Control Theory, put simply

I feel like no one knows what the hell I do at grad school. Everyone just thinks I make robots because that sounds fun and novel. While robotics are fun and novel, my true love is control theory. I used to be more involved with robotics and I still enjoy them. They are an excellent test bed for control theory and artificial intelligence. Maybe controls doesn't have all the pizazz of robotics, but it stole my heart.

Taken from Discover magazine:
"Control theorists, roughly speaking, try to understand how complicated things can run efficiently, quickly, and safely instead of crashing, exploding, or otherwise grinding to a halt. They analyze systems by modeling the variables that dictate how they will behave. But rather than checking through every possible combination of variable to see if, say, a plane will fly straight or stall when the wind picks up, control theorists look for underlying laws of control that can predict how something will behave using just a few key variables."

Man! I feel so powerful just reading that, like I have the secrets to the universe or something. Like a wizard...

Taking Suggestions

Has anyone been to Hawaii (specifically the Big Island or Kauai). I'm planning our vacation and I want to know what to do. We are going to be on the Hilo side of the Big Island for 2 days. Then we are going to Kauai for 4 days and are going to be camping. Camping/beach recommendations would be lovely.

ps. can it be the end of August yet?

pss. I get to see my niece in a week and I am going to gobble her up!

Rest in Peace M.J.

I'm super bummed about MJ passing.

Overhaul

We spent the weekend steam cleaning, regular cleaning and rearranging the apartment. Not exactly my cup of tea, but enjoyed finding things that had gone missing. Now I have my camera cord back and am more inspired to blog about things I suppose.

The summer is moving by at warp speed, which makes me kind of sad. We are going to Hawaii at the end of August and I'm oh so excited about it. We're going to the Big Island and Kauai, so if anyone has any advice for either of those islands, I welcome it. I think we might be camping a good bit of the time to make things more adventurous and less costly.

I'm going to start math tutoring kids who are in summer school for geometry for a couple of hours this week. I hope I don't get too frustrated. These kids are really going to hate math, and I want them to love it so badly. I think that people should at least respect math because it's one of the only things around that's provably true. Alas, high school kids are not the most logical bunch, so hopefully I can make math seem awesome without them thinking I'm a dork. I really don't know if I'll be able to pull off making math cool, but we shall see.

I think that I secretly lose respect for adults who say that they hate math. I mean, it's one thing to not enjoy it. Some people don't enjoy logic puzzles and don't think the same way as I do. But to go to an extreme to say that you hate math makes me think inside that this person is probably volatile and does not make logical decisions... I think I might be part Vulcan.

Also, after recently rewatching all of the Star Trek films, I've come to the conclusion that Picard is kind of an arrogant asshole. Just a little bit. I guess when I was a kid I thought of him as this wise grandfatherly type, but he really is full of himself. He's always spouting off about how he did things faster and better than other people in his heyday and it's just not so flattering. I'm gonna have to side with Kirk as my favorite captain. He's awesome at everything he does without having to brag about it and STILL gets all the ladies. I never really saw Picard with a lady (or a man) before. Maybe he's gay like Dumbledore.

Who is your favorite space captain?

Native Carolinian

I was watching funny videos at my friend's house and this one came up. I bet him a nutty buddy that these people were from NC. I could just feel it in my bones. I was right. I'm owed a nutty buddy.

Lessons Learned from Spending the day with Austrailians

1. "Being pissed"=super drunk
2. "Having the shits"="Being pissed"
3. It is possible to hire hot tubs in Sydney.
4. A bogan is a hilarious type of person that I don't understand yet.

I love Documentaries

If you loved "Spinal Tap", then you will love "Anvil". It's like "Spinal Tap", but it's REAL

I think I'm a sucker for awesome documentaries.


While I'm on the subject, "Man on Wire" was seriously one of the best movies I've ever seen. (It's also an Oscar Winner if you care about that stuff)


One more. "Encounters at the End of the World". I fell in love with Herzog when I saw "Strozeck" in my German film class, which is another kickass movie.


I'm really busy with life right now. I have my presentation on my graph-theory project tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have any more nightmares.