#3 Summary of lecture on 30th Jan

The lecture on 30th Jan which was conducted by three lecturers was thought provoking. The three guest speakers presented their expertise on three different yet related topics. All topics talked were related to climate change. Summaries of their insightful speech will be provided in the following paragraphs, as well as my personal reflection regarding to these topics, based on my understanding.

The first speaker was Prof. Palmer, a Fellow of the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers, and also a Chartered Engineer. He talked about the problem of climate change and raised some possible solutions accordingly; for example, concentrate on the fuel efficiency; switch to alternative energy sources; try to mitigate effects; adapt to change of climate and capture and store carbon dioxide. The last approach aforementioned was the one he discussed most. His second half lecture was concentrating around the merits and defects of this method. To avoid the water be acidized due to the capture and storage of CO2, an innovative idea like store CO2 in a ”sausage” was provided. Finally, he ends his lecture with a call-on to reduce carbon dioxide by saying “everyone, all the countries, all the politicians has to be convinced”.

The second speaker was Dr. Sovacool, from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His lecture was systematic and mainly focused on using STS (Science & Technology Studies) to address energy and technology problems. The speech consisted of three parts: a quick introduction to STS; case studies, one was on renewable power and the other was on electric vehicles; conclusion. As what he had mentioned, STS mainly looks at contingency, social and political ordering, invisibility and failures. He said, technology can succeed technically, but fail socially. In case studies, he talked about the barriers and obstacles in both cases. His lecture ends up with a conclusion of STS as methods provide a useful lens to evaluate new technologies.

The last speaker, A/P Bala, was from the Division of Environmental Science & Engineering. Professor Bala was mainly focusing on the climate change assessment and mitigation. Prof. Bala introduced some common problems and difficulties faced by the whole world and called for international cooperation. Meanwhile, some measures were provided to mitigate climate change, for instance, for individuals, increasing energy efficiency, relying more on renewable energy resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions are all possible and efficient methods, and for governments, taxing greenhouse gas emission, subsidizing energy efficient enterprises and cooperating internationally can be applied.

#1 The Expanding world of Engineer

Stated by Prof. Ramakrishna, the roles engineers playing have greatly changed, from “the people who build high-rise buildings, underground tunnels and shopping malls” to now thought of as “the people who design and manufacture electronic goods…and also medical devices and hospital equipments” (The Expanding world of engineers, Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna). In his opinion, attribute to the advent o-f service-oriented economy, “the traditional scope of engineers has been broadened considerably to encompass the service sector”

 

For modern engineers, the reason why they are so highly sought after is that they are systematically trained to “not ‘fear’ of technology but embraces and thrives on it”(The Expanding world of engineers, Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna). Pointed out by Prof. Ramakrishna, the curriculum design and pedagogical approach train the students to be engineers with systematic and critical thinking mind. In NUS, series of enhancement programs are delicately designed for its future engineers, like industry attachment, internship, and innovation program. Students are expected to participate in these programs and devote themselves to dynamic modules, grab knowledge to deepen and broaden their horizons. Thus, make it possible to cultivate engineers with aforementioned features.

 

Being equipped with those qualities, the way engineers solve complex problems is to view it from a holistic standard, find out the inner relationships and modularize it. Thus, cut complex problems into small and simple problems. Engineers also work in groups to maximize their working efficiency and accuracy. The tertiary education of engineers trained them to solve practical problems instead of purely solve equations from textbooks. I can still remember that in our programming module CS1101C, we engineering students are often asked to implement a small program to solve certain real life problems or design some mini games, not purely practice syntax.

 

To sum up, engineering tertiary education equips its students with the ability to solve complex problems by applying systematic approach. Which makes engineers one of the most promising career in current society.

#2 An inconvinient Truth

An in convenient truth is probably one of the most successful documentary movies in recent years. It greatly grabs people’s attention on the issue of global warming, so do I. Now, it seems that everyone one is working hard on the solid target: making the world more beautiful and trying to get our planet out of the threat of global warming. However，some countries spotted out that China should be responsible for a major part of global warming due to its large population. The in convenient truth is: China, my country, is also acting. Chinese government takes measures mainly from the two aspects: save energy and reduce the emission of CO₂.

One of the two main methods is to save energy. By closing up considerable small thermal power plants and extensively apply the energy-efficient large thermal power generating units; China has received a remarkable result. The central government signed Responsibility with more 30 local governments aiming at closing 50 million kilowatts of small thermal power plants during 2007 to 2010. In addition, the central government promises to give priority support to those companies that perform distinctively in responding to the policy of energy saving, which I mentioned just now.

The other policy is reducing the emission of CO₂ by decreasing the power consumption. Pointed out by the Eleventh Five-Year Planning, from 2006 to 2010, unit GDP energy consumption should be reduced to 80% and the emission of main pollutants should be lowered to 90%. The 20% reduction has become the solid target for Chinese government and all Chinese people. Also, some highly pollutional enterprises have been forced to close in the area of electric power system, iron and steel smelting, aluminum electrolyzing, nonferrous metal smelting and paper making.

To summarize, China is taking her responsibility to fight for the well-being of our living environment by applying policies like saving energies and lower the CO₂ emission. In “An inconvenient truth”, the US and other countries have done a lot in environment protection and greenhouse gas reduction. Here, China is also acting.

reference website(Chinese):

http://www.china.com.cn/book/zhuanti/qkjc/txt/2008-02/27/content_10939026.htm