DREU Summer Research at UNM

Week 8: June 15th - June 19th

My 8th week here was a wee bit stressful. The main objective of this week was to analyze all the data and come up with some results to write in my paper. Coming up with results is very tricky. I basically spent all Monday and Tuesday staring at graphs trying to note any patterns that occur in the data. Then from there you have to figure out what is causing these patterns to occur. You have to stay very focused and on task. I am able to recoginze the patterns but not necessarily why they are happening. Another tricky task is figuring out how to "slice" the data so that the patterns are more noteable. From there you can use your "slices" as justification to the patterns. I have yet to figure out a clever way to do this for my results. I want to have all my results gathered by the end of this week so that I can spend all next week writing and editting my final report. If I can do that I can spend my last week submitting poster proposals to conferences.

Wednesday and Thursday continued with more data analysis. I was able to make a few comments about continuous learning and the error associated with it but for the most part patterns and justifications still elude me. I guess I am going to just have to write my report with what I have. Sandra and Lydia assured me that its ok and that this is one of the hardest parts about research. You want your results to be neat and concise, but they rarely are. I did get to go to the lab with Sandra on Wednesday and test the quadrotor which was a good break from staring at graphs.

Friday was spent working on my report. I'm not sure what is harder to write, the results section, or the methods section? They both have to proven to be very difficult. This report made me realize that I have not had to write a paper really in the last two years with all my math and computer science classes. It is a skill that you really need to practice in order to keep.

Leisure Time I didn't really do that many fun things this week. I am usually pretty good about finding stuff to do to keep me entertained but it was kind of a slow week. On Wednesday I had a barbeque with some friends which was fun. We grilled hamburgers and made some guacamole and salsa. Also some chocolate chip cookies. After work on Friday I drove home to Las Vegas for a party my mom was throwing for the jewlery she sells. Everyone plays bingo and if you win you get to choose an item that they are removing from the catalog. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to be home, even if it was just for the night. On Saturday Peter, Emilio, Miranda, and I went to Summerfest, which is where they close off Nob Hill and there are street vendors and old cars and people just walk around and hang out. It was really hot so we didn't stay that long. Plus everyone had to leave to go work at Isotopes. While everyone was working I went to see World War Z which was a lot better than I was anticipating.