26 Jan, 2017 | Articles
BY CHIN CHUN HWEE
Personal grooming is the embodiment of respect for self and for others, because it is about how I want to present myself. It exudes self-confidence and gives others a good impression on first meetings. Knowing that I will need to give formal presentations and attend interviews in the future, I grasped the opportunity for my formal wear to be tailored by Mr. Gentleman (Mr. G) when Jonathan Wong (founder of Mr. G) gave his presentation during CN Yang Scholars’ Club’s Annual General Meeting earlier this year. Mr. G is started by two local entrepreneurs, Gary Ong and Jonathan Wong. As a custom menswear label, Mr. G focuses on bringing about quality, fully custom-made clothing, at the client’s convenience.
Jonathan dropped by the Crescent Hall TV lounge earlier in October for the fitting session. He strikes me as an approachable and friendly person the moment I walked into the TV lounge. His dressing was simple yet fashionable, and this assured me that I am in good hands when it comes to choosing the appropriate colours for my shirt. He gave us his sincere and insightful opinions when we were browsing through the catalog of colours, shirt, and button design and continually assured us not to succumb to peer pressure during the selection process. Furthermore, he was also very patient with us when we were contemplating our choices. He ensured that we would feel comfortable and presentable by repeating measurements as he deems fit.
It was my first time getting my clothes tailored, and being a person that often wears sloppily, I believe that the tailor-made shirts would definitely boost my confidence when I am giving a presentation or attending an interview in the near future. Furthermore, I noticed that Alenson (a year 2 scholar) has engaged Mr. G’s services again, which speaks volume about the quality of service and the affordability of Mr. G’s products for the CN Yang scholars. With this positive experience, I would definitely recommend Mr. G to my friends.
I appreciate that Mr. G is one of the main sponsors for our programme, and it was a good decision to have my clothes tailored by them considering the good tailoring experience that I have been through. As quoted from Jonathan: “Since you are already getting your shirt tailor made, choose striking colours so that you would stand out amongst the crowd in a typical Central Business District (CBD) area”. Be different, not better indeed.
The following table shows the discounted rates for Mr. G’s products (for CNYSC scholars). Interested in suiting up from Mr. G? Approach any of our CNYSC members!
[table id=1 /]
21 Aug, 2016 | Articles
We have come to the third week of semester 1 in Academic Year 2016/2017! It can be a little difficult getting back to full-time studying after the summer holidays, and we would like to offer some of you a breather from your lectures and tutorials. Camille Mau, a second year CN Yang scholar with a passion for mathematical sciences has prepared a piece on The Strangeness of Probability – Bayes’ Theorem. Without further ado, let’s take a look at
The Strangeness of Probability – Bayes’ Theorem
BY CAMILLE MAU
I claim: 50% of people will be influenced by this article.
Before you write me off as a pretentious prat, hear me out. Suppose you were faced with the following question:
“A new test for Disease X came out the other day. It is free for all, so you go for it. The test is known to give false positives and false negatives at times. A person who has Disease X will test negative 1 in 100 times, and a person who does not have Disease X will test positive 1 in 100 times. 1 in 10000 people have Disease X. You test positive. How worried should you be?”
The question posed above is a variant of a common question on the Internet which tends to trick many. Human nature instinctively gravitates toward only the numbers that we see, and can be tricked to deviate from the actual math.
In this scenario, you have been hit with the very low chance of having Disease X, and will most likely test positive for it. So what’s the problem here?
The problem is that the test is not at all reliable. Let’s do some number-crunching. First let’s draw a table.
From this table we can see that about 1 in 100 people who test positive have Disease X. In other words, there is only a 1% chance which you have Disease X! (For the mathematically-anal, the actual number is 1 in 102.)
What am I trying to show with this example? It is that probability is not defined by just the numbers you see and interpret in your head. While the information is there, we all have a preconceived notion of facts and figures in our heads. These ideas may be used to trick you.
Let’s discuss another well-known example. You have flipped a fair coin ten times, and the results have all been heads. Instinctively, one would answer “tails” when asked to predict the next flip. After all, it is very improbable that a fair coin flips heads for 11 times in a row.
This, too, is fallacious thinking. It is true that it is very improbable that a coin would flip heads 11 times in a row. It is also true that you have already flipped the coin 10 times already. The question at hand is not asking about the probability of flipping 11 times in a row. It is asking for the probability of flipping heads, given that you have already flipped 10 heads in a row. The difference here is that the past events have no bearing on what you are going to flip next. You want the probability of flipping 11 heads, given that you have already flipped 10 heads in a row prior. In other words, this is a conditional probability question.
(A conditional probability is the probability of one thing (A) happening given that another thing (B) has already happened. We write this as P(A|B).)
Now, let’s introduce the simple statement of Bayes’ Theorem. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to do any number-crunching.
In words, the probability of an event A happening given that some event B has already happened, is equal to the multiplication of the conditional probability of observing event B happening given that event A has happened and the probability that event A has indeed happened, divided by the probability of B happening.
Perhaps it would be easier to visualize the numerator as the probability of B happening and A happening simultaneously, over the probability of B happening. In the context of the coin flip, we can take A = “the coin flips heads 11 times” and B = “the coin flips heads 10 times”. Then,
so it doesn’t matter if you choose heads or tails, the probability of both is the same due to the fact that past events are past. Similarly, in the case of the flawed Disease X test, we just want the probability that you actually do have Disease X given that you test positive, considering the probabilities that you indeed do have Disease X in the real world.
In the end, you may ask: Isn’t Bayes’ Theorem just something we might have learned in high school? What’s so special about it?
The answers are: Yes, and nothing. The theorem is not some miraculous mathematical statement on the verge of breaking the universe. Unlike the Riemann-Zeta Hypothesis, or Quantum Physics, or the number 42.
What is more important are the insights that the theorem gives us about the way the world can be structured to trick you. We return once more to the Disease X example. A test which gives false results only 1 time in 100 trials can be marketed as 99% accurate. After all, it does give accurate results 99% of the time. There is no conflict here, but we are hard-wired to see this 99% result and believe it applies to every related probability instantly. If we test positive, we think that there is a 99% chance we have the illness, and so on. We have just seen that that form of thinking is no more than a flawed train of thought.
I am not saying not to trust what companies and products say about their statistics. Whatever is reported, barring corruption, is accurate. There is no question about how accurate a test indeed is, or the percentage values reported, for instance. Accept those values, and then consider what it really means. What does the probability really claim? Is the claim universally and truly accurate, or is there some “fudge factor” necessitating further thought? Once you have mastered the art of not getting tricked, you will have a brand new worldview, one which lets you make decisions better.
So, my question to you now: At the start of the article, I made a very bold claim. And therein lies the question: What does my claim really say?
Images
Featured image: Mathematics [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://admissions.carleton.ca/degrees/mathematics/
27 Feb, 2016 | Articles
With many university undergraduates sourcing for internships in various industries, we are privileged to have Lim Min, a third year Mathematical Sciences major, share with us her experiences in DSO.
DSO National Laboratories (DSO) is Singapore’s one and only national defence R&D organisation. It innovates technological solutions to create the critical edge in the Singapore Armed Forces’ combat capabilities.
With more than 1,300 research scientists and engineers working seamlessly across the domains of air, land, sea and cyberspace, DSO researches into emerging technologies, matures promising ones and integrates them into innovative system concepts to meet Singapore’s defence and security capabilities.
Without further ado, let us find out more about Lim Min’s internship with DSO.
- How did you first hear of DSO National Laboratories (DSO)?
While participating in activities of the CN Yang Scholars’ Club, I was approached by DSO Human Resources (HR) personnel who introduced me to the internship.
- Why did you decide to join DSO’s internship?
The DSO internship was compatible with my schedule and I could rank my interests, allowing for the internship to be catered to my preferences. They also allowed me to intern at the end of Year 1, and not many companies/organisations allow that.
- What were your roles as an intern? Did you join a lab? If so, how were the labs like?
I coded using C (programming). The aim of my internship was to build up a cryptographic library. My main task was to implement Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA), which is a cryptosystem, and elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman cryptographic functions. Throughout my internship, I learned many things like coding in C, safety measures to implement in codes, security standards, and different protocols.
- How different is an internship at DSO compared to research in school labs?
In DSO, there are fellow interns whom you can discuss your project with, as compared to the individual research I did in school. This made things more exciting and interesting.
- What were some highlights of your internship?
I was very well fed during my internship (laughs). But the main highlight would be learning more about mathematics and computing by talking to the supervisors and interns there. Some projects include automatic error detection for codes, noise reduction techniques for multiple purposes such as voice recording, underwater autonomous systems, Application Programme Interface (API) to track all registered ships, detection of hidden artillery etc. We were introduced to these systems and were also free to ask and find out more if we were interested in them.
- What was the biggest takeaway?
I learned a lot from my project in DSO. Some of these include knowledge on the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, elliptic curve, RSA, various fast multiplication/squaring algorithms, use of Wireshark, certificates and more. They proved useful in the later modules I took in NTU (e.g. MH4311 Cryptography) and for Cryptanalysis studied at University College London during the semester exchange.
- How are the skill sets learnt during your internship applicable to daily life?
I learnt how to interact with people of different ages and from different faculties and schools better. Since some of the interns were from overseas universities, I got to learn more about foreign cultures as well. This helps me in my daily interactions with people from diverse backgrounds.
- What was your first impression of the internship? How did you eventually feel about your experience?
Initially, I thought that it would be a boring and mundane job where I would barely learn anything as I had heard from friends participating in internships where you only “photocopy papers” and complete administrative work. I was pleasantly surprised that the internship turned out to be the opposite. Not only did I learn a lot from my project, there were various presentations in DSO that gave me insights into other projects as well.
- What was the most attractive feature of the DSO internship?
The intern pay is good (the best that I have come across so far) and the number of projects available is vast to cater to your interest.
- How has the internship influenced your attitude towards future career prospects?
I had always thought that working would be stressful and boring, but DSO has shown me otherwise. It made me feel that working in DSO is a possible career option for me when I graduate.
- How were your colleagues and supervisors? Was the focus more on independent or guided learning?
For me, it was more about independent learning. I’m not sure about my other fellow interns. From this independent learning, I got better at finding my own answers online (and not over-relying on others for help), which is especially important in Research and Development. But of course, my supervisor was there to ensure that I was on the right track through frequent updates, and help was readily available when I faced difficulties. They provided general directions to help me find answers and explained important concepts to me.
- Are there any advantages to being a CN Yang scholar while interning in DSO?
Everything was relatively equal amongst all interns.
- What attitudes would you advice others to adopt should they be interested in joining a similar internship?
Be independent and open-minded.
- Bonus Question: How would you rate your experience at DSO (Scale of 1 to 10)?
10. We were given a lot of space and time to explore our interests. DSO was also very flexible, from working hours to pursuing our interests in our projects.
Throughout the various presentations I had seen and the interactions I made with the people there, I have always felt that DSO is quite an exciting place to work in. The technology and software they have developed there are all very interesting. These include drones (sea/air), image analysis (to detect the distance of an object from the camera, or whether a person is sitting/standing, or to detect vehicles/persons from a video footage etc.), automatic code repairing and more. I was and still am extremely interested in these initiatives. Before my internship in DSO, I would have never considered the existence of such technology but now, my thoughts on the possibilities of technology have broadened.
Many of my fellow interns at that time have graduated, and are now currently working in DSO. Not only do you get to do interesting work, DSO also provides a good work-life balance. There are flexible working hours (you can come later and leave later), and there are also various events held for you to bond with fellow colleagues or your family. Sports Hour is also available for staff to utilise any day of the week. During this period, office hours end slightly earlier for you to play sports with your fellow colleagues. Also, during my time as an intern, there was a puzzle competition (which I took part in with other interns) among many events for National Day.
2 Jan, 2016 | Articles
As we usher in the New Year, the CN Yang Scholars’ Club (CNYSC) would like to express our immense gratitude and appreciation for all that we have received under the scholars programme. Starting with Academic Year 2015/2016, the CNYSC has kickstarted a number of volunteering initiatives as we work towards contributing more actively to society.
Our first volunteering initiative took place with the Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA). Thus far, several batches of CN Yang scholars have made their way down to volunteer with ADA. Let’s proceed to find out more about their experiences!
Volunteering Initiative with ADA
BY CNYSC PRESS & PUBLICITY PORTFOLIO
Earlier this year, we made our way down to New Horizon Centre (Bukit Batok) on a Saturday morning as part of the CN Yang Scholars’ Club Volunteering Session. For this session, we volunteered for the Saturday Extension Programme, which is managed by the Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA),
Admittedly, most of us had little to no knowledge of dementia and did not know what to expect. What made this volunteering session different was that a volunteering orientation was organised by ADA before we made our way down to Bukit Batok, providing us with information about the disease and various services provided by ADA. With a better understanding of dementia, many of us became more comfortable and dismissed our reservations about volunteering for a cause we were initially unfamiliar with.
The Saturday Extension Programme is currently offered at selected ADA day care centres on Saturdays. At these sessions, a volunteer is attached to each client, who is a person with dementia, in order to provide individual care and attention. While most clients spoke mandarin or dialects, some were fluent in English and this made communication much easier. Yet, even with the communication barrier, it was relatively easy to engage their clients with the large variety of meaningful activities available and planned for them.
To commemorate Mid-Autumn Festival that fell in late September, a mooncake-making session was organized by regular volunteers. We assisted the clients to knead the dough and mould the mooncakes, but most of their clients had more experience than we did and folded the red bean paste into the pastry with quick precision.
Before arriving for the session, some of us had naively assumed that we would simply help to facilitate simple puzzles but we were proven wrong. In the early afternoon, volunteers whipped out inflatable paper balls (the colourful kinds they used to sell in primary school bookshops) for a game of ‘toss the ball across the table’. We started off slow, thinking that we had to curb our enthusiasm and play a slow game of Ping-Pong. With a simple WHOOSH, the ball flew right over our heads and landed on the floor behind us, leaving all of us stunned at the sheer force of that serve. With newfound determination, we took the game more seriously but ultimately found ourselves challenged and happily exhausted. Apart from helping to engage clients with stimulating and physical activity, this simple game of toss-the-ball served as a reminder for us to volunteer with an open mind.
Before long, it was time for us to leave. Volunteering with ADA has allowed us to interact personally with their clients and offer them individual attention, an opportunity that is usually hard to come by under group volunteering initiatives. It has also helped to build a deeper understanding of dementia, an illness that plagues many Singaporeans but until quite recently has not received much attention. With the services provided by ADA, it has become much easier for caregivers to seek support and provide persons with dementia the care they require. The volunteering initiative was memorable for us all, and we certainly hope that our services have benefitted clients of the New Horizon Centre.
30 Oct, 2015 | Articles
BY CNYSC PRESS & PUBLICITY PORTFOLIO
The importance of first impressions has been imprinted upon us ever since we stepped into secondary school and had a first taste of etiquette classes. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and judgments about you are finalized within 30 seconds. For most of us, our physical features are beyond our control, but we can and should take charge of our dressing and grooming.
Aptly described by a number of our scholars, with university comes the time when you can be overwhelmed by presentations, interviews, convocation dinners, networking sessions…(and the list goes on). Under such circumstances, a first impression could be our only chance to make a personal statement.
When it comes to grooming, we have to consider formality and practicality. Depending on the occasion (bonding events to job interviews), dress codes can range from ‘casual’ to ‘black tie’. These terms can be mind-blogging but as a rule of thumb, the level of formality ranges from casual <business casual <smart casual <business <semi-formal <black tie. While seemingly universal, the requirement for each dress code can also vary depending on climate, but it is always useful to have a set of formal attire at hand.
For ladies, departmental stores are often overflowing with black dinner dresses that would usually suffice for most occasions (depending on the amount you’re willing to spend on your attire). But for men, the misconception that all they have to do is to whip out a ‘button-down collar, dress pants, shoes and some hair gel’ does not, unfortunately, extend to business suits.
Men’s business suits can be expensive, and they have to be well fitted or risk looking sloppy. For many, off-the-shelves suits might not fit with body proportions and in comes the dreaded task of finding a suitable tailor.
When it comes to tailoring, a typical fitting session begins with detailed measurements of (and not limited to) one’s over-arm shoulder width, chest, left and right sleeves, biceps, wrists, front jacket length, crotch, thigh and knee. For us greenhorns, a fitting session itself can be intimidating enough, and the need for subsequent selection of fabric and customization can turn us off.
It was thus a privilege for the CN Yang Scholars’ Club to have Mr. Gentleman (Mr. G) drop by the Crescent and Pioneer Hall Seminar Room earlier this month to provide a fitting session for our scholars. Established by Gary Ong and Jonathan Wong when they were second year NTU undergraduate students, Mr. G focuses on crafting custom-made bespoke suits while offering their clients the flexibility of deciding on the location of their measurement and fitting sessions.
Offering intense personalization with an eye for detail, clients are given the choice of selecting a single-breasted or double-breasted jacket. To help facilitate understanding, Jonathan brought his iPad along to offer us visual aid while utilizing such technical jargon with ease. Thereafter, clients will decide on lapel types (shawl, peak or notch), the colour of their lapel and sleeve buttonholes, as well as the type of jacket pocket they would prefer. With genuine passion for crafting suits of a high quality, Mr. G even offers the option of having a ticket pocket and assures that every pocket on the suit is a working one.
Such tailoring services offered by local entrepreneurs have made the possession of well-fitted suits a much more enjoyable and convenient affair. With the importance of dressing and grooming in the development of first impressions, perhaps it is time that we set aside our initial reservations (should we have any) and take charge of ourselves today.
10 Oct, 2015 | Articles
This year, the CN Yang Scholars’ Club Press & Publicity Portfolio has been expanded to include our very own writing subcommittee. Our team of 9 passionate young writers will be sharing about their experiences in the CN Yang Scholars’ Programme, various science and engineering articles that have piqued their interest, interviews with members of the CN Yang family and much more.
To kickstart this new initiative, Erico Tjoa, a second year student majoring in Physics and Mathematical Sciences, will share his views on achieving our dreams and aspirations.
Luck, Sense, Effort?
BY ERICO TJOA
One fine day I set off to school earlier than usual in the pursuit of a certain individual liberty against a certain, uhm, repressive, uhh, obligation to an undoubtedly nobler moral responsibility. I’m certainly no Amos Yee and so in the fear for my future the details to this crusade should just quickly vanish with the haze.
Anyway, I’m supposed to come out of the discussion the wiser, and sure I did. One of the most important life advices I ever came across, and the only one to be skimmed through here, was regarding an ingredient to success. It was something along this line: “Most of the time, success is not attributed to one’s ability. You have to make friends, talk to people” when I interjected with “Basically connection?” in my simmering dissent, which was not at all devoid of amusement. Of course the other party turned defensive and denied it with elaborate justifications.
While the statement itself might really just be a mild, we-live-in-a-world-full-of-hope sentiment, I should admit that I too took for granted the fact that different perspectives matter more than anyone cares to admit. Having said that, of course, apart from a little refreshing life lesson, the discussion afforded me something to contemplate with respect to which I write this.
No, I wholly disagreed with that sentiment even before we started talking about the importance of human relation. If luck does not play 90% part of someone’s success, it does 50% and individual ability and effort sure is a heck lot of the factor affecting the winds. In the spirit of scientific discoveries I would like to present to you some notable isolated instances for illustration.
[Untitled photograph of Velcro] [1]
[Untitled photograph of New Zealand Pirri pirri bur] [2]
I like this best. What is the similarity between the two pictures above? At the top is what we see every day, a Velcro, and at the bottom is a plant called bur. George de Mestral [1], a Swiss born engineer had gone for a hike with his dog when he came back to find his pants covered with the spiky parts of the plant. Upon inspection under the microscope, he found out that these spikes stuck persistently to his pants because of a hook and loop structure, which he adopted for his successful invention, the Velcro. Needless to say, it takes brilliant, well-thought ideas like this to make things work.
[Untitled photograph of Percy L. Spencer] [3]
Percy L. Spencer invented the microwave [1]. This engineer was dealing with a microwave-emitting contraption when he felt something strange in his pocket. The chocolate he had with him had melted and, there, with a sparkle of a genius, we have the microwave today. Luck aside, a petty, unthinking mind might have brushed this incident aside and grumbled away.
[Untitled photograph of an x-ray] [4]
Next, Wilhelm Rongent noticed that fluorescent material was illuminated by the x-ray, an observation not related to the experiment he was involved in at that moment [2]. He also realised that x-ray could penetrate some objects but not others. It took a great deal of curiosity and keen observation skills to capture the significance of seemingly unrelated matters to create such a great invention, which, as we have known found important use in medical science.
There are other instances such as Davisson and Germer [3] accidentally discovering a way to show the diffraction of electrons. With a pinch of salt, we can include Newton’s observation of a falling apple and the subsequent formulation of his laws. Great scientific advances require insights.
Here, I do believe that individual abilities we have acquired throughout our lives make important assets. With some nudges, with many trial and errors, and more importantly, with initiative, this dormant potential may turn into bona fide achievements. Of course we should not lack curiosity and the willingness to try out things and acquire broader perspectives. Who would think that a fun hiking trip would lead to a scientific discovery?
References
- Biddle, S. (n.d.). The 10 greatest (accidental) inventions of all time. NBCNEWS. Retrieved September 27 from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38870091/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/greatest-accidental-inventions-all-time/#.VhDctROqqkp
- The British Library Board. (2015, Mar.). Roentgen’s discovery of the x-ray. British Library. Retrieved September 27 from http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/xray/roentgen.html
- Lee, S. (2014). CJ Davisson and LH Germer [Prezi Presentation]. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/j9jrmxarmtbr/cj-davisson-and-lh-germer/
Images
Featured image: Human Intelligence Brain [Digital Image]. (2014). Retrieved from http://juanmateo-online.com/estrategias-o-valores/
- [Untitled photograph of Velcro] Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38870091/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/greatest-accidental-inventions-all-time/#.VhDctROqqkp
- [Untitled photograph of New Zealand Pirri pirri bur] Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9409000/9409396.stm
- [Untitled photograph of Percy L. Spencer] Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38870091/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/greatest-accidental-inventions-all-time/#.VhDctROqqkp
- [Untitled photograph of an x-ray] Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/xray/roentgen.html
