Finally Class Type Infos

Well, I have so far discovered that Grad School is rather different than Undergrad college was. By this I mean that right now I'm taking a very heavy load with a whopping three classes. but there is a chance that I will only actually be taking two classes (a normal load) this semester. That depends on the grade that I got on the recent Stochastics test. I think I did will and thus will keep all three classes but you never know till you do, it is Stochastics after all. Anyway this semester I am taking 18 credits. Listed below are the classes I am taking with a short description.

Class 1 -- Stochastics
This class is the "hardest ECE class in Grad School." It is all about random processes and using statistical type methods to predict what is going to happen. Heavily mathematical. I'm taking this because I think this class is going to provide a very useful mathematical foundation for much of my future work. So far seems easy, but we've only covered one fourth to one third of the material as of yet.
Credits: 3
Meets: Monday and Wednesday 4-5:15

Class 2 -- Radar System Design
This class is all about radar systems. I am taking this one for a good overview type course about communications systems. Basically this course is all about re-enforcing what I already know. This course should be really easy if it doesn't get away from me.
Credits: 3
Meets: Thursday 4-6:45

Class 3 -- SDR
This class is all about software defined radios. I'm taking this because working with Cognitive Radios (an offshoot of SDR) I need to have the "formal" background. This course is so far a joke. Everything that has been covered I have already had a much more in depth course on. The major points of the class are repeated every time we meet. The professor who was supposed to teach this course dumped it on another professor, who got a bunch of grad students to teach various parts of the course. Only problem is the grad students largely don't know what they're talking about and tell us (the students) that. I know people who have not even turned everything in for this course and gotten an A-. I'm not worried at all, but that doesn't mean I'm completely blowing it off only that I'm not stressed about any part of this course. No tests even.
Credits: 3
Meets: Monday and Wednesday 2-3:15

Wait a second if I'm taking three classes, each three credits, that's only nine credits... Where are the other nine from?
Well I'm talking a seminar style course on how to teach college students that is one credit. I have to talk that just in case I need to teach at some point before I graduate. Before classes started there were two eight hour days of this, then three sessions throughout the semester and one writing assignment. I'm done with one of those later sessions and I have another one tomorrow. The writing assignment is something like 500 words about how you feel about the course (this course was not designed by engineers...). That's not due until November, so I'm spending my time dealing with lab projects right now.

I am also taking the one credit ECE Grad Seminar course. This one meets five times through the semester and forces us to listen to talks about cutting edge research in ECE/how to do research/companies that may want to hire us. There are no assignments. This would be the world's best way to get one credit it all the meetings weren't on Friday from 4-5:30.

Ok, so now I'm up to 11 credits (nine from classes, 2 from seminar thingies). The other seven credits are from "research hours." Basically these are official hours that I spend doing research for my dissertation. I'm a little ahead on that front, because I have a general topic and a rough plan of where I'd like to go with it. Right now I count this time towards writing papers, reading papers, reading books, and working on lab type projects.

The specifics behind what I need to do to graduate are slightly complicated and I'll probably cover those later.

Busy Busy

So last week was both the start of classes and the summer school on robotics. Now that that's done I'm down to only way to many tasks for the hours in a day, including but not limited to:
Helping to manage CWT involvement on a DARPA proposal
Taking 3 Classes
Taking 2 seminars
developing p25 functionality for PSCR based on an unseen embedded extension board
Aiding new lab minions
personal research
and associated minor lab duties

If this were industry there'd probably be one person for each of these...

Ph.D. = Light at end of tunnel...

Moving In

Well my lovely wife and I now have the keys to our new apartment. In the first day back (Tuesday) we rented a van from UHaul and moved 95% of our stuff out of the secret storage location. We got Alex to help us with that one. Then all three of us went out to a lovely Italian dinner. Then wifey and I dropped Alex off and proceeded directly to Wal-Mart to obtained the first round of goods we needed for our apartment. After this fruitfull trip we returned to our domicile and promptly fell asleep.

Graduation Information

Friday May 14-University Ceremony at 7:30pm Lane Stadium
-Gov. Whatsit will be talking
-Probably not a good idea to bring a backpack stuffed with knives
-I will have to enter through the South Endzone, I don't know about the rest of you

Saturday May 15-ECE Reception 11:00am-12:30pm Hokie Grill
-I would like to go to this
-My immediate thought is to walk over, but there is a couple fairly large parking lots if anyone would rather drive

Saturday May 15-The Real Deal 2:00pm Cassell Coliseum
-Doors open at 1:00pm
-All Guests should be seated at 1:30pm
-I will be sitting with the other Electrical Engineers
-All the EEs will be in Alphabetical order so I will likely be near the middle of the group
-I would like to be there around 1
-Hanicapped parking will be in the small lot by the tennis courts
-They only allow their photographers to be on the floor
-Below is a helpful diagram that shows where I will sit, where the stage is and the path I will take to get my diplomas



If there are any questions please let me know.

A random update

Well it has be a long time since I've written an update for this here bloggy type thingy so here we go. I am approaching the end to my undergraduate life. I feel as though this is a rather good thing, and that in all rights I have lived 10 years within the past four. Four years were spent as a full time Electrical Engineering student (I think of this as the primary grouping), Four years were spent as a full time Computer Engineering student (the differences between Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering start of subtle but one day you notice that all of a sudden everyone in the world walks backwards, on their hands, while humming show tunes), and the final two years were spent as a full time college football player (an experience that I both very happy to have had and that I very happy is now over with). I don't count the social experiences as their own years because a student/athlete has such experiences as part of their lives. At this point I'm rather excited about my paths converging in grad school were I will only be pursuing a single major.
I'm stuck in a Documentation arc now so don't be surprised if other short messages like this appear, but for now I must to class as they say.

Plus Godzilla