HIPSTER(DOT)COM

If you guys do not know, HIPSTER(DOT)COM was original the group name of NFC(HYPE)

The team comprising of Radhi, Mardhi, Sandra and myself. The 4 of us came together for the report writing and presentation in Effective Communications.

We started off slow, during the first day of draft idea of proposal , honestly we did it on that day itself.  However , after that day when the topic was agreed on, we knew the direction to be heading. From interviewing Mr Ang from SMRT @ Bishan Depot, to taking 'Hipster shots' in the middle of the railway track. To meeting over the weekends to rush the report submission and rehearsal of presentation over skype. Not forgetting fun under the sun having time out from projects to play tennis, and having pizza.

Well besides HIPSTER(DOT)COM, I am truly thankful for everyone in the class for this module. everyone was great sport and fun! 

Cheers,

Nic

Letter of Transmittal and Personal Statement

Letter of Transmittal

7 October 2015

Mr. Blackstone

Senior Lecturer

Centre for English Language Communication

20 Dover Road

Dear Mr. Blackstone

RE: Proposal for ‘NFC-Enabled smartphones with universal NFC-Chip compatibility’

We are pleased to present to you our proposal idea of ‘NFC-Enabled smartphones with universal NFC-Chip compatibility.’ This report has been prepared to demonstrate how people can make full use of their smartphones and consolidate all EZ-Link and credit cards into one device. In addition, have a minimum standardized NFC Chip compatible to all phone brands to allow all users to enjoy the privilege of NFC-enabled phones. The current example would be how commuters are scanning their EZ-Link card every day for public transportation. Hoping to enhance the current system of scanning cards, the team would like to up it to the next level of scanning your smartphone on the go without having to face the hassle of searching for your card somewhere in your pockets, wallets or bag.

The time and effort taken to read our report is appreciated. This team hopes you would consider implementing our idea for better convenience for the commuters and travelers.

Yours sincerely

NFC Hype

Personal Statement

Nicholson Yeo:

I studied Electrical Engineering for my diploma at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Being exposed to

electronics and electrical technology, I am taken aback by such rapid technology advancement

every year. In this era, almost each individual uses a smartphone to surf the internet, check social

media and email or even do Bluetooth transfers. It would be great if there is a better and smarter

way to use the smartphones, such as doing daily transactions for food, drinks, entertainment and

even transportation with the use of NFC technology. With a 2 billion smartphone users till date, I

am sure with our project, the team will be able to build revolutionary smarter society.

Critical Reflection on Effective Communication

From the very first day till the last, I wholesomely enjoyed every class.

How has this module improved my 'Effective Communication'.  From the first blog post on how is "English important to me", the initial draft was just horrible. With the compulsory feedback, it was then I realized that my English language was indeed quite bad.  With Reader's Response to report writing, in small but impact-ful parts of the learning journey. One example would be my 'sentence fragmentation',the present and past tenses. Even though it has been emphasized to me, I must admit it is I still make the same mistakes. 

During group presentation process, that was the most memorable moment of the module. The pre-presentation period, my group met up diligently."Team effort!" The first presentation,there were many learning pointers from everyone to learn from, such as maintaining eye contact, posture, tone used. When giving feedback to other presenters, I felt a certain responsibility as it served as a tip to the person, it should be constructive and at the same time, not offensive. As for me receiving feedback about my presentation, some feed-backs like my tone was little aggressive, nervous, were all constructive feedback for me. As during our group's encore presentation at LT1A, I was more wary of the mistakes I made, but my nerves still got the better more me. The take away from presentation and learning from everyone was that one should really be calm, and posed, do not panic, as it shows. Nonetheless, everyone was fully supportive at everyone's presentation.

Blogging is not only fun but very useful as we can refer back to it at any point of time when you need to do a report, or just relive the happy moments. It was enjoyable blogging every post.

The takeaway from this module is just simply every part of it. Being constantly reminded of the English language usage , should it be makes me more wary of myself both presentation and writing. I am sure, even after this module, everyone benefited in ways like report writing, because throughout our degree program, there are many reports to be done. We can all look back to our fantastic blog posts.

Reader's Response to Cho's Article -Draft 4 (Final)

Reader’s Response to Cho’s Article title page:

Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities – Draft 4

(Final)

Nicholson Yeo

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) states that urban challenges must be considered in developing  sustainable infrastructure. She mentions that the 'Envision  Sustainability Rating System' is designed to assess the performance of project infrastructure. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve communities by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on the assessment on King Abdullah Economic City project(KAEC) and how it helps the communities in certain ways. Cho explains that the right projects will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole. She shares that through Envision, it helps a project in Mexico to be successful. Although the writer does talk about urban challenges, she does not clearly provide sufficient coverage of the challenges that surround future infrastructure, such as population growth and rising cost of living. If these issues are not addressed properly, this might affect the projects. Therefore more substantial support needs to be offered on the writer’s part in order to justify her claims.

The first claim that makes Cho’s article insufficiently justified is when she mentions "I’m excited to be able to address what I believe is one of the key challenges of urbanization this century: the role of infrastructure sustainability in the context of rapid urban growth, especially in new cities."(as cited in Cho's, 2014).  In another article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) proposes that the trend seems to be that Asian cities are now leading in urbanization. In fact, Asian cities are facing large population growth, which can result in poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion are  much worse when compared to congestion in most European cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems. However, in Cho’s the article, she did not analyse in depth in her article as to how important the Saudi authorities’ flexibility and decisiveness, can impact her project in KAEC roads in relation to the rising population growth. In this way, the article could leave readers with superficial understanding that rapid population growth is indeed a challenge in future, but not how it affects the communities in other parts of the world, in terms of urban challenges such as transportation congestion, housings and more, thus causing her debate as insufficient.  

In contrast, in another article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) proposes that the trend of explosive growth seems to be that Asian cities are now leading in urbanization. In fact, Asian cities are facing large population growth, which can result in poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion is worse when compared to congestion in most European cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems.  As mentioned earlier regarding Cho’s claims, for this case if Indonesian government are not able to access and solve the traffic congestion in the main cities, the main issues are poor road designing. Of course, even if public transportation is introduced to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, the issue of road congestion will still be there,  poor road planning.

In another explanation, however, Cho did share that because of Envision rating system, her projects in Mexico, Peru and Saudi were able to create a difference by improving the lives of the communities, as projects focuses on the right areas to work on , which are decided from Envision. She also observes that through sustainable road infrastructure, how accessibility of transportation can contribute to access to education and, local business opportunities, and how this can boost housing, in return benefiting the communities, as she included links of detailed explanation in her article. In another article, “Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision”, Nelson (June 2015) claims that Envision puts forward designing sustainable infrastructures. Envision assists in judgement, but also the system enriches funding plans. Therefore, with the introduction of Envision , it further assures the decision makers and end users that the project will be the most appropriate and that it will benefit everyone in the right areas.

In conclusion, Cho’s article does not emphasize on possible problems which urban challenges could pose to the development of infrastructure in the long-run. However, she asserts that the Envision rating system is proven effective, as it gauges how well her projects can benefit on the respective areas that were discussed. Apart from Cho acknowledging that issues such as natural disasters, explosive population growth, economy factors are real, developing sustainable infrastructure should be implemented by government authorities from the very beginning if possible so as to reduce future problems, and the ability to advance with technological growth.


References

Cho, H. (2014, December). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Khanna, P. (2015, June). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment.' Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment

Nelson, D. (2015, June). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. Ccivil + Sstructural Engineer. Retrieved from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision