CHAIN REACTION

Sekarang ni banyak sangat isu ttg pendidikan, PPSMI, ranking universiti, ranking negara dalam membaca, sains dan matematik, isu plagiat, isu graduan menganggur (bukan engineering), isu kolej dan universiti macam cendawan tubuh, politik universiti, KPI, dan macam2 lagi.

Permasalahan ini sebenarnya should be expected sebab dalam masa yang sama, negara ada masalah2 lain, harga barang naik, agamawan bergaduh, budak rogol dan bunuh budak, parlimen macam budak2 dan lain2.

It looks like, apa yang timbul sekarang adalah apa yang telah terkumpul selama ini, tinggal nak keluar je, dan sekarang dia dah keluar pun. Dan biasalah, bila kita sorok sesuatu bawah carpet, kalau dia nak keluar, dia akan keluar serentak.

Matematiknya, ia dipanggil Eigenproblem; phenomenon akan berlaku jika dan hanya jika, sesuatu state di capai. Sebelum dicapai, takkan terjadi langsung apa2, tapi once tercapai, dia terus meletup. Sama seperti quantum state of energy, sama macam kes natural frequency dan resonan, sama macam kes buckling and instability.

Salah kerajaan ke? ye tapi bukan keseluruhan. Its a vicious circle. Kerajaan menentukan sistem pendidikan, sistem pendidikan menghasilkan rakyat, rakyat pula memilih dan menjadi kerajaan, dan kerajaan menentukan sistem pendidikan, sistem pendidikan menghasilkan rakyat dan seterusnya.

So apa nak buat? kalau nak ikutkan circle tu, kalau nak ikutkan kita ni terhasil dari generasi yang dulu, sampai bila2 kita akan terus begini. Apa option yang ada?

First option, tukar kerajaan.

Utk option ini mungkin ada kebaikannya tapi bukankah alternative yang ada ni dari rakyat yang sama? Mungkin mereka nampak je bagus, sudahnya macam itu juga. Antaranya bila Rafizi Ramli kaitkan kemerosotan pendidikan kita kerana tiada kebebasan berpolitik di universiti. Ini apa cerita? Mungkin untuk yang ambil political science mungkin relevan, tapi aku tak nampak langsung apa kaitan politik dengan membaca buku. Kalau students tu penyokong PR, tak boleh masuk library pinjam buku ke? kalau dia PR, electric dalam bilik dia dipotong ke supaya dia tak boleh baca buku?

Apa option lagi?

Pada aku, the best option yang robust dan sustainable adalah ubah masyarakat. Tapi macamana? Lagi susah sebab lagi ramai. Tukar kerajaan jauh lagi senang.

Yup, memang susah tapi tak mustahil asalkan kita sanggup tunggu dalam 10 tahun.

Macamana?

Camni, kita mulakan dari sistem pendidikan, sebab ingat tak, pendidikan menghasilkan masyarakat?

Tapi macamana, bukan ke kerajaan yang control pendidikan? Betul pasal tu kita tak boleh tunggu kerajaan, pasal tu kita kena buat sendiri, pasal tu kita kena hasilkan "FLUCTUATION"!

Apa tu fluctuation? Hmm teknikalnya bermaksud an occurrence of abnormality but distinct, a spike in time( lebih kurang la), tapi yang senangnya macam ni.

Pasal ni la aku selalu cakap pada students aku, considering keadaan kita yang mendesak sekarang ni, WE NEED MORE LIKE-MINDED TEACHERS THAN ENGINEERS. So, I really hope those yang belajar dengan aku will be teachers so that diorang pun boleh jalankan mission ini, this CHAIN REACTION mission, BUTTERFLY EFFECT if you prefer.

This mission is simple. Katakan aku can produce 5 very good teachers in a year and I keep producing this in the next 10 years. Me alone will produce 50 good teachers. The first five (the first batch) however, cuma boleh start producing new teachers after they finish their PhD so akan lag 5 years, meaning as a good teacher, each of them will produce another five on their own but since they lag of five years, lets calculate their production utk lima tahun sahaja (bukan aku kata tadi, kena tunggu kejap 10 tahun, ingat tak?)

so the first batch will produce a total of 5x5x5= 125. But then, their students kita tak boleh kira dalam potential teachers sebab diorang akan lag 5 years, faham tak ni?

ok itu my first batch, my second batch pulak ada 4 years to contribute, so they will produce, 5x5x4=100, my third 5x5x3= 75, my forth, 5x5x2=50 my fifth, 5x5x1= 25.

Based on this, dalam masa 10 tahun dari sekarang kita akan ada seramai 425 very2 good teachers, as good as me. Dan percayalah, those yang pernah belajar dengan aku know HOW GOOD I AM. With 425 teachers as good as me at least, many will be better of course, our country can do anything, achieve anything insya Allah in no time (tapi sabar kena tunggu 10 tahun lagi la).

Tapi ini baru aku punya downline. Ramai kat FB ni pensyarah dan juga nak habis PhD. So kalau korang jugak belajar dan mengajar sungguh2 korang pun ada downline sendiri.

Based on list FB friend aku ni (artikel ni originally written in my FB), ada beratus pensyarah dan those yng tgh buat PhD. just say 100 daripada kita bersetuju utk buat mission ni (tak susah, nekad belajar dan mengajar sungguh2), pergh, in 10 years time akan ada 42500 teachers dan rakyat yang as smart as us and many more will be smarter.

if this can be achieved, percayalah, perubahan yang sangat2 besar akan berlaku. InsyaAllah perubahan yang membawa kebaikan.

Untuk increasekan appreciation korang terhadap this number (42500), aku pernah tulis dulu yang aku pernah diberi statistic oleh seorang professor dari Iran in his talk. He presented, while Japan alone ada 8000 world scientiests, US 5000 world (kalau aku tak silap la, tapi yang tentu mmg ribu), scientist Islam jika dikumpul dari semua negara Islam, di ulang, DARI SEMUA NEGARA ISLAM, cuma ada 300 shj. So nampak tak?

Ok jangan lah students bukan Islam aku kecil hati. No no, aku guna contoh diatas hanya untuk stress a point sahaja. Tidak bermaksud korang diketepikan. I love you guys sama. I see my students colourless, youre not Malay, youre not Chinese, youre not Indian, youre my students, youre Malaysian, I dont segregate my students. My student is my student. Eh dah la, student aku tau, aku macamana.

So setelah tulis panjang ni, jom;

1. student2 aku belajar rajin2 sampai faham betul2 dan sampai PhD dan kalau tak nak jadi lecturer takpe but jadi lah the best engineer and the best citizen

2. teachers, lecturers and teachers-to-be, lecturers-to-be belajar rajin2, faham betul2 supaya kita boleh mengajar bagus2, student senang faham dan jadi betul2 pandai sampai diorang boleh jadi teachers as good as us, if not better, or become the best citizens.

Insya Allah, the CHAIN REACTION will work. Aja! Figthing!

STUDENTS AKU TAK INGAT SUBJECT SEMESTER LEPAS: APA JADI DENGAN AMANAH?

Baru habis makmal buckling of strut. Subjek makmal ni subjek Tahun 2. Lepas aku habis derived the differential equation nya, aku tanya kat students macamana nak solve differential equation ni? Sorang pun tak jawab.

Ok, lepas tu aku tanya,

"korang ingat tak apa yang korang belajar dalam subject Differential Equation tahun satu?"

Diorang tak jawab lagi, senyum2 je.

Ok, lepas tu aku tanya lagi,

"Dalam subject tu, korang pernah dengar tak, separation of variables, undetermined coefficient method, laplace transform, fourier series?"

Terus diorang angguk2 tanda pernah dengar.

So aku tanya,

"buat apa korang belajar semua2 benda ni?

Diorang diam balik. Lepas tu aku jawab kan la,

"korang belajar semua benda2 ni sebab nak solve differential equation la."

So ini lah typicalnya sistem pembelajaran kita. Baru semester lepas belajar tapi students bukan sahaja tak ingat apa yang dibelajar, worse, diorang tak tahu pun diorang belajar untuk apa.

Ok sambung balik. Sebabkan itu, aku suruh diorang keluar handphone diorang letak atas meja. Ramai pakai samsung. Aku pun tanya kat diorang,

"korang tau tak handphone samsung ni la bagi duit kepada Korea?"

Lepas tu aku suh diorang tengok jam dan aku cakap,

"korang tahu tak jam tu la yang bagi duit pada Jepun (diorang ada yang pakai Casio)."

Lepas tu aku tanya, macamana Malaysia buat duit?

Ada yang jawab dengan buat rumah (engineering perspektif). Aku tanya balik,

"ok kalau kita buat rumah, kita ambik duit siapa? Kita buat kat Malaysia so kita ambil duit orang Malaysia juga kan? Dan orang yang bayar rumah tu mungkin dapat dari kerajaan melalui gaji dia tapi kerajaan dapat duit dari mana? Basically kerajaan dan negara kita dapat duit dari jual minyak, tapi kalau minyak ni takde macamana? Kalau minyak ni habis macamana?"

Lepas tu aku sambung lagi.

"Pasal tu la kita mengeluh sana, mengeluh sini, hidup ni susah, kita miskin, gula naik, minyak naik dan lain-lain. Memang sebahagiannya salah kerajaan sebab tak pandai menguruskan ekonomi tapi sebahagian lagi adalah salah rakyat yang macam kita, yang macam korang."

Korea, Jepun, UK, US maju, selesa dan mewah sebab rakyat2 nya boleh hasilkan teknologi untuk dijual, Samsung, Iphone, Asus, Nokia dan macam2 lagi. Diorang tarik duit orang lain masuk ke negara diorang.

Lepas tu aku tanya diorang, kenapa agaknya kita tak boleh buat samsung kita sendiri, iphone kita sendiri lepas tu jual seluruh dunia, kita tak nak atau kita tak mampu?

Diorang jawab, kita tak mampu. Yup, aku kata betul, mmg sebab kita tak mampu. Kita tak mampu sebab kita takda ilmunya dan kenapa takde ilmunya?

"Sebab korang tak boleh ingat pun subjek semester lepas, bukan sahaja tak ingat, korang tak tahu pun tujuan kenapa belajar subjek tu. Dengan hasilkan students yang macam ni,sampai bila pun kita takkan mampu hasilkan apa2. Sampai bila2 la kita akan mengadu susah dan miskin sebab kita tak mampu generate pendapatan utk negara pun.", aku cakap.

Dan aku sambung lagi. Ok lah, bila dah tahu ini semua, apa perasaan korang?

Apa rasanya tak tahu pun apa yang dibelajar?

Apa rasanya lulus semester lepas tapi tak tahu pun subject tu untuk apa?

Sedangkan korang students UTM, best universiti kat Malaysia in Engineering, kalau korang macamani, kat universiti lain lagi la teruk keadaannya.

Apa rasanya bila gunakan duit rakyat (melalui scholarship, PTPTN, guna facilities dalam universities) tapi korang tak "sedar" pun korang masuk kelas dan tak "sedar" pun keluar kelas, tak tahu pun "tadi" korang belajar subject apa dan untuk apa?

Apa rasanya tak dapat buat samsung, iphone, casio untuk negara sedangkan rakyat "bayar" korang untuk belajar dan kemudian hasilkan dan jualkan benda2 ni?

Apa rasanya tak ingat langsung subjek tahun lepas? kalau tak ingat subject tahun lepas, korang akan ingat ke subjek tahun ini untuk tahun depan?

Lepas tu aku cakap lagi, korang tau tak kenapa agaknya negara2 Islam semua miskin2, bergaduh sama sendiri tak habis?

"Korang islam kan, so kalau korang macamani, orang islam lain pun macam ni jugak, belajar sebab nak lepas exam, belajar tak ikhlas, tak boleh nak ingat pun apa yang dah dibelajar dan gunakan untuk buat sesuatu kearah kebaikan."

Mestilah keadaanya macam ni jugak, kalau tak pun mesti lebih teruk. Sebab kalau nak bandingkan dengan pelajar islam di negara2 lain, pelajar Islam di UTMlah antara yang paling top. So kalau yang top pun tak boleh ingat dan faham pun apa yang dibelajar, dinegara Islam yang lain lagi lah.

Tapi kenapa jadi macam ni? kenapa pelajar Islam macam korang boleh tak ingat apa yang korang belajar semester lepas?

Sebabnya fahaman islam kita salah. Sebabnya, kalau betul fahaman kita, kita akan anggap belajar ni amanah.

Amanah sebab kita pakai duit orang utk belajar.

Amanah sebab tugas kita adalah untuk majukan umat dan masyarakat dengan hasilkan sumber rezeki melalui ilmu2 yang kita belajar.

Tapi macamana kita nak buat amanah2 ni kalau kita tak ingat pun apa yang kita dah belajar, apatah lagi kalau nak gunakannya di masa depan?

Kita hanya diajarkan yang amanah itu jgn makan rasuah, jangan menipu, jangan hipokrit. Tapi ada satu amanah yang tidak pula di ajarkan iaitu menjalankan tugas yang ditakdirkan oleh Allah pada kita pada waktu itu.

Kalau dah ditakdirkan kita posmen, adalah amanah pertama kita untuk jadi posmen yang terbaik, selepas habis jalankan amanah ini, baru la kita buat amanah yang lain seperti berdakwah secara formal.

Begitu juga dengan jadi pensyarah kejuruteraan, jadi dulu pensyarah kejuruteraan yang terbaik dengan mahir betul2 dan hebat topik2 engineering dan teknik pengajarannya, dah habis amanah ini baru la buat amanah yang lain, dakwah formal ke, politik ke.

Biar dakwah agama secara formal dibuat dulu oleh para ustaz2 dan agamawan2. Begitu juga politik, biar ahli2 politik yang jalankan tugas mereka. Kita laksanakan amanah kita dulu, dah settle rasanya, baru la ceburi bidang amanah orang lain pulak.

Dan students, amanah korang yang pertama adalah belajar. So dah ditakdirkan korang belajar engineering, pastikan betul2 faham topik2 engineering tu dulu, topik lain, wahabi ke, syiah ke, sufism ke, politik ke, itu kemudian.

Biar students fakulti tamadun islam dan pengurusan yang bincangkan perkara2 ini. Korang dengar dan baca je perbincangan mereka dan ulas sikit2 cukup. Tak payah nak full swing bidang orang lain selagi bidang sendiri tak habis conquer lagi.

So, please revise balik subject2 yang dahulu dan relatekan dengan subjek2 sekarang dan akan datang.

Simpan niat dalam hati yang kita nak belajar sungguh2, faham sungguh2 supaya nanti kita boleh bangunkan umat dan masyarakat.

Let's jalankan amanah yang Allah dah berikan kepada kita, as an engineering students, engineering students lah, as lecturer, lecturer lah, as agamawan, agamawan lah, as politician, politician lah.

ALLAH KNOWS BEST.

A STORY OF PI AND THE NEED FOR TECHNICAL ENGLISH READING

This article of mine was published in The Malaysian Insider Oct 22, 2013. To read from the source click HERE

We are all familiar with Pi, the mathematical constant and its glorious treatment by scientists to the extent we have movies about it; the most famous one would be The Contact starring Jodie Foster. The movie was about Pi being the constant claimed to be understood universally even by the extraterrestrial. It was featured in the movie that, if the aliens want to communicate with us, they would send us the number 3.1416.....

But why is this? Why such claim? Why Pi is treated and accepted by scientists, mathematicians and engineers alike as so fundamental? These questions are what we about to answer.

To start with, Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumferential to its diameter. It is a constant having the value of 3.14 accurate up to two decimal places for all circles.

As a number, Pi is irrational thus has infinite decimals without any repeating pattern. This means, the decimal places will never end but weirdly though, there will be no repetition whatsoever in the occurring decimals. Meaning, there will be no repetition such as, Pi=3.14......676.......676.....676...infinity.

You got me?

So this Pi is but we also want to know why Pi is so fundamental, right? To know this, we must discuss the purpose of having the constant in the first place.

Well, if we want to talk about the purpose of Pi, we must hold to the concept that measurement only has meaning if it is referred to a point or frame of reference and usually this reference is a constant; a value that is applicable to all conditions.

In the context of a circle, Pi is the circle's property; a constant that is applicable to all circles regardless of size. Having established or accepted this constant, other properties of circle such as area, perimeter/circumferential and angle can now be defined based on this constant. Thus the reason why the area of a circle is given as Pi*r^2 and the perimeter as 2*Pi*r.

Accordingly, those entities that are circle-related such as the harmonic motion which can be described geometrically by the path of a circle can then be described using Pi, for example through Fourier series which components are An*sin(n*2*Pi*t/T) and Bn*cos(n*2*Pi*t/T).

I purposely mention Fourier series so that now we have at our disposal some mathematical expression (other than the circle) which can be used in answering question about the practicality of Pi such as "when Pi appears in physical use?"

For example, since the solution of the differential equation of a buckling strut can be given by a Fourier series, the buckling load of the strut is thus given as Pi^2*EI/L^2.

See the inclusion of Pi in the formula? This is an immediate demonstration of the use of Pi in physical problem beyond its use in just defining a circle's properties.

It is all come back to differential equation isn't?

This is an example of the building of mental construct which progress is built consecutively upon prior knowledge/concept.

The same mental construct (i.e the need for a "constant" frame to progress) is applied in other scientific arguments, for example, in Einstein's Special Relativity where the constant nature of light speed has been chosen as the point of reference for which other motions are relatively measured.

So it is the mental construct of science to:

1. First establish a constant which later to be taken as point/frame of reference

2. Define other entities relative to this point of reference

3. To apply the same mental construct to other problems hence its consecutive progress

(Point 3 in fact, highlights the limitation of science and human "brain").

This is why Pi is so "great". The mental construct that is built upon it what makes Pi so fundamental thus "great".

This is why it is claimed by those scientists that if the alien do exist, they would transmit this number so as to telling us their existence and that they comprehend the same universal laws.

We should not stop here as the understanding on the importance of a constant will increase our appreciation towards the standard way of scientific thinking, works and evolution. We have a glance at it already so we should say more so as to nail our understanding especially on the progressive building of a mental construct.

It would allow us to understand better, for example, why Newton's Law is insufficient. It turns out that, the insufficiency of Newton's Law is due the dependency of the law on space and time as the absolute (constant) entities resulting in the failure to describe the phenomenon of electromagnetism.

Extending the discussion would then increase our appreciation towards Einstein's theory who has resorted to the idea of taking the speed of light as the new constant (no longer space and time as in Newton's, in fact these entities change according to a transformation known as Lorentz's transformation) and solved Newton's deficiency.

And we should by now able to appreciate the search for TOE (Theory of Everything) as scientists believe that there should be a more fundamental constant than the speed of light that would define all physical phenomenons and omit the need to have separate laws for the macroscopic level (relativity) and microscopic level (quantum).

In other words, there should be (as they believe) a constant that will exist in all future mathematical statements, just like Pi appears in the circle's area formulation of Pi*r^2.

This is the example of the mental construct of math and science and if we look carefully, it is philosophical in nature, as philosophical as Immanuel Kant's, Friedrich Nietzsche's and others but with objectivity.

This is the reason why Stephen Hawking stated that "philosophy is dead". What he meant was, whilst a present scientist can understand the arguments of a philosopher, the latter cannot do the same to the former, on top of the latter's lack of objectivity.

Anyway, these are the mathematical and scientific mental constructs I emphasized in my previous articles, both in The Malaysian Insider, Let PPSMI be bygone but its spirit come alive in our universities (October 4) and NST (October 9).

And if someone ask me whether I can explain all these in Bahasa Malaysia, I will say yes but then remind him that this ability of mine only come after I read tens of English written textbooks. So it is a kind of chicken-egg condition. You see, what I wrote above cannot be found in a single writing or book but is a cross-reference from one book to another in providing relations, patterns and reasons; a mental construct. – October 22, 2013.

* Dr Airil Yasreen Mohd Yassin is a senior lecturer and computational mechanicist at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, UTM Johor Bahru.