Monday, April 6, 2009

Finger Licking Good

Today i just went to the Engineering High Achievers Luncheon in the Banquet Rooms at Campus Centre. A very influential scientist by the name of Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar gave a talk about the role of engineering research and i must say, just as he was inspired by his Physics teacher who focused the sun's beams onto a paper and consequently setting it on fire, i was inspired as well (as far as practicable, something i learned today in CHE4161 class). It was refreshing to once again remember the reason i went into Chemical Engineering and sustainability. In the past century the same revolution trends have repeated themselves: textiles, railroad, automobiles, computers/IT have boomed at one point in history and eventually plateaued. According to Dr. Mashelkar, the latter will have reached its peak in 2025. But something new will eventually boom, and that's the one i'm preparing for: the sustainable technology revolution. i also got some good feedback about the PR process, postgrad research in Monash, and much help in my after-graduation direction in life.

But one thing that was brought up in the talk: can we survive the 21st century? Dr. Mashelkar referred to another fellow scientist who gave that talk. To him, this century is a critical one. Are we going to engineer for profit? Or are we going to engineer for people? ($100 laptops in the making in Malaysia, woo hoo!) i always dreamed of making such an impact like that. But then i remembered how Pastor Ian always talked about how near the end times are are how we are the generation who will live to see it. There's supposed to be a 'might be' somewhere, but i not sure if there is any.

Oh yes, and they had wonderful finger food. I ate a lot. (That means i'll have to fast dinner. Doi!) Hence, the title. Hopefully, you smart people out there can sort of guess the trend i'll use when writing my blog post titles. i did it once in my favourite comic. Back to the food. Squid balls. heart heart heart (must avoid temptation to use that as basis for lame and inappropriate joke...ngghhh)

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