Acceptance

It has been ages since I've met my sons working/studying in Selangor. When the restrictions were lifted earlier, we did ask our sons whether they will come back home to visit us. Our third son who is in IIUM, said that he could not as no student is allowed to leave the campus at the time. The eldest and second eldest did come back and had took necessary precautions on coming back. The eldest Khair had took a swab test since he was working in a hot red zone but the result is negative. He arrived home last night, looking pretty exhausted as some of his workmates have left the company and he had took up some of their duties, making it difficult to take leave. As long as he is happy and  don't get too much overworked, it's ok. It is now difficult to find jobs these days. My second eldest, Ihsan came back home earlier on Thursday. He was happy to be able to pray Friday prayers yesterday at our local surau since in Selangor, there were severe restrictions on conducting Friday prayers. (Note: the Friday prayers conducted here follow all the standard preventive measures namely, scanning the MySejahtera QR code, checking temperature, social distancing during the congregation and masks on all the time even during prayers). Just early this morning, he has gone back to work for his weekend shifts. Later in the month, he will return home again since he has tendered his resignation for him to do his postgraduate studies in UPM.

Nothing makes me happier than being able to see the family together again. I guess I am now feeling how our parents felt when they were alive, always hoping to see their sons and daughters. Once my colleague who were at the institute (now in a private university) told me that the university will not really miss us when we go since we can be replaced but our families are the ones who will really miss us when we are not around. At this late stage, I rather wished that I had spent more time with the family. The family will always accept who we are.

In many ways, I have always struggled to be accepted whether at the institute or the department. Like Penrose said, to the mathematicians, we are physicists and to the physicists, we are mathematicians. Perhaps this recognise the fact that we are indeed interdisciplinary (despite what other people think). I do take note sometimes how our contributions are treated or accepted by others. But it doesn't really matter, because sometimes what we do goes beyond the interest of whatever (smaller) organization we are affiliated with.

Whatever it is, I will continue to contribute my expertise wherever I can, appreciated or not. Hopefully it meant something for the nation, and more importantly I can bring these as good deeds to the hereafter.

To Be Continued

Just finished my marking after a few grueling days for each subject. As a result, had another bad episode of back pain. I ended up not using my Samsung Galaxy tablet for the marking but used my Huion tablet attached to my laptop instead. Perhaps I will find other uses for the Samsung tablet later (still paying through installments).

Few pieces of news. First, we were told that despite the CSM-INSPEM collaboration did not get funding in the recent budget, efforts to get the funding will be continued in the following years. I believe the research group is also trying to get funding by other means. I guess we just have to keep trying and realise that nothing comes easy. Quantum technology will be here to stay even if we decide to ignore it and such a decision will only make the technology gap wider for future generation of science here. Some may decide to call it fad but let us see what happens in the future. Often the case, our crystal ball is neither big enough nor of higher resolution by choice.

Next, the CMCO has been continued in operation for most districts in Selangor and for Negeri Sembilan, Seremban and Port Dickson, until 20 December 2020. The travelling restrictions have been relaxed a little. The number of new infections each day is still in four digits. Seremban saw a big spike two days ago due to new cases in the local prison. Hope the recent news of available vaccine will help make the situation better in the near future. Fatigue.

EQuaLS2020 has been over for more than a month. Things have now returned to (new) normal of visible inactivity. The event did not quite receive the publicity that I thought it should have. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise, given the setback in the quantum project. In any case, I decided to post up Kwek's public talk in my YouTube channel, so that more people can have access to it (see below). For future EQuaLS, I will leave this to the younger colleagues; I will probably be retiring from UPM then. Let me however say that it is not as easy as some people think, to bring experts here. It is not the lure of travel or honorarium one is willing to pay, but it is their willingness to share, the kind of intellectual environment of an event that we can put up is more of the thing that they looked into. They won't come simply for the sake of an event with no real follow-ups (given now it is worsened by predator events) of what we will be doing, the tradition that we will build. I had invited many well-known scientists who said no and some did not even bother to answer, particularly if we are 'nobody'. I can only imagine that with the Covid-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions, it is only going to get worse (the difficulty to organise events) in the future. So do create traditions and perhaps we have to be a bit more specialised and we are known to at least some circles. So here is Kwek's public talk:

Another video that I have uploaded there is the recent talk by Microsoft Malaysia National Technology Officer, Dr. Dzaharudin Mansor on "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Central Role of Mathematics". This is probably one of the few local talks that I have attended with considerable interest. Some of the things he highlighted in the talk reconfirms what I have seen over the years: the lack of learning culture perhaps leading to lesser adaptability which would be problematic in the fast-changing times we are facing now. He alluded to two references, which I will look them up: (i) Digital Economy Report 2019; (ii) Platform Revolution. Even when he mentioned about adaptability and the fast changes we see now, I quite liked the fact that he stressed that one should be grounded good in the (abstract, as opposed to practiced) fundamentals. Below is his talk:

I am now counting months to my official retirement (if it is not earlier). I hope some of the things that I do so far, will be continued by my younger colleagues and students. One has to promote our theoretical work because no one else will do this for us. We either rise or sink (be absorbed into other areas). There is a call for me to write something for the public. I'm hesitating partly because I'm not a high flyer or star-studded researcher and some even see me as deadwood (from what I've heard). There is a worry of backfire in a sense. But what do you think? Should I continue or just let me rest?

First Half-Semester Gone

I ended my teaching for the first half-semester today though it was not on a good note. I fumbled in my last class for both subjects much due to I'm falling behind in my note-making (typed and uploaded) now in both subjects. For Statistical Mechanics, it was pretty obvious that my note-making will usually be behind time because I do not have any notes before for the subject. I must say, I spend a lot of time to get a feel for the subject and to do this, needs a lot of reading beyond the suggested textbook. For Mathematical Methods, I do have some amount of my own notes but now I have used it all up and for future topics, I will start the note-making from scratch. In doing these notes, I prefer not just parroting what is already in the book but I tend to give details and sometimes even different perspectives that I had. Yes, that is why giving more weightage for first-time teaching is indeed the right thing to do (for assessment) but I would rather have this heavier weightage be gradually reduced beyond the first-time teaching since usually one's set of notes will not be stabilised until after a few cycles of teaching. So next week being a semester break will indeed give me some breathing space to catch up on the notes. Now, I still have the SCL modules to do because I have promised my students to give them before the break. This usually involves selecting suitable papers for them to review related to the topics of the course. Hope I can finish this before the weekend.

Happening today was also my turn to give a talk in our group meeting. Some weeks before, I was contemplating to review some materials for some unsolved research problems given to my students. Alas, weeks gone by without me preparing too much for the talk (which was on symplectic topology). In fact, I stumbled into Alisa Keating's Part III notes just yesterday. With Statistical Mechanics 9am lecture today to prepare, I did not get to say much and did not even get to the point of introducing J-holomorphic curves. So I did feel bad about the talk. In any case, I did upload the talk on YouTube (unlisted) just for the record.

So Monday next week is the beginning of the semester break and it is also the end of the almost nation-wide CMCO. Will the CMCO continue? Well the number of new Covid-19 infections today is back to four figures (1075 cases) and there are 11 new deaths. In the state of Negeri Sembilan (where I'm staying), there are 52 new cases adding to the few thousands of confirmed cases before (some have been discharged).

The worry is still there that the infections go out of control; the balance between people's livelihood and this worry is wholly nontrivial. Going back to lives within my sphere, chatted with my own students on how they are coping with all the online learning. Some of them yearn to be back in campus and wish to have face-to-face interactions to study better. I feel sorry for them. That is why I recorded all my lectures and made them available for the students to revisit. I made extra efforts to make sure my notes are properly typed for them to download and learn. I hope they manage.

For me, being an introvert, I tend to work better in isolation, away from most people. In this sense, I prefer the current work from home situation simply because it is more flexible and I do not waste time travelling. If I decide to do long hours in late nigh for work, I do not have to worry much since I do not have to drive (about 50 km to campus) the following day. I prefer to shy away from limelight particularly when it tends to lead to controversies. For instance, my recent blogpost was posted on the social media and there were ensuing discussions about the matter. On social media, people often get to be opinionated and left unchecked, strengthened later on by their respective cheerleaders. This is why I rather have a face-to-face discussion on serious matters without any audience. But that is just me I guess. 

I Dream of Quantum (Jeannie)

 Today, the following news article was brought to my attention.

The article calls for our country to consider exploring quantum computing. The writer is Yap Yung Szen, a researcher from UTM who has some experience in conducting experiments in Japan and Singapore. I don't think I have met the person before but it is certainly encouraging to know a local Malaysian to be working in quantum information experiments. So far, I think the experiments he was involved in are all abroad and I'm not sure what experimental set-ups does he have locally in UTM (if any). Nevertheless, I hope his call in the article will get to be noticed by decision-makers.

For us here, we have made attempts to delve into quantum technologies in the past. The most recent is the initiative we had in collaboration with CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM). The technology we hoped to explore was that in quantum communications, for which I think the technology gap is quite close given that there are many local researchers in photonics. All that is needed is to go to the next level of manipulating single photons. In fact, at one point, Malaysia already had a quantum key distribution (QKD) in open space experiment conducted by MIMOS around 2009. However this project was discontinued as their management opted for more commercially viable technologies in other areas. The main experimentalist involved in the mentioned experiment has now gone back to Indonesia, leaving some sort of vacuum for Malaysia to venture into experimental QKD. With CyberSecurity Malaysia showing keen interest in developing QKD together with post-quantum cryptography in the next Malaysia plan, we saw this as a golden opportunity for us to grab to bring quantum technologies to Malaysia. Some considerable efforts were made in this initiative including the contact with a Singapore quantum start-up. However, the news that we were given recently is that no funding is made available for this initiative under the recent Malaysian budget. So currently, we are back to just doing theoretical work. With only less than two years left before I retire, I will probably continue whatever mathematical physics research that we already have in the group.

Do we discontinue to dream to have quantum technologies here? That very well depends on my younger colleagues and the experimentalists who had shown interest in the initiative with CSM. I certainly hope that the interest will still be maintained so that we are ready to grab the opportunity when it is made available. Our best bet is still to work closely with a major player (e.g. Singapore) as planned in the CSM initiative. Thus, we need to maintain the international network we have communicated with. Surely we do not want Malaysia to be left behind in quantum technologies. Beyond what was planned, I can only suggest that one should get familiar with technologies surrounding Josephson junctions, quantum Hall effect and the likes. Perhaps, closer to materials science is perhaps areas like topological materials are worth considering.

Below, I give the links to developments made in Thailand and Indonesia. Please read them and thereafter, question oneself if we still want to ignore quantum technologies.

The development in Thailand can be read here: https://medium.com/qtft/the-future-of-thailand-and-the-second-quantum-revolution-7f8be39e6ad8 

The development in Indonesia can be read here: https://medium.com/qtft/the-future-of-thailand-and-the-second-quantum-revolution-7f8be39e6ad8

The development in Malaysia: we can still dream. All the best.

All in the Past

Today is my late mum's 92nd birthday. I thought that it is a nice occasion for me to start back my blog and for me to remember mum whose birthday is November 28. This is my favourite picture of my mum together with my other half.

Had stopped blogging earlier mainly because I want to avoid controversies and possibility of being hurt by many different parties. By doing so, I lost the opportunity of recording important events of my life. My attitude has always been looking forward and would prefer not to dwell too much in the past because I can't change it. I often regard that these are fate and tests for me to overcome and rise to a better self. Only use the past to take lessons from.

On social media, I have used it less and less. The social media has this ugliness of making life like a horrible reality TV show; all rants, mockeries and open criticisms that one would not do in normal circumstances. I still remember that I began using Facebook frequently after becoming friends with Bob Coecke in late 2008. When I met him in Tianjin, China for Group-29 in 2012, he made the remark "You complain a lot" and this made me realise how foolish I was in many of my posts then. Indeed even today, I saw many posts from others are of complaining nature, amplifying negative feelings than positive ones. Over the years, I have grown 'wiser' and limit my posts to useful things and in particular I try to avoid as much as I can, commenting on others. Today, I tend to use it to share links to news and events that I find interesting. Occasionally, I put up reflective posts mainly to jot points that I myself could use later.

Let me now turn to what has happened since I last post here. First, regarding the third wave Covid-19 infections. On November 7, the CMCO originally imposed on Sabah, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya are now widened to almost all states except Kelantan, Perlis and Pahang and the period extended to 6 December (the Selangor CMCO was supposed to end on 9 November). During the CMCO period, we were instructed to work from home, which to me is a good thing since we need to conduct classes online and that my internet access at home is much better than the one in campus. We are also asked to submit weekly report of the tasks that we have done (luckily not detailed one). With the current CMCO period is nearing its end, there is the question whether it will be continued thereafter. The current number of new Covid-19 infections have reached four-digit figures many times now and it does not seem to dwindle down so far. The possibility of CMCO being extended is quite high. Rather uncomfortably, there is a new Covid-19 cluster appearing very close to home i.e. Combi factory in Oakland. Just this morning, before we had our breakfast at 22 Food Junction, we saw many foreign workers queuing up at the nearby BP lab, most probably for the swab test.

Breakfast at 22 Food Junction, Seremban 2

On my classes, I had to teach Mathematical Methods in Physics (which I had taught in some recent semesters) and Statistical Mechanics. The latter I had left it for some time and had no proper notes for the subject. I considered several different textbooks for the course but I settled down with a new book: Carlo Di Castro and Roberto Raimondi's "Statistical Mechanics and Applications in Condensed Matter" published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press. The hope was then to give the students a fresh approach to statistical mechanics. Later, I found it might have been quite difficult for the students but there is no turning back now. I have recorded all my lectures which I uploaded in YouTube (unlisted) but it is also available here (warning: the lectures are raw).

Another significant event that has passed is EQuaLS2020. This was earlier planned in mid-March but it got cancelled due to the Covid-19 and the implementation of the first MCO. After some stagnated attempts to redo the event, we decided this to be held on 2-6 November 2020. We almost had all the original intended line-up of speakers apart from SpeQtral's representative James Grieve is replaced by Aitor Villar. We also had a new speaker, Andrew Childs. The whole event is conducted online on Zoom platform. The students had helped a lot in running the event and made it livelier than the earlier EQuaLS partly because the present one is less research-oriented but perhaps is also due to it is the first one done online and the wish to make it successful. The event was opened by CyberSecurity Malaysia CEO, Dato Ts Dr Haji Amiruddin Abdul Wahab and there was a launch of MyQuantum Waves initiative (a project planned for 12th Malaysia Plan - however on November 23, we were told that we did not get the needed funding). Here are the EQuaLS2020 opening videos: 

Finally one last significant event was the email I received from the President of European Mathematical Society (EMS). Roughly two years ago, when I was still the Deputy Director of INSPEM, we reapplied for INSPEM to have the status of EMS- Emerging Regional Centre of Excellence (EMS-ERCE). Due to the two-year lapse, one was not really expecting any encouraging news about it. But then it came (see picture below). So congratulations to INSPEM and I hope the reacquiring of this status will help strengthen the institute. All the best.

Third Wave: First Day CMCO-WFH

Today is essentially the first day of the two-week CMCO (14-27 October 2020) during the third wave surge of Covid-19 infections. It was declared two days earlier for the states of Selangor and Sabah. I had then sent my son to IIUM Gombak campus on Sunday. While we have experienced CMCO before, I still worry about my son in campus particularly the accessibility of food - whether their canteen operators are (fully) operating as they will probably not be allowed to move outside the campus. I hope the university will take good care of them. To know what one is allowed to do during CMCO, one can look here.

Despite the Ministry's message of all education institutions are to be closed down, there was still a bit of uncertainty of what we are supposed to do specifically yesterday; whether we should come to office or apply for conditional work from home or work from home (WFH). I got the news about the work from home instruction after I got home from work and this is only for noncritical sectors of the university. As a theorist, it was not really much of a concern for me where do I do work (in comparison to experimentalists) and also I have brought most of my reading materials home in anticipation of retirement. While there was a sense of uncertainty surrounding the office yesterday, we still had our Faculty Briefing day for the new students this semester. There were some technical glitches during the departmental briefing but it was completed by around 4pm, after which we all (individually) had our online meetings with the new students under our academic advisorship. So the following are my new students under my advisory.

It is good to know that they were actually doing this meet from their homes.

Today, the first day of WFH seems to be a busy day. Suddenly my phone keeps dinging or buzzing as a flood of messages poured in WhatsApp. It was kind of amusing. Then I was told there was a curriculum review meeting for (Pure) Physics degree in the morning. There were some suggested changes which I hope could prepare (future) students better in their theoretical foundations. Below is a pic.

Another meeting is the EQuaLS 2020 meeting. Earlier I have expressed my desire to my junior colleagues that I wish to distance myself from EQuaLS 2020 admin and let them take over instead. I guess I need to explain a little bit more that may also explain some of my 'strange actions' recently. Ever since we decided to do this EQuaLS, several incidents happened that made me question on whom should I trust. Sincerely, I did not want to bring this up at this juncture but one of the incidents seems ill-intent (at least to me) with someone digging up my past involving me as a guarantor to somebody. This is part of the reason that I wish to distance myself away from EQuaLS, in the hope that the responsible party will just leave me (and the event) alone. As far as I'm concerned, I am just trying to do my job (earlier) without stepping on anyone's toes. I'm taking a backseat for now on how this is going to be played. I certainly do not want anymore complications as I am about to retire. Because of this too, I think I have to postpone my plan of early retirement. I pray to Allah that no harm (in any form) comes my way.

Anyway I did attend today's meeting to see how things are moving so far. Here's a pic.

I do hope that EQuaLS 2020 will be a success and the opening/launching will go somoothly as planned. Now I need to come up with some closing remarks for the event - will make it short, God willing.

Reblogging: The Weeks That Were

Since I decided to blog in acufrekuensi yesterday, might as well start blogging in this personal blog since there were many significant events that have happened in the past month or so.

I guess the first thing I want to say in this post is that Roger Penrose won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his singularity theorem. Made a short blog comment in the post here (in Malay). It sort of surprised me since work in mathematical physics are rarely considered for such award but I guess with all the recent black hole discoveries, it kind of made sense. It also delighted me since Penrose is my academic grandfather, the supervisor to my supervisor Richard Ward. I did not know Penrose personally though but I have been to a few of his lectures (face-to-face) in seminars and meetings, particularly the LMS symposia in Durham. When I posted on FB this genealogy fact, I did not mean to brag but it is certainly a delight that one is part of the tradition. I'm very much aware, intelligence does not necessarily pass down a generation after. Very much like publishing in a highly cited journal does not necessarily mean one's work will get highly cited. Nevertheless, being able to publish in such journal or being a student of a luminary is still an achievement (they are not easy). Anyway, I do not intend to make such a fuss about it and my blog post is only to tell others what I understood (on the surface) about Penrose's work. Stay humble.

Few weeks back, I have also passed the chairmanship of EQuaLS to my younger colleague, Chan Kar Tim. Just like what I've told Chan, I have been chairing EQuaLS since its beginning in 2007 until the last one in 2016 when Prof. Twareque left us then. This is not the first time I tried to let go of EQuaLS. Once in 2009, I wanted to pass it to a different university in the hope of making EQuaLS as a national event, but that didn't quite happen. Also when Prof. Twareque passed away during EQuaLS8, I thought that I would not do another EQuaLS since Prof. Twareque was quite instrumental in helping getting well-known speakers to our shores. The present EQuaLS 2020 was perhaps done with the intent of getting quantum technologies locally with the help of SpeQtral. However management is not my strength and I'm pretty much aware of criticisms on this.  Thus, allow me to take a back seat and let me return to my true nature of being quiet and introverted. After many years of administration, I have enough experience to know that human problems are not easy and they are never ending. Moreover, age has caught up with me and I'm normally physically exhausted by the end of each working day and lately, I have been making plans for even early retirement. My focus now is more on graduating my students, so that the early retirement plan can be carried out.

Just last week, my brother-in-law Saharuddin passed away on the night of 2nd October. Earlier he was admitted to Seremban hospital for heart failure and was warded for roughly three nights (including one night at the emergency ward). Prior to that he had already suffered a mild stroke and was trying to recover from that. He had informed my other half and family earlier, that he wished to return to the hometown Segamat. Never did it occur to the family, that he was leaving us for good. On that early Saturday morning, we accompanied his body all the way to Segamat and he had his burial ceremony there. While I'm not that close to him, my kids are probably closer to him since he tend to joke around with the younger children.

Another major thing that is happening now is the third wave of Covid-19. The current figures of new infections are now few hundreds almost daily and once it reached nearly 700. It is indeed worrying. The current outbreak occurred after the Sabah state election (26 September 2020). At the time, the number of infections in Sabah was already rising. In my personal opinion, the 14-day quarantine should have been imposed for those returning from Sabah then, but that did not happen. When the number rose beyond the maximum of the first and second waves, I thought another nation-wide MCO  (even if a short one) would have been put in place, to contain the further widespread. That too, did not happen but instead strict MCO is in place around so-called red zones (which includes my two sons' workplaces - I pray for their safety). Without MCO, infected people (especially asymptomatic ones) will still be mobile and this will make contact tracing very, very difficult. Already I have heard horrible stories about contact tracing surrounding those who went for political campaigns in Sabah (they tend to be very socially active and include some Ministers). 

Soon our universities will be reopened for the new semester and the Ministry has reverted to its earlier decision of having only online classes (earlier before the third wave, face-to-face classes were being planned). Despite this, had just sent my son to IIUM just now for him to be in campus. Was a bit heavy-hearted though. I hope the authorities will take good care of the students there.

The following is a video interview of Dave Snowden predicting very uncertain future of possibly recurring closing and reopening of sectors due to this pandemic.

63rd Independence Day

Today, we celebrate Independence Day, the 63rd this time. It is an extraordinary one, celebrated within RMCO period due to Covid-19. My wish is that our lives can return to normal sometime in the future and our efforts for the nation's development are back in full force.

This day might mean a thousand and one different things to many other people. For me, I will narrow it within my own scope of duty. When I came back home from B.Sc. (Hons.) studies in Australia, I applied for a job in UPM. During the interview, one of the questions posed to me was what I can contribute to the university. My answer was something like establishing a theoretical physics tradition that would be respectable internationally. When I did my PhD, I realised that this is much harder than I thought. The least that I could do, is to plant seeds for such tradition to grow. The first step is to attain understanding of sophisticated reputable work and build a community around such work. Over the years, I have taken enough students (more than I could really cope, I guess) to do just this. Now, that Dr. Chan Kar Tim and Dr. Nurisya have joined us (and hopefully soon, Umair), they could continue what has been started. The next stage would be to make the group noticeable internationally. We have made contacts with several international researchers in the past and I hope that such network can be maintained. Finally to be 'independent', is when our ideas are being sought by others internationally. However in reality, growth in science can only be interdependent in nature but the hope is some day that we will be treated as EQuaLS.

27th Anniversary

Today is our 27th anniversary of our marriage. Both my other half and me, took leave today just to be together, away from work. No real celebration and we only had simple meals today. We also bought things for our eldest before he goes to work for a new job in Meru. 

Perhaps not many people know that I got to know my wife through a friend Prof. Mansor Ismail. I knew Mansor when we were both stationed at Bintulu. His wife (my other half called her Kak Shaharom) introduced to me, my other half. They were both medical students at Universiti Malaya. We then got engaged for about a year (she was stationed at Kuala Terengganu at the time) before we got married on 26 August 1993. We have been together ever since and raised our four sons together in Seremban mostly.

I'm posting our pics of our wedding in Tabung Haji here to store our sweet memories online, easily accessible even after I'm gone. I had posted some on FB for only selected few pics, but I will be extravagant here. Some of the people in the pics are no longer with us - my mum, my mum-in-law, my second eldest brother Zainal Abidin, Bang Din Tapah and Kak Emah. Al-Fatihah to all of them. 

Initially my family wanted to get Sabri Yunus for MC and will probably crack up jokes during the function but we finally got this lady from DBP (an associate of my sister in law)

May we be together until Jannah.