NURIN'S BLOG

Dear Professor Blackstone, I hope this email finds you well. My name is Nurin Syazwana, a Year 1 Civil Engineering student studying at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share my background, communication strengths and weaknesses, and goals for this course. I did my diploma in Architecture at Nanyang Polytechnic before deciding to pursue my degree in Civil Engineering at SIT. I was intrigued by the beauty of buildings, especially in traditional Japanese and Islamic architecture, which inspired me to choose Architecture for my diploma. After graduating, I reflected on how I wanted to explore a different area of Architecture while staying connected to the field. This reflection led me to choose Civil Engineering as it offers a new perspective and opportunities to contribute to the built environment. A notable strength in my communication is my ability to articulate ideas clearly, which I developed through frequent presentations and ...

 “Without clear lines of communication, our ideas would stay within our own small development teams instead of becoming mature products. While this is obvious to those of us who have become experienced engineers, the real question is: Why is it lost to us when we are engineering students?” Akbar R Khan, Software Systems Engineer, USA, “Good Communication Is Essential...” (2014) This quote strikes a chord because it captures a challenge many of us face but rarely acknowledge: the disconnect between what we learn in school and what we need in the real world. Communication is so fundamental to turning ideas into reality, yet it’s often overlooked in engineering education. As students, we’re trained to focus on equations, designs, and solutions, but there’s little emphasis on sharing those ideas with others in a way that inspires collaboration or builds consensus. It’s almost as if we believe that good ideas will speak for themselves What makes this observation so powerful is the ...