Celeste

Celeste Ang loves soccer, is an Arsenal fan and thinks it is time NUS gets a new soccer field with artificial turf. If you want to annoy Celeste, use your phone while you talk to her, and say “whatever”, “k” or “anything”. People may not know she’s a klutz - she has dropped her sister’s iPhone into some Bak Kut Teh soup, tripped over a tanning bed while chasing a Frisbee and broke her ceiling light while making her bed. She’s currently in her first year of the Business Analytics programme.

Where did you grow up?

Singapore. I grew up in the Upper Thomson area, back when it was an ulu place with nothing much to do, shop or eat. Right now it’s quite a hip place with lots of nice food like Meng’s Kitchen, Udders, Habitat Coffee, etc. but I have since moved away. I still go there regularly for meals though! Especially after crashing my juniors’ soccer training at RJ. :)

I studied at Nanyang Primary School, followed by RGS and then RI(JC). I’d say my most memorable years were in RGS, because I got so much out of my 4 years there. It was fun because we didn’t have to face the pressure-cooker called O levels (because of the IP programme). Orchard Road was nearby so we could just walk over for meals or to hang out! And I also got the opportunity to represent the school (and Singapore) on a fun-filled trip to the US where we participated in a Community Problem-Solving competition, and participated in a home stay programme!

Describe your SoC experience.

It's been fun and challenging!

It's been awesome getting to know the SoC community during FSC, FOW, RAG (where I was a makeup artist), IFGs and during lessons too. The experiences I've had playing orientation games, bonding with my OGs, battling it out with my IFG teammates, mugging in school, scrambling to finish missions in CS1010S before deadlines, having suppers, steamboat parties .. all these are priceless to me and I'm grateful to have gained some amazing friends along the way.

Studies wise, programming mods have been challenging because I'm new to programming. But I relish a challenge and it's cool and actually quite fun, especially in CS1010S! I’m looking forward to completing CS1020 though, because that means no more programming mods :P

So far, I'm still adapting to life in uni and SoC but I've been enjoying myself! I enjoy spending time with my friends, doing things such as playing foosball, having meals together, being involved in computing activities such as camps, IFGs, ice skating, etc.

A friend recently commented that I seem to enjoy joining a lot of ‘boliao’ stuff and I think she’s probably right!

I like to do things that interest me and make my campus life more interesting, even though that may seem like a waste of time to others. The NUS Soccer team, IFGs, FSC Orientation Committee and Open Day Computing Ambassador – these are just some things I have done/ will be doing because I want to and I’m passionate about them! I feel that whether or not you have time for such stuff is all about balance and effort. If these things are important enough to you, you will put in the effort to make time for it.

[Some of the people here who have made impressions on me are:] Prof Ben Leong, because CS1010S drove me crazy! Haven’t really interacted with him much because I was under the TA Khanh (who also left an impression on me because he was really patient and always willing to help!!) but how often is it that a mod can be so painful and fun at the same time?

As for the seniors, it’s impossible to name them all, but they’ve been really helpful in helping me and the other freshies settle into life in SoC! The OGLs, camp helpers, IFG seniors, BA seniors.. etc. you know who you all are :)

Two seniors I’d like to mention in particular:

Andrew Kzk, who always goes out of his way to help others.

Michelle Tee, who’s really helpful and nice too (do not be fooled by her resting b*tch face! :P) and has helped me out so much and given me so much useful advice

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

When I was younger, my ambition was to be an actress! I watched a lot of TV then. My family bonds by watching Channel 8 dramas while eating fruits after dinner :)

Later on, I wanted to be a forensic scientist because I read a lot of crime novels (e.g. books by James Patterson, Katy Reiches, Stephen King) and watched crimes dramas like Bones, CSI, Sherlock etc.

But I never really pursued those dreams because they’re not realistic (at least in Singapore) and when I discovered my interest in Business, Analytics and Entrepreneurship, I decided that those were more realistic career options!

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date?

Winning RJ Soccer Girls’ first ever Championship title back when I was in J1.

I loved playing in the RJ team because my teammates and coaches were all so passionate and driven. We had two major goals when I first joined, to win the championship and to beat VJC! Reason being, our team had very humble roots. We started just a few years back with hardly any training space and equipment (these resources were largely taken up by the bigger CCAs like rugby and soccer boys), but with the efforts of some amazing alumni and coaches, we got more attention from the school and got more funding and resources. However for years we kept missing out on the title because the favourites VJC kept winning. We wanted the title so badly because we wanted to repay the alumni and coaches for all their efforts.

On 8^th May 2012 (my entire team remembers the date by heart because it meant so much to us, haha!), we beat MJC in the finals at Jalan Besar Stadium to win the title!

We didn’t have to beat VJC (the overwhelming favourites) to get the title because MJC beat them in the semis. This meant that we were the underdogs in the finals. Undaunted, we played a tactical and defensive game, and won by a goal scored during a counterattack in injury time. It was like a dream come true!

[Besides] my teammates and coaches, [we also had] the alumni who came down for trainings to help out sometimes, and came to support us for our matches! RJ Soccer Girls is really a tight-knitted community. Even though I’ve ‘retired’ from the team, and uni life is hectic, I try to make it a point to go back for the occasional training to help out the juniors, keep in contact with the coaches and play football with my batchmates!

According to Ash, you’re a very skilled soccer player and you played soccer and basketball in the IFG 2014/2015. Tell us a bit about your passion for sports.

I wasn’t really an athlete from the start; when I was younger, I was quite fat, and was more ‘artsy’, taking art classes and representing the school in Chinese Calligraphy. But my dad forced me to join Track & Field, because he was disappointed at how his athletic genes didn't really get passed down to his first 2 daughters, haha! I represented the school in hurdles, and that’s when I grew to love sports. I fell in love with soccer after watching it on TV and playing soccer after trainings and during PE lessons, but RGS didn’t have a soccer team, so I picked the next best option – basketball. And when I came to RI(JC), the natural choice for me was, of course, soccer! I love how the game is unpredictable, fun, beautiful and requires both individual skills and teamwork.

I used to run a lot too. I got started when my sister’s friend, who was supposed to run a half marathon with her, pangsehed her. She offered her bib to me for free 2 days before the event, and I thought, why not? That was such a #YOLO moment; it was crazy trying to run a half marathon with NO training at all! But since then, I was hooked! Ran 3 more half marathons, and a participated in a few other running events. However, since my JC running buddy enlisted, I’ve been finding it tough motivating myself to run regularly again :P

IFGs were really fun last sem! It was a hectic first-half of the semester because I was training every day because of IFGs and SuniG (soccer) training, but the experiences I gained and the friends I made, made it worth it :) Wanted to get gold with the soccer girls (both IFG and SuniG), but ended up with silver for both. Well, that’s life. You win some and lose some.

I think the best thing about sports is that you forge amazing friendships with your teammates. You know you can trust and rely on someone when you get through tough training sessions together, and fight alongside one another in competitions. Sports has also built up my character, and made me a better person (I think/hope)!

Celeste and her sister at their older sister's wedding

Quick-Fire! Worst item design?

Don’t know. Sorry I don’t take note of such stuff haha. Oh, do fashion choices count? I don’t like it when people dress in clashing prints, show off way too much skin, or wear ill-fitting clothes. Too loose isn’t that bad but way too tight is just.. ugh. I still remember those days in JC where some guys altered the pants till they were WAY too tight and made their underwear very visible (because the pants were white) – such an eyesore!

Guilty pleasures?

Lying in bed and watching Ellen.

Eating all kinds of desserts and chocolates.

Indulging in good hawker food! It’s strange and funny how many of my friends ask me for food recommendations because they think I know where all the good food is! Among my favourite hawker food are hokkien mee, sambal stingray and fried oysters.

Three ultimate dinner party guests?

Thierry Henry (favourite soccer player), Steve Jobs (genius entrepreneur) and Ryan Gosling (eye candy)!

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Aaron

Aaron Tan is one of quite a decent number of faculty members here who are also our alumni. At our recent anniversary gala, Aaron hosted a mini musical game where he sang a number foreign language songs, like Maori,Hindi and Indonesian, and the audience tried to guess the songs' origins. He is an avid Facebooker - follow his daily musings on his page. 

The man himself at a Christmas Fiesta rehearsal (circa 1993/1994)

Where did you grow up? 

This is an interesting question, as I guess my answer would be rather interesting for the readers. I grew up in Geylang, a notorious red-light district. So, as a little boy, I ran around prostitution dens and got to know the sex workers and, occasionally, I would bump into clients who were local celebrities and even my own teacher! 

Well, I guess anything more juicy might be inappropriate for this publication so I shall stop here. 

What’s your academic background? 

At one point of time, I studied at two kindergartens at the same time because I was bored at home. I enjoyed going to school so much that I kept pestering my parents. May I add that it was very rare for kids to even attend kindergarten in those days. 

Later, I studied in the GEP school. No, that’s not the Gifted Education Programme which was to be introduced only 13 years later. It’s the Geylang English Primary school, which you may not have heard of because it has long been defunct. 

Then, from being the top student in my primary school, I landed in Raffles Institution only to realise that everybody around me was smarter than I. I was intrigued, particularly by my smart school-mates who were writing BASIC programs on the Apple computers. 

I chose Computer Science as one of my subjects in my junior college years, and then came to NUS in 1985 to study Computer Science in the then Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS), which was under the Science Faculty. Four years later, I graduated with a first-class honours degree. 

Do you have any interesting stories to share about your time as a student here? 

Too many stories to share that they might fill a book. The undergraduate years were the most colourful and memorable years in my life. Like the song goes: “those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end…” 

Our batch was small by comparison to today’s class size. There were fewer than 200 of us in our batch, and most fortunately, an equal number of male and female students! This is important because it gave rise to many interesting love stories, as well as triangular and multi-sided relationship, but I shall not digress. 

The department was small too, so we were close to our professors and tutors. It was quite common for a lecturer to take us out for lunch treats, or we would visit our tutors at their offices for a chat. 

But we were also hot-headed young adults then. I remember we were unhappy with the light workload given to us by one of the lecturers and so we wrote a letter to the head of department to complain about it. Talk about being impetuous! Well, today I would advise students to talk to your lecturer first before shooting a letter to the head of department. 

Those were the pre-modular system days where all of us took the same package of modules. We were in the same tutorial group throughout the 3 years – at that time, the general degree took 3 years, with an additional year for honours degree – so the bonding was very strong. Such strong bonding became history when the modular system was introduced, so we lament. At the end of our third year, we organised a campfire at car park 10 for remembrance sake and to thank our professors. I wrote a song called 年轻的歌 (Song of Youth) for my tutorial group, which we sang at the campfire. Lecturers and tutors were also invited and some of them put up their own performance. 

During my fourth year in the university, a certain junior college was looking for a relief teacher to cover one of their Computer Science teachers who was due for reservist training. A university classmate of mine recommended me for the job, so I ended up taking a short teaching stint while I was still an undergraduate. And guess who was in my class? Dr. Colin Tan, in his tender years!

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Realising that I wasn’t as smart as my secondary school classmates, coupled with my immense craving for chicken rice – I ate it almost every day, and it was only 80 cents or $1 at that time – I actually thought that I might end up selling chicken rice. Serious! However, I am now into healthy eating, so no more chicken rice for me. 

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? 

Since young, I have been very interested in writing songs and lyrics – mainly in Cantonese and Mandarin – though I had no formal musical training. I wrote quite a number of them, even took part in some competitions and I was lucky enough to grab a few prizes. 

I wrote a song last year to honour our nation's 50th National Day, and I have been wishing to make a video out of it. Unfortunately, so far I have little luck in getting people to help out with this personal project. So readers out there, if you are keen, whether in singing, acting, playing the musical instruments, script-writing, directing, video-shooting, choreographing, please contact me! 

Recently I posted the lyric “This is C” sung to the tune of “Home” by Kit Chan on Facebook and somebody suggested to make it into a video as well. What a cool idea, but again, I need volunteers! 

As a pastime, I enjoy singing and playing the guitar. I learned classical guitars for many years after I graduated. At the end of every semester, I would invite students to join me for some karaoke sessions. 

I run regularly too. During the recent summer vacation, I invited students to join me run around the campus. A couple of them and some alumni came and it soon became a weekly running event on every Wednesday evening. We have completed our 24th run at the writing of this article (23 November 2014)! 

What are some of the craziest things you have done recently? 

Five and a half months ago, as I approached my 50th birthday, I thought of doing something totally wacky and so I enrolled myself into Wing Chun class and I’ve never neglected it. These days, you will find me practising Wing Chun in the gym. 

Recently I took part in the Swim-for-Hope event and swam 20 laps. Never a serious swimmer, I swam occasionally and have not attempted more than 4 laps at a go for many years. I wouldn’t call this crazy but just another little thing I wanted to try outside my comfort zone. 

The photo above was taken last year. I was pestered by my son Cowen to take him to the ice-skating rink, and that was my first ice-skating experience! A painful experience, but fun nonetheless, and it makes me realise that it is never too late to learn something new. 

Do you have any interesting stories to share about your experience as a teacher here? 

When I was a tutor, the students were quite active in organising activities such as charity events. I joined them in some of the activities, such as going around the housing estates collecting old newspapers. There were charity concerts as well, where our students showed their varied talents. Karaoke was very popular then, so the students organised a number of karaoke singing competitions, which I was invited as a judge for some of them. It is a pity these days our students don’t organise such events. I also miss the student-staff games (sports games, not computer games) which we used to have. 

Do you have any advice for our students? 

Don’t just spend all your time on the computer! Get out of the house and sweat under the sun. Healthy body, healthy mind. That’s why in the past, when I trained the IOI students, besides training in the classroom, I also took them out to jog and swim. 

Recently I came across this powerful article and would like to share it here, along with a message for all our students: 

 “Your job — as students who are receiving an education — is to be aware of your privilege. And use this particular privilege called “education” to do your best to achieve great things, all the while advocating for those in the rows behind you.”

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Fireman Ash

Md. Ashmawi Md. Jailani has an insatiable appetite for chocolate and has admitted to being ‘one of the driving forces’ contributing to the impending global chocolate shortage. The word he finds most annoying is ‘exams’ and gaming is his guilty pleasure. Unsurprisingly, academically, Ash is interested in digital animation and gaming and is aiming to specialise in Interactive Media. He is in the second year of his Computer Science programme.

Describe your SoC experience.

[I enjoy] the SOC community and its people have always been warm and friendly, making SOC like a home for all of us. [The thing I find most challenging is] coding. It’s really difficult to think of the algorithms and implement them, but incredibly satisfying once you get the desired result. [The craziest thing that has happened to me here is] getting sabotaged to participate in a blindfold dance competition onstage during Computing Bash, and my blindfold was a ski mask. It was like a robber was dancing onstage hahaha XD. [If there was one thing I could change about NUS, it would be to] add Foosball as an IFG Sport :D 

Right now, [I have been] playing soccer more, and also studying hard to pull my grades up hahaha. I’ve really liked playing soccer for quite some time and would really like to improve myself in the game. Other than academics and soccer, I’ve joined some of the cells in Computing Club.

What do you count as your most significant achievement to date?

Participating in SOC Rag 2014! I was tasked as an Engineer for the float, and with the help of seniors and friends we came up with a truly impressive float. The dance was enjoyable and fun as well, and we learnt a lot of new dance styles! Also, special mention goes to the recent Funball competition during IFG where SoC managed to win first place XD! 

I applied for vacation stay during summer break, so as to be able to go to rag site (most of the float building took place at the Central Forum) every day and also participate in other events such as camps and Orbital during the summer break (late May – August 2014). It was worth it. A lot of friends were involved – seniors, freshmen and even graduate students! SOC is awesome in that sense; we’re like a big family who look out for one another and always help each other out.

  

I hear that you were a former fire fighter in SCDF. Tell me more about that.

SCDF training was long and arduous, as all trainings for NSFs are, but it was a truly great experience as I learnt a lot of new and useful skills. We had one day attachments at fire stations, and during the attachment I was able to go for 2 cases, but both cases were not too serious or had already been dealt with by the time we reached the incident site. It was still fun however, to have been able to ride in the fire engine and have the initial adrenaline rush of going to an actual emergency situation.

Firefighting is not easy, and really takes up a lot of effort and energy. Fire stations are not as ‘lepak’ as people would think, especially with the 24 hour work, 48 hour off shifts. During the 24 hour work, firefighters would have to be alert and awake throughout the whole period of time, as they must set off and reach the emergency site within a specific period of time. Also they could be activated at any time, regardless of activities they were doing, such as drills. The firefighting suit, while it protects the wearer from the fires and heat to a certain extent, it also traps heat inside itself. Heat exhaustion is a very real and serious problem and the firefighters train hard to endure this heat and also the weight of the equipment they’re carrying and wearing, to ensure that during an emergency they’re well prepared to face long hours of work.

Firefighters, especially the ones I’ve met and known, are dedicated to their work and take pride in it. Salute to all the firefighters and members of Home Team out there, for enduring tough training and situations to keep Singapore and all of us safe J

What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?

I can’t really take spicy food – just not too fond of it. And I’m a shy guy, hahaha.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not studying?

[Playing] video games, be it on laptop or console, as long as it’s a fun game that I can play solo or multiplayer. Multiplayer would be more fun with friends of course, like L4D2 or Battlefield.

Quick-Fire: Worst fear?

Being alone and forgotten.

Worst experience with public transportation?

I missed 3 shuttle buses and realised that walking is far more reliable than waiting for the buses.

Singapore’s best kept secret?

LeSteak at Jalan Kayu, one of the best halal restaurants specialising in steak :P

Tell us who we should we talk to next. Email tien@nus.edu.sg

Marcel's Maxims

Marcel Böhme is a 5th year PhD student who now spends his days in sultry Singapore ‘breaking’ programs, as part of his research. Once upon a time, however, he grew up in a house at the edge of a forest in Schwepnitz, “a sleepy little village of 1500 souls in Germany.” He had an awesome, happy childhood growing up in the countryside, spending his winters walking through snow filled woods, following rabbit and deer prints, and his summers swimming in the nearby lake, chasing cows and falling from birch trees – which reads like lines straight off the pages of an Enid Blyton tale and something that, unfortunately, very few of us city-folk can relate to.

Photo credit: Nimantha Baranasuriya

What do you do now and where will you go from here?
My work is in automated software testing and debugging. Currently, I am looking at the changed behaviour of evolving programs. Let’s take Linux for example. The operating system has been evolving over the last twenty years to a massive 300 million lines of code and each day a ginormous 16 thousand lines of code are changed in the Kernel alone. I am interested whether any of these changes break anything, e.g., how you get a "blue screen". As part of my research, I have developed automated techniques that test and check these changes for errors. One of my tools found a major security problem in the Linux Core Utilities amongst other errors. Of course, there are many more interesting research questions that I'm looking into (e.g., automated debugging and program repair).

Hard to tell what my future plans are. I may follow the academic path for the time being. That gives intellectual freedom and opportunities to make some real impact. In the short term, it would be great to work with Professor Andreas Zeller in Germany. He has made significant contributions in my field of study and in particular to the automated debugging of large (evolving) software systems. In the long term, however, I still feel (geographically) unconstrained. Come what may, when I encounter an awesome opportunity, I'll go for it.


Describe your experience as an SoC student.
There are numerous opportunities to get involved and contribute. Earlier, I spent a year as a Graduate Student Representative and discussed with the school administration important topics related to the PhD program of SoC. Last year, I was invited to discussions with Singapore's Ministry of Education about possible changes to nationwide policies that were directly affecting us as PhD students. At some point, together with friends, we organized weekly PhD seminars (CSTalks) that fostered cross-lab interaction and gave direct feedback on interesting work in progress -- no advisors allowed. Next year, I am fortunate to meet Nobel Prize Laureates and Fields Medal Winners at the Global Young Researchers Summit (GYSS'14). Our PhD students are energetic and motivated. This liberal and competitive spirit drives high-quality research that is published in premier venues.

There is a lot of freedom in the way you can pursue your research. In Europe, I think PhD students often depend on grants from the industry and deliverables that totally need to work by the end of the year. Thus, there may be less opportunity for fundamental research which seeks longer term impact. In Singapore (specifically SoC), the majority of PhD students are funded on the Research Scholarship. So, without the pressure of immediate deliverables, you can do fundamental (farsighted, high payoff) research that won't expire in a few years with new technologies. But also, there are a lot of industrial grants and projects that can offer real data and relevant, applied research problems. For instance, the processor technology, developed by a friend during his PhD at SoC, has recently gained a lot of interest from ARM. Guess, where he is going to work very soon?

I also like the forward-mentality in SoC: If you just work hard enough, you can achieve something great. In a way, NUS (including SoC) is emitting this awesome sense of innovation, purpose, and progress. It is hard not to be inspired. If you have not already, you should go visit UTown and the CREATE laboratories to get a flavour.


What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
In my spare time, I am a jack of all trades, master of none. My philosophy is if other people can deeply appreciate doing something, then I can too. I like learning languages and spent a few semesters learning Italian and Mandarin Chinese. Unfortunately, not enough stuck with me to be able to converse. I like listening to classical music and attend mostly violin and piano concerti. In Dresden, I would pay a ridiculously small amount to visit the Semperoper as a student. In Singapore, the NUS Conservatory of Music organises classical concerti (free admission) and of course there is the Esplanade. I’m also the world’s worst guitar player and like taking courses on the online learning platform Courser.

I like to explore and choose the path least travelled. I've been to many places in South-East Asia and when I travel, I try to get lost to find my way back without a map. I also like to explore different cuisines and Singapore is *the* place to be for every food fanatic. Durian - damn shiok lah! Since my time is scarce, another means of exploration is by reading books. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” -- George R. R. Martin. I cycle to school every day, read crime novels in the evening, and play badminton on weekends.


What is something most people would be surprised to learn about you?
My online poker winnings paid for my first flight to Singapore (though I never invested any real money). In the beginning, a friend gave me $10 to poker for fun. Upon closing the account, I cashed out more than a hundredfold. Chiefly, I learned how to manage risk and reputation in an aggressive and highly dynamic "market". However, I do strongly discourage any form of gambling!
[Ed: Ahem…]


What advice would you give a prospective PhD student? 
These are some maxims I picked up along the way:

Work hard but productively. Do more things in shorter time. Focus on progress. Working long hours alone, won't give you the edge.

Learn from your mentor. Draw from his or her experience. Prepare meetings. Listen first, then speak. Work out deliverables for the next meeting. Digest the feedback. Since everybody has to publish to an international community, the only factor differentiating an excellent from a good university is your research advisor.

Maximize Originality. If knowledge is a tree, don't work on the leaves. Work on thick branches that can continue to grow. You'll be known for that. Somebody else will take care of the leaves.

Make some noise. Invest in your academic reputation. Publish to premium venues. In conferences, don't hide. Introduce yourself and make your peers interested in your work. Visit other research teams.

Read a lot. Only then you can make new connections that nobody else made before. Follow the most important conferences, journals, and research celebrities in your domain.

Peel the Onion. Every onion has a concise problem statement at its core. Before starting research, reduce all that complexity that is not crucial to an intuitive solution of your problem statement. For instance, you work in program analysis -- don't get distracted by concurrency, object-orientation, and unsupported program constructs.

Elevator Pitch. Be able to explain problem, approach, and main results of your work (i.e., every paper and even your dissertation) in one minute! If you cannot explain your stuff quickly, concisely, and coherently, you won't convince your busy reviewers.

Do lots of sports. A healthy mind lives in a healthy body. I get the best ideas, when I away from the lab.


Quick-fire.
Best hawker stall in Singapore? 
JiaXiang, 721 Clementi West Ave 2. Delicious steamboat and Sichuan food.


Worst fear?
Is there a life after PhD?!


Three ultimate dinner party guests?
Nikola Tesla, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Kurt Gödel


Seriously, which faculty members' innermost thoughts and feelings are you most curious about? Email tien@nus.edu.sg