Reader response final draft

In the article "Why the climate fight needs engineers", Shah (2015) suggests the need for engineering leaders with technical skills to help tackle climate change in the Asia-Pacific region particularly in Singapore. Also, he agrees with Khew, Deputy President of IES (Institution of Engineers Singapore), who believes the urgent demand for "sustainable engineering solutions" will help achieve an eco-friendly economy with opportunities given to engineers to find sustainable solutions and creating a resilient infrastructure system.

Engineers are indeed needed to help combat climate change. They are the at the frontline of innovation and equipping them with much needed knowledge on sustainability and instilling leadership skills in them to take on directives can help tackle climate change. Engineers should use their expertise to find sustainable solutions as the world looks into sustainable energy in the future. Even though I agree with the author about the roles of engineers generally in fighting climate change, I feel that their roles could have been further explained by the author on the context of social and economic well-being against climate change.

According to Parkinson (2003), one area that engineers can contribute is advancing or leading the support for social change. What I mean is that engineers can help develop or fine-tune existing technologies which can bring about social awareness on climate change to convey a message to the public to use eco-friendly technologies. For example, engineers have successfully engineered electric-powered vehicles which do not use fossil fuels and are also in the midst of introducing them on the road in the future. This encourages drivers and the general public to switch to eco-friendly vehicles such as electric cars thereby educating the public in reducing carbon emissions on the road. The recent advancement in solar technology also made it possible in it being used as an alternative to generate electricity in homes as well. This will encourage people to switch to using or installing green technology in homes in the future.

Furthermore, by tweaking existing systems, engineers can implement cost-effective measures. In one example, Nusca (2010) mentions how engineers in the US Pacific Northwest had successfully improved efficiency of dams in warm climates through a devised management system whereby water losses in the summer are reduced by 25% and the risk of flooding is also reduced as reservoirs are filled reliably. The system enables them to ‘’determine when to empty the reservoirs’’ for flood control in the winter and “refill them in spring’’ for storage. They did not have to buy expensive add-ons to their system but just having engineers to improve on them proved to be cost-effective for these companies and industries.

In conclusion, engineers are needed to help tackle climate change but I feel that their roles could have been further explained by the author on the social and economic front. Engineers also need to take into account changing patterns in society and the environment so that they can come up with new ideas when addressing climate change. The engineering sector has contributed significantly to the economy and will certainly be needed to help create an eco-friendly economy in the future through sustainable solutions as governments seek to gain an edge against climate change.

(530 words)

References

Nusca, A. (2010, January 28). With new technique, engineers prepare Pacific Northwest dams for climate change. ZDNet. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from http://www.zdnet.com/article/with-new-technique-engineers-prepare-pacific-northwest-dams-for-climate-change/

 Parkinson, S. (2003, September 12). Tackling Climate Change - the role of the engineer. Scientists for Global Responsibility. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from http://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/tackling-climate-change-role-engineer

Shah, V. (2015, June 8). Eco-Business. Why the climate fight needs engineers. Retrieved October 17, 2015, from http:// www.eco-business.com/news/why-the-climate-fight-needs-engineers/

critical reflection on roles of peer and tutor feedback

The role of peer and tutor feedback is important in any evaluation such as a presentation or report. The purpose of this feedback is to scrutinize any weaknesses and strengths of the subject and ultimately improving the quality of content in the future.

I started doing these kind of evaluation when I was in polytechnic. It was new to me and I began to understand the purpose of it especially in presentations. Since there were a lot of presentations done at diploma level, there was a need for peer evaluation from almost every module that I took. Frankly, at first I thought that it was unnecessary as I felt that these feedback was not going to be ‘utilized’ by the students as there were not so much emphasis on its importance. Now that I am in university level, the need for peer feedback as well as from our tutors are all the more important as our reports are getting more complex and detailed. Writing a feedback is easy but to be honest in your feedback can be quite difficult as you do not want to be too negative and thus hurting the other person’s feelings.

One good example was the reader response that I did. I received critical feedback from my professor and analyzed that feedback in detail. I did not went through this kind of process back in polytechnic and having a professor evaluating my piece was very interesting. With the feedback, I knew what my weaknesses and strengths were and I improved on each of the draft for my piece. This ranged from grammar to the formatting of the essay. I need to analyze these kinds of comments and this will definitely improve my writing skills for future job prospects. For presentation wise, the feedback I received from both peers and tutor has significantly improved my understanding and requirements for a good presentation. I learnt that we should try to engage the audience through story-telling as people like to listen to stories. I also understood my mistakes for my oral presentation and will try not to repeat the same mistakes. 

I believe that having multiple feedbacks can help improve my writing skills exponentially. This can be useful and can be translated to other modules where there are bound to be group reports. Having the group sit down and giving feedback to one another about the writing styles as well as grammar and content can greatly improve my understanding of the subject and able to zoom in into greater detail the room of improvement. This could make my report more interesting without having to squeeze unnecessary input for the sake of numbers.

Edited on (03/12/2015)

the most influential person in my life

Most people will say that their mother is the most influential person in their lives. Well, I’m going with my father. Of course, my mother is a housewife and being a housewife is very tiring. You need to do chores everyday non-stop and I can see it from my mother’s face all the time. It’s really hard work and my mother somehow has a lot of willpower to carry that kind of workload every day and I really respect her work ethic.

Having said that, I also respect my father. Interestingly, my father is the opposite of my mother. He was a man of few words and a strict disciplinarian. He was also a smart guy and I can relate many things that he did that showed his intelligence but I’m just going to leave it at that. Actually, I learnt a lot more from my father than my mother as he is a male member of the family and easier to relate to as I am also a male family member.

My father believed that you should be honest with yourself and know what is right and wrong especially in making decisions. I learnt to be prudent in my judgement from him so that things can run smoothly. Also, he taught me to never make things hard for people just as you don’t want people to make things hard for you. He was an intimidating person and even most of my siblings and relatives were shy to talk to him unless they knew him for a long time for example, his own siblings. Even though he had all this characteristics, at times he showed his sense of humour.

Like all human beings, he had a bad side. Being a strict disciplinarian, he could at times be too stubborn and preferred to do things his way but his determination was apparent. I don’t believe that you should be too strict all the time but to let loose sometimes depending on the situation. I learnt to instil his positive character into my life and hope to influence others as well.

oral presentation reflection

A good and effective presentation is basically being able to compose yourself and make the audience feel engaged to your presentation. This is done even before a presentation which is the preparation. You need to get your content simple and informative as much as possible. Once you start presenting, you need to make sure that you get the first 2 to 3 minutes engaged with the audience. This can be done by story-telling or some trivial facts to fascinate the audience. You need to be clear and your voice projected well for everyone to  hear you.

I felt rather nervous for my presentation. I managed to calm myself down during my presentation but I felt that I did not deliver a good presentation. From the peer feedback, I agree with the comments given such as moving too much and not being loud enough. Honestly, I tried to project my voice as loud as possible but it seems that my voice is just naturally soft. I also felt that I could make eye contact more often than looking at the slides. I felt that maybe my nerves got the better of me that day and could not deliver the way I wanted but I managed to compose myself and did not make it too obvious to the audience. However, I felt that I gave a good explanation of the Car-Sharing procedure by giving a scenario so that the audience can understand from my point of view.

All in all, our group took a lot of time to meet and came out with the presentation together. Everyone contributed to every aspect of the content and we suggested or scrutinized each other so that we could deliver a smooth presentation during the preparation phase. Luckily, with this module, I am able to recall those times I presented during my polytechnic days and improve my communication skills in the future.

Edited on (3/12/15)