It has been a few years since I last blogged. Even the spammers have been ignoring me . It is completely my fault though. If only I could do exams without studying…

Well, exams are finally over. However we still have to write up a mega-huge report about the Design Make and Test project we have been working on all year. I am feeling quite nervous about this as this is worth as much as four exams. That’s the equivalent of some studying, lots of hair loss and too much chocolate.

In an attempt to enjoy the sun and enjoy the report I headed off to Hyde Park with my laptop, USB key and a textbook. There’s this one tree that I always sit under; it just doesn’t feel the same anywhere else for some silly reason. It was the first time I had been to Hyde Park this term so I was hoping it was free. And of course, it welcomed me with open arms…branches…whatever…

That's my tree. No stealing!

Pretending to work

Maybe you remember that I’m working on the Drivetrain of the Racing Green car. The project itself has gone well – it definitely could have gone better though. But I think that if you don’t feel that way after a year-long project you have probably done something wrong (or you are a genius). Still, I feel very excited (and nervous) to think that we will be participating in the Design competition at Silverstone in about seven weeks time. And everything seems even more exciting as all Racing Green team members are obliged to keep our entire car design a secret. Especially since the drivetrain design is quite innovative, and it would be disastrous if other teams found out about it and copied us. I kind of feel like a secret agent! Except all the super-secret-crucial-documents are engineering drawings. And my weapon is a driveshaft. And I don’t have a code name.

As you can probably guess by my absence, I’m in the middle of my exams.

This week has been particularly trying; had five exams in the space of four days. I’m definitely not the only one who was in this situation, but I honestly wonder how people coped with it? I was both mentally and physically tired out on Friday. After a week of constant revision, cramming, dreaming about Joules-Thompson Coefficient and Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors, my brain was feeling mushy-mushy like mango chutney. But the fun doesn’t end there! I’ve got three more…

I think the worst/best day was probably Wednesday. Had Nuclear Chemical Engineering in the morning. The exam itself was alright I guess, could have been better (but one says that about everything in hindsight). Best bit: There was a chemical equation we had to balance for 10%. Though I hadn’t done stuff like that since I was 16, I arrogantly believed that it would be a cinch. Man, was I wrong. That equation seemed to defy every single existing conservation law, including the conservation of weak isospin, whatever that is.

And then, in the middle of that taxing problem, a rich, strong, operatic voice breaks into song. I believe it was Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte (actually, don’t quote me on this one – it’s the only opera I know so it’s what I call anything that sounds vaguely classical). At this point all the examinees were looking around confused and stifling giggles. I had forgotten that the exam room was right next to the Royal College of Music! Well, as they say, classical music (especially Mozart) is supposed to help you study better so I hope the opera had some effect on my answers.

The same afternoon I had Finance and Financial Management. It was…interesting. It was a multiple choice paper. I answered every question, and felt really smug about that before I remembered there was negative marking. Oh well, it’s too late now…

It was kind of strange but deep down, I was actually looking forward to Machine System Dynamics the next day. I was getting tired of all the wafflely subjects, and nothing screams Mech Eng better than MSD.

It’s always during exam time that some annoyingly addictive game grabs the attention of students. This year round, that coveted prize goes to Robot Unicorn Attack!

A very happy game

Basically, you are a magical unicorn (who is incidentally also a robot) and you have to run through the Unicorn world without smashing into anything. Yeah, I know that there are countless games like this one, so why play this at all?

1. The music. This game would be really ordinary without it. The song in the background is what elevates RUA from others. It’s a really ummmmmm joyful song…?

2. Because this game is so pink and happy, it is ideal for after an exam has gone badly.

3. A game lasts about 3.5 minutes (unless you are some kind of pro, in which case I look at you enviously). This makes a suitable break from revising.

4. Get in touch with your childhood self. Come on, as a kid, who did not want a unicorn? (Don’t say ’80% of Imperial’s student population’ lol).

Oh well, that’s all for now. Wish me luck for the next one, Computational Continuum Mechanics!

I’m back! Where did I go? Nowhere really…

To those of you who eagerly await my weekly updates filled with mind-blowing and awe-inspiring stories (why do I sense silence?), I say sorry. My apology takes the form of another Nobel prize-winning post (cough).

Yesterday was the deadline for our Finance and Financial Management coursework. As part of the Mech Eng degree, I am obliged to take at least one business/humanities course. I decided on FFM because it seemed quite mathematical compared to the other more wafflely subjects.

I completely underestimated it.

FFM is weird and wacky, but the good thing is we have a great, experienced lecturer who has come straight from industry. Although I must admit that learning FFM sometimes feels very similar to learning a new language. E.g. today the lecturer was going over an example:

‘If you are short a put option on a certain stock with an exercise price of $20 that expires today, what is your pay-off at expiration as a function of the stock price?’

I mean, the individual words are undoubtedly English, but together they seem like some secret unbreakable code aliens have spent decades perfecting. I guess I have plenty of studying to do over the easter holidays…

I also got some good news this week. Apparently I’ve been accepted to work on a project at a highly-regarded nuclear research institute in Mol, Belgium. Basically I’ll be modelling heat transfers, and if I come up with a successful program I might even be able to publish a paper that goes into journals! Exciting stuff, and an excellent opportunity I believe. I’ve visited the place before, and its really quite serene with its large grounds and grass and trees and canals. You may find this slightly counter-intuitive, considering it is a nuclear institute we are talking about (I mean, there’s waste radioactive Plutonium in there), but there you go.

Also, I’m going to India this Summer! I’m eagerly anticipating the family, trips, sightseeing and of course the food. It’s hard to say just how much I’m looking forward to it, as I haven’t been in three years or so.

And of course, I’m going to the States to get ready for my exchange year – term starts on the 19th of August. I’d like to go a couple of weeks earlier to sort things out, and have a nice holiday. This summer is going to be one fun, chaotic mess, provided the exams and DMT project go well (Even though it doesn’t seem like it now, they will end one day).

Only one tiny problem.

All my summer plans happen to overlap! So either I choose one thing and perform/enjoy it completely (and relinquish the other two) or do a little bit of all three. If only all my decisions could be this pleasant.

One World Week is old stuff now, but my friend Aiman found this video that I hadn’t seen before floating around the imperial website:

http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/imedia/videos/view/566/one-world-week/search:one%20world%20week

It’s me and a few other students who organized One World Week giving their opinions about it. Must say I look very Indian with my plait and the ‘dot-on-the-forehead’ (we call it ‘kum-kum’).

On the subject of me, my WSET portrait is also now in City Hall! This will be its new home until the 19 of March. Let me elucidate a little: Last year’s WSET ’100 Visions 100 Women’ portrait project was wildly successful. So this year the organizer Ellin decided to take things a step further and promote the project on a city-wide level, a truly commendable achievement.

I haven’t gone to see the portraits yet, but hopefully I will soon. It feels amazing that people and tourists from all over London can visit them! One of the goals of this portrait series is to inspire the next generation of students (not just girls) to follow the SET path. It would be fantastic if these portraits even persuaded someone to consider engineering as a future career when they normally wouldn’t have.

Anyway; I could go on about this (as I am the Vice-President of WSET), but I think I have tackled this topic enough in my EI lecture and ‘the way here’ page (*shameless plug-in* links to the right).

In all my enthusiasm about WSET events, I seem to be forgetting that I’m also president of ICSEDS (Imperial College Students for the Exploration and Development of Space). Recently I have begun to feel that I’m ignoring this club. I have made the classic rookie mistake of joining/being in charge of way too many societies. So I’m beginning to worry a little, but not nearly as much as I am worrying about our Design, Make and Test project…

…I think I mentioned in a very early post that I am part of the Imperial Racing Green team. A group of students get together to make a zero emissions car that will race at Silverstone. While this project will be extremely rewarding when we watch our finished product race next year, the process of getting there is really strenuous. Our designs must not only be compatible with the rest of the groups (i.e. our team, the Drivetrain team needs to make sure our stuff doesn’t interfere with suspension and vehicle packaging for example), it also needs to perform well. I remember spending countless nights worrying that our design would not come together…Luckily our designs are now complete, but we only have 5 weeks to manufacture everything! Which may seem like plenty, but when we were kids, 5 minutes sounded like a lot too.

The blue shoes? That’s just a random thing I thought up to make the title rhyme. How about my blue shirt instead?

Portraits hanging in City Hall

A few days ago 20 Mech Engers went karting in Streatham. I’m very much a newbie at karting, so this was an excellent way to learn something new. Besides I really needed a short break from the coursework, tutorial sheets, design projects etc.

If you haven’t been go-karting before, you really should. It was extremely fun! We had a sort of ‘Grand-Prix’ amongst us Mech Engers. Despite coming last (well, ok second last) it was really thrilling. I think I had a fastest lap time of around 30.2 seconds. The best lap time of the night was around 27.1 seconds, set by a little blonde girl called Katie in second year. Made me wonder what exactly powered her car, was she hiding a secret jet engine or something? Anyway, kudos to her!

The best part of the race was the final. Eight people raced against each other, and you can imagine what sort of chaos ensued. At the first hairpin I spun, and there was a massive pile-up. Everyone was making angry signals at me (aka Jenny) but I couldn’t do much in my position until the Karting supervisor came and sorted us out.

And just as I was about to escape the pile-up, someone (who shall remain unnamed, partly because I don’t know who it was) came from behind and viciously bumped into me. Well, he/she forgot to brake I guess. I’m glad I was able to act as a suitable buffer (that’s not sarcasm). I was thrown onto the steering column and received a massive bruise on my thigh. I mean, it was comparable to the size of China. I complained about to everyone who would listen in my ‘wounded soldier’ voice. And throughout the past few days it has been going through the various colours of the rainbow.

We're all winners! Or so we like to think...

Anyway, it was a great way to spend the evening away from the worries of the course.

Also, a few days ago, I received tickets to go to a BBC live recording show! Ever since I came to London, one of my wishes has been to be a part of a live audience to a BBC show like ‘Have I got news for you’ or ‘QI’ etc. The tickets are free but the waiting lists are humongous. Anyway I got four tickets to see a BBC Three comedy panel show, ‘The King is Dead’. Seems like it will be really really interesting. I’ll definitely tell you all about the experience in my next post (well, as much as I’m allowed to divulge). The shooting is on Thursday, can’t wait for it!

Did the title catch your eye? Good! Because this post is about my literature research project (no don’t navigate away!).

One of the main projects in Mech Eng Third year is the LRP. You basically go into an engineering research topic in great depth by reading up on published research papers etc. Then you combine everything you have discovered into a 30-paged bound essay. Then you eagerly await your grades.

We had to choose our topics very early in the year. They released a list of all the available topics and we had to contact the appropriate supervisor begging them to take us on. The topics themselves were literally limitless: from wave power to nuclear waste management to active suspension systems. What was not limitless was their number…

100 topics. 130 students.

Yeh, you can guess what happened. The ‘stampede’ was worse than that time when we were freshers and someone yelled ‘FREE FOOD!’.

By the time I had contacted the professors with my preferred topics, they had already been taken. And this was only 20 hours after the topic list had been released. I mean, it’s not the 7th Harry Potter book or anything! Still, it’s good that everyone is so keen.

So I begged my personal tutor for advice:

Me: Please help me Dr Bluck! Give me a literature research project!

Dr Bluck: Yeh sure.

Me: Please! I’m going to fail otherwise!! Eh…wait, what?

I was getting pretty used to polite rejections by now, so this was a welcome change.

Me: Thanks! Can I do it on something nuclear?

I’m taking the ‘Mechanical Engineering with Nuclear Engineering’ course, so this would make sense. It also helped that my personal tutor is one of the organizers of the course.

Dr Bluck: Yes, of course.

Me: I wanna do it on Large Break Loss of Coolant Accidents!!!!

Dr Bluck: That’s a good topic.

Me: No..wait…actually can I do it on fusion?!?!?!?!?! (If I had subtitles while talking they really would read like this…)

Dr Bluck: Sure.

That’s when I realised I didn’t know anything about fusion – I only knew that it was a real possibility for energy in the future. I had no idea about the inhibitions and challenges or anything. I was pretty much illiterate.

Dr Bluck: You can do it on the materials issues in fusion reactors.

And that was how my awesome and fascinating topic was born. The moral of this story is: keep close ties with your personal tutors because he/she can really help you out in times of need.

Until a few months ago I had not realized the extent to which nuclear fusion power had developed. The concept has actually been around for decades. And the issues you would expect to be science-fiction (such as the extremely high temperatures involved, the self-sustainability of the reactions, the energy pay-off) are actually mostly resolved! In fact, an experimental fusion reactor (ITER) is scheduled to be turned on in 2018, and will potentially produce 10 times more power than it requires to operate. Exciting stuff!

The only real issues are to do with the materials needed for the structure and the various components. Some big scientist once said that the material selection and development for fusion reactors was easily one of the ‘greatest challenges of all time’ (I actually quoted this guy in my paper. He wrote some pretty good stuff). It is no exaggeration. The materials undergo huge thermal loads and are completely bashed in by rogue neutrons (way more so than in a fission plant). One can only feel sorry for the poor materials.

So I learnt a lot about the latest in fusion – and I also learnt that this might be something I want to do in the future (it also helped that I got an A on the report!). This is what engineering is about. It’s about really pushing boundaries and letting your imagination run wild like a feral beast. Who’d have thought man could make a “sun” (as the press like to refer to it) in 180 hectares of land? I am quite sure that in 100 years time all our energy will be made this way (provided humans haven’t been wiped out by then).

On an unrelated note – I’m a guide for admissions day (showing interviewees around campus and talking about ourselves and the course etc). Today one of the interviewees came up to me and said that she had read my blog! She is my new best friend.

I’m really glad that prospective students read this

A short filler post before I talk about some really exciting stuff next week!

I’ve started a few new courses this week, it being the new term and all. One of them is Maths. I’ve always been a maths-oriented person so it’s no surprise that I’m taking this.

Our first lecture took place in a tutorial room. The reason for this isn’t that interesting, but it involves viruses and and full lecture theatres. The tutorial room has wooden desks – the kind we all had at school (it also has nice comfy green chairs; the kind we did not have at school). Everyone’s first concern was that the room had no projectors. However this turned out not to be a problem as the lecturer’s teaching method did not require any of that  stuff; a good old whiteboard and marker was enough.

I think I am so used to the flashy powerpoint presentations and the stereo sound systems that I truly forgot what it was like to attend classes at school. Our maths ‘lecture’ felt so familiar in a strange way. The wooden desks. The constant copying everything down as quickly as possible before the teacher rubs it all off.  My desk-mate Zafie and me switching from pen to pencil at the same time. The guy in front of us vigorously shaking his tip-ex. Everyone behind me so concentrated on what they are writing (or at least they gave that impression).

I love the powerpoint presentations  our lecturers normally use: they are colourful, you can embed videos and in general they are extremely clear. I had forgotten how engaging a simple blackboard and chalk can be. Many of my friends felt the same way. I think it is because ever since our primary school the blackboard has been the Ultimate Teaching Tool. So, to me anyway, it feels friendly and comfortable :)

During the third year of Mech Eng, we get the chance to work on a Design, Make and Test project. This is worth a large portion of the year grade. Some people say the logbook itself is worth as much as the whole of first year – something I have to confirm because otherwise I sure am in trouble with my logbook written in the code known as ‘Lakshana’s writing’. Well anyway, our team decided to work on Racing Green. For me this was quite a challenge seeing as I am one of those rare Mech-engers who don’t know a great deal about cars. But for the past six weeks I’ve been researching loads and learning from academics and other students alike, so I think I am no longer as ignorant as before. I am however totally fired up about the Formula Student competition we will be entering in 2011! It feels even better knowing that parts we designed and built are on it. Of course this is very much a double-edged sword; if for example our chains snap then I am sure there will be a large queue of people waiting to strangle me…

Jenny pretending to be an F1 driver - and Ben in the background

The car is designed to accommodate a 5th percentile woman and a 95th percentile man. It is not however designed for a Lakshana.

Mew concentrating

Luck is like a short electric pulse – like a signal with a miniscule duty cycle. It’s on for a while… and then switches off for months. If only I were a character from an RPG, who could eat cookies to increase their luck.

Fortunately yesterday (i.e. Monday the 16th) I was going through one of my lucky intervals. I got news that I might be going on an exchange to the University of California! I’ve always wanted to study in the States seeing as their teaching is vastly different from an UK university. Unfortunately Imperial only sends four students, and my name has only been put forward from the Mech Eng department. Ah well, we’ll see what happens…! According to Mech Eng, I have a 70% chance of getting chosen. I have no idea how this figure was calculated, but it sounds good.

The application process involved writing an essay, followed by an interview with a panel of people. Apparently I had ‘impressed them all’ but unless mumbling in the interviewers’ faces is impressive I don’t see how I could have done. Perhaps telling them that I was a blogger was a positive move! I was not sure if it would be appropriate to mention seeing as I was emphasizing the ‘teaching’ and ‘top-class education’ and ‘diversity of cultures’ and such. But when they asked me ‘What makes you the ideal Imperial representative?’ I felt I had to mention this blog.

There are numerous reasons I want to go to California, none of which I outlined in the interview:

1. I’m going to learn how to surf. Provided I’m near the coast.

2. I want to ride on the Liberty ships (that famously fractured because the engineer had not taken into account Ductile-to-Brittle transition of steel). Apparently if you tell the guys you study Fracture Mechanics at Imperial with Dr Crofton, senior tutor of Mech Eng, they give you a free ride! I don’t do fracture mechanics, but it’s worth a try : )

3. I want to enjoy look at the sun.

4. I want to be closer to my family. Well, closer than I am now – America does span across four time zones. Belgium does not even cover half of one.

5. Comi-con

6. Making contacts so it’s easier to get a PhD and benefiting from a global education…

With all this excitement I keep forgetting two key things. I might not go. And if by luck I do get chosen, I have to leave Imperial behind. I don’t think I’d recognize myself if the me from two years ago saw the me of today, and this must be because of how the university has influenced me. I’m no longer the inferior push-over I was back in high-school, at least I hope I’m not. I’ve met some of the smartest people in my life; people who will definitely go on to become world famous. I’ve made some good friends whom I’ll miss sorely.

When I think about how much has changed these past few years I can feel my eyes getting itchy…and when I realize that I still have a long way to go to becoming my ideal person the tears flow freely. I can only imagine that an exchange to California, be it to Berkeley, LA or San Diego, will aid and strengthen my personal and academic development.

(…did you actually read through all that? That was cheesier than my motivation essay!!)