Effective Communication

In the webpage "Hotel New World Collapse," Kayat (2012) explains the various theories and reasoning behind the collapse of the Hotel New World. There were a few speculations made by the engineers who examined the collapse during the investigations that followed. According to Klimkowski (2005, as cited in Kayat, 2012), a possible act of terrorism, strength of material used or even the composition of the soil might be some of the reasons behind the hotel's fall. However, these assumptions were eliminated as the engineers evaluated all of these areas and were able to prove that another reason was responsible. Neale (2001, as cited from Kayat, 2012) mentioned that the collapse was due to 'under-designed columns and foundations' as the building's original engineers excluded the building's weight, which was part of the dead load calculation. The same cited author concluded that overloads, lack of proper maintenance and poor engineering contributed to the collaps

The webpage "Hotel New World Collapse" Kayat (2012) reported that, in 1986, the hotel collapse caused a catastrophe in Little India. 50 people were trapped in tons of concrete, only 17 people were rescued and 33 were killed. According to the author, he stated that, there were a few speculations made by the engineers during the investigations of the collapsed building. The speculations were a possible terrorist attack, reoccurrence of gas leakage, strength of the material used, and the composition of the soil. However, these assumptions were eliminated as the engineers evaluated all of these areas and were able to prove otherwise. The author mentioned that the collapse was due to 'under-designed columns and foundations' as the engineers excluded the building's weight which was part of the dead load calculation. The author concluded that overloads, lack of proper maintenance and engineering contributed to the collapse.

Dear Professor Blackstone I would like to take this opportunity to formally introduce myself. My name is Jean D’Cruz and I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) last year with a diploma in electronic and computer engineering. Through internship and the curriculum at NP, I have gained a deeper understanding on electronics and computer engineering. However, ever since I was in secondary school, I have always enjoyed the design and technology classes.  The amount of thought in designing and creating a product of my own in secondary school was something I enjoyed doing . Through the years, I have often found myself admiring at the infrastructures of our society. Furthermore, I have also pondered on how certain structures are built, the design process and considerations engineers had considered in building a structure.   Hence, I decided to take up the degree in civil engineering offered by SIT.  In terms of communication, I have found it relatively hard to speak in front of