Kuli

My experimental rig is in problem. It does not work as it supposed to be. The postdoc who work on it tried his best to make it according to blueprint given to him, but it was just not to the supposed working standard.

And I was left with an incomplete set of mock loop. I can't proceed with my experimental plan and it has been almost a month since I first tried it.

When I first tried it, although I knew it was not perfect, I had to test my prototype in order to present some result to my SV. I still remember his comment.

"You result is rubbish."

Fuhh....terduduk aku. well, technically i'm already seated so it was more as a metaphorical statement.but still, the harsh response is although understandable still present me with a mind and not to mention emotional blow.

The reason was technical. The mock loop has pocket of air distal to aortic valve, hence giving an inertance value too high for the mock loop. also the pocket of air are giving misleading reading to the pressure transducer.

So I tried rectifying the whole damn thing, but to no avail. I just lacked the experience to operate the mock loop. Two unproductive weeks with nothing to achieve. It was frustrating.

So I took a break to Ireland. heh.

Balik je dari Ireland, ada sorang budak master dari QUT datang melawat atas tujuan nak belajar cara guna PIV. It so happens that he has been working on mock loop for his master thesis. So dia la yang buat macam2 cadangan nak improve the mock loop.
And its working. Alhamdulillah.
walaupun in the process, aku terasa macam kuli jek kena suruh buat itu ini, tapi demi mock loop yang fully operational, layankan je la.

Bagus gak. tau la camne nak potong bar, nak buat lubang, you know the nitty gritty work of lab.

Next week, we'll be testing the mock loop and pray to Allah it works. I really need to get my experiment going.

Bila

Bila SV tak ada di ofis：     
Bila SV panggil untuk progress meeting：   
Bila kene attend weekly/monthly group meeting：   
Bila SV suruh gi training： 
Bila time school break： 
Bila nk dekat2 pukul 5ptg： 
Bila esok hari cuti：　 
Bila dpt 'assignment' baru dr SV：     
Bila 'assignment' yg SV bg susah giler nk buat： 
Bila dpt tau adalah mustahil untuk siapkan ' assignment' SV： 
stayback for eksperiment untuk 2 jam： 
eksperiment untuk satu malam： 
Boss suruh kita buat eksperiment/field work waktu weekend：   
Bila dah terbuat silap masa ekperiment/field work：     
Bila berjaya 'perform' sikit jer：   
 
Bila org finance lambat bayar claim pi conference etc：       
Bila dpt tau tak leh cuti balik Malaysia tahun nih：   

Topic of your phD

Now, this entry will be based on my experience.

The authors of this book and this book have already written a good chapter (or sub chapter ) about choosing PhD topic. The main point about PhD topic is choosing something that we like, or at least we don't hate. It is tough doing research (or learning how to do research) for three years on something that you don't like. Day in and day out, we'll be toiling on the same topic, and should some obstacles happen to our research, the thing that will keep us going will be the love (or like) to our topic. Having to do something you hate will only worsen the situation.

Having said that, I have inclination to fluid dynamic research. Both my master and undergraduate thesis were on fluid dynamic field and for my next degree, naturally I'd want to pursue something in fluid dynamic research.

However, I do have another research interest. Bio related stuff i.e. bioengineering.

After some information gathering, I zeroed in my interest into bio fluid dynamics research. Incidentally, in Malaysia, bio fluid research area is quite new and as such there are not many researchers in Malaysia. I'd would be filling into a very niche zone.
Most of the bioengineering research in Malaysia is focussing on bio material, smart material, mechanics of material and biocontrol engineering as well as some research on manufacturing of biomaterial.
What I am explaining above is from mechanical engineering side point of view. Biomedical engineering is a multidisciplinary area and it is comprising of other engineering discipline as well such as electrical engineering, chemistry, biology etc.

So far so good. Bio fluid dynamic research. Hmm...seems very exciting to me. Imagine the application of fluid dynamics research into biological realm....

The next step would be to determine what exactly would I want to do for my phD research.
I have no experience whatsoever in this biofluid dynamics research so the initial information gathering was quite directionless. It is as if I opened a box, and in that box I opened yet another box.

okay, that would be for the next entry. hehe :P


Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Health Science at UTM
Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at UM

Labview

This software is integral to my experimental rig.
So I have been trying to learn a bit by myself these past few days.
I must say that the concept behind this G (for graphical ) programming language is dreally good.
It was quite intuitive for some part, and for the other it was quite bewildering.

But it was quite fun I guess, as I do like programming. I learnt Fotran, C++ and Matlab, and although I am just an average user I think learning all those languages helps me with Labview.

The problem is that I need to be very good with Labview, well good enough to be able to do the data acquisition from external signal and to manipulate it.

Hmm...gambarimasu.

After sometime

I think I want to start blog again.

The reason I stopped writing anything was I don't know what to write.
Well...That's not entirely true. I do have points that I want to write about, but I am just not motivated enough to do that....huh alasan jek hehe..

But I think, writing (typing) is a great way to hone my writing skill.
It is not enough that you can write, but for phD level, the writing skill that you need to master is quite high. The level that I need to attained is not something that can be done with just reading all those technical papers. You need to read (a lot), write ( a lot) and think (harder) at this level.

For next entry, I've been wanting to comment about topic selection for your phD thesis.

the golden rule of dissertation

There are 3 golden rules of dissertation according to these guys.

1. Don't lie (berkata benar walaupun pahit, ataupun betulkan thesis sampai jadi perfect)
   
2. Don't try to be funny (serious as steel)
   
3. Don't blurt out the truth (biar pecah di perut, jangan pecah di mulut)
   

As to why is that, you got to read the book. Very informative and funny too.

A B C

In How to get a phD book, the authors did recommend that the thesis be written as soon as possible. This is to avoid being stuck during the last part of phD duration and having problems such as writer's block etc. That is a very good advice, seemed logical and could prevent any catastrophic incident during 3rd year phD.

My supervisor really fond of that idea and had asked me to give him the skeleton draft of my thesis in my 2nd week being here....

It was quite hard to start because I don't know where to start, what kind of format etc. So I asked fellow phD student for a copy and I found several phD thesis lying around in my office.
I followed the format etc. and handed it over to my supervisor. It was as what he wanted, a bare skeleton draft.

But I think it worth doing in early stages of our phD study. Since then, the thesis is developing as I keep inserting what I read for my lit review etc.

So start writing early. Write what you read and keep that piling up :)