FYRP

Well, time flies. And it certainly flies fast. Finishing SPM felt only like one year ago, and finishing STPM is still so fresh in my mind I can recall so many things to actually write a dedicated essay for it. I can also still feel the excitement when I first travelled alone to Kuching, only for fears to finally sink in and paralyse me to the point I almost wept myself to sleep on the first night in my hostel in Sarawak. Total foreign land. Total strange place. No relatives, no people I know. Absolutely no elements of familiarity. I was so scared, but luckily after years, I've established sort of a nest here, and Kuching has become a rather comforting place for me to call a second home.

Anyway, it's now my final year here, and of course, it means one thing: Final Year Research Project. Damn. Anyway, after years of studying civil engineering, the conclusion I can draw is that I absolutely love Structural and Geotechnical Engineering. At the same time I cannot even begin to say how much I despise Road Engineering and Hydrology. I hate them. I can do them, but I hate them. Torn between Structural and Geo, I opted for Geo, because I had my fair share of exposure to structural engineering during my internship.

My FYRP topic is basically the usage of Finite Element Modelling to design piles. Piles are a common structural element to support a structure, and though they are commonly designed and have performed their functions superbly, often they are created with unnecessary overdesign to compensate the inability to investigate the soil-structure interaction. Hence, my FYRP is to investigate the behaviour and interaction of the soil and pile. It's quite hard, actually, mainly because I am super weak in using any computer software. But, my topic is quite fun. And to say the truth: I love it. But like any other people, playing around what I should play around is fun. Doing the report is a different nightmare to tell.