1. Candidacy Exam:
What is this exam you ask? Well, let me put it this way. You can not get a PhD without passing it. With that said, you do not get a PhD once you pass it either. Basically what it does mean is that when a student passes it, said student is considered to be a doctoral candidate. In my program the candidacy exam involves about a two and a half month long process which includes : a) writing a 20-page grant proposal on an original research hypothesis that is unrelated to the student's or the student's lab's actual research. This proposal of course includes, the hypothesis, background information, significance, experimental design and alternative approaches. This proposal is then b) turned into her graduate committee for evaluation where she is either passed (with no revisions, minor revisions or major revisions or failed) and then the student has 4-weeks to c) re-vise and prepare for an oral exam at the end where she d) defends her proposal and is asked any questions her committee feels like asking. Sound like fun? Well, it wasn't. But I had my final oral examination this last Thursday and passed. I am so glad I do not have to do it over.
2. New jobs and side projects
Moroni recently started a new job at Chase as a supervisor (currently supervising 0), with really great opportunities to move up and expand his opportunities. He also attended the MobileX conference where he was one of four people chosen to present an idea he had for a mobile application. His idea (which I think should have won) was a mobile meter that measures the energy usage in the home. This application for your phone, would allow you to set energy limits and you would have an alarm to alert you when you had exceeded this limit. Eventually you would also be able to control energy sources from your phone as well (e.g., appliances, thermostat, etc.)
3. Snow
Well, the snow is finally melting. But I think we literally had at least a foot of snow on the ground for the last two months. Now we can finally see grass but there are still piles of snow all over the place and lots of sand everywhere! Basically it was record snow fall for Columbus this year! And I hated every minute of it.
4. Half-marathons and biking
I have committed to run a half marathon. I thought I should blog about it so now I can not back out :) Just kidding. I don't think I will. It is in May, and Sarah and I are doing it together. I started running again this week for the first time, really, since summer! It was painfully horrible but no pain no gain I guess. While training to do a half marathon I am also going to be biking on the off days to be ready for the century ride coming up in May. This year I think I may do the Pelatonia as well, but am unsure since I have to raise $1500 dollars for that one (all proceeds go to cancer research). Shoot! Now that I am writing about this I may as well do a half iron man! (I think it is a one mile swim, a 13 mile run and a 55 mile bike ride...peace of cake!)
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