Caltech

Interhouse

This weekend was the interhouse party that we have spent the last month making.  The theme was Wild, Wild, West and we created many props to fit it.  Unfortunately, my camera is out of order right now so I will have to explain how it looked.  The entrance to the party was shaped like a mine shaft and was darkened with a smoke machine clouding up the entrance.  Once through the mine shaft, the walls were all painted to look similar to buildings from the time.  Connecting two roofs we had a bridge with a large train crossing.  Finally, the main draw to the party, aside from the free food and dance floor, had to be the mechanical bull.  The party truly started once the bull got up and running.  People lined up all around it watching and waiting to get on (the actual wait was never long though. Most people got on in a couple minutes). Alas, our freshman class could not take credit for the mechanical bull since the house president was the one who actually made sure it was at the party. 

The party was scheduled to be from Saturday night from 9 pm to 3 am. Like most parties though it did not really start until around 10:30 or so. It was called an hour early  due to Pasadena noise disturbance laws.  It wasn't a big deal that it ended early, because most people had already left and gone to bed by this time anyway.  In my slightly biased opinion, I thought it was the best party we have had here (which means better than the last two).  Now all that is left to be done is the deconstruction of the interhouse which is supposed to take most of this week. After that I will be done with interhouse responsibilities.

Paper to Prototype

Hey Everyone!

I am currently in San Diego for the Thanksgiving weekend---and feeling good! It's so great to be home for a few days to see my family, relax and sleep in my own bed before going back to conquer the last week of classes and finals. 

The Solana Beach Train Station in San Diego

When I get back this Sunday, our Guatemalan partners will be in Los Angeles! I am so excited to see all of them (it's been a few months since I saw them when I visited Guatemala this past summer) so we can get started working on the final project and presentation together. Sophy and Chepo have been doing an amazing job putting the final design of the centrifuge together and bringing it to life! It's so surreal to see pictures of it progressing, when a few weeks ago, it was just a hand sketch drawing on paper.

Here are a few pictures of the final renderings done on computer by Sophy...

It looks so cool, doesn't it?!?

Here are a few pictures taken by Chepo of the actual centrifuge that has been built....

Unfortunately, the centrifuge will not be traveling with Chepo and Sophy to Los Angeles...
But they will bring lots of pictures, videos and experiences to share with us to make our final presentation complete.

Until then..I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving holiday as much as I am!

Back in the Homeland

Sorry for the delay - busy since coming back from my last interview! So I'll give an update on what I've been doing since then!

Last week I was at UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson. If you're from NJ, you know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, it's a medical school in my home state! It was nice to take the plane into Newark Airport and be picked up by my parents. It ALSO was nice to catch up on my sleep in my own bed for the night! There's something about the sheets you have at home that you can never replicate in a dorm. And then you can wake up whenever you want the next day, which always helps! I got to have a lazy morning, and then headed up to New Brunswick to the hotel - the Hyatt Regency! What nice accommodations!

Packing at home!

Well, it's definitely a bit more spread out than my dorm!

Now at the Hyatt - they look so comfy! 

So I went to bed after trying Ethiopian food (interesting...you don't use utensils, but it's not as messy as you'd expect!) and hanging out with some of the current medical students. I woke up at 7:30 AM (relatively late for interviews) to THIS outside of my window!

Blue skies!! It's almost like CA...but 20 degrees colder.

Well, by this point, you all know what comes next. 5 interviews, tour, lunch, and an info session later I wrapped up the session at UMDNJ. They have really nice hospital facilities - recently built with a really cute Children's tower (there's even a giraffe that figures out your height!). There's also a lot of graduate study options there - you can do your PhD at UMDNJ, Rutgers (the state university of NJ), or Princeton (explanation needed there?). It's definitely one of the unique aspects of the program.

However, I'd like to point out that on all of these interviews, one aspect really makes me miss my "home" at Caltech - the SIZE of these places! I look at the undergrad campuses for the schools I visit (many of them nearby or continuous with the medical school), and I am in shock! They're so LARGE! It really reminds me how lucky I am that Caltech's such a small place. Not just in saving me steps to run to class when I'm late, but also in my interaction with such a variety of professors and students in such a condensed atmosphere! I walk 5 minutes and I've gone from biology to chemistry to geology to engineering! And I walk down the hall of my House and I see MechE's, Biologists, Mathemeticians, you get the picture... It's amazing to have such CONCENTRATED talent! Not knocking the other schools, they have great resources too (and there are advantages to size), but I think being small and having the ability to go out and get what you want to make YOUR education the best for you makes Caltech unique.

...just thought I'd add my thoughts on that matter! :)

But I will say, one thing you won't get at Caltech is fall :(. That's OK, though, because I got to see some at home!!

Looking outside my window at home - OK got my dose of fall, now! 

Where am I going next, you wonder...? The City (New York, if that wasn't clear at first) - NYU!

Happy Thanksgiving

Greetings!

I didn't want today to get away and not wish everyone a great Thanksgiving holiday!  I have family coming in from out of town so it will be a good opportunity to "catch up" with everyone and eat some good food.  Whatever your plans, please be safe, see a movie you wouldn't usually go see, talk a walk (weather here in Pasadena is in the high 70's) and try and sleep in at least one morning.

We'll be back here in the Admissions Office on Monday morning, so any questions you may have about your application, give us a call.

In the meantime, enjoy the weekend!

Sincerely

Ray

Gettin' my steel-toes dirty in Midland

I just woke up....after sleeping for about 18 hours. I think it's called exhaustion...

Last Thursday through Saturday, I flew out for my second round interview for Schlumberger to Midland, Texas. I had an internship before with Schlumberger this past summer as a mechanical engineering intern and was based in Houston Texas (read my previous blog Adventures in Internships). But this time around I was sent to Midland to experience firsthand the life behind a field engineer and see current oil rig sites...in the middle of nowhere.

As exciting as it get in Midland...

The three day excursion was probably the toughest thing I've had to go through. In three days, I probably slept about 6-7 hours total. There were about 15 candidates that were in my interview session and 2 recruiters.

Day 1: We were kept from 7pm until 4am in these presentations in a conference room in the hotel we were staying in. We had to give short introductory presentations on the different segments of Schlumberger in groups that we had formed before flying out to Midland. I was paired with a student from UCSB and UF to give a presentation on Wireline Logging. In addition to sitting through the other groups' presentations, we then listened to the official presentation on each segment given by our two fearless recruiters, Aan and Akshay (two former field engineers). We also had a ton of time for questions about the technology and the lifestyle of the field engineer. We were kept until 4am ---and that was after we had all been traveling to get to Midland. I had woken up for a 530am pick up and caught two connecting flights to get to the interview location. They fed us snacks and supplied a ton of caffeine.

Day 2: After sleeping about 3-4 hours, we all left our cushy hotel at 8am to visit the work sites and saw actual oil rigs, etc----and saw all the stuff we learned about the night before. We were suited up in the Schlumberger blue coveralls and wore hard hats and steel toes for the entire day. We visited 4 different sites that were about an hour or so drive away from one another. We were on our feet until 7pm that night, then went to a nice dinner, followed by self presentations and individual exit interviews. We ended the night at around 3am.

Here are pictures of Day 2 visiting the oil sites....Sorry, too tired to write captions for each...O_O

I woke up the next morning early to leave the hotel at 7am to catch my flights back to LA. I think it goes without saying that I was TIRED. I slept for most of the flights and took a quick nap back at Tech so I could attend Page Interhouse that night. PHEW! No wonder I have been so low energy and trying to catch up on sleep....

But all in all it was a wonderful experience and I learned so much more about the company. But now, I got to quickly switch gears and get crackin on work---I've got quite a bit to catch up on. Enjoy your week everyone!

Third Eye Blind

This last Saturday night, Third Eye Blind performed at Caltech. They started off with some of their older, more famous songs like "How its Going to Be", "Jumper", "Never Let You Go".  They then went into their new songs which I had never heard before.  This made me think that they were really new, until I found out that the album had been released for a couple years.  They were alright but nothing beats their earlier stuff. Then towards the end they sang the lyrics to other popular songs with their own rock beat. Their 'remix' that received the best reaction was "Ride Wit Me", originally by Nelly.  The whole crowd started chanting in.  I believe that is the part that I got on tape. During a break I decided to head out and record a little bit of it just for you guys. Here it is. The lighting is terrible and I apologize for that.  I was unsure of how to adjust the lighting on the camera to make it better. Even with that, I blame the camera. It can't be my fault right :) I tried my best.

Toughest Job on Campus

...but someone's gotta do it!

If you haven't had a chance to check out The Tech (Caltech's student newspaper), I would go here and read up on some Caltech current events! But in addition to that, I would read the column that Dannah and I write. What do we seniors have to write about? Being old? Being off of Core? Retrospectives on our time at Tech? How about none of the above! Dannah and I, you see, are the Official Food Reviewers of Caltech! How did we get this prestigious title? Well...like many things at Tech, we just asked! Frosh year, we e-mailed the editor of the paper and asked if we could start a new food column, and she graciously allowed us to start eating out on the newspaper's dime!

Well, it's not all fun and games (though mostly it is), we do have to branch out to new restaurants that no one has ever set foot in before. It's exciting, though, because we can offer suggestions to our fellow students where they should go in Pasadena. There's so much to eat here that our four years cannot exhaust the options! From taco trucks to expensive sit-down restaurants, what a variety we have! If you keep holed up in your room each weekend (when we do not have food on campus) and order pizza, well...I don't think I could have respect for you, honestly. Within 30 minutes of walking, you can go around the world, from American to Afghanistan, and it's a delicious tour!

So this week, we took our expert palates to Tea Spots, a new Boba (Bubble Tea) and snack restaurant not too far from campus. We take our job very seriously, and usually don't bring anyone along to see us work our magic. However, today you can get a look at us in action! Enjoy!

Ahhh, what a beautiful sunset over SoCal! 

Fishing out the delicious (and spicy!) potstickers!

Our spread! Mmmm.

We're not obvious at all...writing our comments in our "secret notebook."

Dannah adding her thoughts. It's a tough one!

Overall, the food was pretty good, and the Boba was yummy. They also have FREE Wi-Fi, always a plus - means you can study off-campus there! Want to know our grade...? Well, wait till it comes out in the Tech! Can't tell you ALL of our secrets! ;)

Till next time...food reviewers...out!

Sorry about that!

Hello Everyone,

As the processing of applications nears its end, we've pretty much have things opened, sorted and scanned.  Earlier today we sent out our "missing items" e-mail with the intention of letting those of you know what we need to complete your file.  Unfortunately, a glitch got into our system so when the message arrived in your e-mail boxes, it said "none".  We apologize for that and we've been trying to see what happened.  In the meantime, for those of you that did receive that confusing message, please call our office (626) 395-6341 between the hours of 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. PST and we will be able to let you know what is needed to complete your application.  Thanks for your understanding!

Good Morning, Baltimore!

Sooooooo, I'm done with interview número cinco!

I have returned from my cross-country trek to what many call one of the meccas of medicine: Johns Hopkins University! It was my first trip to Baltimore since I was a baby, but I was very excited to see both the school and the city! It was a bit of a shock at first, though, because I left my sunny California morning to arrive in Baltimore on a rainy night. Fortunately, no one was delayed, so all of the interviewees got to meet up in time for a late dinner at an Irish Pub! They had half-price entrees, and I enjoyed my bacon cheeseburger after sitting on the plane for so many hours!

After dinner, I got to chat with my host, Scott, and his roommates! They all live in a HOUSE! Like...a real HOUSE! That's so cool, and reminds me about how I'm growing up after graduating college, and I wonder if I'm ready...but it's totally exciting! So I slept on the couch, which was not as bad as you may expect, actually more comfortable than many beds I've been on, and then woke up at the crack of dawn (6:45 AM) to get ready for the interviews. Coming from high school, you may be thinking "6:45 AM, not too bad"...but now I feel that anything before 9 AM is crazy-early since my schedule has shifted at Caltech. Fortunately, I am a morning person, which has helped me get through the early wake-up calls.

Then, everyone met up in the MSTP office at Hopkins all dressed up in our suits and ties, and they explained our plan for the next 2 days. Overall, we each had 5 interviews over the visit, which was pretty spread out compared with what I have been used to. Well, I won't bore you with the details of how everything else went, but I'll skip to the exciting stuff!

I met a Techer! He graduated in '02, so he's been out for a while. But we still got to catch up over some neat Caltech traditions, like Houses and Interhouse Parties and professors. It's neat to see how things have changed in 7 years, but also how Caltech still is the same in many ways (read: Core). And though he is a lot older than me, there's something about the Caltech connection that is really strong. I was definitely able to pass the time between interviews talking to him and comparing our notes on Caltech! Speaking of Caltech, I really felt that the research environment at Hopkins Med reminded me of it - open and easily allowing for communication between labs campus-wide.

OK anyways I will wrap up in a bit, but before that - picture time!!

THE FAMOUS DOME!!

Sometimes I forget where I am...so it helps to see the signs!

What's cool about Hopkins is that they have this MD/PhD Library, which is a great place to chill and study or just SLEEP while you're on call!

So now why would I go to Baltimore, which is 150 miles from my house, without saying "Hi" to my mom and dad?! I wouldn't! After my interview, I took the train up to my BELOVED New Jersey and stayed overnight at home! My mom cooked me a delicious Italian meal, I got to watch some great TV ("Ugly Betty" rocks!), and ran some errands in the morning (including getting my brand-new horizontal 21+ NJ Drivers License!). It was a very busy 18 hours, but then it was time to head back to Pasadena...just in time for the Third Eye Blind concert (more on that in Dannah's blog!).

Till next time - and then I'm back home for more than a few hours, but actually a few DAYS, while I interview at UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson.

Presentations

At the end of my SURF, we'd made quite a bit of progress. We had a working prototype which we could demonstrate!

My mentor arranged for us to present at the Smart Grid Symposium, which was sponsored by Southern California Edison. They were interested in our work because they would like to be able to protect the electric grid in the event of an earthquake.

My mentor was one of the keynote speakers. In the middle of his presentation, he stopped and told everybody to make sure to check out our poster. I was so happy!

Our poster was a little big for their easels, so it hung off the sides. We had to watch it carefully to make sure it didn't fall over!

Our presentation required three laptops. The organizers were astonished! We got our own table.

Several of the Caltech professors presented their current research. In addition to Mani Chandy (my mentor), Steven Low, Adam Weirman (who is currently running the RankManiac 2010 contest in his CS 144 class), and Andreas Krause all talked about what they were currently working on.

In addition to the SmartGrid symposium, I got to do three on-campus presentations. My mentor arranged for me to present to the Rigorous Systems Research Group, which is composed of several of the CS professors and graduate students. They asked quite a few probing questions, which kept us on our toes! They also had some good suggestions.

I got to present to the CS 9 class as well. It's a class that reviews the current Caltech CS research, intended for freshmen. I highly recommend it.

Lastly, I presented at SURF seminar day. I was really pleased to see that my sponsors, Dr. and Mrs. Kiyo (BS '40) and Eiko Tomiyasu. He graduated with a degree in EE, back in the day. It was really nice that they took the time to come and see my presentation.

Whew! That's a lot of presentations!