Blog Post 6: Biodata

My name is Zaw Htet Aung. I am a final year student majoring in Electrical Engineering. I chose to pursue this engineering course as I believed that “Engineers are concerned with creating new things. They apply their knowledge to design and develop usable devices, structures and processes – Engineers aim to do”.

As an engineering student, I am interested in learning and creating new things. I always welcome challenges and obstacles as I suppose them as stepping stones towards the greater success and valuable experiences. Moreover, I believed that self-confidence makes me more reasonable person and being in a team also allows me to develop a better understanding of my strengths and weakness.

I have about one year working experience as an Assistant Engineer at STATSchipPAC Pte. Ltd after I graduated from Temasek Polytechnics. I worked in the Assembly Department, ICs Manufacturing. My work involved technical support, troubleshooting, machine maintenance and testing for ICs.

According to the proverb “No man is an island”, I enjoy meeting people and making friends. It brings to me the opportunity to interact with more people and I can learn their different ideas, cultures and backgrounds.

Blog Post 5: Communication

It is not difficult to realize that good communication is essential for everyone to finish our daily routine woks. Good communication can bring good understanding to us. Last week, we read about NTU student's suicidal case in the newspapers. When we examine this suicidal case, it can be seen that suicidal case is related to FYP project stress, scholarship problem and communication problem. Hence, it can be seen that communication plays an important role in our school environment. Students should have good communication and understanding with lecturers, project supervisors and other students for obtaining good achievements.

I would like to describe one dilemma (communication problem) that my friend faced.

My friend's name is Htun. He is a final year electrical student and he started his final year project (FYP) last August. Here, I would like to discuss about FYP project. FYP project is an individual project that weighs 12MC. We need to finish our FYP within one year (two semesters). Each student is assigned with a project supervisor.

My friend, Htun is doing AC to DC converter project. Although he is in final year, he still needs to learn other subjects. So, last semester (August), he took five modules and FYP. According to FYP's rules and regulations, students have to keep in contact with their respective project supervisors and maintain good communication with them. Although Htun's supervisor would like to meet him twice a month, he only met his supervisor four or five times last semester. He spent a lot of time on studying other modules rather than doing his FYP. So, his supervisor was not content and satisfactory for his project progress and not having regular meeting.

During school holidays (last December), he tried very hard to finish his FYP. But, he only finished 30% of project and his supervisor forced him to speed up his progress on the project. In this semester (January), he took three modules and so he could give more time for his FYP. Even though he tried very hard to do his project well, he could not get good output results because he faced with many problems in his circuit designs (converter).

In his meeting with supervisor last month, Htun was told that he was not hardworking and so project did not progress well. In addition, his supervisor commented that he only would like to see output results rather than project progress because the time is too tight and the project needed to be submitted by the end of March. Htun was very stressful for his FYP and he was afraid of meeting with his supervisor. He felt very sad because his supervisor did not recognize his contribution to the project although he spent most of the time in his FYP lab to get output results.

Last week, Htun told me that he was very afraid of failing his FYP. When I analyzed his project progress, I saw that he finished almost 75% of his project. All circuits were working except from small errors. Because of these small errors, he could not achieve final output results. I told him that it is possible for him to finish 85% to 90% of his project by this month (March). I have also suggested to him that regular meeting with supervisor is essential for establishing good communication and understanding.

Analyzing above problem

The main problem is that Htun did not have good communication and understanding with his supervisor since the beginning of project due to lack of regular meeting. Although he has finished 75% of his project, his supervisor did not recognize his contribution. Because of not having regular meeting and good communication, Htun’s supervisor perceived him as not a hardworking student and so project is not successful.

Basically, FYP is a very difficult project to finish 100% completely within one year (two semesters). Although we cannot finish 100% completely, we, students need to show our full contributions and commitments to the project by keeping in contact with our respective project supervisors regularly. By doing this, it can also lead to good communication and understanding between students and supervisors. Moreover, supervisors can also know easily their students' project progress and can give some suggestions and advices to their students. Although FYP project is not finished 100% completely, students can even obtain good grade if supervisors realize their students' contributions from regular meeting.

Therefore, good communication plays an important role in our individual's achievements.

Do you think that Htun can get good grade from his FYP if he even finishes 85% or 90% of project before end of March?