Over the past couple months new collaborations have started (the result of a student visiting our lab in March and my trip overseas in April). As a result, I sit on the edge of new research questions with the tools to explore these ideas. What this means in the near future is that I'll be heading back to Montana in June. This will most likely mean that my submission date for my thesis will be pushed back as I will not be focusing on writing over the next two months, but will instead be continuing developing new hardware and research methods. In the even more immediate future, I have four weeks to work on new hardware, electronics and software. My first plan of attack is to finalise my mechanical designs and figure out what can be produced in the available time. This is a touch tricky, because I am relying on my collaborators to drive the science questions while my job will be to design the equipment and experiments to tackle these problems. Thus before I can finish any blueprints, our group needs to prioritise our goals. And this is where we sit today. After a Skype chat late last night, emails throughout the day and a long phone conversation this afternoon, it's still unclear how we want to proceed. As it's the weekend now, it's a perfect opportunity to take a moment (for all involved) to review our strategy, but come Monday morning it will be time to finalise our ideas. Four weeks is very little time when it comes to fabrication (either machine work or electronics) so it's essential we begin the process as soon as possible.
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