Publications

Effective teamwork requires shared understanding, goals and responsibility over a task. Kenan Kok Xiao-Feng explains how to guide students in working collectively.

Many fail to see the blood, sweat and tears that often go into both successes and failures. We must learn how to celebrate the process as well as the outcome.

Navigating large-scale virtual spaces is a major challenge in Virtual Reality (VR) applications due to real-world spatial limitations. Walking-in-place (WIP) locomotion solutions may provide a natural approach for VR use cases that require locomotion to share similar qualities with walking in real-life. However, there is limited knowledge on the range of experiences across common WIP methods to inform the design of usable WIP solutions using consumer-accessible components. This paper contributes to this knowledge via a user study with 40 participants that experienced several easy-to-setup WIP methods in a VR commuting simulation. A nuanced understanding of cybersickness and exertion relationships and walking affordances based on different tracker setups were among the findings derived from a corroborated analysis of think-aloud, interview, and observational data, supplemented with self-reports of VR sickness, presence and flow. Practical design insights were then constructed along the dimensions of cybersickness, affordances, space and user interfaces.

The human need or quest for comfort and convenience and lack or denial of awareness can contribute to energy wastage. This paper contains a written and video story of a research learning journey designed to develop the educational experience of Year 2 building services engineering students in developing a solution that can potentially be used to reduce the negative effect of human behaviour on energy consumption at Yishun Community Hospital, Singapore. The role of storytelling in developing the students’ critical and reflective thinking needed to induce learning to form an educational experience, i.e., knowledge, understanding, and practical and communication skills, was examined. Students went through classroom training to give them the background knowledge and understanding required to fulfill the energy efficiency innovation project requirements. The reported educational experience gained from the learning journey is documented in this paper. This paper reports a method of developing human capability for energy-efficiency agenda achievement. It also reports an approach for contributing to the educational experience needed to prepare undergraduate students to solve real-life problems and be job ready upon graduation.

Water wastage caused by human behaviour can be largely due to human need or quest for comfort and convenience and lack or denial of awareness. Year 2 building services engineering students were tasked to conduct research that will inform the development of a solution that can potentially be used to reduce the negative effect of human behaviour on water consumption at Mouth Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore. The students were also required to write a story and made of video story based on the research to document and demonstrate how the research learning journey has developed their educational experience. The role of storytelling in developing the students’ critical and reflective thinking needed to induce learning to form an educational experience, i.e., knowledge, understanding, and practical and communication skills, was examined. The students developed the background knowledge and understanding required to fulfill the water efficiency innovation project requirement. A method of developing human capability for water-efficiency agenda achievement and providing the educational experience undergraduate students need in their journey to being job ready upon graduation is reported in this paper.

This paper documents the effort to inspire Year 2 building services engineering students to develop critical thinking, reflection, technical and communication skills, and knowledge required to be self-learners. Students were required to learn what it takes to design, construct, and manage a high-rise building's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems in Singapore and apply the knowledge to solve a design problem. Students interacted with industry professionals with design, construction, and facility management experience to aid their design of MEP systems for a high-rise building in Singapore. Students were equipped with design thinking skills in the design studio. Students got the opportunity to deepen their building information modelling (BIM) software (Revit) skills and used them to develop and present their designs. The students believed the design module learning journey, which emphasised the importance of conducting research for effective design, equipped them with fundamental knowledge and skillset sought after in fresh university graduates. They also believed that the module learning journey allowed them to effectively familiarise themselves with building MEP systems and the Singapore codes and standards for designing the MEP systems.