Starting Spring, in the winter… (Ph.D. Year 1, Spring Week 4)

TLDR:

I started working with Dr. Eliane Wiese on designing and now jumping into a research project for the semester on how to improve educational technologies’ design. Rogelio helped me craft an awesome HPC-enabled long-term research project and apply for the DOE CSGF. I applied for an EPIC internship, I would like to apply for more local opportunities. I also moved my semester plan to Asana: making my weekly tasks and semester-length goals all visible in one place. 

For the Interested Reader:

Accomplishments

Winter break was really fun, despite being ill for the entire month of December. I am feeling well again. Probably it was a side effect of being burnt out at the end of the last semester.

Eliane has been great to work with. She has taken into account the work I started with Rogelio last semester (the lit review) and has encouraged me to continue onward with that. We both discussed research goals for the semester and were able to create a research plan that satisfies both of our research goals and interests.

I was helping my little brother apply for full-time jobs and came across an internship opportunity for myself and so applied. I would like to get a local summer internship if possible or get research funding for the summer.

I applied for the DOE CSGF! It was a race to the finish line and there is no way I could have done it with my advisor’s, Rogelio’s, help, who is a CSGF alumni. I haven’t met anyone else, maybe Julian Togelius?, who has the combined expertise of game design, AI, and HPC knowledge to have helped me craft the research project that is HPC-enabled for the CSGF fellowship. Since I majored in math Rogelio let me choose my math courses for the plan of study. I wasn’t sure what would be best (having already studied probability and numerical analysis) so I gave my brother Elijah a call who got his Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Turns out… Elijah is also a CSGF alumni! WHAT?! My mind is freaking blown!!

My semester plan is now digital. Last semester I had tasks and goals in at least three places digital and handwritten. It got hard, and a bit tedious to keep track of some things. I just did it last week. So far so good

I am really glad I decided to only take two classes this semester. Between being in two labs, course work, and important personal goals, I don’t have a lot of spare time. I had to tone down and reprioritize my goals for this semester, and with a maintenance goal of taking time each day to enjoy life (playing games, doing self-care), I am enjoying this semester much more than last. I have found that since I am so burnt out from last semester that taking time to play games has been very important. So I typically play games right when I wake up and have found I am waking up earlier because when I wake up I get to start my day with fun, and then I have time to do important tasks for the rest of the day. When I wake up and don’t let myself play I end up sleeping in instead, being unproductive, or worse, being grumpy. I also take a break when I get home, relax as much as possible between projects, and watch shows or read before falling asleep. It’s been working fairly well. 

What’s next

• I have five readings from Eliane (one of them is from my lit review) that I need to glean design “theory” from (mostly hypothesis at the moment) this week
• Course work
• Celebrating my husband’s birthday
• Update my website domain
• Update my website portfolio
• Apply more summer internships (looking local only for now)
• Do some c++ prep since I haven’t been programming in c++ for a while
• Maintenance goal: self-care and fun

Roadblocks

Still recouping from burn out from last semester. Not sure how long that’ll take to recover from.

Not sure where to find local internships of interest for the summer.

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Being Mom (Ph.D. Year 1, Fall Week 10)

TLDR:

Being Mom and doctoral student last week was a success! Refined my search terms for my systematic review. Worked on the HERTZ. Got my schoolwork done. Did well on my exam.

The Full Story:

If I thought last week was busy… well, I knew this week would be worse.

Accomplishments

Being step bonus mom while doing my Ph.D. last week was successful! I think the kids would have preferred to play with me more, but it’s good for them to see my work ethics too. My advisor and group members for projects were all very supportive of my need to be with the kids, and since I also accomplished my tasks at hand, and even went the extra mile, no one was complaining. Of course, going the extra mile isn’t always feasible, but I always get my work done and I always make time for my family. This last week was a busy one, and being able to juggle family and school life, a first for me, showed to me that we can do it and there is no reason why not.

Research / School-related accomplishments

• Refined my list of search terms for systematic review.
• Got my four recommenders for the HERTZ
  • Note to self: ask for recommendations WA-AY sooner!
• Getting better at the academic paper reading, finding, reviewing, analyzing. 

I almost quit my application for the HERTZ when I realized last week I hadn’t asked for letters of recommendation and they are due this week. Rogelio my advisor encouraged another member of our lab to got for a grant. She decided to drop it, but I knew he’d say the same things to me (to go for it!), so I took that as encouragement, swallowed my pride, and prepared to need to profusely apologize to the people I was asking so late, which I did. It was a lesson that I need to be more on top of next time. It could have very negatively impacted my relationship with these people. Thankfully they were willing to forgive and were very supportive.

What’s next

Got to do these things:

• HERTZ due this week
• Schoolwork, projects, and exams
• Begin testing systematic keywords in various databases. 
  • Meet with a librarian to see if I’m missing anything
• AISL grant proposal due Nov 6th!
• Meet Julian Togelius at his talk this Friday! (I’m super excited!)

Roadblocks

Just buys and tired. Not sure if a certain large homework assignment is going to be completed because everything else is more pressing, more important, and I do not like the class… should still be able to pull off a B though… ??

Being a Mom while Completing a Ph.D.

I got a taste of what it will be like to have kids while doing a Ph.D. and I believe it is completely doable. There is no reason why you can’t pursue a degree and be a mom. You just have to remember your priorities: faith and family first, then career. Of course, you still need to meet your work responsibilities, but family ones are just as important, so I made sure to schedule in playtime this past week with the kids while we had them despite a heavy workload. So glad I did!

Between my husband’s work schedule and my school/work schedule, we were able to watch the kids without calling in for reinforcements. It helps that we have a live-in uncle, but he was sick so mostly I had the kids check on him, not the other way around. Ha ha. 

 

Since we had the kids we did some pumpkin carving (forgot to take photos since the hubby did that), and lots of Halloween crafts and decorating. We spent most of last weekend doing the big adventures since last week I knew I’d be in school. Glad we did it. I didn’t get to play with the kids as much as would have liked, but while I worked on homework and research my daughter was on the bed next to me playing games. 

Looking Back, Missing My Mom

This past Friday, October 18, 2019, marked the two-year anniversary of my mother’s death. She died during my last year of my Master’s. So we bought some fall flowers and went to her grave. She always supported me in my education and work. It’s hard to not have her as my cheerleader anymore. I think she would be proud.

When we were at the cemetery we decided to also see my little brother Ben (who died as a baby and is buried in the same cemetery as my mother). On the way over we saw a very decorated grave, all out! It looked beautiful. It was for a baby who died recently. That day was the baby’s birthday. Birthdays and Death Anniversaries are important days. It was bittersweet. It’s good to remember and celebrate lives, and take time to live your own.

The AISL, Sickness, Arches, Campfire, and a Corn Maze! (Ph.D. Year 1, Fall Weeks 6-8)

TLDR:

AISL grant proposal won in the University of Utah competition. WAHOO!! Celebrate! Now we (Rogelio the PI and myself) need to write the full proposal. Need to complete my Hertz application, finalize my keywords for my systematic review, and lots of homework and an exam all need to be completed (or taken) all in the next eight days. Should be fun. 😉

Despite being sick, kept up with school work (at least the minimum required), and had a good fall break with camping and fires, Arches National Park, and a corn maze!

The Full Story:

An exam review, two weeks of sickness, and fall break made me miss the last couple updates. Here is my three-week catch-up.

Accomplishments

I wrote up a draft for the AISL grant proposal for the University of Utah competition. Because we found out about it close to the deadline, my illness, and Rogelio’s own busy schedule, he took my draft and finalized it for submission (he is the PI on the grant as it is anyway). If you compare the two you can see my content throughout, just elevated, by a large margin. I’m excited to be working with someone who is such a good writer so I can learn from him. Oh yeah, our proposal was accepted! Now we write the full proposal. 😉 More on that later…

I did preliminary searches and read a previous literature review on educational game design and have found that no one has addressed my specific research question about educational game design, so I am moving forward with my research topic. It also fits very nicely into our AISL grant proposal.

I got sick but somehow managed to keep up with the MVP for my classes. My professors are all really kind and understanding. Hopefully, I will be nice professor one day.

Over fall break I specifically did not do anything school-related. I thought I might get bored, and I did start to, but then my husband decided we should go on an adventure after all, called his work and received the time off, and we headed down to Arches National Park for two nights! That meant we got to build two campfires! That was fun.

On Saturday we took the kids and their uncle Zeke, my younger brother, to a corn maze in Lehi, Utah. My husband’s favorite part was seeing how fast he could throw a baseball, my favorite part was seeing how good my soccer skills still are when kicking a ball at various targets, Mikey’s favorite was the zipline (despite hitting his head on the rope at the end), Uncle Zeke’s was lifting a 400 lb haystack (all by himself), and Chelsea’s favorite part was the corn maze. Gotta take time to have fun!

What’s next

In order of priority (for the next 1.5 weeks): finalize keywords for systematic review, finish Hertz application, keep up with classes (I’ve got a lit review, group project announcement, two-week homework assignment, multiple reading writeups, and an exam), and the AISL full proposal.

Also, try to get the rest of the way better. 

Roadblocks

I’m still recouping from my two-week illness, still feeling sick, and having side effects from being sick so long and from all the medication. I’m back on herbal and essential oil remedies so the side effects should start subsiding. 

I really do not enjoy one of my classes — it is not related to my area of study and the class is mostly busywork. The professor himself even told me that last part before classes started– and it takes a very long time to do the homework assignments, so motivation is low.

MY FAVORITE SEASON! (Ph.D. Year 1, Week 5)

TLDR:

I wrote a very rough draft for the AISL grant. Narrowed down research questions and aims for systematic review along with a pretty comprehensive list of keywords and databases to search. I need to get the AISL proposal written up and fast. The deadline is next week and I need to somehow fit that in with my course load. Where has September gone? On the bright side, it’s officially my favorite season and my husband and I just passed our half-year wedding anniversary.

The Full Story:

Accomplishments

It’s officially my favorite season! YEAH AUTUMN! Pumpkins, cute jackets and boots, and bring on the hot chocolate! My husband and I just passed our six-month anniversary. (We’re not very good at celebrating on specific days, but we do celebrate!). We started our marriage with his favorite season — we married on the spring equinox — and now we get to celebrate the rest of our first year kicking it off with my favorite season. I picked a good wedding day. 

Last week Rogelio made me aware of the NSF’s AISL program and potential funding. AISL is “Advancing Informal STEM Learning” which is right up my games ally! He asked me to write up a 1.5-page draft proposal. We first have to compete with others from the University of Utah (each university can only submit three proposals for AISL funding). It’s final is due next week on Wednesday, Oct 2nd! Wish us luck.

With the help of my advisor, Rogelio, I narrowed down my systematic review questions, created aims, and with the help of others from the QED lab, I now also have a pretty comprehensive list of databases to search and keywords to search on. (Thanks QED lab!)

What’s next

Write up a hero narrative for the AISL. Get all my notes from the systematic review all in one place (they are a bit of everywhere right now). Somehow fit in my coursework and study for my upcoming midterms.

Roadblocks

I somehow have to fit writing up the AISL and do my research amongst many large projects from my courses. I can see now why taking three courses, two seminars, and doing research is a bit much. I am definitely feeling burnout. Mostly because one of my courses workload (just one) ate my weekend. 😦

 

Down to Brass Tacks (Ph.D. Year 1, Week 4)

TLDR:

This week I got down to brass tacks (which idiom no one knows the origin of): I began an application for outside funding, and started a list of research questions to use for a systematic review. I further refined my research interests which is almost ready to be shared on the QED lab page.

The Full Story:

Accomplishments

I officially changed my name! I am now Nancy N. Blackburn. Hooray!

I have a list of several systematic review questions.

I started a dreaded application for outside funding. (They are a lot of work!)

What’s next

Do a search in the current literature to see what literary reviews have already been compiled and use that data to select a research question to move forward on.

Continue to fill out my applications for grants.

Finish my QED bio and get it published.

Roadblocks

Feeling discouraged about my applications for outside funding. The competition is stiff and while I feel that I am deserving I am definitely wondering how I “prove” my value.