APPEAL FOR SPECIAL SUBJECT ARRANGEMENT
Posted by jipi Fri, 01 Jan 1999 22:21:48 GMT
01 January 1999
Professor Harcharan Singh Dean School of Applied Science Nanyang Technological University
Dear Prof. Singh
APPEAL FOR SPECIAL SUBJECT ARRANGEMENT
To write a letter of appeal in this manner, which I hope, can leave an impression on you to show my persistence in conducting my experiments on life, luck and destiny.
Probably, this letter of appeal shall provide no practical advantage for me in terms of my university academic endeavor, but giving up easily is not a typical characteristic of me. I shall cite my academic situation in the attachment with this letter of appeal. (Please refer to the attachment for details of my academic results)
From the results, you can see that my situation is fairly critical, or I shall say, borderline. An F in my first taking of CE203 (Control and Instrumentation) resulted in me being not able to take CE306 (Real-time Systems) since the registration of CE306 requires CE203 as a prerequisite subject. So, with the only semester (which is the supposed last semester) that I am not overloaded, I am not being able to take up CE306. The problem is, CE306 is only offered in the second semester of the academic year. I have checked with the subject coordinator for CE3 students (Mr. Lee Keok Kee) and he has informed me that unless one has taken CE306 before, and is retaking it again would the person be able to do a restricted repeat in the first semester of the academic year. I sincerely hoped that you could allow me to take the subject concurrently with CE203 so that I would not have to wait for another year to take my last subject. In the essence, I need a change of the rules to be able to complete the course in 3 years. And I am very confident of doing it if provided with the leeway.
Now, to why I said I am confident. For the past few years, I have always thought or figured out that the all-encompassing education should not be overly exam-oriented. On the other hand, exam is required to be around for quantification and classification. In fact, I think that in education, the trick lies with the teacher-student relationship. Not necessarily teachers are lecturers or tutors. They might be your friends, books, your colleagues, your work, your hobby and most importantly, yourself. From those things, practice or beings, one person learns the key to mastering what the person sought to learn. I agree that I am weak in the engineering details of Instrumentation and Control. This is probably due to the objective that I wanted to learn from the Instrumentation and Control subject exceeded what I was given in my syllabus. I have two ideas to share and hope that you would understand my sentiments of failing the subject.
One of the ideas was to provide a programmable computerized control system for studio photographers. The lighting, reflectors and remote controllers need to be coordinated by a software control system such that certain specific types of equipment placement could be conjured upon call by the studio photographer. However, such a system requires specific coordination with the mechanics of the equipment and I think is not within our syllabus. Another factor was to implement good control algorithms in the system. Those were the ideas, which I have been always pondering on. Another control system, which I think would be seen soon in worldwide offices, is the remote monitoring system. I somehow figured out that a robot or “cambot” could be remotely controlled through the internet. This is interesting business. However, these type of control systems deal a mighty lot with networking protocols and the internet. When wireless technology is mature, the exploration of applications would be even more challenging. If you are interested, I can tell you more about my ideas and what I have achieved for the past few years.
My goal is clear. I am not going into the industry to serve and slave. If I did not have those ideas which, streamed out of my mind, probably I do not mind going to serve the industry like how I serve the army. Since I have clear ideas and I think I want to make use of them the way I wanted to, I often drown in them. That is the reason for me to put my priority not on results, but on education and creativity grooming. However, I know my limits and I am an average Singaporean who sometimes does get affected by emotions. Things like inadequate self-control a few weeks before the examination and a cup of coffee before the paper (I am hypersensitive to coffee and I forgot about it!) do attribute me getting an F. Finally, I know very well that I want to succeed with a certain cause. Therefore, I decided to write this letter to prove my sincerity in education and who knows, you might save me my extra two semesters of school fees as my capital for development of my firm.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
XXX XXXX XXXX Nanyang Technological University School of Applied Science Computer Engineering 3
