The new year 2010 just arrived but then suddenly January is almost going to end. I'm now in my early second semester for my Ph.D studies and things are heating up. I've just prepared my Ph.D proposal and submitted it to my supervisor. It's now with her for checking.
Ph.D Proposal + Journal Review PaperAt the time, I'm also working on a review paper for my first journal paper. It's very tough. It's not easy reading a lot of technical papers relating to my own research. But, I need to do it. This review paper will be my first international indexed journal paper and I hope it will further boost my spirit and motivation to complete my Ph.D as soon as humanly possible.
Experimental Rig Set-UpAt the same time, I'm also preparing my experimental rig. According to a colleague, it's better for me if I can set up a centralize control system to control all electrical and instrumentation in my experimental rig. Yeah...why not...that's cool... And for that reason, we are going to KL tomorrow to attend a seminar from National Instrument to learn more detail on the control equipment hardware and software. I hope something beneficial and conclusive will be obtained tomorrow. I need to set up my experimental rig as fast as possible.
Quartz Tube IssueI ordered a set of quartz tube from a local supplier who is importing the quartz tube from London. Unfortunately the quartz tube have not yet arrived. This is not good... At the same time, a company I dealth with from Singapore is offering me quartz tube according to my specification. The bad thing is they quote me such an expansive price. I'm in huge dillema whether to buy or not the quartz tube. My budget is really tiny and I need to spend well, other wise I will run out of money to carry out my research.
Matlab training for Post Graduate SocietyThanks to my fellow friend Nabeel from Iraq who is currently doing his masters in his 3rd semester. He volunteered to conduct a matlab training for us. I'll be confirming few details on the training possibly tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. If God wills, we'll be having the training next week. Only 15 students will be accepted to participate in this 3 days matlab training. I'm definitely attending this training. It is imperative for my thermodynamic analysis study for my reaction, which is going to be projected to fulfil my second journal paper.
ConsultationMy headache is not yet over when it comes to the consultancy project i'm currently handling now. I thought everything was almost completed but then suddenly some issue arises, and some modification needs to be done. Yep, it's delayed again. Nevermine, we'll settle it once and for all.
IEM Training Log BookLast week I received my log book which was checked by IEM representative from Chemical Engineering Division. Luckily the report was ok. Why? I said this because the envelop where the report was in has already torn and was really in bad shape. I can't imagine if something bad happen to my report, then 2 years of my recent engineering experiences are thrown away. Morale: Prepare a back-up of the report incase the report when missing somewhere somehow.
However, the one thing that is nice to see in my report is the comment made by the checker engineer... He recommended me to submit the report for my 3rd year in mid 2010. Why...this is because i've been sending back dated report for my log book. In other words, last year (2009) I submitted my report for 2008. In 2008, I submitted report for 2007. How come this happen...? Basically, the information conveyed was not clear when I enrolled as an IEM member. They say that after registering, I can back date my training experiences. Yes, I can, but the checker engineer at the end of the year will only check for 1 year training experiences only. That's when everything mess up. I did not know about this. Maybe I did not check properly. Haha....It's ok...
IEM project paperAnyhow anyway, my mentor advised me to use my phd project as the main component to be reported in my final project paper for my professional interview assessment later. I must say that I totallt agree with him. That means, I need to work very hard and efficient for my phd studies. You know what is this...? It's simply killing 2 birds with one stone...Fuhhh....
How about you? Anything interesting you wanna share...? I would love to read you experiences as well...
Before that, check out this video from national instrument Labview...