Friday, March 31, 2023

Critical Reflection

At the beginning of this module, I aimed to improve my public speaking abilities after receiving feedback before entering into SIT that I talk too quickly when I am frightened and I aimed to also enhance my technical writing abilities.

I've learned, forgotten, and re-learned a few things throughout the module, but I'm still improving on my oral presentation skills, critical thinking, and the importance of teamwork. As such, I learned to use a tone that was confident, persuasive, and targeted. I learnt to reduce the use of filler words like "like". Too much repetition can frustrate your audience and disrupt the flow of your presentation. I relearned how to use rhetorical questions in my presentations to connect with my audience. I found that if I spoke too long, the audience would lose sight of me. Professor Brad pointed out that I used the wrong terminology such as “dive into” when handing over the next speaker of my group, Lokes. This needs to be improved so that the presentation smoothly transitions to the next speaker.

The Paul Elder Framework allowed me to objectively analyse arguments and concepts by using unbiased information and eliminating distractions that cloud your judgment. Part of this framework specifies expertise, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Knowledge is defined as the ability to understand important facts. Understanding a topic or topic question means being able to understand what the topic is. The ability to analyse and relate information is the ability to apply thought processes.

The 7 C's of communication also helped me work on group projects. It helped make sure the team was on the right track. Learning how to cite APA style took time, but was very important to avoid problems. The reports are very specific about what the elements do, but you should learn to abuse overly general remarks.

Through this process, I learned to be more open-minded. When I listened to your team instead of arguing for myself, I get a lot of new ideas. To progress through this module, I needed to be open to criticism and ideas not only from my teammates but from those with more expertise. Constructive feedback helps improve your writing and presentation skills.

When writing a technical report to test my writing skills, I needed to ensure that the citations and information I produced were valid, reliable, and actionable; ensuring the points or information were linked. I like the balance of group work. For example, one person may have extensive knowledge and ideas on a particular topic, while another person may have excellent writing skills without grammatical errors. Writing technical reports is key to building a great team.

I also learned in this module how to give a presentation with confidence, how to understand what you are going to say and how to always think before you speak. In the future, I would like to further improve my presentation and writing skills. As I gain more experience and take on the task, I can continue to improve my writing and also critical thinking skills such as research, planning and outlining, editing, revision, and structure.

Overall, I found this module very engaging and helpful. I feel that my communication in class has improved and I know how to write a technical report properly. This module has allowed me to improve in many aspects, giving me a general idea of where I stand and how much I need to improve. I hope that the skills I gained from this module will assist me with my future endeavours.


Tuesday, March 28, 2023

UCS Tech Report (Contributions)

 Overview of Sustainability in Singapore

In recent years, sustainability has become increasingly important in the construction industry. Governments worldwide have been trying to achieve the ‘Net Zero Ambition’ set by the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Green Mark certification program, according to the Prime Minister's Office (2022), was established by the Singaporean government to further encourage building owners or developers to design and build greener and more sustainable buildings, helping to lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve sustainability in the city-state.

Through this system, building owners or developers will receive incentives (BCA, n.d.). However, we must need much more easily accessible and user-friendly ways to help civil engineers and building owners evaluate the sustainability of their projects better. In this tech report, we will be exploring an app that helps with the importance of sustainability in the construction industry, its features, and the benefits it offers.

Because of its advancements and activities, Singapore is well-known around the world as one of the most sustainable cities (Chan, 2022). In Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has developed the Green Mark Certification Program to promote sustainable building standards. It provides building owners and developers with a proper framework for evaluating the sustainability of new and existing structures based on a variety of factors such as environmental protection, energy efficiency, and water efficiency (BCA, n.d.). Notwithstanding these measures, tracking and monitoring the sustainability performance of civil engineering projects in Singapore remains difficult.

1.1.2  BCA Green Mark Scheme

To motivate, empower, and involve industry stakeholders in adopting sustainability, the BCA Green Mark Scheme was first introduced. The building industry eventually started to embrace the concept of sustainable buildings, which is evidence that the plan is successful.

According to the Building Construction Authority (2021), the following criteria are used to rate businesses under the current Green Mark program: performance-based energy modelling, energy consumption-based, uses energy use intensity (EUI), compliance with prescriptive performance standards, and uses fixed metrics. A clearer picture of how businesses are rated can be found in the following graph.


Figure 1

BCA Green Mark 2021 Certification Scheme


Note. The table above shows the criteria for various certification tiers. Sourced from BCA, n.d. 


The Green Mark 2021 provides a robust and leading method to assess and verify buildings for their environmental performance, assisting project teams and building owners to deliver and demonstrate high-performing, sustainable buildings. It is also built for the analysis of large building performance data sets. With that, it provides a national and globally recognized green building performance rating (BCA, n.d.).


1.2 Problem Statement

There is a lack of easily accessible and comprehensive tools to help stakeholders in the construction industry to monitor and improve the sustainability aspects of their projects. The app will allow companies to have real-time monitoring at their convenience, anytime. It will also eliminate the use of paper and errors compared to manually tracking sustainability performance.


1.3 Purpose Statement

The purpose of this technical report is to propose to the BCA that it develop a mobile app that provides a comprehensive sustainability assessment tool specifically designed for the construction industry in Singapore. This would allow the building owners and developers to be more efficient and accurate in tracking and monitoring the building's overall performance.


Summary Reader Response Draft #4

According to the Housing Development Board (2022), the SolarNova programme, spearheaded by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) an...