# Hire Research Assistant

We are looking for ONE candidate that is

• Good in programming, mathematics, microcontroller system, and principle of network communication.
• Good command of English
• Discipline and independent

to work with us to improves the performance of Internet-of-Things (IoT) with locally decodable code. The successful candidate will be paid with RM 2,500 for 12 months and renewable to another year (1+1 policy). He/She is expected to register for Master of Engineering Science in Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering Science (LKC FES) and complete the study in 24 months.

Knowledge in network communication and coding theory are preferable, but not a must. The successful candidate must register for Master of Engineering Science in Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering Science (LKC FES).

## BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

We consider a mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) that consists of thousands of static sensor nodes with one or multiple mobile sinks (mobile base stations). Such dynamic network is commonly found in the IoT applications such as users with wireless wearable devices walking on streets or shopping at outlets – the wearable devices acting as the mobile sinks that continuously fetching the environment sensory data in order to provide ubiquitous services to users.

The candidate will work together with the team to design the communication protocol, implement the testbed on Raspberry Pi, etc. Minimum logistic work may be required.

The team members are Dr. Chong Zan Kai, Prof. Ir. Dr. Goi Bok Min, Prof. Ir. Dr. Ewe Hong Tat, Dr. Lai An Chow and Dr. Goh Hock Guan and Ms. Tan Lyk Yin. This is also a collaboration project with researchers from Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

The interested candidates should send their resumes to Dr. Chong Zan Kai chongzk@utar.edu.my.

Note: The calling is closed. Thank you.

# Research Project Poster with Lena

A research project poster requested by the institute. No personal photo, but it is okay with Lena.

# Calling for Research Assistant at UTAR

We are looking for ONE candidate that is

• Good in programming and mathematics
• Willing to learn
• Good English
• Discipline and independent

to work on a research project that improves the future network throughput with computer accelerator. The successful candidate will be paid with RM 2,500 for 12 months (renewable to another year). Knowledge in parallel processing and coding theory are preferable, but not a must. The successful candidate is expected to register for Master of Engineering Science in Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering Science (LKCFES). LKCFES FYP-2 students are encouraged to apply.

Description of the Project Rateless erasure code is a kind of error-correction code, where the original message can be reconstructed from the fractional encoded message. The emergence of rateless erasure code promises a better network throughput, but constrained by the bottleneck in the corresponding encoding and decoding speed.

The candidate needs to improve the encoding and decoding speed of the rateless erasure code with graphical processing unit (GPU) and to apply it in network communication. Some logistic work may be required.

The team members includes Chong Zan Kai, Prof. Goi Bok Min, Prof. Ewe Hong Tat, Dr. Lai An Chow and Yap Wun She.

The interested candidates should send their resumes to Chong Zan Kai chongzk+ra@utar.edu.my.

Note: The calling is closed. Thank you.

# Stepping Further

Still there is a far distance to destination…

# Good Bye, Osaka

Had 3 months (October to Jan 2012) research attachment in Imase Lab of Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University.

It’s time to say good bye.

Thanks for all the guidance and care. I will miss you all >_< ……………

p/s: 残念desu, I have yet to visit any MEIDO CAFE.

# Uniqueness of Mathematics

A very meaningful sentence from Introduction to Proofs and Real Analysis, written by Richard C. Penney:

“There is a fundamental diﬀerence between mathematics and other sciences. In most sciences, one does experiments to determine laws. A “law” will remain a law, only so long as it is not contradicted by experimental evidence. Newtonian physics was accepted as valid until it was contradicted by experiment, resulting in the discovery of the theory of relativity.

Mathematics, on the other hand, is based on absolute certainty. A mathematician may feel that some mathematical law is true on the basis of, say, a thousand experiments. He/she will not accept it as true, however, until it is absolutely certain that it can never fail. Achieving this kind of certainty requires constructing a logical argument showing the law’s validity–i.e. constructing a proof.”

# Don’t Teach!

I was reading some PhD guidelines and happened to come across a very meaningful remark. I felt exciting and decided to copy the inspiring paragraph here.

Don’t teach!

. . . more than you have to. For many, teaching is attached to a stipend or is otherwise economically unavoidable. In this case, do what you must! Moreover, there are some real intellectual and practical advantages from doing a couple of terms of TA work. Explaining the concepts to others is very useful in consolidating them in yourself. But beyond this, the returns become strongly negative. Your job is research – and anything that distracts you from this is a heavy cost. The first cost, which may seem remote at the time that you are deciding on the teaching, is that it could delay completion of the thesis by a year or more. An even larger cost is if it crowds out time to write a really great thesis. As a PhD student, your time is very valuable; treat it that way.

Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where do I Start? (PDF)

# Is 0.999… = 1?

Is 0.999… = 1?

Well. Some people say yes. Some people will say no and explain that the radical number 0.999… is approaching 1 but is not 1. The value should be somewhere near to 1 but is not exactly 1.

So, is 0.999… = 1?

I not sure but there is a simple proof that supports the claim.

Let $x = 0.999 ...$ (1)

Multiply (1) by 10,
$10x = 9.99 ...$  (2)

Then (2)-(1):

$9x = 9$

$x = 1$

From Mathematical Mysteries – The Beauty and Magic of Numbers by Calvin C. Clawson.