TWC thoughts Week 12/ Session 11

Prof started lesson by telling us that as university students writing an academic report, it is absolutely crucial to attribute any borrowed idea to its authors. Even so, we cannot just copy and paste the entire section into our own report. Instead we will have to paraphrase the entire sentence so as not to commit plagiarism. For myself, I had an 18% index on turnitin but when I opened the report, I could see chucks of work that were highlighted which signifies that it appeared somewhere else. This shows that a low turnitin index is not sufficient, we must also ensure that we do not lift any information from any outside source. After viewing the document I immediately knew that I had work to do.

Digressing a bit, I feel that we have to change our habits of copy and pasting because for other modules, we will not have a chance to check turnitin before confirming our final submission, unlike TWC.

Another interesting quote from Prof that I should take note of, “It is only when you are able to explain a concept/idea to a 10 year old kid that you truly understand it. Many a times, we think that we know it all, but when asked to explain, we will hide behind all the jargons and technical terms and not give a proper explanation. Only when we are able to explain in simple language can we claim to fully understand something.

Group Projects Presentation

This session of TWC will be one where we will start to present our group projects through an interactive website. Earlier, Prof mentioned that there was a distinct difference between presenting information through a report and website. I cannot agree more with this. Compared to our individual report, we had to incorporate a lot more interactive elements such as videos and pictures as this would capture the viewer’s attention much better than plain text.

1.      Futuristic Buildings

My group’s presentation was the first and we stepped up to present our findings and research to the class. Throughout our research, we showed the class the way we think that buildings will evolve and progress through 5 elements: Sustainability, Susceptibility, Speed, Spaces, and Smashing designs. We learnt a lot through the research process. For eg, how Taipei 101 counters earthquakes and buildings through a huge internal pendulum .

2.      Clean Energy

Group 2 shared about clean energy and the many forms of it. Although their presentation was rather content heavy, I liked their incorporation of case studies into the website, especially the China and Masdar City case study.

3.      Nanotechnology

Group 3 shared about nanotechnology and I found their website highly simple and sleek to navigate around. Information is also presented in an easy to read manner. Through their presentation, I’ve learnt about Nano energy, (eg. fuel cells and solar cells) and it’s potential. One worry I have would be the social implications of nanotechnology. Like a lot of new technology, this has the potential to exacerbate the gap between developed and developing countries, thereby bringing more inequality to the world.

Personal Rating

Today’s lesson was pretty refreshing from the normal classes and I felt that all groups did their research thoroughly. Would rate the class 9/10.