Entrepreneurial approaches to research

I listened to The Lean Startup a while back. I never finished it, but I got far enough to listen to the section on small batch testing. The key concept is that, although it seems counter-intuitive, it's better to move a product all the way through processing rather than moving an entire batch through each individual stage.

I had a frustrating encounter that showed the advantage of this methodology when doing a set of measurements on my latest samples. I recently built an automated testing setup that reduces testing time from a day to several minutes, and provides much higher resolution in the outputs.

It was great. I could do measurements so fast, it was easier to stay in the lab, and then post-process all the data later. In that post-processing, I found some element in the setup wasn't quite aligned, and the data was coming out hinky.

Had I tested and processed each device in series, it would have been obvious within one or two sets of measurements that all was not well, and the dozens of other data sets wouldn't have been wasted. An interesting crossover from a most irksome experience.

What can a student say to Congress about engineering education?

One of my projects over the last several months has been organizing a small delegation of undergraduate students from the university IEEE section to attend the Congressional Visits Day in Washington, DC. CVD is an opportunity for technical professionals to speak to their representatives about the importance of funding education and research in science, engineering and technology fields.

I attended a couple years ago, and I was struck that the bulk of participants were men, either in senior positions in their careers or retired. I think that's a strong demographic to speak on the need for developing engineers and technical capability, but I think it's important for students, actively engaged in their engineering education, to speak up about their experiences. The first hand perspective of someone going through an engineering curriculum offers an insight into what students are experiencing now, rather than a rehash of more, shall we say, historic time frames.

Another reason I think taking the students is to make sure they're exposed to the realities outside their field. In the 112th Congressional Class, there are six engineers and three other scientists out of all the representatives on the Hill, and they're all in the House. That's the same number of accountants, and less than a third of the lawyers. (Stats here.) Without no science background, there's a tremendous amount of information that's easy to glaze over and misunderstand. As engineers, we have a responsibility to look at the factors that feed our technical capacity and recognize the impact that decisions for the short term will have years down the line. We need to make the technological contributions accessible and show the impact clearly, in terms of jobs, money and the metrics that our representatives are interested in.

IEEE has some great resources, and I'm pleased that the students I took did so well. However, the budget changes every year, and things only seem to be getting more expensive. It's critical to remember that this isn't a one-shot effort.

 

How do you know an extroverted engineer?

He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.

Engineer jokes abound for a reason. I think we get trained to think in math and look at everything as a problem to be solved. Plus we seem to have a lot of introverts. A lot of the time most people spent practicing social interaction, we spent hanging out in our heads and never finessed the people skill set. Personally, I think we hang our old posters up in academic buildings so we can look at something besides the other people in the hall as we walk by them.

However, yesterday I walked across the engineering quad and was looking at someone who had a sweatshirt I liked. In that awkward moment when he realized I was staring, instead of the standard everyone-looks-away or the territorial stare-down, he just smiled and everyone's day carried on a little more smoothly. Now, to implement a new interaction algorithm!

It works with my laptop...

I sit nearest the printer in my office. As with all community resources, some members of the group are far more diligent in upkeep than others. Some members just keep sending copies to the printer when it's out of ink or paper, as if the new electrons will carry a desperate plea and the printer will have mercy on them. More often, someone else will just replace whatever is missing, and the behavior is unintentionally reinforced.

This morning however, my adviser needed to print something and a "fatal error" which I'd never had to fix before was displayed. After the standard fiddles, he went for the failsafe - turn it off and back on. Apparently, it didn't turn all the way off - the job he sent was still saved and began to print shortly thereafter. As he walked out with his pages, he said, "I am an electrical engineering genius."

I know you from *somewhere*...

An encounter with social grace is always a good moment for me. Today, I ran into a department head when I was going out to lunch. I'd previously met him when I'd been visiting as an industry partner rather than my current persona of a slightly disoriented first semester grad student. I said a “hello” and slowed down past his table, and he stopped me, “I know I recognize you, but I can't remember where from.” After a quick refresh, he was very interested in how I was doing here. As one of those people who is great with faces and shamefully poor at remembering names (the faces are so effortless and the names such a struggle...what makes this happen?), I've often used a similar line to re-engage with people and wondered how it felt to be on the other side. I certainly preferred it to the minimal acknowledgement I was expecting, and it was nice to know he recognized me.

Want more women in engineering...?

Put a women's bathroom on every floor.