The Cartier 'Watcher'

Well, everybody posted last night, so now I feel obligated. I went on hiatus so long last time, I'd hate to disappoint my readers yet again, :-) Anyway, the time has arrived for the week of hell to begin. I've got all my finals/projects due next Wednesday and now I finally have to hurry up and put everything together that I've put off all semester.

My missile presentation did not go as well as I would have hoped. I got slammed with some tough questions and got flustered. I hate public speaking, and was incredibly nervous. I got some suggestions of things I need to fix or explain in more detail for my paper, which is due, yes, Wednesday. I was hoping after the presentation, I'd be pretty much done, but alas... So, I've got that to tidy up, and my animation project to finish. That is to be presented Wednesday of course and the parts I thought would be simple, are turning out not to be. If I waste too much time trying to figure some of this stuff out, I'm not going to have any time to actually finish the presentation. We're supposed to have been working on this for about a month and I did rendering part (drawing my missile) but now I have to make it fly, and I did not think that would be this difficult. On top of that, Dr. Kimble is pushing me to make a GUI as well, and I can only hope I have the time for it.

My other class is Complex Variables and the final exam in there is, of course, Wednesday. So, I also have to find the time to study for that. Oh, and by the way, I'm supposed to be running in the half-marathon on Saturday.

Maybe if I don't sleep this week...

P.S. The title - The Cartier 'Watcher' - is the name of my missile - I love it.

I got a Thesis!

Wow, so it's been almost 2 full months since I've posted anything on here. It's certainly not for lack of activity. I would like to apologize to all my faithful readers for the blogging hiatus (that's pretty much just y0u, Mom). So, in the last two months I've basically just been super busy. This semester of school is really kicking my butt. My missile class is taking up a vast majority of my time, so I've been neglecting my other two classes and research for the most part. That will all be over Monday. Our missile presentations happen Monday. Eeek.

The professor has still been in the business of changing guidelines and adding side projects all week, and we finally had to put our foots down (so to speak). No more changes! You can't be adding stuff to a project this big less than a week before it's due, that's just cruel. So, anyway, this week I've been devoted to writing my technical report and making pretty slides in PowerPoint. Lee, of the Superfriends, says, if you can't impress them with fact, wow them with pretty formatting. That's my plan. I'm presenting first (my choice) which has its advantages but also its disadvantages. I'll be out of the way and can enjoy the other presentations and I'm a nervous speaker so I won't have too much time to freak out and be nervous ahead of time. On the other hand, I'll have no idea what sort of questions they may ask me, so in lieu of a blank stare following a tough question I'm just going to feign deafness.

The biggest news of all lately is that I got a thesis topic!!!! I pinned down Dr. Kimble (aka Dr. Nowhere To Be Found) on Monday to ask him about classes for the summer. He suggested I take thesis, to which I replied, Gee, do I have a thesis? Not really, of course, but something to that effect but nicer. So, we talked about it and decided on a thesis. He gave me some choices, and they're all heavily programming related (ugh!) but I chose the one that didn't involve wavelets, because they are the devil.

Ok, so I know what you're thinking....Amy, what is your thesis topic? Well, that's an excellent question. It's basically working with Tensegrity structures to develop a generalized method to solve for equilibrium position and determine structural properties and natural frequencies. It's something that has sort of been done before, but not in a general way for any tensegrity structure, and not with very well fleshed out proof.

The exciting thing is I start taking thesis this summer, which means tons of research work, but only one real class, and after that I only have one more class - in the fall, and I could potentially graduate in December!!! Real world, here I come!!!