Portfolio 5

Brain mapping techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and positron emission tomography (PET) are used to map the brain activation patterns. The techniques are constantly evolving and researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with various behavior patterns. On the positive side, brain mapping is helping surgeons locate and remove tumors that once were considered inoperable, saving the lives of many patients. On the other side, several ethical issues are predicted to arise when the technology is fully developed and made available to the masses.

In the future, brain mapping results might be used to convict a criminal in court of law. Before it can happen, some important issues need to be overcome to minimize potential unethical abuses of the technology in court. Currently, brain mapping is often applied in different situations and under different testing conditions, giving rise to uncertainties in the results. Besides, the test results are often read by unqualified personnel. To overcome the problems, there should be accepted standards within the neurology community to establish what constitutes a "normal" or "abnormal" result. Most importantly, politicians should not be allowed to set the standards.

Recently, brain mapping studies are conducted on children, who have normally developing brains and those with neurodevelopmental disorders to create the first atlas of the healthy, growing mind and help researchers discover the basis for abnormalities. However, in the future, some parents may misuse brain mapping techniques to match their children’s brain scans to those of famous authors, musicians or scientists. Rules need to be established in which, brain mapping can only be used on children for the purpose of studying the basis for abnormalities. It should not be used by parents to match their children’s qualities.

Portfolio 6 (Summary)

Learning is personal because brains are not all alike. Throughout the educational system, teaching has traditionally followed a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. However, in recent years, a growing appreciation of individual preferences and aptitudes has led toward more personalized learning.

The four types of students are those who are highly self-motivated, those who prefer some coaching, those who are motivated by external rewards and those who resist learning altogether. In fact, truly personalized learning could be even more subtly individualized. Currently, “intelligent” Web-based education systems, development of “recommender” systems and creation of algorithms that adjust recommendations to the abilities of the student are projects attempting to meet the personalized education challenge. Web-based education systems are already common. Multimedia modules of information can provide text, audio, video, animation, or static graphics in any order suitable for the student.

Many methods for optimizing the order of presentation have been explored, such as the genetic algorithm. It eliminates unsuccessful presentation sequences and modifies successful ones for a new round of tests. In addition, there are also personalized learning methods that are designed for specific learning problems, such as a recommender system for learning English as a second language. In this system, students’ errors and learning weaknesses are tracked, and the students can rate the lessons that they are given. Data on weaknesses and interest are then used to generate a lesson tailored to the individual. In fact, recommender systems are widely encountered on the Web — search engines that fail to find a particular term often recommend alternatives. However, such systems have not yet been developed extensively for education.

Given the diversity of individual preferences and the complexity of each human brain, developing teaching methods that optimize learning is a major challenge for the software engineers of the future.



Advance personalized learning. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9127.aspx

Portfolio 4

The problem I am facing in my engineering classes is in answering concept-based and explanatory questions. For example, in MLE1101, a tutorial question asks us to explain the difference in electrical conductivity between metals, semiconductors and insulators. This type of question not only requires us to have a strong understanding in the concept behind the electrical properties of the materials, but also requires us to provide a thorough comparison and explanation of the concept. Furthermore, I also need to have good sentence structures in my answer, so that the examiner can easily understand my explanation.

The first step I need to take to resolve the problem is to fully understand all the important concepts in the module. This can be achieved by paying full attention during lectures and attending tutorial classes to clear up my doubts. To continue to improve, I will make full use of the textbook to understand more complex concepts in greater detail. This is because some concepts covered in the lecture notes are quite basic and they are not enough to answer the questions in the examination.

Secondly, in order to give a complete explanation and comparison in my answers, I will attempt all the tutorial questions and try additional questions in the textbook, as well as reference books in the library to familiarize myself with the correct way to answer various types of explanatory questions. In addition, I will form a study group with my friends to discuss questions that are more likely to come out in the examination. Through study group, everyone can share their knowledge with each other and gain a lot in the process. Finally, to continue to improve, I will also consult my lecture or tutor during consultation time to overcome all the difficulties mentioned above.

Portfolio 3

Figuring out how the brain works will enable engineers to simulate its activities. Simulations based on brain reverse-engineering will offer more precise methods for testing potential biotechnology solutions to brain disorders. Furthermore, researchers will likely improve knowledge of how to design computing devices that process multiple streams of information in parallel.

Some applications using artificial intelligence have benefited from such simulations. In fact, more advanced AI software should in the future be able to guide devices that can enter the body to perform medical diagnoses and treatments. Besides, the use of new AI insights for repairing broken brains has a great impact on human health and well-being. Damage from injury or disease to the hippocampus can affect one’s abilities to form and recall memories. Engineers have begun to design computer chips that could help restore normal memory skills to an impaired brain by mimicking the brain’s own communication skills.

Meanwhile, “neural prostheses” have already been used to treat hearing loss and Parkinson’s disease, while “artificial retinas” that could help restore vision are being developed. In addition, engineers envision computerized implant and interface device each capable of receiving signals from the brain’s nerve cells and sending them to an artificial limb to control its movements. Moreover, implants that could read the thoughts of immobilized patients and signal an external computer have been explored.

However, it is a major challenge to fully realize the brain’s potential to teach us how to make machines learn and think. Details of the brain’s secret communication code remain to be deciphered. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to tease out and analyze all the complexities of nerve cell signals, their dynamics, pathways and feedback loops.

Therefore, success toward fully understanding brain activity will provide engineers with insight into even grander accomplishments for enhancing the joy of living.



Reverse-engineer the brain. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2008, from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9109.aspx

Portfolio 2

Generally, English tenses can be classified into simple tenses, progressive tenses, perfect tenses and perfect progressive tenses. One of my common grammar mistakes is perfect progressive tenses.

Perfect progressive tenses are used when indicating ongoing actions that will be completed at some definite time. They can be further classified into present perfect progressive, past perfect progressive and future perfect progressive. Firstly, present perfect progressive tense shows an action that began in the past, continues in the present and may continue into the future. For example, the sentence “My family has been planning to move to Australia” tells us that the plan has started and is still ongoing.

One of the common mistakes in my essays is that I do not know how to differentiate between present perfect progressive tense and past perfect progressive tense. After doing some reading, I found out that the latter describes a past and ongoing event that was completed before another past event. For example, the sentence “Before I matriculated in the National University of Singapore, my family had been planning to move to Australia” indicates that the plan had came into place before the matriculation.

Thirdly, we have the future perfect progressive tense that describes an ongoing event that will occur before another event in the future. For example, in the sentence “By the year 2015, my family will have been moving to Australia,” we know that the migration will take place in the future but before the year 2015.

In conclusion, I should do more exercises related to perfect progressive tenses to improve on the quality of my essays.

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Practice Exercise on Tenses

Fill in the blanks with appropriate forms of the verbs in parentheses. In some cases, more than one verb form may be appropriate. In these cases, you should be able to explain any differences in meaning that may occur.

Rats!

Of all man’s natural enemies, the one which has caused him more trouble than any other must be the common rat. For centuries, man (1) has been trying (try), in vain, to solve the problem of rats. The ancient Egyptians (2) were (be) probably the first people to try to get rid of them with poison, and this method (3) is still being used (still be used) today. This says a great deal about how effective this method (4) has been (be). We have set innumerable and ingenious traps, from simple wires to complicated machines which drowned the rats in beer! We (5) have used (use) gas, water and fire. We have tried to electrocute them and to infect them with spe­cially developed germs. We've even tried to breed super‑cats to kill them. However, we are still losing the battle.

One of the first records we have of the problem of rats was in 1347 when some Italian ships (6) carried (carry) rats from the Black Sea back to Italy. Soon, the citizens (7) were complaining (complain) of painful dark marks on their skin. Soon after that, they were dead. This was the beginning of the 'Black Death' which killed 25 million people in only three years. For centuries, the same disease, also called the plague, would wipe out thousands of people from time to time and in different places. Thankfully, this is a problem that man (8) has almost overcome (almost overcome). Plague today (9) is (be) not the threat it used to be. Only a few countries in the world (10) still have (still have) an occasional death caused by the plague. However, the rat is still alive and healthy.

Although the problem of plague has been contained, the rat is still man’s num­ber one enemy. This year, in the United States alone, rats will bite thousands of humans, causing disease, despair and ter­ror. They (11) will destroy (destroy) well over a billion dollars worth of property. In a world con­stantly suffering from famine, rats will de­stroy approximately a fifth of all food crops planted. In India alone, they (12) will deprive (deprive) hungry people of enough grain to fill a train more than 2,000 kilometres long. In all of Asia, rats (13) eat (eat) 48 million tons of rice a year, enough food to feed a quarter of a billion people. Around the world, rats will spread at least 20 kinds of disease, and in several tropical countries their population will suddenly explode and completely destroy the land.

'When we speak of rats,' (14) explained (explain) one leading scientist, 'we are speaking of the most numerous and successful mammal on earth, perhaps including man! When we talk about rat control, we're talking about human survival.'

So why can't man, with all his scientific knowledge, manage to overcome a mere animal like the rat? The answer is simply that the rat isn't a 'mere' animal ‑ it (15) is (be) a very special kind of animal. An average rat can: wriggle through a hole no larger than a S$1 coin; climb a brick wall as if it (16) were climbing (climb) steps; swim for one kilometre and then tread water for three days; chew through lead pipes and metal bars with teeth that can exert an unbelievable 1,691 kilograms per square centimetre; happily leave a building by being flushed down the toilet, and then return the same way; jump from a fifth storey window and run away unharmed; and last but certainly not least, multiply so rapidly that a single pair could have 15,000 babies in one year!!

Perhaps the best example of how 'special' these creatures (17) are (be) is found on the island of Engebi, in the Western Pacific. For many years, the United States tested its nuclear weapons on this island. The rat was “completely” destroyed by repeated nuclear explosions. A few years after the explosions (18) had stopped (stop), scientists visited the island and found it was alive with rats. The rats were not injured or weakened in any way. On the contrary, their life spans were longer and, if anything, they were larger and stronger than other rats. It (19) seems (seem) that the most deadly weapon that people can create actually (20) improves (improve) the health of our oldest enemy!

In addition to all these physical qualities, we also have the problem that rats are rather good at (21) not getting caught (not get caught). They seem to have an almost supernatural ability to sense when food (22) has been poisoned (be poisoned) (even as little as one part in a million) and a suspicious rat will starve before it (23) eats (eat) poisoned food. They also seem to be able to recognize a trap with no real difficulty.

To overcome these abilities of the rat, we now use a huge variety of weapons, both sophisticated and simple. We (24) are experimenting (experiment) with chemicals, radiation, high‑frequency sound, and even super‑glue! There is now a machine on the market which (25) claims (claim) to grab the rat, electrocute it and neatly seal it in a plastic bag. However, the simplest method (26) is (be) probably also the oldest, a strong wooden club. It (27) has proved (prove) very effective in Bombay, India. Every night, the rat‑catchers take to the streets armed with such a club. They find a rat with the beam of their torch, crack it over the head, pick it up with their toes and drop it into a sack. In total, they (28) kill (kill) 4,000 a night, which (29) is (be) a mere drop in the ocean. One thing (30) looks (look) certain, we had better find a way to defeat these small brown creatures soon, or it may be too late. In the age‑old battle between rats and people, the rats are perhaps beginning to win!

Portfolio 1

In my opinion, the idea in article 1 is the most important thing to the engineering profession. In other words, engineers need to develop new energy sources which are environmentally friendly, renewable and affordable.

In the article, the writer expressed his concern over the huge consumption of the Earth’s finite resources by the growing human population. Currently, finite resources like fossil fuels are the most important sources in energy production around the world. In 2005, it was estimated that only 13.7% of the energy production in the world came from renewable sources, such as hydroelectric, nuclear power and solar energy.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that global oil production will peak between 2013 and 2037, after which global oil production will begin an irreversible decline. With 86.3% of the world’s energy production currently coming from the burning of fossil fuels like petroleum, what will happen to us in the future if we do not develop enough alternative energy sources to replace petroleum? Simple tasks like driving your child to school will cost you a lot due to the lack of energy sources. On a bigger scale, the world’s economy will fail and nations will fight against each other for the limited energy sources.

Hence, engineers should act now in developing alternative energy sources that will stop us from depending so much on petroleum. However, it is a challenge for engineers to achieve the goal because it is not easy to stop people from depending on the easily accessible petroleum available. Besides, as pointed out by the writer, it is hard to convert the sun’s energy into useful forms or in other words, making solar power and also nuclear fusion feasible technologically and economically.

Nonetheless, engineers must take up the challenge in developing the best alternative energy source to provide a better future for us. In conclusion, I strongly believe that an engineer’s most important role is to develop new energy sources to overcome one of the current major concerns of human.



Grillot, M. J. (2007) World Energy Overview: 1995-2005. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/overview.html