On My Desk at MIT (3)

-Books scattered and accumulated over the semester.

-Presentation boards

-Sketches/Drafts of Thesis

-5 Empty water bottles

-A sleeping bag below my desk

I am currently putting together a slide show presentation for my 2nd thesis review here at MIT. How do I begin to talk about semantic networks, knowledge databases, robotic articulating arms, and 3 traditional and non-traditional case studies of architecture into a cohesive platform? Each of what was mentioned stem and cross-over onto each other forming a system that bridges the gap between high level design knowledge and low level construction knowledge.

Last week, I was invited by a good prof. to share my thesis research in the form of a presentation to sponsor companies for the MIT Media Lab, including Samsung, IBM, Microsoft, Steelcase, and many others along with some press like Popular Mechanics.

It was a great way to share my thoughts and describe the thesis in a nutshell to a crowd who may be unfamiliar to architecture, software, software programming, and artificial intelligence techniques.

On a side note:

I use the word “desk at MIT” to refer to two primary locales: the desk at my dormitory OR the desk in my assigned office that I share with my Beirut buddies (Beirut buddies = MIT colleagues).

As of this moment, it is the desk at the war office.

Signing out,

Rachelle

On my desk at MIT (2):

-A pile of books waiting to be cited into a word processor.

-A list of courses to be considered at Harvard for the Spring semester.

-Another list of courses for MIT.

- 3 incomplete PCs from back in the day, emptied into 1 computer waiting for a complete refurbishment. Current status: Missing hard drive and memory card.

She did what?!

Not finish writing her thesis! …dun dun dun….The woes of a graduate student who’s very life is dwindling on the reflections and advice of the thesis adviser.

Seeking the Typed Word

It’s 1:28AM. On one monitor is this wordpress blog, on another, the first page of my thesis document. Thoughts fumbled across different pages in need of special glue, a sense of articulate cohesion.

Done!

It has been done:

-Completed PhD and Doctorate application for both MIT and Harvard.

I can now commence with other research tasks, including the completion of the first chapter of my thesis.

On a side note:

I gave my presentation at Harvard on the 18th for one of my Harvard classes – all went well, my presentation included a demo of a 3-axis accelerometer (a hacked nintendo wii control)  controlling another physical object. My presentation was an inclusion of an idea for my thesis, and the jurors warmly accepted it with positive impressions along with insightful comments to take along with me as I continue to proceed in this direction.

At the Races

Funnily, I titled this day’s thoughts as “At the Races” – particularly because I am in a sense racing towards the finish line with the assignments at hand. I am nearly done with my portfolio to be submitted to the doctorate program at Harvard and PhD program here at MIT. Perhaps I can print early tomorrow morning.

Other than the Portfolio race track, I’m a competitor in the races for finishing my final project for presentation at my Harvard class on Friday. I have designed and partially built a physical device that can learn from my movement of an object – in other words, a robotic wall that mimics the movement of a prototype of that same wall. I’m using the easy arduino microcontroller along with an accelerometer. The microcontroller is the “brain” – it holds onto the written code I gave it and acts upon it, while the accelerometer is an electronic chip that can measure rotation, vibration, and tilt in the x-y axis. I’m only using a dual axis chip, the Mesmic series now excitingly available at Radio Shack for $30. Cheap, but hopefully it’ll get way cheaper.

I gave a small demo to my thesis adviser today, we had good discussion on my thesis direction as well as the direction to which I should investigate for the first chapter of my thesis book.

On a side note, I peeked into my house mail box today and saw a red envelope – Netflix DVD came in! I believe it should be Romancing the Stone (1980s) – as to why I’m interested in seeing this film? Perhaps its because my parents had always seem to talk about it when having funny conversation since I was a kid, this is the time to see what was so funny after all.

A New Day

It’s 11:01PM and I’m in my dorm room once again. I started my day a bit different, with a plan, a schedule of how to go about my day and accomplish some tasks. I began my work in a neat room tucked away in the library ominously titled, “Women’s Studies Room.” I’ve passed it many times just to go to the room next to it – the restroom. Not one to usually fondle or take any serious interest in feminist theories and literature, the study space was unusually attractive. A small spare room with books on all four walls and smaller self-standing shelves of books where two desks lay facing two large windows. A quiet place it is. Working for some time in that room, I began to be noticeably curious of the books that had surrounded me, ranging from Women of Ideas, Women in Science, to Battered Women or What is Feminist Theory? or Women in the 18th Century. The titles are enticing and its content more interesting than I would have given credit for.

On my desk at MIT

-Winter School meeting tonight at 6:30pm

-Academic portfolio finishes

-Schedule thesis work tasks

Today is the first week of IAP, Independent Activities Period where students take classes for credit and non-credit courses over the month of January. Last year, two friends and I built a mobile autonomous vision based robot. This year is different…it’s thesis concentration and other side projects.

First in line is my portfolio creation for submittal to MIT’s PhD program in Computation and DDes at Harvard U. My goal is to wrap up on my the portfolio and collate the pages by tomorrow, Friday afternoon, just in time to submit supplemental materials to admissions here at school.