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