Epics of India

After missing famous last words last week, I'm back and ready for some updates. This past weekend I was in Kansas City with the high school robotics team I mentor. We were at our first competition of the season, so it was really hectic. I am the drive team coach for the team, and it is super exciting and intense. We seeded 7th after our qualification matches and then lost in the quarterfinals to the 2nd seed. We could definitely have done better, but it was a lot of fun and our next competition is in OKC this week! The robot during a match picking up balls. Source: team photographer Classes have been going alright for me, but I'm about to hit midterms. This semester all of my exams occur over two weeks: this upcoming week and finals week. Control Theory is the feature exam, and it's on Thursday, so I need to study hard. Meanwhile, I can't sleep on Understanding Theatre, but I think I can get all of the studying for that one done on one day. Those two classes ar...

Yep, that title sums it up a lot for me this week. This week was a roller coaster of sleeplessness, robotics, and just about getting everything done I needed to get done. Yes, I spent 11 hours across two days doing my homework for control theory right before it was due, but that's just a product of doing a bit too much. Every semester is a stress test - I keep piling on more and more weight until I'm just about to break, and then I take the weight off. This sixth week was that maximum stress point, so I need to manage my time better so I can keep going strong for the rest of the semester. A major source of my tireless struggle is robotics. The high school robotics team I mentor is coming up on their first competition. That's this upcoming weekend, so we will be working really hard and then it will be much more relaxed hopefully. This build season has been long, but I'm hoping we come up good in competition. Additionally, I have been working hard to get insurance f...

Can any words be more famous? I'd say most of us agree with this statement right about now! This week, the snow day helped me out immensely. I spent eight hours during the snow day doing all of my control theory homework, only to learn on Friday (the original due date) that the homework was getting pushed back because the material hadn't been covered yet. I spent a lot of time on the snow day learning the uncovered material, so I guess it served as a good primer for the lesson on Friday, and it's one less thing to worry about. The snow day really came in clutch for me this week. Picture I took from my bedroom window on Wednesday morning. I didn't go to computer vision this week, mainly because the weather was cold and I walk to class. I plan on being there to get my face scanned for attendance bonus points next week though. My theatre class was affected by the snow day, so I am now ahead in that class thanks to getting my reading done on time. On the grad sch...

This week's last words will be more famous than the last of course! So this past week was pretty slow, and it seemed like nothing was actually due or urgent, so I relaxed a bit and did a lot of nothing. This was a mistake, as now I need to do a bunch of stuff by Wednesday and Friday of this week that I could have finished a week ago. This is a common pattern in my semesters at OU - first determine how much I can slack off, and then once it starts to heat up, stop slacking and meet the demand of class. So this week I will need to be more proactive and not as lazy. Speaking of avoiding work, I was in robotics the past week adding little pictures to our circuit boards. That way they will look cool when they (don't) work. Here is an example of me adding the Sooner Competitive Robotics Logo to one of our team's printed circuit board designs:   SCR logos on a PCB, one good way to waste some time. Personal Photo. This past week in classes was very straightforward and...

I'm back at it again with some famous last words! So this week ramped up the work a lot, and I am not backing down on any of my other commitments. I want to see how far I can take that until push comes to shove and I have to start cutting back on fun and put my nose to the grindstone more with class. Class updates: Control Theory is extremely difficult. Who knew graduate classes are hard, right? So the first homework took me 8 hours to do - very very nice stuff right there. Computer vision is a blast and my professor's facial recognition attendance software works very well. It's honestly a great way to do attendance because you actually have to be there In understanding theatre we took a tour of the various theatres at OU. I also bought tickets to the OU production of Blood Wedding in a couple of weeks for my girlfriend and myself. I'm looking forward to it! I got into reading the Ramayana parts A and B this week, and I think I'm going to really enjoy this...

This past week was the start of school, and it was very light in most of my classes. Syllabus week is a blessing because it isn't hard, but a curse because it can lead me into a false sense of security. Here's what I learned during the first week of class: I am going to get to go to four plays for free, thanks to taking Understanding Theatre My Computer Vision professor wants to take attendance using face recognition software that he wrote - this is going to be an interesting and fun experiment Control Theory, my first and only 5000 level class, is going to be pretty difficult, but will be very rewarding I am going to be busy this semester despite taking 12 hours Outside of class, I spent time mentoring Team Rocket, a high school robotics team in Oklahoma City. The kids are excited because we have a practice robot that can turn to specific angles and use computer vision to align with goals. We are in the third week of build now, so I am looking forward to helping them ma...