I just read on Facebook tonight about yet another of my undergraduate friends expecting a child (in this case it's his wife that is expecting, I'm sure the wife would like to note there's a difference in the work involved). A rather ridiculous number of my friends are now parents, married, engaged, or have been dating enough years to be at the "it's just a matter of time now" point of a relationship. I passed a Facebook milestone late last year when 51% of my friends fell into those categories. Yay for advanced search on Facebook, when an inquiring geek mind wants to know these things on a whim at 1 am.
I offered my hearty congratulations to my friend, and then wondered to myself whether this means that I am getting old. While it probably does, (my boyfriend from freshman year now has two children with his lovely wife, how is that for making me feel old when I went back to visit), I am going to blame it on the fact that I did my undergrad in the south/midwest, where getting married young is common. My parents married at 19, and my grandparents married at 18. This is why I have been fortunate enough to get to know my great-grandmother.
I have most decidedly not carried on the married-at-18 tradition, or even the married-after-college tradition.
I have to say, I would not be averse to having an "SO" as it's known here - a significant other. Actually, the joke goes that the first two questions students from World's Best School ask each other (rather than the standard "where are you from, what are your hobbies") are "where is your SO, and what is your OS?". Operating system, of course. :) It would be nice to have someone to come home to each night, a partner to support each other and share in life, someone to love.
But then I think a little harder, and I find the idea of being tied down to one person scares the spit out of me. Because look what I can do on my own! I can do little things like:
- eat whenever I want, and
- eat whatever it pleases me to cook
- sleep whenever I need to
- decorate as I wish
- make weekend plans without consulting anyone else
- change my plans with no trouble
And I can do big things like:
- decide my own career path
- decide what country I want to live in (I was offered a job in Singapore upon graduation if I want it)
- manage my own finances
- make my own friends on my own merits
- take time off to vacation, visit family and friends, go home for the holidays.
For the right person, I suppose sacrificing being able to say "I suddenly want to go watch a movie RIGHT NOW" doesn't seem like much. All of the things in that list could be worth giving up. But for now, I'm happy celebrating my independence.
And, Watchmen was awesome. I didn't even miss the previews. :)
Friday, February 27, 2009
RA Interviews
So the grand total of interview calls I've received is now up to nine. One of them actually I was not able to schedule (they only gave me two time slots, and I couldn't do either one because of OTHER interviews I'd already scheduled), so that leaves me eight.
Three down so far.
It has been fascinating to go around to the various dorms. I didn't do my undergrad here, so I didn't get to experience the whole culture. But every dorm, and each floor, has its own identity and sense of community. Some known for the smart kids, some for the party kids (well, as much of a party school as this math and science place is...). For instance, in one dorm the RA keeps a stash of candy outside his door for the kids. In another, the RA keeps a jar of condoms.
Each place has its own traditions. In one dorm, all events are scheduled for :17 past the hour. Just because. Another floor has a half gallon of milk in its own dedicated fridge that is 14 years, six months old. They have a birthday party for it each year, but it's in a biohazard container now as it ate through the original carton. The older dorms are pretty much a free-for-all for each person to customize their own rooms and floors with painting, shelving, and general modification. Ceiling tiles painted, loft beds constructed, things suspended from the ceiling, you name it some kid has done it. This leads to some pretty nerd-tastic decorating. I've seen chess boards pinned to walls that people move as they walk by. I've seen a mural of the xkcd Map of the Internet comic, and an archway painted with the Stargate Atlantis ring. I love it! A few of the dorms even have woodworking shops in their basements - I'm hooked! I love me my tools. Of course, I have my own if the dorm doesn't supply them... :)
I kinda miss the dorm life sometimes from my undergrad days. Walking around these dorms watching kids playing cards on the floor, hearing random bursts of laughter from those hard at work on problem sets, noting the rows of empty bottles in the kitchen (cheap vodka FTW). Seeing doors open, people heating Ramen in the kitchen, boys fixated on Halo in the lounges.
On the other hand, I don't miss it enough to make it worth it without the free rent. Free rent ROCKS! I make sure to check what kind of rooms each dorm has available for the RAs. Some dorms just give a regular room to the RAs, making a room that is usually a double into a single. Those are not so nice, especially if you have to use the community bathroom. But the newest dorms have dedicated apartments built in for the RA. One I got to see had a bedroom, kitchen, living/dining room, walk in closet, nice big personal bathroom with walk in shower. Very modern, very city, very chic. One RA had his apartment set up with an HD projector pointed at one blank wall - which gives an awesome six foot screen - sweet! So yeah, if I had my druthers, living in an apartment inside an undergrad dorm would be perfect.
I am really excited about possibly getting one of these jobs. I know it sounds silly, but I really have a heart for these kids. I see myself so clearly in the undergrads here, and I am so thrilled to live in a place where the undergrads are so unique, driven, brilliant, and passionate. I love the fact that they are so independent, like I am. One of the housemasters told us the story of an email that went out at 9am one Saturday (at which point I said - 9am? they were up? and he said that they had just not yet gone to bed...) where some residents of the dorm announced they were going to build a DDR system. They figured out what they needed, and sent out a list, and said their goal was to have to built by 7pm and then to throw a party. And do you know, they did it. They downloaded the software open source off the internet, had some EE guy program it all up. Pressure sensors, mats, wire, stock for making support bars all materialized out of the woodwork - kids just had random stuff laying around. Some of the MechE kids configured the pressure sensors into the mat, some art kids figured out how to make the arrows as a cover for the mat, the A/V stuff fell into place somehow. And do you know, by 7pm the DDR system was ready - and the dorm rocked out in true geek style.
How inspiring is that? I get to live and work in a place where people dream big and make the dreams come true. Where the improbable is the order of the day, and nobody even blinks an eye at the sheer genius of it all.
That is why I want this job - I want to help make sure these kids and healthy and happy, well adjusted and following their passions.
And if I have to hand out condoms, well shoot, happy to help. Keep your door closed, pleaseandthankyou, and please refer to the directions if you need....
Three down so far.
It has been fascinating to go around to the various dorms. I didn't do my undergrad here, so I didn't get to experience the whole culture. But every dorm, and each floor, has its own identity and sense of community. Some known for the smart kids, some for the party kids (well, as much of a party school as this math and science place is...). For instance, in one dorm the RA keeps a stash of candy outside his door for the kids. In another, the RA keeps a jar of condoms.
Each place has its own traditions. In one dorm, all events are scheduled for :17 past the hour. Just because. Another floor has a half gallon of milk in its own dedicated fridge that is 14 years, six months old. They have a birthday party for it each year, but it's in a biohazard container now as it ate through the original carton. The older dorms are pretty much a free-for-all for each person to customize their own rooms and floors with painting, shelving, and general modification. Ceiling tiles painted, loft beds constructed, things suspended from the ceiling, you name it some kid has done it. This leads to some pretty nerd-tastic decorating. I've seen chess boards pinned to walls that people move as they walk by. I've seen a mural of the xkcd Map of the Internet comic, and an archway painted with the Stargate Atlantis ring. I love it! A few of the dorms even have woodworking shops in their basements - I'm hooked! I love me my tools. Of course, I have my own if the dorm doesn't supply them... :)
I kinda miss the dorm life sometimes from my undergrad days. Walking around these dorms watching kids playing cards on the floor, hearing random bursts of laughter from those hard at work on problem sets, noting the rows of empty bottles in the kitchen (cheap vodka FTW). Seeing doors open, people heating Ramen in the kitchen, boys fixated on Halo in the lounges.
On the other hand, I don't miss it enough to make it worth it without the free rent. Free rent ROCKS! I make sure to check what kind of rooms each dorm has available for the RAs. Some dorms just give a regular room to the RAs, making a room that is usually a double into a single. Those are not so nice, especially if you have to use the community bathroom. But the newest dorms have dedicated apartments built in for the RA. One I got to see had a bedroom, kitchen, living/dining room, walk in closet, nice big personal bathroom with walk in shower. Very modern, very city, very chic. One RA had his apartment set up with an HD projector pointed at one blank wall - which gives an awesome six foot screen - sweet! So yeah, if I had my druthers, living in an apartment inside an undergrad dorm would be perfect.
I am really excited about possibly getting one of these jobs. I know it sounds silly, but I really have a heart for these kids. I see myself so clearly in the undergrads here, and I am so thrilled to live in a place where the undergrads are so unique, driven, brilliant, and passionate. I love the fact that they are so independent, like I am. One of the housemasters told us the story of an email that went out at 9am one Saturday (at which point I said - 9am? they were up? and he said that they had just not yet gone to bed...) where some residents of the dorm announced they were going to build a DDR system. They figured out what they needed, and sent out a list, and said their goal was to have to built by 7pm and then to throw a party. And do you know, they did it. They downloaded the software open source off the internet, had some EE guy program it all up. Pressure sensors, mats, wire, stock for making support bars all materialized out of the woodwork - kids just had random stuff laying around. Some of the MechE kids configured the pressure sensors into the mat, some art kids figured out how to make the arrows as a cover for the mat, the A/V stuff fell into place somehow. And do you know, by 7pm the DDR system was ready - and the dorm rocked out in true geek style.
How inspiring is that? I get to live and work in a place where people dream big and make the dreams come true. Where the improbable is the order of the day, and nobody even blinks an eye at the sheer genius of it all.
That is why I want this job - I want to help make sure these kids and healthy and happy, well adjusted and following their passions.
And if I have to hand out condoms, well shoot, happy to help. Keep your door closed, pleaseandthankyou, and please refer to the directions if you need....
Monday, February 23, 2009
Somebody Lock up my Gun
Do you see this? This is my week. I have no time.
On the up side, I have seven interviews for RA positions (with free rent - woohoo!). I am way excited about this, but I barely have time to get to the interviews. And I can't really turn down the interview because I'm too busy, because that doesn't say much for the amount of time I have to give the kiddoes...
On the down side, I am still not done with Chapter 5 of the thesis. And I haven't finished the experiments I wanted to get to. And I have homework due tomorrow.
Which all makes for a very discouraging meeting with my advisor tomorrow. But I am determined to be productive this evening.
Wish me luck, I'm diving in....
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Making Figures
I have put in my 12 hours for the day, and my brain is whupped. Yes, whupped. But I can't settle down for the night, so I'm writing to clear my head.
I am currently writing the design section of my thesis. I thought this thesis would get easier after the painful introduction and background sections, and I thought the design section would only consist of pulling together the calculations I've already done. However, I've been here a year and a half, so some of the early calculations for my thesis were over a year ago. In looking back at my early notes in my lab notebook, all I can say is - what the hell? Sometimes, especially in my sketches, I can't make heads or tails of what I was thinking. Hey, didn't become an engineer because I'm good at art...
In the Excel sheets and FEA simulations I did, I didn't clearly label what I was doing. I thought I was clear, you know, "Study 1 - Thermal 2 - Run 4" nicely and neatly numbered. But which one was the RIGHT one? And the numbers are all there in Excel, and some numbers are bolded. But WHY did I bold those?
I always am sort of in a rush when I do analysis. Isn't every grad student? You just want to get the answer so you can go take data and turn out some results. I always intended to go back and clean up those figures, annotate that Excel sheet. I never thought it would be months before I revisited the issue, and with my poor memory it's only weeks until I forget what I was doing.
Ack. Only myself to blame.
So what I've had to do is basically re-do all my calculations. This has had two blessings: one, since January I have been taking AMAZING notes in my new lab notebook (I ran out of space in the old one). Two, I have discovered a few errors I made. Not large errors, thank goodness, but small things I should have tidied up. Assumptions I should have checked even though I knew they were good assumptions, for instance. For my thesis, I want precisely no errors, and no room for my work to be questioned.
So I've been doing figures. All day. Carefully and well formatted. You know what I mean (or you should, if you ever give Power Point presentations). All titles in the same font. Nice big font, of course. All data with a clear legend. Concise and helpful titles. Plot lines thick enough to see, in different colors for clarity, but also one dotted and one solid so if the paper's in black and white you can still read the chart. Always use the one consistent kind of plot line for theoretical results, and a different consistent kind of plot line for experimental results. Axes appropriately sized and divided, and consistent for charts of the same type.
And you know what the most disheartening thing is? If you do a figure correctly, it looks obvious. It looks simple. It looks like it took you no work. When in fact, it took you four hours to get it to look that good.
It's exhausting. But, lookie here. This is what I had, from nine months ago:
Ah, yes. Node 22837, of course, of Thermal Run 2.
Here is what I have now, with small errors corrected (note the different slopes of the lines now), simulation re-done (took me SIX times to get it to converge, sweet rainbows...), and graph nicely formatted:
Yay me. And you bet your buck tooth that I have three pages in my lab notebook documenting how I went about it this time.
I am currently writing the design section of my thesis. I thought this thesis would get easier after the painful introduction and background sections, and I thought the design section would only consist of pulling together the calculations I've already done. However, I've been here a year and a half, so some of the early calculations for my thesis were over a year ago. In looking back at my early notes in my lab notebook, all I can say is - what the hell? Sometimes, especially in my sketches, I can't make heads or tails of what I was thinking. Hey, didn't become an engineer because I'm good at art...
In the Excel sheets and FEA simulations I did, I didn't clearly label what I was doing. I thought I was clear, you know, "Study 1 - Thermal 2 - Run 4" nicely and neatly numbered. But which one was the RIGHT one? And the numbers are all there in Excel, and some numbers are bolded. But WHY did I bold those?
I always am sort of in a rush when I do analysis. Isn't every grad student? You just want to get the answer so you can go take data and turn out some results. I always intended to go back and clean up those figures, annotate that Excel sheet. I never thought it would be months before I revisited the issue, and with my poor memory it's only weeks until I forget what I was doing.
Ack. Only myself to blame.
So what I've had to do is basically re-do all my calculations. This has had two blessings: one, since January I have been taking AMAZING notes in my new lab notebook (I ran out of space in the old one). Two, I have discovered a few errors I made. Not large errors, thank goodness, but small things I should have tidied up. Assumptions I should have checked even though I knew they were good assumptions, for instance. For my thesis, I want precisely no errors, and no room for my work to be questioned.
So I've been doing figures. All day. Carefully and well formatted. You know what I mean (or you should, if you ever give Power Point presentations). All titles in the same font. Nice big font, of course. All data with a clear legend. Concise and helpful titles. Plot lines thick enough to see, in different colors for clarity, but also one dotted and one solid so if the paper's in black and white you can still read the chart. Always use the one consistent kind of plot line for theoretical results, and a different consistent kind of plot line for experimental results. Axes appropriately sized and divided, and consistent for charts of the same type.
And you know what the most disheartening thing is? If you do a figure correctly, it looks obvious. It looks simple. It looks like it took you no work. When in fact, it took you four hours to get it to look that good.
It's exhausting. But, lookie here. This is what I had, from nine months ago:
Ah, yes. Node 22837, of course, of Thermal Run 2.
Here is what I have now, with small errors corrected (note the different slopes of the lines now), simulation re-done (took me SIX times to get it to converge, sweet rainbows...), and graph nicely formatted:
Yay me. And you bet your buck tooth that I have three pages in my lab notebook documenting how I went about it this time.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Random Bits I can't quite make a post out of
- I applied last month to be an RA in the undergrad dorms here at World's Best School. RAs here are grad students living in the dorms, and are expected to be part mentor, part academic tutor, and a huge part social help. These are really competitive positions because the rent is free. It's hard to get even an interview - and I got three! Woohoo! Wish me luck...
- I officially turned in my application to take the qualifying exams for the PhD program in May. Yikes. These usually require about three months to study for, and in my department of Mechanical Engineering, the pass rate on the first attempt is usually 50%. You get two chances at the exam, and if you fail twice you just have to leave with your Masters. The girl who was supposed to room with me this year is now in Texas - because she failed twice. No pressure or anything there.
The exam is two parts - a research presentation (usually on your Masters project) and exam questions in three subjects of your choice. There is a list of question topics you can choose from, because the powers-that-be realize nobody can answer PhD level questions in every area of MechE. My specialty is machine design and manufacturing, so my choice of topics is Design, Manufacturing, and Control Systems. I've already taken all the reccomended classes to prepare, so now I just have to get my head in gear and start studying. Wish me luck, again!
- I have been elected Treasurer of G.A.M.E. - the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers. My mother and her whole side of the family are accountants, and I've learned a lot through that. I also took an accounting class for fun once, so I feel like I can handle the simple debit/credit entries required for a student club... Should be fun, and has the added bonus that being more involved in the club means I get to know all the MechE students better over the course of the term.
- I am having a blast in archery class. Except that, if you don't hold your elbow in the correct position, the string snaps the inside of your arm. You can wear an arm guard, but I figured it doesn't hurt that much, and I'd learn the correct position quicker if I didn't. But I forgot that I have a really high pain tolerance. So to me, what "doesn't hurt much" leaves a lovely purple bruise up the inside of my bow arm. Couple that with where I gave blood and they had to stick me several times, and people are starting to ask questions. I'm not sure if I should say my boyfriend's beating me, or pass it off as track marks...
- I officially turned in my application to take the qualifying exams for the PhD program in May. Yikes. These usually require about three months to study for, and in my department of Mechanical Engineering, the pass rate on the first attempt is usually 50%. You get two chances at the exam, and if you fail twice you just have to leave with your Masters. The girl who was supposed to room with me this year is now in Texas - because she failed twice. No pressure or anything there.
The exam is two parts - a research presentation (usually on your Masters project) and exam questions in three subjects of your choice. There is a list of question topics you can choose from, because the powers-that-be realize nobody can answer PhD level questions in every area of MechE. My specialty is machine design and manufacturing, so my choice of topics is Design, Manufacturing, and Control Systems. I've already taken all the reccomended classes to prepare, so now I just have to get my head in gear and start studying. Wish me luck, again!
- I have been elected Treasurer of G.A.M.E. - the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers. My mother and her whole side of the family are accountants, and I've learned a lot through that. I also took an accounting class for fun once, so I feel like I can handle the simple debit/credit entries required for a student club... Should be fun, and has the added bonus that being more involved in the club means I get to know all the MechE students better over the course of the term.
- I am having a blast in archery class. Except that, if you don't hold your elbow in the correct position, the string snaps the inside of your arm. You can wear an arm guard, but I figured it doesn't hurt that much, and I'd learn the correct position quicker if I didn't. But I forgot that I have a really high pain tolerance. So to me, what "doesn't hurt much" leaves a lovely purple bruise up the inside of my bow arm. Couple that with where I gave blood and they had to stick me several times, and people are starting to ask questions. I'm not sure if I should say my boyfriend's beating me, or pass it off as track marks...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Taking the Lead
As I may have mentioned before, my lab is starting a new project called Ufac II which I will be heavily involved in. At the moment, this project comprises three students including myself. There is the potential for a couple or few more to join us.
We had our first official meeting last week, with the professor and research scientist who will be leading/advising the project. During this first meeting, we students were told to come up with a list of tasks involved in the project, and a timeline for completing them. A Gantt chart, essentially, for those who recognize this word.
So I waited four days or so, and I heard not a peep from the other two students. One of the other students said she was interested in taking the lead in organizing the logistics for this project, so I was going to let her do so. But after four days, I sent out an email suggesting we meet to get the Gantt chart ready before our next meeting with our advisors.
So I got back responses that said, "sure!". And I thought, gees, this is like pulling teeth. How about somebody suggesting a time? So I went ahead and found a time that worked for everybody, and when the day came around we all gathered around the whiteboard. And neither one of the other two said anything. It got a little awkward, so I started the discussion and asked questions and basically we reviewed the high-level tasks and broke them down into responsibilities which we divvied up amongst ourselves. No schedule or chart, though.
I waited another week and still heard nothing from the other two students. So I finally sent out an email and said we should meet Wednesday, today, because we needed to have this thing done before our meeting Thursday.
We shall see how it goes this afternoon.
In undergrad, there was this unspoken law. When a class had a group project during the term, the groups were either self-formed by the students or assigned by the teacher. Either way, the law was that the first person to send an e-mail coordinating logistics of the first group meeting was the defacto group leader. Never failed. The person who cared the most and had natural leadership tendencies would get antsy from not hearing anything, send out an email, and boom - leader of the group.
I was trying really hard not to do that here, because the other girl said she'd be interested in heading this project. Besides, everybody at this school has leadership tendencies, not just me. I really would rather have somebody else take the lead, that way I can just contribute my ideas and work and not have to handle logistics. In a final twist, however, I am really good at logistics and keeping on top of people, and I have the most experience out of the three of us.
So do I look like I'm steamrolling the other two students if I take the lead? Or is that then their own fault for not stepping up to the plate?
We'll find out this afternoon. I'm going to keep quiet as long as I can in the meeting, but if I end up with a pile of teeth at the end, I'm sayin' I resisted as long as I could.
We had our first official meeting last week, with the professor and research scientist who will be leading/advising the project. During this first meeting, we students were told to come up with a list of tasks involved in the project, and a timeline for completing them. A Gantt chart, essentially, for those who recognize this word.
So I waited four days or so, and I heard not a peep from the other two students. One of the other students said she was interested in taking the lead in organizing the logistics for this project, so I was going to let her do so. But after four days, I sent out an email suggesting we meet to get the Gantt chart ready before our next meeting with our advisors.
So I got back responses that said, "sure!". And I thought, gees, this is like pulling teeth. How about somebody suggesting a time? So I went ahead and found a time that worked for everybody, and when the day came around we all gathered around the whiteboard. And neither one of the other two said anything. It got a little awkward, so I started the discussion and asked questions and basically we reviewed the high-level tasks and broke them down into responsibilities which we divvied up amongst ourselves. No schedule or chart, though.
I waited another week and still heard nothing from the other two students. So I finally sent out an email and said we should meet Wednesday, today, because we needed to have this thing done before our meeting Thursday.
We shall see how it goes this afternoon.
In undergrad, there was this unspoken law. When a class had a group project during the term, the groups were either self-formed by the students or assigned by the teacher. Either way, the law was that the first person to send an e-mail coordinating logistics of the first group meeting was the defacto group leader. Never failed. The person who cared the most and had natural leadership tendencies would get antsy from not hearing anything, send out an email, and boom - leader of the group.
I was trying really hard not to do that here, because the other girl said she'd be interested in heading this project. Besides, everybody at this school has leadership tendencies, not just me. I really would rather have somebody else take the lead, that way I can just contribute my ideas and work and not have to handle logistics. In a final twist, however, I am really good at logistics and keeping on top of people, and I have the most experience out of the three of us.
So do I look like I'm steamrolling the other two students if I take the lead? Or is that then their own fault for not stepping up to the plate?
We'll find out this afternoon. I'm going to keep quiet as long as I can in the meeting, but if I end up with a pile of teeth at the end, I'm sayin' I resisted as long as I could.
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