Back at work

After my flights back to NZ and a long weekend off, I returned this afternoon to the lab.  For the most part my time was spent catching up with folks and getting my bearings after 5 weeks away, but I did manage to spend a couple hours soldering up a new PCB which I had ordered just before leaving Wellington.  I figured tackling my to do list with a relatively easy job was a great way to just start my return.  Tomorrow I hope to keep up my pace.

Out the door

My experiments are done, lab equipment packed and I leave for the airport in 2 hours.  I am very pleased to have finished my last measurements yesterday morning.  This gave me an afternoon and evening to get organised and pack.  I was also able to sit down with a couple of my colleagues from Montana to continue training them on the hardware I am leaving in Bozeman.  I appreciate having a low pressure afternoon and evening to clean up in the lab and pack up.  Rather than working until the very last minute and rushing out the door, I was able to account for all my gear.  Now I just need to travel back to Wellington and dive into my analysis.

Sigh of relief

Yesterday (Monday) I spent some time processing and reviewing my data.  I was particularly concerned that working up to the very end of my time in Montana Iran the risk of collecting data that turned out to be no good, but I wouldn't know this until I had returned to New Zealand and started my analysis.

Knowing I would have to spent a lot more time with the data in the future, I wrote a couple scripts to give me a general idea of the quality of measurements.  After reviewing this information with a professor here we identified a couple runs to measure again, but overall the data looks very promising.  Not only is the quality high enough to believe the techniques were working correctly, but we are even seeing differences between samples which match with our initial hypotheses.  That said, I have a lot of work ahead of me in performing a thorough analysis, but for now I am content with our results and I feel positive leaving Montana to return to Wellington.

Week in advance: 3-9 May

Today I was able to finish my measurements, but now I need to crunch data as quickly as possible to see if there are any experiments I need to re-do.  I leave Montana on Wednesday afternoon so I worry about how much time I'll need for my analysis and what time will be left if I still have data to collect.

Week in review: 26 April-2 May

This week has been extremely busy, but I feel I've made so great progress.  I am only to my last batch of samples, which I've been running today.  I still want to look over the processed data before I start packing my bags, but so far things seem to look good.

False starts

Today I was ready to start knocking out measurements, but after a couple hiccups I wasn't able to make as much progress as I hoped. A few silly errors are costly as I am dealing with a sensitive sample. While the sample doesn't get ruined, I do need to remove it and let it sit (nearly overnight) before I can try another test. I was able to complete one run so I have nine remaining. I am not under too much pressure as I still have a number of days, but I don't want to push my luck. Finishing these tests is my number one priority.

Home stretch

As my departure date approaches, I can't help but feel that I am into the home stretch.  Not necessarily because of my scheduled flights, but because I am checking jobs off of my to do list.  Today I gave a talk for the group here; my presentation was sufficient, but I would have preferred to spend more time practising.  I realise this was a good exercise for me as I typically get wrapped up with each and every chore; potentially spending more time on a project than I can afford.  While I try to hold all my work to a high standard, I also need to learn how to manage my times across simultaneous tasks.

Earlier this week I had drafted an abstract to submit tomorrow, but now the deadline has been extended until the middle of May.  As the abstract is based upon my current work, I've decided to put the draft aside until I finish in Montana.

This morning I spent time analysing my data and being happy with what I've seen so far I am ready to move onto my second (and final) sample series.