I have just finished week 3 of my lectures and it seems that the topics covered seems to be on track. However my lecture preparation seems a bit slow since I'm preparing the notes from scratch. Despite I'm following the suggested text book quite closely, still have to internalize the contents so that I have an organic way of discussing them (this really takes up time). So the third week saw me sleeping little. More often than not, I tend to be exhausted on the days of lectures (Tuesdays and Thursdays, each having four hours of lectures), collapsing on returning home. I need to improve on this (on top of other personal matters like attending to the family).
The week also saw me meeting the Head of Physics Department of XMUM, Prof. Ong Chong Kim on Wednesday. The meet is perhaps to get to know each other better. He told me of his life story; was born a Johorean and a teacher in Singapore before it was separated from Malaysia and went for his graduate studies after getting a PR. I told him that I have been to NUS a few times and many more times to NTU and also mentioned that I know Kwek, Oh Choo Hiap and have met KK Phua. Also knew Lim Yen Kheng's supervisor, Edward Teo and mentioned briefly that I met Edward with Malcolm Perry (Edward's supervisor) in one conference in IAS, NTU. Malcolm was Black Holes lecturer in DAMTP for Part III.
We also discuss on matters of Physics Dept of XMUM. The Physics Department here is still new and there is a need to promote its programme. From the conversation, Prof. Ong envisaged the (undergraduate) physics program should be research-directed. I do see this direction in the maths programme before this. Indeed, I even had my students (for the courses I'm teaching), requesting research-like modules as part of the continuous assessment. My initial reaction is to think this will be unfair to undergraduate students as research is demanding. But on Thursday, some of the students came to show me what they have done in the past. I saw what I did in UPM before i.e. SCL module reviewing research papers could be taken as the research-like modules. In this light, I may just agree on this. Note in UPM, I implemented this as group work but in XMUM, it would have to be individual work. The other direction Prof. Ong was indicating is that one could take up more modern topics in physics as well as interdisciplinary topics to be part of the curriculum. This may help for the physics programme to be more popular. All these discussions help me to see what physics at XMUM can grow to be.
On Friday, I was invited to Physics Department in UPM for Majlis Jasamu Di Kenang (an appreciative event for our services to be remembered). The event is usually held for retirees and for this event, I was one of them, Dr. Nurhidayaty and En. Rahmat Kamid (who could not come). Speeches were made. One of the MC highlighted that there was a humourous side of me. She reminded me of the 'class' joke (sincerely I have totally forgotten about it), where students wanting to leave (my) class, by saying they've got class and my reply was (something like), I got no class. For my speech, I mentioned a few things that very few (in the department) know about me. My work in UPM began as early as in 1985 as a tutor. My work then was not just doing side work like tutorials. I was already teaching diploma subjects (including lab work - I did not mention this in the event), but I was already being asked to design a course on Biophysics (since I was located in the Biophysics lab of Dr. Salleh Harun). I think that course did not see the light of day. The other thing I have mentioned, I was once a webmaster for the Faculty. If I remembered correctly, the earlier webpages was pretty static and not menu driven. I changed that by introducing menu-driven elements using MS FrontPage (received congratulatory messages and some liked the changes made). Unfortunately, my request for FrontPage to be installed in the root directory of the server was not entertained (and hence the full features of FrontPage can not be implemented). I could have added as well (but I did not) about the format of examination of questions adopted today has some origins in what I have introduced (though my intent is not to make this as a standard). I hope all these highlights is not seen as blowing my own horn but mainly to encourage the adaptability and resourcefulness among the academics. I also mentioned my involvement in three different institutes namely, Institut Multimedia (no longer exists), ITMA (now known as ION2) and INSPEM, but I did not mention details since it will not bode well with the Department's event. Anywa, here are some pics.
In the event, I did one embarrassing thing. Dr. Adib requested me to sing a song. I was reluctant but since I have turned down once the request of Dr. Adib to perform in one function, I agreed to the request this time. I wanted to sing Hoobastank's The Reason since I have sang this song in a conference in Philippines (karaoke seems to be a favourite part of events there) and I also liked the lyrics to the song and perhaps fit for the event. During the Philippines performance, I know I have problems reaching some high notes. I thought this time, I could use my head voice (since I thought I have strengthen this part of my vocals over the years) but it didn't go well and hence the embarrassment. The other thing that I did, was to participate in a TikTok recording (my very first time) as requested by members of the department. Here it is.
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