Singapore, Singapore
Aug 2004
Semester Abroad at the National University of Singapore (NUS), studying Robotics & Automation and Japanese.
Highlights of Singapore
- S'pore is a cashless place. Buy something. Beep. Get on the train. Beep. Make a call. Beep. Get on the bus. Beep. Take my elevator. Beep. Open my cluster gate. Beep. Unlock my door. Beep. Imagine if they made you swipe for class attendance!
- I found bus passes to be the ONLY "expensive" thing here.
- All MRT (public train) stations have cell phone reception.
- There are TVs in air-conditioned buses - that's how I watched the Olympics Women's Gymnastics. I circled the bus route a few times to watch the entire competition :P
- I wonder about the unemployment rate - people are hired to sweep all sorts of things (dust, garbage, leaves, water, nothing) every moment of every day.
Academic Highlights
- In Robot Kinematics class, I learned:
- We can mathematically prove that any random guessing is valid.
- If you let 't' go to infinity, the vaccum cleaner will clean everything.
- When you're faced with an extraneous solution, ha! you get killer robots!
- In Digital Signal Processing class, we used our cells to text message our quiz solutions to the prof.
- In Telecommunications class, I realized that Single-Side Band modulation is actually cool. :)
- In Fuzzy/Neural Systems class, I learned that my washing machine is smarter than me.
- I spent more time on Japanese Level 1 than my 4 engineering courses combined: 7hrs/week in class + 6+ hrs/week out of class. Plus, tutorials are compulsory. Ichi-ban desu yo!
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday |
| Tutorial 2hrs Homework Ch. 4-5 Memorize Ch. 6 |
Lecture 2hrs Grammar Quiz Ch. 4-5 Prepare Ch. 7 |
Tutorial 2hrs Katakana Quiz |
Tutorial 1hr Listening Quiz Ch. 4-5 Perform Dialogue Ch.6 |
- NUS has a course bidding system - students cash in "points" to bid for desired courses. International exchange students status get unlimited points, tee-hee.
- All Electrical Engineering (EE) courses have 2 parts, each taught by 2 different profs. Mine were so entertaining!
- Profs teach tutorials themselves. All notes/tutorials are typed up for us. :)
- Final exam schedules were available during registration!
- All my EE finals were worth 70%. Just memorize formulas and plug in the numbers - eeeeasy!
- My Japanese teachers were beyond amazing, ever so resourceful and well prepared!
Student Housing Highlights
- Housing Agreement excerpt: "The Licensee shall keep the room open or leave the door ajar whenever a member of the opposite gender is in the room." Hehe.
- There's a new sushi place on campus. PLUS, it has a rice-ball-making machine!!!
