Getting tired

Today I was able to get a new piece of code working on the instruments at MSU.  While I don't need this programme for my data collection on this trip, it was a neat challenge and the folks here greatly appreciate having this running.  During the afternoon I spent a couple hours preparing a talk that I'll give to the group tomorrow; I tried to be efficient as possible, recycling material from other presentations.  I'll run through the slides a couple time tomorrow, but for the most part this is a very informal process.  This evening I dove into the analysis of the data I collected earlier this week; I was able to set-up some scripts to guide the process, but there's a lot of manual work still to do.  After a number of long days and short nights, I can't face going through these measurements tonight.

Suspicious calm

I have just over one week before I head back to NZ and surprisingly I am ok with this fact.  My work is moving along and I believe I've collected the first half of my data.  I still need to check the quantitative results, but so far things look good.  When working on programming another piece of code, I noticed an error in the scripts I used to set-up all measurements to date.  It's a minor issue and I'll be able to correct for this in my post-processing/data analysis. Although things are looking good, I still want to maintain my long hours in the lab in case something goes wrong.

Late nights

Today was another long day in the lab, but I will not complain because I am working long hours running experiments.  Once you find a groove, it's best to keep moving along and that's exactly my mentality the past few days.

Week in advance: 26 April-2 May

This week I want to continue the trend of refining my methods through running experiments.  I am moving out of the "ideal" programming phase, where I now have to get my techniques to work in real life.  Of course this is rarely trivial and despite your best effort you find bugs and glitches in our code.  Currently I am calibrating my techniques using a system material (water), but by the end of the week I hope to have moved on to measuring the response of a complex sample.  I am pleased with how things have been moving along the past couple weeks, but with the end of my trip in sight it's important that I stay on track.

Week in review: 19-25 April

I am to the point, where I can start running suites of experiments, which was my goal for the week.  The instruments are set-up and I have a few layers of code to help automate/streamline the data collection process.  The results generally are looking reasonable, but there are a couple issues that need to be looked; with the biggest concern the post-processing routine.  I mentioned earlier in the week that I have a lot of experiments to run which makes me nervous about time, but once we dial in the current process, I'll be able to knock out half of my run pretty quickly (2-3 days).  Ultimately that would leave me almost a week for the rest of my work which isn't too bad, but it doesn't allow for many curve-balls.

Some experiments

Today I continued working on code to help set-up and automate my experiments.  When it comes to collecting my "real" data in Montana, I have 10 physical set-ups which need to be measured with at least two different fluids and at a dozen or so different shear rates (and each sample holder/fluid/shear rate combination will require a couple different types of measurements).  All together that means I have lots of experiments to run.  The good news is that a single experiment might only take 5-10 minutes.  The bad news is that by hand it can take 5 minutes to set-up a single experiment.  Automation scripts help to speed up data collection, allow me to measure overnight (or other times I am not in the lab) and reduce human error.  That's why I am taking a few days to create some robust time saving code, but alas there's still work to do on this front.  To make sure I don't forget about the "science" behind my trip, I did set-up a few dozen experiments to run overnight which will help me dial in what parameters I can use and what types of measurements will be feasible for my work.

Moving forward

It's been another long day in the lab, but things are moving forward.  Based on some feedback from the instrument manufacturers, I've been able to clean up my programming and now the code works as expected.  Today I wrote an automation program to make experiment set-up an easy process.  Once I had these two pieces of code working, I modified them so we have an additional two variants.  For those keeping track that's 6 new programs (3 pulse programs each with its own automation program).  I ran a single test for each and the results quantitatively matched expected results.

For the past couple hours I've been trying to get a fourth program working, but unfortunately this one is more complex and utilises functions not found in any of the working programs.  I'll self this last piece of code for tonight and come back tomorrow morning.

Sick day

Just a quick update from Tuesday, I did stay home to rest (and prevent spreading my illness).  I had optimistic hopes of doing computer work from home, but instead I sleep most of the day.  This morning (Wednesday) I am back at work and will give another update this evening.

Losing steam

In the spirit of enthusiasm and optimism, I've labelled today a "2" (referring to how well I feel the day went).  I seem to be reaching a wall, both mentally and physically.  One reason I am posting this evening (and the reason I am home before it's dark) is because I am starting to feel sick.  Now I was careful this past weekend (when visiting family) to get a decent amount of sleep and last night (when I returned to Bozeman) I fought off the instinct to go into work.  However, despite my conservative attempts, I still worry I am coming down with something.

My work in the lab is slowly progressing.  Today we tried a fresh approach to our problems from last week, but arrived at the same dead-end.  We have a couple emails out to the equipment manufacturer, hoping for some insight, but with those folks in Germany responses are delayed.  We have a couple workarounds in mind, but we're waiting for a response before we move in any direction.  All the while I lose measurement time.  Also, it doesn't help that today makes 100 days until my thesis submission.  Right now I am so focused on the work at hand (which isn't working) that I am not feeling confident in my thesis.

For now I hope a long night's sleep and a fresh attitude in the morning will help see things move along.

Week in advance: 19-25 April

Tomorrow I'll be back in the lab after a long weekend away. When I left last week things were looking up, but I had yet to run any experiments. Over the coming days I still have work to do tweaking my software, but regardless I need to start collecting data.

Progress

It's been a few days since my last update and for that I apologies.  The past week has been quite busy and I've worked everyday to the tune of 12-14 hours.  The reason I've been spending long days in the lab is to get certain experiments running on the equipment at MSU.  This doesn't have to do with the instruments I've designed, built and programmed, but instead the hardware I came to Montana to use.  While the theory of operation is similar to the equipment in New Zealand, there were enough differences between the two systems to make for a challenging task.  Despite being a bit tired, I've really enjoyed this time as it's been an excellent opportunity to further my knowledge and experience.  It's kind of like learning to swim by being thrown into the deep-end of a pool... it's a bit terrifying and stressful, but if you survive you've grown in new ways.

Up until this afternoon nothing was working or making sense.  After a long session on the machine with one of the local professors, we were able to locate our issue (which looks to be a bug in the instrument software) and figure out a reasonable work around.  This evening I was able to fix up our code and make the measurement I need to make this trip a success.

Now after an intense week in Bozeman (and a few busy weeks before) I am headed to visit my family over a long weekend.  When I return to Bozeman I'll have just over two weeks to continue my work, but with a working pulse sequence I feel more confident that fruitful data will come from this visit.

Distracted

My apologies folks.  I have made it to the USA (two nights ago) and I was fortunate to have all my gear arrive in one piece.  Yesterday I assembled one of the instruments and had to make a couple adjustments on the fly.  The good news is that with a few tweaks the assembly works (or seems to work) as expected and today we were able to mount the device in the NMR system I came to use.  Today I've been working on some programming to get our experiments running.  We are very close to being able to make our first measurements, but there's some issue with the programming.  This could be due to porting the software from another instrument, but I've emailed from some technical support.

Week in advance: 5-11 April

Tomorrow I head off for Montana.  All my gear is packed up and ready for my flights.  Obviously the first task of the week will be to get myself and equipment safely to Bozeman, but after that there are a heap of unknowns.  I'll need to get a number of mechanical parts assembled and working, additionally my electronics will have to be set-up and my code will need to run on brand new (to me) systems.  Where will I find my first hitch or bug, I can't say, but I plan to hit the ground running.  I only have four weeks away and I need to make the most of my trip abroad.  Once my kit is running, there will be a number of experiments on offer which will only strengthen my thesis.  I big push now in the lab will only make it easier to compile my PhD work.

Week in review: 29 March-4 April

My goal this week was to prepare for my trip without exhausting myself (and ideally not work this weekend).  I am pleased to say all my equipment is packed and I am ready for my flight, although it did take me the better part of today to finish my preparations.  I have quite a bit of gear to take with me, so much that I couldn't carry everything down from the lab this evening.  Tomorrow I'll stop my school and grab the last of my kit, but everything is staged and ready to go.   I did take my time heading into work this morning and other than a quick stop in the lab, I'll have all of tomorrow to myself.  I am pleased not to be working until the absolute last minutes; a trend I've been trying to outgrow for years.

Bummer

My goal today was to completely wrap up in the lab prior to leaving next Monday.  Unfortunately, despite being at school for a full day, I still have a few hours of work left; meaning I'll need to head off to work tomorrow.  I was able to assemble a number of circuit boards which I am packing for my trip and I also spent time checking to make sure they operate as expected.  My workspace is a bit messy right now as I am going over all my equipment in advance of the final pack.

The storm?

This morning continued with the same calm as yesterday.  Early in the day I showed one of our visiting Masters students how to set-up the temperature control on the NMR system, I cleaned up my desk/office space, I got some paperwork signed and sorted for a programme I am working on, and I returned my stack of library books.  After lunch, while I was helping a fellow PhD student design a part to be 3D printed, I received my latest round of circuit boards.  I knew that I wouldn't get to soldering the PCBs today, but I wanted to make sure I had all the parts and tools I needed.  This is where things started to get a bit wild.  There was some confusion in our school about a borrowed crimp tool that I needed to make some cable assemblies which launched into an hour plus of searching.  Not only did I need the tool for my wires, it was suggested that I was the last person to borrow the crimper.  Now I take tools and other people's property very seriously (not to mention this particular pair costs almost $800) and I was certain I had returned the set earlier in the year.  Eventually the issue was sorted out and I'll have the equipment I need tomorrow morning, but there was some extra drama from the fact today is the last workday before I leave (tomorrow is a public holiday).  Moving on with the day it was nearly five o'clock and I hadn't heard from the workshop about my parts.  Not wanting to bother the boys while I was certain they were trying to finish off the job, I waited around for any news.  I was getting rather nervous, but right after six, a huge box was delivered with a massive collection of gear.  I was concerned, but in the end our staff came through.  All this excitement was certainly a dramatic end to the week, but I will be very pleased if this is the "storm" before my trip.  Tomorrow I still have to populate my boards and pack up my new kit, but everything is staged in the lab and I've taken care of all jobs that needed input from others; while I can't take the holiday off, I should have everything I need to finalise the logistics for my departure.

Calm

Although I am headed off overseas in 5 days, today was surprisingly calm.  I worked on a new circuit board which I'll have printed after I leave (and maybe forwarded to me while I am away).  In the middle of my work there was a power outage on campus and unfortunately the schematic I was working on at the time was corrupted.  It was a nuisance to lose a couple hours worth of effort, but I was able to quickly reproduce my work.  In the afternoon, I continued to prepare for my trip; carefully laying out equipment to pack and double checking the parts to make sure there are no errors or missing pieces.  I am still waiting for my new PCBs, but I am confident those will find their way to the lab tomorrow.  Also, I expect a pile of parts from the mechanical workshop, which will also need to be prepared for my trip.