Entries this day: Fred's_Statement_of_Purpose d'oh kanji_test silly_trip upstairs_party zzzz_fuck

Fred's Statement of Purpose

6:59pm JST Tuesday 6 January 2004

I'm really impressed with, proud of, and excited for my brother.

From:    Fred
Subject: My application essay is finally done.
Date:    January 6, 2004 9:20:28 AM JST
To:      sop@robnugen.com

Fred Nugen
Statement of Purpose

Over the past year, I have come to realize that no questions of a
mathematical nature have held my attention for more than a few months.
Engineering problems, on the other hand, have filled my mind for
years: vehicular traffic, building and programming robots, and, most
recently, the use of engineering models for predictive medicine.  
It is for this reason that I ask to change my graduate major from
Mathematics to Mechanical Engineering.

I have already earned Masters of Science degrees in both Mathematics
and Mechanical Engineering, and I desire to study Mechanical
Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in the Doctor of
Philosophy program.  My outside funding, my extensive engineering and
mathematics studies, my computer programming skills, and my teaching
experience make me a valuable asset to your program.

Last Fall, I assisted Dr. Thomas Hughes (ICES) in preparing a
preliminary National Science Foundation grant under which I will be
funded.  The grant is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research, and
should last one year.  Other funding will follow.  The research will
create the first patient-specific mechanical and geometric model of
the human heart: the model will take MRI and other imaging data of a
patient and simulate the mechanics of his heart, showing the blood
flow through its chambers from one beat to the next.  With this, a
physician will be able to view her patient's heart, comparing
different interventions on the computer, watching the predicted
behavior.  The ability to explore multiple solutions is fundamental to
choosing the best one.  Surprising as it seems, however, this concept
of predictive medicine is novel for the medical community.  Previous
work in predictive medicine by Dr. Hughes was well-received, and the
project should grow for many years.

Dr. Hughes and I have had good success finding outside interest on
this project, including collaborators from the Stanford Medical Center
and the Bio-X program at Stanford University, the Department of
Cardiovascular MRI Research at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
(Houston), the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice
University, and the Simula Research Laboratory (Lysaker, Norway).

To prepare myself for doctoral work, I earned a Master of Science
degree in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, studying
nonlinear control theory.  I studied Lyapunov stability, linearization
by state feedback, perturbation theory, and applications of these.  I
also studied analog design, fluid mechanics, sensors, and vehicle
dynamics.  I have spent two years in the doctoral program in
Mathematics here at UT, studying analysis, complex function theory,
dynamic systems, and kinetic theory of fluids.  Last August, I passed
the Preliminary Exam in Analysis.  To date, I have taught nine courses
at the level of Assistant Instructor, from Algebra to Calculus.

My pure mathematics background has taught me to dissect complicated
systems carefully, create new methods to solve problems, and
thoroughly test my results---all of which are essential skills in
engineering design.  Moreover, with this background I will add
diversity to the program, viewing problems from a unique perspective.
I have studied mathematics and engineering from many different
aspects---theoretical, computational, and practical.  This gives me
unique insight into the interplay of engineering with other fields,
enabling me to combine both effectively.  In particular, my experience
will better allow me to present results to members outside of the
engineering community, and the contacts I have developed so far give
me a head start into doing so.  If accepted into the doctoral program
at UT, I intend to pursue a faculty position at a university, where
these contacts will form the basis of collaborative networks of my
own.

I want to put my talent to work in the Mechanical Engineering program
at UT-Austin, a lively program with eminent faculty.  Given the
opportunity, I will add to this environment, making important
contributions to the design and application of engineering medicine.

d'oh

2:32pm JST Tuesday 6 January 2004

Computer hung last night after doing an update; it was 95% done optimizing the disk all night long. I'm at Apple now with 裕子 and about to download fink. Today was way productive in terms of laundry and studying. Awesome.

The cat here at Apple just Forced Quit the app and everything was fine. But since it was a system update and the system was otherwise partially responsive, I didn't want to do that.

裕子 said she won't be too bored here for a bit, but I wonder.

- - - -

Okay, that's freaky. On emacs it shows Yuuko's kanji correctly, but on my site it's messed up. I don't know if that's a function of me having uploaded the page here from Apple, or a function of the page having been written after the update. Verrry strange. I'm tempted to go back to the Genius Bar to ask them.

kanji test

2:38pm JST Tuesday 6 January 2004

test ゆうこ　裕子 test finish. Arigato. ありがとう

Nevamind. The page is fixed now.

Both of them.

silly trip

6:04pm JST Tuesday 6 January 2004

"This is a silly trip."

I taught 裕子 the word 'silly' a while ago. Right now we are on the 埼京線 (さいきょう line), waiting in 大崎駅 (おおさき station), the last station of this line. Wow cool music just before the doors close. And we're on track 7 in this station. :-)

So anyway, this is the mysterious line that I found in the bowels of 渋谷 station yesterday after my lesson with 由美。

On the way to this train, 裕子 and I repeatedly rode the bouncy moving sidewalk up and down the hall, maybe ... 5 times I'm guessing. Fun(ny) stuff.

That's when I taught her the word silly.

A weird thing though is the last station of this line is not all that far away, just two stations. But the map in Shibuya shows about 30 stations extending both directions from that platform. Obviously there's more mystery to be unraveled. Later. Or never; whateva.

7:00pm

We took the train back through Shibuya to Musashi-Urawa, which is in the next prefecture. Pretty long trek. I asked the station guy how much it would cost to go to Shibuya, and then Yuuko asked him in Japanese and he was like, なになになになになになに and I'm like, "what?" and Yuuko said he said we should go through the turnstiles (and pay the price before we know what it is *and* have to pay the same price to get back to Shibuya) and I'm like, "no way jack" and we didn't. But I can look up the price so nyah nyah.　(tsk. only 380 yen each way; I thought we went *forever*)

On the way back we took the Express train (zoooom) and we got seats. Money.

upstairs party

2:14am JST Wednesday 7 January 2004

Went up to Lubo and Tim's room with Dan and hung out with them and the girls from upstairs (Jen, Orivia, Grace (who knows Mandarin, Cantonese, English and some French and some Spanish)) for Lubo's birthday party. Mostly the girls just looked at pictures of drunken festivities on Lubo's computer, and I'm like, "err?" I've got 3000+ photos of cool shit and they'd rather look at a bunch of drunk people? Well, there it is.

Makes me wonder if ... then I realize no; I like myself better this way.

zzzz fuck

1:30am JST Wednesday 7 January 2004

Fuck this I fucking hate my journal.

Gr.

But I'm thankful that I have the tools to talk about things.

Thankful that I have someone worthy to talk to.

2:11am JST Wednesday 7 January 2004

I thought about erasing my entire fucking journal. everything. Fine you don't like this entry? Well how do you like zero entries? Fuck off.

But I recognized that might not feel like a good idea after doing it. So, instead, we communicated real thoughts and feelings.

For well over an hour.

Makes me wonder how any other woman can possibly stand a chance.