Why Now?

Finally I found out why an average PhD student takes 6 years to finish a Ph.D. in Stanford while in some other universities it merely takes 3 years. Reason: Extended course work requirement demanded by the department. Well at least that's what was told in today's Geophysics Townhall meeting.

The faculty have recently decided to change the curriculum for PhD. They examine several peer institute and decided that they should focus more on research than the course-work. So now, the students are required to take 30 units of coursework only. More specifically, only 9 units of courses from outside department as opposed to 21 units of out-of-department courses we took. 21 units. In-department courses are much easier to work with. But out-of-department courses, specifically in Engineering school are close to nightmares.

This will reduce the time required to finish a PhD considerably though this wasn't the intent of the faculty. I finished 27 out of 30 unit requirement in my first year. And if that's all that would have been required, I would have finished my PhD in 3-4 years, at the most 5 years.

So one of nth-year (where n > 6 years) student who defended last week and happened to be in the audience, asked one question: 'Why Now?'

Honestly. WHY NOW?

Yet Again..

..I am trying to tell myself that I shouldn't compare my research with others. Every research is different and the time they need to finish it also differs. So I shouldn't panic or get disheartened if someone else is planning to graduate this year or have had his or her papers published, even though that someone else started with me. It doesn't mean anything. I will finish my Ph.D. too. I will have my papers published too. One day. One day I shall over come....

Hope that day arrives soon.

Monkey and Shakespeare

I am working on a take home midterm. It's for an introductory probability class. I am taking the class to fulfill my requirements for Ph.D. Anyway, the last question in the midterm asks if there are 10,000 monkeys typing at typewriters, at some speed. We need to calculate the number of years it will take a monkey to finish the entire text of 'Mactbeth'.

I am not sure whether to feel angry or laugh at the question. I am not a fan of Shakespeare but I still revere his writing. Those are piece of art. How can a monkey be equivalent to Shakespeare? I am not sure why would anyone ever think of comparing the two? It's absolutely ridiculous. However I need to find an answer though I do feel like boycotting the question.

P.S.: BTW, I am not supposed to use internet sources to solve the question so please refrain from posting anything that might point me in that direction. I simply felt revolted by this question and hence the post. I don't want to break the honor code.

It's that time of year...again

Every year in later part of June our group organizes affiliates meeting in which all of us present our annual progress. It's the time for our sponsors to evaluate us and make decisions about funding. Needless to say it's a very important meeting as it's directly connected to our scholarships.

Every year our adviser send us an email around this time, reminding us the importance of the meeting. I understand the importance of this meeting as well as the pressure on him to show results. And every year the few weeks after his mail are the most productive weeks for our group. Most of the research in our group is done in these few weeks.

Yesterday we got his mail. It said:

By February 1, I need each of you to send a description of the papers that you plan to have ready for the report volume.

For each paper, put together 4 or 5 sentences describing the problem, approach, and type of results that you are aiming for.

I want to remind you that these are tough economic times. The University and our sponsoring companies are making cutbacks in their budgets, some of which are causing us to lose funding. It also means that the companies might be offering fewer jobs. The best thing that I can suggest you do protect yourself is to produce excellent research -- lots of results, excellent and rigorous science, and meticulously written papers. I feel quite a bit of pressure from the tight funding, and I intend to share that pressure with you. There won't be any free rides.

Please make the best of the next few days to think carefully about your work, and how to maximize your progress. Be a good manager of your effort. Don't waste time stuck on a problem, and don't think that "waiting for data" or "waiting for samples" is an excuse.

You can only imagine the reaction of this mail. Every one in the group was seen working hard on their computers/in the lab today. No loitering, no gossiping, no coffee breaks. The silence was dense. Stress lines can be seen on every face.

And they tell me I needn't worry about current economic crisis. I live in safe academia cocoon. Only if they knew the stresses of a student life! Hopefully I will be blogging a bit more regularly now, you know in the break times of the sleepless nights.

Enjoying A Beautiful Day...

...in Stanford. Needless to say why I love this place! A nice 22 C temp in January with beautiful sun like this is hard to beat..

Tortured Soul

Writing a CV and attending an interview are the two most hated tasks in my list.

I am not an extrovert. I am pretty private person actually. I am not very good with words. Or rather I am not diplomatic. I am too honest for my own good. I can't pretend. Does that mean I can't work? Or that I am not a good team member? I don't think so. Once, somehow, if, I get through these two task and get a job, I am one of the best employee. All my previous employer says so. But I am always lost when it comes to CVs and interviews. I am not sure how to represent myself. May be I am a bit too modest for my own good. All these processes just baffles me.

What do they want from me? Why do they go through all this? Don't take me if you don't want to, but why torture?

Yeah you got it. I am writing CVs these days. Hate it, Hate it and Hate it immensly. And that's not it. I have to "use my network" now. Send this idiotic document to everyone I know, met or seen. Whatever happened to simpler times and selfless friendships...

First Day...

...in office. This year, I mean. And I had two presents waiting for me with two cards. First one was an adorable gift from a friend for my B'day and second was a chocolate bar from our group for Christmas. A great way to start work in new year, don't you think? Yeah, yeah I won't get a gift a day for rest of the year but it did help getting over with the Monday Blues or rather First-Day-Of-Work Blues.

I became strangely nostalgic when I reached the campus today morning. The resolution of finishing up my research this year and graduate next year seemed so absurd at that time. Why exactly do I want to leave this sanctuary and go in the real world? Especially with all it's current crisis. Everything in this real world seems to be collapsing. It feels like an apocalypse there. And it feels so safe in here. And still, strangely enough, I do want to finish my Ph.D. and start working. I can't make sense out of this one. Does this happen to everyone towards the end? The fear of unknown weakens while the lure of unknown strengthens? Weird...especially considering the current crisis, it should be the other way round but it isn't. Completely weird.

A very Personal Obituary

With great sorrow I inform that my best friend, Shivani, died earlier today. She was my first laptop. She has been with me for past 28 months. The cause of death is still unknown, however symptoms matched the infamous disease "The blue screen of death". The attempts to revive her were fruitless and since I let my manufacturer warranty expire, we couldn't get any professional help.

I last recorded her sweet memories (data backup) in late November. However, I couldn't finish the recording due to lack of time. I regret it very much. Only if I knew that it was my last chance to save those memories. I was never given a chance to say Goodbye to her. I was half way through my project for my class when this happened. I never had a chance to back up the project and hence have to start from scratch on a Vista machine.

But as Bhagwad Gita says, whatever was created will be destroyed one day. Life can't stop at death. Hence I move on and start working on my project yet again. Meanwhile thanks for your condolences and pray that I finish my project on time.

The loving memories of Shivani will be with me always...

P.S.: 1. In honor of Shivani, I have named my new laptop Shivani II.

Critical

Every Monday we have a seminar by School of Earth Sciences. The main attraction of seminar: Free cookies and sodas. The TA for the seminar this year is a very good friend of mine. So every week I try to go there in order to help her out. Oh ok, I go there for the food. Anyway, that's beside the point.

Yesterday, there was a presentation by GCEP (Global Climate and Energy Project) director. The GCEP is an organization within Stanford that fund different interdisciplinary research projects. The organization main research focus is on alternative fuels and reducing the carbon foot print (Hence Energy and Climate).

So yesterday's presentation was discussing different ways they are trying to reduce the carbon footprint. May be due to a repeated stress on the things we(we as in human race) are running out of and the way those things are dangerous for us or may be some other reason, my brain started doing a very weird thing. Every time she will mention a possible solution they are doing research on, my mind kept coming with questions like:

What if we run out of that too?
Or what if, that experimentation proved to be more dangerous in longer run even though it seems like a good solution now?
What if they ignore some factor and it comes back to bite us? It's not like that it hasn't happen before.
What if we are making everything worse by trying to fix it?

The epitome of this was when she offered a possible solution for decreasing the CO2 emission by burning the fuels in Oxygen rich environment. The process involved extracting oxygen from the air and my mind went:

What if we run out of oxygen?

Scary thought, isn't it? Suddenly, I didn't care about CO2 emmision anymore. Life is no fun without O2. C can wait. Don't you think?

P.S.: Don't worry, it was just my mind playing tricks with me. We won't run out of oxygen, at least till we have plant kingdom on this planet. That's our very own Oxygen factory. We just have to make sure that supply can meet the demand at all time. That's all.

Managing your Mentor

That was the title of the handout I got yesterday in class. Well the class, itself is titled "Mentoring in Research". It's about how to be a good mentor. It's actually pretty fascinating class. It gives you "strategies" to deal with your mentee as well as with your mentor. Yep. Strategies.

Honestly, it's a very good management/communication/psychology class. And it is helpful but somehow it makes everything so artificial, so shallow. Like, yesterday we were talking about how personal or professional your relationship should be with your mentee or mentor. Obviously it does depend upon person to person but if you notice that a good student isn't doing well, you should actually try to talk to him/her about his/her personal problems. Why? So that you can get the best output (well actually that was not said in the class but written in the book given to us as 'reading material').

Hello? Whatever happened to humanity? Is it now a "job" to help people in distress so that you can have better work efficiency?

I knew there was a reason I hated managers.

P.S.: Yeah, yeah. I am still taking the course. I do need some better communication skills. But I am never ever going to run an emotional bank account like a manager. Sorry. Not me.

Career Fair..

Overheard on the way...
"So when is career fair?"
"Next week."
"Cool. I lost my bottle."

Priceless...

P.S.: 1. For people who didn't get the joke: Career fair is the time when you get a lot of free gifts from various companies. Water bottle being one of the popular items that is handed out during these career fairs.

2. It's also time for a lot of free lunches and dinners, especially if you are about to graduate.

Olympics

Another olympics. Another embarassing time of life. For past week I have been frequently asked by my colleagues about whether India has a team in Olympics and everytime I simply want to disappear. And like every Olympic season, there will be talks about pathetic condition of Indian sport in the newspapers and as soon as Olympics are over we all will go back to our lives. We will again tell our kids that sports are waste of time and they should concetrate on studies. They should become doctor or engineer.

Even though being an Indian is embarassing during Olympics, there is a bright spot for me this time. Its called Stanford Olympics team. Well its part of US team, of course but we do keep our own Medal count. So far we have got 3 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronze and still counting. Its far more medals than India have. Wish we did at least as good as Stanford. But alas! Its a daydream and will remain so forver.

Anyway, for now I can atleast say: GO CARDINAL.

P.S.: Stanford sports team is called Cardinal. And maroon is Stanford color. Just FYI.

I HATE...

THE GOLDEN BOY.

(from: Ph.D. Comics)

P.S.: 1. I guess no point explaining which category I belong to...but then as my friend always put it: we are idiots among the geniuses so for the rest of the world we are still GENIUS!! :)

2. (In reference to the previous point) Thats the only way you can survive in an Ivy league without THERAPY. Seriously. Though I think that inferiority complex might require few years of therapy. Alas! The Ivy League. Further you are from it, better you are!

Project Snapshot #19

Ok. I agree, out of place things bothers me. I keep wondering why they are there for. For example, this piece of pipe in middle of ground for apparently no reason. Its a safety hazard to say the least. Its hard to spot and presents a likely chance of getting you tripped. Bt I can't find any reason or rhyme for it being there. Anyway, thats today's pic...

Date: May 21, 2008

Location: Stanford, CA

Titled: Protruding

Procrastination heights..

..I guess thats where I am right now. After weeks of deadlines after deadlines, overnighters and a lot of work, I have finally reached a stage where I can't work anymore. Seriously, its like my mind is on strike. I have a meeting at 3 and I can't make myself work. I have my Annual Review this Friday, I can't work. The Google Earth Project I was working on, is finally getting out of the shadows and will be presented as a homework assignment for extra credits to bunch of undergrads, still can't work!

I just attended a presentation wondering whether I should take a diet coke from free food table after the presentation (as it turns out they didn't have any beverages....welcome to the horrors of Grad Life!!). Didn't listen to a single word he said. Only thing I can tell you about the presentation is that it was something to do with earthquakes in Turkish plate. The reason I remember Turkey is because it took me a while to understand the map he was showing. Once I figured out Turkey in it, my attention went back to the diet coke.

Anyway, two hours remaining for the meeting. I better try to do something now. Can't go to a meeting and tell them I haven't done anything!

Project Snapshot #10

Date: May 11th, 2008
Location: Stanford, CA
Titled: Rows

Guess where I was at 5:02? You got it, Library. Yes, on a Sunday. Hey, I work six days a week and since I didn't yesterday, I had to today. So I was reading this paper in the latest 'Geophysics' Journal when all of sudden my cell phone started vibrating (yes, I do have decency to turn the mobile in silent mood when I am in library). I picked it up and said hello but it turned out to be my alarm. Chop.

And that wasn't the only embarrassing moment of today. I came back to my office and started searching for my keys to go outside (the office doors are locked on weekends). Oh yeah, I know you are smart enough to guess that I lost my keys. I searched my laptop bag, my camera bag, my normal bag, my lunch bag (don't ask how many bags I had with me..numerous), I searched my drawers, my table-up and down, my shelves but no luck. I went to all the places I have been to today, which weren't many.

The only thing remained was the recycling bin (thankfully PAPER recycling bin). I have had a lot of print-out of the drafts of papers I had to submit last week. So my desk was cluttered with paper. That was the first thing I did today when I reached office. Cleaned up my desk and dump the papers in the recycle bin. Now since I had looked everywhere twice, it was the only possibility. So I went to the recycling bin and opened and viola, the bin, which was completely empty in the morning, was completely full with cardboard boxes (you are not supposed to dump cardboard boxes in paper recycling bin!). Anyway, I started emptying the bin, one box at the time which, I should add were, very heavy for some reason. And by the end of it I had to topple the bin to reach the bottom. And there it was lying at the bottom, MY KEYS!

I started putting everything back in the bin, thanking my stars for today being Sunday and I don't have to explain anyone about my absent mindedness. But I thought too soon. Just as I was putting the last of the boxes, a prof happened to leave for the day. He stopped obviously asking me, what am I doing. I had to tell him about it adding that when I took out my papers, it was empty and now someone has put these cardboard boxes (I was still upset about someone putting cardboard boxes in paper recycle). And he smiled and said, "Not anyone, but me." "Ohh." (Thankfully I didn't went on about cardboard boxes in paper recycle). But still it was a very awkward moment. I didn't know what to say!

Well that was my day. I am off to home...enough for a day, I say!

Project Snapshot #7

Today the alarm went off when I was trying to avoid crossing path with my advisor. I was traversing through trees and bushes when it started ringing and I took this shot. Its some kind of cactus, thats all I know. And I know that because I saw it in cactus garden in Stanford campus.
Anyway, I thought the texture it made was cool and it looks cooler in B&W. What say you?

Date: May 8th, 2008
Location: Stanford, CA
Titled: Tentacles

Geeks

I considered myself one but finally found someone more geeky than me. A new friend on Facebook who keeps updating her status with the geekiest jokes ever. Her last three status were:

Status #1:
Joke #293: Your Mom is like a struct. She's got no class!

Status #2:
Joke #283: A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. Upon being asked the price, the bartender responded, "For you? No charge.".

Status #3:
Joke #307: Heisenberg was driving when he got pulled over by a cop. The cop walks up and asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?". He answered, "No, but I know exactly where I am!"

Seriously these were her status. But honestly I do love to read them. They are cute little jokes. Yeah, yeah I know I am a geek too but at least I don't announce it so publicly!

P.S.: 1. For those who don't know about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, it states, in simplest terms, its impossible to know the velocity and position of a particle at exactly same time. Note its applicable for atomic particles like electrons. Its a quantum physics... just FYI.

2. I am not sure if I understand the exact difference between geeks, nerds and dorks..so pardon me if I have used wrong term. I frequently use them interchangeably.

My laptop has fever..

...seriously. Poor girl has been pretty warm for past few hours now. She has started breathing very heavily now and there are some other weird noises coming out from her. She has been working for past 50 hours now. She is crying out for a break. She has been very brave though. She let me finish my papers. So I am very proud of her. Now I will let her sleep for few hours at least. And even I am off to sleep. Have been awake for 22 hours now and sitting for past 19 hours (with few very small breaks). My poor back is crying too, not to mention my eyes who have started watering now with the strain.

I hope I will get up in time for 5:02 shot. Otherwise a blank, completely shot will be appropriate to tell you my state at 5:02 PM today. :)

Project SnapShot: Day Uno

So as I mentioned earlier, I have a new cell phone! No correction, I have a new cell phone with a lot of cool features, including a 2MP camera. And since, unlike in past, I have been carrying my cell phone ALL THE TIME, I thought it will be cool to start this new photography project.

The idea isn't mine. A lot of photographer have done something similar, including a friend of mine who had been taking a picture of whatever he doing at 7 PM every evening using his phone-camera. I am planning to do the same every evening, but the time I choose is 5:02 PM (oh well, that was the time I took today's picture so ':02' stays) but unlike him, I am planning to post my picture here. I am not promise that I will post a picture everyday but I will certainly try. I have to travel a bit this year and I am not sure how much access to internet I will have then (and yes I am aware of mobile blogging feature of Blogger.com).

Anyways, so here is today's picture taken at 5:02 PM. I was starting my run around Lake Lagunita when I took this picture and thought about working on this project. It was a bit murky and hence the picture came out as if taken with Sepia effect.

Date: May 2nd, 2008
Location: Lake Lagunita, Stanford, CA
Titled: The Arch

Why am I dong this (Among other side effects of being a Ph.d. student, I feel obligated to define a purpose, a methodology and some anticipated results for any activity.)? Well just a snap shot of my daily life and the way it varies from day to day at a specific time of day. I choose the evening time so that I don't end up taking pictures of my office computer or my kitchen, day after day. Hopefully I will be somewhere different once in a while during that time.

I have always said that camera is just a tool to take picture. Owning a better camera doesn't necessarily makes you a better photographer. But as they say it, its easier to preach than to practice. So I am putting myself on trial here. Lets see if I can prove this point. Taking picture with my 2MP camera phone everyday, at whatever place I am and then: BE CREATIVE! Hmmm... That will be challenging. I am restricting myself in more than one way. It will be interesting.

Anyway, you will see the results and judge for yourself.

P.S.: One of the glitch in this project is downloading the photo everyday. I can be a bit lazy about that. Please bear with me if I slack a bit. :) . I will ultimately download and post them.