Frequent Seas

Less Than Or Equals to Five

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Well, EQuaLS5 has gone past its mid-point. I think so far it went reasonably well. Since the theme this time is more on the mathematical aspects of theoretical physics, perhaps many in the audience will find the mathematics in the lectures is beyond what they are accustomed to. This is in fact even true for me. As an example, what Mathai mentions of "elementary differential geometry" (vector bundles and K-theory) are things that I am still learning. John Baez was telling me that all the speakers are all from the Maths Dept (apart from him being presently a visiting professor at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, NUS). I didn't do this purposely but I was simply inviting people whose research overlaps with my interests. By the way, a surprise for me was that Mathai of the Mathai-Qullen formalism fame was born in Petaling Jaya but he left Malaysia a long time ago and now he has Australian citizenship.

Just like in EQuaLS4, I had also asked my students to present some of their results as contributed talks. Much intended is the exposure for my students and also getting the feedback from really established researchers. I consider our research are small research advances but none comparable like theirs of course. As I said, I tend to think and give problem that are suited to our level of knowledge and capabilities. The students should think the same way too. If we stumble into good ideas, that is well and fine otherwise we will keep dotting the i's and crossing the t's. It is indeed dangerous to thnik that we have a good idea or even overselling an idea lest we will appear cranky to others. Baez has came up with the crackpot index (see also Sean Carroll's post on alternative sciences) that we should be aware of and test ourselves. Besides one's imposition of self-importance, another danger is to work on too big an idea particularly the ever easy temptation to use buzzwords. The "angels" are in the details, they say.

Some explanatory notes that I need to say. I tend to invite very established and distinguished speakers, not because to show that I know them or able to invite them, but simply because I would really want to learn from them, scientific or otherwise. On the other hand, they get to know our limitations and constraints. Another, neither is my intention to outdo other events. It is in fact ny dream (fantasy?) to meet as many physiciststs and mathematicisns relevat to my interest. Thus what I do in EQuaLS ...

Geometrically Wet-Wired

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:58:00 +0000

In a few more hours, we will be starting our event of EQuaLS5. I am somewhat anxious about it and in a way felt rather mentally "unprepared" for it (as usual). It has always been my intention to get myself prepared for the materials to be covered in each lecture series. In fact, it goes beyond that; I "fantasized" the idea of PrEQuaLS (before each EQuaLS), a preparatory course of lectures for the topics of each EQuaLS. Well, it didn't happen (apart from EQuaLS4, where I got some help from collaborator). So I would just hope for the best and absorb as much as I could during the lectures.

This time, EQuaLS has the theme of "Geometry, Topology & Physics 2012", much due to my deep interest in geometrical and topological ideas. Tried to trace when precisely did my interest in geometry comes about. Perhaps it has the origin in my fascination in the notes of Herbert Green on tensors that are extraordinarily original (yet to find a textbook that carry his way of doing things). From then on, I always marvel at how abstract structures occur and how they are applied. At the time in Adelaide then, I was however on the path of supersymmetry and supergravity; trying to make sense of the literature and in a way not yet deeply involved in truly geometrical ideas. Then I stumbled onto the article of Witten, "Topological Tools in 10-Dimensional Physics" published in the first issue of International Journal of Modern Physics A (I subscribed the journal at the time). Of course, I didn't understand a word of it (not having the background and hence the challenge), but it had started the drive in me to look into more abstract mathematics. Learned topology all by myself (geometry was already there in general relativity) while I was doing an essay on Witten Index. By the time I get to PhD, my supervisor introduced to me the work of Chris Isham and since then, much of my work is revolved around geometrical and topological ideas.

Come to think of it, I believe geometry is very much ingrained in our thoughts. I remembered a colleague made a passing remark that all physics eventually reduce to numbers in one of his popular talk. I thought to myself that this is not true. This idea is perhaps due to the common association of mathematics to numbers. There are however many abstract (mathematical) ideas that do not involve numbers at all. In fact, the idea of numbers is an abstraction itself. The first kind of "mathematical" calculation that our brain does is perhaps that of geometry; trying to recognize shapes and sizes, developing ability of motion through space. Perhaps geometric ideas are somewhat wet-wired into our brains, giving us some form of intuition.

Of course, geometry has gone through many developments beyond the simple shape-size ideas to geometry of the Greeks to very modern abstract stuff. We will probably hear a lot of them in EQuaLS5. Just had dinner with the speakers a few hours ago at Islamic Kitchen in Bangi. John Baez is certainly taller than I had imagined. Mathai Varghese had a slight dark complexion that gave some Indian features (out of my ignorance; here are some possible origins). The rest, I have met before. Hope they had an enjoyable dinner there.

Don't Work Smart, Work Hard

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:25:00 +0000

For those who have been observing my GChat status of me not being well is probably asking what's wrong. It's the usual episodic back pain coupled with tension headaches and other bodily pains. It has been a difficult time for me but I am surviving and not giving up on things. The harder it is, the more I push myself to my limits (but yes it is tiring). I'm going through irregular sleep patterns now and subject myself to prolonged seating (which is bad for my back). Much of these are due to research and firefighting duties.I'm certain I am not doing things right since I'm putting myself at a disadvantage. I have not filled up my KM portal as needed for my annual assesment and I have done little for my promotion, which was asked from me several times (yes, I worry about that too, though it had not translated to actions).

The above does not mean I am not worried economically but perhaps I don't view it as everything. Certainly I don't live a lavish life. Big cars, home renovations, plasma TVs etc. (Funny, once my relative came to my house and they were surprised that we had only an old bulky TV; we only bought LED TV recently since the tube in the old TV got burnt out). We do not compromise only on some necessary life comforting matters and the children's education. I am much aware as well how fortunate it is to be a monthly-salaried permanent academic staff. Having seen my other half working on her business is very educational (and sometimes inspiring) - there if you don't work properly, you'll lose your income. A day on leave means lesser pay. Working hard (but yet with a sense of play) is something that I cherish and hope to instill in my children. I am happy to see my eldest son is now going to work while waiting for his SPM results (I did not know that cashiers in Jusco get to go home the last until every cent has being accounted for, usually at 11.30pm - tonight he is coming back at 1 am). He asked for this voluntarily, perhaps with the persuasion of his peers as well.

Why am I bringing all this up? Just to convince myself that we are working hard, I guess. I think I have been called slow by others, and even lazy. Perhaps they do not see me "doing anything". I will perhaps write about the life of an academician at some other time, to make it clear to others, how we sometimes work without appearing working.

Another challenge: my other half just took a bad fall yesterday and her feet is swollen from a nasty sprain. Luckily the X-ray report did not say any complications though there is still the possibility of torn ligament. She will remain at home for the time being.

More EQuaLS (Than Others)?

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:06:00 +0000

While many others may have waited for January 9th for other reasons, me and my students perhaps are much more eagerly waiting for EQuaLS5. This lecture series started about five years ago and predating EQuaLS, the TSLELS another five years. Now, when I started to ask for funding for the coming EQuaLS, some people questioned back on what has been the impact of EQuaLS? This is a fair question. I have written back a lengthy report on what I thought to be the benefits we have acquired so far. For me, it is important since it has helped us gain some level of confidence in doing highly technical research that is acceptable to the international community. I will not hide the fact that the speakers are often chosen based on the interests of my group. I think this is fair given that we were the ones who worked for the fundings of the event. Did once an event where I've included the interest of others but I got the impression that it was not really appreciated. I also had open up EQuaLS for others to host but none taken due to perhaps the support is not there.

For me there is something more than just the benefits that we are getting, it is the tradition that I hope to grow, at least among the small community of ours. There is now the danger that this tradition might just end, given that acquiring financial support are getting more and more difficult. Financial support for such event is really necessary since we do not have a large base of audience. If we were to rely on the registration fees alone, then the fees will be forbiddingly high. Even as it is now, some have already complained that the fees are high (I beg to differ really, given it is for five days with five well-known international speakers). Let it be known that some other funds and even personal donations are used to help run the lecture series and we require some additional funds from funding agencies or sponsors to top this up to get to the present fee structure. I certainly hope that this additional support is forthcoming.

It is interesting to observe that in the past few events that I have organized, I've gotten overseas support more readily than the local ones. Now before somebody suggests that I should try international funding only, no international agencies will actually fund an event without the local counterpart giving as much or even more (which is indeed expected of us). So we do really need the support. I have tried writing for a longer-term financial support (with support letters from prominent researchers), so that we can run the lecture series consistently for a few years with better organization and hopefully with bigger impact, but to no avail. That leaves me with very few options in view of future EQuaLS including stopping EQuaLS for good (I hope not). However I leave this open for now and see what are the eventual circumstances.

Let me leave this post with some remarks about EQuaLS5. For those who are aware of research in mathematical physics will probably know how well known and important the speakers are in this event. Many perhaps know John Baez through his blogs This Week's Finds and Azimuth, and of course his research on categorification etc . and now on network theory, the topic of his lectures. He has authored an exceptionally friendly book on "Gauge Fields, Knots, and Gravity", which is highly recommended for students and researchers. S. Twareque Ali, who has been with us from the beginning and very supportive of EQuaLS, is a very experienced and influential researcher in mathematical physics. He has a book on "Coherent States, Wavelets, and Their Generalizations" and he will indeed lecture on this topic in EQuaLS5. Replacing Maurice de Gosson who could not come, is Mathai Varghese who will lecture on fractional quantum Hall effect and noncommutative geometry. He is well known for the Mathai-Quillen formalism and has indeed received many prizes. He is now the Director of the Institute for Geometry and its Applications. From Institute of Mathematics, Hanoi, we have Do Ngoc Diep, a disciple of the famous Kirillov. He has written a book on "Methods of Noncommutative Geometry for Group C*-Algebras". He will be lecturing on his recent interest in quantization of fields, I believe, based on the geometric Langlands program. Last but not least, is Fredrik Stroemberg, an expert in computational aspaects of automorphic forms. He is presently our visiting scientist at INSPEM and he will be speaking on arithmetric quantum chaos. These names should speak for themselves at how important and interesting this lecture series will be. I would really like to call on those who are even mildly interested in any of these topics to come and listen to their talks and the interactions there. John Baez himself will give a public lecture on the last day (open to everyone) on "Energy, the Environment and What We Can Do". Below is the abstract:

"Our heavy reliance on fossil fuels is causing two serious problems: global warming, and the decline of cheaply available oil reserves. Unfortunately the second problem will not cancel out the first. Each one individually seems extremely hard to solve, and taken together they demand a major worldwide effort starting now. After an overview of these problems, we turn to the question: what can we do about them?"

I hope we could put up a webpage for this soon. Readers of this blog, please help publicise this lecture and EQuaLS5. For me it is a rare opportunity to see these distinguished researchers speak here in Malaysia.

To Wither or To Weather

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:17:00 +0000

Some may wonder what's with my long silence on this blog. I have actually vowed to myself that I will not do any blog post until I have carried out some signficant portion of my duties (most of which are backlogged) or until sometime before the new year comes. Well, the new year has almost arrived and you will probably have guessed it right that I have not finished my intended work.

I no longer want to write on how tough things are or grumble on why do we have to do things that tend to complicate things. I feel like a broken record when doing so and all the grumbles in the world will not make it any easier. So I'll stop but please do note that it does not mean I agree on how things are. There are many things that I believe, have somehow misplaced the roles of the academicians and I do hope someone in the upper management will study this, perhaps fight for the rights of academics. For now, I will carry out my duties to the best I can. What I will write now is perhaps some form of new year "resolutions" (not necessarily applies to me alone) that I hope will help me eliminate my backlog list and the firefighting mode.

Selfish with time: I used to have a very open door policy that students can come and see me at any time while I am in the office. I thought it would be student-friendly, making sure I was accessible. I heard many times that some students grumble on how difficult to meet lecturers (don't know how true this is). So, what I did is to make sure I stay put in one office (despite I have two and some people complained I was never in the Faculty, so now you know the reason why) and even allow students to meet me during lunch (I rarely go out for lunch). But now my duties have increase multiple-fold and I tend to lose focus on many things. I would like to put back control on my time by limiting students to come at some scheduled hours (presently the time available seems after office hours). I hope my personal assistant will also play her role in scheduling things - this will require her to take particular note in things I do.

Limiting the role accordingly: These days one finds the academic needs to do a lot of "management" even in research and teaching. There are tasks that were absent in the old days but now becomes part of our duties. The rationale is to have a "system" and one that is able to reproduce quality records. While these may have their purposes according to some, they add to things for academics to worry. Parts of these could have been delegated to those who are really supposed to do management and manage tasks; such a system could have been set up to free academics to do what they are supposed to focus on. A possibility here is for postgraduate students who are receiving support, to help manage these with the aid of those in the administration. Now as an administrator myself, being the head of lab, I would rather delve in matters that really use my expertise. I prefer to spent time on making real decisions that will help research of the lab more than anything else. I would rather not spent too much time doing reports and letters (including editing), some of which could have done by the relevant officers, secretaries, or even personal assistants. Certainly good reports and letters are important to maintain a healthy image (that I concur) but perhaps such expertise should be acquired swiftly by others (learning by practising is always the best).

Beating procrastination: These are usually habits and habits tend to take time to overcome. I tend to procrastinate on writing reports, speeches and others since I tend to think deeply on what should be the best form. Perhaps I should now decide what is actually critical and what is actually not. Reports or write-ups that are meant to convince others to obtain funding or endorsement for research matters, perhaps need some dwelling. Reports or write-ups that in the end goes into some filing cabinets of others should be written quickly. Sometimes I tend to think speeches in events are important but is it? One has to apply some wisdom here because certain messages or raising image or prestige can be delivered better elsewhere with focused audience/recipient and only at certain times can it be effective in speeches. So for now, for write-ups that I do not find critical, I will have to do it without spending too much time or better, even delegate to others.

Learning to say no: Many times I do find myself doing things that could have been done by others (and in fact better be done by others by virtue of role or expertise). And I tend to do this voluntarily with the view of teamwork. Some done with good effect but at other times not so and it could even backfire. Some even told me that I'm being too nice to everyone (I actually thought that it is virtue). Again here, some wisdom is needed here. Having to say no regardlessly may destroy the team spirit but not saying no may lopsided the burden on you. I have no quick solution on this matter but the role we are playing and expertise will be my guide. So perhaps lesser nice guy then.

Limiting my research interests: This will probably be my hardest since I am interested in a lot of things and fancy myself as a polymath. It is also where I spend my time the most and perhaps fumble. Presently I tend to entertain students' tendencies and interests but this may have to end. In the future, I will have to limit myself taking students in certain directed areas. Easier said than done given the existing array of students.

Zap away paper clutter: This is not quite a critical problem but yet can be bad. I do have heaps of papers at the office, home and car, to the horror of my other half. Perhaps one paper clutter that should be handled better are the non-research paper clutter. Almost daily, we get working papers, minutes, letters etc (not to mention e-mails) and we are drowning in it. I do need my personal assistant to put this into shape by filing them systematically and effectively; reading them for me to see what is really critical for my attention and summarizing the noncritical ones so that they can be filed away immediately. The present system of filing is not working properly. On the research papers, my student made a good suggestion recently of buying an iPad, which I will consider seriously (given no other financial commitments). It would help me with better online reading and perhaps help save the trees.

Having learned Peter Principle, I probably have gone past my point and I have the feeling that some others may have thought too. For those who do, I have already expressed my desire to be no longer the head to the management (ten years would be long enough and will be happy to have others have a go at it). I do believe that I can do best in some things I really have faith in but not others. I don't think of myself as a limited person and I hope that I do not portray myself as one. Raising to the level of incompetence may not just be the function of oneself, it is the function of others too. Raising standards or hoping for better achievements without really putting the supporting framework can easily put oneself (anyone) incapable. I hope people take note of this.

Complex Demise

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:07:00 +0000

As I mentioned in the last post, I would like to blog on the demise of one of the research programs of the lab I am heading. The decision came after the upper management had a look on our research ecosystem. This is despite that our research programs had earlier been merged from six programs into three namely (i) Computational Mathematics & Scientific Computing (research program that merges computer sciences and mathematics); (ii) Mathematical Physics & Engineering (research program that merges physics, engineering sciences and mathematics); (iii) Complex Systems (research program that merges various sciences like biology, ecology, sociology, economics with mathematics). In this way, we can cover almost any sciences but of course there are niche areas with available expertise within each program. Before someone shoots out a comment why not just have the real niche areas as the programs, my own take on this is that research programs should have a longer term goal, sustainable over some period of time and not be too volatile - changing too often would then look silly.

The Complex Systems program indeed has a smaller pool of researchers as they go beyond the traditional areas and the program is the most interdisciplinary. Compare this with the other two programs, they are very much more traditional-looking and these areas have been around at least since the beginning of last century (or earlier depending on how you look at it). It is such interdisciplinary nature that I thought would find a natural home in the institutes. But I certainly concur that presently the program looks weaker in terms of researchers, output and activities, though to be fair, it is still new. I have indeed tried to expand this by inviting individuals from computational chemistry and biology research groups and even initiated research on complex networks. But alas, I was too slow perhaps in doing so (though I hope people understand I have already dabbled into too many things). Thus, this is my second failure in promoting such program. Earlier in a different institute, I had already suggested the program "Complex and Nonlinear Systems" and at the time had even less following. Then came the absorption and found myself at the present institute. When I first took responsibility the lab, we had Mathematical & Computational Biology (during the 6-program period), which is even more specific and had even less members. I push the notion of Complex Systems to widen up the scope. We have yet the critical mass for the restricted scope of Mathematical Biology and this is very much felt when we organize the ICMCB 2011 where we had to really seek for participants. Again there, we had widened the scope to include computational biology (to be frank, even other mathematical areas).

It is a pity that we had to close the program down. I was thinking of the many research projects that we could have developed. I have my own personal interest in complex networks due to its numerous applications and also due to its interface with computational science. Other areas that would be of my interest are those that include some abstract maths to capture some of the features of a complex system e.g. Twarock's work on the virus - she delivered a superb talk during ICMCB 2011. And there is this Mathematics of Planet Earth year in 2013 that the institute had commit herself to participate - I had some school or lecture series akin to EQuaLS in plan; I tentatively called it CoSTS (Complex Systems Tropical School) e.g. CoSTS 2013. Perhaps there will be other activities instead.

I hope this demise would be temporary. Hopefully the institute would reconsider this program at another time when we have establish strength it. Elsewhere, around the world, institutes on complexity or complex systems have mushroomed. Notable ones during the early boom of the subject is the Santa Fe Institute and the New England Complex Systems Institute. Recent progress on the subject has also spurred new ones like the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Warwick Centre for Complexity Science, Institute for Complex Systems & Mathematical Biology in Aberdeen, Complex Systems Institute of UNC, Charlotte and many others. Twarock herself is part of the relatively new York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis. Just right after being told that the program is to be closed down, I was informed about some research work done in one of our local university for which they had Theoretical & Computational Modeling for Complex Systems program in the Ibn Sina Institute for Fundamental Science Studies. We could have jump on the bandwagon too with certain specialiced niche areas but perhaps the time is not ripe ...

Week of Visits

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:02:00 +0000

What a hectic week it has been! Right after the community workshop with the Orang Asli students mentioned in the last post, we made a trip to Pahang for some publicity drive for INSPEM. This trip came about after students from UIAM in Kuantan invited us over to give some talks during the carreer week. To be honest, we did not know what we are supposed to give talks on. Certainly there should be an introduction to the institute that we belong to and the opportunities that are available there. This I gave. We improvised a little bit, noting the audience, and skipped the details of the lab. My colleague, Mahendran gave some idea on what carreer can be pursued after graduating with a mathematics degree and Mat Rofa gave some further details on the research of his lab noting there might be interest in the area from students of the Islamic University. Indeed, students flocked to him after the talks. Right after the talk, I noticed this poster on the door to the seminar room:

Well, I did wish to give a talk on that - had some slides about such applications of mathematics in diverse areas somewhere in my laptop but suppressed this intention. Anyway, there was good response from the students.

The day earlier when we first arrived in Kuantan, we took the opportunity to visit Universiti Malaysia Pahang, a relatively new university. This was made possible by my school-mate, Prof. Mashitah Mohd Yusoff, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Science & Industrial Technology (thank you). Apparently, she saw my FB status on my trip to Kuantan and hence the arrangement. Met Saifful Kamaluddin, who showed us around particularly the computing facilities where he was running some density functional theory calculations. Perhaps he could be in touch later with our staff Dr. Mahmudur who is doing similar calculations. It is perhaps interesting to see that the Faculty had international staffs early in its phase.

On the way back home, took the opportunity to buy some souvenirs for my kids. My back took a beating a little due to the longer travel, coupled with my digestion problem. Was rather feverish when I reached home. Two days after the trip, we had a visit from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Having previously an MoU with one of its institute (Institute of Mathematics), INSPEM became the natural choice for accompanying the delegates to visit three faculties in our university, namely Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, and Faculty of Science. The delegates are basically from the Scientific Council of the Academy and they are

Prof. Nguyen Khoa Son (Director of the National Program of Space Technology)
Prof. Nguyen Dong Anh (Director, Institute of Mechanics)
Prof. Nguyen Dai Hung (Director, Institute of Physics)
Prof. Ngo Viet Trung (Director, Institute of Mathematics)
Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Lai ( Senior Researcher, Institute of Mechanics)

I was told that even one of them had even occupy a minister post in Vietnam. Given their positions, it would really be an opportunity for the Faculties to take this opportunity to open up opportunities for collaboration beyond the one that is already established by INSPEM. Many did not know that Vietnam had longer scientifc tradition than us and they had been "exporting" scientists all the while. Most notable is Ngo Bao Chau, the 2010 Fields Medalist; you can read his interesting interview here. Very recently, the physicist Tran Thanh Van received the 2011 Tates Medal for International Leadership in Physics (website not updated). It would be of interest to the Faculty of Science that they had even published their journal under IOP, UK i.e. Advances in Natural Sciences: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

That night, we had dinner with them at the KL Tower. I went home with some digestion problem that stayed until this point of writing. Also, within this week, I received another disturbing news, the closure of one of our research programs, in the laboratory. I will write about this in the next post.

Convict the Heart

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:07:00 +0000

The last two days we had a workshop with students from the Orang Asli community. This is the second workshop we had with them. I left immediately after the closing yesterday, brooding over the things that I've said during the last forum. I think I've said too much; overdoing it. But the real thing that gets to me, is the feeling I get when I try to empathise with the students, the heavy burden that comes with those words. We are probably in no different situation from them in terms of the responsibilities and herculean tasks to carry out our duties although these would be of different level and intensity.

Now what I really wanted to say at the end of the workshop was for them to realize the three classes of situations that affect them namely (i) the external factors for which they have little or no control over them; (ii) factors that they can exercise control but yet require the help of others (iii) and lastly, the factors that they had control over their own selves. I was trying to hammer the last one but I got too emotional I suppose. We have complete control over our own inner voices (and in normal circumstances, they tend to be destructive), control over the heart that desires things, that believe things. We have to put our rational mind to work to do this. I wanted to convey the feeling of pain of struggle that one has to go through to achieve our dreams, the years of inferiority complex abuse that one has to fight against, the realization that we are as much intelligent and industrious as any person of whatever skin colour. Never to give up. The most dangerous idea that can get to them (and us) is to lose hope.

Another point that I hope to hammer through is that they should start going to specifics. They should know what's bothering them (and also us) in specific details. Only then they (we) can move in some known directions and change. It's nice to say idealistic things and often this is general vision but these often lack focus and do not take into account practical matters or constraints. In usual circumstances, the changes made have to be incremental and permanent. To find an easy starting point for which they can feel the change within themselves. And when they do, the mind will trigger signals of hope and joy, achieving something. Now I say all this, because we are indeed doing the same in our own spheres - the more reason I felt afraid of falling into the situation that we don't practice what we preach.

Now, the objectives of the workshop are pretty high and the present assessment seems to show there are considerable hurdles to these. Do we mean what we actually say is the question that rings in my head on my way back home. Again, it is the scare of the numbness of having too many activties and the loss of meaning that gets to me. Well, we have to try and give it a shot. I leave with these two songs:

Progressively Drowning The Noise

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:53:00 +0000

Today, I'm getting too many negative vibes. I'm really tired of them and tired of talking about them. So let me drown them with some music; it has been awhile since I post anything on music.

Sometime last week, I got this from Baez's post on Google+. Had never heard Bjork before but this song called is Crystalline is very catchy. The truth, I have stopped following music yarns ago I suppose (roughly when I started a family). Anyway, the song has some gamelan influence and like many of her songs, should I say some science influence? Watch the nice graphics synchronized with the beat and melody of the song.

I'm pretty much into progressive music in those days. I look up to songs with complex rhythms and melodies, those that push musical techniques to the limit. Here's half of Planet X with the amazing Virgil Donati - one of the few relatively decent clips available of Planet X:

I actually first heard of Virgil Donati when he was part of a jazzy pop outfit Peter Cupples Band. Never thought that he played up to this level. Here's another in his own outfit:

Now progressive music is not only about flashy techniques played up to the utmost. Some are about complex layering and colouring. Let me bring you to one of my favourites in electronic music right from the 70's - Klaus Schulze with Crystal Lake:

However I hate the pretense that any less complex music is less worthy. Creativity in music doesn't mean that one should have the music less hummable. Here's a piece that I found some weeks ago that I find enjoyable and it had Morgan Freeman, physicists and even Feynman in the clip, using their voice singing to the tune. Here it is:

I think I should stop here. Taking too much of time already.

Alimov's Workshop on QM

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Just a few days ago, we had successfully organized the second workshop by Prof. Alimov despite some struggles to get it done. The workshop was on Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Having taught quantum mechanics many, many years and have read widely on it, knew most of the materials. Nevertheless, there are always new things to learn and I have always been in the learning mode when hearing talks, looking at the gist of the whole course, personal views and not so well-known matters.

Alimov introduces the subject in a historical manner, building the story right from classical mechanics up to many-body problem in quantum mechanics. It is interesting to note that many introduction to quantum mechanics tend to forget the historical development of the theory opting for more pedagogical path. As such, one gets a more synthetic view of the theory development and loses the culturals aspects in which the theory is build. One important remark that Prof. Alimov made (which might be missed by others) was the amazing fact that mathematics had helped build quantum theory without having a proper notion of the objects (atoms etc) that it is describing. This continues until today, theorists still struggle with quantum ideas but yet the amount of mathematics involved is ever expanding. I recall the statement made by Prof. Cecille deWitt-Morette during her visit to Malaysia years ago for a conference - she initially wanted to contribute a paper reporting the contributions of mathematics to quantum physics and she found out that she had to cover almost all areas of mathematics.

There are many personal stories given in the workshop. To a question about Heisenberg's involvement in the atomic bomb, he gave his opinion that Nazi Germany was two years away from fully developing the bomb. I do not know any of this stuff but it was interesting to note how intelligence carried out their investigations since the development of the bomb cannot escape from utilising some technologies like the centrifuge for uranium enrichment and the deuterium plant which is easily visible (at least at that time). Others include the observation of how Satyendra Nath Bose's important discovery of the Bose-Einstein statistics led to many Nobel-prize winning discoveries but yet he himself did not win awards from the West.

On some general matters, Alimov mention the importance of making science simple enough for the public to understand their significance but not too simple to give the erroneous view that science can be developed by just anybody. He quoted the conjured story of Newton and the apple often overshadowed the great amount of technical work that Newton made in his days. This resonated with some of my views often conveyed to my students: the importance of tradition. There are huge amounts of technical work underlying a particular theory found in a book that one should not be misled by the simplicity of its presentation. What more, one should not get the false impression that one understand theoretical physics by simply reading popular science books - there is a great deal of mathematical work involved in these theories. One should not be fooled by the glamour of theoretical physics and chase what is popular.

Now I know that Prof. Alimov reads my blog. So I should convey my apologies on any shortcomings during his stay here and hopefully he had enjoyed the two-month visit despite that I'm sure there are many rooms for improvement. Much can be attributed to my own limited influence and there were many external factors. I'm sure many had benefitted from his talks during seminars and the workshops. It is indeed the intent of the institute to have many benefitting from our visiting scientists by conducting such workshops. I do hope the administration will make it a priority to attend to whatever unresolved matters before he leaves this week. I hope that Prof. Alimov will continue to lend his suppport and contribution to the institute. Notes from his two workshops are being planned to be put into a book form and we hope to have Prof. Alimov on our advisory board in one of our international joint venture.

111111Post

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:22:00 +0000

Oops! My keyboard got stuck while trying to type 1Post. Yeah, yeah .... it is the 11.11.11 hype. So I thought I take this opportunity to do this post (after difficulty of going to sleep). I probably have forgotten about this hype if not for Prof. Alimov's mention of this date in his current workshop. I do not have anything special going on for today though one of my staff is getting married (congrats). Others who are secretly hoping for a portal to open up, just go watch this movie and have a time of your life. Some others would like to make this date as an opportunity to make us more aware of interconnectedness. For those "normal" people like me, you probably would like to know more about the special 'one' in your life, you probably would want to read this post.

This post would however be on matters of 1person. If you are as ordinary as anyone else, you probably have faced the situation where your working life comes into conflict with your personal life, say regarding family. Now some would say, that one has to be professional and keep our personal life out of work (but rarely they would advise us to keep work out of personal life). In reality, however, we are as individuals are one whole person with little provision of putting up borders between work and personal matters. When it comes to conflicts between the two spheres, we had to make some difficult choices of what to prioritize. It is here where it is important to have an organization that is humanized, seeing their workers as humans, not organic machines. On the other hand, the indvidual worker ought to develop a sense of wisdom to know what is appropriate for balance. An organization that looks after its workers will usually find the workers be more committed to the goals of the organization. The individual workers with some acquired wisdom will find that teamwork, co-operation, delegation of duties as natural when faced with pressure of meeting matters of personal lives.

Let me reflect on my own life. I must say that I'm a guilty parent since I tend to put work matters above family. While I do attend matters of my children, I do feel that I've not given much attention to them. Particularly at present my children are facing a lot of pressure, exams and what-nots. Here is some small dilemma. I wanted to show support to my children by being with them when they receive results of their public exams but work matters sometimes are in the way. Next Thursday, the UPSR results are out and I hope to take leave but on Friday there is a meeting and I need to look into some matters (if lucky, I get some aid). Suppose I have the luxury and do take leave for this, then I need to be sure that I can do the same for my other two kids hen they have their results. This is to be fair. Presently, there is no guarantee that there will be no clash of duties during (yet-to-be-known) the announcement dates. Now, this may appear a very small issue for some but it is a big matter to the child involved (they probably remember it for the rest of their lives). Anyway, I want to be there for my children and pray that it will be easy.

Simply HZ

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:23:00 +0000

I'm reflecting on a few things that have happened since my last post. I have been asked many times why I do the things I do. Have no straight answers really. Some are pretty much thought out. Some are impulsive. The latter, I suppose, arises in situations where no matter how much one plans out things, uncertainties tend to gobble it up. So in a way, there is not much point in spending valuable time on pondering what is best when the chances are you won't be able to achieve that. I really look at the situation at hand.

Like anyone else, I prefer to work on things that work, hopefully with some good impact. Where risks can be minimised, one selects the option. Wherever resistance is less, one takes that path. I recall in the very early days about where to develop theoretical physics and realize my ambitions. So naturally, I took a path where there are more opportunities in comparison to the status quo that promises very little. In the same way, when it comes to work, I tend to go with people who could actually help me do things. If things get difficult in some path, I try to find another path that is simpler. I'm very much that simple a person. I prefer not to brood over problems too long when alternatives are present since they tend only to sap off your energy. Wherever possible, I prefer to make my work enjoyable (though this is now increasingly difficult) since the best performance occurs when work is really much like play (see Superworking by Susanne Rix). Another factor is really a sense of mission which helps one to be persistent. This "mission" too helps form collective efforts within a group where the mission is shared.

Some may not share what I feel, which is fine. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. Some may not even like what I do (or worse who I am), which is OK too but they will most probably not work with me. But anyway in an organization, opinions cannot simply run free at everyone's whims; some hierarchy is needed to smoothen decisions. Each level will have their own superiors with which decisions can be finalised. Recognition of this fact will help us put our work into perspective. Even if we are our own bosses, we still have constraints to work with and not be allowed according to one's own whims. I learn this very much from my other half.

So I'm very much a simple person. If I'm difficult, I would like to hear about it (minus the rude words). Sure, I don't expect everyone can go along with me but tolerance is really two-way. There are however a few things that I have very little tolerance with. Among these are those who like to see things not working. Worse still, are those who sabotage. I have seen in other organizations where such factors are at work; actually they can bring the whole organization to its knees. In some personal cases I know, some "leaders" even sabotage young aspiring workers, merely just to "teach them a lesson". I have actually lost my respect for those who did so. And please, I say this with a reminder to my own self too.

I sincerely hope that I have an enjoyable working environment free from those negative elements. There are many tasks at hand and we have yet much to accomplish ... My very worry is EQuaLS5, which is around the corner. This is not a huge event but one I consider important as a midway between shorter-duration workshops and longer-duration summer or winter schools. Consider this school for example (just received this from my colleague): 1st IAS-CERN School on Particle Physics and Cosmology to be held in NTU from January 9 to January 31, 2012. It's three weeks long and has string of lecturers and speakers. Think of the resources involved. Recall our ambition of holding a bridging "T(r)opical" school for beginning graduate students. Do we have what it takes?

Meaningful Events

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:40:00 +0000

First and foremost, a happy and meaning Eidul Adha greetings to all. May we understand better the meaning of sacrifice in all its forms.

Was unable to do a post for some time, much due to a flurry of activities. In the last week, we had our 7th Workshop on High Performance Computing (HPC7). I heard that the workshop was well-received with most of the registrants turned up for the workshop. This is good, for many times we often had people registering but in the end, didn't turn up for the workshop. Even worse, there are sometimes bogus registrants - some are easily detected, some are not. Now all these actually cause problems to organizers since we tend to estimate food preparation by the number of registrants. Overestimates will incur costs and hence it would be helpful for the organizers if registrants inform us if they are going to be absent. On the other hand, the organizers themselves have a responsibility to give some form of notice of acknowledgement of registration to the participants - this will help participants to take leave of absence from their work place and also in getting permission for their use of research grants to come to the event. Now we tend to forget about this. Perhaps we have conducted too many events and tend to overlook on this matter. Again, in the same respect, some institutions also require some form of brochures as evidence that the event are actually taking place. One just have to look at our own institution on how we process our applications for attending events elsewhere.

Yes, we do conduct many events at our place but it is something that I thought an active research institute should do in part - help make the research environment more lively. There is a danger of this frequent event-organizing, make things grow stale over time and as such a tendency to overassume things and overlook matters. Having events spaced out would indeed help but this is not as easy as it sounds since people tend to look over the same window periods where there is no teaching, there are no exams and in Malaysia, the extended festive period. Presently, there seems to be more events at the end of the year. From my own lab, I've already mentioned HPC7. Just before that, we had Prof. Alimov's workshop on e-m prospecting. Next week, we will be organizing his second workshop with us on Introduction to Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Despite that funding is now scarce, we have to honour our promise as it is indeed in our original plan to have both workshops. These are only workshops from one lab; there are events of other labs too and as almost always they involve the same set of officers. Some events, despite initiated by a single lab, they tend to take a central place due to involvement of outside bodies. The training course for Acheh's teachers is an example. Also within this month will be the second module for the orang Asli students - I've yet to know whether I will play a role or not.

For me, it is important not to get numbed by this hustle and bustle. Always tried to get some new angle or perspective for each event, instill some freshness into the organization or the very least my own involvement in it. I have always tried something different, possibly creative. Each event should be meaningful on its own way. And the more it is to more people, the better the event will be. I'm banking very much on my staff and students to own up each event, just like it is theirs very much as it is mine. I suppose for EQuaLS5, I hope it will reach another peak, given the line-up of very prominent speakers. Let's energize it as if we are doing our very early EQuaLS days ...

October End Notes

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Today, I'm back at the office and many asked me how I am. I'm OK though my digestive system is still recovering. Now to set the records clear, it had nothing to do with my food intake in Bandung but rather my irregular food consumption. Some mentioned that I should exercise more to make me more fit. Perhaps, though I think that this is not quite the real cause of the current problem. I do not hide that I'm low on fitness and that, I try to overcome by doing exercises whenever I can (i.e. when there are not too many deadlines on my work and not feeling too tired). I remembered how I scored low on the body fitness scan during the recent convocation expo (at the Sports Academy exhibition). Now, do I take herbs and traditional medicine? No, I take omeprazole, the drug prescribed to me the last time I went to the doctor for my digestion problem.

Anyway, my real intention of this post is to say a little bit more on ICREM5. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the conference was held in the ITB campus. It is indeed a good idea to have conferences (as many conferences are in the west) in university campuses, taking advantage of the academic environment. This is contrast to our usual way of having them in hotels. Of course, having such posh hotel environment may be attractive and it also keeps us away from escaping back to our offices during the conference period. But the expenses that come with it are always high. Much of these could have gone into getting more good speakers and subsidizing student fees, for example. But the real wrong reason to have conferences in hotels is for show (which could have easily crept in due to certain parts of our culture) - one should really aim for the scientific content and interactions.

Prerequisites for having conferences in campus are good facilities. We should have good halls, lecture theatres and seminar rooms to start, which are indeed supposed to have a natural home in the campuses. However, one that we often forget is the size of tables and seats should accommodate for all sizes particularly Europeans/Americans tend to be larger than us. Also, important to have rooms with good design - not one which makes presentation slide-board lecturing options to be mutually exclusive. Another that seems to be problematic is the WC. Clean and well-maintained, of course is a must, but that is not the issue raised here. It's the difference of culture - we tend to use water a lot (and not mopped) and some are equipped with squat toilets. This may be difficult for those who are not used to it. Another difficulty is perhaps the availability of the right sized hall and multiple rooms in one area (and not used for classrooms at the same time). Having them at separate far away places might be unfavourable in our hot and rainy (even frequent thunderstorms) climate - Bandung seems cooler in this respect. Thus, one long-term good solution is to have well-designed convention centre (with a hotel) within the campus. I hope such an idea could be taken up. I know a university in a neighbouring country, they had an executive centre and they frequently hold conferences and workshops there.

Had mentioned also in the earlier post, how students are very active in Bandung and they played an important part in the organization of the conference. It is indeed a good experience for them and to be able to mingle with international speakers (and as part of committee, would not pay for the conference fees but yet enjoy the talks). My own experience, they were very attentive to us and in a sense pampered. But this only goes to reflect our culture, how well we treat others. This will be another added bonus of having conferences in the campus - of course this is assuming the students have the right culture (they are into science - not apathetic). With the right amount and appropriate delegation, the use of students also help elevate the burden of the staff who are almost always have other duties at hand.

Students can also participate through cultural shows just as they do in Bandung - this may not quite reach the professional level of performance but often there are enough talents to give a glimpse of the local arts and culture. What we had in Bandung was really good; particularly impressed with the wayang dance and the gendang/gamelan performance. Even we had performance from Prof. Baskoro's students (if I'm not mistaken), performing jazzy guitars and vocals. The highlight of the night was Prof. Baskoro's singing "My Way". Apparently, he also dragged us (Malaysian lot) to the stage to do some performance. Earlier, we had been warned but I wasn't so sure how serious they are. I had prepared something in my pocket but eventually we are left to back our good Director singing (honestly we do not know the words of the songs and we perhaps looked lame). Some experience.

INSPEM had some good form of international exposure there - being introduced as the former organizer of the previous ICREM. There were talks of future activitities, the IMU, and even possible addition to future organizers of ICREM. For now, the next ICREM will be in Hanoi.

ICREM5 Pics

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:26:00 +0000

Just thought I update on ICREM5, after a few days in bed. I was about to have a flu when I went to Bandung. It worsened at the end of the trip with running nose and the usual pain at the joints. Back at home, had indigestion problem added. I think I had two days worth of food undigested in me. Had this kind of problems before - in its mild stage, one just gets bloated. However when it is severe (like what I had two days before), no solid food can enter and your body aches all over (not to mention my back). Thankfully, the worse is over.

OK, before anyone gets "sick" reading this entry, let me just post some pics from Bandung. First and foremost, the group photo (but not everyone were in)

The Fields medalist Prof. Villani is just besides the conference chairman, Prof. Baskoro somehere in the middle. See if you can spot me - I'm just behind the INSPEM director. Here's me during my talk and the question-answer session:

Here's myself with Bobby Gunara and other Indonesian theoretical physicists plus Prof. Yoshihiro Sawano in the middle (sorry for the low quality pics - I really ought to get a new camera):

Funny seeing my name on a large billboard on entrance to the campus:

The gamelan and gendang players during the conference dinner (they are students from ITB):

Me and Dr. Syarifah Kartini at ITB campus entrance on the last day of conference:

Did not go for much sightseeing. Managed however to take a walk and capture this picture of the mosque, Masjid Raya Bandung. Unlike most mosque areas in Malaysia, this had a lot of commercial activities and people relaxing within the compound.

OK, that's all I had (the better ones). Wish I had more time to mingle around and sight-seeing. Perhaps next time.

@Husein Sastranegara Airport

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:50:00 +0000

I'm currently at Husein Satranegara International Airport in Bandung on my way back to Kuala Lumpur after spending roughly 5 days for ICREM 5. I finally got a decent internet access here. It seems that the internet access in the hotel and in the campus seems slow and unstable. Maybe there are some prepaid internet access as I saw some commercials on the billboard, but I didn't get to explore this. My priority then was communicating with my family at home but after the second night I sort of gave up.

Anyway, this will be a short post. ill give details later. The conference was good with the 2010 Fields medalist Prof. Cedric Villani giving the keynote talk. We were well received with the students giving us personal attention to our needs. The conference was held in the campus and we had arranged bus rides to and fro from our hotel. It seems during Saturdays and Sundays, the campus is rife with extracurricular activities which I find impressive. They were doing all sorts of different things, building structures out of bamboo and pieces of wood, performing all sorts of art and music, etc. When we first arrived at the conference, we were greeted with some Indoneian gamelan-laced fusion music blaring just nearby. Its a pity it had to coincide with the opening ceremony and the plenary talks, for otherwise I will watch them play. Anyway, we were able to hear the background music while we are listening to the talks - not too good if you are interested in the talk, but will do well if one is not. These are beyond the organizer's control, I think, and I really have no complains on their attentiveness to us.

Today, I was thinking to myself that I would take a cab to the airport. But the conference chairman was kind enough to get somebody to send us to the airport. Well, actually it may be meant for our Institute's director but I tagged along. Well, it will be another hour before the plane takes off. Goodbye Bandung ... wishing that I will come with my whole family next time.

Seboghang Seberang

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:14:00 +0000

It seems that these few weeks, I was surrounded by matters that are related with Indonesia. Just last week, got myself occupied with reading materials for (roughly) a three-hour session with mathematics teachers from Acheh, Indonesia. This week will see me off to Bandung for the ICREM 5 conference (co-organized by our institute). Just today, received news that our (ought-to-be-appointed) research officer have decided to take up the offer with a private company instead of joining us (sigh).

Believe it or not, I have never been to Indonesia. So the coming trip will be my first; I do look forward to it but some difficult matters at home make this trip be a heavy one for me. Indonesia is often considered a country a brethren country, perhaps due to many from the Malay race here have ancestral roots there. Rather unknown to many, my great, great, grandfather (don't know how many generations before me) was from Sumatera from the area of Padang (vaguely remembered the name Padang Alang, but could not find this), of the tribe Rawa (sometimes spelt Rao, following its dialectical pronunciation). Unfortunately, I do not know any more than that. I used to speak Rawa with my late mum and with close relatives. Now, I only remember a few words - indo ku tau laie ... . Here's a page where I can re-learn some basics of the language. Apparently, there is a society for Rao people in Malaysia JARO (read this post if the link can't be reached); learned this from Sekondak Hati.

Back to the activity with Aceh teachers. The delegation of mathematics teachers from Aceh was a surprise to us; it was passed to us for some reason. Much on our mind then, was the image of the university (and in fact the nation as a whole - one only need to think some of the difficult episodes with our neighbouring country). I have yet to know on what arrangements they are made to spend a month here. Surprise, it is, that we don't have proper modules for the needed course - we had to make one spontaneously. I am happy to contribute of course (despite I am not quite from the mathematics group) though I wish that we had ample warning and time to prepare. My session with them is on Mathematics Enrichment with ideas taken from the nrich programme particularly from papers of Jennifer Piggott. Covered too, are applications of mathematics in contemporary topics as part of enrichment activities.

The other matter was the staffing for our High Performance Computing Services Section, which is under the lab but is meant to service the whole university. Now getting people for this is actually hard since persons involved need some fair amount of technical knowledge. Those who are trained well in the area often leave to work in the industries. We had a candidate (who was on temporary basis before and help develop project and activities in IDEC) but the person was from "seberang" though married to a local who is an academic staff. Due to much delays (needing special permission and some extraordinary push), he had accepted a job offer elsewhere. Pity we have to lose talents in this way. Having said this, it is particularly worrying at the end of the year of more uncertainties of losing more talents (I hope not). The present stage of the Institute needs better drive by good teamwork and the present supporting team members have done much in the past. Any less will certainly NOT benefit the institute or the university, in my humble opinion.

Finally, the coming trip. Yet to finish the paper and presentation amidst various other duties. Sigh, .... too much on my mind.

When Heartless

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:25:00 +0000

What busy days I've been in this week and the last. Got myself stressed out with too many matters and the episodic back pain returned. Another new development was my blood glucose level has now increased above normal and this has shown to be consistent after several tests. So I will have to keep a low sugar diet now. This, I can do but high blood pressure out of stress is not quite within my control.

Anyway, I would write on something that my other half brought my attention to sometime last week. It was on a cat that got its front legs chopped off. Initially I did not bother to look at it as I was too busy with work, but finally did. It was heart-breaking and the cruel person whoever did that must be mindless and heartless. I can only imagine the person being like a serial killer or deranged person that feeds on cruelty and pain of others. The cat named "hero" was saved by a good samaritan who later kept it. Here is the video of the cat:

Whn I first saw it, must say that my eyes swelled with tears. The story can be read further at this blog. After watching and reading hero's story, felt some guilt over our own cats in the house. My other half tends to the cats much more than me since I tend not to be bothered that much. Now before some smart alec start commenting that there are worse things to be horrified of or to be concerned with, let me just say that I am more appreciative of people who do more of whatever little things they can contribute than those who simply pass off too many comments (who perhaps do not have much to contribute anyway). One should do good, however little, when the opportunity arises. Sometimes I see people talk about big things but they did not do anything when some small opportunity is there - somewhat hypocritical I think.

I leave this post with these two music clips:

Notes from Alimov's Workshop on E-M Prospecting

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:16:00 +0000

I would like to do a blog post on the last workshop we organized, i.e the one on electromagnetic prospecting by Prof. Alimov. It was enjoyable, particularly the anecdotes. Personally, I was hoping for more advanced lectures. The speaker perhaps did not know quite what level should the lectures be, I suppose, and hence many elementary treatments of the topic. Before the workshop, we were hoping to get some engineers to come as participants. Only one came - if I had known this, I would probably give a more precise advice on the content of the lecture to be more mathematical (actually the handout notes are more technical than the lecture itself). In fact, the turnout was (again) lower - I think we will not be able to cover the cost.

Now why the topic of electromagentic prospecting? Apparently, Uzbekistan being a doubly landlocked country (as the speaker explained) has its significant economic activities based on mining. It seems that quite a number of mathematicians in this central Asia region tend to work on problems of geophysics which are of national interest. A.N. Tikhonov is one of them. I did not quite recognize this name in the beginning but something ticked and I was thinking, is this in any way related to Tychonoff, as in Tychonoff's theorem. Indeed it is, as Alimov confirmed this. Many of Tikhonov's later work was on prospecting problems. Pity that the intended audience of engineers did not come as the lectures would have shown how high-level technical mathematics can be vey practical. Alimov dwelled a bit on the idea of existence and uniqueness of soultions, how these do actually have significant implications on the mathematical models often used on geophysics.

Other interesting queer notes are the following. Alimov in introducing the differential equations mentioned that Hamilton once tried to popularize the term "atled" for what we commonly called "del" or "nabla". Now, it is really "delta" spelled from right to left, supposedly to reflect that "del" is capital "delta" turned upside down. Next, is the story of Aristotle used to criticise 'scientists' of his time for contradicting his opinion that the sun revolves around the earth. That would have meant that much earlier than Copernicus, people knew that the earth revolves around the sun. Could not find a reference for this - was it the Pythagoreans? Others are some classic references which I did not know (and could not find) such as Chien-Shiung Wu's book (?) explaining details of theory of Leviitan on inverse problems.

In his lectures on electromagnetic prospecting, he also mentioned a related interesting problem on variations of charge distribution and e-m potential on the earth. Having not known the subject before, I was surprised on certain facts (perhaps I should not be, if one thinks about it deeper), e.g. nearby the surface of the earth, the charge on overall is negative, the daily variation of potential. I asked the reference for these facts. He responded, the Feynman Lectures. Immediately, I felt embarrassed in a way, since it implied that I had not read these great volumes of lectures by Feynman. Indeed I have not read all the three volumes since I tend to only look up on certain topics that I am interested in at the time.

Some disappointments: first, of course the lower than expected number of participants. Second: there are occurrences of participants chatting while the speaker is giving the lectures. Can't they control the level of their voice if it is really necessary at all to discuss at length in the seminar. Momentary discussions may be tolerable but it is beyond that. I find this annoying - several times visitor from abroad have ommented on this but it seems some of us find this behaviour not rude? Third, the most disappointing is the insufficient funds - sincerely if only I myself had some large sum of money stashed away somewhere then I can fund this type of activities (and make it free or less expensive to participants). Unfortunately, ... like what Prof. Alimov had said, we tend to be "poor" academics ...

Alimov@INSPEM

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Another busy day passed and my body is aching all over. Have been wanting to do this post for some time before the upcoming event next week.

Would like to blog on the idea of having visitors to the lab. I have always had this impression that a good research centre will always have a string of visitors. It gives an indication of how open we are to ideas (and we should be) and also how established the place is to be attractive enough for visitors to come. But most of the time, the visitors are from our own personal network. On my own part, I work on many different ideas and if I had the resources, I would have invited the prominent researchers in the field to the lab but that would be too greedy of me to do that. Thus, it is almost always that I'm always receptive to any invitations made by my colleagues and I certainly urge my local colleagues especially to do so (not many take this opportunity).

The institute has in some ways an interesting history of having more visitors from Uzbekistan. I'm actually curious how it got started. Presently, in fact, the lab received a very prominent Uzbek mathematical physicist, Prof. Sh. A. Alimov. He is very much revered to the Uzbek community here and in fact many of his students have become professors and some of them are here. He has in fact served as rector to a few universities in his country. Perhaps to my interesting note here, is that he had been the country's ambassador to China nad was once a minister in Uzbekistan; these would probably be rare among many mathematical physicists.

This is the first time I met him though he has been here as a keynote speaker for our ICREM2 (it is unfortunate that we don't keep the webpages to the conference but there is a link to photos of the event). To be frank, due to my poor reading in functional analysis and spectral theory, and perhaps inaccessibility to many (Soviet and post-Soviet) Russian journals, I was not aware of his vast contributions before. I do notice that he had co-authored papers with Sergio Alberverio. Last Tuesday, I had the oppportunity to hear him speak for the first time. It was on a problem of heat exchange, which would have sounded ordinary to many. He lectured so very clearly and mentioned the practical problem of time needed to switch on and off an air-conditioner and surprisingly (though I shouldn't be) of the problem where even to put multiple air-conditioners in an oddly-shaped room. He was saying that some of the answers are the ones that physicists would intuitively think they are but he was able to show this mathematically.

Prof. Alimov will be giving two workshops while he is here. I certainly hope that more will attend these workshop and of course his possibe other talks since he delivers clear talks. His first workshop will be next week on electromagnetic prospecting and would be of interest to engineers. His second will be on quantum theory. Please do attend them.

Sharing is Daring

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:44:00 +0000

Just found myself coming out from a period of fatigue due to much work and some recurring problems (no, not recurrence relations - wish they were; those I can cope). Today went back to work, busy as ever. Realised just the evening before that an opening ceremony of an event under the lab coincided with my lectures. Rushed up to write a module for SCL activities.

Anyway the event is on desktop grid computing and we had Robert Lovas to gave his introductory talk on the topic (and later to conduct technical hand-on session). The HPC Services Section under the lab hopes to collaborate with the DEGISCO project. I hope this will go well and I sincerely believe that one has to take up risks and challenges to tread new avenues. No, grid computing is not at all new but it requires ourselves to make some shifts of paradigm. My guess is that most of us are not willing to give up some computing power and this is even mentioned by the speaker himself from his informal survey during talks and was promoting sharing/donating is cool (shouldn't it be a virtue?). More so in our environment where territorialism seems to thrive. Of course, there may be some genuine concerns aout security but I would have guessed the experts must have done some work on this. In any case, if some data on some computer are terribly sensitive, I would have thought that the machines would not be shared publicly in the first place; in fact security measures would have been taken and the data would have been backed up regularly. But hey, what do I know? For me, I only find it is pleasing to find people passionately doing these things and taking up the challenges, rather than being too cautious and not doing too much for the community at large.

Sometimes I can't help feeling fascinated by looking at others sharing things for free. One can find for example, freewares on the net available for use by anyone. The wikipedia itself is a wonderful on-line reference (some people might find them suspicious but my guess they have not used it enough and perhaps are not aware enough of the policies and guidelines for contributions). Hey, even this blogging opportunity is made free. Now to the scientists, there is this wonder website (arXiv) that makes articles written around the world free for us to access and new (or revised) articles come in hundreds daily. To some of us, there would be overly cautious feelings to put up yet an unpublished paper to this online repository for everyone to see, fearing that it will be copied by others. However one can see this differently since one can now stake a claim to an idea being initially yours if one's article has been submitted there first. Of course, to put an article there, one has to bear some responsibilities and dare to take up criticisms. Much like everything else on the open net environment.

As an aside to this note on openness and daringness, found myself (again) in an uncomfortable situation. If it matters to anyone at all, me as a person do not go to look for positions though I would like to see myself useful, contributing in many ways. This does not mean I will take up whatever challenges; sometimes I shudder to think about the responsibilities. If only we can live without them?

Fee or Free

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:28:00 +0000

I hesitated to do this post but then some explanations are due. In a recent FB post, my colleague and student had publicised the EQuaLS5 website which was just activated recently. Rather annoyingly, some person gave rather unfair comment about the fee that prompted me to butt in and give some rationalizing comment. That was probably a mistake but I was trying to correct the picture that we are not trying to make fast money out of this event. And to think that the commenting person who is actually working abroad in some company, was not really interested in the event in the first place ... sigh.

Let's face it, any event organized will incur cost and the money will have to come from somewhere. In our case, we do have some small internal funding that does indeed cover some of the costs and also funding from research grants of individuals (otherwise the registration fee will come prohibitively high). The committee indeed discussed at some length what would be the best affordable fee for students to attend this 5-day workshop. Unlike other workshops in areas of management, economics and engineering (whose fees tend to go in the thousand magnitude), we knew that our audience is going to be small and the norm is not to have a high fee. We talked about what amount would a student be willing to let go in order to have something that he or she really wants; from mobile phone to expensive popular items. We compare this to the estimate of the leftover costs to be covered and we finally arrived to the figure shown in the website.

If the interested student really wants the intensive face-to-face interaction with well-known scientists for five days, then he or she will certainly pay the amount. If not, then the person would not come anyway even if its free. Some may genuinely have not the excess budget to pay for this and they should ask for sponsorship and if we have the means, then we will surely consider it (have to be fair) but otherwise they might want to ask their supervisors to spend some of their research grants for this. Usually a thoughtful supervisor will want to sponsor the student particularly with research grants tend to go unspent at some level. For my own self, I would spent my own money (if I don't have research grant) to pay the registration fee at the non-student rate. For me, the knowledge and experience obtained from hearing these experts is certain very valuable. Compare this, to paying a similar sum of money going to a concert watching your favourite artists perform live at a distance for just a few hours. Now to some, they really value this experience of seeing them live. Here we have five days with possible personal and close interactions. Wouldn't it be fair, we pay relatively even less to see these prominent scientists speak? I suppose, it goes back to how people value things.

It is unfortunate that I had to be perturbed by remarks given by a single person (who is not going to come anyway) but the fact is we are often painted in rather negative way and such views are being propagated unfairly. Must say, it spoiled my day and probably the next few days too. I would not be surprised that the comments given, arise from stereotype perspective that we are lame and out to make a fast buck. The truth of the matter is that we are trying to do something for the betterment of the scientific community here, appreciated or not. Sure, one now has readily available lectures and talks online and for those who think these suffice and wouldn't need the opportunity to interact face-to-face, then by all means, do what you like but don't discourage others who think otherwise. Or better, those who think they can afford to go to MIT or wherever (as mentioned in the comment) to hear such lectures free, then please do. For us, on our part, we would like to bring good international speakers to our shores and with that more of us who are not abroad can benefit with their presence here.

The Semester Begins ...

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:02:00 +0000

This week the new semester starts and I will begin my first class today. Usually, I renewed thoughts on what would I like to teach. But apparently this time, I can't seem to do this since there are so many unsettled matters. One particular task was to upload our teaching plan (yup, we have those, with all the cognitive, affective and soft skill levels) online but it failed to be submitted to the administrator. It's quite frustrating since one spends a fair bit amount of time doing these (and not to mention all the trial and error runs). I have done what I was told so far and I guessed now I will either wait for more advices or perhaps later even warnings (I'm pretty sure many had problems on this). So, I hope the management will take into account that this thing is still yet at the experimental stage (I will not be surprised if it has bugs) and people are still getting used to it. Reminded me of the letter I mentioned in this post. I do think that we wanted to try out too many things at once and I sincerely hope that the admin will be aware of the problems that academics are facing with all these new "quality" systems. For now, I rather concentrate on what I would like to teach.

This week too see my third son facing his UPSR exams. I hope he does well as education opportunities are getting so competitive nowadays. We had to invest in some private tuitions like most parents do (it is interesting to pause and think whether this is all necessary but for now we have this herd effect of necessitating private tuitions). I think, gone are the days of enjoyment in learning even for primary schools. I really sympathise with the kids nowadays.

Another thing that I had to do this week is to start preparing for the future workshops and lecture series I'm organizing. I had to ask to be excused from involving too much in the forthcoming international conference in October since will be busy with these workshops (and in part rather uncomfortable with some comments I received, so perhaps it is better that I'll be silent). Another matter that seems to keep my mind occupied is the soon-to-be-signed MoU with University of Auckland, partiularly on the planned activities. I must say it is rather ambitious and a fantastic opportunity for us; I do hope it will really get the support of members.

Post-Raya Blues

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:45:00 +0000

Oh no, not another gloomy post, you said, adding to all the depressing news you heard out there. I think the same way too. I have been restraining myself to do posts that lack positive tone and in particular I avoid commenting on others unless something severely affecting me. In this case, it does.

After sluggishly going back into working gear after slightly more than a week Raya vacation (of mostly travel and idle talk), one looks forward to finishing all the work left undone (and I was led to fantasize that I could do them during the vacation, how silly). Having to think about all the work, stressed me up a bit this morning. But then came the surprise. As I checked my pigeon hole, found a very depressing letter. Now, I have been very quiet about my health problems during the Raya and Puasa simply because I choose to ignore them and even my other half did not know what I was experiencing. That letter changed the situation and gave a shock to my system. Told my other half aout it and later when I got home, got my blood pressure checked indeed it went to another high.

As I consulted and investigated on the matters of the letter, I believe that letter was unfairly and wrongfully written. My own record and the records at the faculty did not match what was said in the letter. Something must be wrong somewhere and I'm sure it's not me. Found out that a number of others got the letter too. I'm not sure how many they are but wouldn't it looked illogical if this number is large and it warrants a deeper investigation? I'm sorry to say this but I think this is the kind of problem you get, when there is an overreliance on the quality document system and substantial lack of trust in humans.

I certainly hope this gets rectified soon. The matter has caused unnecessary stress on the academics. Lately the academics have been bashed left, right and in the middle. Personally, my own family are not happy with me for not spending too much time with them due to work (though they did not say this directly to me but I can feel it); while at the office, we are continuely fed with the idea that we have not done enough. Worse, an (unfair) sampling of public opinion also tends to look down on the academics. To hurt us further, unkind words and unkind policies are sometimes made by academics themselves. Sad.

Perhaps the recent dip in the QS World University Rankings will further add fuel to the fire, notwithstanding that many do not understand what the ranking really means. Ranking is really a one-dimensional projection (for an orderable measure) of what the university really is. The two extremes of opinion are (i) to take literally this one-dimensional representation really is (and hence higher ranking is religiously pursued); and (ii) to rubbish completely the ranking and say it is meaningless (or worse, some would resort to say that it is a conspiracy to put down our universities). An honest and down to earth view would be somewhere in between. Perhaps noting in which hundred magnitude will be more of use to us.

The local coverage on the QS World Ranking of universities can be read here. Our university ranking among Asian universities can be looked up here. The temporal profile of the university ranking can be seen here (notice the ups and downs - and an important note is that one needs to understand that the criteria differ year to year and the number of universities that is included in the rankings has increased). Finally, the university's position for each subject category is shown here. Please do not worship these numbers ... just do important, beneficial work and build up a creative stimulating environment for research and education.

Merdeka-Eid

noreply@blogger.com (hz) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:28:00 +0000

This year the Eid celebration coincides with our Independence Day. Each has its own reason for celebrating but the Eid will mostly be on the mind of many, as people are with their families and relatives.

My own Eid celebration is very modest as usual since I tend to be quiet most of the time and prefer spending time on work. The Eid however should be a joyous celebration, marking the end of a fasting month - a victorious celebration of some sort of the battle against basal desires, of heightening spirituality. For me, there is always be elements of sadness within this joy. While this year's Ramadhan is better than the previous years, still sad all the same. First, for achieving only a fraction of what I wanted to do in Ramadhan. Second, for missing mum and dad, and being together with my brothers and sisters. Ever since mum is gone, we have lost a central place for us to gather and we tend to drift apart. I do hope that we will be able to do a get-together in the future. This year's Eid will probably be a bit difficult with my sons facing exams, one of which almost immediately after coming back to school this festive season.

Another uncomfortable reason for my own Eid de-celebrating is my low social skills, I suppose. Each Eid celebration tend to put my social skills to a test. This year again is no different (worse still, when conversations degenerate to coffee-table political talks when everyone seems to be so outwardly intelligent). I prefer heading into my own world of thoughts. Hmm ... celebrating my own version of independence day.