It was raining hard, but we still went out and gave Thanks Giving Day present to the children on the street.
Seeing the sweet smile on the children’s faces, I felt more than grateful.
On the way back to the activity room, a local friend told me his name was Darry. He came from Temasek Polytechnic. Knowing that I don’t have an English name, he decided to give me one. He said that I looked like “Michel” and “Yvoen”. I chose Yvoen at the end.
Thanks Darry!
It is our begin for TF LEaRN program. Early in the morning, we all dress decently and wait in SUTD. Then we start for NUS and begin this ceremony. Many students who had taken part in this program before share their experience about life in Singapore. We learn a lot from them and we get a lot of experience about what we should do in the future. Then we have a short break and have lunch. In the end, all of us get together and take a photo, finishing our ceremony.
Soon, it is time to leave Singapore. I have two final exams on December 19th, and then I will return to China.
Thinking about myself in Singapore and studying for several months in SUTD, I have many feelings in my heart.
First of all, what gave me a special feeling at the beginning was the volunteer activity I participated in in the Community Involvement Projects. I have participated in similar events in my own country, but the format and results of the events are quite different. In our country, this is often organized by our own students and then carried out in the surrounding residential areas, such as repairing electrical appliances in the community (because we are students of electrical engineering), visiting lonely elderly people, etc. But here, there is often a very mature organization that connects with the student’s organization, which makes the activities here more targeted and organized. This feature is best reflected in Blossom Home Refresh. We also need to receive training before we start volunteer activities.
when it comes to study. I think SUTD’s curriculum model is also very different from ours. The team project is highly valued here, and has high requirements for collaboration between multiple people. At the same time, the course setting focuses on the combination of theoretical knowledge and practical operation. These are some very good ways of course setting, and I think it is a great gain. The gain here is not only knowledge, but also the improvement of interpersonal skills and leadership.
Finally, I am grateful to the Temasek Foundation and SUTD for giving me this opportunity to participate in this exchange activity, and I will spread the knowledge and ideas I gained in this project to the world around me.
During the recess week, there was an exhibition of some new technology in SUTD, Building 2, level 1. Many concepts were practical and useful and some of them were related to the military. The participated companies varied from Microsoft to some startups.
I had experienced a VR medical training product. The scene was vivid and the animation was smooth. But the cooperation between the control rod and the animation seems not well. And for people with no medical background, it’s hard to remember the steps and truly learn how to treat the injured. New technology has changed our life, but we still need to consider the application of them and make a better interaction design along with them.
Fablab is the landmark building of SUTD, equipped with all assortment of machines and tools to support hands-on practice. I have been there 3 times to do my project. Stuff there is always accommodating to offer any help. I got a kick out of many activities including soldering, assembly as well as carving. As a design-centric school, it’s really a paradise for us students. In China, we don’t have such superior conditions to get our ideas off the ground. We practice our design thinking more instead. So this experience is complementary to our previous education.
But there are still some aspects that need to be improved. First is the lack of indicators. We were confused about how to get in and have access to different areas and how could we find what we need and know how to use them. And the open time is really limited, only on weekdays could we enter the fab lab. Sometimes it’s really crowded at the end of the semester.
In the last week of October, I suddenly learned that there was a festival called Deepavali in Singapore. The next week is a full holiday. I can’t just stay in the apartment like this for a week, so I decided to visit the surrounding countries. After choosing a bit, I decided to take a one-on-one trip in Thailand.
So, on the 28th day, under the stormy weather, I set out from the Anglelic house, went to Changi Airport, and then got on the plane. Finally, I arrived in Bangkok at the end of the day. After arriving at the hotel, I dragged my tired body to sleep.
In the following days, I went to SIAM’s Ocean Park, Thailand National Art Center and Grand Palace. I felt a lot of the customs of Thailand and Southeast Asia. I think this trip is very meaningful.
In SUTD’s computational data science course, I met two of my friends at SUTD, Sean and Gong Chen. We are assigned to the same group to complete a project, so I have a lot of time to understand them in work and study. They also became my best friends at SUTD
Sean is a native of Singapore. He is very cheerful and active, and has strong leadership skills. When we are working on a group project, in most cases it is his job assignment and general instructions. He has a lot of things to learn from him. He has a very positive attitude towards many things. He always smiles happily, so that people around him can feel the power. I have seen some valuable Singaporeans from him. Traits.
Gong Chen is from China like me, but he is not an exchange student, but has studied and lived in Singapore since elementary school. Of course, he will return to China during vacations, so we will have some common perspectives and topics, but more Many, he also has the unique characteristics of Singapore, a unique international country and city. This trait allows us to have more thinking collisions and blends in our exchanges. Discussions on many topics let us Both have a deeper understanding of these topics.
I am grateful for their help during my stay in Singapore and the changes they brought to me. I think this is also one of the purposes of this exchange project. Let our peers communicate with each other in some different points of view and work together growing up.
Now that I have recorded so many clips of everyday life, I want to change the subject and talk about academic.
In fact, among the students of Zhejiang University who participated in this project, I was a very different one. I am the only senior and the only student from the Electrical Engineering College. The cooperation object of this project is actually the International Design Institute of my home university, so most of the students involved come from industrial design or product design. But after learning about this project, I found that there are professors I admire in the faculty of the ISTD pillar of SUTD. At the same time, I didn’t want to do any more research in electrical engineering at the graduate level, but computer science. So I came here to take courses related to machine learning and data science.
After more than two months of study, I feel I have gained a lot. The course design here is similar to MIT, and MIT is the world’s top in computer science, especially in the field of AI. Therefore, the design of the course here is particularly good. At the same time, the professors in the class also have world-class standards I think that participating in this exchange project will play a key role in my future academic research.
I have also completed my application for the master project in these two months. If nothing else, I will go to Tokyo next September to continue my graduate study, which is also an important gain for me in the past few months!
My dear roommate Yulin, also a Chinese student study at the National University of Singapore, has gone back to China several days ago. Her university(NUS) has a month off for winter vacation, the length of which is as equivalent as that in China. But much to her disappointment, she won’t be able to spend the New Year with her family, the most important holiday and best moment in China for family reunion. But this is a common sorrow of students studying overseas.
I have a nice time living with her in Anglican House. She was also the student mentor here. We’ve shared many opinions about career and life at night. She told me that the most popular majors in Singapore are medicine and law and she was very lucky to be a law major. Although we have a different background, we get along well with each other. And I’m looking forward to meeting her in the future!
After a few weeks, we felt that we were somewhat comfortable with the current environment. So, on a not-so-hot afternoon, a little friend suggested that we go out and walk around Singapore together, so we haven’t even looked around. This proposal received the unanimous consent of several of our boys, so we simply packed up and decided to go out, the goal is the east coast.
As the terrain was still unfamiliar, under the leadership of An Jinchen, we also took the reverse bus and got to the Changi city, but we stopped by and walked around, feeling very happy. Then we successfully reached the east coast. There are not many people here, only some people who run at night and exercise by bike. We saw a water taxiing project pulled by a steel cable, and it felt very exciting and fun, but it was too late at that time, we didn’t play and hope to have a chance in the future. We settled our dinner in a small food center and ate local seafood, which was very delicious.
In the end, we walked along the beach with the lanterns at the beginning, but there was a circle of ships on the sea, and their lights lit up and strung together, just like another island. We sat on a beach bench and looked at the sky, feeling sincerely cozy and happy.
TF LEaRN Programme @ SUTD 