Moving on

Today I was able to finish all my drawings that I've been working on the past couple weeks.  It's wonderful to have this job done and now it's time to move on to other tasks.  After finishing the prints around midday I spent some time with our lab technician because it was his last day and some of his responsibilities (specifically keeping our group's web content update) have fallen to me.  At the tail end of the day I spent time setting up my thesis files and directories as my first step towards starting finishing my dissertation.

Flurry of activity

Today was full of lots of small jobs.  And unfortunately I took them as they came and did my best to keep my head above water.  I did get a lot of work done, but the method is not sustainable (especially after the talk yesterday about time management).

Over the course of the day I ran another long time drift experiment.  In addition, I shipped out some glass tubing to a shop in town that will cut and grind these to length and continued cleaning up my stack of blue prints.  In the afternoon I spent a couple hours on a grant proposal both alone and in discussion with my supervisor.

More of the same

Today I continued with my work from yesterday.  Specifically I looked at the data collected during my recent long time drift experiment where I was looking at the stability of an instrument.  The results are very interesting and have spurred me on to other meaningful and necessary tasks.  At the end of the day I attended another postgraduate seminar, this one was on time and task management.  The talk was well put together, thought provoking and I even came away with a couple practical tip I'll look into on the weekend.

Various things

Today I started experiments to look at the long time stability of certain measurements.  It's easy to set-up the instrument and start collecting data, but then it's a long acquisition.  In the mean time I looked in detail at my results from last week.  Figuring what information is present and what I need to follow up on.  I spent a short amount of time in SolidWorks updating parts and prints.  Also I made contact with a shop outside of the school that I'll use for some glass work.  At the end of the day I attended another postgraduate seminar in our school (last week's "How to Find a Post-Doc Position" was in the same series).  This talk was given by my supervisor and discussed the typesetting tool LaTeX which I have been using for the past three years, but I still wanted to attend to pick-up on some of the less technical aspects (history, pros, cons, etc.).

Good start

Today was a great start to the week.  I started the morning by discussing my data from last week with my supervisor.  I was able to bring him up to speed and share my plans for future work.  Being on the same page we had a nice discussion and we're on the same page for moving forward.  Afterwards I took down my experiment from last week, cleaned the cell and loaded a new sample as part of preparations for tomorrow.  This was all I finished in the morning and in the afternoon I was off campus to volunteer.

Week in advace: 25-31 January

This week I need to look at the data from my recent experiments.  From a quick look last Saturday I have some a couple things I'd like to look into with my techniques.  I was trying a new type of measurement and there might be some improvements I can make to the process.  From my perspective my thesis is all about developing new methods and ironing out any wrinkles is certainly part of the process. Also this week I will finish my prints and finish sourcing material for my latest parts.

Week in review: 18-24 January

After a late night in the lab yesterday, I went back in this afternoon to run another experiment.  In the end I was able to run a successful experiment.  This was one of my goals for the week and I am pleased to tick this off the list.  The second job this week was to finish a suite of blueprints.  I still need to go back through the prints to clean up tolerances but most of the parts are now laid out.  I probably need another day to a day and a half to finish this job, but for the most part this is all desk work.  The design has been refined with a number of sets of eyes on it, including our machine shop, so I am happy to move forward once we have the material.

When things are working

When things are working... don't leave the lab!

That's the advice I've heard a number of times over the past couple years and today I am taking the message to heart.  So far it's been a big day and I say "so far" because it's not over yet.

This morning I made some awesome progress revising some parts and I think I've sorted a big issue that's been looming for the past few days.  I haven't finished my prints, but I was able to get a jump start on a handful.  Not exactly what I wanted, but there's no point in having a blueprint if the part would not work!

In the afternoon I moved on to testing my latest sample.  It takes some time to run a suite of experiments as there are a number of temperature steps followed by equilibration.  I am on to my second go, as there were a few bugs the first time around.  What data I did get from the preliminary series looks pretty good.  There's definitely something of interest going on and hopefully today or next week I'll capture a reasonable data set.

Another day

Today I worked on some hardware designs.  Primarily I wanted to focus on blueprints, but I spent a good portion of the day revamping details of individual parts.  The issue here is that I am in New Zealand designing and planning to build hardware that will fit an instrument located on the other side of the planet (in Montana).  Additionally, the original manufacturer of the equipment (in Germany) is helping answer technical questions as needed.  It's a really cool experience to be part of a truly international collaboration, but it's sort of like the team building exercise where you tell your blindfolded friend how to build a Lego set.  All communication needs to be clear and succinct and every conversation takes a day and half to go back and forth.

For a break, this afternoon I attended a workshop, put on by a former student of our school, about finding a postdoc position.  The session was great, but it seems like there's no one size fits all solution to finding work after your PhD.  In fact, based on the number of variables, it really seems like the strategy will vary greatly between you and even your closest colleagues.  After much thought and discussion with friends, I wonder how similar finding a postdoc (or any job) after your programme is to finding a place to live.  My thought here is that shelter is a necessity and that given the pressure to find housing (or employment) you'll make do out of the options available.  Much of the feedback I've heard from former students is to start searching early.  Fair enough, but how do I know/commit/find something now that won't happen for another 6-12 months?  Would you commit to a rental house 12 months in advance?  Maybe if it's your dream, but otherwise I'd keep my options open.  Perhaps my feeling is that all this "how to find a postdoc" advice should actually be labelled "how to find the perfect postdoc".  I am still pondering these thoughts and plan to perform my own experiment over the next year, so please feel free to chime in with any comments.

Finally, this evening I was talking with my wife (a fellow PhD student) about the ups and downs of doctoral life.  Both of us are looking to submit our thesis in about 6 months and both of us are concerned with our productivity as of late.  Now each day I go to work and each day I do a days worth of work, but this doesn't seem like enough.  With 6 months left to go in my studies, I should be crunching data and writing 24 hours a day!  My thought here (and I've mentioned this before) is that I am still recovering from the mandatory two weeks off last month.  And no, I am not on vacation mode, but it has taken this long for external pressure to build back up and motivate results.  Now that seems horrible, as if the only way I get any work done is when I am told to do something, but it's something deeper than that.  It's tough to explain, but it seems as though we oscillate between periods of heavy and then low... hummm productivity isn't the right word, because it's not about the output rather the input.  We seem to build up to a frenzy and work really hard, and then crash.  Like some sort of academic sugar crash.  I notice that the fine tuning needed here is how far we let our self go, a psychological equivalent to a deadband.  I think the oscillatory behaviour is natural, but it might be possible to tune the system so that the difference between the highs and lows isn't so extreme, moderation is key.  Before the break I was all go because I knew I wanted certain work finished before the holidays, this effectively pushed me into a period of high performance which subsequently lead to my current slump.  Coming back to the acquisition of vacation mode, the vacation actually played very little into the scenario, other that the fact it prompted the big push in the lab.

House of cards

Despite my enthusiasm yesterday, today's experiments didn't go to plan.  As a proof of concept for a new instrument I am trying to reproduce data that already exists in literature.  To that end I've made a sample to match previous work, however, when working with the material it doesn't behave exactly as expected.  While the purpose of the experiments is to show a method where multiple streams of data can be collected simultaneously I still need the sample to respond according to values reported in other work.

After playing with the experimental set-up in the lab, I am thinking the issue may be in the sample, specifically the sample preparation.  Moving forward I prepared a new batch this afternoon, but will need a couple days to mix the components.  I am optimistic about trying a new sample because even if things still are amiss, I'll be more confident in one portion of the experiment.  Also, since I can't make measurements tomorrow, I'll have all day to focus on cleaning up my part drawings which are my other big task for the week.

Precipice

Today was a very exciting day, both in the lab and at my desk.  For most of the day I continued my experiments, using my latest batch of sample.  The results are very neat and so far are yielding interesting results.  Tomorrow will be the big test, trying to put all my new techniques into one simultaneous run.

In the afternoon I spent some time with my supervisor refining a grant application.  Today was an internal due date at our institution, with the actual submission coming up in two weeks.  We are working on a project which could provide me with a post-doc position once I finish my PhD.  The project we suggest has been refined over the past month or so and I am pretty excited about it's current state and the fact I've been given an opportunity to have a hand in crafting the proposal.

An aside

I mentioned yesterday that today was a holiday.  I didn't go into work this morning and I spent the afternoon volunteering.  As such I don't have any progress to report regarding my thesis and research, but I do want to mention some work I am doing at home to prepare for the future.  Assuming all goes well with preparing my thesis, I'll wrap up my PhD work at the end of July.  While my primary focus is on working towards submission, I can't help but think about "what's next?"  To that end I am starting to prepare for the job/postdoc position hunt.  This weekend I started to prepare a LinkedIn profile to increase my web presence.  I mention this here because as a service to fellow students, I'll chronicle not only my path to submitting my thesis, but also how I pursue work after my PhD.  For now this business is in the background, but we'll see how it evolves over the next half year.

Week in advance: 18-24 January

This week my goals are the same as last.  Namely continue experiments in the lab and push out prints to the machine shop.  All this needs to be done in four days as tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday in Wellington (besides I'll be volunteering in the afternoon anyway).

My design work is wrapping up and the major work remaining is to take the solids design and make individual blueprints for each part.  The workshop has already given me feedback over the past week and they know the work is coming.  Once the job is in their hands it will be a race to get the material and finish production before I head overseas at the beginning of April.

Last Thursday I made up a new sample which needed to be mixed over the weekend.  The plan is to run experiments in the magnet next week and depending on how things turn out, that could be the last data set for a significant chapter of my thesis.  This would also let me finish up a paper I've been sitting on where part of the hold up was finalising the data collection.

There are plenty of other jobs I could add to the list or look at this week, but I want to completely clear these two tasks off my desk.  I'll re-evaluate my priorities afterwards, but the important thing this week is to wrap-up these two items.

Week in review: 11-17 January

This week was productive and saw me shake off the sleep from my summer holidays.  In addition to my research contributions over the past few days, I have also been working on the logistics for a pair of trips.  First is a conference next month where I will be presenting a talk on our new hardware/methodologies.  Second is a month long overseas trip to a lab in the U.S. I've mentioned this trip in the past, but have also avoided going into too much detail as I didn't consider this a "sure thing" until my airfare was booked.

While producing a thesis in the next couple months is certainly a drive force, these two trips will serve as small checkpoints.  For the conference next month I'll present the data I collected last month and the work I hope to complete with my new sample next week.  The journey overseas requires me to get my new designs to the machine shop and into production.

Seeing these trips mature over the past week I am even more pleased with my lab work from this week as I know I am working towards these milestones.

End of the week

Today I continued my recent hardware work and started preparing prints for my new parts.  I had a quick follow-up chat with the workshop and I think we're in great shape; meaning we're on the same page and both parties are comfortable with the design.  This should help the production phase move smoothly and quickly.

In the afternoon I spent some time with my supervisor discussing ideas for an upcoming grant application.  Although my primary focus over the next 6 months is my research and thesis it's tough not to think about the future.  Specifically what do I do come August?  At this point I have no commitments once I submit my thesis, but I am passively (I said my focus was my thesis) looking for opportunities.  As an extension, this evening I started a LinkedIn profile.  Now I am not a social media person and this blog is perhaps my strongest presence on the web, but if some opportunity for after my PhD is to find me I think it's wise to cast a wide net.

The groove

For the first time since the holidays, today I feel as though I am finding a groove.  Perhaps I just needed to get back in the mindset of work or maybe I had to build up a certain amount of momentum, but I feel as though I am starting to hit a stride.

My design work is coming together, I spent over an hour going through the current parts with one of our machinists.  This gave me opportunity for some fantastic feedback before we move to production.

In the afternoon I focused on some laboratory measurements and after an impromptu talk at lunch with my supervisor, we came up with the idea to try a different sample.  I prepared a batch and will run some measurements in a couple days.  These could be the last experiments to get my current (growing) paper out the door.  Also anything that's good news for a publication is also good news for my thesis.

Smooth day

Today went particularly smooth and when compared to yesterday, it wasn't nearly as dramatic.  At work I was able to finish the solids models for all my parts for traveling overseas.  Tomorrow I've planned a chat with a couple folks from the machine shop so they can give input into the design.  If my travel plans firm up as I expect, I'll need to have these parts back by the beginning of April, which is cutting it a bit close.

A mild crisis

Two big things happened today.  First I spent a great deal of time on my project and I am actually getting work done quickly.  With a couple more days this week I expect to have the design and possible blueprints finished.  I had a short chat with a couple of the machinists in our school's workshop and we're starting to go back and forth with ideas, which is an essential part to refine the plans.

The second part of today was a minor crisis and prolonged period of panic.  Actually the panic has been building for a couple days now and has yet to disperse entirely.  To all my fellow students reading this blog, I want to make it perfectly clear that it is ok and normal for you to worry about your thesis.  Including, but not limited to, questioning the amount of work, the quality of your work, or your ability to complete your thesis on time.  From what I've observed to date, there may even be an analogue between panic attacks leading up to submission and contractions prior to childbirth; in general both phenomenon seem to increase in frequency and intensity as you build towards the final outcome.  Now all joking aside, I have been concerned about the time I have left and if the work I'll do over the next 198 days will be enough for a PhD.  In response to my meltdown I did what all students should do and I sat down with my supervisor.  I went over what I have on my plate right now (these things are the priorities) and I talked him through the to do list.  Additionally, I mentioned which things I am looking to cut due to time and the fact these items contribute very little overall to my research.  We both see the amount as time as a limiting factor, but my supervisor also feels that I currently have quite a bit of work stacking up and have more results coming in over the next few months from projects that are already in motion.  This wasn't news to me, but I was glad to hear this from someone else.  I am still nervous, but at this point all I can do is to continue with my work.  I am organised (a big plus in a crisis situation) and I have great support.  I need to keep pushing towards my deadline, making progress on my work and hopefully I will rise out of this latest funk.

Nothing to report

As an avid follower of the blog, by now you know that Monday afternoons I volunteer off campus.  Additionally, many Monday mornings I stay at home to run errands and the like, which is what I did today.  No big news regarding my research, I'll jump in tomorrow.

Week in advance: 11-17 January

This week I am moving onto the big fish... that is I am ready to jump back into the heavy parts of my thesis.  First this week I'd like to knock out the design for the parts/devices I am planning to take overseas in a couple months.  Getting the prints of these parts to the machine shop is crucial in order to having the assembled gear for my trip.  Second I would like to prepare a new sample to retry a failed experiment from before the break.  With this a good sample and successful measurements I'll have a great piece of data for publication and for my talk at a conference next month.  I have a number of other smaller jobs that I'll pepper in as reasonable, but my focus will be shifting to larger blocks of work.

Week in review: 4-10 January

Overall I am pleased with the week past.  I focused on the jobs I said I would, that being: 1) two days of outreach, 2) organisation and 3) a punchlist from last round of experiments.

Regarding the outreach, while I had the best of intentions to share an experience that was both exciting/interesting and educational, I see now how difficult of a task this can be.  We did get the visiting students through our lab and I think they learned a bit and enjoyed their time, but I've taken from this week a list of notes for future exercises.  In particular I would like to look at how I explain basic concepts of my research and what tools I could create to help (animations, computer simulations, slides).  However, these things just end up on the wishlist as I don't want to commit serious time to these tasks over the next few months.

In the latter part of the week I re-focused on my research and where I am at.  And started back with small jobs, as to dip my toes and carefully wade into the massive ocean of work.  I did a number of different types of things, which isn't necessarily the most efficient/productive, but moving among different types of jobs brought back a heap of "muscle memory" which I'll need as I dive in deeper from next week on.

Settling back in

Today I worked on a couple programming jobs that I took note of during my last batch of experiments.  As I mentioned yesterday, it's been nice to ease back into school this week with small jobs that help to remind me how to get things done.  Even after only a couple weeks of holiday I needed a reminder on keyboard shortcuts, work flow, directory structure on the computer, etc.  Now I haven't outright forgotten anything, I am just not as fluid as I am after weeks or months of concentration.

The software I patched today will make future experiments (specifically hardware controls) more user friendly.

To the point

Today was a straightforward day where I focused on two small electronics projects that I've been meaning to look for at few months.  This is perfect work for the first week back, giving me an opportunity to shake off the cobwebs and relearn my tools and redevelop efficient workflow habits.  I will admit that I could easy allow myself to be sidetracked by these jobs, but I will stick with my allotted time and will be ready to move on to other work next week.

The latest punchlist

I've started to build my latest to do list and there are many small items.  These come from all the bits and pieces I ignored when running experiments before the break.  All the little bugs and improvements that you note in the moment are beginning to overwhelm.  I spoke with my supervisor today briefly regarding my work plans in the near future and his comment was to not let these little things become too large of a distraction.  He makes the point that there are always further refinements that can be made, but at some point we need to draw the line.  Moving forward he suggested I give myself a set amount to time for these jobs and once the time is used up, move on.  I like this plan, but I also think I can sneak in a little bit of this work in the future during quiet moments between more important tasks.  For the remainder of this week, I am going to try and tackle as many of these odd jobs as possible, with the plan of jumping onto more significant sized projects from the start of next week.  This will also give me time to further collect my thoughts and organise a work schedule.

Outreach

Today was the second day of hosting students in the lab.  As a research group we continued to show aspects of our research with a couple small activities for the students along the way.  Activities such as these are always exciting because of the opportunity to share our passion and excitement for our work.  However, they are also extremely challenging as we need to eloquently convey complex ideas to a new audience.  Additionally, there's always some great questions that can catch you off guard.  Tomorrow I will return to my "regular" work, but I have a feeling I will be haunted from a few days by the challenge of effectively sharing my work with others.  I know I can't afford the time, but I'd love to take a side track for a week or three and come up with a few animations, demonstrations and interactive simulations to punch up my outreach demonstrating and tutorial skills.  Well for now, these ideas get documented on the "wish list" and I care on with my other jobs.

Visitors

As I mentioned yesterday, today our lab hosted a half dozen high school students.  Throughout the day the students rotated between the three current PhD students to learn about our current work and to try their hand at some experimental physics.  Today I focused on hardware development explaining why as a scientist one would want/need to make their own instrument, followed by a brief introduction to computer animated design where the students created a number of parts to be 3d printed.  In theory we'll loaded the 3d parts into a flow cell tomorrow and image the velocity field of water moving through the device.  Unfortunately, most folks around Wellington are not back at work and I am having trouble find a back-up 3d printer as our original plans have fallen through.  In the worst case, we use some test pieces I made before the break, which are similar to what the students worked on today.

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Week in advance: 4-10 January

Welcome back and here we go...  another year begins and the journey to thesis submission continues.  Over the past two weeks I've had an extremely restful holiday and despite the good intentions I did no work.  Now I struggle with this mentally, but what's done is done.  I think there's some good in taking time away from my research so that now I can head back to school recharged and be ready to move forward.

Starting back on Monday morning is usually a challenge as there's a backlog of tasks and to dos.  I worry tomorrow will be an abnormally difficult day, as the university been closed for so long.  Additionally, out lab will have 7 high school students visiting Monday and Tuesday to experience a research environment.  Everyone in the lab (students and supervisor) are planning to give our near full attention to these young scientists and while I look forward to sharing my love for the laboratory this will only compound an already busy schedule.

With the first two days of the week dedicated to our guests, I hope that by Wednesday I sort out my to do list.  I have plenty of manuscripts to draft/review, a talk to prepare for a conference next month, hardware to design and experiments to run.  I am looking forward to all of these jobs, but I can't help but think about my time left.  Organisation will be key over the next seven months and I look forward to sorting this out and jumping onto the priority jobs this week.