I had nothing in particular to post about, so a (modified) excerpt from my conversation with my sister*:
Today I:
-Didn't procrastinate on my CAD work that's due Wed/Fri.
-Went to a Camras Advisory Board meeting and volunteered to present on my experiences with undergrad research
-Sorted out my problems with my last two paychecks
-Talked to my advisor, as promised, but got no solid information regarding research funding for this semester ( :( ) [not his fault, by the way, our administrative assistant wasn't in, so he couldn't get a report of his grants for the semester]...rescheduled to Wednesday
-Finished Stats HW
-Ran a fairly productive (in my opinion, anyway) AIAA meeting
-Confused my Stats professor (in my defense, he started it!)
-Washed most of my dishes
-Registered for SWE national conference (with a tour of SpaceX facilities!)
Tomorrow is another pretty full day! Two student activities workshops, a class and my awesome IPRO, which I still need to read some articles for. I'm out for now.
31.8.09
27.8.09
First Week
This first week is always so crazy, but I love it. All these new people to meet, new things to learn...new notebooks! There's few things more exciting than a brand-spanking-new notebook. All those blank pages.
I've decided that I pretty much love my classes.
Thermal Design has an awesome professor with an absolutely unreal memory (he knows like half the class although he's only ever seen them at info sessions or heard about them in department news and stuff...he remembered me from an open house I attended 3 years ago!)
CAD/CAM is kind of boring, but only because I've used the program we are using already, so until we get to something other than the basics of using it, there's not much for me to learn. I like CAD programs, though, because you get to create actual Things in 3D and you can look at them and everything. Think that thing Tony Stark from Ironman has in his garage, except without the holograms (although I'm fairly sure every mechanical engineer wants one of those with the holograms).
Stats is a class that people hate when they need to take it, but since I know why I want to take it, and I am rather pleased with it so far. We'll see how the workload and stuff goes. We have homework already, but since it's a 3hr class once a week, that's not too surprising.
Manufacturing seems much more interesting to me than materials class was. I have it for the second time in about 2 hours, we'll see how it is when it's not just an introduction.
IPRO. You'll hear a lot about IPRO's because they are fairly central to "the IIT experience." For those who haven't heard of them, IPRO stands for Inter-Professional Project, and it's a real-world project (often requested and/or sponsored by a company or a professor, sometimes by a student), that students of different majors get together to work on. My current IPRO is one on refuelable electric cars. My professor thinks we will change the world and take pictures with President Obama. And, really, if we get it to work, we could! The basic idea is using a different kind of battery that uses up its electrolyte as it runs. It's not rechargeable, but it is refuelable with more electrolyte! And this electrolyte is safe; at the very least much safer than the gasoline we use now. Overall, if this strategy works, it is possible to end dependence on foreign oil, save the environment...the whole shebang. And that is why our project can change the world. I'm super-excited.
SWE (Society of Women Engineers) is doing some great things, too. Some of our events are less attended than last year, but we have more of them. An event every day this week; it's pretty hard on the exec board, but we're pulling through. And last night's event turned into sitting around the table talking about internship and IIT experiences. I feel like that is the sort of thing our organization needs more of; sitting around a table and sharing what it's like to be a woman in steel-toed boots.
Anyway, first week is pretty hectic, but not too bad, all in all. And now I go to copy over my manufacturing notes before class.
I've decided that I pretty much love my classes.
Thermal Design has an awesome professor with an absolutely unreal memory (he knows like half the class although he's only ever seen them at info sessions or heard about them in department news and stuff...he remembered me from an open house I attended 3 years ago!)
CAD/CAM is kind of boring, but only because I've used the program we are using already, so until we get to something other than the basics of using it, there's not much for me to learn. I like CAD programs, though, because you get to create actual Things in 3D and you can look at them and everything. Think that thing Tony Stark from Ironman has in his garage, except without the holograms (although I'm fairly sure every mechanical engineer wants one of those with the holograms).
Stats is a class that people hate when they need to take it, but since I know why I want to take it, and I am rather pleased with it so far. We'll see how the workload and stuff goes. We have homework already, but since it's a 3hr class once a week, that's not too surprising.
Manufacturing seems much more interesting to me than materials class was. I have it for the second time in about 2 hours, we'll see how it is when it's not just an introduction.
IPRO. You'll hear a lot about IPRO's because they are fairly central to "the IIT experience." For those who haven't heard of them, IPRO stands for Inter-Professional Project, and it's a real-world project (often requested and/or sponsored by a company or a professor, sometimes by a student), that students of different majors get together to work on. My current IPRO is one on refuelable electric cars. My professor thinks we will change the world and take pictures with President Obama. And, really, if we get it to work, we could! The basic idea is using a different kind of battery that uses up its electrolyte as it runs. It's not rechargeable, but it is refuelable with more electrolyte! And this electrolyte is safe; at the very least much safer than the gasoline we use now. Overall, if this strategy works, it is possible to end dependence on foreign oil, save the environment...the whole shebang. And that is why our project can change the world. I'm super-excited.
SWE (Society of Women Engineers) is doing some great things, too. Some of our events are less attended than last year, but we have more of them. An event every day this week; it's pretty hard on the exec board, but we're pulling through. And last night's event turned into sitting around the table talking about internship and IIT experiences. I feel like that is the sort of thing our organization needs more of; sitting around a table and sharing what it's like to be a woman in steel-toed boots.
Anyway, first week is pretty hectic, but not too bad, all in all. And now I go to copy over my manufacturing notes before class.
23.8.09
I've Moved In.
My friend and I made dinner today; not as a planned event, like we sometimes have, but just in a "Have you eaten yet? Let's make food," kind of way. It was great.
I've a few more things to unpack, but really, it's getting there.
I've a few more things to unpack, but really, it's getting there.
21.8.09
Verification:
Late is better than never. It has been proven.
I sent my best friend a birthday present last Tuesday (8/18). Her birthday is in February (2/18). I do wish I had made it in time, but honestly, I would rather give a good present late than a bad present on-time. Furthermore, it was a little unexpected joy...so I'm hoping that kind of evens that playing field...I'm not hiding that I do still feel bad, though.
Same law (better late than never) goes for my stuff arriving tomorrow. Apartment is lonely and empty. :(
Bedtime! One last night of sleep unclouded by homework :O
I sent my best friend a birthday present last Tuesday (8/18). Her birthday is in February (2/18). I do wish I had made it in time, but honestly, I would rather give a good present late than a bad present on-time. Furthermore, it was a little unexpected joy...so I'm hoping that kind of evens that playing field...I'm not hiding that I do still feel bad, though.
Same law (better late than never) goes for my stuff arriving tomorrow. Apartment is lonely and empty. :(
Bedtime! One last night of sleep unclouded by homework :O
15.8.09
Apartment shopping!
I have the key to my apartment! For clarity, this is an on-campus apartment; the big life step involved is cooking my own food and cleaning my own bathroom. Both of which I have done before, but not exclusively (at my parents' house). So it'll be fun--balancing chores with schoolwork with fun with job/grad school -hunting this year...
Still, I went apartment shopping a few days ago, got dishes, a dishrack, lots of cleaning supplies, kitchen towels. Boring stuff, but exciting to get for yourself. We'll need more stuff before we're all set; some shelves there's practically none in the bathroom and we don't want to use the ones provided because they're wood, and wood in a tiny, enclosed bathroom is a pretty terrible idea. (It warps.)
Anyway...move in weekend is looming/beginning and it's pretty exciting!
Still, I went apartment shopping a few days ago, got dishes, a dishrack, lots of cleaning supplies, kitchen towels. Boring stuff, but exciting to get for yourself. We'll need more stuff before we're all set; some shelves there's practically none in the bathroom and we don't want to use the ones provided because they're wood, and wood in a tiny, enclosed bathroom is a pretty terrible idea. (It warps.)
Anyway...move in weekend is looming/beginning and it's pretty exciting!
14.8.09
Results!?!??
I don't want to jinx it, so I'll just say that my project is working better than ever before. Putting in 11 hours straight can be well worth it! It may also help that I work best around 4-7PM, a time when I'm usually getting ready to/going home from the lab. But things will change when classes start in a week and a bit; I just don't know how yet.
I'm now at the point where I'm testing and hoping I don't discover any more problems...We'll see how that goes. Anyway, it put me in a strange mood of wanting to look back on this project and this summer in terms of research...
I didn't want to do this project, at first. I distinctly remember turning it down last year, because I did not want to be on my own project; but I agreed this summer because...well, because results seemed more likely than on my previous project, because now I did want to do something on my own and have a result to show for it, and maybe because the work that my predecessor did seemed more promising than starting from scratch. And now that the summer is almost over, most of these reasons have justified themselves. I have produced something! It may not work perfectly, but it is far more than what existed before!
I learned three new software tools: a circuit simulator called SIMetrix (if you need one, and you will as an EE, ME, AE, or Physics major, or want to play with one, I recommend it), PBASIC for the Parallax Basic Stamp Microcontroller and Visual Basic for Excel (great tool!). I've learned a whole lot about circuit design and statistics; and probably some stuff about other things, too.
Best of all, I learned about myself: I prefer simulating to measuring, programming to running test after test; I still like greasing bearings, taking things apart, and making a real, physical product, though. I like to learn new things from lots of different areas (electronics, programming, math, and of course fluid mechanics) and put them together; furthermore, I am very capable of doing this!
What does this mean for my future? I'm not 100% sure. (I still have to test my hypothesis, kind of like on my project, haha.) Still, I'm a lot less worried about my graduate school choices than I would have been had I not done this project; now I know I have many, many choices and one of them is bound to suit me!
I'm now at the point where I'm testing and hoping I don't discover any more problems...We'll see how that goes. Anyway, it put me in a strange mood of wanting to look back on this project and this summer in terms of research...
I didn't want to do this project, at first. I distinctly remember turning it down last year, because I did not want to be on my own project; but I agreed this summer because...well, because results seemed more likely than on my previous project, because now I did want to do something on my own and have a result to show for it, and maybe because the work that my predecessor did seemed more promising than starting from scratch. And now that the summer is almost over, most of these reasons have justified themselves. I have produced something! It may not work perfectly, but it is far more than what existed before!
I learned three new software tools: a circuit simulator called SIMetrix (if you need one, and you will as an EE, ME, AE, or Physics major, or want to play with one, I recommend it), PBASIC for the Parallax Basic Stamp Microcontroller and Visual Basic for Excel (great tool!). I've learned a whole lot about circuit design and statistics; and probably some stuff about other things, too.
Best of all, I learned about myself: I prefer simulating to measuring, programming to running test after test; I still like greasing bearings, taking things apart, and making a real, physical product, though. I like to learn new things from lots of different areas (electronics, programming, math, and of course fluid mechanics) and put them together; furthermore, I am very capable of doing this!
What does this mean for my future? I'm not 100% sure. (I still have to test my hypothesis, kind of like on my project, haha.) Still, I'm a lot less worried about my graduate school choices than I would have been had I not done this project; now I know I have many, many choices and one of them is bound to suit me!
11.8.09
On Programming...
I programmed in Visual Basic yesterday. Now, I didn't really know Visual Basic.
But while I was sorting through the MSDN documentation (by the way, terrible, but that's a story for another day), it occurred to me that after using Java, C++, MATLAB, Python, assembly (for the LC3 emulator), and PBASIC (for the Parallax Basic Stamp 2), I had enough programming experience to figure out any programming language in the same way I would remember a language if I hadn't used it in a while.
It's strange to find out you can't honestly say you "don't know" something anymore, because you know bits and pieces of it from different previous experiences...
But while I was sorting through the MSDN documentation (by the way, terrible, but that's a story for another day), it occurred to me that after using Java, C++, MATLAB, Python, assembly (for the LC3 emulator), and PBASIC (for the Parallax Basic Stamp 2), I had enough programming experience to figure out any programming language in the same way I would remember a language if I hadn't used it in a while.
It's strange to find out you can't honestly say you "don't know" something anymore, because you know bits and pieces of it from different previous experiences...
3.8.09
Running into a wall on Monday morning
I kind of hate it when I discover an error that sets me back a week, but I guess that's research.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out what's causing it...but at least I figured out what is going on, so I guess that's something.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out what's causing it...but at least I figured out what is going on, so I guess that's something.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)