National Science Challenge

15.6.09

MONDAY-We(teams from Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan) reached Penang International Airport and fetched by USM. We were brought to Desasiswa Cahaya Gemilang, but b4 that we dropped by at food stall to buy some food as they didn't prepare dinner for us that day. After registrated ourselves, taking pillow and our room's key, we ''check in'' our hostel.

In USM, the place is so big that a map is needed.^^ Luckily we were guided by the people there. From the cafeteria, the place we 1st reached, we carried our stuffss...to our room, going up stairs at 2nd floor, it was very far for me especially when I need to carry along ludgage and bags which are 1/4 of my weight...haha! Watever, our(Lincoln and mine) room looked clean enough and the things we did was juz put all our stuff at the room and RELAX!

My room with all the ''equipement'' like cupboard, chair, study table and they were so nice to prepare curtains for every room. :-)
Actually the programme started on Tuesday, so we were free that nite. The teachers suggested us to go around by taxi. And so, we went to Queensbay Mall with them, of course, 1 taxi for each team.... Once we reached there, we ate as much as we could, bcos the USM promised us that they would pay for the bills as long as there is a resit.^^ Then, wat else? SHOPPING! That's wat we did all the nite, we juz walked around 1st foor, South Zone, Central Zone, Noth Zone; then 2nd floor North Zone, Central Zone, South Zone: then 3rd floor.... Until the nite was late, we hadn't finish walking as the mall is really huge! When we were back, they told us that the upper floor got many fun things, but Lincoln and I were too "busy" at the 1st few floors that we missed our chance to see the things there at the upper floor...T.T

I found a Japanese restaurant there! ^_^

Walking out the mall at about 10.30pm, we were attracted by thousands of tiny lights in front of our eyes-Penang Bridge at nite time. It was really really beautiful and in BM, they called it ''mempersonakan''... Unfortunately, the view was being blocked by many things; in other words, we didn't take photo of the view....

16.6.09
TUESDAY-We supposed to register 2day, together with the other teams from Peninsular. But we didn't, instead we went out USM, and we went around the island, seeing the view on day besides went for another round of shopping plan before the progamme started. This time, we went to the Perangin Mall, in the Komtar.

We went off with the same driver on the 1st nite. Tis time, he seemed to be more friendly with us as he talked to us so many things about his experince of being a driver and things happened in the city.

View of Penang Bridge from the road.

The Komtar.

Perangin Mall, where we went to on the 2nd day's morning. Teams from Sabah and Labuan went to watch Night at The Museum 2 but we didn't as the programme started on 3.00pm, we went back earlier than them.

WOWW~ finally there's something really good about ths place. I had 'found' my NBA magazines!!

Suprisingly, I went to a Body Glove shop and saw some pretty wallets there. Actually my friend's brother was asking me to buy a Body Glove wallet for him... But i bought 1 for myself too! Emm... none of the four shown above.

At about 1.45pm, we left the Perangin Mall and went back to prepare ourself. After that was a programme briefing where i want to introduce our chief mentor, Mr. Badanathan, who was the boss throughout the programme until it ended. He gave a briefing to us about what we were going to do for the next 7 days, started the programme with some thinking-skill-needed activities such as: you were in a group of 7, and you were asked to form a pattern among yourselves by throwing a ball to one another from the 1st to the laz and then back the 1st. A timekeeper was selected among the player. The rule is simple, the ball can't be dropped to the floor, the pattern must be fixed, and try to do it FAST. Guess wat? We did the best only around 7 seconds, but the kindergarten's kids made a record of 1 sec only. Omg! Where would we put our face le????

For every1 who took part in this National Science Challenge, they were given name tags and a progamme book. There were 3 modules in which 5 teams would be doing the same modules each. Other teams drew their module, but we were the laz team with the laz option, Module 3 that was the leftover. Haha. Pity >_<>

17.6.09

WEDNESDAY-It was a sunny day, the sun rose up early in morning, and so were we. We went to the Biology Research Centre 1st, then each module's team moved to their centres respectively.

This is my module's centre. I took the view from the computer lab where we stucked in for the next few days.

We were then start off with the literature review. At first, many teams were still blur with wat they were going to do with the literature review, and we were 1 of them, too. Actually it was collecting information from the web which hs the connection with our research's topic- The study of Porous Silicon Characteristics Etched at Various Time Duration. Then, we were asked to prepare a proposal based on the informatin we had collected. BLUR, that's wat i could described on my team. It's the 1st time experience we were doing these thing, and we had no idea wat was the next thing to do, wat should be done.....??? Lots and lots of question either was starting or already, appeared on my head. Felt like BURST.

18.8.09

THURSDAY- Proposal which should submited on yesterday nite, postponed to today. Mr. Bad looked really 'bad' bcos he was very angry with all of the participants wic couldn't finished off their proposals based on schedule. Finally, our 1st task finished by submitting our proposal in the morning.
Next, we continued our researches by spending time at the laboratory. I think it's the only fun time for us to play with the instruments besides temporily threw away our stressful mind upon the proposal which need to be submitted in such a short time.

The ''Finger Tech'' which can be found in front of the laboratory's door.
Other team doing their experiment and it was also the ask and answer session for us with the mentors. Kinda feel like becoming a small scientist doing research already. ^^

First of all, we did the simplest experiment. Before that, each team was given 2 pieces of silicon wafer(what is the purpose? U'll know it later). It's the measurement of thickness of silicon wafer by using digital micrometer. Quite a relaxing task. Hehehe.

Next, we measured the resistivity of silicon wafer by using the instrument called four point probe. Actually we wanted to spend more time playing with the 4-point probe but the other teams were waiting for their turns so we juz hurried up.
Now it's time for the electrochemical etching method. Through this method, the silicon wafer will change into porous silicon. 1st sample went through 15 min whereas the 2nd sample went through 30 min process.(For further information, pls find out in the web;-\)

The PL result for the porous silicon. PL stands for Photoluminescence, which the result for the porous silcon can be shown through PL. Once we got the result, we started to prepare our report.

19.6.09
FRIDAY-2day we got all the results (XRD, SEM, PL, Raman) for our samples. We continued our report writing from the morning until nite.Of course, there are breaks for us during breakfast, tea break, lunch, coffee break, dinner and lastly, supper. And i din like the food as they were all SPICY!!

Our research centre. We juz had our dinner and were going to continue our report writing. But there was some problems. The door was locked and the mentors were not there with us. So we waited, unfortunately Mr. Bad wanted to check our report but the we couldn't get into the lab. Time passed and passed. Precius time wasted and wasted, and we were running out of time. Finally a guy showed up from inside and unlocked the door. And the mentors came already...... We went up to 3rd floor and switched on the comp and continued the task.

Our team's porous silicon samples. We use p-type silicon wafer with orietation of <111>. Left-sample 2(electrochemical etching process-30 min); Right-sample 1(electrochemical etching process-15 min). Sample 2 was broken up during the PL result. T.T

The cafeteria. It's quite late le, after the supper, most of the teams went back to their hostel. But some were busy with their report writing that they stayed up until midnite.

End of 5th day.

20.6.09
SATURDAY-It had been sunny days for days we were there. After having breakfast at cafeteria, we went to our research centre. The door, was locked again. We wasted our time again waiting for a 'hero' with the door key to show up.

However, I managed to take some photo inside the USM. This was the view from the roadside in front of Pusat Pengajian Fizik.

This is XRD, which stands for X-Ray Diffraction. This was the last time we stepped into the laboratory. So sad...Time's going fast. Inside view of our hostel. Actually it rined on that evening, wic i wanted to say: FINALLY!!! bcos the weather really hot during the nite. But i was quite worried too. I hang my clothes outside and it rained heavily, and we couldn't go back to the hostel until nite! Luckily the clothes were 'safe' from the rain.

21.6.09

SUNDAY-Time was really going fast. It would be the laz day we did our research in comp lab, in P.R.C. In the morning, an hour was taken by Mr. Bad to give a guidline on how to prepare the slideshow and presentation for tomorrow. We went to the Biology Research Centre on foot, and back on feet. It' not fair la, why we were the only modules that had to walk since the other two went there by bus...............

We completed our report writing, saved into pendrive, printed, and went back to cafeteria at about 4.00pm. After memories with the the other teams at the comp lab, finally we would be leaving it.

The computer i used for those days..... I'll miss u!!! Take a pic yeah ~>.<~

Before leaving, of course, photo with our mentors and the other participants in Module 3. We made friends with some of them ^^(from Kelantan, Penang, Selangor)

RUSH~that's wat we were facing after we left the PRC. We were exhausted, tired and stress! All of us! Teams were preparing their slideshow for the presentation tomorrow and so were we. Some were done, and started to write their their speech. ~~~we were still on the beginning part. Wat a shock when we heard that every1 had to go to dewan persidangan to do our presentation to Mr Bad and the bus would be leaving at 5.30pm! But, huh~1st round for the teams with the number 1-4, and we were no.9. That means we would be waiting at cafeteria until the 8 teams finished.

GOSH~ our presentation that nite was a mess, terrible and damn!! I don't have any other words to describe it.. sucks.... We did it badly, damn bad in front of Mr. Bad and the other mentors. Hell, what a terrible 1st experience for us.

22.6.09

MONDAY- After a hard work last nite, i woke up at 7am with 4 hours rest. After taking bath, necktied, school shoes, blazer, and the locked book, we took all those things and left for dewan persidangan in the morning. Walk, wat a long pathway for every1 except the mentors. However, it could be considered as exercise which refreshd me from my sleepng face.

A snap shot of the front view of dewan persidangan from me as we walked fast.

Well, here it goes. I'll start our every single experience once we entered.

(1)First, we were brought to the bilik istirehat, where the other contestants were gathering. Rules, contestants that did their presentation already were not allowed to get into this room and we were not allowed to talk or even see them as long as we were still 'quarantined'. It was still hours before our turn, so we tidy up our slideshow by making changes and correction on pages, fonts and the information. Bad luck for us as Vit San was practising based on the slideshow, the laptop screen turned dark suddenly. Now we only noticed that the battery light were shining for all the time as we were busy in our own world. We seeked help from Labuan teams, bcos they were sitting near the plug and we were asking their permission to 'lend' us the plug. Who says no other nice people in the world especially when we were in trouble? Haha.Their kindness would not be forgotten, forever!!

(2)But, things were still not complete as we were still doing changes over and over again. The speech was too long that we afraid might take more than 15 min when doing the presentation. Vit San couldn't practised for her speech as the slideshow was still under modification. However, the only thing left for us was the time, and the only thing we needed to do is appreciated and used it wisely. And we did. We completed the slideshow some time juz bfore our turn.

(3)Wat was happening?! When we were called into the dewan persidangan, we ran, to the stage. Standing in front of the judges, mentors and the other contestants who had done their presentation, wow~ it was like a brand new experience for us. Here the problems. We saved our slideshow into the pendrive, and gave it to Mr. Amirul who was in-charged to transfer it into the laptop used for the presentation. The pendrive contents' couldn't be opened and it was annoying the judges!!! Man!!! We were called out from the dewan persidangan and being scolded for not giving them the pendrive earlier. DOWN, and we lost confidence.

(4)One thing i wanted to emphasize here is, the people there at USM were really nice and kind people. When we were down, i meant for that technical problem, they cheered us up! They said it was not our fault as other teams were facing the same problems. Huh~ how glad we were and we would have extra time to get ourselves prepared for presentation. Thanks to the technical problem. Haha.

Now it's our turn. We performed, and presented our slideshow. Wat an unforgottable experience for me ^^. And the judges, they were really expert, that's why they are professors or doctors. I was really impressed with their quickness in thinking and asking questions in short time, about 15 min which based on our report with 30+pages!! They could interprete the data fast, and made some calculations and related those to our questions. I won't forgot one of the judges who asked us this question: Do you enjoying yourselves in doing this research? Haha. Seemed like simple, but when he asked the next question, we couldn't answer.

Finally, all the teams finished presenting. And we got our phones back which were kept into a container with the label ''peti cadangan''. ''-_-... It was the time for Mr Bad to conclude about our performances and asking our experiences. And the judges walked out to make their desicion tochoose 4 finalists to the final. End of competiton, and i started to take pictures, lots and lots pic!!!

~Lincoln~ we were given papers, which we needed to write in our feelings about this competition. My feeling was= fun and unforgottable although it was a tough journey and new experience.

We and the Penang team. They get into the final. Congratulations!^^

Teams from Labuan, Sabah, Sarawak with teachers, and the team at the back, sorry! I forget!

Hahaha. We looked funny in this photo. But focus on the boy at the left. He is Chit On from Sabah. Funny izit??

The team from Selangor. They were all in different races (Chinese, Indian, Malay)! Admire them, they work and communicate as a team although different races.

Photo with our mentors. I liked them very much. They helped us a lot throughout the research.

The closing ceremony was done simple, but meaningful. A farbulous speech by the chief judge, followed by the organiser of this competition. Then we watched the slide show prepared. Now i'm sure that this was a great opportunity and a wonderful memories for me. The result was being announced, which the finalists were Melaka, Perlis, KL and Penang.

That night, we were free again, after being 'jailed' in USM for a week. Cikgu Lau Bee took us out for shopping as it would be the laz nite here, for us. Some ofthe teams went back earlier, that was straight after the closing ceremony. So sad, din had a chance to take more photos with them. T.T

23.6.09

TUESDAY- The last day at Penang. Woke up at about 7am, like usual, couldn't wake up late cos started to get used to it. We packed and took all our stuffs again, from 2nd floor to the cafeteria. My stuffs ''grew fatter'' and heavier! For the past 7 days, finally i sweated!! Haha. Seemed like going back to my normal life. Teams from Sabah and Labuan, together with us boarded the same flight to KL.

One of the 'kak' , that's wat we called them. They spent time with us while we were waiting for our van.

Last photo i took with the team from Sabah. ^^Memories^^

That's the end of my journey. I really hoped that we would have the chance to meet each other again! Farewell all my new friends........