I Am. When? http://www.iamwhen.com/ a blog en Serendipity 1.4.1 - http://www.s9y.org/ Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:54:40 GMT http://www.iamwhen.com/templates/bulletproof/img/s9y_banner_small.png RSS: I Am. When? - a blog http://www.iamwhen.com/ 100 21 Norwegian Language Pack http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/wczyZzb65zY/101-Norwegian-Language-Pack.html Main http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/101-Norwegian-Language-Pack.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=101 0 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=101 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim) www.aa-mot.net that contained a new language pack file for the Proverbs Web Event Calendar. Asbjorn was kind enough to translate the language files to Norwegian (Norsk).

The calendar has been updated with the new language pack file and is ready for download. Many thanks to Asbjorn for taking the time to create the new translation file. ]]> Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:54:40 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/101-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/101-Norwegian-Language-Pack.html Calendar ver 2.1.2 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/HlqOHXkbzns/100-Calendar-ver-2.1.2.html Main http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/100-Calendar-ver-2.1.2.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=100 1 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=100 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim)
A big thanks to Jesse Wilson for the updated Dutch language pack file and Wolfram Schulz-Zander for the updated German language pack file. Of course every entry could very well say "Eat at Joe's Fish and Chips" and I would never know. But we'll trust that they have created better translations than previously provided through whatever online service I used way back when.

Enjoy. ]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:53:44 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/100-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/100-Calendar-ver-2.1.2.html Getting Into Graduate School - Part II http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/I1bK1r1m2WE/99-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-II.html Main http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/99-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-II.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=99 0 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=99 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim) Improving The Odds

Continuing on from where Part I left off, we should have narrowed our list of potential graduate schools down to a reasonable size. A list of about ten schools would be ideal; not that you will be applying to all ten, but because we will be whittling that number down a bit during the next part of this series.

There are several things admissions boards look at when approving or denying applicants. Most criteria should be pretty obvious such as grade point average, GRE/GMAT scores, letters of recommendation, and essays. I can't offer any help on your GPA, it is either good enough or it is not. Likewise, you are on our own for the essay portion of any application, although I will point out that there is no such thing as an "optional essay" for grad school admissions. The other two common criteria I can offer a little advice on.

First, your GRE or GMAT scores. These are pretty standard tests covering math skills, verbal skills (definitions), and writing skills. You are on your own for the verbal section, as either you have a strong vocabulary or you do not. The other two sections I can offer advice on. The math and writing (quantitative and analytical) sections of the test are based on courses you should have taken by the end of your freshman year; the end of your sophomore year at the latest. The topics are Precalculus Algebra and English Composition. Remember those? The sooner you take the GRE or GMAT after finishing those (types) of courses the fresher it will be in your head and, hopefully, the better you will do on the test.

I tend to recommend taking these types of tests sometime between the beginning of your sophomore year and the end of the first semester of your junior year in college. Everything is still fresh in your head and if you mess up, it gives you plenty of time to brush up on a topic and retake the test. GRE and GMAT scores stay on record for five years, although many graduate schools require tests to be taken within two or three years of your application date. Given that you will be applying to a graduate program sometime in the first semester of your senior year, tests taken during your sophomore year should still be valid for almost all schools.

Moving onto letters of recommendation. This is an area where you can greatly hedge your bets for graduate school admissions, assuming you aren't in your senior year of college already. You will generally need two or three letters of recommendation from either your professors or employers. Unless your employer is a college professor or is world-renowned in the field you are intending to study, you should stick with letters of recommendation from your professors. They carry much more weight, assuming the professor actually knows who you are and is willing to write you a good letter of recommendation.

Of course, not all professors carry the same weight in a given field, so here are some guidelines for what you should be looking for in a letter writer. Your academic advisor should be the first name on your list of references. Ideally, the other two professors will teach upper level courses in your chosen field of study, preferably they will teach graduate level courses in that same field as well. Research professors, who are not too busy, are a great reference. The professors who other students say are "too tough" or "grade harshly" are great candidates as well. Alumni from a school you are applying to is a bonus. If you are lucky enough, Nobel Laureates are the best choice possible.

The simple thing to do is pick out three professors at your college who meet as much of this criteria as possible and enroll in their courses. Enroll in as many of their courses as you can, even if it means taking a class at 7:00am instead of 1:00pm. Make sure you stand out in these classes by asking intelligent questions, offering answers, getting good grades in the class, and going to the professor during his/her office hours for help or advice (even if you do not need it). Tell your professors about your plans for graduate schools and get their advice. If he/she is a research professor, ask him/her if you can volunteer to help with his/her research. These things will help ensure the professor knows who you are and, more importantly, wants to write you a good letter of recommendation for graduate school.

Next up I will cover those things that admissions boards look at that are not so obvious. Until then go take your GRE exam and start endearing yourself to some of your professors. ]]> Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:11:00 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/99-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/99-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-II.html Getting Into Graduate School - Part I http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/46G9Jxp_CF4/98-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-I.html Main http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/98-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-I.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=98 0 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=98 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim) Selecting the Right Graduate School

Before you begin applying to Masters or PhD programs at any graduate schools, the first thing you need to do is figure out which schools are right for you. Selecting the right school is not as easy as it might first appear and should be a continuing process right up to the point that you start submitting applications. This seems like the logical place for me to start talking about the application process for graduate programs.

The best time to start looking into graduate programs is during the second semester of your sophomore year in college (undergraduate program), and no later than the second semester of your junior year. There are many reasons for this that I will cover in part II, but for now, I'll just say that it allows for proper planning. Suffice it to say that this will (should) be an evolving process throughout your school search and the sooner you begin the process, the better prepared you will be.

I hate making lists and doing pros and cons type of stuff; they work for many people but I am not many people. There are times that they are a necessary evil and choosing a graduate program is one such time. This is a list that you will want to keep for a while and make changes to on a semi-regular basis, so I would suggest using a spreadsheet program like MS Office Excel or OpenOffice Calc. (Just for the record and to keep the FTC happy, I have received no endorsements from either product manufacturer, but I would be happy if Microsoft wanted to give me tons of cash or even free software to plug their products. Actually, to be completely honest, I'll whore myself out to any company that makes a good product.) Where was I? The list, that's right. You will likely wind up with a few lists of stuff when going through the grad school selection and application process, so find something to keep all this information in, even if it is just a college composition book.

The first thing you need to figure out for yourself is the age old question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" In this case, you also want to ask yourself, "How will a graduate program help me get to that goal?" Sounds kind of silly, but when you really analyze those questions you might be surprised by the truthful answers. Many people who email me asking for advice do not have a solid answer for the first question, let alone the second. You need to be very specific in your answers, and not just "Cause I like tinkering with electronics." I will use myself as an example throughout the remainder of this discussion so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about for each step.

What do I want to be when I grow up?
A research professor in the field of robotics.

Notice I didn't say, "I want to work with robots." I was more specific than that but really not specific enough, so I should ask myself, "Why?" and revise my answer to the following:
A research professor in the field of robotics at a top research university. I do not want to build industrial robots or even other people's visions of robots, but my own. I want to expand the fields of not only robotics but also artificial intelligence and artificial life. Becoming a research professor will give me the best opportunity to accomplish this goal.
Much more specific than "I want to build robots," don't you think? So now the next question, "How will a graduate program help me get to that goal?"
Obviously to become a research professor I have to meet the basic requirements of being a college professor, particularly a graduate level college professor. A doctorate is required to reach that level, thus I must attend a PhD graduate program. I have three real choices here for graduate studies though:

1. Major in Computer Science (CS)
2. Major in Electrical Engineering (EE)
3. Major in Computer Engineering (CpE)

After digging through all the information I could find, Computer Engineering seems like a nice combination of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and, with the right focus, it will give me the best of both worlds to accomplish my goals.
Using a few honestly answered questions I have greatly narrowed down my list of graduate schools that I will want to apply to, so now I can start building the list.

One of the biggest mistakes students make when picking out a graduate school is using school rankings. There are several sources that rank different graduate schools based on all sorts of oddball criteria, including rankings by majors. A second part of this, directly related to school rank, is the schools perceived reputation. This is where the previous questions are going to come in handy to help get rid of many of these top (and very expensive) schools. Simply ask yourself, "Self, to reach my goals, how much does the school ranking and/or reputation really matter?"

The answer should surprise you when you look at it honestly. As an example, let's look at Carnegie Mellon University. In the field of Computer Science and, my previous major, Management Information Systems, CMU is a top ten ranked school year after year. Great. Put it on the list, right? Well, no. This is where you need to go back to the previous questions you have answered.

We'll use MIS as an example here to show why CMU might not be the best choice for a grad school based purely on ranking. If my goal was to work for a power house information systems or computer software company such as Microsoft or Google, than CMU's ranking and reputation will likely matter. If my goal is to work for any other type of company (and most people in any of the IT fields wind up working for companies in other market segments) than CMU's ranking and reputation does not really matter. Why? Because most people outside of the North Eastern states and the IT industry have no clue how great a school Carnegie Mellon is for all things technology related. Trust me; I got a million blank stares when I told people where I was applying last year.

Reputation and school ranking appeals to a very narrow group of people, usually isolated to a specific region of the country or specific industry segment. When it does matter, and here is the big catch, is usually only for your very first job outside of graduate school. Second job at most, depending on the period of time you stay at the first job. Most hiring companies weigh industry experience many times higher than the quality of graduate school you attended, unless you get lucky and interview with an alumnus from your school.

Did you know that the University of Pennsylvania is consistently one of the very top ranked schools for MBA programs? Does it really matter if you plan on working at a television station in Wyoming when you graduate? University of Wyoming will likely carry just as much weight for that job and probably give you a better chance of landing the job because of school relationships and increased chance of interviewing with an alumnus from UW.

In a nutshell, the only times these lists of school rankings or perceived reputations matter is in very isolated instances:

1. Regional Job Markets. If you plan on working near where you graduate from school (i.e. you love that part of the country).
2. Jobs within a very specific industry that will know the reputation of the school.

With what I just said, you might be asking yourself why I applied to CMU for the MSIT program. Well, you can read the full account in my entry entitled, oddly enough, Carnegie Mellon (or "Why I want to attend CMU"). Basically, I needed a distance learning program and wanted a program that would challenge me. CMU met both criteria.

Moving on to making our list of possible schools, we have all the information we need to start the selection process and narrow our list down. I will start with a list of my selection criteria, your criteria may (and should) vary, but the process is the same.
1. Must have a Computer Engineering PhD program.
2. The computer engineering program must include a good focus on robotics and artificial intelligence.
3. Because I want to teach at a top research university (notice I didn't say top ranked university), schools that have good robotic research professors should be included in the list.
4. Must be someplace I would want to live for the next three to seven years.
5. Must be someplace I can afford to attend; a high percentage of fellowships is a good criteria for this one.
This should give me a list of a bunch of schools right off the bat. Start off with the first criteria, in this case, "Having a CpE PhD program." Then go down the list and cross off schools. You will have to do a lot of research for each school to cross check against your list of criteria. As you go down your list of criteria and create your list of schools (and then cross them off), include notes as to why that school is included or rejected. This list will change over time and you will forget reasons that one school is on the list versus another.

Ultimately, my list would look something like this (in no particular order):
1. Stanford University (A top research university)
2. Iowa State University (Doing great research in the field of robotics, particularly Alexander Stoytchev)
3. U.C. Berkeley (A top research university)
4. M.I.T. (Incredible robotics program and I love New England)
My list of schools that I might want to attend for my PhD is actually a little longer and I did not include the schools I rejected in the list, but you get the idea. You might notice CMU is not on the list and that is because I hate Pittsburg and would not want to live there for seven years. Maybe there is a little resentment for being rejected from the MSIT program, despite that rejection causing me to refocus my goals to something that I am ultimately happier with.

And there you have Part I of Getting Into a Graduate School. While it might be a little tedious, going through and listing out requirements is a big help in narrowing your focus. More importantly, asking yourself some leading questions and being brutally honest with your answers is the biggest aid in selecting the right school. Good luck with your research... ]]> Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:35:00 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/98-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/98-Getting-Into-Graduate-School-Part-I.html Miscellaneous Crap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/05u1e8oPo5c/97-Miscellaneous-Crap.html Main http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/97-Miscellaneous-Crap.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=97 0 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=97 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim)
Aside from all that I have been emailing with a few people on the Proverbs Web Calendar 2.1. A long time ago, in a life far, far away, I goofed in my coding. In my own defense, the part I goofed on was how the web event calendar handled some of the special characters in languages other than English, and I only speak English (as can be seen by how poorly translated the language files are). So a few boo-boos slipped past and some language packs did not work correctly.

The good news is that I took a little time away from my very busy schedule and fixed those "undocumented features." While I was fixing that problem, I went through and made a few other minor changes to the event calendar. The full list of changes is included in the download or on the calendar page up there ^. Just like that and we are now up to the Proverbs Web Calendar version 2.1.1.

Segueing back to emails, ever since I did my entry on Carnegie Mellon I have received many emails from students seeking help and guidance. At first glance, I would have to ask myself why someone would want advice on getting into a graduate program at a school like CMU from a person who got rejected, but that is just me. As luck would have it, the first glance is not really accurate as I have accumulated a ton of knowledge on how the admissions process works with graduate schools and have been providing helpful advice for almost a year now.

Of course with my current work/school schedule I have had limited time to respond to emails in a timely fashion. What I thought I would do instead, at least on this subject, is to compile all that knowledge into one place. A repository, as it were, of the accumulated knowledge for getting into a good graduate program. Now if only there was a place where I could host such a repository. A place where people can come and freely read my advice. A place people could find easily enough with a quick search. A place where people could then contact me if they had further questions on the subject. It is too bad that such a place does not exist.

Oh wait...

I should have that entry composed, compiled, and coordinated this coming weekend. So if you ever wondered how the graduate school admissions process worked, you will have your answer in a few short days. Maybe it is "many" short days. Perhaps, for the sake of an honest assessment of my schedule, I should be calling them "long" days. Anyway, stay tuned for a few updates to I Am. When? ]]> Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:11:00 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/97-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/97-Miscellaneous-Crap.html Herbert 1701 Species D Generations 1 & 2 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IAmWhen/~3/TqEqFSyGLm0/96-Herbert-1701-Species-D-Generations-1-2.html Robotics http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/96-Herbert-1701-Species-D-Generations-1-2.html#comments http://www.iamwhen.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=96 0 http://www.iamwhen.com/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=96 nospam@example.com (Andrew Maxim)
The simplest logic circuits available are the same as the logic operators taught in any introductory computer class: NOT, AND, OR & XOR. These logic chips can be made to suit the purposes of the next stage in robotic life-form evolution, but would require a lot of additional support circuitry. Lacking space on the demo platform, we will instead opt for an integrated circuit that can accomplish our next task: which direction is the better power source?

To answer this question Herbert 1701 Species D will make use of a comparator chip. In simplest terms, a comparator takes two inputs and determines whether one input is higher than the other. Generally the inputs are voltage levels that are being compared. The comparison between the two voltages usually produces one of two outputs, either a ground level or an open circuit.

Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 1 SchematicFor Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 1, the two inputs will be the two variable voltage levels coming from photodiodes (and yes, the schematic shows the photodiodes properly biased for this purpose). This is similar to the variable levels used to "steer" Species C, only the voltage is going into the inputs of the comparator chip instead of the current going to the base of a transistor. The output from the comparator feeds the transistor used to turn a single motor on or off. In order to control both motors, and thus turn left and right towards a brighter light source, a dual comparator is employed with the second pair of inputs flipped from the first pair. The output of the second comparator then controls the other motor.

Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 1 Build 2Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 1 Build 1The dual comparator used is a LM393 variant. I tested out several different manufacturers and models of dual comparator chips using a simple distance test from a dead stop with no power. After three minutes in low light, I measured the distance that the robot platform had travelled. The winning dual comparator is a Texas Instruments TL393, which I had floating around in a parts bin. It is now an obsolete part, but with an inch more travel distance than the next closest chip it seemed worth keeping in the circuit. I did not test the newer LM393 from Texas Instruments, but I would imagine it would be an improvement over the TL393. One surprise was the TL393 outperforming the LM393 from National Semiconductor, which is usually the de facto standard for these types of ICs.

Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 1 SchematicThe Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 2 robotic life-form is a slight improvement over generation 1. The only additional circuitry is two more photodiodes, one for each side of the robot. Actually, the two original 180deg photodiodes were moved to point to the sides and the new photodiodes are angled forward. These additional photodiodes provide two benefits: First, the extra diode in series results in lower overall current levels and increased the distance test by nearly two inches. Second, having diodes point at the sides allows for a better comparison of light levels versus diodes only facing forward.

Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 2 Build 2Herbert 1701 Species D Generation 2 Build 2 ]]> Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:01:00 -0700 http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/96-guid.html http://www.iamwhen.com/archives/96-Herbert-1701-Species-D-Generations-1-2.html