Micro Bug

This set of pictures is about a micro bug. Its length is around six millimeter. It has two arms which can do rotary motion. When the arms rotate down, they will lift the bug up and drag it to move a small distance (around 1mm). By repeating the arms movement the bug can slowly move forward or backward.

The biggest difference between of a usual size robot and micro robot is they are made by different material. Usually robot is made by steel or aluminum. While for micro robot they are usually made by silicon. The main reason is in micro world it is difficult to some assembly process such like pick and place. It require extremely accurate machine. By using those developed IC manufacturing technologies for silicon process, robots parts can be easily made on silicon wafer. Scientists have invented some clever ways like micro stopper, micro lock, and micro welding for parts assembly on silicon wafer. So silicon is the dominant material in today's micro machining.

The other main difference is the motion of actuator. In usual size robot, the actuator is electromagnetic motor. While in micro robot, the actuator is usually electrostatic motor. Electromagnetic motor provide rotary motion while electrostatic motor provide linear motion. Since it is difficult to fabricate electromagnetic motor in micro and nano scale, electrostatic motor is more widely used.

UC Berkeley Webcast

I find it is really helpful for me to watch Berkeley web cast. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/index.php Now I have learned a lot on MEMS. Maybe NUS should also make some lectures' web cast open to public.

I think the main problem of providing open web cast is more students will depend on web cast instead of lecture and some of them will think they can do last minute study. I think this is not a problem if NUS grades students based on module requirement, which means if more people can't reach the requirement of certain modules there are, NUS should fail them. The problem of NUS is the school doesn't like to hurt people by failing them. Last semester, one of my professor complain to me that the school didn't let him fail students. I think NUS really need to change its thinking in the future.

How to Choose Final Year Project in NUS

I notice the Final Year Project Selection Policy is quite strange. Some of my friends have the same feeling of me, which is when we choose our FYP, we can't know who is the supervisor of a particular project. The names are not shown in the online system. Never mind, I can share some of my experience of how to dig out the professor's name.

For our FYP, the purpose is not to follow someone's guideline. Instead, it is to follow our own interest. For myself, the purpose of digging out the professor's name is to check out if that professor can let me access lab instruments frequently, because in engineering instrument is a important part. So knowing the names is important. Here are the steps.

Firstly, know each professor's research interest. This is fairly easy. Just view their personal webpage. Usually their interests are listed there.

Secondly, know their current developing project. This is also easy. Just go to the department research page. All the current projects are there with the developer names.

Thirdly, talk with at least more than ten professors. This step takes some time. The trick is talk with the professor who is in charge of a research division first. Usually he or she can provide some overall information.

Lastly, compare all the information with the online project name and description. In this step, we can know some project's superior’s name, maybe four or five. Here is the trick, usually a professor uploads all his or her projects' name on a same day, and professors' writing styles are different. By comparing date and writing style we can locate at least more than ten projects' supervisor’s name.

I know that NUS doesn't like students to know some detail because of so call being "fair" to everyone. Unfortunately, as ancient Chinese said “there is no wall that is able to fully block wind”.