Cerulean Cordillera

Posts Tagged ‘University Life’

Unofficial marks just came out. The marks fit with what I expected after final exams:

Operating Systems: 90
Computer Hardware: 85
Dynamic Systems & Control: 70
Engineering Economics: 68

Engineering Economics turned out to be the second lowest mark I’ve ever gotten in a university course. Oh well, it wasn’t that important anyway. It looks like I’m still on track with my plan, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Meanwhile, in case some people are wondering where I am. I’m in London until my G2 test on the 15th, then regardless of result I’ll be heading back to Toronto right after.

Final exams have finally ended. I guess I’ll first talk about preliminary results. I had four courses the past term:

• Computer Hardware
• Engineering Economics
• Dynamic Systems & Control
• Operating Systems

Out of the four courses, Hardware and OS were the courses most relevant to my studies, and thus I wanted high marks in those. Engineering Economics was something semi-relevant, while Control Systems is simply a course I had to take to fulfill my kernel requirement. Prior to exams, I had above-average marks in everything except for Engineering Economics. There were four quizzes in econ prior to the final exam, and I had underestimated every single one of them. The core concepts are easy enough and the math is a joke, but I guess having to deal with so many pieces of information in so limited amount of time always gets me at the end. I haven’t failed this much in a course since Signals and Systems in second year.

So I tried my best and gave most of my exam prep time to the econ course hoping for an awesome final mark to balance it out. Despite that, I still made a huge mistake on the final exam. There were five problems where each one would take me about 30 minutes straight of calculations and number crunching. Yet, on the fourth question, I used the wrong approach at the beginning, and only realized how stupid the approach was after I finished the problem. I then had about 30 minutes left, and I had to rush the fourth question again in 15 minutes with the correct approach, and then finish the last question in 15 minutes. Countless errors probably would’ve been made in that mad rushing, lol. I’m hoping the best for that course. Hopefully I didn’t fail.

The other courses are roughly okay. I feel pretty good about my Hardware exam. I didn’t do so well in Control Systems, but I had a pretty good average going into it, and it’s not like I need a good mark in that course. The best news (yet also the most risky news) is probably Operating Systems. Apparently, my adjusted exam mark was a 90%, which combined with near perfect labs mean I’ll get above 90% in the end. However, the professor posted a mark sheet on the course website, and the calculations in there counted my midterm mark of zero. The midterm really shouldn’t be counted since I submitted a petition (I was honestly quite sick on that day). I’m going to hope that an administrative error wouldn’t turn my well-deserved 90+ into a 68.

Now, in terms of the stuff I’ve learned… I’m quite content. Hardware was basically a finish-off of Digital Systems in second year, and it’s nice to learn about computer algorithms for circuit simplification, plus all those different techniques for building all sorts of different types of finite state machines. I’m pretty confident in all those methods now, so that’s good. Despite my horrible mark prospects in economics, I’ve also learned quite a bit from there as it gave a pretty good overview on how engineering firms do all their cost calculations and taxes. I know that if I ever had to do these things, I’m definitely seeking computer-aided help, or if none exist, I’ll program my own (I hate mindless number crunching by hand!). Control systems gave me some good practice in Laplace transforms and matrix operations although I have no idea where I’ll actually use it. And lastly, Operating Systems was the most valuable course this term. I can actually look into various parts of my computer and understand what used to be jibberish to me. The textbook is also a treasure, it’s so well written and so informative that I’ll probably read it just for fun in the future if I ever have the chance.

So, upcoming events now for me include my second attempt at the G2 test on May 11th, and beginning of work at AMD on May 18th. Some day in the near future I’ll also be moving into my new room on the second floor. At residence, Cici and I have already switched into cooking mode. No more eating at Fung, and after two days of successful cooking, it’s good to know I haven’t lost my stirfry skills . Eating awesome homemade food is both exciting and wonderful, especially after a year of badly-made cafe food and expensive restaurants.

As the summer begin, I will be adding more sections to this blog. My MMORPG and Philosophy pages will grow whenever I feel the inspiration to write. Meanwhile, there’s this project I want to attempt. I want to write a beginner’s primer on digital photography (the really basics), and also take lots of pictures – especially around campus during beautiful scenes – and make a library of them. I think too often we students are too busy thinking about our courses, trying to get high GPAs, tests, exams, and stressful things, that the campus – which is supposed to be this romantic and stimulating environment – becomes merely this excruciating distance between our homes and our classes that we have to walk through every day. I saw people taking photographs of the cherry trees behind Robarts yesterday, when the sun was just above the line of houses to the west. It was beautiful, and it would be nice if that moment was captured.

I haven’t updated anything for a while, and I expect this to continue until Monday the 27th, when my last exam finishes. The same applies to the general mimiuchi.net blog.

Originally posted on Saturday, January 24, 2009

Let’s do a quick reassessment of my life and goals.

Let’s start with an Assumption: I want to study hard, understand everything, and become a great engineer

Question: If I understand everything, will I become a great engineer? How great will I be?

More importantly, does it take understanding everything to become a great engineer? Will, say… understanding everything in Newtonian dynamics (a first year course outside of my specialization) be necessary for me to become a great engineer?

Answer: No. So let’s revise the assumption:

Assumption: I want to study hard, understand all that is relevant, and become a great engineer.

Of course, a great engineer, for me, would be a computer engineer who takes active and important roles in the development of projects that are both amazing and significant. So, what does all that is relevant consist of when it comes to this definition?

• I will need to know programming languages and have hardware skills
• I will need to know the design processes in practice for all such projects
• I will need to know how to create and use mathematical models for various systems and algorithms
• I will need a detailed understanding of computing concepts and computer architecture
• I will need experience and knowledge of the current state-of-the-art and market conditions for such projects
• I will need to be able to notice and pertain my performance to the strengths and weaknesses of my teammates
• I will need to be appropriately social depending on the situation
• I will need to be able to mentally perceive and play around with the whole picture of the project
• I will need to have my goals set and tasks organized
• I will need to be relatively fit in order to generate enough energy for these efforts

Ah, that’s a good list. We will work with this list from now on. This list contains items that must be met before I can say that I have all the qualities it takes to become a potential great engineer. If I am a great engineer, I will already have these qualities. If I have these qualities, I may not yet be a great engineer if I have not generated results. First, acquire these bullet points, next, apply them in real-world projects, and if both succeeds, then maybe I can call myself a great engineer.

Some bullet points come from understanding things in my classes. For example, knowledge of computer architecture may be obtained easily simply by learning concepts from classes. Currently, three of my four classes directly belong in this category: computer hardware, operating systems, and engineering economics. The fourth, dynamic systems and control, is not with the area of my specialization, and I am only taking it because of breadth requirements, so therefore I only need a semi-decent mark in that course. How much I learn from the course will not matter.

The three courses, however, must be treated with a serious attitude. I will expect A-grades from those three courses, and I will expect deep understanding of those course material after the course is finished.

Back to the list. Some other bullet points comes from merely experience. For example, programming language skills can only come from writing code for projects. I can choose to write code like mad to gain experience, but that is not an efficient method and will not work very well for me. Therefore, I will merely expose myself to opportunities to train up such skills, and that is all.

Others, such as organization skills, only takes small but constant effort. I am already persevering on many of these things. For example, I create and follow my daily schedule using Mozilla Sunbird. Past experience with establishing these habits tells me that attacking it head-on with willpower is not a good solution. Instead, what worked was the strategy of trying to naturally integrate these habits into everyday life, a small chunk at a time. This process will certainly continue, as it has been ongoing since years ago.

And that’s that.

Now, engineering isn’t the only part of life. So let us now focus on the other stuff. The goal is to integrate myself into a lifestyle with meaning, which I am constantly trying to do. The following are conclusions drawn from past mistakes:

Learning Does Not Equal Meaning: Let’s face it, not all knowledge is valuable. For knowledge to be valuable to me, they must have qualities that I deem to be valuable. For instance, useful knowledge is valuable, so are certain knowledge that I enjoy learning despite its lack of utility. It is foolish to learn for the sake of learning. If I learn something, then it should be something I want to learn. I will not let my principles to drive my desires, for that is unnatural. I will have my desires drive my principles, for then I will be true to myself. For instance, I do not follow duty because my principles tell me that duty must be followed, instead, I follow duty because I would feel guilty, or frustrate at the inefficiency I would cause, otherwise.

Trust Neither The Mind Alone Nor The Heart Alone: Mind is the source of conscious thoughts and willpower. Heart is the (poetic) source of unconscious desires and feelings. Obviously, each keeps the other in check, and a healthy balance is thus achieved. I will not reach any desired states if I rely only on rational thinking or if I rely only on following emotions. At the moment, my belief is that a wholesome and autonomous life is only possible when I trust in both and passively – but consciously – acknowledge my body’s efforts to achieve such balance.

Remember The Ultimate Big Picture: I strive for nothing for its own sake. Instead, all that I strive for I do so because they will contribute to my happiness, which will feed my unconscious, irrational desire to be happy. This is true of all human beings whether they admit it or not. Openly admitting this creates a more solid practical foundation for my principles and way of life. This is not a morally inferior view of the world for I do not acknowledge any such absolute moral standard that can be used to reach such a conclusion. Arbitrary principles without ground in irrational desires will only serve to confuse the hell out of us and make us do things that we have no idea why we’re doing.

The strategy for life, then, is to simply put effort into things that I am interested in or that I find to be meaningful on an unconscious, irrational level. For example, I would never apply for a job position unless the job itself interests me. The amount of effort I spend on these things is obviously naturally influenced by how interesting or meaningful such things appear to me. However, putting extra effort is always a good idea because it would obviously increase the chances of success and make wasted efforts less likely.

That makes things pretty clear, lol. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Originally posted on Monday, November 14, 2008

I came across this quote in one of my essay readings:

“People have sometimes asked me whether I am upset that I have not made a lot of money from the Web. In fact, I made some quite conscious decisions about which way to take my life. These I would not change – though I am making no comment on what I might do in the future. What does distress me, though, is how important a question it seems to be to some. This happens mostly in America, not Europe. What is maddening is the terrible notion that a person’s value depends on how important and financially successful they are, and that that is measured in terms of money. That suggest disrespect for the researchers across the globe developing ideas for the next leaps in science and technology. Core in my upbringing was a value system that put monetary gain well in its place, behind things like doing what I really want to do. To use net worth as a criterion by which to judge people is to set our children’s sights on cash rather than on things that will actually make them happy.”

~Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web

I thought it was an awesome quote. The message behind it is cliched, although well worth mentioning since we tend to forget or ignore things that are cliched but also important. What will truly make us happy in the future is difficult to predict – the complex interconnections between all the subproblems of life begs the use of a greedy algorithm to simplify things, as any other micromanagement solution is beyond human capacity. However, the obvious thing we ought to optimize is happiness, not economic value. It is much safer to bet on a greedy algorithm that optimizes happiness, than to bet on a greedy algorithm that optimizes economic wealth and at the same time, to also bet on that economic wealth will bring happiness.

How’s that for using technical jargon to describe a way of life? Appreciate those with the capacity to be happy, and you shall be happy. Appreciate those with the capacity to be rich, and you might be rich, but you might not be happy. To be happy is easy, one merely has to adopt a mindset. To be rich is difficult, for one must struggle endlessly in the competitive market. To be happy requires a certain degree of wealth, not the maximum potential. Being rich is usually a nice side effect you get for reaching a good degree of your happiness. Basically, focus on happiness and you’ll probably be rich. Focus on richness and you’re not guaranteed happiness. If you want both, focus on your happiness. That’s probably the practical and less ideological way of understanding this viewpoint.

Anyway, that was my attempt to disect the reasoning behind the old and cliched (but important in many contexts) viewpoint that money != happiness.