Winding Down January

Been sitting here tonight doing some planning and updating my Outlook calendar when it dawned on me - January 2011 is already winding down!  What a month it's been. The month on its own has been interesting but the past week has seen several major developments.  Here's what happened:

• Became Elders Quorum President of one of the newly formed quorums in my ward in Alexandria, VA
• Confirmed to graduate from GWU this year 

Both of these items are very significant to me (life-changing really...), and honestly that's still not all of it (been a busy guy...)! It blows me away that everything has happened so quickly in the early goings of 2011, and I can't help but wonder what's in store for the rest of this already entertaining year.

Even so, I find myself thinking about time a lot.  I'm turning 28 later this year and I'm also (joyously) finding myself on the cusp of accomplishing some things that have taken years to set the stage for.  It's been strange after plugging along with school and everything for so long to be thinking finally about what it'll be like with a reduced load and more time on my hands (which I'm sure I'll find ways to take advantage of :).  Even more so, to realize that I'll most likely be done with about half of my Masters degree as well by the time 2011 comes to a close is really exciting; I feel like a lot of things are coming together for me and that many things that once seemed so far away are becoming a reality.

Sentimental?  Well, I can at least promise it's sincere :)  To the list...

Professional Pursuits and Academics

Lots to report here actually. I obviously already mentioned the biggest news about graduation, which I'm very excited for.  I am on track to graduate with honors from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, which is the end of a project that started all the way back in August 2001.  I think about what's happened since then - before 9/11; before Honduras; before the Nacogdoches 2nd Branch; before DC and the wonderful people I've met here; before so much that I never would have anticipated.  

It is poignant too to think of it from another perspective.  Sometimes when I talk to my classmates (among whom at the oldest clocks in at 22 I think) it reminds me of how long I've been working on this.  When I was 17 and starting college, some of them were still 10 years old...

...and that was before I talked to the graduate advisor of my biophysics lab, who is working on his PhD and just told me that he's a year younger than me.  Yeah... it's high time this chapter of my life came to a close.

I know a lot of people have been very understanding of my delays (and I appreciate all of you greatly as this has been an albatross of mine for a long time), but I do just want to comment that I never imagined I'd still be working on this nearly 10 years later.  I was a junior with 80+ credit hours completed in spring 2003, and yes while there were some very legitimate reasons for my delays it suffices me to say that I'm ready to be done!

That out of my system :), I'd like to share as well that the team of computer architecture research I'm a part of at GWU is gearing up to get not only our phase-change random access memory (see the link for an explanation of what that is) paper published by March but also we're working on our next paper for publication regarding power considerations in computer architecture. Essentially we're taking an in-depth look at the electrical power consumption as a result of both processor architecture (defined as the circuit and logical layout of a central processing unit) and of the role software plays in how much electricity is consumed.  Keep in mind that more power consumed means more heat generated which in turn means all sorts of problems for your beloved information-processing machine, so we think that this is a timely topic in this age of ever-increasing data crunching.

Speaking of ever-increasing data crunching, I thought I'd also mention that I've been in contact with the powers that be and have basically also been cleared to incorporate a graduate-level certificate into my Masters program.  It's for high-performance computing, which deals with (no surprise here) supercomputers and parallel computing.  The nice thing about this is that it will not add any additional time to my program - all courses for it will count directly towards my Masters, so essentially I'll have a "super-focus" to go along with my concentration in architecture and networking.

What am I going to do with all that (degrees in IT, biomedical engineering, and computer engineering)?  The plan at this point is straightforward:  new medical imaging modalities and quantum computing.  Many people have been confused about how all of this comes together, so check this out - it puts it all together rather simply.  Quantum computing of course seems to be a future technology that I think would have a lot of applications in crunching massive amounts of data.  

Looking more towards the future, I'm working currently on improving my programming skills (C, Java, MATLAB, and LabVIEW to begin with) and I'm prepping to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam to make my grandest schemes become a reality (those of an engineering firm...).  Lots of groundwork being laid this year.

Politics

As I was working on some things tonight, I decided to stream Pres. Obama's 2011 State of the Union address so I could hear what he had to say.  Gotta say - I appreciated several things form it:

• The upbeat, can-do tone of "American Exceptionalism" (count me as a believer :)
• The echoes of JFK for America to step up our involvement in the development of technology and to re-take our place at the head of the "class" in math and science (the engineer in me)
• The generally toned-down rhetoric of discussing working together to solve problems

He came off a bit to me as being very changed from before the 2010 election "shellacking" the Democrats experienced, and honestly I applaud him for the humbler "let's-work-together" tone he's struck.  I think he's shown a decisive move towards the center of our political spectrum, though I still have some major issues with many of the policy decisions that he has made (that's a "no" from me on Obamacare and a "no" from me on a moratorium on offshore drilling along with another "no" for spending trillions of dollars when we were already massively in debt).  Here's to hoping we can avoid what the GAO has warned about for years starting in the Bush administration and have a country to speak of in 30 years.

The Bodacious Tour 2011: Life in Full Bloom

While we haven't gone on a trip yet, stay tuned - they're coming!  

Interesting

See the amazing things medicine and technology can do?

Teen with bionic hand

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/41015439#41015439

White lion cubs always are interesting, right? :)

White lion cubs

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40933414

Speaking of lions, this is interesting.  Maybe it's not just elephants who never forget...

Christian the Lion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCjyWp3rEk&feature=related

Catch you next week!

2011 - Looking for my next adventure

Aren't you impressed that I actually posted a second time?  haha  


Must admit - this year has already started off with loads of entertainment.  A lot has already happened and of course a lot is yet to come - professional and personal goals that I'm working on and that I'll elaborate on further as they come nearer (I'm a "don't count my chickens before they hatch" kind of guy - so I don't usually announce things until they actually happen or it's basically a given that they are going to happen :).  


Let's take a look at this week's topics:


The Bodacious Tour 2011: Life in Full Bloom


(Shout-out to Casey Van Camp on this one for his collaboration)


As mentioned last week,  the organizers of the Bodacious Tour have been planning our next adventures because well, you know, as they said in The Music Man:

You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. 

Metropolitan DC and Northern Virginia are absolutely awesome for things to do that are "worth remembering", and to show that we're out to prove it we proudly present the proposals for this year's events (hooray! <cheering>).  The reasons why they're proposals are as follows:

1. We don't have set a calendar yet because a) Casey is getting married in the next few months and b) I am wrapping up things in school.  As much as we love the Bodacious Tour, we like to think we also have our priorities straight :)
2. We may not be able to do all of these this year, so we're still in the finalizing-events stage.
3. There may be things that we haven't heard about yet that we will want to do instead!

Now that we're past all the disclaimers, let's get to the list:

Whitewater http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/ohiopyle.aspx or http://www.gauley.com/

 

Richard Petty Driving Experience http://www.drivepetty.com/Experience/ScheduleDetails_RI.aspx

 

Shark Diving in NY http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/montaukcagediving.asp

 

Ocean City, MD http://ococean.com/

 

Helicopter Tour of the Grand Canyon http://www.grandcanyon.com/grandcanyonhelicoptertours.html

 

Hang Gliding http://www.silverwingshanggliding.com/

 

ATVs in West Virginia http://www.trailsheaven.com/default.aspx

 

Wind Tunnel http://www.paracletexp.com/

 

Natural Bridge http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/

 

Foamhenge http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9209

 

Skydiving http://www.skydiveorange.com/

 

Genesee Valley http://www.geneseevalley.org/programs/corporate/

 

Go Ape http://www.goape.com/

 

Baltimore Trapeze School http://washingtondc.trapezeschool.com/

 

Punkin Chunkin http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

 

Ropes Course MD http://www.upwardenterprises.com/prog_ropes.html

 

Spelunking http://www.wvexplorer.com/recreation/caving/southern-caverns.asp

The Christmas Spectacular Comeback

Yes, we're excited too :)  We will absolutely for sure do the wind tunnel experience again as we both agreed that was our favorite trip in The Inaugural Season (2010).  The other ones are still under consideration, but stay tuned - Facebook and the blogosphere will keep you posted on the events!  Are you going to part of them?

Professional Pursuits and Academics

This post this week is going to strike a bit more of a philosophical note.  I'm unabashed in stating this: I am very religious person and devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Most people who know me are very familiar with this side of me, and they are also familiar that I'm a very technically-oriented science geek while I'm at it.  It probably should come as no surprise then that I frequently find myself in discussions with people discussing the topic of religion and science and how to reconcile the two.  That's of course a very in-depth topic, but what I'm going to share with you is an important part of my paradigm of how it all makes sense to me.  

We live in a technologically advanced society (just check out some of my links on Facebook for an idea of where we're going) that is also becoming increasingly secularized.  I personally believe that what we're doing in some cases is replacing our faith in God with a faith in science and technology - essentially deifying science and scientific reasoning (though its adherents would never, ever admit this or phrase it that way) to fulfill that innate need that human beings have to believe in something.  (No matter how sophisticated you believe you are [and many people in DC fancy themselves to be quite sophisticated], we still want to have hope in something greater than ourselves)  Frequently I hear about how science has debunked how Big Bang and what-not have rendered notions of God obsolete.  Science, people tell me, is explaining it all - why all this happened (cosmic explosion about 14 billion years ago generating an ever-expanding universe subject to very powerful forces such as gravity; lightning strikes in the "primordial soup" that created the amino acids that were the building blocks of simple life forms; etc.).  We know why things have developed the way they have - it's just nature, and there's no way around that.

Need proof?

Stephen Hawking, most notable physicist of our day

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator

Nature, the premiere scientific journal http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/news/file002.html

Well, as an applied scientist myself, I'd like to share with you something about that line of reasoning with which I disagree.  I want to share with you a section from the first chapter of my quantum physics textbook that I think articulates my argument perfectly.  Here we go:

The second vexing question concerns the "why" of these theories.  Why does Nature behave according to Einstein's relativity, rather than according to Galileo's?  Why do particles sometimes behave as waves, and waves sometimes as particles?  Why do atoms join to form compounds?  Why do higher forms of life evolve from lower forms? Although scientists can provide extremely precise answers to the "how" of these theories, they cannot provide the answers to the "why," not because their powers of observation or experiment abilities are limited, but rather because the questions are outside the realm of experimentation.  These questions are of extreme importance, and as potential practitioners of pure or applied science you should be aware of them and spend some time thinking about them.  If answers to these questions are to be found at all, they will be found not in the field of science, but in the fields of philosophy or theology. As you being to study the facts of modern science, you should keep these additional questions in mind and perhaps seek your instructor's opinions concerning them.  Although such speculations are an exciting intellectual endeavor in their own right, they will not be discussed in this text.        

~Dr. Kenneth Krane, Modern Physics, Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons 1995

I agree with this sentiment totally.  Science tells us "how;" the honest among scientists would volunteer nothing about "why."  For that reason, when teachers or professors or researchers take it upon themselves to discredit religious notions they are abusing the authority they have as professionals because they are speaking authoritatively about topics outside their realm.  Granted, they are entitled to their opinions - but people like teachers and respected professionals like Stephen Hawking and Stephen Jay Gould do not share these things as opinions in the classroom.  They state them as fact, and that is inappropriate.


With that out of the way :), my classes are going to be very interesting.  It's going to be a challenging semester at times, but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this will be all worth it. As I said last week, the two classes that are capturing my interest the most are quantum mechanics and the medical imaging class.  It amazes to see how we can model how the world works with such precision, and I am really excited to some day have a chance to put that to good use to help people feel better through advances in medical instrumentation and computational technologies.  Here's a link to a technology I'm really interested in:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_coherence_tomography

No radiation needed to image the body for a clearer picture using only light?  Let's make this happen.


Interesting


I am a big believer in making things more efficient, cost-effective, and cleaner.  So, I think that this is an interesting product people should know about:  compressed air powered automobiles.  No emissions but the atmosphere it takes in :)


http://www.mdi.lu/english/airpod.php




Speaking of such things, remember when you thought that sunshine was free? Not any more...


http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/news/offbeat/spanish-woman-claims-she-now-owns-sun-dpgonc-20101126-gc_10808147


Until next week :)

Yes, I'm starting a blog

I know that some people are probably a bit a surprised to be reading this, but yes I am serious about doing this :)  Why a blog, you ask?  Well, there are a couple of reasons such as:

• I've been using Gchat for quite a while a now, but my schedule has changed significantly this spring and I won't be on there as much as I was before.  So, to keep in touch my friends and family, I thought that this might be a fun way to share what's going on with me.  I will still use Gchat so you may catch me on there every now and then.
• I like the idea of adding this to my Facebook page as a way of expanding on topics I find interesting.  I think it complements my Facebook page well. 

Basically, I'm just trying out a new way to share things with you.

The way I think I'm going to do this is make posts with different topics listed in their own sub-section.  So, here we go:

Professional Pursuits and Academics

This is coming first because it's probably the biggest news in my life at this point.  I am bucking my established work-a-holic reputation by scaling back work hours to focus on school this semester and finish a degree in biomedical engineering.  It's true - it's all part of an overall concerted effort to get some things off my plate so that I'm not so tied up all the time.  Shocking eh?  Trust me - it took a LOT of deliberation to get to this point, but I think it's a positive change.  The plan is to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering.  I am a graduate student in Computer Engineering as well (due to my enrollment in a joint-degree program), but I'll be taking that slowly (finishing probably in late 2012 - only 10 classes and I'll have 2 done by May 2011). 


Some of the topics I'm studying this semester include the following:

• Medical imaging modalities
• Quantum mechanics
• High-performance processors (parallel computing)
• Java programming, specifically data structures

The ones I'm most interested in are the medical imaging modalities and quantum mechanics.  Medical imaging is a fascinating topic - I think it's incredible how we can look inside the body in a non-invasive manner.  Quantum mechanics I think is interesting not so much because I'm interested in theoretical physics (though I am a bit interested in that yes) but rather because it's the basis for the operation of quantum computers.  I really believe that quantum computing will be the future of information processing, and I think that technology will also make its way into things like medical instrumentation because the hope is that it will be able to process massive amounts of data (like that gathered from living creatures) more efficiently.  Essentially, this semester I'm taking courses in topics that I am really interested in, so I think it's going to be interesting.  Just hoping my head doesn't explode...

The Bodacious Tour 2011: Life in Full Bloom

A quick glance at my or Casey Van Camp's Facebook page will probably be littered with images from the nine volumes of photos from the Bodacious Trip.   Well, our little Bodacious Trip has grown up to be a Bodacious Tour, and very soon the Tour founders (and maybe some good friends of the Tour) will be posting some of the proposed events for 2011.  Stay tuned - because there's some cool stuff on the way :)


Politics


Ah politics. Always something to talk about right? haha


My only comment this week is my condolences and prayers for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) after the terrible tragedy at a townhall gathering in her district.  I hope she makes as much of a recovery as she can.


Interesting


This month, Ridley Scott's Life in a Day project will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival.  It just so happened that the day in question (July 24, 2010) was also the day of one of our Bodacious Trips, and we actually submitted some video from our Go Ape! experience to the project.  Whether we made it in or not, the project is really interesting and you can learn more about it here:


Life in a Day


I think that's a good start :)  Until next week!