Technical papers

Journal paper, conference paper, seminar paper, the difference?

What is the difference between them?

I will answer the question above with my limited knowledge on the matter...

Conference papers -- is the technical paper submitted after attending a conference. The conference standard may vary from from a well recognised conference to a just-attend-me conference. Reputable conferences are well known to each discipline of research, common ones are the SPIE, IEEE conferences. However small conferences can also be highly sought as it gathers the researchers in a very specific field to discuss and debate the current issues. For example, I find the conference SIOE (don't remember the full name) in Cardiff is a good one for laser characterisation people. The small community makes it a friendly atmosphere for young researchers as well as professors to chat and discuss. (however, too friendly atmosphere is not nice either, well at least to me, as u have to sit with professors and pretending that you are 'into' what they are discussing... while your heart just want to have a rest in the hotel)

Conference papers are peer reviewed papers but the scrutiny of the reviewing depending on how much they want you to go for their conference. sometimes conferences just want to make money hence will just accept whatever you send then with ammendments of course. If the conference is a popular one, then it will be reviewed more rigorously. However, generally the reviewing of a conference paper less than a journal paper.

Journal Paper... its a technical paper which sometimes called a letter if its length is 3 pages or shorter. A full journal paper can be as long as you want but normally, after 8 pages, the publisher will charge you more per page. Journal paper can be rated by its impact factor. Impact factor is a measure of how much the papers in that journal being cited. A very high impact factor journal is for example the Nature journal, however, normally there involves extremely fundamental sciences. For Electronic and Electrical Engineering, the very good journal to send your paper to is Applied Physics Letters (APL), the Journal of Applied Physics (JAP), IEEE journals, Physical Review (this is if your work is nearly a physics work). How to choose where to submit? Well, normally you will check where does your field community submitted their papers? Then go for that journal because, it will mean that it is more likely for people in your field to find your papers and cite them.

However, sumitting and reviewing of journal papers can take very long time depending on which journal you send to. Plus i guess depends on rizq, because, there is this one paper we send to JAP, after two months still no news from them, apparently they are having a tough time finding a reviewer to review the paper. Its because its involving two different discipilines and interlinking between them, plus its very rare for people tolook at dark current of laser devices carefully. But generally JAP is faster than IEEE journals. The fastest is APL where normally people send short paper on the research and criteria is that is the latest news on the field and just letting the community knows about the progress. APL normally has the highest impact factor due to its nature being the first place to plublish a breakthrough.

Seminar paper? Its ranking is less than conference and journal...not many researchers go for this...

Ok, hope it is benefial for you...am sure K Yati who's phD on this topic can comment more :)

Berakhirnya tutorial.. part II

Ok, kita sambung cerita pasal tutorial lagi...

Apa beza student english + some european students dgn student asian? (asian ni seme lah termasuk chinese from china, chinese from malaysia and org melayu)...
Student english + european ni saya duk perhatikan mrk ni jenis yg suka berfikir...kalau mrk tanya soalan tak tanya apakah jawapannya...mrk akan tanya kenapa cara yg mrk buat tu salah? Di mana salahnye? This is crucial so that mrk realise mana salah dan tak mengulanginya...

Tapi kat uia lak (uniten pun sama) majority student kalau tanya soalan mesti nak jawapan terus...nak solid answer...so, jadilah saya dikalangan unpopular tutor dikalangan tutor2 yg ada...ye lah, kalau student tanya soalan, biasanya sy takkan bagi jawapan terus, saya akan bertanya lagi soalan kepada mrk, bertanya dan bertanya sampaila dia dpt jawapan sendiri! (hehe anak usrah saya biasa dgn approach ni, :P)...uish kejammnyeee...hehe (some might think).....tapi saya akan bertanya soalan balik utk membawa mrk kepada jawapan tersebut...menjuruskan pemikiran mrk utk mendapatkan jawapan tersebut... this is very important, i think.... masa degree dulu i was taught this way...sbb bila kita dah dpt ability utk berfikir tu, apa2 masalah dtg pun kita leh tackle..tak la spoon feed!! tapi sayangnya student uia suka yg spoon feed (tu masa tahun 2004 dulu)...boleh nampak di wajah mrk kekecewaan bila menerima sy sbg tutor project mrk...huhuhu...

Kesimpulannya, mungkin student melayu malas nak pikir, senang kalau dpt jawapan je...ermm..sy perhatikan tutor2 yg lain masa tu, ikut je rentak student ni, bagi terus jawapan...lembut...jadilah mrk tutor feveret... tapi i really think this wont help the student much in developing their thinking...kita (tutor2 & pensyarah) perlu berubah...biarlah student tak suka, tapi its for their own good...lain student yg menghafal dan student yg faham...student yg main hentam dengan student yg berfikir...

Camne lak ngan student melayu yg study kat UK ni? I think they are much better...maybe bcoz sistem pendidikan disini...(i'm sure akan ada yg disagree with this statement, but feel free to voice out)..sy tulis apa yg saya nampak n experience...(huhu sorry bahasa rojak habis) sbb tu company kat malaysia kalau overseas grad je mrk akan berlumba2 nk amik keje (ni specific kpd bidang engineering)...kadang tu bukannya result bagus sgt...tapi sbb mrk ada cara berfikir itu....sy tak nafikan maybe ada sorang dua yg study di malaysia yg excellent dlm berfikir, baguslah tu...tapi majoriti nya tidak...dan kitalah sbg para pendidik nanti yg kene ubah mindset student2 malaysia...biar mrk menjadi kritis dan hebat dlm problem solving...(ini bagus utk perkembangan ummah juga)

waduh2...jadi saudari rasa saudari hebat sangat lah? Ayooo, jauh panggang dari api..tidak sama sekali...just menggambarkan pengalaman secara general...maaf jika ada salah dan silap...

Pandangan saya tentang student chinese from china?
saya ada beberapa student drp mainland china ni dlm bebrapa tahun ini....mrk ni lain lah perangai dia drp chinese in malaysia...mrk sgt less competitive...dan yg kesiannya mrk suffer bab language ni... ada student tu, x dpt jawab soalan pertama dlm midterm test just because dia confuse sbb dlm soalan tu ada word conventional diode...bila sy tanya dia, faham ke camne diode conducts electricity, dia jawab ya dan menerangkan kpd sy...pastu sy tanya la kat dia, knp dlm test tu awk jawab salah?? Dia jawab dia confuse dgn word conventional tu...iskk...kesian betul...padahal dia mmg faham je konsep tu!

Masalah bahasa ni saya rasa melibatkan semua bidang...ye lah dah la kene faham material tu, kene juga la faham soalan2 dan nak terangkan balik dlm english...masalah bahasa ni, ambil masa yg lama juga utk terer...tapi kalau ada keazaman, boleh je, inshaAllah...kalau mana2 di luar sana yg ada masalah bahasa, make sure to flag it up to your tutor...tanya dia ada kelas extra ke yg kita leh amik? sebabnye beratus ribu ringgit kerajaan hantar kita kemari...so make sure kita do our best n perahkan facility universiti sehabis mungkin! Plus menurut supervisor saya, advice kepada student kalau tengah exam x faham certain perkataan, tulis dlm paper tu, kata tak faham dan juga apa yg awk sangkakan maksudnya...jadi mrk bila mark the paper dgn jalan kerja yg betul tp jawapan yg salah, they will mark accordingly....

oh satu lagi, mainland chinese ni, ada dua kategori yg kaya dan yg tak kaya...yg kaya kita leh perasan kalau dia ckp english with an american accent...(sy kalau ckp british pronunciation)... sbb mrk ni mampu hire private tutor di china utk mengajar english, and they can be very fluent in english...yg tak kaya ni, english dia bunyi cam org cina ckp english...pronunciation leh dgr hawa2 cina tu...so mrk ni yg suffers dlm study...kesian gak...

oklah tu aje dulu buat hari ni, sambung lagi nanti, iA...

ps : Kepada semua adik2 yg tgh exam... ALL the Best...Prepare habis2an, dan kemudian tawakkal alAllah....

Berakhirnya tutorial.. part I

Minggu ni, minggu terakhir saya 'menjaga' tutorial buat semester ini dan juga harap2nya berakhirnya for good di Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering di Universiti of Sheffield ini...

Mungkin saya boleh berkongsi pengalaman dengan pembaca semua menjadi demonstrator di department ini dan membandingkan dengan tutorial di Malaysia. Saya sempat membawa tutorial di UIA selama setahun sebelum terbang ke UK utk melanjutkan pelajaran..

Termasuk tahun ini, dah 3 tahun berturut2 saya menjaga tutorial... Saya menjaga satu group untuk tahun 1 undergrad dan juga satu lagi di tahun dua... Tahun satu, demonstrator ini di panggil sebagai superdemonstrator kerana perlu menguasai 4 subjek sekaligus dan monitor student2 di dalam group masing2... Satu group adalah dalam 7 hingga 8 orang... Dan buat group tahun 1 ini, hanya dua jam seminggu....

Tutorial buat tahun 1 ni, pada semester pertama merangkumi 4 subjek berbeza, manakala di semester kedua 4 subjek yg lain pula...pada tahun pertama mengambil tutorial ini, mmg penat juga nak menelaah 8 subjek kesemuanya...dan perlu menjawab soalan2 pelajar jika ada...(biasanya adalah, cuma di akhir semester kedua, biasanya pelajar dah malas ke tutorial, tinggallah hanya beberapa kerat) ... Tapi utk tahun kedua dan ketiga mengambil tutorial ini, alhamdulillah dah mudahlah sbb gunakan sahaja apa yg telah dipelajari...

Siapa pelajar dlm group tutorial tu? ada mat saleh, ada org cina drp negara china, ada org germany, ada org india...campur2 kesemuanya...

Buat tutorial utk tahun kedua undergrad tu, saya menjaga tutorial semiconductor yg di ajar oleh supervisor saya. Saya menjaga tutorial ini baru dua tahun...bagi saya tutorial ini lagi mencabar sebab banyak konsep2 semiconductor yg perlu difahami dan di terangkan kepada pelajar2...Tutorial ini takde group2 kecil, jaga saya kene menjaga tutorial utk satu kelas, dalam 40 orang...

Mungkin ada yg tertanya2, kenapa saya jaga tutorial ni yek? Erm, pada mulanya saya ambil krn rasa excited nak menjaga tutorial di established university dan juga menimba pengalaman di samping dapat meletakkan kerja ini didalam CV. Supervisor saya yg mulanya menyuruh saya mengambil kerja ini kerana katanya saya perlu menimba pengalaman ini krn nanti saya akan balik mengajar di UIA. Supervisor saya ini sangat berhati2 memilih studentnya utk menjadi demonstrator, sbb ada juga di kalangan studentnya yg lain ingin menjadi tutor tetapi dia tak memberikan persetujuannya. Kenapa agaknya supervsior memilih saya? entah, saya pun tak tahu...kadang2 susah nak baca supervisor saya ni, kadang2 kita ingat niat dia murni tapi kebanyakan masa, banyak udang di sebalik batu...Setelah tiada lagi scholarship drp KPT dan UIA, saya mengambil peluang meneruskan tutorial ini utk mencari rezki...takdelah dpt banyak tapi boleh lah membantu dikala terdesak tu..

Banyak sebenarnya saya nak berkongsi tentang tutorial ini dgn semua...tapi kerana kesempitan masa, saya akan menulis dikit berdikit...inshaAllah sambung lagi..

Aku dan MSc student

Entry ni untuk share my experience membantu seorang masters student...

Aku telah di pertanggungjawabkan untuk mengajar sorang masters student ni utk buat projectnya...di sebabkan projeknye itu banyak kene mengena dgn phd yg tengah di buat sekarang...cumanya...i wont benefit much from his results sbb kebanyakan result tu, saya or previous student dah buat...so cumanya tolong guide dia buat project tu...

You might as why kene guide masters project ni pulak? well, my supervisor thought that I will benefit from the experience of 'supervising' a student as i will go back to IIUM and inshaAllah one day supervise a student..

This masters student, for the purpose of confidentiality, will call him LX. He is a chinese from mainland China... when the first time I saw him in the lab, showing him how to do the electrical measurements....well, I can hardly understand what he said...his english was disastrous..the pronunciation uhuh....i had him repeating some sentences many times just to understand what he was saying.... and many times too, if i asked him to do A, he will do B...so imagine doing a masters project like that....

Time progresses slowly... and with time his english getting better and better (maybe we (my SV and i, forced him to speak in english) and he can do most of the measurements, only once in a while i had to go in there and help...

He passed all his examination, surprisingly...so the only hurdle for him now is his project...unfortunately for him, he got a project which is slighly difficult in the sense that requires a lot of physics background ... and he was same as me, having little or zero background in semiconductor...what make it worse for him is that his english is not helping him as well..

Dipendekkan cerita, his supervisor (SV) which is the same as my SV decided to give him extension to finish up his project...Our SV nearly failed him coz his lack of knowledge and his terrible interim report...but I told my SV to give him another a chance, coz i know he did tried and still was trying...so there he was last week, still struggling to finish up his report..he got all of the results already, but the hardest thing was to analyse and write the thesis...

LX has asked me to proof read his thesis 2 weeks ago, but I refused. This is because I was tutoring him and it will be in appropriate if I checked his english coz I will help him to correct his technical writing as well...I have offered phd students in my group to help him with the english, yes, paid of course...but nobody was interested...

so in the end, with desperation my SV asked me to help him...i was reluctant, firstly because i was and am too busy, even my work i can hardly do them all..secondly , i was down with a fever, so cant really concentrate and thirdly, i am kinda fed up with him! uhuhuh you might asked why...its because, sometimes you have to explain to him a concept in semiconductor for three times , and still he wont understand it...its not because he is stupid, its just the language barrier and the lack of the semiconductor background! Plus i am not a very patient person...

That was last wednesday that my SV asked me to help the boy, LX... He said, charged him highly, coz he deserves to be charge..and you (meaning myself) dont have to actually help him...so might as well earn some money...

So guess what, in the end, I helped him...going through his results, advising him to replot the graphs, guiding him how to analyse his results and lastly reading and correcting his thesis! Poor boy... LX told me he never has worked as hard as for this masters...

Some background of LX... he is a rich boy...well, his parents are rich, having a furniture company and exporting it to UK and europe...so his parents paid the £20,000 fees for the masters... when I asked LX why he wanted to do a master, he said, because he dont want to work in his father's company as yet..he want to be independent ...LX told me he didnt work hard at all for his degree (that was back in China), he just passed his degree... but now he determined to pass his masters as it will be a shame to go back to China failing his masters... he also told me, for the pass 9 months (of the project duration), it has not only gave him bodily tired, but also heart tired ..i laughed...i told him, that is nothing, try to do phd and be tired physically and emosionally for five years!! He quickly replied, he will never do a phd...hehe

Panjang pulak cerita ni.... akhirnya, i managed to somehow correct his thesis in 3 days...today he is on his way back to China due to his visa ended today...Honestly, the first time i read his thesis, i cant understand 80% of the thing he wrote in there...dah la demam, tambah sakit kepala baca tulisan english yg takleh difahami...not only that, banyak pulak tu technical yg salah...ayoooo, and i have to correct for all that, imagine!!

Anyhow, during the tutoring, i asked him , sentence by sentence what he meant, and when i understand it, i translate it to understandable english....unfortunately, in 3 days mana la boleh baiki semua 50 pages...so i just changed parts which are clearly wrong...and corrected some grammatical english so that the reader can read it...i would say in the end, it has improved at least 60% than the original writing he gave me...and plus i was paid, alhamdulillah :)

What is the lesson that I learned?

1) I told my SV this is tough coz his english is very hard to read...and my SV said, u think Malaysian student is very much different? ermm...honestly i dunno coz i had never marked a project in Malaysia before, but maybe there will be some students who's english is not very good...and my SV said, this a good training for me to cope with this situation :P

2) I learn that many rich boys are maybe are like LX....hidup suka2 je...semua dpt senang...for LX he was like that before jumpa my SV...LX thought it was easy to pass a MSc in UK...nope, he has to work for it... mungkin ramai gak kat mesia yg mana mak ayah kaya, anak2 hancur, tak nampak nak struggle and strive...hancur...kadang2 kene push sket org macam ni, baru mrk appreciate life..

3) After helping the boy to correct his thesis, it gives me some insight of how my SV corrected my writing...rupanya bukan mudah...appreciate gakla my SV going thro my so called 'Rubbish' english and perfecting it (oh yes, my SV says my english is rubbish...terima je la)

4) it feels good to help somebody yg dalam desperation... kesian ada gak..demam2 pun baca gak la thesis dia...kalau tak sia2 la £20,000 parents dia bayar for him to study...i will never want my parents to loose that kind of money..

5) Lastly, i cant wait to go back to IIUM and serves there...meet all the students and contribute back to my country, to my people and of course to my religion!

To conclude : I hope Mr. LX will pass his project...although i thought that the english can be improved tremendously more (and my SV agreed to give him more time just to correct on the english, but LX refused, he said, the thesis is already good)... we'll just have to wait and see..

maaf tulisan diatas campur bahasa inggeris dan melayu, tulis dalam keadaan nak cepat...jika menyakitkan mata, sila skip sahaja...

My first published paper

Alhamdulillah akhirnya keluar juga la paper hamba ini...yang memakan masa selama setahun 6 bulan!!...phew..lama yg amat.. setahun lebih sahaja gi balik gi balik draft ngan supervisor, pastu 3 bulan di hantar ke JQE utk direview, and 3 bulan untuk menjawab soalan2 reviewers dan baiki mana yg patut...yg baki nye tunggu pulak queue utk di publish!

Jadi pengajarannya, tak yah la hantar ke IEEE Journal of quantum electronic ni (JQE) sebab nye lembab yg teramat...kita cuba Journal of Applied Physics pulak ye nanti? (inshaAllah, semuanya dengan izin Allah)....

Sedang menulis paper kedua, adui peritnya....dari paper yg patutnye nak buat short je, jadi semakin long n longer, semenya 'terima kasih' kpd supervisor yg sibuk suh panjangkan dan detailkan ia lagi... ya Allah mudah kanlah...Allahumma yassir wa la tu'assir ya kareeeeem!

Enjoy reading the paper! :)

ps: drp paper nak kene kembangkan utk chapter thesis lak...susahnye phd ni...kepada sahabat2 yg sedang bertarung ngan phD di doakan moga terus kuat semangat dan cuba yang terbaik, kita cuba yg terbaik dengan sedaya upaya kudrat yg ada, lepas tu kita tawakkal inshaAllah... rezeki semuanya ditangan Allah, Tuhan sekalian alam, dan bukannya di tangan kita ataupun tangan supervisor kita...
Dependence of the EL on Spacer - Hasbullah NF 2009

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