Work

Yup, I am supposed to be working and contributing to the betterment of the institution which pays me a paltry sum of $30 a day. Here I am, sitting not so comfortably at one of the long tables in a narrow corridor along with six or seven other interns who busy themselves with, among other things, texting messages, checking Facebook webpage, reading newpapers and playing computer games. Haha, welcome to the reality of intern work!!

Well, intern work is not just about slacking. Sometimes, you get called into action as well and I mean literally called, because your supervisor will give you a ring and you will be rushing down the hallway with your handphone still glued to your ear trying to figure out where he or she is.

Here is some background knowledge about my internship. I am working at IME (Institute of Microelectronics) located just behind NUS at Science Park 2. I used to have two supervisors overseeing me (I must have been very naughty indeed to have to human restrainers) but one left already although he is still following up on our project. The project which I am assigned to is about how to cool a high powered system using some mixture of liquid. It may sound easy but with all the engineering calculations involved, the complexity of the issue soon emerges.

First, I busied myself with constructing a great many phase diagrams using relevant thermodynamic equations then comparing these with experimental data compiled in a book which allegedly costs in excess of $1000. Then, I was on to correlating various thermophysical properties of liquid mixture and finding the best agreement of these models with available experimental data. It was certainly a lot of trial and error work, and there were many occasions where I had to try out several mathematical models before I could find the right one to describe the relevant physical phenomena. It is small wonder that they need a chemical engineering student as the work require good knowledge in chemical thermodynamic and a need for bridging chemical and physical concepts then linking these back to mathematics for data modeling purpose. Frankly speaking, I have learnt more than what CN2121 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics have imparted to me and the Properties of Gases and Liquids book by Reid has been my useful companion for quite some time already.

Now, I am currently reading up on the fluid mechanics and heat transfer in microchannel as well as general heat transfer for liquid. The pain is not so much about trying to figure out what the remotely complicated equations meant and how to use them for engineering design purpose. Rather, it is how to integrate these two areas to come up an improved mathematical model which is not to complicated to be applied to the markets. There are like tonnes of specific correlations out there and the trick is to pull some of the right correlations together, join them in a mathematical union and hopefully produce a set of mathematical equations relevant to the project. And this pales in comparison with the work of comparing the model data with experimental data. If the model is flawed, then the whole process has to be repeated until a better set of equations are formulated. If such recurring pain is not enough, there is this task of justifying the use of the equations (the basis that it simply fits the data is not really a great argument).

Phew, the technicality of research work can be both astounding and tedious. In so far, the weekly work review from my supervisor has been on the fair side. At this point, it is pretty much individual work as I have to scour the wide sea of journals to find a few pertinent ones. And to add to the burden, I have never collaborated on a conference paper before so this can be quite a scary experience as the paper may be reviewed by so many other qualified members of the academia. Stress.....

Oh yes, we would be conducting our own experiment on the validating the phase diagram I have constructed earlier. Hope all goes well **Cross fingers**.