Socially Networked
This amusing anecdote is the logical confluence of a couple of things:
-My house (off campus, no pets till you're an upperclassman) has a very popular cat, so we made a facebook page for him so that his fans could keep tabs on him and tag him in photos.
-Anthony Monaco has been working hard to reach out to the student body through social media.
-My housemates and I are silly college students and at some point we decided it would be funny to have our cat friend the president.
Given the demands of his job, I'm not at all surprised that Dr Monaco hasn't noticed that one of his facebook friends is a feline; I only hope that I don't disrupt their digital relationship by posting this.
Porters with PHDs
There are some perks to being a professor.
The other day I was walking out of lab in the basement of Anderson Hall (the engineering building) when I saw a couple of mechanical engineering (ME) graduate students walking the other way carrying large stacks of books. I didn’t think too much of it – there’s been a lot of shuffling going on in the basement due to the construction of the newly-completed Environmental Sustainability Laboratory, but as I turned the corner I saw that far from being lone movers, the students I’d just seen were merely the advanced guard of what I can only describe as a circus parade of students and staffers carrying bits of equipment, pictures, office supplies, and many many more books.
I asked one of the students what was going on.
“Chris Rogers is moving into his new office,” she replied.
Chris Rogers is an ME professor who specializes in fluid mechanics, robotics, music, and engineering education. He is the founder and director of the Tufts Center for Engineering...
Hearts Chocolate
Like many young people (perhaps a disproportionate number from the fields of science and technology), my relationship with the recent romantic holiday is somewhat apprehensive. I don’t mean to say that I’m luckless in love, or that my Valentine’s Days have been perennially poor, but the idea of having one day so very focused on romantic love doesn’t quite appeal to me. Sure, later in life an annual celebration of one’s (presumably stable) relationship status must be nice, but with the romantic volatility at this stage of life the holiday is a bit of a tossup – and as a scientific individual I must question its methodology.
Imagine a student returning from winter break only to be dumped by a long time significant other. Alternatively, imagine a different student suddenly finding themselves embroiled in a fiery romance mere weeks before cupid’s cameo. In both of these situations, the snapshot offered by Valentine’s Day would be a poor indicator of broader romantic trends. I therefore...
All's Fair in Love and Prank War
One thing that can get frustrating in engineering school is that all the coursework tends to feel somewhat removed from reality. Because students need to be able to complete their assignments in a reasonable amount of time and their solutions need to be somewhat uniform and grade-able, engineering homework and test problems will often be very narrow and/or unrealistic. For this reason I think it’s beneficial to pursue extracurricular projects related to engineering, both to solidify concepts learned in class and also to remind oneself of the usefulness of the information. While there are a variety of such activities that students can and do engage in, perhaps none are more entertaining or satisfying than messing with your friends.
One of the guys I live with enjoys waking up in the morning to the smooth intonations of NPR personalities. As such he has a radio alarm clock permanently set to the local public radio station. Unfortunately he is an early riser, the walls of our house are...
Breakfeast of Champions
The end of a semester of college seems to always be a stressful time. I don’t know if it’s because students sign up for too much, because professors want to teach more material than they have time for, because big final projects are inevitably all due simultaneously, or simply because such a substantial portion of one’s GPA is determined over the course of a week or two. I suspect it’s some combination of those factors, but the end result is ultimately the same: salty snacks, serial all-nighters, copious caffeine consumption and a general disregard for health and hygiene.
The end of a difficult time is traditionally recourse for partying, however because students finish with their scholarly duties at all different times during finals period, semesters tend to end with a whisper rather than a bang. For this reason I feel that it is important to deliberately punctuate the closing of a semester with a celebratory event. In the spring at Tufts we have our Spring Fling concert, and in the...