I like to wish others that everything goes well to them, but I know that is not possible. It cannot go smoothly for any big project.

 

I remembered I was so fed up in the 2 months when I did the coding intensively. A white space, which cannot be detected on a web page, but appears in the database, can just stop the execution of the programme, and delay the progress for 2 days. So, just let myself take a break from it, and I could not remember how the inspiration came about, and I just suddently saw 'light'.

 

Of course, there are many tips for self studying, such as reading technical books, searching on the Internet and participating online forum. I found a forum by the publisher of a programming book. I just tried to explore it initially, and posted a silly question. Surprizingly, there were a couple of professional replies. Subsequently, I joined in another programming forum. Then I kept posting the same questions on both forum, so I optimize the chances of getting the best solution. This is much fater than loooking for the function to do the job for the system in the book, because the expert participating in the forum have all those in their head. In fact, I have recomanded these 2 forums to a few ppl who are doing progamming for their projects also. Surely these will help.

So there is only one supervisor for my FYP. I would say that although I complained that my sup is quite demanding, as more and more requirements are added. The initial objective and scope have expanded in the end, especially in the last 2 months. Of course, how to fullfil her reauirements have to be explored by myself. But, when I get my project done, I would like to thank her for pushing me to wirk hard. Of course, I thank her for standing on my side during the Q&A sesstion of the oral presentation. (I can understand how Simon feel when he heard what his sup said after his presentation. ) Haha, just to mention that my sup has been live and work in the States for years (or she is ABC), so she sometimes correct my English pronunciation. That is good, so I don't need to check the dictionary. Imagining that if my sup doesn't speak Englsih as his/her1st language, I may get the wrong pronunciation for those specific terms.

 

Also, because my sup checked my increment results, I have no chances to hide those minor errors, such in the database. This is good. My friend got her results wrong almost at the end of the developement, as her supervisor only checked the results till the very end. The other friend's supervisor told him that the outcome was not as expected initially, and gave a big shock to this friend; but the supervior never really give any direction in the development. So a hardworking supervisor is really appreciated.

When I was in year 1, I was not so sure about going to EEE, as there are quite some computer relating courses. Now I am still a bit surprised that I did my final year project in software development of machine learning techniques. I think I did quite well from what I observed from my supervisor and moderator's comment. Maybe a A-, or better. Yup, grade is important!

 

This project lasted 1 year officially, since the 1st time meeting my supervisor till the submission of a bounded copy of the report. It is marked as one of my most valuable experiences in my university life, although there are not really many interesting experiences. opps :> But doing this project made me feel like a undergraduate, as it is really goes into the academic research, something that is not shallow. Indeed, there are international conferences and workshops focus on this topic of information retrieval in large. Well, I don't see myself going to be an academic researcher, but I could proudly tell others I have been in the field. Of course, I know there are quite some short comings in my project, and there are a lot of improvement to be done. Perhaps just leave it to my juniors. Mine is over!

 

Doing a big project along is really a big challenge. Two brains would always be better than one brain. Well, there are more freedom and more flexible, and no conflicts. Cannot imagine that if I have a project partner and I was doing nothing much for my FYP during the 1st term when I was doing my IA.

 

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