The African Dreamers and iPod Green® - an introduction and conclusion

We had our final presentation for the environmental product development and manufacturing course this afternoon and now it is all done and over ^^ if you remember, this course is all about the project. there were only two lectures, and assessment will only base on the product that we've developed.

Our group has three members from the Product Development Master Programme, one from Ecology, one from Automotive Engineering, and I’m the Materials Engineer. It’s great to have the product development ppl to be the backbone and the others aiding them in our respective specializations. They are great in structuring the flow of a full product development, starting from studying Apple’s policies, identifying the problems and then formulating the solutions and even thought of how to market our product! How the hell does an engineer suppose to know so much about marketing?! Really learned tones from them!

We called ourselves the African Dreamers, coz every member in our group wants to go to Africa someday XD … there are quiet a few travel freaks in de group… I think we’ve covered every continent bar Antarctica and Africa.

It so happened that, in today’s final session, our product, the “iPod Green®” got the highest votes from our peers, ie. the fellow students ^^

And then our group was awarded the best presentation and opposition too ^^

Last but not least, we got “the price” for best project from the lecturers! ^^ which is a hand written 100kr voucher to be used in Kafe Bulten, the mechanical engineering building coffee house where I’ve consumed more coffee than any other place on earth~~~ how cool is that?

That was all great and pleasing, but the course coordinating lecturer actually had a final surprise for us. For the last task of the course, we were given half an hour, and suppose to find a quiet room and start complimenting our groupmates for what they’ve done throughout the course. My god! I swear that was the hardest part of the whole thing and was really a face reddening session…

As per Favco standard, the “d” word (“delay” it is) was also usual through out this project. Being an Engineering Coordinator before, i’ve learned it de annoying way how annoying it can be and then finally got use to it. Anyway, it was really nice to know how much others appreciate it when you put so much effort into getting things done on time and deliver with quality. Ppl just don’t usually say it out loud and we wouldnt have known if it’s not for this session…

Also they talked about being impressed by my CES skills, and I was smiling and thanking… but actually I really wanted to tell them that it has to be the case coz I scored 97 for that damn subject… LOL… thanks to feedbacks like these, I know I’m doing fine as a materials engineer in general :) at least the pass few months were not wasted and i din throw malaysians' face XD

On the other hand, it was also unfamiliar territory for me to praise others face to face… I don’t even thank or apologize when I feel I really should… it’s like saying, yang, thanks for being such a great companion and always be there whenever I needed someone, walaueeeeeh! (I write about yang coz I know he doesn’t read this blog =_=’’’) anyway, everyone was happy after getting so many compliments from different ppl, and the atmosphere was really good, haha… 高帽子真好用~ but maybe we should really give more compliments when we mean them, coz it is a constructive thing and ppl will be more motivated to do things right the next time :)

Well, it had been hard work through out de project, where numerous uncertainties pop up in every discussion, and there was only the group to consult. And therefore, groupmates are lecturers in this course ^^ Loads of decisions/ assumptions/ estimations to be made. It was a whole new experience for me and I really don’t think things would have gone as smoothly if I hadn’t work as an EC before... it’s awesome that the effort pays off in the end :) And our group will have the closure in Kafe Bulten tomorrow, quarter to 1 ^^

At the meantime, I should start trying to get my feet back on the ground and start studying composites already ^^ just checked, re-sit on 29th august, i'll be back in gothenburg on 28th, so it's possible to re-sit this exam, haha~

an aside: GO MU!!!!! why does my internet connection goes off on UCL final day... i'm in uni right now... reading de gamecast from soccernet...