Technical Report [Methodology] [27 November 2017]

As people rely heavily on technology for learning, our team decided to conduct research on which generation has the biggest influence in making a significant impact in conserving energy, as well as how the government raise awareness of conserving energy through the creation of Supertrees, using primary and secondary research.

Primary Research

Our team decided to conduct an online survey on how much do students know about energy conservation. The survey was carried out on 1 November 2017 and a total of 45 students participated in it. More than 50% of the students were aware of energy conservation and know that SIT@Dover has implemented energy saving measures on the campus. Although majority of the students felt that there is a need to conserve energy in the campus, they did not know about the 5 aspects of energy conservation. We provided 5 possible ways for students to decide which measures will they be able to learn more about energy conservation, and setting up a gallery was the most favorable idea. In addition, we sought advice from Professor Zhou Yi from SIT@Dover regarding our proposed solution, the Eco-Tree. He advised the use of a capacitor to store the converted electrical energy harnessed from the solar panels to power up the Eco-Gallery during night time. An interview was conducted with Professor Jawn Lim on the implementation of the Eco-Tree in the new SIT campus at Punggol. Professor Jawn Lim had shared several limiting factors of installing the Eco-Trees in the new campus as it is constructed over a protect nature reserved which are guarded by NPark authorities. The possible areas for installation maybe limited and required further studies on soil stability to ensure the soil can uphold the eco-tree.

Secondary Research

Statistics on students’ dependency on technology for daily learning was obtained from Indiana University (see Appendix A), as found by how majority of the respondents found technology improved their learning capabilities. and this shows that students are growing more dependent on technology in recent years and is expected to grow in future. Information about the importance of energy conservation and Supertrees in the Garden by the Bay were taken for our references.

Technical Report Edited [Benefits of Proposed Solution] [27 November 2017]

The proposed solution posts three main benefits to society, the future of sustainable development and the behavior of students. The explanation of the three benefits are reflected below:

5.5.1   Eco-tree to educate students on energy conservation

The eco-tree is essential to provide energy conservation messages to educate students on importance, and provide techniques how to identify possible energy wastage. Upon identifying the energy wastage, students can apply the techniques or influence other students to conserve energy. In the long run, students will cultivate the good habit of conserving energy and assist in the new SIT campus in reducing energy waste.

5.5.2   Eco-Tree reaching beyond SIT

Constructing the Eco-Tree would allow it to go beyond SIT as an example of how conservation of energy is a human factor and should be undertaken by everyone. This could result in eco trees being implemented in other campuses or even public places to further spread the importance of energy conservation. 

Technical Report Edited [Introduction] [27 November 2017]

Singapore is a metropolis city-state without any natural resources, and it depends heavily on external trade agreements to bring in natural resources to power the city. Natural resources have been one of the sources of conflicts between countries due to scarcity. According to Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo (2017), Singapore must be proactive in finding energy resources to survive. To overcome potential conflicts and such scarcity, Singapore has been constantly investing in sustainable methods to reduce the usage of natural resources while maintaining the ability to power the city.

Gardens by the Bay (GBB) is one of Singapore’s heavily invested projects for promoting environmental sustainability and energy-conservation. According to Moorhouse (2015), the 12 Supertrees in GBB are self-sustainable as the structures are powered by solar panels where they store the solar energy during the day so as to reuse it during the night.

As technology grows more important, Singapore has integrated technology into daily learning to expedite the students’ full learning capabilities. Due to students’ reliance on technology to improve their learning capability, this has resulted in an increase in the demand for energy (See Appendix A). However, students are unaware of just how much energy they use on a daily basis due to a lack of education on energy conservation, which would contribute to Singapore’s overall energy usage.

Students have a high influence on the future, as they will either pass on the good habits of conserving-energy or the bad habits of prioritizing comfort and convenience at the expense of energy conservation to future generations and bring such habits to the workplace. According to Agarwal and Sing (2017), research was performed by National Environment Agency (NEA) and National University of Singapore (NUS) on whether school students were able to create an impact on the reduction of energy consumption. The project was carried out with 30 primary and secondary students. After a span of three months, there was a 1.6% reduction in electricity consumption in the students’ households. Empowering students on energy-conservation will be Singapore’s key in setting a future trend in energy conservation.

Technical Report Edited [Executive Summary] [27 November 2017]

This report responds to a call for proposals by identifying the importance of University Students being aware of energy conservation. It then describes a means of raising the awareness of SIT students on energy conservation. Ideally, students should possess basic knowledge on energy conservation and practice energy saving techniques which will in term benefit both the campus and public in reducing energy usage. However, students lack the knowledge and awareness on energy conservation as they prioritize convenience and comfort at the expense of energy conservation.

This report aims to propose to the SIT Estate Division to implement an Eco Tree (self-sustained by solar panels) with an Eco Gallery (containing information on energy conservation) constructed below the Eco Tree to raise the awareness of students on energy conservation. Benefits of implementing the proposed solution are discussed, along with potential issues and other considerations faced in the implementation. An alternative solution is also presented for consideration, along with its respective limitations. 

The report also explains how several methods of research were employed to obtain information on the existing situation. Primary research includes conducting an online survey regarding awareness on energy conservation with students, receiving a consultation from an electrical and electronics engineering professor in SIT@Dover and an interview with Professor Jawn Lim from the SIT campus development requirement team division. Secondary research includes obtaining statistics from websites.

Technical Report Draft 1

Introduction
Singapore is a metropolis city-state without any natural resources and heavily dependent on external trade alliances agreements to bring in natural resources to power up the city. Natural resources have always been the source of conflict between countries due to its scarcity. To overcome this situation, Singapore has been constantly investing on sustainable methods to reduce the usage for natural resource while maintaining the needs to power up the city.

As Singapore continues to prosper, our education system moves towards applied learning that encourages student to utilize technology to expedite on their full learning capability. In result, students have grown to be more dependent on technologies as it has brought comfort and convenience towards daily learning.


Technology has also influences our students to be ignorance to Singapore’s reliance of energy from other countries and the lack of education on energy-conservation that will lead to over consumption of energy, creating a potential threat to our future. While on the other hand, students have the highest influence on both the older and the future generations and by empowering them on energy-conservation will be Singapore’s key in setting future trend in energy conservation. 


Problem Statement

Students in SIT should possess basic knowledge on energy conservation techniques to benefit our campus by reducing the energy cost. However, many students lack the knowledge and awareness in terms of energy conservation, and sometimes ignorance to take the simplest action due to personal convenience. Thus, there is a need to raise awareness on energy conversation to students by educating them to reduce the usage of energy and understand climate change.


Purpose Statement
The objective of this report is to propose to SIT community to install a gallery that raises awareness about energy conservation and climate change. The gallery will be self-sustained by solar panels through utilizing the light energy emitted by the sun and converting it into electrical energy to power up the gallery. The gallery will contains information regarding to energy conservation to educate students on the importance of saving energy.

Reader Response Draft 3

In The Straits Time article, "Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR railway system", Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) commended on Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and approved that its standards should be classified as the basic criterion for other countries. Lee mentioned certain facts about MTR in the article. Hong Kong's railway pricing was the highest among railway countries and the track covered a distance of 221km. Lee stated the MTR encountered significantly small number of minor delays and 37 per cent of MTRC's (Mass Transit Railway Corporation) earnings were devoted to rail track maintenance. Lee remarked that MTRC was well known for their highly efficient manpower and crowd controlling measurements such as driving a vehicle equipped with ultrasonic techniques that performed routine checks on rail track every couple of days for faults that were undetectable by human eyes. While there are many aspects that SMRT should learn from Hong Kong's MTR, it should not be designated as the 'best in class'.

Hong Kong MTR has very poor management on the passengers because it lacks enforcement on passengers' travelling ethics. According to Blundy (2016), a passenger was seen hanging a hammock on a train to take a nap. Fortunately, MTR staff were called upon to stop the man from posting further disturbance to the surrounding passengers. Although the train system is well known for their efficiency, such example has shown the poor management of it. Although Singapore's SMRT is not as efficient as MTR, SMRT has better management on their travelers. There was no similar case of passengers taking nap on hammock in the train. The management of MTR needs to implement stricter rules for the passengers to prevent unnecessary collision and crowding in the station. Passengers alighting on specific stations have the priority to exit the train first before boarding of other passengers. During peak hours, passengers tend to force their way in before allowing passengers to alight because the entering passengers wish to take up empty seats, resulting in overcrowding within the door premises and unnecessary collisions among each other. The train management crews should control the situation so that they can provide an open path for the passengers to alight without anybody in the way and allowing the boarding passengers to enter in a orderly manner. This was suggested in the article "13 bad habits people do at the MTR"(n.d.).

Hong Kong's MTR has poor handling on problem situations because it lacks advanced technologies to deal with these situations. A recent article "MTR slammed for poor handling of train service failure" claimed that 100,000 city workers were stranded in the East Kowloon region due to a power glitch in the train service. The workers took more than an hour to look for the reason behind the glitch without any technologies. MTR needed to ratify more technologies so that it could resolve problems in a shorter time and more efficient way. Khaw (2015) also commented that trains of MTR reach stations every two minutes. The consequence of the train delay could be huge if the similar accident happens again. For an efficient rail system like MTR, it is understandable that it intends to increase the passenger's fares to earn more revenues. In return, the passengers expect MTR to improve on its system as well as meeting the basic needs of the users. Thus, dissatisfaction grows when MTR takes a long time to resolve problems as passengers feel that the rail system could have provide more preventive measures or solutions to uphold their reputation as a fast and efficient system.

Although MTR has been reputed as one of the best rail way systems in the world, it should not be designated as the best instead. Being the best is not just about being efficient in normal situations but also being decisive in critical situations. It should improve on its current standard in management of passengers and problem situations to convince the world that it can be the best.



References

Blundy, R (2016, Apr 16). 10 strangest things to happen on Hong Kong's MTR. (2016). South China Morning Post. Retrieved, September 22, 2017 from http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1936345/10-strangest-things-happen-hong-kongs-mtr

Lee, M.K (2015, Oct 29). Dubbed 'the best in class', 6 things to know about Hong Kong's MTR. (2015). The Straits Times. Retrieved September 15, 2017 from http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/dubbed-the-best-in-class-6-things-about-hong-kongs-mtr-rail-system

MTR slammed for poor handling of train service failure. (2017). Ejinsight. Retrieved, September 23, 2017 from http://www.ejinsight.com/20170412-mtr-slammed-for-poor-handling-of-train-service-failure

13 bad habits people do at the MTR. (N.D.). Retrieved, September 23, 2017 from https://expats.hk/273-14-bad-habits-people-do-at-the-mtr.html

Reader Response Draft 2

In The Straits Time article, "Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR railway system", Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) commended on Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and approved that its standards should be classified as the basic criterion for other countries. Lee mentioned certain facts about MTR in the article. Hong Kong's railway pricing was the highest among railway countries and the track covered a distance of 221km. Lee stated the MTR encountered significantly small number of minor delays and 37 per cent of MTRC's () earnings were devoted to rail track maintenance. Lee remarked that MTRC was well known for their highly efficient manpower and crowd controlling measurements such as driving a vehicle equipped with ultrasonic techniques that performed routine checks on rail track every couple of days for faults that were undetectable by human eyes. While there are many aspects that SMRT should learn from Hong Kong's MTR, it should not be designated as the 'best in class'.

Hong Kong MTR has very poor management on the passengers because it lacks enforcement on passengers' travelling ethics. According to Blundy (2016), a passenger was seen hanging a hammock on a train to take a nap. Fortunately, MTR staff were called upon to stop the man from posting further disturbance to the surrounding passengers. Although the train system is well known for their efficiency, such example has shown the poor management of it. Although Singapore's SMRT is not as efficient as MTR, SMRT has better management on their travelers. There was no similar case of passengers taking nap on hammock in the train. The management of MTR needs to implement stricter rules for the passengers to prevent unnecessary collision and crowding in the station. Passengers alighting on specific stations have the priority to exit the train first before boarding of other passengers. During peak hours, passengers tend to force their way in before allowing passengers to alight because the entering passengers wish to take up empty seats, resulting in overcrowding within the door premises and unnecessary collisions among each other. The train management crews should control the situation so that they can provide an open path for the passengers to alight without anybody in the way and allowing the boarding passengers to enter in a orderly manner. This was suggested in the article "13 bad habits people do at the MTR"(n.d.).

Hong Kong's MTR has poor management on problem situations because it lacks advanced technologies to deal with these situations. A recent article "MTR slammed for poor handling of train service failure" claimed that 100,000 city workers were stranded in the East Kowloon region due to a power glitch in the train service. The workers took more than an hour to look for the reason behind the glitch without any technologies. MTR needed to ratify more technologies so that it could resolve problems in a shorter time and more efficient way. Khaw (2015) also commented that trains of MTR reach stations every two minutes. The consequence of the train delay could be huge if the similar accident happens again. For an efficient rail system like MTR, it is understandable that it intends to increase the passenger's fares to earn more revenues. In return, the passengers expect MTR to improve on its system as well as meeting the basic needs of the users. Thus, the dissatisfaction of the passengers grows when MTR takes a long time to resolve problems as they feel that the rail system should have made more preventive measures or solutions to uphold their reputation as a fast and efficient system.

Although MTR has been reputed as one of the best rail way systems in the world, it should not be designated as the best instead. Being the best is not just about being efficient in normal situations but also being decisive in critical situations. It should improve on its current standard in management of passengers and problem situations to convince the world that it can be the best.




References

Blundy, R(2016, Apr 16). 10 strangest things to happen on Hong Kong's MTR. (2016). South China Morning Post. Retrieved, September 22, 2017 from http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1936345/10-strangest-things-happen-hong-kongs-mtr

Lee, M.K (2015, Oct 29). Dubbed 'the best in class', 6 things to know about Hong Kong's MTR. (2015). The Straits Times. Retrieved September 15, 2017 from http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/dubbed-the-best-in-class-6-things-about-hong-kongs-mtr-rail-system

MTR slammed for poor handling of train service failure. (2017). Ejinsight. Retrieved, September 23, 2017 from http://www.ejinsight.com/20170412-mtr-slammed-for-poor-handling-of-train-service-failure

13 bad habits people do at the MTR. (N.D.). Retrieved, September 23, 2017 from https://expats.hk/273-14-bad-habits-people-do-at-the-mtr.html


Edited 05 Oct 2017
Edited 09 Oct 2017
Edited 12 Oct 2017