During my Spring Semester of my Freshman year, I studied abroad in Singapore. This is the story of all I have learned and my new global perspective I achieved by experiencing a culture very different than ours. While in Singapore I experienced five museums and numerous new, strange foods. During my Spring Break I took the opportunity to travel to Thailand and experience riding an elephant and island hopping and numerous traditional thai food. This trip was made possible by the generation contributions from UC and the Gilman International Program.
Reflection Timeline
Jan 4th 2016 Today, I left for the airport. It has been a very bittersweet feeling leaving my parents and flying for around 25 hours additionally to navigating the Chicago airport on my own. It has been a liberating and freeing experience becoming independent and flying by myself. It was very sad to watch my parents while I passed through security to leave. They watched me the whole time through a glass wall and I could see my mom crying. She was very sad to see me leave and travel so far away but understood this was an amazing opportunity for me to learn so much. Jan 5th 2016 I have since arrived at the Singapore Changi airport and this has been one of the most stressful nights of my life. I debarked the plane around 1:30 am but did not get to sleep until around 5:30 am. I had rented a room but online they failed to say that you can only stay in the hotel if you are on an outbound flight. Since the tram was broke I had to wrestle my four bags on an off a bus over to terminal one which I could then not enter the hotel, So I had to go back to terminal 3 and stay at the Crown Plaza. I wish I could call my mom but my phone was not working, luckily I was near a KFC and could get on the wifi to call my mom and she calmed me down. In the end I learned a valuable lesson and into the future I will better plan my accommodations and transfer. In the future I will better know how to navigate an airport and definitely not bring as much luggage traveling solo. I also learned my lesson about not planning and just winging a solution when you reach your destination. June 6th-7th 2016 When I arrived at NTU I was feeling a very foreign feeling of being alone. I didn’t know a single person and was feeling shy. Yesterday, after I unpacked I went over to the canteen, which is the local place to get food, and sat down next to some foreign strangers. I just randomly said, “Hey my name is Dillon and I don’t have any friends”. They thought it was the funniest thing ever and they eventually became my best friends I hung out with many days and nights. After this experience I gained the courage to make new friends and introduce myself to foreign people in a less awkward manner. My new acquaintances showed me around the university and the city. Their names where Khushboo, who was a masters student from India and Mwansa who was a year-long exchange student from London. Jan 8th 2016 Tonight my friends and I are going out for our first time to experience Singapore night life. We went to a club called Zouk. This club is very busy and is filled with many local Singaporeans. We had the time of our life with the lower drinking age of Singapore. All alcohol should be consumed in moderation and I had the opportunity to limit myself and also have a good night dancing to pop music from the United States. I was surprised at how much Western culture of America actually crosses over and shows itself in Singapore. Jan 10th 2016 On January 10th my friends and I traveled to gardens by the bay and also marina bay sands. This is upscale shopping with beautiful gardens by the water. From this experience I learned about public transportation. While in Cincinnati I never learned how to use public transportation, but valuable skills I learned today will help me into the future when I travel and need to navigate public transit including subways, trains and busses. Jan 11th 2016 On January 11th I attended church for the first time with one of my friends. This church really opened my horizons to the variety of ways people worship. This church consists mostly of young adults and with 4,000 members the question keeps coming into my mind how they grew to such a large number. It is amazing to see so many young people be committed to serving the lord and were some of the friendliest people I met while being in Singapore. This has definitely altered my perspective on what religion can be and how it can very from one culture to the other. After church we all went shopping at a local shopping street that offers cheap products. This was a cultural marketplace that had many traditional Chinese goods. Jan 12th 2016 Today is my first day of class. I am a little nervous. I found out that it is very difficult to understand some of my professors from China who’s accent is quite different from my own. While in Singapore I learned to recognize and understand many different English accents I would have previously not been able to understand. Jan 15th 2016 Today was a very special night for me. My friend and I went to go prawn fishing. This is a past time for older Singaporeans and I great experience for me. First they start off by putting prawns in a huge pond and we would fish them out and then cook them over a grill. I learned how to take a prawn and clean it and cook it live on a grill. It was definitely a new experience for me and a great time. For the first hour we had barely caught anything and the worked came around and gave us a huge bag full of praws since we all had been trying so hard. Shortly after a local showed us how to adjust the hook to hang right at the bottom and then we were catching them left and right. The night ended with us all having our fair share of praws, which by the way are just like large shrimp. Jan 16th 2016 Today we went to Sentosa island. This is the Southmost part of the continent of Asia and also the location of the beach and many attractions like the aquarium and Universal Studios. Today I went to the beach with my friends. Since Singapore is a huge boat port the water is fairly polluted but as tourist we loved the beach anyway. Jan 17th 2016 Today my friends from church and I went to the Esplanade. This is a building that looks like a durian, a common fruit in Asia, and is where we saw some local performers sing and dance. I learned about local traditional music and witnessed some local performers for myself. Additionally, I tried a yummy new dessert from Korea. Jan 20th 2016 Today is Wednesday and tonight is ladies night at all the local clubs. And since I am foreign if I sign up on the guest list I can also get in free. Jan 24th 2016 Today I explored the downtown city of Singapore and the Merlion. The merlion is a huge statue that is notorious to Singapore and squirts out water. I also tried some new food called xiao long bao. This is a type of soup dumpling. I learned to be more open-minded and try new foods. Jan 29th 2016 On Jan 29th I got a great cultural modern art experience at the Singapore Art Museum. At the museum I learned and experienced many Asian pieces I have never seen before and some cool new 3d printed art pieces. Additionally I took some pictures of the outside of the oldest movie theater in Singapore. Jan 30th 2016 Today was an exciting day and time is approaching Chinese New Year. I cooked some Chinese rolls with sliced cucumber, meat, chilies and some various Asian spices. On this day I signed up for a tour of Singapore with a group made to introduce exchange students to the city. This was a very productive day where we traveled to china town and I learned about the kinds of things sold at a Chinese market such as dried seafood. I also learned they take this dried seafood and rehydrate it in soup. Additionally I bought some Korean tea for my mom as a gift. We also traveled to a Buddhist temple, and a Hindu temple. It was culturally enriching to see how other religions worship and see the overly decorated temples. Finally, while I was still in china town I visited one of the only gay bars in Singapore. It was interesting to see how Singapore’s strict culture has kept many minorities from expressing themselves. Feb 7th-8th 2016 I am starting to get excited because my birthday is in just a few days on Feb 10th. This is a very special time of the year since it is Chinese New Year. It is amazing to see how another culture celebrates bringing into the New Year. Today I went to a Chinese New Year festival and got to experience beautiful floats. This was down by the cities floating platform and it was amazing to see the city so well lit up at night.
Feb 26th-27th 2016 Today is the day my mom arrives and I am super pumped. We are going to Thailand and I am also gonna show her around Singapore. Once I picked my mom up I surprised her by taking her to Har Par Villa. This is a very strange sculpture garden created by a large company in Singapore called Tiger Balm. This garden portrays typical Chinese beliefs such as the 10 levels of hell and many other proverbs in Chinese history. We also visited a Chinese buddhist temple. Luckily we arrived during a traditional worship service and we got to see how they worship. And my mom took a spin on one of the largest prayer wheels in Singapore. The belief is if you make one rotation around the prayer wheel, when the bell rings, one of your prayers will be granted. We also got to go into China Town and buy souvenirs for my mom to take home to family members.
Feb 29th 2016 Today we have arrived in Thailand and it is a beautiful day. We are already learning so much just passing through customs and climbing on our ground transportation. This guy who waited on us was amazing, he picked us up, in a hot vehicle with no air-conditioning and drove us half an hour to our hotel and carried all of our luggage to our rooms and my mom only tipped him 20 baht and thought she was giving him a good tip but it was only like 50 cents. Another things that surprised us was how cheap phone service was. It was only $2.5 for unlimited data. When we arrived we were greeted with many happy faces and fresh squeezed juice. Luckily we were upgraded to the honeymoon suit and had a huge two story unit with a bacon terrace and an outside tub. Our little boutique hotel was adorable and had an infinity pool. It was interesting to witness how the people of Thailand can live in such poverty but can express such gratitude and appreciation for even the smallest things in life.
March 1st-3rd 2016 Today was amazing, I finally achieved my goal of riding an elephant through the jungle. The next day we got to see all the scenery of Thailand by taking an island hopping tour which took us to the famous Phi Phi islands of Thailand where we got to enjoy some traditional Thai food and try some strange bathrooms with water troughs in the doorway to wash your feet in before coming in and out. Finally, on one of our last days we rode horses down the beach and went to another traditional restaurant on top of a mountain and watched the beautiful sun set over the ocean and buttes.
March 13th 2016 Some amazing food was consumed today. I tried whole new ways to prepare lobster and three different traditional Chinese deserts. Additionally I tried oysters, shark fin (responsibly caught), frog saliva gland and something called century egg. Its basically a duck egg soaked in duck urine and dirt for 100 days. Definitely some strange foreign foods to me.
March 18th 2016 I'm finally getting around to going to the museums Singapore has to offer. Today I went to the Science museum and experienced art that moves and interacts with the viewer. Definitely a new concept to art.
March 20th 2016 Originally before I traveled to Singapore I was under the impression that wild elephants roamed free. I must have been pretty naive to believe these huge beasts roam around a city full of millions of people. Although I didn’t see elephants throughout my stay I did see many amazing animals such as wild peacocks, monkeys, boars, and huge monitor lizards about four or five feet long. Those ones really scared me. Additionally, I visited the Singapore zoo that is quite a spectacle in itself. This zoo uses a foreign concept to me where all the non-dangerous animals roam the inner walls of the zoo free. While I was there monkeys where swinging in the trees all around me and strange and new birds were let free. This was a new eye opening experience that I would love to see adopted in US zoos.
March 25th-27th 2016 This weekend has been great, I got to stay at one of the oldest hotels in Singapore called the fullerton bay hotel. Additionally, I went to Sentosa, an island on the southmost part of Singapore and went to the adventure cove waterpark. There I got to get up close and personal and swipe with dolphins. I even got to kiss a dolphin.
April 1st-3rd 2016 This weekend I decided to head on over to the Singapore aquarium. It was great seeing all the aquatic life and jellies. Additionally, I tried a new type of meet that had been cooked sous-vide. It's a style of French cooking which slow cooks meat in a vacuum. Finally, I got to visit with Singapore's national bird as a peacock came to visit me on the sidewalk.
April 30th 2016 I got to experience amazing performance at the Esplanade theater. A gorgeous theater that has many free performances for local Singaporeans and tourists to come and listen on the outside amphitheater with the beautiful Singapore city skyline in the background. Since many parts of the city border the water and the esplanade is on the bay you can hear the music for miles around.
May 3rd 2016 Today is a sad day. My trip is coming to an end and I am gonna miss my friends so much. We went out for one last traditional Singapore lunch to get my favorite food, xiao long bao. This has been a great trip full of enriching exciting activities and leads me to want to see more of the world. There is still so much to see and so little time.
Honors Multivariable Calculus
Summary Study of lines and planes, vector-valued functions, partial derivatives and their applications, multiple integrals, and calculus of vector fields.
What? One of the most important lessons of this course, in my opinion, is understanding how to represent different situations in different coordinate planes. This course teaches not only about the x, y, and z coordinate system but about how theta and phi can represent objects in the x, y, and z coordinate system. This was important because it allows for problems which previously may have been extremely complex to solve much easier to solve and having a good understanding of how these coordinate systems change the representation of the problem in turn helps us solve more complex problems. A strength in my learning strategy that was exemplified in this course is elaboration. The professor helped us make connections with the material to real world situations that a person could encounter and have to solve and how this material is applicable. I believe this is an important aspect, which is necessary to later on be able to retrieve the information and not just forget it. One of the most challenging aspects of the course was being able to complete the exams in time. There was a lot of material to cover and it required the student to be well-versed in the material to be able to finish the test in the time allowed. This is an important aspect of studying because the material needs to be known well enough that the student can retrieve the information in a timely manner. It was especially challenging because to master it properly one must be able to to all the practice problems and not just a few that the professor finds important.
So What? This course was useful to me because it is the final step in the calculus curriculum that allows us to understand complex situations in the third dimension and allows us to simulate and optimize situations. Throughout the course I found material that could help drastically in solving complex physics situations and many more applications. Into my future coursework this course allows me to better understand higher level math concepts and how they can be used in the programming aspects. I recently used some higher level math in developing a basic GUI in models 2. Research wise the data analytics I have been working on use a lot of optimization algorithms that also have ways that can be solved in non-iterative processes and it is very important to know how to solve these complex problems in non-iterative ways. For example, one could use gradient decent and a simple program to find the minima of a function, but this can also be solved in a non-iterative way using multivariable calculus.
Now What? What is the most important lesson you can take away from this course? What impact did the course have? Did it solidify any of your strengths, plans, or approaches to learning or did you question any of them as a result of the course? How will you change as a result of the course?
The most important lesson I can take away from this course is vector valued functions. The impact this course had on me is allowing me to go onto linear algebra.
Artifact The artifact I choose to exemplify this honors experience is my teacher explaining how to solve common velocity and acceleration problems using vector valued functions. This is an important aspect of the course because it shows how problems we previously solved with formulas in physics can be represented with multivariable calculus and the solutions can be derived by other methods.
Europe Tour Extravaganza
Summary This experience was a short tour of Europe starting in Rome to see the ancient ruins and traveling to Barcelona, then off to Paris to experience the Louvre and the catacombs. Finally, I ended my cultural Europe experience in London to see some of the sights of the Crown and the queen. Additionally, I experienced New Year’s in New York City and got to see the ball drop in person. This has been something I have wanted to do ever since I was a child and have watched the ball drop every year growing up. This experience was personally meaningful because it allowed me to be immersed in new languages, food, and music. It also was very meaningful to me since I have previously learned about the Paris catacombs and have wanted to see them for many years and on this trip I will be able to actually get to see them. These fascinating network of passageways date back to roman times and are estimated to be 186 miles long with thousands of bones. In the 18th century when the cemeteries where overflowing the bones of approximately 6 million people where moved into the catacombs. Additionally, seeing the Louvre, one of the world’s largest museums was an amazing experience. I learned about how the museum was originally the palace and has since been converted into a historic museum. This museum is full of famous works such as the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samothrace. I have learned about these inspiring pieces in past art classes and would be inspired to see them in person. As an artist myself, I can really appreciate a museum that has so many different architectural aspects along with about anything you could want to see from Egyptian history to Renaissance paintings. Some unique aspects of this experience included trying new traditional foods of all the regions I traveled to, such as tapas in Spain or homemade pasta in Italy. I additionally got to see some amazing art and to hear some music common to the regions I traveled too. Additionally, while I am in Rome, I got to see the colosseum and learn about all the barbaric traditions that happened in there. Originally, it was capable of holding water and boat battled were another pastime, but when a new king came into power the bottom was converted into stables and a floor was put in. After this it was commemorated with 100 day battle where exotic animals of all kinds were slain for entertainment. This trip has taught me so much not just about ancient European history but about safe affordable travel and I plan to utilize my experiences into the future when planning new experiences.
Roman Aqueducts and Fountains
To showcase my experience I choose a image of me drinking out of one of Rome's 2500 drinking fountains located around the city. This fountain is a symbol of the once immense power of the roman empire and the amazing engineering of the aqueduct in that day of age. Rome is considered a water wealthy city and back in ancient times it can be estimated that the aqueduct was capable of bringing in enough water for 1000 liters per capita per day. That number is much closer to 500 in today's age. And lots of that water still freeflows out through the fontanelle (little fountains) placed around the city. (You might also hear these fountains called nasoni, after their nose-shaped spigots). The water's brought in from outside the city and is safe to drink.
Reflection Timeline
December 13th 2016 Today is the first day of our trip. This morning I am off to Cleveland to get on a bus on its way to New York. During this time I stay aware of my surroundings and promote safe travel. Tonight I stayed with a wonderful lady named Dona. She welcomed me into her house only a few minutes from the JFK airport and has been a wonderful host. Staying with actual people has been an enriching experience and has allowed for a more personalized viewpoint of the different cities I traveled to and allowed me to get a locals opinion on the best places to try that the locals enjoy. This morning I am up and early and on my way to the airport. December 14th 2016 Something kinda unique happened to me on my flight to Rome. On my way to rome through Moscow I had the fortune of sitting next to a Jewish doctor on his way to Israel from New York. He was very friendly and we got a conversation going and I learned many new things about the Jewish religion and about how everything works. Also to my surprise based on one of my ancestors names we discovered that I am partially Jewish in decent and it was a very good experience getting to better understand this religion and how it functions. December 15th 2016 Today I have arrived in Rome and a older gentleman who spoke no english checked me into the loft. The loft was beautiful with marble floors and a huge terrace that you could see the roof of St. Pauls cathedral from. I guess I never knew this previously but in Rome they love to use marble everywhere and the colosseum used to be completely covered in marble. So as the older roman guy checked me in it was interesting how he showed me how operate things. He would speak Italian but at the same time point at things and surprisingly I could get the gist of most things. In general I would just speak in Spanish and it is close enough to Italian some people could figure out what I wanted. December 16th 2016 Today is my first day in Rome and I decided to go visit the Vatican since it is within walking distance from the loft. When I arrived the line was so long I decided to purchase a skip the line guided tour the next day and took off towards the colosseum. I learned so much at the colosseum from the guided tour. Supposedly when it was first commemorated at its opening the emperor had over 900 animals killed in the first 200 days and would kill exotic animals such as elephants and giraffes. It was not a strange sight to see crucifixions or battles to the death. Also, when the cathedral was first built it was able to hold water and have water battles. Shortly after though a more barbaric emperor who enjoyed the fighting had a wooden floor built and many rooms underneath built to accommodate the animals and prisoners. These are just a few of the extremely interesting facts I learned while touring the colosseum and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Rome to take the guided tour. That night on my way home I stopped by a local butcher and had some ribeye cut. Even that was an experience in itself because no one in the butcher spoke English, so I had to try to use my repertoire of a few words to describe what I wanted. Also, something surprising was how much better the quality of the meat is in some parts of Europe. It was one of the better steaks I have had, but nothing can beat the Kobe beef of Japan. December 17th 2017 I started my day off today with a guided tour of the Vatican. Believe it or not Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world and even has its own currency. Seeing Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel was a sight to put on the bucket list. I also learned a lot about Michelangelo himself. Actually before the Sistine Chapel he was a master sculptor and someone close to the pope recommended that the pope change his order of a few dozen sculptors to the painting, something he was not a master in. A few sculptors of his actually did get created and they are true masterpieces with intricate lace and dressing, which in itself is a sight to see. The pope actually canceled the order of these ten or so sculptors after Michelangelo had been traveling through Italy for six months to find the perfect marble. So back to the main story, as he was painting it the proportions were off, so Michelangelo had to adjust the size of the people as the celling progresses. Believe it or not Michelangelo was actually protestant and in a way snuck in a cherub doing our version of the middle finger towards the location where the pope would stand. All these details were aspects that enriched the experience and allowed me to better appreciate the history of the Catholic church and better understand the religion. All of this history does not even include the beauty of the Vatican itself and the vast expanse of sculptors collected over the years. I also got a drink from one of Rome's 2500 free flowing water fountains that provide free spring water and were enacted during the aqueducts construction. Rome is actually considered a water affluent area and in ancient times had 1,000 liters of water per day per capita. Today only Rome has 500 liters of water per day per capita bulaliat still more than an adequate amount. December 18th 2016 Today I explored the Trevi Fountain, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Trevi Fountain is one of 1,352 fountains of ancient Rome and cost an estimated $2.2 million to refurbish back to its glory. Also, in ancient rome, the fountain was a main source of water from the aqueducts. Sadly in modern Rome you will have to get a drink from another fountain because its 2,824,800 cubic feet of water spilled everyday is recycled unlike in the ancient roman times. I also visited Palatine hill which in ancient times was a place where the famous and rich romans lived. This expanse of grandiose buildings overlooked the track were the ancient games took place. Also I visited the Roman Forum tangent to Palatine Hill. The excavations of the Roman Forum took a mere 100 years to complete and is approximately 1,400 years old. It was constructed in a marsh land and the romans used a modern drainage system to drain away the water. This was an enthralling experience which allowed me to better appreciate ancient Rome and the true power of the empire. It is inspirational to see something so antiquated and imagine its greatness at the apogee of the Roman Empire. December 19th 2016 Today I am flying from Rome to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona I made my way to my airbnb in the historic gothic district. Out of pure luck as I was waiting in the cobblestone streets of the gothic district to enter the apartment I overheard a walking tour guide talking about how in the very street I was staying on, a famous christian women was martyred and tortured. This women's name was Saint Eulalia and she was murdered at only 13 years old for her beliefs. Although this is not a positive fact it is amazing to know so much history and struggle with diversity was fought in the very streets I was staying on. Also, on this day I got to have a mini reunion with one of my friends I met in Singapore during my exchange who is now studying in Barcelona. She is an inspiration to me and I hope to do a semester in either Barcelona or Sydney. December 20th 2016 Today I traveled to La Sagrada Familia, a church that has been in the process for 144 years and was one of Gaudí's dreams. I also tried some authentic Spanish tapas and took a relaxing viewpoint on this portion of the trip. I wanted to experience the laid-back Spanish lifestyle and enjoy the history of the city at an enjoyable speed. December 21st 2016 This is my final day in Barcelona and I rode the incline to one of the highest points in Barcelona to get a view of the city in its entirety. This peak is called Tibidabo and on top is an ancient amusement park, still in operation, overlooking the city. This night in my airbnb I also met some amazing people native to France who I had dinner with. They informed me on all the great activities to try in Paris and also helped me learn a few basic words in French. Je suís Dillon... December 22nd 2016 Today I flew to Paris and enjoyed a guided night tour of the city. This in itself was not extremely educational, but I got to see some of the best and beautiful views of all the famous landmarks of the city including the Champs Elysee, the Arch de Triomf , the Eiffel Tower and many more. It was also Christmas time and the Parisians were embracing their elegant side. The Champs were lit up in a beautiful masterpiece of sparkling lights and a christmas village of small shops where set up along the street.
Inquiry to Innovation
Summary
The inquiry to innovation class was a semester long design thinking class. This class involved a partnership with BHDP to create insights and predictions for what the future of work would look like.
This class involved three separate sprints where we focused on different aspects of the design thinking process for each one. For two of these sprints my team and I decided to focus on Transportation and the effects of self-driving cars on infrastructure. The first stage of every sprint was ideating on our topic and collecting/processing our thoughts. We interviewed people and performed a few separate research techniques such as analogous inspiration to confirm our ideas created in the first stage. Finally, from this research we developed key insights and made predictions leveraging the insights.
We learned how to work on a multidisciplinary team, create professional presentations and give presentations that will be rebutted with intelligent questioning.
Working on an interdisciplinary team is a key skill required in the workforce. While going through the program many times we are isolated with people who think very much like ourselves. So many of our interesting realizations in this class were obtained because our team had backgrounds in areas of art, business, engineering and technology. The presentations we created in this class were the most thought out presentations I have created in my entire college career. Our ideas were listened too by intelligent people (DOT former employees, architects and urban planners), that could pick apart our ideas and challenge us to continue to develop our ideas and research strategies. Overall I love the process of design thinking and in the future when I start my own company I am excited to apply design thinking to the process of creating a new company and filling a market need.
Key Deliverables
I decided to include the following deliverable because they show an accurate representation of what we learned during the class.