So Far So Good! (Ph.D. Year 1, Spring Week 7)

TLDR:

I stuck with my research time and was able to make an outline for my literary review and recoded some of the articles within my literary review. I’ve also set out a timeline for the rest of the semester for the simulation educational research I’m doing with Dr. Wiese. And I went to Nevada for the weekend to visit a family friend. I also now have a 38 out of 40 charms in Hollow Knight.

For the Interested Reader:

Accomplishments

I listed my accomplishments in the TL DR. One thing I didn’t mention is that I started doing Hackerrank challenges in C++. I’m doing one challenge a day pretty much. It’s been a lot of fun; once I finish a challenge I ask myself if I can do it better, if I can do it in place, if I can use a different structure, etc., and I think through those things since that’s usually how my technical interviews have gone. It’s also fun just to see if there is an improvement that can be made.

What’s next

• I need to create a 3-week plan for Dr. Wiese on for what we’re going to do for the next three weeks.
• I need to look into creating an IRB for my researcher with Dr. Wiese.
• There is an article I need to read called fostering the intelligent novice.
• Figure out how to do citations in latex.
• The stick with my research times and keep plugging away at my literary review.
• As always, coursework.
• Personal goals.

Roadblocks

• Figure out how to do citations in Latex

 

Star Struck! Meeting Julian Togelius (Ph.D. Year 1, Fall Weeks 11-13)

Oops, life got away from me, but that’s okay! Here’s a three-week update!

TLDR:

I had a minor procedure done (all went well), I updated my website with an about me, I completed and got rejected for the HERTZ, we didn’t have time to complete the AISL, and I got great feedback and direction from Tallie the librarian for my literature review! OH, and I met Julian Togelius the editor in chief for the IEEE Transactions on Games Journal! What?!?!? 

For the Interested Reader:

Star Struck!

I should preface: I don’t usually get star struck! But when I met Julian Togelius, I definitely felt the struckness!

Julian Togelius visited our university and I had the opportunity to attend the grad luncheon. He politely, and with good humor and an upbeat spirit, listened to and engaged with us and our research areas and ideas. It was a great experience. Afterward, he emailed me personally with two papers he had written on psychotherapy games (a core interest of mine), and I got to talk to him for a bit after his talk also. I was def star-struck. It was great!

Taking Time for Me

In my last post, I talked about being a woman pursuing both career and family goals: in that pursuit, I had to take some time away from school and I fell a little behind. I am all caught up now, if not with the all-star A’s I had before, I am feeling I need to push through so as to let other women know you can do both, and it’s okay to shift from one to the other. As a doctoral student being a 4.0 isn’t as important as it used to be, though I love getting my A’s, it’s okay to let perfection in the pursuit of better, more impactful things!

Accomplishments

I got rejected from the HERTZ!

We’ll be applying to the AISL (or another related grant) next year.

I took time for my personal and family goals.

The Marriot Library has FREE research consultations for students and employees. At the suggestion of my advisor I did one, not really expecting much. Boy was a blown away! I got SUPAH great guidance feedback from Tallie the librarian on my literature review. She definitely helped me frame my research question, get to my target databases, how to save my work, emphasized the Prisma (which I think will be a fun visual to include in my paper), and was in general fun to talk to and very supportive.

What’s next

Got to do these things:

• Start the meat of the literature review: downloading, reading, and writing
• Survive the end of the semester
• Register for Spring 2020
• Read the many papers that have been sent to me to read from my advisor, Julian Togelius, and my peers.

Roadblocks

I’m burnt out from the semester. My classes are only slightly related to my area of research and I’m getting really tired of reading and doing writeups on papers that aren’t even remotely related to my core area of interest. There’s a reason I didn’t go into writing, as much as I loved being an editor and journalist, I get really bored when writing and reading is all I do all day. This semester has been one very long reading-writing session. I’m all burnt out.

I need to work with Rogelio on what my schedule is going to look like next semester and how my work this semester can be carried into my lab rotation with Eliane next semester: I’m excited to see what we can possibly collaborate on.