Moving on to our penultimate Brown Bag Session for the semester, Kaixuan is back to raise awareness about CPR and AED. If you recall, Kaixuan (who was an Emergency Medical Technician in National Service) held the first Brown Bag Session, which was about First Aid, months back.
Starting with CPR, which stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Kaixuan emphasised the importance of CPR in saving cardiac arrest victims. Did you know that COVID-19 has increased the incidence of cardiac arrests? COVID-19 has caused heart inflammation in youths and also affects the respiratory system due to excessive mucus production, both of which are risk factors for cardiac arrests.
How do we identify cardiac arrest victims? Kaixuan explained that cardiac arrest victims are people who collapse a few minutes before they are found, and have no pulse and no breathing. For those who are worried about getting sued by victims or their families for performing CPR, Kaixuan explained that despite the lack of the Good Samaritan Law in Singapore, there has been no lawsuit thus far. As long as CPR is performed in accordance with the procedure, we need not worry about any liability. Hence, Kaixuan’s advice was to get CPR training, as we would never know when we need to save a person’s life.
Moving on to the topic of AED, which stands for Automatic External Defibrillator, it is a device that functions to reset the rhythm of the heart to normal sinus rhythm by delivering a shock. Interestingly, Kaixuan said that TV scenes on defibrillation tend to be inaccurate, as it is meaningless to shock a flatline asystole rhythm (the constant beep sound kind of heart rate). AED is to be used in conjunction with CPR on cardiac arrest patients, and when they are practised in a timely manner, the chances of resuscitation rises from less than 1% to 30%.
Last but not least, we managed to borrow a CPR manikin and training AED kits from OHSE NTU, allowing Kaixuan to conduct hands-on training with the participants. Participants practised how to locate the correct position to perform CPR (2 fingers above the sternum notch), performing chest compressions at a rhythm of 100-120 bpm (apparently, singing songs like Stayin’ Alive while performing chest compressions help!) and how to properly paste the AED pads. Overall, the participants enjoyed the process.
As you can see, Kaixuan covered a lot of content in this 1-hour sharing (the full content can be found in the slides attached). However, a typical CPR+AED training and certification take at least half a day. Readers who are interested may take up formal training from recognised organisations. For those who are currently studying at NTU, they may also take up lessons from Red Cross Youth NTU Chapter or NTU LionHearters.
On to our sixth Brown Bag session, we have Ong Hai Xiang sharing his hobby of fermenting and making cocktails. Just like how every superhero has their origin story, Hai Xiang’s story began when he bought a bottle of poor-tasting Bacardi Carta Blanca rum at the age of 18 – his first alcoholic drink in fact. To tune the flavour into something more edible, he endeavoured to create a cocktail. He added 23ml of lime and 23ml of sugar syrup to 60 ml of rum; the end result was a daiquiri.
On his first sip, Hai Xiang felt an epiphany; he could not believe that he managed to transform something so rancid into a concoction of complex but balanced flavours. Down the rabbit hole he went, as his passion for alcohol and cocktails ignited (simply put, he has become an alcoholic who makes his own alcohol).
Hai Xiang immediately went geek mode and started reading books on fermentation. After reading the “Cocktail Codex”, he learned that there are 6 different base drinks and every single cocktail is a variation of these bases. Starting from the bases, Hai Xiang started substituting the ingredients with other food of similar taste. For example, the flip cocktail is one of those bases. By substituting the egg with another fat, coconut cream and the cane sugar with pineapple, one would get the pina colada. Additionally, Hai Xiang created his own rendition of the pina colada, adding Italian amaro and Italian bitters.
Looking for a challenge, Hai Xiang started preparing cocktails that required longer and more meticulous preparation. He also started visiting bars to learn preparation tricks and even worked as a waiter in one of those bars. As a waiter, he learned about the ingredients behind every cocktail on the menu and the story of the inspiration behind each cocktail. Eventually, he had the opportunity to prepare cocktails for the bar. His time in the bar greatly sharpened his skills. Having access to high-end machines like the dehydrator iSi whipper and rotovap, Hai Xiang learnt how to prepare cocktail ingredients in a culinary manner. Some of the cocktails he created even entered the menu!
To this day, Hai Xiang continues to make his own alcohol and experiment with new cocktail ingredients. One of his latest creations, inspired by tide pods, leans towards the avant-garde. The result is a cocktail sealed within an edible casing made of calcium or alginate salts, such that, upon biting, would burst into our mouths.
Capping off his sharing, Hai Xiang shared reasons why one should try out fermenting – it is surprisingly healthy, provides flexibility in controlling the desired taste and some drinks are even rich in probiotics. After reading this, if you feel inspired to try fermenting drinks, do take a look at the slides. Hai Xiang has shared a simple recipe for making 2 drinks: Kombucha and Mead. Do keep a lookout for our next Brown Bag Session!
As the second part of our post-mid-terms Brown Bag Sessions, we had Leong Zi Wei sharing about crocheting! Having been a self-taught crochet expert for the past year and making ornaments and items for her friends and family alike, Zi Wei thought that spreading her love for crocheting could help to find a new hobby in others.
To introduce everyone to the basics of crocheting, Zi Wei first explained the materials used which included the crochet hooks and the yarn. She proceeded to demonstrate basic crocheting steps such as forming slip knots, yarn overs and chaining.
Zi Wei spared no effort in her demonstrations, showing the avid new crocheters step-by-step crocheting techniques and even touching on the double crocheting technique.
The most important step in crocheting was to perform repetitions and close the chains. And with all the new knowledge gained, the participants now embarked on their task to create a circular coaster. Whenever the participants needed help in their creation, Zi Wei would come over and patiently help to guide them along and correct their mistakes.
All in all, the participants enjoyed the short yet informative session for beginners to pick up a new skill, and they all loved how interactive and fun Zi Wei made the session. Many looked ready to embark on a new hobby. Perhaps we could look forward to having a crocheting interest group soon? Do look out for our next Brown Bag Session which might interest alcohol and fermentation enthusiasts!
After a brief pause of our Brown Bag Sessions from midterms and the recess week, we invited our next speaker, Chew Jin Hong, to talk about his experience playing MOBA, also known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, a specific game genre. Specifically, Jin Hong based his sharing on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB).
Being an avid gamer and member of NTU’s MLBB team, Jin Hong structured his presentation to cater to both new and more advanced players. He started off his session by introducing the basic game mechanics of MLBB. This included how teams could win games (by destroying the enemy’s base) and how players could actively level up during the game by farming (to get gold or more benefits). This was extremely eye-opening for players who were new to MLBB and provided them with a fast way to pick up the basics of the game from a seasoned player.
With a whopping number of 114 heroes in MLBB, players might face a dilemma in choosing which hero they want to use or wish to be most accustomed to. To combat this problem, Jin Hong provided his very own hero ranking system, where he judged the hero based on their skills, attributes, difficulty level and roles. It was eye-opening to hear about which hero was the best from the perspective of a pro-gamer.
Jin Hong then proceeded to talk about the 3 skills of Chou (an MLBB hero who is a fighter and assassin). Besides covering the skills and providing video demonstrations on how Chou’s skills work, he went through the special combos Chou had which can help players to sneak up on enemies to secure the kill. Besides providing new players with a suggested way how to start exploring and playing Chou, more advanced players definitely gained insight into the hero Chou (which may help them in their future games to avoid Chou’s sneaky attacks)!
Finally, to end off the session, Jin Hong shared general tips that players could follow to help them on their path to the highest rank in MLBB, mythic glory. We hope that everyone had fun exploring MLBB (and maybe discovered their inner desire to be a professional gamer) with our own very talented gamer in this Brown Bag Session!
The CN Yang Scholars’ Club (CNYSC) is set up and run by the scholars of the CN Yang Scholars Programme. The management committee is elected by the scholars on an annual basis.
