Hello!
I am Rebecca, a year 1 going 2 student in School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS). In particular, I am a student of Mathematics! 🙂 When I first joined SPMS, I heard from seniors that mathematics modules will not require any group work at all. I was elated for group work brings with it many challenges and issues that may arise – I was glad to have avoided any group work entirely. However, little did I know that the Making and Tinkering (MnT) module was compulsory for CN Yang Scholars. Thus, my group, Blindsight, was borne and we embarked on a three-month long project together.
In my first academic year, i have had multiple experiences with coding on python through two formal modules and a research module that required deep learning methods for financial prediction. Little did I expect more coding in the module that was supposed to involve making and tinkering.
To be truthful, after my first year and the experiences I had, I am pretty traumatized by what coding and debugging entails. The frustration of running a code that deceivingly looks bug-free and the hours on end we can spend on debugging really made me feel like throwing in the towel at times.
Thankfully, there were also splinter moments of bliss – when parts of the code is actually free of bugs and it does exactly what we hoped it would. These are the little candy drops that baits the thorny trail of which we can greatly delight in.
Another of our great delight, is the hopes that this device would bring equal bliss to the users who need it the most. It was the group’s hope that the device we make can help the visually-impaired become more independent when navigating and crossing the road. This motivation kept us asking the right questions about the quality, safety and accuracy of the codes we craft, as well as continually modifying the exterior design to be of most comfort to the user.
Though our progress  through this module is limited, I am glad to have increased my understanding of what making a device entails and also what greater the demands of making a device for the visually-impaired neccessitates.