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Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => The University Journey Journal => Topic started by: owidjaja on January 08, 2019, 07:48:56 pm

Title: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on January 08, 2019, 07:48:56 pm
Hey guys,

I'm here with another journal. I made one during my HSC and one during my 3 month break so I decided to make one for uni so I can sit here and ramble just to get stuff off my chest. If you couldn't tell from my horribly amazing Star Trek pun in the title, I'm studying Aerospace Engineering at UNSW, and I'm freaking excited to start.

Why Aerospace Engineering?
I know right! It is a narrow field of engineering. Long story short, I actually fell in love with physics back when I was in primary school. I would steal my sister's science textbooks and read it for fun. Yep, you read it right. For fun. (Now that I look back, it's actually kinda sad lmao) I even bought two Stephen Hawking books. Did I understand it? Not really, but it didn't stop me from reading it. Fast forward into junior school, I knew I wanted to go into engineering because it was the perfect place for me to use physics, but I didn't know which field. It wasn't until my math tutor told me one day that engineers still don't know how flight works. I was really confused. How can we still not know how flight works even though it plays a significant role in our daily lives? And that was what motivated me to go into aerospace engineering. I started reading a whole bunch of stuff on Bernoulli vs Newton's theories on flight and even bought a physics textbook. Ever since then, I knew I wanted to do aerospace engineering. It's been a long journey, especially since I didn't really perform well in maths and physics during high school (although I did perform much better in physics than math but my HSC results say otherwise). But it didn't stop me from doing aerospace engineering so now I'm here!

Why UNSW?
For a while, I actually considered USyd as well since they offered a space engineering program as well. However, their ATAR was 99. Technically, you could still do space engineering if you don't get the 99 ATAR. You end up doing mechanical engineering for a year and then you can change to do space engineering but you don't really get as much opportunities as those who got the 99 ATAR straight up (i.e. they're exposed to more challenging projects). I don't really like that kind of approach. To me, it's like their separating the students who survived high school into an elite group. This was part of the reason why I wanted to go to UNSW. Another reason was because I had a different math tutor back in Year 8 and she was bantering with another math tutor who was a USyd student, and she was like to me "Fun fact: UNSW started of as an engineering school." That intrigued me. Ever since then, I researched a lot about UNSW. I even went to Open Day in Year 9 and spoke to an aeronautical engineering student. Plus, UNSW has a really big engineering department. I was also unimpressed with the engineering department at USyd. When I went to the USyd Open Day, I was shocked that the Engineering block was an old, bricked building tucked away from the pretty law buildings and near the car park. I mean, isn't engineering all about innovation? So why haven't they updated the engineering building? Anyway, it really solidified my decision to go to UNSW. I just had to make sure I got the marks to get to UNSW.

Here are the units I'll be taking this term:
MATH1131
PHYS1121
ENGG1000

I've also attached my timetable here. It's a bit annoying that I have to go to uni everyday (and also annoying that it says there's a clash, though this issue is already solved) but hopefully my timetable get's a bit better next term.

I'm really nervous to start uni (especially over my maths and physics skills) but I am looking forward to uni! (Watch my chipper attitude change in two weeks lmao)

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: fantasticbeasts3 on January 08, 2019, 08:11:23 pm
Yay!! Super excited to see you’ve started a new journal Olivia :-) Looking forward to reading your updates and I hope you have lots of fun in uni! ☺️
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: beatroot on January 08, 2019, 10:03:21 pm
Yay! So happy to finally see you in the uni journey journal board!!
I'm a keen bean to read your updates and all your adventures at uni !!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 15, 2019, 11:35:22 pm
Hey guys,

I know uni hasn't officially started and it's only O-week but stressed me has already started preparation for uni. Here I am being like "Yeah I love physics and engineering" and then I get emails about my assumed knowledge for math and that sets me off into stress-mode. At moments like this, I always ask myself if engineering is the right choice. I don't know. I knew I wanted to go into engineering for so long that I can't see myself doing anything else. And honestly, I miss the time where I actually had fun with math and get excited when I finally understand something new. I feel like high school has just drained my enjoyment in math (it doesn't help that we had a very toxic environment either). It's been hard to ignore these emails because when I get stuck with a question (as I'm preparing for uni), I start to question my capabilities in math which stresses me out even more.

So here's my plan: throughout the week, I've been going through the Student Support Scheme work sheets. The 3U topics I placed aside and the more doable topics I've been completing so I can brush up on my math and get into my "math zone" (I've been doing a lot of writing in the past month and gosh I miss doing math). With the 3U topics, since I need a bit more depth in their explanations rather than a summary, I'll take a look at how the algebra/calculus course notes have explained the topics. If I can understand it, I'll try the questions from those notes/homework booklet (plus, it also gives me a head start in homework for Week 1). If not, I re-downloaded my 3U math textbook so I'll revisit those chapters. Is this too much for me to complete in two days while still jet-lagged and recovering from a cold? Maybe. But at this rate, I'm so stressed over my math capabilities I can't walk into Week 1 unprepared.

Anyway, hope I actually complete these tasks.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: strawberries on February 16, 2019, 08:29:08 am
Hey,

Just would like to pop in and say good luck with uni this year :)
take care xx
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 16, 2019, 11:36:24 am
Hey,

Just would like to pop in and say good luck with uni this year :)
take care xx
Thanks :) (Will probably need it!)
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: angewina_naguen on February 16, 2019, 02:10:34 pm
Woot woot! Super excited to read this  ;D ;D
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: smamsmo22 on February 16, 2019, 11:58:57 pm
Hi! I'm excited to read your journal.
I know nothing about mathematics requirements for engineering OR how HSC mathematics work so I am no help, sorry, but I really hope you can get the hang of things. It sounds like you're committed to the task so I'm sure you're putting yourself in the best position to succeed :)
On another note, seeing as its O week, have you had any fun events/opportunities to attend? How's the atmosphere at UNSW?
Best of luck for your uni journey!!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 17, 2019, 11:49:31 am
Hi! I'm excited to read your journal.
I know nothing about mathematics requirements for engineering OR how HSC mathematics work so I am no help, sorry, but I really hope you can get the hang of things. It sounds like you're committed to the task so I'm sure you're putting yourself in the best position to succeed :)
On another note, seeing as its O week, have you had any fun events/opportunities to attend? How's the atmosphere at UNSW?
Best of luck for your uni journey!!
Well, I used O week as the opportunity to get my Student ID card and sign up to a couple of societies/clubs. I wish I went to the Faculty of Engineering Welcome or the Women in Engineering Brunch but I didn't want to exhaust myself (I was recovering from a cold ;-;). As for the atmosphere, I feel like they were pretty welcoming, especially to the first year students (I got a lot of flyers promoting free food for the first year students lol).
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 18, 2019, 10:01:00 pm
Hey guys,

So today was my first day of uni and I'm so exhausted. I slept on the train because I was so tired. I was a bit nervous of getting lost but I ended up finding the lecture theatre (thanks blasonduo haha). And I did happen to make some friends. I was able to hang out with them and eat lunch with them, so it was great that I wasn't just gonna be in the lecture theatres alone. As for the actual lectures, oh boy. What I didn't realise was that we would have two lectures, one per hour. I thought we'd be doing straight up algebra or straight up calculus. My algebra lecturer was pretty chill and he had a good story time to teaching ratio (and I was shocked he had a Twitch account). On the other hand, my calculus lecturer was a bit difficult to understand. He had a strong French accent so it was a bit difficult to understand, yet at the same time he would do his working out without really explaining why he did it so I was confused.

As for physics, I forgot that it was only a 1 hour lecture and it went fast. My lecturer went through deriving formulas and explaining graphs really fast I could barely keep up. Even my friends and the girls sitting beside me were lost as well. I mean, it's cool that he does the demonstration straight away so we could see the formulas and graphs come to life but it's a bit difficult to understand when everything is going so fast -_- So yeah, I really need to consolidate on what we did today. Meanwhile in engineering, it was kinda boring. Like, it was interesting to hear them explain why the Opal Tower didn't work well (lol) but most of the time they were just explaining the 12 different projects. I joined Project ARDET where we need to make a vehicle that can deliver supplies in uneven terrain. I initially thought of doing Project DELTA but I kinda liked the more humanitarian side of mechanical engineering. But yeah, apart from that I was trying not to fall asleep because it kinda dragged on and got boring.

Anyways, I really should spend the rest of the night consolidating my notes.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: jamonwindeyer on February 18, 2019, 10:29:53 pm
Really glad it went well for your first day Olivia!! We should grab lunch one day we are both on campus ;D best of luck with your project for ENGG!!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 18, 2019, 10:36:58 pm
Really glad it went well for your first day Olivia!! We should grab lunch one day we are both on campus ;D best of luck with your project for ENGG!!
"Well" might be a bit of stretch haha but my first day wasn't too bad :) And definitely a big yes for lunch!

I hope I get to be in a group where people will do their part because I'm clueless when it comes to computing or constructing (I'm great at reports, research and project management though so hopefully it becomes useful). Out of curiosity, which project did you do?
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: jamonwindeyer on February 18, 2019, 10:51:41 pm
"Well" might be a bit of stretch haha but my first day wasn't too bad :) And definitely a big yes for lunch!

I hope I get to be in a group where people will do their part because I'm clueless when it comes to computing or constructing (I'm great at reports, research and project management though so hopefully it becomes useful). Out of curiosity, which project did you do?

It sounds like the projects have changed since I did it, but I did the project for the Electrical faculty. It was a self driving car, which would navigate an obstacle course using sensors. Our final product barely did anything but move in a straight line. We thought it stopped at one of the traffic lights as expected - But it had just prematurely died ;)
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 22, 2019, 11:11:26 pm
Hey guys,

So the first week of uni has passed and I'm already exhausted. I don't think going to uni for 5 days straight really helps so I just end up sleeping on the train on my way to uni and kinda trying to stay awake on the bus. As for the actual uni, I had my first math tute on Wednesday, and yay for another teacher with a strong European accent. Well, his Russian accent isn't as bad as the French guy (though my inner Modern self is giggling because of the amount of Communist/Slav memes I've seen/liked on Insta) but he's a bit difficult to communicate with. Like, we were going through limits to infinity and one of the guys suggested to divide by the highest power of x but then the tutor assumed that he was saying polynomial division so the guy ended up giving up trying to explain it. And it also doesn't help that he singled out the people who only did 2U math (a.k.a this other guy and myself). He looked at both of us and said "This course will be a bit difficult for you so I want you to ask as many questions." Anyway, I made another friend in the tute (since my friend was in a different tute class). The annoying thing though is that I had a 4 hour gap between my physics lecture and the math tute so I just sat in the library on those uncomfortable stool chairs trying to revise for physics.

Speaking of physics, I had my first problem solving workshop today. It was really confusing, mostly because the tutor didn't really use a microphone so no one could hear him. On top of that, he goes through this really fast (just like in the physics lecture) so my table and I were just sitting there lost. I mean, we tried to do our best by following the worksheet but we ended up asking the student assistant a couple of times so we could make sure we were doing something right. And again, my friend wasn't in the same class as me but I managed to get by and made more friends. At the moment with physics, I'm at the stage where I kinda get what's happening but then I get lost because the lecturer goes through everything really fast. Looks like I'll be spending the weekend revising calculus and mechanics.

Anyway, I should actually finish my maths quiz.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: Bri MT on February 23, 2019, 08:26:07 am
Congratulations on 1000 posts!! :)

Sounds like everything is a but hectic atm. I'm not sure if this helps, but I found that as I went through the year I got better at using public transport time effectively, being confident in labs etc. once you get through this unit of maths you should be on a level playing field with everyone, right? I found maths to be my most challenging subject but also the one I learnt the most in - I hope it's similarly rewarding for you :)

Good luck!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on February 23, 2019, 12:02:01 pm
Sounds like everything is a but hectic atm. I'm not sure if this helps, but I found that as I went through the year I got better at using public transport time effectively, being confident in labs etc. once you get through this unit of maths you should be on a level playing field with everyone, right? I found maths to be my most challenging subject but also the one I learnt the most in - I hope it's similarly rewarding for you :)
I do hope uni does get better :) It is quite overwhelming since we literally got hit with a bunch of quizzes and homework sets to do, and on top of that, uni is very confusing and we kinda don't have too much time to make friends (i.e. get to know the people we're working with). And like you said, hopefully I won't be too disadvantaged in math once I finished this unit (that's if I pass the exams rip :/), but so far, I am finding the algebra fun and when I finally understand something from calculus, I do get a bit excited because it finally makes sense (thanks Rui haha).

Congratulations on 1000 posts!! :)
And thanks :D I guess I'm officially part of the furniture!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: Caitlynk_22 on February 25, 2019, 01:44:32 pm
Hi Olivia,

I love reading your uni journal, it actually makes me more excited to go uni next year. I can't wait to read your uni journal as I'll be in the same position next year (Albeit in a different uni and course) just to see what it's like and how everything goes.

I wish you all the best this year! I hope everything goes well and that you don't get too stressed. After all, uni is supposed to be a new chapter, an open door.

Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on March 03, 2019, 11:48:26 pm
Hi Olivia,

I love reading your uni journal, it actually makes me more excited to go uni next year. I can't wait to read your uni journal as I'll be in the same position next year (Albeit in a different uni and course) just to see what it's like and how everything goes.

I wish you all the best this year! I hope everything goes well and that you don't get too stressed. After all, uni is supposed to be a new chapter, an open door.
(Omg I'm so sorry I didn't see this!)

Thanks for reading my journal! Hope you'll find uni fun :) I feel like the stress mainly comes from the pressure of having to re-take a subject if I fail on top of the fact that I keep getting told that my HSC marks isn't good enough for the courses I'm taking (not great for the self-esteem). I think the fun part about uni is the free stuff you get lol (we literally had a stand that was giving out free tacos on the first day of uni).



Hey guys,

So second week of uni is over and it's still as chaotic as usual. 6 quizzes from math, and 2 physics quizzes to do. I'm only annoyed with how the topics in the quizzes aren't even the topics we covered in the lectures, so technically we're teaching the content ourselves. While I'm annoyed with the quizzes, I'm doing surprisingly ok with the quizzes. But when it comes to understanding the content long-term wise, I'm not sure. On the other hand, I'm lost as usual with physics. Even in the workshop, it gets a bit confusing and my group is as lost me me. It also doesn't help that my lecturer/tutor (?) kinda roasted us during the workshop ;-; I also had my first physics lab and boy is it stressful. I had to re-calculate the uncertainty of the brass again and because I got confused, I was so close to spiralling into a panic attack. Honestly, I was so tempted to walk out of the room so no one will see me have a panic attack but then I realised that I would be wasting my time (since it's timed) so I kinda forced myself to stay there even though the demonstrator (and possibly the people at my table) could hear my voice get shaky.

As for ENGG, I finally met my group members. I was so worried that I would be with people who kinda slack off (and while I haven't seen them work yet) they seem really chill. Because there was an awkward gap between the technical lecture and the mentoring session, we hung out at the coffee shop in Ainsworth so we could get to know each other a bit better. I think we have a good mix of people. There are two people who have a bit of knowledge in computing (and one of them already bought the Arduino kit), we have some members who are willing to do any maths (if there's any involved) and then there's me, where I kinda offered to help out with the writing component (i.e. referencing and reports). Our next task is to write a problem statement so we're planning to meet tomorrow after the ENGG common lecture to touch base.

I also signed up to the WIESoc Protege Program, where I'm grouped with people who are doing the same/similar degree and a mentor. I was so shocked that I met people who are doing aerospace engineering since I've only met one person (prior to meeting them). Our group got along really well, so it was cool I was able to meet people who also are interested in aerospace. We had the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, which was a bit tiring since it went up until 8pm. I also (unexpectedly) signed up to the EngSoc VDP. I wanted to sign up for the WIESoc Subcommittee Recruitment but missed out, and the VDP deadline got extended so I decided to use this to my advantage and sign up. I didn't expect myself to get accepted but I went to their workshop on Saturday. I didn't expect people to be at uni on a Saturday but it was interesting to meet people from other engineering streams and years.

So that's the summary of my week.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on March 04, 2019, 05:22:58 pm
It also doesn't help that my lecturer/tutor (?) kinda roasted us during the workshop ;-;

What happened? :-\
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on March 04, 2019, 07:02:59 pm
What happened? :-\
So my group was working on the worksheet and one of the questions required us to convert the units to base units. For example, the first question was Newtons so using F=ma, we get kg.ms-2 (because SI units for mass is kg and for acceleration it's ms-2). We were a bit confused with the question and the tutor (who's also my lecturer) walks past our table. We were a bit quiet so he asks if we were ok so then one of the group members was like "Yeah we're kinda a bit unsure with this question." He was explaining how we should use the formula to figure out the base units while asking us questions but all of us were a bit unresponsive. When one of my friends tried to answer one of his questions he was like "Looks like someone's been skipping lectures." When we got to Coulomb he started asking us about amperes and current and I was gonna suggest to go through the V=IR formula but then he was like "Hmm nooo" and went through the rest of the questions. By the time he finished explaining it, he was like "Have you not done this in high school?" All of us were quiet. "Hmm, I guess you learn something new everyday" or something like that and walked away.

Because of that, we were didn't want to ask him questions because we didn't want another roasting from him ;-;
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on March 05, 2019, 05:03:24 pm
So my group was working on the worksheet and one of the questions required us to convert the units to base units. For example, the first question was Newtons so using F=ma, we get kg.ms-2 (because SI units for mass is kg and for acceleration it's ms-2). We were a bit confused with the question and the tutor (who's also my lecturer) walks past our table. We were a bit quiet so he asks if we were ok so then one of the group members was like "Yeah we're kinda a bit unsure with this question." He was explaining how we should use the formula to figure out the base units while asking us questions but all of us were a bit unresponsive. When one of my friends tried to answer one of his questions he was like "Looks like someone's been skipping lectures." When we got to Coulomb he started asking us about amperes and current and I was gonna suggest to go through the V=IR formula but then he was like "Hmm nooo" and went through the rest of the questions. By the time he finished explaining it, he was like "Have you not done this in high school?" All of us were quiet. "Hmm, I guess you learn something new everyday" or something like that and walked away.

Because of that, we were didn't want to ask him questions because we didn't want another roasting from him ;-;

Yikes, sounds pretty harsh. Hope you didn't take it too personally!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on March 08, 2019, 06:34:31 pm
Hey guys,

I guess Week 3 is finally over and as usual, I'm tired lol. Well first off, my birthday was on Tuesday so I guess I'm an adult now, which means more responsibilities -_- Honestly though, enrolling into uni was already stressful so I can't wait to get taxed or start car insurance ;-; I don't usually celebrate birthdays but it was nice that people messaged me wishing a happy birthday. Funnily enough, most of them were either through AN or my uni friends so thanks for that guys <3, and none of my high school friends messaged me hmm... Anyway, my friends tried to buy me a drink at the roundhouse but I'm not really into drinking during the day so we bought a bunch of sides and brought the food upstairs to play mahjong lol. And then, I caught a cold. It was just a runny nose until I did my Makerspace Induction and inhaled a bunch of sawdust, leaving my throat irritated so now I have a chesty cough as well, so that's fun.

I also had a speech this week for ENGG, which was poor timing because I was talking in an air-conditioned room with a dry throat and blocked nose. I also wrote my speech the night before so I didn't do much practice, but I guess the amount of speeches I've done in high school has helped me deal with that since I had to do speeches without palm cards. However, I couldn't volunteer to go first since my mentor just let Moodle choose the order. I guess the only pro of not going first is to see how everyone structured their speeches because the task description was a bit vague. Even the idea of problem statements was a bit vague. Like, in the common lecture, when they went through problem statements, they didn't really explicitly say how to write one, only that it can't be too specific and it needs to be succinct and define the problem. There are a lot of guides out there but it still was confusing. For example, we were told that including the budget was too specific (i.e. design a product less than $100). But then as I was talking to Jamon and my physics teacher (yes, I still keep in contact with him, and he was a civil engineer), both of them said that design, logistical and even financial constraints play an important role of framing the actual problem so I was confused.

And speaking of ENGG, I also got my Impromptu Writing Task marks back. Back in Week 1, we were assigned into groups alphabetically and had to built a water tower out of cups, straws, paddle pop sticks and tape (I guess I should include cup stacking on my resume now lol). After that, we had to do a writing task to reflect on the design task/group dynamic. They gave us 35 minutes to write a response in reference to an extract from an engineering textbook (I guess it's Advanced English all over again). The actual construction doesn't go into my final grade but the writing task does. And as usual, I had no clue what I was doing when I was writing my response because we haven't learnt anything in ENGG. I guess they liked my response because I got an HD for the task. I guess this gives me a bit of hope because I'm literally just aiming for a pass for all of my subjects. I'd love to get a HD in all of my subjects but I've set my standards low so I won't get too disappointed when I get my marks back (woah this got dark real fast).

Anyway, I have to finish my quizzes so see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on April 09, 2019, 08:17:41 pm
Hey guys,

Ohh boy it's been a while since I've updated. I've been extremely busy because of uni, as usual. The term started out with a moderate amount of work and now I'm bombarded with assignments and other extra-curricular activities. I'll start off with the fact that I had a bunch of reports due at some point, along with a group presentation- this is specifically ENGG. My group keeps changing the design and since we have a compliance testing this Thursday, we're scrambling to have a basic prototype ready. On top of this, I had a maths assignment due last Friday. The questions aren't bad but the explaining is what took so long. It was even worse since we had to do this on LaTeX or Word. I gave up with LaTeX and did my assignment on Word. It got to the point where I was staying up until 1am and missing my physics lecture to make sure I finished the majority of the assignment before 5pm (which was when it was due). I think this screwed up my body clock because I found myself sleeping at 3am on Friday and Saturday, so now I have dark circles under my eyes and my skin is breaking out lol (I really need to invest in a concealer at this point).

Oh yes, I also had an in-class physics quiz and that was disastrous. I was on the verge of breaking down during the quiz and once I finished I broke down in the bathroom. The thing that sucks about the quiz was that it's based on luck. The question bank may be the same as the questions for the weekly quizzes, but again, it's based on luck. They might be nice and give you friction questions or you might be really unlucky and get rotation questions. But yeah, I didn't even feel prepared for the quiz so it didn't help with my nervousness.

On top of this, my application for the EngSoc VDP somehow got accepted so I had to go to 3 workshops on the weekend. VDP, or Volunteer Development Program, is where you go to 2 soft skills workshop and 1 Industrial Training Workshop and then you do 15 hours of volunteering. The whole point is for engineers to develop their soft skills, and this gets recorded onto my AHEGS. It was pretty cool to meet people who are in 2nd+ years from different disciplines. Now the workshops are done, I need to do my volunteering hours. I've planned out my hours and have applied to volunteer, I just need to do them (and all of my volunteering is in May/June).

Anyway, I need to finish my quizzes early this week so see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on May 11, 2019, 08:04:09 pm
Hey guys,

I'm finally updating after a month haha. It's been pretty busy the past month, especially because of the number of assignments that increases (specifically assignments for ENGG1000) and preparing for exams. It's funny how my engg group spent most of the term changing the design and then within two days we managed to have something to show for our compliance testing lol. I don't know how we managed to do it but we did. And a Maccas run has become our group thing now, especially since most of us have the My Maccas app so we're always on top of those discounts/deals. I also was busy with work- as much as I enjoy working, it was exhausting, especially how I have to run to uni after work to attend my lectures and tutorials, and also stop by for a bit and help with construction for engg. But my day out on Anzac Day with my friends did help me take a step back from work and just relax. We went to see Endgame together and boy was it good (coming from someone who didn't see Infinity War lol). Watching Endgame made me feel like I wanna buy all the Marvel figurines (rip my bank account).

Anyway, the final testing for engg was very stressful. We were a day behind for construction because three of the members were sick and couldn't come to uni on Saturday and work on the vehicle. We tried to finish the tasks on the day but it took longer than expected we didn't have time to use the test track. On top of that, our motors were fried and one of the wheels weren't attached properly, and our Mega Arduino wasn't working on the day so we ran around collecting as many coins to buy another Mega Arduino (it's annoying because the vending machine doesn't take card and only coins -_-). So while the pulley system we made worked, it couldn't pick up any balls and could barely move so we didn't do well in the final testing. And the aesthetic appeal of our vehicle was... questionable lol. Our team actually got the lowest mark in comparison to the other teams (even after the marks have been modified). We decided that we should submit the report early after the project coordinator said that we could get bonus points for submitting the report early. We need those bonus marks. It was annoying how everyone agreed to finish their part by Friday but then they finished all on Monday. And they also had big plans of "let's sit down and make sure everyone edits the report" but that didn't happen. And I needed to study for math as well (which I'm sure everyone was doing, which was why they didn't finish it on time). So I was left to do the editing and formatting AGAIN (this was what happened when we submitted the design proposal). Idk, they're usually a good group but when it comes to reports, everyone just does their part and backs out. Like, one of my members uploaded they're part (late) and they're like "Is there anything else I can help with" and I said "I'm editing at the moment so if you can have a quick skim and see if there's anything I missed that would be great", to which they said "Yep okay" and then leaves the Google Doc. Like, what was the point of asking if there's anything you can do when you're not gonna do it...?

And then we have exams. Holy crap math and physics was brutal. I tried writing down any relevant formulas or ideas in questions I had no idea how to solve so I'm praying that it's a) relevant and b) they'll award me at least 1 mark for trying lol. I was so close to having a panic attack before my math exam and then after the exam I just broke down with a panic attack. I'm glad my friends were there. We all were in different rooms but once we met up I just broke down because I had no clue what I was doing, I was stressed and there's no way I'm passing maths and physics. And physics, omg. You know you're screwed when the first question is a rotation question. Asking you to sketch a graph of some sorts. And then the rest of the questions ask you to derive expressions. In fact, most of the paper asked me to write an expression and even had questions being like "using answer from part ___" and I'm there not even sure how to do the previous question. The only question I was able to confidently answer was the questions on conservative and non-conservative forces because a) it was in a past paper and b) Joe Wolfe made is recite it in the lecture like 5 times. But I did try to write any relevant formulas or if I attempted to solve the question, made sure I had the correct significant figures, so hopefully I can get a mark for that. Thank god I showed up to all my tutorials and workshops because I'm eligible to do supplementary exams. I guess I should start preparing for supplementary exams.

After physics, my friends and I went to Town Hall to hang out, have lunch and go shopping (which reminded me that I really need to buy some winter clothes because I barely have any lol). It's a relief that we're now officially on holidays but not that good when you have parents asking you why you found the exam hard and then saying "I told you so" in regards to me not doing the bridging course back in January -_- Anyway, it's good to finally step back from uni and finally sleep in because I'm gonna be spending the holidays doing a bit of work, binge watching movies/anime and doing some volunteering as well.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: mango8 on May 12, 2019, 06:35:24 pm
Hi Olivia! I whizzed through your journal because it was incredibly fascinating and reading it makes me sooo pumped for uni to start next year! And your course sounds really interesting, I don't know much about it so I'm keen to see how it goes through your eyes. Is it easy making friends? 

It was annoying how everyone agreed to finish their part by Friday but then they finished all on Monday.

Like, what was the point of asking if there's anything you can do when you're not gonna do it...?

Ohh the feels. I can 1000% relate to this so much omg. Literally never had a positive group experience.

Where are you planning to work/volunteer? And what movies are you going to watch? What's your fav part about uni?

Have a fun week and excited to be on this star trekking journey with you ⭐️
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on May 12, 2019, 07:27:18 pm
Hi Olivia! I whizzed through your journal because it was incredibly fascinating and reading it makes me sooo pumped for uni to start next year! And your course sounds really interesting, I don't know much about it so I'm keen to see how it goes through your eyes. Is it easy making friends? 
Hey there!

As stressful as it is, engineering is quite fun. Honestly though, making friends was easier than I thought (coming from someone who was stressing about this the day before my first day of uni). The easiest way to make friends is literally being like "Hey are you here for class ____"- that's honestly how I made friends. A girl asked me that, we talked for a bit, a girl nearby also stopped by to chat and now the three of us (plus two other girls) are hanging out as much as we can. On top of that, ENGG1000 (which is your typical first year engineering course) is literally where you make friends, all the older engineering students agree with that. I was lucky I had a good group (even though I was a bit annoyed with them about the report) but we were quite close and we've never really had any conflicts. And our weekly Maccas run was fun as well. Plus, it's really cool to meet people doing different engineering degrees. Like, I've met people doing software, biomed/mechatronics, civil to people doing interesting combinations such as law/electrical, electrical/advanced chem, aerospace/finance.

Apart from that, there are a lot of societies that help you make friends. I did the Protege Program with WIESoc and they put me with a group of first year girls who are also doing aerospace and a fifth year aerospace student and we are quite close (we went to see Endgame together haha). So yeah, there are so many ways you can make friends at uni!

Where are you planning to work/volunteer? And what movies are you going to watch? What's your fav part about uni?
I'll be volunteering for the RSPCA Million Paws Walk next Sunday (which I'm excited for because doggos), Run2Cure and Red Cross Pop Up Shop. It's mostly because part of the EngSoc Volunteer Development Program (which is what I'm completing), I need to do 15 hours of volunteering for it to be recorded to my AHEGS but I do genuinely like volunteering so I can't wait to help out during the holidays.

As for work, I actually work for ATAR Notes haha and the HSC career expo is around the corner so I'll be hanging out at the AN stall ;)

And what movies are you going to watch?
Re-watching old Marvel movies haha. After seeing Endgame, I just felt like going back and watching how these characters have grown up over the past 10+ years. I also haven't watched a few Marvel movies like Doctor Strange, Thor Ragnarok and Captain Marvel so I'll definitely need to catch up on that.

What's your fav part about uni?
Part of it is the freedom. Like, you don't need to go to lectures, or you can leave campus in between your lectures and go for a bubble tea run. The other part is that there are so many ways you can get involved. I was always annoyed in high school that the only ways you can get involved is either be an SRC member, do sport/something creative like choir or do debating/public speaking and there were never enough opportunities, especially leadership opportunities. But at uni, there are so many societies trying to get you to join. My fb feed is filled with societies promoting leadership/exchange programs. You can also get free healthcare at uni (i.e. free vaccinations, counselling sessions etc). In fact, one of my friends (from engg) sprained his wrist when he was drunk during O-week and he was able to get a free consultation and everything (his parents still don't know about it lol).

Have a fun week and excited to be on this star trekking journey with you ⭐️
Can't wait to see you around!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on May 19, 2019, 06:46:58 pm
Hey guys,

It's still the holidays but I just came back from volunteering with RSPCA today. So today was the Million Paws Walk and was held at the Cathy Freeman Park. They said in the email to get a good night's sleep, especially since I had to be there at 6.30am. Holy smokes did I not sleep well. I had about 3 hours of sleep because I just couldn't sleep (my dark circles were so bad this morning). My dad drove me to Sydney Olympic Park because I would've had to catch the 5.34am train and it was still very dark.

I knew that I was assigned the role of Entry Attendant but I had no clue what that role entailed (well, I'm pretty sure I read the role description when I was choosing what role to pick but I couldn't remember lol). Once they briefed me this morning, my role wasn't that bad. In fact, I feel like I got one of the best roles. I was talking to one of the volunteers and she was telling me how she volunteered to be the Entry Attendant again so she can see all the dogs. And boy was she right. My role was to check that all pre-registered attendees had their wristbands or an email confirming their attendance and let them in (with  2 other volunteers). I literally stood at the entrance looking out for blue wristbands or checking emails, and then pat their dogs. OMG THERE WERE SO MANY DOGGOS!!! There were a few staffies and cavoodles but then there were Great Danes, huskies, German Shepherds and Samoyeds. It was adorable seeing pugs with little bowties and chihuahuas in strollers. I even saw a Yorkshire Terrier wearing a little Sailor Moon outfit. And all the dogs came up to me and said hi. It was pretty funny how some of the dogs would jump on me while the owners are on their phone trying to find the email and they're apologising profusely but I'm just there patting and cuddling their dogs haha.

Even though the email said my shift finished at 2.30pm, we finished early at around 12.30pm because there wasn't anyone coming to the event by that time. And we didn't really need to pack up anything since most of us were either standing at the entrance or just sitting at the registers. Again, it was so cool seeing so many doggos and patting a whole bunch of them for 5.5 hours straight I feel like my cat was able to smell dogs on my hands haha.

Anyway, see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on June 03, 2019, 11:41:41 am
Hey guys,

So T2 starts today and there has been so much happening during the past few weeks. Well firstly, I got my final marks back and boyy was I breaking down. First off, I got a distinction in ENGG1000, which I'll take. But then math and physics arrived, and that's when the breakdowns occurred. I already knew I failed math because I got an email saying that I can do my supplementary exams. Cool. But then physics came around and I just broke down because I couldn't even do a supplementary exam for physics. I was already getting a panic attack from seeing the email come through and when I saw my physics mark that's when I broke down and cried for probably 4 hours straight. I couldn't even study for math without breaking down after doing one question. So I spent the weekend studying for my math exam because I wasn't sure what to expect from the exam. I did my exam on Monday, and the exam wasn't as bad as I thought. The exam was on Maple TA and the questions weren't as difficult as the ones in the final exam. Thank god I passed Math 1A because if I failed math and physics, my timetable will be screwed up. So I had to push ENGG1300 to next term because Physics 1A is a prerequisite for the course (along with Math 1A). And thank god I only enrolled into two subjects for T3 just in case if I failed a course (and surprise surprise I did). I was going to do a first year elective in T3 and do CVEN1701 but since it's only offered in T2 and T3, looks like I'll need to find an elective offered in T1. I'll probably end up doing PSYC1001- I heard a lot of good reviews about it and apparently there are a lot of essays to do (which is great because I can at least make it look like I know what I'm doing).

I would've had Thursday off if I passed physics, and I guess I could technically skip my physics lectures (and thank god for lab exemptions) but I want to see if the physics lecturer is better than my previous one. I feel like at this point, it's all about making sure my notes are consolidated and I do as many practice questions as I can because I didn't do a lot of them last term. And since now I kinda know what's going on, I can use more time doing past papers.

Anyway, my lecture is starting so see you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on June 09, 2019, 11:47:21 pm
Hey guys,

So it's the first week of uni done and I'm exhausted lol. I'd like to think I'm not as exhausted as last term (yet), considering how I have a day off. Technically, I'm supposed to be at uni everyday but because I have a physics lecture and lab (which I've been exempted from) on Thursday, I've decided to not go to lectures since I'd rather use the hour consolidating my notes and doing practice questions. Plus, I feel like this term's lecturer is even worse than last term's lecturer. At least my previous lecturer did a lot of demonstrations to keep me awake, but my new lecturer usually reads off the slides and doesn't do as many demonstrations. Plus, unlike last term, the lecture recordings are a bit more useful since the working out is done by hand and on a camera that gets projected (lmao I can't think of what it's called), so I can still keep up with any working out. As for the lecture notes, my lecturer uses the other lecturer's notes (and he's uploaded both the slides and handwritten notes) so I can consolidate my notes and follow along the working out.

I find that this format of studying is actually helping me. Like, because I don't attend physics lectures, I have more time to study and work on physics (as well as other subjects), especially since I'm not wasting 2+ hours on transport. And I don't usually work on transport because I'm either too tired (and will actually fall asleep) or it just doesn't feel like a good place for me to have my exercise book out and balance my calculator and pen etc. (although I have been using my time on the train working on some writing projects since I felt bad for abandoning them last term). I find this a bit strange because I'm the type of person who goes to every single lecture in the hopes that I learn something but doing a bit of self-learning has been a lot more productive.

As for my other classes, I do like my algebra lecturer. He explains the concepts well and goes at the perfect pace, but because he uses the chalkboard rather than the camera, we don't really have any lecture recordings. It does record his voice though, but it's hard to follow. This means I can't afford to miss any of the lectures (not that I would) or be late to them, otherwise I need to ask someone for their notes (which might be a bit hard to follow). My calculus lecturer, on the other hand, was okay. Not as good as my algebra lecturer but a vast improvement from last term's calculus lecturer. I like how there are lecture slides and his handwritten notes (which he also uploads on Moodle). He also does his working out during the lecture so it's easy to follow along, whereas last term most of the working out is already on the slides, which makes it difficult to understand since it's done in chunks. However, he doesn't do a lot of explaining. Like, he'd do a basic introduction and then do a bunch of questions, which isn't too bad but I'd like to know what and why I'm doing the working out rather than adopting a rote learning style. As for my math tutor, he's also a great improvement from last term. Last term, I had an old Russian tutor and he didn't seem enthusiastic to help. Like, he'd say he wants us to ask questions but when we do, he kinda seems reluctant. For example, there was a student who needed help with a question and he pointed out there was a video solution but she said she still didn't understand it. His response was "I don't want to waste time." He also never gave us any contact details/contact hours, which was what shocked me with my current tutor because he immediately wrote down his email and told us he'd be at the Drop In Centre as well as other places he commonly hangs out in so we can find him easily. And he actually explains his working out quite well.

For comp, I was a bit nervous for it because I have no knowledge of computing/programming whatsoever. But the lecturer seems very approachable and passionate in what he's doing so it does ease my nerves a bit. He's also very open to questions since he emphasised on COMP1511 being a "no assumed knowledge" course. My tutor was also very nice and approachable, and also very helpful in labs. I was a bit nervous about labs because I'm scarred from physics labs being so stressful. On top of that, my tutor told us to line ourselves on a spectrum between "an expert" and "beginner" level. A lot of the "experienced" students were taken up so I partnered myself up with another "beginner" student (which wasn't too bad since we did spend our lunch hanging out at the Whitehouse). But when we did our practice labs, it wasn't too bad. In fact, it was a "follow the instructions" activity. And we also can submit our lab assignments later and can stay in the computer lab longer than the 2 hours that have been booked. And it was satisfying when the code actually works. I am still slightly nervous about coding because I don't know how to write it, in the sense of if we were given a situation and I had to write a code, I wouldn't know how to even though we wrote one in together in one of the lectures.

I'm amazed that I've been keeping myself a lot more organised during the past week. I was up to date with my physics notes and completed the homework set. I finished my math quizzes pretty early (even though they extended the due date) and I did my tute questions on time. At the moment, I'm almost done making my physics notes for next week so I have more time to do more questions in the homework set. I also finished Quiz 1 for physics early (and managed to get 100% for the first time- shout out to blasonduo for always helping me in physics!) so I can redo Quiz 1 multiple times and be more exposed to more questions in the question bank. I can also spend more time doing the tute questions for next week and have a head start on my math quizzes (although I am a bit annoyed that they uploaded the Week 2 tutes/quizzes towards the end of the week, unlike last term when they released the first 2 weeks of quizzes). I think it's because I'm cutting down my time at uni and can spend more time studying at home since I don't need to go to uni everyday. And having my classes start at 12pm onwards (with the exception of my 9am tute/11am workshop) gives me time to study in the library since I always arrive there at least 1 hour earlier than my class.

Anyway, I should go to sleep.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on November 09, 2019, 05:15:30 pm
Hey guys,

It's been so long since I've updated lol. That's because I've been busy during the past two terms - I just happened to have a bit of time now before all my assignments are due.

Term 2
Let's start with the remainder of Term 2. Well it's a miracle I passed math, especially since they got rid of supplementary exams (the exam that saved my math grade in Term 1 lol). To be honest, I was able to do one question properly and the rest I had no clue so I wrote random crap lmao. As for physics, I walked into the exam feeling a bit better than my Term 1 exams. BUT I will say that I am lowkey annoyed at the School of Physics because when I got my final marks back, it said I failed the course. At that point, I had no clue what I did wrong because I spent last term making sure I got 100% in all my weekly quizzes and went to help sessions. I cried myself to sleep that night. But then, I get an email the next day saying that they calculated my final mark wrong because they forgot to include my lab exemption mark. I was relieved but also extremely pissed off. These days, I'm more paranoid with the pre-exam marking because I would never have known that they forgot to include my lab exemption mark. Moving on to comp, boy did I struggle with that course. At the beginning of the term, I didn't think the subject was that bad until the assignments came. Because it took me so long to understand the content, I always fell behind. It reached the point where I would cry whenever I'd do a quiz or during labs, or have panic attacks in the middle of lectures. I stopped attending lectures because of that. Shout out to Jamon for helping as much as he could last term but I failed comp lmao. I'll be taking ENGG1811 next year, which is Python. I started learning Matlab and Python by myself and omg they're a lot easier than C.

Term 3
This term, I'm taking ELEC1111, ENGG1300 and MMAN2130. These subjects are quite full-on. ENGG is difficult because not only does my lecturer go through stuff really fast, but it's completely different to what I've been taught in physics and getting out of my past habits is difficult lmao. ELEC is difficult because they're expecting a lot of things such as need to pass the lab exam and getting at least 40% in finals to pass the course. MMAN is difficult because there's a 4 hour TAFE component and my TAFE class finishes at 9pm, which doesn't leave me a lot of time to study (and I have a lab the next morning).

Let's start with ENGG. I appreciate my lecturer for providing so many resources and giving us the opportunity to give as many free marks as possible. For example, we just need to complete a set of questions and show it to the tutor and that's 1 mark given to us each week (the answers don't need to be correct - you just need to have an attempt). The tutorials are also very helpful, even though they rush going through the questions because we always run out of time. The Block Tests, however, are brutal. We're given 45 minutes to do 3 questions, but these questions take so long to do. It's a miracle I passed the first test but I don't think I passed the second test because I wasn't as prepared, and also because I spent a lot of my exam time crying over how I was unsure on how to do these questions. The lab reports aren't that bad though. I thrive on any writing components so it's not too bad.

When it comes to ELEC, I like how my lecturer has provided a lot of resources and lots of practice questions. However, the mid-terms were extremely rough. Apparently the average mark was 59 but a lot of my friends and the ELEC group chat members were saying they didn't pass the mid-terms (including myself). The lab exam wasn't hard, but the fact that I needed to pass the lab exam to pass the course added a lot more pressure. I was having a break down in the middle of the exam and one of my lab demos had to calm me down in the middle of the exam, especially since by the time I had completed half of the exam correctly, he was reminding me that I've already passed the lab exam. At this point, I'm re-learning everything because there are so many parts in the course where I'm trying to understand but I take so long to understand things rip.

As for MMAN, it doesn't have a final exam (thank god) but it is a group project with 3 tests during the term (each worth like 3%). I'd enjoy the group project even more if everyone was contributing. There should be 5 people in each group but because a lot of people dropped the course, they allowed having 4 people in each group. I happened to have 4 members (two of them are my friends) but one of them doesn't contribute or put any effort. Essentially, it's a 3 person group. We had to tell him off after submitting our first group assignment. As for the CAD tests, we have to make a part within 45 minutes. The problem is, 45 minutes isn't long enough. Plus, SolidWorks is annoying. Firstly, it's only on Windows (so I had to download Windows to my Mac laptop). The fact that it's very laggy makes it difficult to prepare for these tests. Even when using the computers at uni, it's notorious for lagging and crashing. And on a less important note, the layout of SolidWorks is ugly lol. At least use AutoDesk or Fusion, where it's compatible with Mac and doesn't lag.

Apart from me ranting about my courses, I'm getting more involved in uni life. I was a bit more involved in Term 1 but because I failed physics, I decided to step back on that in Term 2. I've decided to join the AIAA Rocketry Team, specifically the media team because they're in desperate need of content lol. I also recently ran for Marketing Director for AIAA and got the position! My friends also got executive positions in AIAA. The reason why we all pushed for executive positions is because at the moment, AIAA is disorganised. They don't upload content consistently and when they do, they always upload it at the weirdest times (like 2am). We all want to make improvements to the society so that's our main goal for 2020.

Anyway, I need to finish my second report which is due next week rip.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on March 21, 2020, 05:20:32 pm
Hey guys,

Once again, it's been so long since I've updated this journal 😅Now that some of my classes are moved to online, I have a chance to update this journal. Holidays weren't very eventful, but more like depressing for me. Ever since I got my marks back, I was crying myself to sleep for a good month, partially because of how bad my marks are, and the other part was because I couldn't go to the cruise because I had to sit a supplementary exam. It was kinda depressing to be home alone for two weeks, especially since I was stressing over supplementary exams, but two of my friends drove to my house just to keep me company for a few hours. While I was sad throughout January, I was able to pass my supplementary exams. But this also meant that all my plans (e.g. current writing project, society preparation) are behind schedule. I'm glad that insurance was able to return the money for the cruise, but now I'm entering T1 tired and sad.

The good thing is that I've started to get professional help. I've started meeting a psychologist once a fortnight at Headspace to help me deal with anxiety, or at least not bottle up my emotions (because I suck at emotions rip). I've also decided to reduce my workload per term and extend my degree for a year because 3 courses a term is extremely overwhelming. Assuming that I don't fail anymore courses, I could finish my degree in 5 years. So in T1, I'm taking thermodynamics and Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering.

For elec, I have the same lecturer, which is a good thing because she's really nice and gives us a lot of resources. In fact, she's also my tutor, which means it's easier for me to ask for a consultation with her and also reduces my anxiety when asking for help. Because I've dropped down to 2 courses, this also means that I have more time to do more practice questions, which is what I'm finding so far. I'm actually able to complete the Online Tutorial questions and the Supplementary Material Questions. As for the labs, unfortunately my course doesn't offer lab exemption even though I passed the lab exam so I'll have to re-do them again. The only good thing is that now I know what's going on in labs, I can improve my mark (well, at least before the COVID-19 outbreak).

For thermo, my lecturer is your typical Boomer. He's very defensive, especially when we point out that he made a mistake in his derivations. He also LOVES derivations. While I do see that derivations are important, it's also ridiculous that he spent the first two weeks deriving equations, and barely does example questions, yet also expects us to complete tutorial problems. His instructions are also very confusing, especially since he told us to not look at our uni timetable for our labs and tutes (or he calls them consultations) and just follow his instructions, but his instructions aren't clear. My tutor also doesn't help that much either. When we ask for help, he just writes some formulas on the whiteboard without explaining anything and tells us to sub in the values. We also don't get detailed solutions for these tutorial problems (even if we ask for help) so I guess thermo is screwed.

Outside of classes, my society is trying to get re-organised. It's a bit difficult because we're also trying to adjust with online classes now, but we don't really have any online events planned - some were just brief ideas tossed out in the open but we haven't ironed out the logistics. I feel like not a lot of people like the transition to online classes, but I personally like them. I actually have more time to do things, like exercising in the morning, spend more time doing practice questions and even complete my writing project. I just hope that if we do online exams, they're take home exams that we submit 24 hours later because I saw how Monash is implementing eExams and it looks ridiculously intrusive (apparently UNSW has started using this system in the summer and now I'm freaked out).

Anyway, I should go and catch up with my lectures.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on April 29, 2020, 04:39:43 pm
Hey guys,

So it's been over a month since I've updated my journal so I've decided to revive it again, for the umpteenth time.

To be honest, nothing much has been happening since the last time I've updated the journal. I've just been rolling along with online classes. My ELEC class did a great job in transitioning to online classes. They're even able to make the labs online, which is really cool. My thermo class though, did a poor job in transitioning to online. Firstly, my lecturer would usually go to uni to teach so he could use the lecture recording system (i.e. Echo) but because that website shut down he's just been uploading PDFs of his lecture notes and a powerpoint presentation with a voice recording attached to talk us through the notes (mind you, he doesn't even make lecture slides and writes them on a piece of paper and projects it on a document camera). So over the past month, we've had no lectures whatsoever. Not even Zoom classes. We don't even have tutorial classes. They just tell us to go onto Moodle and the tutors will be on the forums but all of this isn't the same as being taught in an online class. Guess who's getting a scathing review on the feedback surveys?

I've also been using this time to upskill and do some extra online courses. I've completed two courses on Matlab to use them for machine learning and deep learning, and I also did one on infection control training for COVID-19 (they recommend this for health care workers but it doesn't hurt to do it). I also did an online course on report writing for engineers and am currently completing three courses: flight mechanics, structural dynamics and data analysis. Unfortunately, some of these require payment to get a certificate and I'm too poor to pay $100 on a certificate so I might as well do it for free.

I've also been a bit busy doing AIAA work. We've been working on converting events online, but our big online event was our Online Speaker Series. I basically pulled all the contacts I know and asked them if they'd like to come onto our livestream. It was kinda awkward for me to be on camera and speak to a virtual live audience but I'm slowly getting better in terms of speaking. We had a few technical difficulties yesterday but it was interesting to see how OBS works. In fact, it's really cool to see how Youtubers add overlays when streaming and I'm excited that we could replicate that kind of experience with our speaker series.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing a lot of research on different companies and their internship program. While they usually recommend students to do work experience in 3rd of 4th year, my anxiety stems from the fact that I don't even have a credit average, which is a standard requirement for a lot of internship programs, which is why I've just been asking my contacts for advice to make sure that even if I don't meet that requirement, I can fulfil other requirements such as being able to work in a team, interpersonal communication skills etc. And also, these programs usually wants students in their penultimate year but I'm just gonna apply regardless lol.

Anyway, I should go back to studying since my exams are in like 3 days lol.

See you soon!

- Olivia
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: Bri MT on April 29, 2020, 04:50:36 pm

Sucks that your classes seem to have done a really bad job at transitioning online. Online presentation does feel different but I've found it gets better with practice - I guess we'll all have time to build our skills this sem.

Those courses sound really interesting! I only know the absolute basics of how machine learning works but definitely something intriguing to learn about.

I don't have any doubts at all about you being able to work in a team, communicate well etc. and I'm sure you have plenty of evidence of this so hopefully that's able to make up for marks, especially since stem communication is so valued.

Best of luck for your exams!
Title: Re: (Star) Trekking My Way to Space - Olivia's Uni Journal
Post by: owidjaja on June 28, 2020, 02:08:48 pm
Hey guys,

Oh wow look at this, me updating again after a month or so lol.

It's been a busy month. So I made the decision early in the year that I'll try 2 courses a term to see how we go and I managed to pass all my courses in T1! For the first time, I passed all my courses which is probably a bit of a yikes 😅 Anyway, I decided to do 3 courses this term because I wanted to use the online learning to my advantage. I prefer online classes over face to face classes so hopefully I pass all of my courses this term again. This term, I'm taking ENGG1811, ENGG2400 and PSYC1001.

With ENGG1811, it's Python programming course so I can satisfy the programming part of my degree. I did COMP1511 last year and failed that and Python's a lot easier than C so hopefully it goes well this term. As usual, I'm always a bit nervous in programming because it's such a different way of thinking, and also lowkey scarred from programming after doing COMP1511. At the moment, it seems ok but I'm just waiting for everything to crash and burn lol.

As for ENGG2400, I'm nervous about this subject (no surprise here lol). This is the part two for ENGG1300, which I almost failed but somehow managed to pass the impromptu supplementary exam. These exams are ridiculously hard and they barely give us time to finish. Even during my Block Test, which I had two days ago, was such a big yikes because they gave us 1 hour (which is usually 45 minutes in real life) to answer 3 questions. 3 questions don't sound too bad until you see that each question has 5 parts and each part takes up minimum half a page of working out 🙃 My ENGG2400 lecturer is the same as my ENGG1300 lecturer, which is good because he gives a lot of resources and makes life easier to navigate on Teams (even though he's probably sponsored by Microsoft lol).

I'm also taking PSYC1001 this term. This is because I keep thinking about picking up a science degree and major in psychology for the past year. It's funny because these thoughts started when my friend (who does neuroscience and aerospace) gave me her thoughts on double degrees and how it allows her to do a degree where it seems a lot more "practical" in finding a job and another degree where it may be a bit more difficult to find a job but at least she enjoys it. It really got me thinking because as much as I love aerospace, it's clear that I'm also interested in other areas (I mean, look at my HSC marks. I did better in Humanities than math and physics lol). The reason why I was thinking of psychology was because it's quite similar to what I did in Society & Culture, which covers a lot of psychology topics. At this stage, I kinda regret not picking up a double in engineering and science since it was 2nd on my UAC preferences. I didn't put it first because my physics teacher said doing a double degree makes you look like you don't have a clear career path - and this was me asking about doing a double in engineering and physics. Little did I know that I'm meeting people in uni who are doing philosophy and engineering, or neuroscience and engineering. Now I regret listening to him because doing an internal program transfer is going to be a bit difficult for me because I don't meet the WAM cut off :/ Hopefully my PSYC marks can help my WAM a bit this term because I'm really enjoying it at the moment.

Apart from that, the other thing I mentioned in my previous update was about my worries over an internship (or not finding one). Now, I think I found an internship opportunity? It's unclear at this point. My mentor introduced me to the lead astrodynamics person at Electro Optic Systems (EOS) because I'm interested in space situational awareness/space debris and he's keen on the idea of internships but it's been almost 2 weeks since I sent him an email detailing my interests in space debris and my probably lack of skills in programming/software development. I really hope I didn't screw up this opportunity because this basically involves me working on an area I'm passionate it and I'd hate to hear that this internship wouldn't be able to work out because I'm under-qualified.

Anyway, this was a bit of an update on what I've been doing the past few months. Next time, I'll try to not update once a month lol 😅

See you soon!

- Olivia