very first day in NUS. As an engineering undergraduate, writing academic essays focusing on engineering are unavoidable. Of course, I have been facing some difficulties in writing them, even for now. Here, I am ready to share them with you all.

First, the style of academic writing is totally different with what I have used to be. I have been writing mainly narrative essays all the time since I was in primary school, all the way until Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM, equivalent to A-Level). Due to my familiarity in writing narrative essays, which do not require a straight-forward style to introduce a point, I have been encountering problems in writing academic essays. I have been struggling for a long time to write a good thesis statement in formal academic essays, because no matter how well I wrote it, I will feel that the sentence is not very attractive, like what a narrative essays' sentence should have, and this wasted most of my time. However, after this two months of EG1471, I am feeling some improvements in my writing of academic essays. I hope that it is not just my feeling, but truth.

Second, my engineering-related vocabulary is insufficient. Due to the same reason, my vocabulary is formed by mainly those for story writing, which are usually unsuitable for academic essays. Hence, searching for a suitable word to convey my idea has become my second problem. The exercises in "Focus on Vocabulary" has really helped me a lot. It contains many academic-related words that we should know to have a smooth progress in writing. However, I have not encountered any problems in writing the short answers in MLE1101 yet. Furthermore, after enhancing myself with these necessary words, I think I won't feel big problems in expressing my ideas in the coming MLE1101 questions.

These are the two main problems that I have encountered so far. There are still some other grammar problems such as modals and articles, but they are not so serious in my case.

Portfolio 3 - A summary about fusion power

Solid, liquid and gas are the three states of matter that we are familiar with. However, in the last century, a fourth state of matter called plasma has been introduced. In addition, the astounding fact is that the universe contains around 99 percent of plasma, which we did not realize for centuries!

The future of human survival much relies on new source of energy that replaces fossil fuel, which is decreasing and causing pollutions. Several sources have been proposed: Nuclear fuel which has a great potential, but is not widely accepted by the public; hydrogen power but consumes even more fossil fuels with current technology; and wind and solar energy that are still not in practice.

Plasma, which is defined as a high temperature ionized gas, can be one of the solutions by putting fusion into effect. Fusion just simply means the joining of atoms, which will cause a transformation of mass into energy. Such reaction requires an extremely high temperature, about 100 million degrees Celsius. One of the crucial problems is that how a container is to be designed to withstand such temperature without danger.

Fusion energy brings several important benefits. First, the source of fusion energy is easily available. Second, there will be relatively no negative impact to the environment. Third, less waste products are produced, if compared with nuclear fission power. Fusion energy is now recognized by scientists to be environmental friendly, more concentrated and perhaps inexhaustible for its abundance. We should put some hope on it for the future of human kinds.


Reference:

Lowman, M. (2006). Will fusion power provide energy solutions for our grandchildren? Retrieved September 11, 2008 from http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20060129/COLUMNIST18/601290335

Portfolio 2 - Grammar (Adjectives Order)

People often make grammar mistakes in English writing. One of my common grammar mistakes is the order of adjectives. Adjectives are used to describe nouns in order to give certain image to readers. However, whenever we use more than one adjective to describe a single noun in a time, we need to follow the order of adjectives, not just simply write them without any rule. The correct order of adjectives should be as the following: determiner or article, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, religion, material, purpose. We should follow this order whenever we want to describe a noun using multiple adjectives. First, we need to determine whose the object belongs to, and we use possessive pronouns for it. On the other hand, we can also use articles (CILL). Second, the opinion adjectives simply mean those which describe the opinion of anyone to that particular object (Learn4Good Net, 2003 - 2008). Some examples of them are ugly, good and frightening. Third, the size adjectives, such as huge and small are those which indicate the size of the object (Learn4Good Net, 2003 - 2008). Then will be the age adjectives, for instance, old and new. Age adjectives indicate the time of the object since it was created (Learn4Good Net, 2003 - 2008). Next, the shape adjectives and colour adjectives give us a general guideline of how the object looks like. Besides, there are origin adjectives that tell us the place the object is made or come from. We have also the religious adjectives that tell us the religion that the object belongs to. Next, the material adjectives tell us clearly the material that is used to create the object. Finally, the purpose adjectives which show the usage of the object. According to Learn4Good Net, the purpose adjectives are usually end with "-ing", this makes the identification easier. In brief, the usage of adjectives is simple; however, we still have to take note of their order when using them.

Exercise (CILL)

Correct the order of the adjectives and noun.

1. desk office big ugly an wooden brown
2. hair long black straight my sister's
3. photograph black white and oval a family historic
4. vase jade Ming beautiful a antique little green
5. computer laptop high-tech brand-new deep university's blue my

My Answers

1. An ugly big brown wooden office desk
2. My sister's long straight black hair
3. A historic oval black and white family photograph
4. A beautiful little antique green Ming jade vase
5. My university's high-tech brand-new deep blue laptop computer

Official Answers

1) An ugly big brown wooden office desk.

1. Determiner or article - An
2. opinion - ugly
3. size - big
4. shape -
5. age -
6. colour - brown
7. nationality -
8. religion -
9. material - wooden
10. noun used as an adjective - office
11. the main noun - desk.

2) My sister's long straight black hair.

1. Determiner or article - My sister's
2. opinion -
3. size - long
4. shape - straight
5. age -
6. colour - black
7. nationality -
8. religion -
9. material -
10. noun used as an adjective -
11. the main noun - hair.

3) A historic oval black and white family photograph.

1. Determiner or article - a
2. opinion - historic
3. size -
4. shape - oval
5. age - (not historic, as historic means about a famous event.)
6. colour - black and white
7. nationality -
8. religion -
9. material -
10. noun used as an adjective - family
11. the main noun - photograph.

4) A beautiful little antique green jade Ming vase. (Antique means over one hundred years old, and therefore valuable.)

1. Determiner or article - a
2. opinion - beautiful
3. size - little
4. shape -
5. age - antique
6. colour - green
7. nationality -
8. religion -
9. material - jade
10. noun used as an adjective - Ming
11. the main noun - vase.

5) My university's high-tech brand-new deep blue laptop computer.

1. Determiner or article - My university's
2. opinion - high-tech
3. size -
4. shape -
5. age - brand-new
6. colour - deep blue
7. nationality -
8. religion -
9. material -
10. noun used as an adjective - laptop
11. the main noun - computer.

Reference:-

Learn4Good Net. (2003 - 2008). Adjective Lesson Plan. Retrieved September 8, 2008, from source http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_grammar/adjective_order.htm

Centre for Independent Language Learning. (2003). Adjective Order. Retrieved September 8, 2008, from source http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CiLL/exercises/adjectiveorder.htm

Portfolio 1

After reading the articles "Introduction to the Grand Challenges for Engineering" and "The expanding world of engineers", I found that the world of engineers has really changed. Engineers are not merely dealing with constructions again, instead, we can see engineering-educated individuals everywhere, even includes the financial area that people have never thought there will be engineers involved.

Hence, engineers are now not only facing the complicated mathematics, their scope of challenges is getting wider and wider. One challenge that has captured most of my attention is the issue of energy sources. As stated in the first article, the Earth that we are living on possesses finite resources. We need energy, especially electric energy nowadays, to keep our lifestyle uninterrupted. Without energy, any other work that engineers do or will do is just a waste of time.

As we all know, most electricity generating stations are based on the "turbine" technique, which requires and external force to spin the turbine to generate electricity. However, heat engine is the most widely used method to produce this external force. In fact, heat engine is the most economic solution in this field, but it is also the most polluting solution that we cannot avoid. Burning fossil fuels simply produces carbon dioxide which is categorized as a member of green house gases, directly worsen the environmental condition of the Earth.

Although various alternatives have been invented by engineers, there is still no replacement for fossil fuels. There are two main concerns that engineers should aware. First, fossil fuels cannot be created by human-beings in a large amount. We know that millions years are required to have fossil fuel usable, yet our oil consumption is at a tremendous rate every day. This leads to an assumption that fossil fuels are going to deplete very soon. Therefore, engineers' time to invent a whole new alternative energy source is limited. They need to be more productive. Second, they must aware that they need to find a balance between economic and environmental friendly issues. Facts tell us that environment is less concerned than the the economic factor. Nonetheless, the invented alternatives should consist of both factors. This will be the ultimate goal for engineers to pursuit the mainstream energy in the future.

Engineers are alive with the existence of energy, without energy, engineers can do nothing. "Pursuit a new energy source", will become the greatest challenge this profession will meet.