Budding scientists

Today I had the pleasure of judging science fair projects at a local primary school.  The Wellington regional fair is held each year at the end of August, so every July since I've been in New Zealand I've had the opportunity to meet some very young scientists.

It's a delight to talk with these students who have chosen a research topic that truly excites themselves.  Their enthusiasm is inspiring and reminds me that there's no point in spending years in the lab if you don't find joy in your work.  Additionally, perusing the projects on display I am reminded of the importance of solid experimental design and the elegance in a "simple" and self contained study.

As I was out of the lab, again, today I didn't make any progress on my research.  However, I did submit a conference abstract to present my work in Nelson next year.  Hopefully I'll have as much energy speaking about my research as the students I met today.

Nothing to report

Today I travelled back to Wellington after accompanying my wife to a conference in Queenstown.  The return flight was a bit bumpy for my tastes and thus I wasn't able to read more than a couple pages in the textbook I had carried on. 

Settling back in at home this afternoon and being tired from the excitement of a trip I've accomplished no work today.

Model inspiration

This morning I started my day with a journal article that explored both the practical and philosophical (yes... philosophical) implications of the no-slip boundary condition in fluid dynamics.  Before I could even finish the paper (and get to the philosophical component of the manuscript) I was struck with an idea to develop a numerical model to simulate a flow field with apparent slip.

For the rest of the day I was sucked into developing my program.  I am pleased with the result, hence my "early" post this evening, as I am now done for the day.  At this point I don't want to go into the mechanics of the software or work through how I plan to implement my simulations as it's still early in the process; more to come in the future.

Breaking into a stack of papers

While away from the lab I wanted to take time to jump start some much needed reading.  Today I spent a couple hours in the Queenstown public library with a couple papers on wall slip and my textbook on embedded systems. I went through four papers, although I won't say I 'mastered' these articles.

During my undergraduate I would spend days (actual days; 8+ hours at a time) in the library reading and preparing for exams.  With all the design work in the lab and my numerous extra-curricular activities I haven't been focusing on my reading nearly enough.  I am now on a mission to rediscover my ability to focus my attention entirely into my reading for extended periods.  Additionally, when I get back to Wellington I need to schedule time throughout the week to excuse myself from the lab and head to the library for a period of study.

Week in advance: 27 July-2 August

Looking ahead to this week I feel it's pretty easy to plan my work schedule.  Particularly because I am out of town while my wife attends a conference.  We'll return to Wellington on Wednesday afternoon and to keep me busy I've brought a couple textbooks and a stack of journal articles.  I've already been thumbing through one of a textbooks, Embedded Systems: A Comtemporary Design Tool by James K. Peckol and am very excited about a number of chapters.

While we return to Welly on Wednesday, I still won't be into the lab on Thursday because I am judging science fair projects at a local school.  When I am finally back into the lab on Friday I expect to have a couple hours of PGSA work and a couple hours of catching up to do with the Honours students in our lab.  As such I do not expect to have any lab work completed this week.

Week in review: 20-26 July

I've been thinking today about my goal of writing on the blog every day.  As I hope to keep my comments quasi-professional and on topic with regards to my studies and research, I spent some time today thinking about my weekend posts.  Now I do like to work (some) Saturdays, but there's no guarantee that I will have anything to report on my days off.  As a result, my plan is on Saturdays to reflect on the days prior and on Sundays to layout some goals for the coming week.

Looking back at the past week, I've noticed how my time is split between a number of interests.  I am pleased that I've kept on top of my meetings and emails for the PGSA, additionally I had a couple reports and an editorial published in this month's newsletter.  I prepared an abstract for next year's AMN-7 conference (although I still need to review my supervisor's comments and submit before the 31st).  I've spent time reviewing a couple patent applications and I hope these will be filed in the next couple weeks.  I've had two Honours students start projects with me in the lab.  And finally I am pleased with my progress on programming my micro-controller to communicate with external ADC and DAC devices.

What I've learned from the past week is that I can't underestimate how much time is needed to take care of the little odds and ends work.  As such, I need to lower my daily expectations so that I am not disappointed when I need to spend time on these minor tasks.

Hidden work

Earlier this week some material I had ordered for the workshop arrived.  The material, Macor, is a machinable glass ceramic produced by Corning Incorporated.  It has a low thermal expansion coefficient and is NMR transparent making it an excellent choice for variable temperature parts used within our magnets.  Of course a neat material such as this comes with a hefty price tag and had to be special ordered from the US, as I couldn't find a NZ or Australian vendor.  There's no point in having such raw material laying about the lab, so I wanted to get the Macor and prints down to the workshop before the week was over.  Even though the workshop has already made these same parts many times out of plastic, I had to tweak the prints for the material, which of course took longer than expected.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had reviewed a draft of a patent application that our group will be filing in the near future.  While I reviewed the text yesterday, today our lawyer came back to me with a request to update some drawings.  As such this afternoon I ended up formatting 20 pages of figures.  Again, this was work I hadn't scheduled into my day.

My point is that hidden work can take up a significant amount of my time.  To be better about managing my work expectations I need to allow some time each day so that I can take on these tasks as they come up.  Additionally, I should be more aware of work I have on the horizon so that I am not side tracked by items at the last minute.

In addition to the above work, I had a meeting today regarding the upcoming academic audit of the University and I was able to get my microcontroller to talk with my ADC and DAC devices via SPI.