A Better Title

Wow, it has been a week since I last blogged. Has it really been that long?

The week has passed by very, very quickly. After my last post, I was stressed over my Final Year Project (FYP) selection. Knowing that it is a project I am going to be stuck with for one year, I had no choice but to choose very, very wisely. Of course, people around me just kept on telling me to pick randomly (you’ll know why I was tempted to do so too). Others told me to choose the supervisor, not the project. But to me, the project is just as important, if not more, since if I’m not interested in the project in the first place, I wouldn’t even have the drive to complete the project satisfactorily.

There are two phases in which you can get to choose your FYP:

1. Pick-and-pull-by-supervisor

   This phase starts on 7 May and ends on 14 May. In this phase, students can approach the supervisor directly, and after discussion, if both parties are agreeable, the student can be allocated the project instantly.

2. Pick-random-minimized (a fancy name for “computer balloting”, really)

   This phase lasts from 15 May until 21 May. In this phase, students can choose up to 10 choices of projects. After the end of the period, the computer will allocate the projects according to the preference stated. Of course, in most cases this translates to a simple word: “random”.

Not surprisingly, I opted for the first phase.

On Monday I was busy with posting of 3 builds (2 major and 1 minor) at work, so I didn’t get a chance to choose my FYP. By the end of the day, I saw that a few of the projects had been snapped up.

There were 1021 projects to choose from. This was the reason why I was so tempted to heed by the others’ advice to just pick the project randomly. Of course the wiser of me decided not to, since I will most likely end up with some funny project with some funny professor. It will not be funny, I tell you.

I spent Tuesday shortlisting the projects I might have the slightest interest in. Here my broad interest actually came as a major disadvantage, because after shortlisting I ended up with 187 projects. I wasted the entire Wednesday going through the list again, making up my mind which projects to choose. All the while I’ve been watching the allocated projects list in horror, as more and more projects were being snapped up. By the end of Wednesday, I only had about 100 projects which I could choose from my list. The rest had been allocated to other students.

In the end, I shortlisted 3 projects which I am most interested in: “Data Mining with Evolutionary Algorithm”, “Development of a NLP [sic] Based Search Engine” and “Auto Assessment of Engineering Assignments”. All are equally interesting. The first two are from the same supervisor, who seems to be quite fun to work with. The third one is from a supervisor who I didn’t know of. It also happens to be an industry-sponsored project, and I used to work in the company that sponsors that project.

I decided to email the two supervisors to get more information. I arranged a meeting on Thursday with the first supervisor. The second one simply forwarded my email to the industry partner, who replied pretty quickly.

So I took a day leave on Thursday to weigh my choices.

I met the first supervisor and was given more information about the project. I was also told that the second project was no longer available.

So by then my choices were only left with two: “Data Mining with Evolutionary Algorithm” and “Auto Assessment of Engineering Assignments”.

The first project is something which I could visualise, so in a way I felt quite safe if I were to take the project. The second project, on the other hand, required me to learn a totally new technique, and apply it in an unexpected area. In a way, the second project will take me to my limit, and allow me to see if I can take up research. The safety-first in me wanted me to take the first one, but the adventurous side of me wanted me to take the second.

And so for hours on Thursday, I sat there in front of the library PC, continually switching my windows between one which showed the description of the first project, and another which showed the second. I was in despair, I really didn’t know which one to choose. All the while more and more projects were getting snapped up.

I decided to go home and email the supervisor and industry partner for the second project. In the email, I basically said that I have no background in that area at all, and whether it would be suitable for me. The industry partner was quick to reply that he can teach me whatever I need to know, as long as I am willing to learn.

So I thought “ah, heck” and decided to reply saying that I would take up the second project. I didn’t know what I was thinking, but I was quite calm. Perhaps I was exhausted from thinking about my FYP throughout the week.

So on Friday, my name was there on the list, right beside “Auto Assessment of Engineering Assignments”.

Somehow I feel that my final year is going to be hectic.

***

On Friday night, I went to Geek Terminal with Nicole, DK, and Veron. It wasn’t exactly a Ping.sg meet up, but just a couple of geeks chilling out. I was supposed to do my report there, but I didn’t have the mood to. Ended up eating DK’s nachos, the geek soup, and cafe mocha.

Oh, and check this out…

Cool, huh? The barista, Danny, did the names for us on the coffee. Next time you go to Geek Terminal, make sure you strike up a conversation with him. He really have a lot of stories about coffee to share!

Like everyone else said, Geek Terminal hasn’t really opened officially yet, but it has already been popular amongst bloggers, even with all the drilling noises from the restaurant downstairs. We even bumped into Kevin, Neo, Ridz and his friend Jasmine. I wonder how it’s going to be like when it’s finally open.

Also check out what others say: DK, Nicole, Ridz.

***

Oh, crap. I really have to start doing my internship report…

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 13th, 2007 at 1:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.