Entry 1
Hi! This entry will document what I have learnt from weeks 1 to 3, as well as my experience in our very first practical session in this module.
Week 1: Introduction and Team Bonding
In Week 1, the class began our journey for the module with a team bonding event to break the ice and get to know one another better.
Initially, I wanted to go down to the food court at school to grab some food and interact with my groupmates. However, one of my members, Ruba was fasting, therefore I made the decision for the team to go to the library to talk.
Right from the start, I found it awkward to talk to my team as they appeared introverted in nature. I began leading the interactions so that everyone could be involved in the activity.
I decided that I wanted to get the team in order on what we might want to expect for this module, our goals and ground rules; coming off from a leadership camp (LEAP) by @pivotalsg that I attended during the semestral holidays, I wanted to test my newfound knowledge and skills out (highly recommended, 10/10 enjoyed it.
I realised from this activity that although I may be introverted in nature, it does not stop me from choosing to lead and encourage discussions.
I also tend to speak formally when in group settings. My groupmates were questioning me about why I spoke formally and I told them that it was natural for me to speak that way.
Lastly, I realised all my group members love to stay at home during their free time XD.
After the activity, Dr Noel gave us some homework for the week, but before that, he introduced Tuckman's Team Formation Model to the class.
Below is the homework given to the team and our responses.
1. Create a Team agreement that everyone is comfortable with
2. Identify the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team
Therefore, the following is an introduction to my group...
Introduction to Group 1 Lions 🦁
Team agreement
Be accountable for yourselves
Do not be last minute
Be understanding
Create a model that we are proud of
Have fun
Complement (Add on) to each other's ideas, and try not to have conflicts
Set aside time every Monday, at 11am to discuss project updates
Leader - Kieron 😎
Responsibilities:
Communicating Goals and Targets for the team
Facilitate Discussions
Ensure all team members are working well within their roles and responsibilities
Coaching
Encourage and Inspire team members
Assist rest of the team in administrative duties
Scribe - Mavis 🔖
Responsibilities:
- Record all decisions, actions and issues the group discussed during team meetings to ensure productive meeting sessions.
- Manage the shared group folder so that notes taken down during team meetings can be retrieved easily.
Photographer - Ruba 📸
Responsibilities:
- To take photos and videos of the group’s process that are useful for documentation progress, such as results of experimentation and product building
- Help scribe in describing what photos/videos taken are about to help in blogging
Researcher - Jun Hao 📱
Responsibilities:
- To search up on/lookup certain topics or any required information for practical and tutorial sessions
- To assist the scribe in writing the correct information written in blogs and other submissions
In week 2, we began lessons proper.
We learned how to create our blog as well as the different categories of chemical products.
In the lesson on categories of chemical products, each team was tasked to conceive an idea for a chemical product that is already widely used and present the concept behind it and the chemical engineering principles implemented in the product.
There are 4 categories of Chemical Products:
1. Commodities - Mass-produced in large quantities and is non-differentiable in the market
(e.g. alcohol, bread, water)
2. Molecular Structures - Cheap to produce but valued due to the knowledge required to synthesise them (e.g. Zyrtec)
3. Micro-structured - Converting consumer needs into measurable specifications/dimensions
(e.g. creamy texture of ice cream, paint, crab sticks)
4. Chemical devices - Miniature devices that provide convenience by helping in completing a particular chemical transformation
(e.g. Coffee Maker, Microwave oven)
My team went ahead with Commodities in the subcategory of Food and Beverages.
Our short presentation was based on the manufacturing process of Beer.
At first, I suggested rice wine, for example, soju. After discussion, however, the team went ahead with researching the manufacturing process of Beer.
Jun Hao and I then went up to present our research to the class.
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In summary,
This activity was definitely interesting as I understood more about how one of my favourite beverages was produced.
I was also amazed by the marvel of Chemical Engineering of how something so simple can be manufactured into a chemical product.
After this, we were tasked to complete the DCHE Digital Fabrication Safety Quiz, before entry into the FabLab. So I began the learning package and paid attention to the videos.
However, when I attempted the quiz initially, I was dumbfounded when I realised the quiz was very challenging where some of the questions' information was not explicitly mentioned in the videos or text. I continued doing trial and error on my own for a few more attempts as I wanted to be independent.
In the end, Jun Hao my teammate, who went over to get assistance from the others came over to help me with my quiz. I ended up completing the quiz with the help of both Jun Hao and guidance from Dr Noel.
Week 3: Needs Identification
In Week 3, we were required to develop and formulate an idea for a chemical device that utilises chemical engineering principles.
Before the class, my team used the previous week to think of any problems that we had faced and took the initiative to write them down.
Listed below are some of the problems and solutions that my team generated during discussions;
- Keyboard cleaner; Disposable/can wash? Make it more sustainable
- Easier to separate rubbish eg. bottles/ cans from other trash
- Too much plastic waste: wasteland will be filled up; Converting waste into fuel
- Reverse microwave: cool down warm drink instantly
- When enjoying audio, ears may feel hot and stuffy; ear cooling technology
- Minimise Paper waste: erasable ink for the printer
- Dehumidifier; Singapore's weather is too hot
Ultimately, our team decided to invest in the idea of ear cooling technology when enjoying audio.
I feel that we arrived at this decision since the entire team are "audiophiles" and can't stand the heat. We realised this common issue after looking at the idea board together
Next, we expanded the idea.
Idea:
When enjoying audio I may feel my ears being hot and stuffy, during prolonged usage (pain point)
How:
Add a layer of cooling gel to the inner layer of the cushion
Can take out the layer and change it with another one so the headphones will not feel too hot for the user.
Chemical engineering principle
Thermodynamics (Humidity)
Heat transfer (Cooling; sensible heat)
Think:
Why is there a need for a headset? For music, videos, and games. While enjoying these activities, they start feeling hot and stuffy for the user.
Pain point:
Pain points are specific problems that arise for a consumer while using a product or service.
An example of pain points would be, "When doing online shopping, I see a product listing that is on sale that I have been eyeing for a long time, I proceed to add the item to cart, only to be dismayed that the sale is only for specific variations of the product and the variation that I'm interested in is not on sale. As a result, I'm annoyed and no longer interested to consider the product."
Issues similar to this may cause a potential customer to abandon their purchase all together.
Hence, it is important to identify common pain points preliminarily to promote buyer purchase decisions.
Our team came up with a common pain point:
"When the headphones are used for a prolonged time"
After identifying a potential pain point, the team decided to work on a Google survey in a subsequent discussion to confirm/disprove it, as well as have additional potential pain point trends arise.
Lastly, we were also tasked by Dr Noel to work on a literature review on our topic idea as part of our CA1.
A literature review is important to perform for research knowledge and determine whether our idea is feasible.
From a literature review, we can conclude whether or not our chemical device,
1. Can be constructed and implemented
2. Has been widely researched
3. Relevant to the field of chemical engineering (implementation of chemical engineering principles)
From this, I was provided useful academic resources that I could utilise in future research, such as Peer Reviewed Journals courtesy of SP Library, and Google Scholar searches to name a few.
Practical 1: Reverse Engineering
From this Practical 1, I learned, observed and appreciated the chemical engineering principles that were put into play for the operation of a coffee maker.
Initially, we were perplexed as to how the coffee maker worked. For Practical 1, there were 3 parts to it. I'll be sharing my experiences learnt from each part of the practical, and overall thoughts.
Part 1 (Operating)
For part 1 of the practical, we were tasked to operate the coffee maker and obtain the process parameters to calculate the energy balance for the coffee maker, which brought back my knowledge of Y1 modules CP5093 (Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics) and CP5202 (Lab and Process Skills 2).
From this, I am reminded to always think back on the results and findings and whether they make theoretical sense.
Part 2 (Dismantling)
In part 2, the team and I finally got to ‘tear apart’ the coffee maker and find out how it works by reverse engineering.
My initial theory, which may seem absurd, was that the separation between the water tank and coffee grounds was permeable and allowed water to pass through when hot. The hot water then boils and mixes with the coffee grounds to create the coffee product.
My final understanding was that the water enters the heating section of the coffee maker and is heated up, travels through the u-tubing via pressure difference and rises to the top, exiting dropwise onto the coffee grounds to dissolve and form coffee.
Part 3 (Theory) In part 3, we conducted an experiment that was relevant to the theory behind how the coffee maker works.
In a nutshell, these experiences in reverse engineering process helped me better understand the operation principle of the coffee maker.
From this practical, I learned new ideas and a procedure that I can utilise to understand how a chemical device works (by applying reverse engineering to it).
Finally, I understand the concept behind the fictitious stories told of scientists reverse engineering alien spacecrafts 👽 at Area 51 to replicate their technology into our world.
Something I felt interesting was that our practical groupings were randomised every session, hence we were able to work with various classmates every practical session.
That will be all for my documentation of the module journey for weeks 1-3 and P1, see you in the next entry!!!
