Portfolio 5:

Predict and minimize potential unethical abuses of mind reading

For a long time, mind reading has been considered to be folklore. However, nowadays, many researches have proven that scientists are now close to knowing how our brain works.
Results of those researches on mind reading are promising. Those works might lead to the use of brain scans to recognize thoughts and might have applications in the study of diseases such as autism, paranoid schizophrenia, etc.
However, the development of those technologies also cause a lot of issues about the ethics and legality. We can present one example. Let's say you are shown with a series of photographs of people from around the world. And every time a black face appears, you get a different brain pattern. (That is, different from a baseline pattern.) Testers start to suspect that you are different in your reactions to blacks than you are to others -- or whatever the group is. Does it mean that this bubbles to the surface and you act in racist ways? May be yes and may be no.
Who should be tested with that technology and who will conduct the test? Can information from the test be used to judge the tested people? When will it be apply? There a lot of questions need to be answered before the application of it in practice. Here are some main issues.
The first is setting standards for what is ready to be used in the marketplace and what is not (Lou Marano, 2003). And scientists involve in researching, who understand deeply about the technology, rather than politicians, should set the standards. Moreover, only the government that should use this technology
The second issue is that of consent. The brain reading should only be conducted with the agreement of tested people, despite the case of hazardous criminals or international terrorists. In those cases, the government will consider whether to do the brain reading or not.
The third issue is access. After doing the brain reading, the information must be keep secret. Such information can only be access with permission from tested person or in case of emergency.
The fourth issue is judgement. Information from brain reading can only be used as reference. Judging a person need concrete evidences.
In conclusion, before applying brain reading technology, although it is ready or not, detailed discussions and a concrete law must be made.


Reference:

National Science Foundation. (2008, May 30). A computer that can “read” your mind [Press release 08-091]. Retrieved August 6, 2008, from http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111641

Marano L. Ethics and mapping the brain (June 3, 2003), Washington Times
Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030603-042704-2032r.htm

Portfolio 4

WRITING DIFFICULTIES IN ENGINEERING CLASSES

When I first applied to Computer Engineering, I did not think that it would require me to write a lot. Therefore, I have a lot of difficulties in writing in my engineering classes. And in my opinion, the class which causes me many troubles in writing is MLE1101.
There are some reasons that MLE1101 is difficult for me. The first one is my English is not good enough. When I was in my country, I though my English is quite good. Only when I came here did I realize that it is not good enough to deal with the academic writing. The second reason is that the MLE1101 modules is fairly hard. Not only does it contain many technical words and phrases but it also require us to have the general knowledge from many subject such as Maths, Physics, Chemistry, etc. (The image is the example of the MLE1101 page from the textbook - to show how difficult it is).
In order to deal with this problem, I have some tips. Firstly, I try to improve my English by practising a lot. Secondly, for those technical terms, I take note them and try to use them when discussing with my classmates so I can memorize those term. Thirdly, I read the text book and try to write out all the definitions and explanations that I find necessary. And I think those tips work for me.
However, MLE1101 is still very difficult for me. One of the tips that I want to apply is to form a study group so that I have more chances to discuss the problem with my friends

Portfolio 3

Engineers and climate

   Weather and climate have been concerned by people from the dawn of civilization to this day. In many regions, the information about weather is essensial for not only the agriculture but also the people's life. Climate variability has affected the activities and the production system of the societies. In the past, weather forecasting was associated with religious activities. But nowadays, the weather forecasting has become more technological. In addition, in the twentieth century, meteorology was born as an exact science.

  This evolution of climate from "art" to science brings it much closer to the more traditional technological areas with strong background in physics, allowing for interdisciplinary work and research. (ENGINEERS AND CLIMATE) For example, meteorological records have been used as an input in designing and constructing buildings, ports, ... However, this practice often involved cooperation between meteorologists and engineers. Then, the study of climate and engineering should come together to find the method that acknowledge the current scientific understanding.

   Engineers are trained to systematically analyse complex sets of information and to apply systems and critical thinking in designing solutions. With these skills, they will have no difficult understanding the physics and pinciples behind each phenomenon. Moreover, to monitor climate, highly sophisticated instrumental devices are used like sophisticated balloons, aircraft, ships and even orbiting satellites. So the work needs the participation of engineers.

   Also, engineers contribute to the decision-making processes at many levels such as laying out the planning of agricultural production, constructing infrastructure, managing water and energy resources,... which are inevitably involved matters related to climate change. A solid understanding of climate variability, both natural and anthropogenic, and the dynamics of the climate system will be required in order to participate in the next great challenge facing humanity: sustainable development.(ENGINEERS AND CLIMATE) And the sustainable solutions to this will need not only the contribution of many physical and social sciences but also the involvement of engineering. Therefore, engineers must prepared knowledge about climate issues.

   Furthermore, engineers are inescapably involved in many specific aspects of climate issuses. There are three main aspects that can be named here. Firstly, engineers can apply their skills and creativity to design a better, less poluting and economical industrial systems. That will help reduce the green house effect. Secondly, expertise on climate is required to write the equations that represent the climate phenomena. And the complexity of the climate system is certainly attractive to engineers. Thirdly, engineers are also involved in creating climate modeling, which is a powerful and paradigmatic example of the potential of parallel computing and has become one of the main tools in which we rely to understand and make predictions about the future evolution of the Earth climate.(ENGINEERS AND CLIMATE)

   In conlusion, although engineering and climate science are two different realm, the involvement of engineering in solving climate issues is obvious. Moreover, we are clearly bebefit from the collaboration between these two expertises.  

ENGINEERS AND CLIMATE,Future Engineering Challenges (n.d.).

    Retrieved September, 10 2008 from    

    http://www.caets.org/nae/naecaets.nsf/(weblinks)/NAEW-5CAJK5?OpenDocument 

    

   

Portfolio 6 (summarize one reading that related to 14 engineering grand challenges)

MAKE SOLAR ENERGY ECONOMICAL

   Although solar energy provides a very small percent of the world's total energy, it has the potential to provide much more. Because as a source of energy, it out-powers anything that human technology could ever produce (Make solar energy economical). Therefore, making solar energy economical is crucial.

   Firstly, despite the fact that nowadays solar energy is not widely used, it will play an important role in human's life in futute. Fossil fuels cannot remain as the main source of energy forever. According to many scientists, those will be used up in several decades. For a long-term, solar energy offers a auspicious alternative because of its greatness and environmentally friendliness. Although there are some challenges we must encounter in making use of solar energy, the technologies to solve these problems are in our hand.

  Secondly, even though today's commercial solar cells, most often made from silicon, typically convert sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of only 10 percent to 20 percent, prospects for improving them are promising (Make solar energy economical). In the 21st century, one of the challenges for the engineers is searching for the way to improve the efficiency of the solar cell and therefore, lower the cost of manufacturing. Many ideas are being discussed such as using new material or nanotechnology. Recent experiments have reported intriguing advances in the use of nanocrystals made from the elements lead and selenium (Schaller 2008).

   Thirdly, how to make solar energy economical is also vey important. New material for solar cells may be a good method to considered. “This area is where breakthroughs in the science and technology of solar cell materials can give the greatest impact on the cost and widespread implementation of solar electricity,” Caltech chemist Nathan Lewis writes in Science (Lewis 2007). However, the main problem is material purity. Current solar cells must be designed in high-purity and therefore, very expensive. Many technologies are being tested but large improvement in efficiency must be made.

   Fourthly, other problem that engineering will encounter in order to make solar energy economical is storing it. However advanced solar cells become at generating electricity cheaply and efficiently, a major barrier to widespread use of the sun’s energy remains: the need for storage (Make solar energy ecnomical). There are three method which are now being considered. The first one is pumping water and then, recovers it as hydroelectric power. The second one is using a large banks of of batteries. And the last one is mimicing the biological capture of sunshine by photosynthesis in plants.  

   In conclusion, if the engineers can solve those issues of improving solar cells, reducing the costs, and providing the efficient methods to use the solar energy to create storable fuel, solar power will express its preeminence to fossil fuels. Therefore, it will become a motive force for civilization's continued properity (Make solar energy economical).

Reference: 

Make solar energy economical (n.d.). Retrieved September 1st, 2008 from

     http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9082.aspx

Lewis, N.S. 2007. Toward Cost-Effective Solar Energy Use.

     Science 315(5813): 798-801.DOI: 10.1126/science.1137014

Schaller, R.D., and V.I. Klimov. 2004. High Efficiency Carrier Multiplication in

      PbSe Nanocrystals: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion.

      Physical Review Letters 92(18): 186601-1 - 186601-4. DOI: 10.1103/ 

      PhysRevLett.92.186601

    

   

   
 

Portfolio 2

   My common grammar mistake - Subject and verb Agreement

   When writting an essay in English, one of my common grammar mistakes is Subject and Verb Agreement, otherwise known as concord. For example, in present tense, I usually forget that singular noun must be used with singular verb (-s, -es). However, there are rules to use  this grammatical point correctly. 

   First of all, the basic rule is "The subject and verb in a sentence must agree in person and number". In simple case we can say: "Singular subject requires singular verb while plural subject requires plural verb". For example: "He likes reading books" and "They do not like to study abroad". 

   Secondly, there are also many rules to remember in order to write corrrectly.

      - If there is "and" between two or more subject, the verb is always plural. For example: "The actor and his manager are going to the party tonight".

      - If there are "or, Either...or, Neither...nor, Not only...but also" between two subject, the verb will depend on the second subject. For example : "Neither he nor I am satisfied with his progress." 

      - If there are "as well as, with, a long with, together with, accompanied by/with, in addition to, besides, except" between two subject, the verb will depend on the first subject. For example: "The woman with her children is in the store."

      - If  "Every, Each" (followed by singular noun) or "Each, Every, Either, Neither" (followed by plural noun) stand before the noun, the verb is allways singular. For example: "Every student has to study", "Either of the boys needs to do this work".

      - If  "All of, Most of, Much ,of A little of, Some of, Plenty of, Part of" stand before uncountable noun, the verb is always singular. For example: "Most of water inn the Earth is salty".

      - If  "All of, Most of, Many of, A few of, Some of" stand before plural noun, the verb is always plural. For example: "Some of the book are very old".

      - If the subject is indefinite pronoun such as someone, anyone, nothing,... or collective noun indicating money, time, measurement, the verb is always singular. For example: "Fifty minutes isn’t enough time to finish this test", "Something was under the house".

      - If the sentence begins with a gerund, an infinite, or a clause functioning as subjects, the verb must be singular. For example: "Dieting is very popular today ".

      - The + adjective indicating a group of people usually goes with plural verbs. For example: "The poor in this town need much more care".

      -Such nouns as “scissors, trousers, shorts, glasses, pants, pliers, tweezers, tongs, jeans ” are always plural. However, they are used with a singular verb when used with “a pair of”. For example: "The pants are in the drawer", "A pair of pants is in the drawer".

      - Such nouns ending in “s” as “news, measles, rickets, mathematics, phonetics, physics, mumps, economics, politics, athletics, statistics, …” are used with a singular verb. For example: "Physics is a kind of subject".

      - These follow-up nouns (plural without “s”) are used with plural verbs such as people, police, clergy men/women, children, sheep, deer, fish, mice, cattle, oxen, lice, geese, poultry, teeth, feet. For example: "The police are wanting him".

      - The following nouns are used to indicate groups of certain animals and thus considered singular: flock of birds/sheep, school of fish herd of cattle , pride of lions pack of dogs

   Thirdly, there are also some special cases. 

      - Collective nouns are usually known as a group and hence used with singular verbs. However, if they indicate the individual members in the group, the plural verbs are used. Some of the collective nouns are “family, team, group, committee, class, crowd, government, organization, club, jury, public, …”. For example: "The crowd was wild with excitement".

      - "Majority" can be singular or plural. If it is alone, it is usually singular; if it is followed by a plural noun, it is usually plural. For example, "The majority believes that we are in no danger", "The majority of the students believe him to be innocent".

     - If the sentence structure is like this : Here/There/Adverb Phrase of Place + Be + Noun/Pronoun, the verb "be" will depend on the noun. For example: "There is a book, a pen, and two pencils on the table".

   There are also many special cases but in my opinion, those I have mentioned is quite popular. 

   Finally, I hope this portfolio can help to correct the mistakes on Subject and Verb Agreement.

Exercise to practice: (No answer :D)

In each sentence below, underline the verb that agrees with the subjectof the sentence.

1. Customers in the shop (is, are) searching for bargains.
2. Mr. Bromwell, along with Mrs. Taft and Miss Wilson, (was, were) appointed to the Board of Elections.
3. The book with the beautiful illustrations (was, were) purchased at the book fair.
4. A new job, in addition to a new house and new responsibilities, (makes, make) Rena’s life very exciting
5. The words of this song (is, are) easy to learn.
6. Many people (wants, want) to see this movie, and lines at the box office are very long.
7. The exercises on this page (seems, seem) difficult.
8. He (anticipates, anticipate) entering his painting in a local art contest.
9. Pictures, old movie announcements, snapshots of my motorcycle, and a painting of a ship (covers, cover) the walls of my room.
10. The pigeon (has, have) an identification band around its leg.
11. The photographs we took on our vacation (is, are) blurred.
12. The Twins (is, are) available to cut the grass.
13. Some of these sentences (requires, require) singular verbs.
14. The short stories in this collection (is, are) mysteries.
15. Claudia, together with her two brother, (has, have) been working in the store every afternoon after school.
16. Money from taxes on individual incomes and businesses (is, are) used to pay for government services.
17. Today the editing of many newspapers (is, are) done electronically, using computer technology.
18. That pair of shoes (needs, need) new heels.
19. The picnic basket, filled with sandwiches, fruit, and drinks, (feel, feels) heavy to me.
20. In this stanza all the sopranos, along with the tenors, (sings, sing) the same part.

 

 
 

Portfolio 1

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ENGINEERING: 

SEARCHING FOR NEW AND ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ENERGY.

     After reading two articles describing the future of engineering, in my opinion, among the great challenges which await engineering in the 21st century, the most challenging thing is searching for new and environmentally friendly energy. It is also the most important thing for the profession.

      Firstly, our environment is more and more polluted because the use of fossil fuel such as coal, oil, and many. In our daily life, we use much fossil fuel but we do not take notice of. Our cars consume gasoline, buses consume diesel, etc. Many industries also need oil and coal to manufacture. As a result, pollutant is emitted and contaminates the environment.

      Secondly, the old unfriendly energy also affects people's health. For example, in Ho Chi Minh city, the concentration of the pollutant in the air is from 1.3 to 2.9 times more than the permitted standard. Consequently, many people have problem with their respiratory system.

      Thirdly, the fossil fuel is being used up and it is crucial that we search for the new environmentally friendly energy. According to many eperts, the coal and oil in the Earth will run out in several decades. The experts are working with some new kinds of enerrgy like solar energy, wind energy but it is hard to find the nwe kinds of energy that can replace fossil fuel.

      In conclusion, searching for new and environmentally friendly energy is really a big challenge but there are many prospects for engineering.