http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/11/space.clown.lands/index.html

He went on an extraordinary vacation that cost him $35 million……(crickets)……he went to space. The colder it gets the more folks tend to talk about how they need a vacation, including me! But, I thought this was a bit much. Cool to us science and engineering types, but nonetheless extra. He claimed that he went to raise awareness about the need for safe drinking water internationally. But, it cost him $35 million! I thought that he could have just given that money to a bunch of engineers and non-profits (including his own, One Drop Foundation) to actually implement some clean water projects in countries that need it. How much safe and clean water could $35 million buy? And does raising awareness really do anything to change the situation itself (more than the $35 million would)? I am raising awareness just but writing this article into existence but will it spur some PhD to decide to dedicate themselves to novel solutions for safe drinking water? Or would it just give me an excuse of being the envy of all my space-enthusiast friends? What do you all think???

“Seeking: PhD Level Intern, Skills Required: theoretical modeling, kayaking, hiking, skydiving, paintballing, etc…”

Think your eyes are playing tricks on you? This must be a joke?  Most people think that graduate students doing summer internships is practically as impossible to believe as the tagline above. But in my case both are actually quite possible!

This summer, I was blessed to go on an amazing internship at Intel. It was the perfect break point, as I had just finished up my masters thesis and quals last semester and was preparing to head straight into my PhD work this fall semester. So, I packed my bags and shipped my books to warm, sunny…..Oregon. You read it right, no California, no Silicon Valley as I was previously accustomed to, I was headed to Hillsboro, Oregon. Needless to say I was not to thrilled, but ironically it was the most thrilling summer I have ever experienced.

As you can see from the pictures, not only was I intellectually stimulated working with some of the most amazing minds in theoretical process modeling, but I also enjoyed hanging out with the other “thrill-seeking” graduate interns in our sparse free time. I went skydiving (for the 2nd time), kayaking, whitewater rafting(Mt. Adams), and paint-balling. We had an amazing time as we worked hard and played hard all summer. I would have to say that it was great to see how meaningful the work we do at MIT is to industry, especially to a giant like Intel.

I would definitely recommend interning at some point in your graduate career, paintballing….not so much(I still have bruises)!

Its like you come to a place where ambiguity and ambivalence are normal. I know for myself that I have a low tolerance for two things, ambiguity and failure. And I feel like since I have been here I have experienced more of the former than I would have liked. Let’s take the quals for example. I took my written exams last spring, after studying the whole semester, sitting in on two undergrad classes, teaching one of them, doing all the practice exams back to the ’60’s, and studying relentlessly with a group every week and on my own every  weekend only to get to the exam, get nervous and fail. I took the oral qualifier this week after revamping my study strategy and passed only to find out that my nephew passed away.

I say all this to say that things do fall apart. But the great thing about it is that they can be put back together! There is a method to the madness and I belive that without struggle there is no progress. So I dedicate this blog to my nephew Johnson Trace Barringer (2/22/09) who I never got to hold in my arms, or watch take his first step, or hear him say his first words. But I know that there is a time for everything under the sun and purpose to each of life’s struggles whether professionally or personally. Things will fall apart, that is for sure, but we decide whether or not to pick up the pieces…Rest In Peace Trace.

Who would have thought that concentration and focus were the primary things to help you keep your job? I thought the article was going to be about working longer hours, impressing the boss, and asking for more responsibility. But instead the article suggests : “pretend that you have one day a week to do your job, or two hours a day to do your job. List all the things you would do in that time and spend the next 100 days  doing just that…” I thought to myself that sounds like a good idea, but in the case of myself and other graduate students I’d say, Pretend that you have 6 hours a day to get your work done and only 6 days in a week. A lot of us would raise our eyebrow at this idea. But think about it, if you cut down on those non-essentials, what would not be on your list if you only had six hours, i.e- check facebook, going out for lunch, uneccessary phone calls, etc.

It was even suggested that we make a “stop doing lists,” like stop checking your email every hour on the hour, stop checking social networking sites during the day, stop taking long coffee/tea breaks just because you don’t feel like being in lab, stop checking your cellphone or having unnecessary conversations. Just think if you cut out 2 of the afore mentioned things, how much time could you add to that 6 hours? Productivity is easy when you ignore the truly unneccessary and efficiently use your time so that you can enjoy the free time you have.  The “stop doing list” will help you organize and clear your time almost better than the “to do” list will.  I used to think that I needed  30 hours in my day to get everything done, but now I realize I just need to reclaim my original 24.

So what will you stop doing in order to get your 24 back?

The description above cannot begin to describe what I experienced in those 20 days. At IIT Kanpur we took a course on organic electronics and optoelectronics, taught by professors from our host institution as well as US Institutions like Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Univ. of Washington, etc. There was even an MIT MTL alumni who gave a talk, Prof. Ioannis Kymissis who is now at Columbia University. The course was extremely challenging for me because this is not my area of expertise, as well as about three advanced graduate level courses including research that has not been published yet was presented in 7 days. However, we had challenges not only in the course and labs but we had to get used to living in India which was a course in and of itself! Drinking hot chai with equally spicy food, trying to learn Hindi, fighting mosquitoes, and understanding that shaking your head no really meant yes, were things not taught in the classroom but definitely necessary for survival!

The course was only half of our experience, as we traveled from Kanpur to Paralakhemundi via a 24 hour train ride followed by a 5 hour train ride the next day followed by a 3 hour truck ride through the mountains. That was an adventure that I will never forget! We lived, ate, and experienced almost everything that someone living in the villages, and mountains of Paralakhemundi delt with on a daily basis. I tried to teach a bull to plow and I harvested sugar cane. We visited villages so far into the mountains that no cars or trucks could reach them, and thus I got a lot of attention, as many of the children and most adults had never seen someone of African descent. Although there were so many layers of languages, cultural, and lifestyle differences between us and the people there, we were able to communicate with them to find out what types of problems technology can solve and possibly even create.

I have never been able to sit under the stars and just think… Just think about how a technology that is so cutting-edge yet practical to implement, that we think it could “help” people in a community culturally, economically, and socially different than our own. I came to many conclusions over the course of my time there, but one of them was that there is no panacea that engineers can create to solve all the world’s problems. Many times the solutions we believe are so ingenuis tear apart communities and destroy cultures that have existed harmoniously since the beginning of time! So I wondered, what is my role here? I have to solve relevant problems because that is the reason that I became an engineer but to solve them responsibly I must also understand the cultural, ethical, and social implications of my solutions…

[The picture is of myself and Professor Sandip Tiwari, the director of NNIN and organizer of this trip, I believe that this picture is worth a thousand words]

I once heard that your brain is like an old sweater, once it has been stretched it will never go back to its original shape, and I definitely agree! I have thought about more diverse areas of research and the interdisciplinary possibilities between them over the course of this summer than in my entire life. Being exposed to so many different works by my peers from oceanography to MEMS to synthetic biology, I have stretched my brain to grasp, understand, and critically think about problems that I never imagined existed or could be solved. Not only have I stretched my sweater of knowledge in academia, I have done the same with extracurricular activities… As you can see in the picture I am skydiving from 10,000 feet above the ground and actually enjoying it. I had never even fathomed the concept of skydiving before this summer, much less participating in it. So after being exposed to the possibility of skydiving by one of my MSRP students,  last Saturday I found myself jumping out of a plane over Cape Cod. Now that I have skydived I have stretched my sweater to the point that no extreme sport is really that extreme after 10,000 feet of free fall! So I said all that to say, stretch those old sweaters we call brains! I figure I came to MIT to learn how to think more critically, more innovatively, and more interdisciplinary, and the only way I can accomplish this goal is to continue to challenge myself to think about those things deemed unimaginable. (And by the way, its pretty fun once you get over the fear of flying) Until next time..

Best wishes everyone!

I finally make it to my office and I am floored. I’m starting to feel like my presence here is actually acknowledged. When I first arrived I spoke to everyone (including random people on the street, people on the T, my professors, fellow classmates, construction workers, and even some tourists taking pictures on Mass ave) without so much as giving it a thought. Its the southern way of life, as ordinary as grits and sweet tea. But the cold silence that was returned to me day in and day out, made me feel unwanted, out of place, and somewhat invisible. However, it did not deter me! I continued to flash my smile full of metal braces, make eye contact, say “good morning” to every unfortunate soul who had the pleasure of crossing paths with me. I had a developed a personal relationship with the lady who serves breakfast at Fresco’s, so much so that one day I forgot my money and she said “don’t worry, I know you will be back,” and gave me a smile back and my breakfast. I know all the people on my daily route to building 39, the students, janitors, secretaries, professors, doormen, and some policemen by name and smile alike.

Life is too short not to acknowledge your neighbors, you never know if you were the only person to speak to them that day, the only smile they shared, the only kind word they heard, especially at a place like MIT. And sometimes when I’m down or obviously having a rough day, they poke fun at me, like where’s the smile! So, I guess the next step is for me to stop saying “Ma’am” and “Sir” and the southern classic…..”yall.” I don’t think that I will, its just the way I was raised. Its just southern hospitality!

one small step for southern hospitality, one huge step for mankind(or MIT that is…)

About a week and a half ago, I was shocked to hear that the professor who made my first semester at MIT one of the most interesting had passed away.   Last semester I walked into my first class at MIT feeling scared, inferior, and just about ready to turn around and walk back to North Carolina. When in walks this older Asian man with a maroon sweater, white collar shirt with a scarf tied like an ascot, and slacks. He was small in stature but very intimidating until he opened his mouth. Instead of talking about electromagnetics and throwing out all these equations that I am sure I wouldn’t know, he began talking about James Clerk Maxwell; his life, his friends, everything you would ever want to know about Maxwell and more. Instead of acting pretentious and intimidating he made jokes and colorful analogies, he asked us questions. I had never experienced a professor who knew and had accomplished so much, but was so down to earth.

Many times he painted a colorful picture of Maxwell’s life and accomplishments, and other times he went head first into the subject we had signed up to learn, electromagnetics. But he always managed to bring humor and interactive conversation to the classroom. Including the day when a student came to class dressed as him. Everyone waited with baited breath for him to notice the student who sat on the front row with the same sweater, slacks, and scarf; even the same hair style. But of course professor played it cool throughout the whole class until the end when he even agreed to take a picture with the student which of course made its way to facebook.

I probably will never have another professor like Professor Kong, but I count it a blessing that I was in the last class to experience his unique style of teaching.  He was, in my opinion, one of MIT’s best and he will be missed.