Next Half Semester Begins June 2020

Few days ago (on May 27), the Ministry of Higher Education announced that all university classes should be conducted online until 31 December 2020 (see picture below). In some sense, this is to be expected; we have already made online classes just before the MCO in early March and also throughout MCO. The only problem is those classes involving laboratories and laboratory research activities. For these, the same announcement mentioned that it will be allowed in stages as follows:

• Postgraduate students are allowed to return to campus immediately enabling them to continue with their research without delay.
• Final year B.Sc. students whose projects involve laboratory research, will be allowed to return to campus on July 1, 2020. This is also extended to those final year students (irrespective whether they are involved with laboratory research or not) who are having difficulties with accessing the internet at home.
• For completeness, another category are students in polytechnical & community colleges; they are allowed to return to campus on August 1, 2020.

For my own students of theoretical physics, they are not quite included in the categories above since they do not have experiments to run. When asked, most of them have agreed to work from home. To ensure regular interactions, we have our regular QuEST meeting and I have already started supervisory committee meetings with students, hopefully once in a fortnight for each student. Here are pics from my presentation in the last QuEST meeting.

Here's one from supervisory committee meting for my PhD student Faudzi:

From the announcement made by the Ministry of Security and Defence, those commuters from say  Seremban, will be able to cross the state borders to get to their workplace in Selangor, beginning tomorrow. However, I will still continue to work from home tomorrow unless instructed otherwise. Note that the MCO period is until 9 June. Have been told that those who want to be in the campus tomorrow, need to register earlier, which I have not. Was informed that at the main gate, we need to do scan the QR code to register/check on our presence and even for the buildings, entrance is through the main doors. I will try to go to the campus on the week of 10 June just to return library books and get my books home from the office. Was told that the staff presence will be in groups by rotation. Not yet sure how this work yet, whether we will need to be there the full working hour. Virtual classes will resume next week. Even if we are in campus, no physical classes is allowed. We have been told that we need to punch in even if working from home by 15 June but we can start doing so by tomorrow.

Whatever it is, I hope this transition to the new norm will be smooth and not be troublesome. For me, I do prefer to work at home given that my home is a distant away (in Seremban) and thus I do not need to spend time travelling (around 40-45 minutes one way with regular traffic). I also like the flexibility of shifting my tasks around (which I can't do in normal circumstances) but yet maintaining the discipline to do usual work. The only thing that I see as disadvantages are the increase in electricity bill at home in this period and of course the absence of physical interactions. Also, I still worry what to do with EQuaLS 2020 that we postpone/cancel previously. Any ideas, how to proceed with this?

Eid-ul Fithri 1441

'Eid-ul Fithri was celebrated by Muslims on May 24, 2020. This year's 'Eid was celebrated differently due to Covid-19 crisis. In Malaysia, 'Eid fell within the extended MCO period. There have been relaxed conditions for essential business and activities to move. Some form of relaxation is also given to the celebration of 'Eid. People are allowed to visit relatives and friends within the same state but interstate travel are still not allowed apart from essential activities. Even the allowed visits are to be done within a day (as it should - unlike the usual 'Eid month of celebration) and other constraints are put in place. At any one time, there should not be any more than twenty people in the home being visited and social distancing restrictions apply (no salam or hugs).

Our 'Eid began with the breaking of fast together with rendang, nasi himpit and kuah kacang. That night, of course, our mobile phones were busy with virtual 'Eid greetings. We made ours earlier, anticipating the massive online traffic.

The picture in this virtual 'Eid greeting was from last year's 'Eid. This year, we will be celebrating without our second son Ihsan as he is working in Pulau Indah, Selangor (a different state). In fact, he was to be on duty on the day of 'Eid itslef plus several days after as his workmates are mostly from Selangor and they will be spending 'Eid with their families.

Our day of 'Eid began with the family congregational 'Eid prayers in the morning, all dressed up for a photo session thereafter.

One of my brother-in-law is staying in Seremban and we decided to visit soon after. Here are some pics:

After the visit, our 'Eid is pretty much uneventful. My other half and her family members expressed their sadness over their mobile as they are very close to each other. For the family on my side, we already had our 'Eid greetings earlier. A highlight was this video (hope they don't mind me sharing this) send to the family group. It is Geng Wak Long performing with a famous local singer Jamal Abdillah. From the video, I saw my immediate elder brother (the guitarist) has grown a beard. Must say, I do miss them.

End of Ramadhan 1441

We are near the end of Ramadhan 1441. We are also in the fourth installment of the MCO which had the period extended for four weeks (instead of the usual two weeks) which will end on June 9. This goes well beyond Eid for about two weeks. Earlier I guessed that they will extend just a week after 'Eid, simply to avoid the huge exodus to kampung or hometown. Perhaps making it to two weeks after 'Eid will make the exodus less likely. Apparently not. The pic below is late night yesterday.

Source: unknown - from social media

Anyway, I'm less worried about the Covid-19 pandemic now but am more concerned on what kind of life we will be living in (at least) the few years to come. I remember just before the MCO started and people started to be very concerned on the outbreak, I listened to Brandon Ogbunu's talk at Perimeter Institute (PI), trying to understand more about the virus and the disease. I even wrote to him asking him about the extra resources beyond his talk and he did reply but did not get the resources mentioned as he assumed that I had access to them through the PI inner circle (which of course I'm not). I read his Wired article about Carpetbaggers and reflected upon my own self. My intent, of course, was simply to know more about Covid-19 and hopefully will explain to others (locally) in case they need the information. In reality, people still do not know much about the disease and that article however made me reflect more beyond the Covid-19 issue and what we are claiming of ourselves. Sometimes we need to be clear about this, particularly in this holy month of Ramadhan when we are supposed to reflect more on our lives.

When I decided to become a (theoretical) physicist after high school, I consider myself as an average student and I don't have any big dreams. I was not the top five students in the school (but was probably around top ten, I guess) and I never thought too much about the status though there is a sense of competition to be good. When I was in Adelaide, the feeling is very much the same but with huge classes, one felt just being a nobody. As one gets closer to the final year, when the classes got smaller, I found myself doing better despite that my mentality have always been shaped-stereotyped as one of poor performers. I tend to rebel against this stereotyping. When I further my studies in Cambridge and later in Durham, I see a lot more intelligent people around and the feeling of being average sank in again, but of course I never gave up and did what I could, completed my studies (and it is not with ease).

Joining the academia, I really had the wish of establishing a theoretical physics group but considered various options of research areas and see what works. Found myself working alone mostly since not many here are interested in what I do. To salvage the situation, I started to take up more postgraduate students (perhaps too many). This slowly builds a community of theorists in UPM. Started to call in international experts to help us out and to help us explore new directions. My view then is that we must elevate our thinking up to the level of these experts. To some, we might not be ready enough to do this but we have managed to get international experts know us and some of them visited us a few times. What I felt is that we need more conditioning of our thinking cum research at a respectable level for international experts to notice us. This course of action sometimes get questioned by others; what are so-called return of investment. In my mind, was simply just getting the culture into place (not forced collaboration); the rest, all the work, we have to do them ourselves. Currently with the Covid-19, our internationalization efforts will get more difficult with travels are being made limited. Furthermore, we find more international staff are leaving us to  go to other places.

Over the years, things have indeed gotten more difficult as KPIs are set without taking into consideration the technical fields we are doing, mostly shied away by others. Have been classed as non-performers and sometimes suffered insults and smeared campaigns, some of which probably affect our livelihood. I get to the point of hating the word 'smart-working', when in reality, what it means is just gaming the system. After awhile, I do sense I'm not really wanted in that position despite efforts of fitting in. The last few years have been humbling indeed. Deep within me, I understand the thing is not about our egos but putting progress into the community which may take several different paths according to one's own understanding. That's why I finally left with the thought of not wanting to carry the baggage of unpleasant memories with me. In a way, I purposely cut myself off so that I can simply focus on moving ahead (so please forgive me if this looks bad to you). I have only about two years ahead of me before I retire and thus would prefer a meaningful ending. I will continue to move forward with our sizable theory group that I'm with, irrespective of what others think, but these humbling lessons will be in my thoughts forever (not grudges) to remind me to be cautious in life. My prayers in these final moments of Ramadhan is that we can create something meaningful, not to please people, but to make sure that what we do help us progress in theoretical and quantum sciences and hopefully will be counted (at least) as good deeds for our afterlife. 

For the critics, please be kind; your actions actually do affect others. Here's an article: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/a-lifetime-of-adversity-dampens-the-brains-dopamine-production-327178

Mid-Ramadhan 1441

We have reached mid-Ramadhan and now entering its second-half. We are still under MCO but conditions are now relaxed to allow the economic sector to slowly pick-up. There is a little worry that we might see another wave of Covid-19 infections but so far the number of infection is still well within the two-digit range (there was a slight jump to three-digit but it was around 100-ish). Let us hope that it will be on the decreasing trend and that Malaysians be on their alert and not let the disease spread.

On the personal front, fatigue seems to set in earlier this Ramadhan perhaps due to being at home with lesser activities. We are still working but perhaps at a more relaxed phase. So far, we have already had twice departmental meetings (see pics).

The first pic was on 16 April where we had our Dean attending as well and the second pic was on last Monday, 4 May. Over the MCO period, we had to submit several reports too. I'm making this known so that people get to know we are not just lazing around, sitting idle, while we are 'working from home'.

We had also started our QuEST meetings. Initially just to test the group video chat on FB Messenger (on April 26 - see pic below). I also made a presentation last Tuesday, 5 May on my reading of noncommutative geometry (it was supposed to be on Monday but then we had the departmental meeting). It seems that the FB messenger group chat that we had, have some limitations. So we finally decided to move Google Meet while it is free. Google Meet is part of G-Suite which is not free. Whether I should consider this suite depends on what I want to do when I reached retirement - have to be careful on the extra expenses that I'm committing myself with. I would love to be part of some independent scientific community (particularly with my present colleagues and students) even after I retire.

For my own classes, due to the smaller number, I have mostly limit myself to whatsapp and going online when necessary (especially when there are questions). My notes are mostly on the web - for PHY4503 it's in PutraBlast while for PHY5601 it's on my KetchupSpills blog. I have also put up some of my video lectures on my YouTube channel (only for undergraduate lectures). I only emphasize the main points of my notes in the video; nothing can beat the interactive face-to-face lectures (which I leave this to my live online chats). For my graduate lectures, I've started using Google Meet (last Wednesday for the live session). One downside is that when I share screen with the students, I would not be able to see my students - makes me feel like I'm talking to my own computer screen - that seems common to all platforms that I've seen. Here is a capture of that session.

The other thing that I've done during the MCO period is to update my Acu Frekuensi blog, writing about quantum technology, making ourselves ready for a forthcoming (ambitious) project. There are other things that I wish I could have done but I will leave this for a future post.