Life, Wealth, Success & Happiness

An inspiring talk in January this year by the late Dr Richard Teo, a successful Singaporean opthamologist-turned-cosmetic surgeon, who succumbed to Stage Four terminal lung cancer earlier this month at the age of 40. The 22-minute heart-wrenching video features his candid admission on the ceaseless pursuit of materialism and success, which in the final months of his life, meant nothing to him and gave him precious little comfort.  In his final message, he urged the classroom of dentistry students never to lose their moral compass and never to lose sight of the patients they treated. He quoted from Tuesdays with Morris - "Everyone knows they are going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.".  Another powerful phrase, "...when we learn how to die, then we'll learn how to live." 

Watch the video here.

More than 2 years ago, when my mother was battling with breast cancer, I remember myself being very disappointed with the medical profession. I could sense that, to the oncologist, the medical consultancy was just a job, and my mother was just one of her many patients that she wanted to quickly done with, so she could see the next patient. I really feel that medical profession is not like any job, it is a calling (just like teachers).  A doctor should be compassionate, feel empathy for each patient and treat each of them like how she wants her loved ones to be treated.

AMC Annual Awards Presentation 2012

The Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) Annual Awards Presentation was held at the Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel on 24 Oct, 5.30 pm.

Medal Winners (photo from the Australian Math Trust website). From left: Professor Taylor, (Junior) Wang Weiduo RI, Yang Gan RI, (Intermediate) Gao Yuan ACSI, Bernard Teo Zhi Yi HCI, Eugene Lee RI, (Senior) Jonathan Ang Yun Hao NUSH, Lim Jeck NUSH and Mr Crawford.

Prize Winners (top 0.3%) for AMC.

In the past, two guests could be invited for each winner. This year, only one is invited :( Also, the refreshment seems to be getting worse year after year. This year, the following buffet spread was served: mini drumlets, mini egg tarts, mini chocolate cakes, orange juice, coffee/tea. That's all. :(

The Real Purpose of Life

Since young, I have always been wondering what's the purpose of life, and am intrigued with why we are born. Recently, I have read this book "You Were Born For A Reason - The Real Purpose of Life" by Kentetsu Takamori, Daiji Akehashi, Kentaro Ito. I think some of the writings in this book strike a chord with me.

Below are extracted from the book:

Why do we live? What is the purpose of life? Shinran's answer is unambiguous. "The purpose of is neither to amass money and treasure, nor to win honours and status. It is to have the source of suffering eradicated and be filled with joy, rejoicing that you were born human, and live in never-ending bliss."

The purpose of life is also expressed as "enjoying the benefit of sesshu fusha (being held fast and never forsaken)," or as muge no ichido (the path of no hindrance). Delight in being alive radiates from the pages of Shinran's masterwork Teaching, Practice, Faith, Enlightenment, which beings and ends with the words, "How joyful I am!" It is a manifestation of the blazing joy of one who has attained the purpose of life.

"Why is it wrong to take another person's life?" When a child asks this question, too often adults are at a loss, unable to give a satisfying reply. For adults as for children, the greatest sadness is not to know the joy of living.

Humanity is befuddled, unsure whether life has any meaning, or why those in pain should bother to carry on. Amid this general confusion, Shinran's words ring out loud and clear: "How wonderful it is to be born a human being!" Once the essential dignity of human life is understood, people should see why organ transplantation to extend life are worthwhile, why suicide is never a good option, why every human life is infinitely precious. Then, with doubts over the meaning of human existence resolved, each one can go resolutely forward to work on whatever besetting problems there may be.

Once life's true purpose is known, all trouble and suffering acquire meaning. Live for life's true purpose, and all your efforts are sure to be rewarded.

Preliminary Examinations Results

Lim Min did well for her prelims, especially in Maths, Chemistry and Physics, where she scored in the 98th, 92nd and 87th percentiles, respectively.

Lim Min is awarded Raffles Diploma with Distinction

Brilliant Live Challenge Results: Fall 2012

http://www.brilliantscholars.com/live-challenge-results-fall-2012/

btw, Clarence is 13th, Lim Min is 17th, Choong Yin is 18th and Lim Li is 30th in the Live Challenge

The top winner is Farrell Wu from the Philippines. He has topped many regional Math competitions and is very likely to be a future Math Olympian (at IMO level).

Congratulations to everyone, especially those from Singapore - Jeck (NUSH), Way (NUSH), Wei Liang (HCI), Dylan (NYPS), Jansen (RI), Jau Tung (RI), Jaren (NUSH), Jordan (RI) and Jeremy (ex-RI).

CWMI 2012 Results

Results of the Singapore Team in the China Mathematical Olympiad Invitational 2012 held at Inner Mongolia China recently:

Gold Award:
Liu Yijia, RI Year 2
Way Tan, NUSH Year 4
Clarence Chew, NUSH Year 1

Silver Award:
Sheldon Kieren Tan, RI Year 2
David Lin, RI Year 3
Yap Jit Wu, NUSH Year 5
Teh Jiun Harn, RI Year 4
Bay Wei Heng, HCI Year 5

Congratulations to one and all!

Tea Reception for Singapore International Olympiad Teams 2012

 

Lim Jeck receiving souvenir (Fields Medalists' Lectures book) from Dean of NUS Faculty of Science, Prof Andrew Wee. He has received the same book for the last few years. We have given away the extra copies to NUS High.



Group photo of attendees

Relax ...

Lim Jeck and Mr Thomas Teo were first in the queue!

Invitation to Enrol in FoS NUS, with a good scholarship offered

Free Online Courses from Top Universities

Last time, I mentioned there were free lectures on the Internet, that post is here.

Below is another useful website which offers online courses from top universities for anyone to take. Coursera is a startup founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, Its vision is to give everyone worldwide, with an Internet connection, access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few.  Coursera hopes to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

When taking the courses, students will watch lectures taught by world-class professors, learn at their own pace, test their knowledge, and reinforce concepts through interactive exercises. Students will also join a global community of thousands of students learning alongside them. Courses are offered in a wide range of topics, spanning the Humanities, Medicine, Biology, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Business, Computer Science, and many others.

Coursera offers free online University level classes

Current partner universities of Coursera

Leading to the Live Challenge

Lim Min, Lim Jeck and Lim Li have signed up for the Live Challenge scheduled for 22 Septermber (Saturaday). Their timings are:
Lim Min: 4 pm
Lim Jeck: 4 pm
Lim Li: 11 pm (who has to sign up for a later slot, as we have only 2 notebook computers with webcam at home).

Only for Week 5, the top 10 winners within the region will receive a prize pack of books and puzzles. After week 5, Lim Jeck's global rank is 1st of 3122 (tied with William Gan Wei Liang and Jaren Sta Maria). 

My kids are more interested in winning the top 7 and top 12 prizes (those underlined in Red), rather than the top 3 scholarship prizes.

Brilliant Challenge (Math Competition)

Take part in Brilliant Challenge!

Students solve problems online at their own pace and earn points over 5 weeks (maximum of 2300 points can be earned per week). New problems are released each week. At the end of the 5 weeks, students who have earned enough points will be invited to a Live Challenge conducted over Google Hangouts to compete for awards and scholarships. The official contest dates for the first Brilliant Challenge are Aug 13 - Sep 16. New problems sets will become available at the beginning of each week on Sunday (Singapore time is Monday morning), and the previous week’s problem sets will expire. However, students who join in the 4th (current week) and 5th week will still have ample opportunity to earn a sufficient number of points (i.e. 2200 points) to participate in the Live Challenge or take advantage of Master Classes and other prizes.

The Live Challenge will be held on Saturday, September 22, (Singapore time may be 1 day later) 2012. Students may choose from several time slots throughout the day, but may only participate once. The Live Challenge will be 1 hour in length. Brilliant coordinators will monitor students over webcam to maintain the integrity of the challenge.

As of now, Lim Jeck is ranked 1st (tie with 1 others) out of 2280 participants, after completing Week 4 contest. Lim Li is ranked 19th after completing Week 4 contest. The ranking is just for fun, it has no bearing on the Live Challenge. Lim Min only took part in Week 1 and 2 contests and she is not keen to continue with the contest.

To win the top prizes, only the Live Challenge points will be counted. Hence, you do not have any handicap even if you join only Week 4 and/or Week 5 contests. Join NOW!

Click for a bigger image. Prizes for Brilliant Math Challenge Fall 2012. Unless otherwise stated, prizes are for students grade 12 and below, and are based on performance on the Live Challenge. 

SMO 2012 Prize Presentation

Lim Jeck receiving SMO Open Individual 1st Award ($600) from the Guest of Honour, Ms Ho Peng

NUS High Team (Lim Jeck, Yan Hao and Yan Sheng) clinches SMO Open Team 1st Award ($1000, last year's SMO Open Team 2nd was $700).

RI Team (Way Tan, David Lin and Siah Yong) receiving SMO Senior Team 1st Award.

NUS High Team (Yan Hao, Surya and Choong Yin) receiving SMO Senior Team 2nd Award.

RI Team (Glen, Yijia and Sheldon) receiving SMO Junior Team 1st Award

Clarence Chew wins the SMO Junior Individual 3rd Award

Dylan Toh from Nanyang Primary receives the SMO Junior Individual 18th Award 

IMO 2012 Team (Lim Jeck, Yan Hao, You Jun, Ryan, Lawrence and Yan Sheng) receiving awards of $1000 (IMO Gold), $500 (IMO Silver) and $250 (IMO Bronze).

Jansen, Jiun Harn, Surya and Lim Jeck

The Top 3 School Team Winners are as follows:

SMO Junior: 1st - RI, 2nd - NUS High, 3rd - HCI

SMO Senior: 1st - RI, 2nd - NUS High, 3rd - HCI

SMO Open: 1st - NUS High, 2nd - RI, 3rd - HCI

Thanks to Meng Ai, Dorothea and Sudha, for the photos. :)

National Day Rally 2012

At yesterday's National Day Rally 2012, our Prime Minister (PM Lee Hsien Loong) highlighted the achievements of our students at the recent International Math and Science competitions. He only mentioned International Biology Olympiad and International Mathematics Olympiad. I think the reason is, the media reported only these two in July, hence PM Lee did not pick up the notable achievements of the other Science olympiads. It also does not help that our local media has a propensity to publicise more on sports, and less on academic competitions. I shall help our PM to give our students their due recognition (words in bold are not part of PM Lee's speech, they are inserted by me :) ).

" .. our schools, students also do well across the board. And at the top this year, they shine at the international competitions. This year our team won the International Biology Olympiad, we hosted it, and our team won 1st place. Our student, Nol Swaddiwudhipong from RI, was 1st. At the International Mathematical Olympiad, a Singaporean student, Lim Jeck, from NUS High School of Math and Science, was the top student. He came in 1st, the only one to score full marks this year. At the International Physics Olympiad, our Singapore Team did extremely well, winning 4 Gold and 1 Silver medals. I am also proud that our International Chemistry Olympiad team had won 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals, and at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, our Singapore team received 1 Gold and 3 Silver medals. .... It makes me proud that as a tiny red dot in the world map, we are able to achieve much ...."

International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) team - Joseph Kuan (RI), Huan Yan Qi (RI), Ding Yue (RI), Wayne Soo (NUS High) and Ang Yu Jian (NUS High)

International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) team - Tan Zhi Yang (NUS High), Liu Aofei (RI), Rachel Lim  (RI) and Gerard  Low (RI)

International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) team - Kendrick Wong (NUS High), Ang Yu Jian (NUS High), Wang Ye (RI), Jee Kai Yen (RI) and Wayne Soo (NUS High) 

Kheng Leng (my niece, from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and now studying in NUS Year 1) was also mentioned by PM Lee.

RI's Yellow Form



Lim Min received a yellow form (Good Student Report).

The Special Awards 2012

It is heartening to see that Singapore is striving towards an inclusive society. At the Special Awards presentation ceremony 2012, not only were awards given to students from top schools (e.g. we have The Prime Minister's Book Prize given to outstanding bilingual pupils, The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science given to top achievers in Mathematics and Science), we have other awards given to normal course students (The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Outstanding Normal Course Students), ITE College students (The Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to Encourage Upgrading), polytechnic students, and also Assumption Pathway School and NorthLight School students (The Lee Hsien Loong Award for Special Achievement). There are also other awards for outstanding all-round achievement and all-round excellence. The MOE press release with all the awards and winners is here.

Lim Jeck receiving The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science (Secondary Section) from  Mr Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister of State, MOE and MICA

Recipients of The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science (Secondary Section) 

Recipients of The Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science (Pre-University Section)

The award - $400 (20 x $20) POPULAR gift vouchers

Prodigies of the maths universe

IN Depth
The Straits Times, 13 August 2012
by Sheryl Quek
Pdf Version

Click for a larger image. Lim Jeck and Ryan Kor are not in the photo. Perhaps they were not comfortable to be dressed as ancient Roman/Greek Olympians. :)

Mad About Maths

The Sunday Times 12 August 2012
Mad About Maths
by Eve Yap

Click for a larger image

CGMO 2012 Singapore Team Results and CWMI Selection Results

Left - NUS High team and right - RGS team 

The China Girls Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO) results were out. Singapore has won 3 Silver and 5 Bronze. The Silver medals are won by Tan Pin Lin and Jazlene Ong from NUS High and Zhang Boyu from RGS. This year, the cut off point for Gold is 108 (out of a total of 120 points) and for Silver is 75 (Surya missed it narrowly by a few points!). Heard that everyone who scored below 75 got a Bronze medal. Congratulations to all the girls!

Singapore will be sending 2 teams to the CWMI (China Western Mathematical Invitational) which will be held in Inner Mongolia from 26 to 30 September. In the past, students in the SIMO national team who have not participated in any IMO or who have not won a Gold before in previous years' CWMO (China Western Mathematical Olympiad) would take a selection test, from which 8 students are selected to participate in the CWMO typically held in October/November of each year. This year, there appears to be a change as students are going to CWMI instead (CWMI may be the new name for CWMO). The following 8 students have been selected:

1. Bay Wei Heng (HCI, Year 5)
2. David Lin Kewei (RI, Year 3)
3. Way Tan (NUS High, Year 4)
4. Teh Jiun Harn (RI, Year 4)
5. Yap Jit Wu (NUS High, Year 5)
6. Clarence Chew Xuan Da (NUS High, Year 1)
7. Liu Yi Jia (RI, Year 2)
8. Sheldon Kieren Tan (RI, Year 2)

More Photos, and Problems from IMO 2012

Closing Ceremony

Day 1 Problems of IMO 2012

Day 2 Problems. Unless previous years, the students' scripts were not returned this year.

Year 6 Term 3 Common Test Results

Lim Min's JC2 Term 3 Common Test Results

I think Lim Min did reasonably well for her Term 3 Common Test, scoring above 50th percentile for all her subjects. She could have done better for Chemistry and Economics though. Based on RI's yearly spectacular 'A' levels results, most students would score at least 2 grades above common tests and preliminary results. Hence I would think Lim Min should score at least 6 Distinctions (she has already obtained 2 Distinctions so far, in H1 Chinese and Project Work; she had sat for a H3 Math exam but result is pending) for her 'A' levels.

Olympic fever should extend to math contests

Olympic fever should extend to math contests
By Andres Oppenheimer The Miami Herald
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com

What’s most interesting about the 100-country International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) that took place last week in Mar del Plata, Argentina, was not that Asian students won the top prizes — they often do — but the fact that the event went virtually unnoticed in our part of the world.

While the July 4-16 math tournament got widespread media coverage in Singapore, South Korea, China and other Asian countries, it drew little attention in U.S. and Latin American media.

Our TV networks are already sending teams of reporters to cover javelin throws, archery and synchronized swimming competitions at the upcoming London Olympics, but few — if any — sent a correspondent to the Mar del Plata math tournament.

For the record, the 53rd annual IMO tournament of high school students was won by the six-member team of South Korea, which won six gold medals, followed by the teams of China (2nd), the United States (3rd), Russia (4th), Canada (5th), Thailand (6th) and Singapore (7th).

Among the Latin American countries, the best team was that of Peru, which ranked 16th, followed by Brazil (19th), Mexico (31st), Colombia (46th), Costa Rica (46th), Argentina (54th), Chile (59th), Venezuela (91st) and Cuba (95th).

Individually, the top prize was won by Lim Jeck, 17, of Singapore, who won a gold medal with a perfect score and became an instant media star in his home country.

Argentina, this year’s IMO host country, is a case study of how little attention is paid to education in many Latin American countries.

Most Argentine newspapers published only a few paragraphs about the math competition, if any, and most of it was buried in their society or culture pages. Neither President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, nor the country’s education minister, nor any other top-level government official attended the event’s inauguration.

At a time when many international studies show that well-trained teachers are the single most important tool to improve countries’ education standards, garbage collectors and truck drivers in Argentina make much more money than teachers.

As I learned during a visit to Argentina a few weeks ago, truck drivers in that country make 2.8 times the minimum wage, garbage collectors 2.6 times the minimum wage, and teachers 1.3 times the minimum wage. A teacher working double shifts makes 2.59 times the minimum wage, still less than a truck driver or garbage collector.

Largely because of Argentina’s failure to evaluate its teachers and offer merit pay to the best qualified ones, education standards have plummeted in recent years.

The country, once among Latin America’s best educated ones, today ranks near the bottom in the international standardized PISA test of 15-year-old students, significantly behind Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia and other countries in the region.

In Mexico, while teachers make more than garbage collectors and truck drivers, a government crusade to improve education standards suffered a major blow earlier this month when only 30 percent of teachers attended a national teacher evaluation test. Earlier government plans to start a merit pay system for good teachers are now in limbo.

In case you are wondering whether there’s any relation between match and science education and countries’ economic growth, there is.

This year’s IMO winner South Korea, which was much poorer than virtually all Latin American countries only fifty years ago, last year registered 13,500 international patents for new inventions, whereas all Latin American countries together only 500, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In recent days, following President Barack Obama’s announcement that he plans to create an elite teachers corps that will pay professors of math and science an extra $20,000 a year, many Latin American educators stressed that without economic incentives and greater academic requirements, it will be hard to attract good teachers for Latin American schools.

My opinion: In the growing East vs. West battle for the best academic standards, we in the media share a large of responsibility for not putting education at the top of the public agenda.

There is nothing wrong with massive press coverage of the London Olympics. But when we focus our entire attention on sports competitions and virtually ignore math tournaments, we create only one kind of role models, and fail to glorify those who are the most likely to make the scientific discoveries that can improve our living standards or conquer diseases. It’s time to glorify Olympic math champions, just as we glorify Olympic swimmers.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/21/2904712/olympic-fever-should-extend-to.html#storylink=cpy