Week One

I arrived in Vancouver on May 19, 2001, knowing nobody in Canada.İ My first impression of the country was horrible, as it took me a little over an hour to get through customs.İ I arrived at my apartment, in the early afternoon.İ I spent most of that Saturday and Sunday grocery shopping, moving stuff, and exploring Vancouver.İ That Monday was Victoria Day, which is a Canadian National Holiday.İ On Victoria Day, I had dinner with the Condon family and had a chance to meet my mentor and her family.İ Then Tuesday morning, Anne and I meet to discuss the project in some detail.İ She also gave me some papers to read.İ I spent most of the week reading background information and beginning to understand why this project was significant.İ The description of the project that we decided on is here. The goal at this point is to take a general algorithm, which tells information about a single DNA strand, and use a dynamic programming approach to make the algorithm applicable to multiple DNA strands.İ I also learned LaTeX, which is a language similar to HTML, but instead of being used for web pages, it is used for mathematical papers.İ The most recent copy of my notes can be downloaded in PDF format here.