ALGAENERGY-Reflections on proposal

ALGAENERGY: aimed at improving the energy situation in Singapore, through bio-fuels extracted from micro-algae, fueling a part of the energy requirement.

It was a blur idea when we started. Each of us had different views and goals in mind. However a series of discussions and desktop research helped us finalize the team’s stand and mission statement.

Although plenty of resource was available online, we still had to research about the possible benefits that this technology can bring in order to overcome the expensive extraction cost barrier, which prevented the implementation of this technology in various parts of the world. 

Our research involved surveying students with prior knowledge, reading scholarly articles/online resources and face to face interviews with Professors and Research assistants to confirm the positive impacts this technology can make in Singapore. The team successfully managed to do enough research. Each of us complemented our own strengths to compensate for other's weaknesses that helped us boost our overall performance.

Being busy with submissions and unable to find common timings, we had to split work and discuss online. However there was an excellent chemistry that helped us streamline all our efforts together efficiently, towards the end.

By working with people from different cultural backgrounds and varied fields of interests, I learnt a lot more than just academics. Through the course of the project we learnt to be professional and applied our critical thinking skills.

Importance was given to every minute detail on the proposal. Proofreading the report numerous times helped us analyse the proposal from different angles, thoroughly evaluating its strengths.

Moreover, research was done on the requirements posed by National research foundation (NRF) to meet the requirements posed by NRF for funding a research.      

I thanks my team mates Jieyang-for the brilliant organisation of ideas, Haikal-for keeping the team's spirit up, Michelle-for the magical slides and Terence-for being the foundation and guiding us through with this topic.