yay i finally completed my project!!! which was due, erm, 4 months ago....

i presented my project at IME. 2 ri boys(me and ng yong sheng) and 6 rgs girls were attached to IME 8 months ago and we all did different stuff. the rgs ppl worked in pairs, and me & yong sheng worked solo.

i chose circuit design... not really exciting, while others got to see the really pro ppl work with really pro equipment, i was basically reading up and clearing up misconceptions(there are many) with the pro circuit design guys. those ppl only work with computers, solders, integrated circuits, and their most power tool is really their brain. (it took me 4 months to think up the first circuit with lgoic gates. it took my mentor 1/2 hour to do using transistors) but the only understandable topic that i could choose from.

in short, if i have to talk about the process, it would go like this: take out paper and pencil, think, draw, erase, think, draw, erase, check, erase, draw again, think, draw, erase... so, no. my project report has no process. hence it is only 8 pages long.

my project is kinda unique in a sense that even though i dun make any exciting discovery or invention, at least i have something that belongs to me at the end of this project. my circuit.

project presentation didn't go exactly very well... the introduction part people could just read off the powerpoint presentation. i didn't want that. so i put half the points on powerpoint half of them on script. and thanks to my crappy handwriting, i stammered quite badly when i came to the scirpt part.

aha, but since i designed the circuit myself, so when it came to part with no script and no ppt points, i actually sounded much more confident and convincing. it turned out pretty good. then the part came when i had to explain the circuit... which was quite complex. i could hear the "WOAH" from the rgs pupils and jc and polytech students as i showed them the circuit i designed... haha.

IME has no working laser pointer. the INSTITUTE OF MICROELECTRONICS that has the scanning electron microscope, electon beam lithograph, electron oscilloscope, tunnel scanning microscope, atomic force microscope, CMOS and BJT ICs does not have a working LASER POINTER. how fantastic. so what i had to do was like "kay u see, the first OR gate from the left of the diagram basically prevents the first LED from the left from lighting up when the 5th, 9th and 13th LED from the left lights up..." it was kinda tedious.

i remember one guy(from poly perhaps) was like slouching and yawning and mouthing me when i was talking about logic gates and the definition of digital circuits(the part i was stammering). then when i showed the circuit i designed he went like "WTH!" and was looking at the circuit diagram shaking his head... it was quite amusing.

the moral of the story is: logic gates may sound simple. but once u put them together, or take one apart, it is not. in this case there were about 100 logic gates. and a frigging lot of wire connections. 100 logic gates is made up of about 500 transistors. pentium 4 processor chip has about 15 million transistors. now you do the math and tell me why computer chips are so expensive even they they are made of like...sand and a bit of gold and silver here and there. now i think the circuit design engineers are paid peanuts(or ren min bi?) to make pentium 4 even affordable at all. (and in case you're wondering, professional circuit design engineers DO take the logic gates apart and remove excess material to reduce cost, power consumption and size... ouch.)

the rgs girls projects involved much more hands on it seems. they were doing weaving, sewing, laminating blah. i think they learnt a lot. and their presentations and projects were really good compared to mine and ng yong sheng's. i am impressed at the amount of effort they put in.

then... reception! i had about 6 or 7 drumlets, 4 pieces of cheese cake, and some really nice small bun with chocolate on top and a lot of cream inside.

i think the IME ppl are really nice...so nice that they'll scare the shit out of me if they scold me at all... i really felt like i was treated like a VIP, even though i am just a sec 3 little n00b in this field and they are all scientists, engineers, phD holders, the pros, really. i mean, even in an multi user online game, if the pros come down to me and teach me, show me the way, give me tips and all, instead of just saying "read the bloody guide n00b", i'll be really touched. whats more, this is in real life... if i were interested i might work for IME... but then i'm not... their work is really sian. and when u deal with small stuff u can't escape from the schrodinger's equation. ten years from now, even string theory perhaps. and string theory is worse than quantum mech.

Which leads me to my question: if people who do applied mechanics are called "mechanics", then are scientists who deal with quantum mechanics called "quantum mechanics"?

"Hello Mr Lee, what is ur profession?"
"i am a mechanic."
"hello Dr Jong, what is ur profession?"
"i am a micro mechanic."
"hello Dr Bohr, what is ur profession?"
"i am a quantum mechanic."