Third: Term 8

And that’s it, I am done with University

18 May –23 Aug 20 is 98 days

The time tracker caught 83 days, 15 hours which is 85% of the time, slightly lesser than the previous of 86, but this will probably be fairly representative too.

Hours supposedly owed

SUTD’s curriculum is supposed to be 12h per module per week. Considering this is a 14 week term, I should be spending 672 hours (40,320m). I spend about 44% of that. It’s gotten even lesser this time. I think it’s because I had to skip quite a few of the lessons.

Work-wise, I’ve tracked it slightly differently. I’ve tracked it by each individual assignment and I’ve spent 117.5H (7,050m) on assignments which is about 40% of my time. The rest would all have to be classes.

Milestones

SUTD

Just finishing the capstone project was a feat in itself. You can check it out here. I noted that a majority of the work was preparing the group for the presentation itself. The group split into our own specialisations and focused on each individual piece. We barely had any time to figure out what each other were doing.

We finally finished the constitution review at last. Though I’m not sure if this final copy would be adequate. Having a review every year wouldn’t be tenable but I suppose every 2–3 would be just nice.

Strangely enough I’ve become some sort of courier for the Career Development Centre to get their message out to students. Though once again the timing and contexts were really quite odd. But I don’t think I can think of anything better at this point either.

Truth is, I tried to spend more of my time here reflecting on the past year at SUTD rather than doing something new.

Tribe

Ah, this is where the fun begins.

1. Getting to meet the team, finally seeing most of the voices i’ve been hearing was great. Finally a face to match the disembodied voice.
2. Goschool interviews with 55 of them in 3 weeks. That took up an incredible amount of time.
3. OpenNodes CC roadmap, scoping of projects
4. An entire blockchain workshop for 2 sessions in just 2 weeks. That also took up an incredible amount of energy.
5. Zilliqa course with a mystery prof, can’t wait to start pushing that out too
6. Learning an incredible amount about what data scientists look for
7. Connecting with the GoSG meetup (and meeting a senior of mine!)
8. Connecting with partners around ASEAN

I suppose what’s next here is to really think about how to devote my energies meaningfully. Almost every week there’s something happening.

Reflections

It’s been such a whirlwind experience this term. I realised the importance of focus. At one point I was simply bouncing between deadlines and couldn’t put in the time for some truly deep work. Also I need time for more personal development and skill building.

But first, I need to reflect about SUTD’s ecosystem. I expect to spend some time to put my thoughts into words. Hopefully to get a better understanding of how to proceed with OpenSUTD in particular.

Firstly, communication:

1. Gap between student leadership and needs
2. Gap between staff and everyone else
3. Gap between management and everyone else

And also about the student experience itself:

1. Student commitment and space to plan strategically. What are the roles and can there even be any?
2. The state of the current equilibrium to get things done in SUTD in terms of incentives and the power dynamics. How can we break out of a system of patronage from the offices?
3. How should one assess opportunities as a student?
4. Time management as a student
5. Lateral analysis between different terms

Oh yes if you made it this far, and you’d like to have a chat. Catch my tele @fishbiscuit.