Week One
May 16th - May 22nd, 2011
Took me a while to get here, but I made it! And I already feel at home :)
Great news, I am now officially a part of the Networks and Security
Lab and research group. The group is known as NetSec.
Right now, I don't really know what exactly I'll be doing this summer
yet. I thought I did, but then as I started doing tasks and getting
stuck a lot, then I really started doubting whether I actually know
what the summer will be like. But I (at least) definitely know that I
feel really excited for everything right now.
It's hard to sum up all that happened during my first week.
On my first day here, I got to meet the other dreu student. But, I
won't be working with her since she's in the HPC research group
(high-performance computing).
I also met Dr. Massey and also the other dreu student's mentor, Dr.
Michelle Strout. She was very nice and welcoming. She showed us around
CSU and took us to get our picture taken for our access cards to get
access to the building after-hours.
As far as fun stuff is concerned, we had a joint lunch with
the High-Performance Computing research goup (HPC group).
We went out for pizza at a cool place called Woody's that serves a
buffet, but the pizza actually comes from a wood stove.
It was really good food, and I had a fun time getting to meet everyone.
Everyone here is from all over the place. Some internationally, most of
them are from other states though.
I learned after lunch that this summer will consist of a
project that deals with the entire country of Australia's Internet! I
was completely ecstatic when I learned this.
I had NO idea that my project this summer could be that cool! I
immediately told everyone back home and also my roommates. Now the
research internship doesn't sound so vague and abstract as "research".
Now I can actually say I am working on improving Australia's Internet.
It's not so abstract to talk about anymore. That was what I always
found hard about Computer Science - that it has always been hard to
communicate what I do on a daily basis to "normal" people outside of
CS. But, now that I know of this awesome project, when I tell people,
it is much easier to get the point across that this is great stuff and
that it is important.
Now I'll start mentioning my work so far. I apologize in
advance, but I am letting you know right now that I tend to talk too
much about work. Well, I tend to talk a lot period.
But I think this is ok because you can just scroll down and ignore the
boring work stuff (you'll probably be skipping most of my journal
entries!).
I learned the first few days that Dr. Massey is pretty
informal when it comes to his name. Everyone calls him Dan and he
assured me that I call him Dan.
I just had to make sure, because I tend to call all my professors and
teachers by their title and last name. I think this informality helps
get more things done by letting students approach him easier.
There is a BGPmon team that consists of me, Dan, a PhD student
named Mikhail Strivhov, and a Masters student named Jason Bartlett. I
am told that Mikhail is the resident BGPmon expert and Jason has been
working on BGPmon, just not as long.
So the first couple of days, Dan let me get acquainted with BGPmon.
BGPmon is a Border Gateway Protocol monitoring system that was designed
and built here in the NetSec Lab.
I won't talk more about BGPmon since you can click on the link on the
left about "my project" to get more information on it.
This time was spent doing A LOT of reading.
I read through a fair share of slides, papers, electronic code, and its
code documentation. I felt a little overwhelmed at first. And I thought
I came a little prepared since I asked Dan for background material back
in April, since I had time before finals and wanted to get a little
head-start. Well, it turns out that I had to re-read and re-re-read the
background material. This has a lot to do with just how BIG BGPmon is.
I have never in my life seen this much code! And I'm only dealing with
a tiny fraction of BGPmon.
Right now, my task is to learn Perl - a scripting language that is
great for websites and string parsing. Then I have to take what I learn
and write code to extract various
kinds of data out of a live BGPmon feed. This seems like a daunting
task right now, because I've seen the code that currently does
something similar and it seems pretty confusing. Since Mikhail is
leaving for a research internship next week, there are various tasks we
were all assigned at our weekly meeting with Dan.
I'm going to have pretty big shoes to fill once Mikhail is gone.
Every Friday afternoon, the entire NetSec group gets together
and usually one person gives a presentation (anywhere from 30 minutes
to an hour). The exception to this
was that this Friday was a pretty short meeting just to initially
set-up the summer schedule and get everyone on the same page about
what's going on.
Well that about sums up the work-week. I suppose I can mention
a little bit about how I ended up here. Don't worry, I mean physically
ended up here, not the longer version that consists of direction and
applications and all that stuff. I drove the entire 1,000 miles from
Texas. And I was actually so excited about everything and had so much
energy that I was able to drive nearly nonstop - I only stopped for
gasoline, food, and using the restroom. I made it over here in about 17
or 18 hours.
I will say this: a USB car adapter for electronic devices (with
multiple ports, preferrably) is a MUST for long drives like this. Also
Monster or [insert your favorite energy drink and/or energy source
here].
About housing: I had the absolutely hardest time finding
housing. Which really surprised me because rent, for the most part, is
lower here than San Marcos back in Texas.
I started apartment and room-in-a-house hunting back in March. Of
course, I always had the option of a summer dorm or on-campus
apartment. But I checked out the prices and they seemed too high for
me. Since this dreu program is flexible and lets you take of your own
housing, why not go the economical route? And since I ride my bike to
and from school everyday, I planned to do the same in Fort Collins,
Colorado. I used Craigslist to find housing. There were countless
emails, texts, and phone calls made. Actually, looking back now, I
think I might have started looking too soon. I always like to play it
safe though. See here's the problem I would run into: everything was
fine and dandy with the potential subletter until I mentioned I'm from
Texas. I think it's just hard for them to wait for someone all the way
over here without having a face-to-face meeting. Also, at the same
time, they're probably getting a lot of offers from people. So, when it
comes down to it, who would they logically choose? They will choose the
local Coloradoan and/or Fort Collins local anyday over the
almost-foreigner from Texas. Time that people were looking to sublet
their apartments and houses varied wildly. Almost none of them matched
my summer dates - which were May 15th until August 5th. But finally in
May there was light at the end of the tunnel and I was able to schedule
a few meetings for the days around my arrival in Colorado. I was
planning on staying in a hotel maybe one night or two at the most. In
the end, I ended up visiting the first potential place that Friday
evening that I arrived.
The roommates were so welcoming and our personalities matched so well
that they ended up letting me stay that night - and the entire weekend!
So they are now my roommates. So now I am staying in a 3-bedroom, 1
bath (Harsh, I know!) apartment. It is about 3 miles from campus and is
easily bikeable. Actually the majority of people bike around town in
Fort Collins! I find that amazing, I couldn't ask for a better place to
live in, I think. So this town has bike lanes EVERYWHERE. You go to a
grocery store or restaurant. Yep, you guessed it - there is plenty of
bike parking! Just the fact that these public amenities even EXIST
makes me very grateful. You will NOT be able to find this stuff back
home in Texas. Or at least, good luck trying. I'm used to having to
bike to school everyday on side walks and grassy areas not meant for
bikes. I constantly get flats from random stuff in the grass :(. But
now, I am happier than ever with my own bike lane and a community that
is completely supportive of an active lifestyle. Also, the geography of
this region lends itself very well to the active lifestyle. I swear, I
feel like I am in heaven right now! People in this town are also very
nice and friendly. On my first grocery trip to "King Soopers", the
Colorado-only grocery chain, I was taking my cart back inside the store
and a woman was kind enough to take it back for me. I told her it was
okay, but she insisted and said "I am walking inside the store anyways,
it really is no problem". I was floored. I mean, yes, it might've just
been a really nice woman and have nothing at all to do with Colorado or
Fort Collins. But as the days pass by and I interact with people more
and more, I tend to dismiss that claim and tend to lean more towards
the conclusion that people in Fort Collins are generally nice, friendly
people.
So, overall: my week went awesome at work, the people in town
are awesome, there are tons of things to do around here - both outdoor
and indoor, I love it here, I love it here... oh and did I mention I
love it here? Oh I did? Ok good, just wanted to make sure you got that.
Again, I just simply can KEEP talking my head off about this place and
how awesome it is and how much I fit in here. But I will end it here
and let the weeks progress before writing again. See you next week!
|
