localscientist

This morning, I was listening to the radio whilst driving and they are talking about this term, do anyone ever achieve happiness ever after?

Well the term is vague, but it do imply that one will be happy at all times. I don't think its possible but you will always have a balance between happy vs unhappy times. A happy day will be when happy times > unhappy times. So all in all, to get yourself feeling positive all year round then one need to strive to achieve this happy times.

Happiness is something one earned and not stumble into. This also true for everything in life, you have to work for it.

Is something very difficult when you have thousands of things you want to do. End up you will be doing something that you are not suppose to do, just because you cannot concentrate on the task in hand.

This is where discipline comes in, and to maintain the discipline one need determination. To gain determination one must have the energy to keep it... and life as always will be an ongoing process.

About one month ago, I got a letter from the university appointing me as Dean of Engineering Faculty. This letter come as a surprise... a real surprise. I hear the rumours etc. but as I always dislike office politics I simply ignore them.

My mind is really muddled now, it is a much bigger amanah then one that I have for about 4 yrs now as a deputy dean.

Amanah or its english equivalent linguistically is responsibility is a big undertaking and I for one feel so small in the picture.

At the moment I pray to the Almighty that I am able to take this responsibility and will give the best of my ability to take on the Amanah.

This is one of the many philosophical thoughts that cross my mind this morning. The mind debates concludes that one's life are simply made up of interconnecting processes. These processes are accumulated over the years, some are significant but mostly do not.

However, just like any process the life processes also will require resources. One of the most important resources that the process will consume is time. It is very important as it is irreplaceable and no amount of money or effort can replace the time used for the process.

As one grow older then there will be more processes to be completed each day. Each of the processes require more and more time. However, time for a day, a week and a year do not change. There always be more processes to be completed per hour, per day, per week, per month, per year and so son.

The management coaches always give two possible solutions, prioritize the processes, means that do the most important one first, or delegate where you let other do part of your tasks, task processes will run in parallel saving you some time.

Both solutions although both do save you time but then it will not give me satisfaction I creed for, when doing these processes.

As of now, these are the methods that I use to satisfy the need of the life processes. May be some how and some way man can think of new way of how time and processes can be merged but the one thought by Einstein "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." still hold true for me.

What is life changing process?
I define life changing process as a process where one undergoes that transform his life into something else.

What is mine?
Most probably the process of learning to read. I cannot actually remember the process itself, just bits and pieces. It is about 30 years ago. I can read when I'm about 7. Very late by today's standard.

What I do remember is that I order Mingguan Kanak-kanak and Utusan Pelajar from the Pak Cik who deliver our newspaper. Then I start reading these two weekly paper with zest. The two newspaeper do rapidly improve my vocabulary and fluency.Then whenever we visit my grandparents house I start reading Bujal, Gila-gila and Salina from my cousin collection. It was always there before but I can't read earlier.

I do enjoy those magazines but sadly its no more on sale nowadays.

As my reading skills progress I start digging on classics from my fathers collection in store at my grandparents house thus opening another new dimension of my reading where I been introduce to work of Sir Athur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare etc. It is very much a life changing moment.

Then when we visit grandparent on my mother's side, I get to read classics from Hamzah Fansuri, Hamka, A. Samad Said etc. I find language from Malays Classics much more difficult to comprehend then the English ones. Most probably due to the rapid changes in the language itself which up to this moment still baffles me.

When I'm in standard 3 (about 9 yrs old) I been introduced to the library concept, where you go and borrow books. I complete the class collection in a month and by the end of the year the school collection as well. Then I start going to public libraries, where more books available. First my parents will drop me off at the public library whenever they go shopping etc. Later I will walk to the library in between the school session and co-curricular session.

Upon reaching 12 years old I got another joy, I been given card to access the adult section of the collection.

And I never look back till now, and books have always been a dear friend to me.

This morning as I was driving to work, I heard this quote on the radio

"Remember no matter how successful, how rich you are there are of no use if you are 6 feet under. One of the most important thing is for you to take care of your health to reap what you work for".

Nice quotes, and as my age advanced I do feel that it is so relevant now. As you get older, it become more difficult to get well when you're sick and injured. And there is a tendency to get sick easier now.

Well thats life, and what comes after is as important as what you have now.

"All life will turn to dust in 100 years or so, but memory lingers with the living"

Just bite the bullet and continue working!

A few weeks before, after lots of thinking and other related accidents I decide to invest on another mobile phone. Frankly buying a new mobile phone project truly get myself excited. I start poring over reviews, discussions etc. It even distracts me from working (a welcome one at times).

My aim is to get a phone that can do everything. I want a mobile phone as a phone, reminders, e-book readers, something to pass time with -games etc., and I like it to be new everyday (change here and there etc.).

In fact this is my third attempt of getting such a device. My first foray here start with a Moto A768i. A Linux phone that can do myriad of things, but the problem come with the quality of its charger (of all things), that after a year it simply become unusable. buying new one is quite expensive and as nobody is using it, then it also difficult to find. Some shops request for 2 weeks to get stock.

So I change to a Nokia E65. Another kind of operating system a Symbian 3rd Edition. This time a plethora of applications presents me with endless possibilities. However, the processor let it down as it is really slow and the screen is much too small for me to do any serious reading. Not to mention that the phone look old with paint peeling, plastic cracking...

Then when I read the review on Omnia, I'm hooked. Although it is a little more expensive then I budgeted for. However, through some serious haggling and shopping around I managed to get one that just in the periphery of my initial budget.

Well, the last 4 days have been about learning. Its not as easy as before, in fact this Window Mobile Devices have quite a steep learning curve. But it does gets me excited. Just like what every engineer should feel with new gadgets.

While login in to livejournal just now, I just have a cursory glance at the statistics for the number of blogs and entries created. The numbers are staggering, with 2.4 mil journals created and 240,000 entry in the last 24 hours. Mostly mine will be in one of the 240,000.

Based on that figure this entry will be of 0.00041% of the 0.000000004167 % total blogs/journal available in the in livejournal. From figures by MCMC there are 14.5 mil internet user in Malaysia and assuming that they all visit livejournal then there will be 6% chances that they will visit this blogs.

However as there are another 25.21 bil other web pages in this world (according to the latest census). Of those there are 75 mil are of the top level domain (same status as livejournal).

So from all these data what does it means? Actually one can go round and round creating probabilities and possibility or impossibilities out of the many figures you can get from various sources. At the end of the day you can convince or unconvinced someone easily, as people generally believe that numbers do not lie.

As far as I'm concerned the numbers are as words they can be manipulated to represent different things at different times according to different needs. Just like words numbers has also endless possibilities to create a story, and those who are able to manipulate the number story can wrote novels, reports, accounts as well as any writers who have the mastery in manipulating words.

A lot has been written on the power of positing thinking, being positive, positive power etc.

In the line of work being a lecturer one will always like to have this power as in every lecture you will see a myriad of expressions and not all are positive. This is more true when you have afternoon classes where most student feel saturated for the day.

And the lecturer need to keep going, and by being positive will not give up in doing so. I have tried many methods to liven up the environment, and as the semester progresses it become harder and harder.

Towards the end of semester I will always look forward to the break (as the students) to rejuvenate the belief that I can facilitate the information sharing that I want. May be to find some time to restrategize or learn new facilitation methods.

But what matters most if for me to keep the belief/hope that I have done a good job in delivering the material with ample encouragement and facilitation on how to understand the subject matter.

Tomorrow will be the exam paper, and let see if my belief is justified else it will be another reality check.

Results is everything that one will look at when ever doing something. However, being a scientist it is also very important to enjoy the journey to get there.

When one are preoccupied by result then you stop observing, stop living the life... thus the journey is always as important as the result.

Thus it is important to ensure that whatever result you want, is because you want it and rightfully earn it.

Recently we host the IROC 2008 at our campus. Although the week has been hectic to say the least however the competition do achieve its objective partially. As mention by Prof Kim in his opening speech the best part of this competition for the organizer is when we can seek the sparkle in the contestant eyes when they achieve their objective.

Although the competitive nature of a competition such as the IROC might obscure the engineering goals however on overall it does give ample exposure to the student on how a robot is built.

It is disheartening to see that Malaysian student are so far behind in this field. It seems that we still need to play catch up in this area.

This week I am fortunate enough to listen to a speech by Prof. Michael Worton, Vice Provost of University College London (UCL). A very eloquent speaker, I have to add.

As UCL is situated in the city of London, one of the melting pots of culture, he promotes a thinking of cultural mobility through knowledge. Where one gains knowledge in the field of study then one might be able to mobilize better across culture. The university has also added the word real, to “learning outcomes” becoming “real world learning outcome”, as the pillar of Outcome Based Education (OBE). A hot topic amongst public university lecturer currently all over the world.

This is in-line with the university funding philosophy where the university is built to be a secular university as opposed to theological one (at the time). In fact at the time this is the only university that is not based or attached to the church institution.

By the definition of secularity then I felt that the university have misrepresented the term ‘culture’. As with other ‘secular’ based philosophy the need for one to follow a set of norms are not being respected. In fact one can follow whatever norms that he/she thinks is good based on knowledge gained.

In reality this is different from muslim scientific culture, where one thinks and research to promote the supreme Creator, Allah s.w.t. At any one time a muslim scientist always of remember the fact that we only have a drop of knowledge available and seeks to gain more, whilst conscious that Allah s.w.t. is the one that own all the knowledge and what gains by the scientists are what permitted by Him.

Thus when one talks about cultural mobility, one might always thinks that he/she are better suited for another culture but one must always remember that one cannot change his physical appearances, to suit the “best culture”.

At best the term mobility is better associated with “understanding” rather than the word “assimilation” as most people through knowledge, can tolerate other cultures through understanding of its origin, but one can never assimilate into another culture fully.

And possession of knowledge might make one be superior to others, but one must always be aware that he/she is at the mercy of Allah s.w.t. and what gained can be taken back any time.

First and foremost I feel honored to be invited to listen to a special talk onleadership by VC of USM, a person who have achieved such heights in his career.

He talks about leadership, on the way that he perceives it rather than the norms of the society, or what he termed as the western definition of leadership. The angle that he took to form his opinions on leadership is from linguistic point of view. Here he pointed out that the translation for leadership used in the malay language is "kepimpinan", that come from the word "pimpin". Which can be defined as "holding hands to assist someone to get to somewhere".

Thus the idea of a lone leader do not exist in Malay, even the leader is defined as a "ketua" which come from word "tua" or "old". So the norm of the malay society do not conform to feudalistic norm that formed the traditional view of leadership. Instead of a captain barking orders to steer a ship, it is an elder working guiding the team to steer the ship.

So with this differences, the definition is somewhat similar to coaches/facilitators that guides the team to an objectives as oppose to direct the team towards the objectives. The leaders will be a hands on person, that involves very much in what the team does day to day, whilst guiding them towards a stated objectives.

Obviously the coach, is a lot better then the director in my opinion. However, one must also note that, successful coach are difficult to find, and also the coach might not be right all the time. Inputs from the team are important to the coach, and as a team member one must always be willing to perform their own role. It is a two way street, where much is expected from the team as also from the coach.

The questions to be asked are, as a team member are we willing to contribute towards the objectives as active participants? Or we better off as a passenger that follows where the driver will take us?

I feel like shouting today... hence I do shout.

I decide to change the content oft this blogs, instead of talking about random topics, which I found unmanageable - there are too many and too little time to talk, discuss and write about, I will write about my thoughts on lectures/talks that I attended.

There are quite a number, however just like any other events in life there are few that worth talking and discussing about. I believe with that focus in mind I will be able to digress more on the topic and present better opinions on the topics then what been done currently.

As a Malaysian living in Malaysia, opinions might have political connotations but I like to stress that I am not affiliated to any political parties and all my opinions are solely for academic discussion.

Currently here is the exams period, the campus have these eerie silence at times. Most lectures, I'm included, can have some time for reflection. What have we achieve in the current semester? How can I deliver better ? etc.

I always felt that I can do better this semester, but with holidays and administrative commitments, I feel like I am unprepared for some classes this semester. Not to mention the limited time I have to prepare and mark quizzes and assignments.

How I am going to tackle this issue in the coming semester?

For a start I will not be offering any courses for this short semester (apart from independent study). I will use the time to revise all the lecture notes for the subject to be offered in July (Machine Visions and Mechatronic System Design). This time around I will also do the quizzes, mid-sem and finals as well.

The three months will also be a very invaluable time for me to look closely at my research students, and their progress. Hopefully, I can see better output form them this time.

...Unfortunately the time for reflection is kind of short, there is another deadline to hand in the marks.

I have tried nearly every trick in the book to get higher productivity in terms of work. More or less I think I am near the limits of my ability.

My plan for this year is to breach the limits, thus through some creative means to breach the ability limits once. I have done so in the past, where a change in thinking method can yield surprisingly good results.

Hopefully I pull off the same thing this time.

BTW it is year of the rat, which suppose to be my birth year.

I can't seem to pin point on what is new for this year.

This make me wonder am I stuck on a plateau? Will I be trapped in this routine? How can I make sure that I can move up to a better position, not getting sucked into a routine job.

If I am happy with a routine job, then why would be a scientist? In fact by being routine the passion on the subject might not be there. I think I like to to change them. But how?

A simple observation on students behavior in general do tend to do everything last minute. Is it unhealthy? Yes it is.

Myself I have tried to reduce procrastination as much as possible. As soon as I got all data in hand then proceed to get the job done.

The big IF is where to find the source of inspiration? Do I need one? How to ensure that whatever written (such as this piece) and design will be as good as creatively possible?

Sometimes for days, I will be trying to picture how the work can be completed, but how I tried it cannot be done. Lo and behold, the day before the deadline everything seem to click together. How can that be possible?

However, through some (unfortunate) experiment I found that if I do not do steps as outlined the output will not be as good as it can be, after the deadline. Rereading the piece after make you think that more can be done or should be done to complete the work.

To start the new year, I redo the web sites. As most of the teaching material is handled by the IIUM elearn system, the website now will only be about my research.

The design is a bit dark, however I find them easy to read.

comments are welcome. Happy new year everyone!

I still cannot make up my mind on what to achieve in 2008! Too many things, there even some carry-overs from 2007.

The list starts from:
a) 4 International Conference Papers
b) 2 Science Index Journals
c) 1 Research grant
d) 1 innovation Gold Medal
e) Better financial management
f) 1 family holiday

Too many? I can always list up to Z but I think if I can achieve this six, I will be very happy. So good bye 2007, and I welcome 2008 with the aim of achieving all me resolutions.