It's amazing how the more education you get the less you do technically and the more you make presentations.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Word to the wise
If you every have to submit a proposal through a Grants.gov submission budget at least a day of your time to fill out the Adobe package, especially transferring your budget to the special format and subcontractor's budget to the R&R format.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Pick yourself up brush off the dust and get back to work
Just heard back from the Vodafone Foundation regarding a submission to their Innovation Challenge Prize. We submitted strong proposal that included international particpation and a great concept. With over 100 submissions they are whittling it down the top 3.
Unfortunately with a hit rate of 3% chances are, well 3%. We made passed the several rounds of whittling but not to the finals. I'm a little dissapointed because we put a lot of heart into it. Time is one thing, but all things take time. But It does sting a little bit when you give more than just time but some of your real energy.
Maybe next go around.
It's hard not to take things personally. But just gotta brush off the dust and move onto the next one. You can't look at any of them as truly lost effort, because you can always learn something, apply concepts to future work and if anything you got some more practice writing. Yes I'm just saying that to make myself feel better.
Unfortunately with a hit rate of 3% chances are, well 3%. We made passed the several rounds of whittling but not to the finals. I'm a little dissapointed because we put a lot of heart into it. Time is one thing, but all things take time. But It does sting a little bit when you give more than just time but some of your real energy.
Maybe next go around.
It's hard not to take things personally. But just gotta brush off the dust and move onto the next one. You can't look at any of them as truly lost effort, because you can always learn something, apply concepts to future work and if anything you got some more practice writing. Yes I'm just saying that to make myself feel better.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Proposals are like childbirth--> selective memory loss
If it wasn't for selective memory loss the human race would not be here today. Childbirth is a hard thing to go through for both the mom and the dad. Enough so that you'd think that we'd remember the difficulty a little more clear before going through it again. However, selective memory kicks in and you forget just enough.
I think proposals can be the same way. Man they can be painful, and draining, and difficult. But once they are gone, in a little while you're back at it again checking the RSS feed for Grants.gov.
I think proposals can be the same way. Man they can be painful, and draining, and difficult. But once they are gone, in a little while you're back at it again checking the RSS feed for Grants.gov.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Qualcomm Visit
We hosted some guests from one of our industrial affiliates, Qualcomm today. They were on campus interviewing for the internship/co-op career fair. What a tough, exhausting job. They each probably have done one on one interviews with over 40 students, and have had to have sifted through 10x as many resumes.
They might not be a household name to the general public, but anyone in wireless communications knows about them. For some Google is the ultimate place to work but for a lot of our wireless students, Qualcomm is the destination of choice. But as I learned today they are much more than wireless with needs in multimedia and general processor development.
I asked them why they make so much of an effort to recruit when most would stand in line anyway just to have an opportunity to apply for a co-op. Because they make some pretty significant efforts to reach out in terms of hosting talks (with free food) and sending 6+ people to career fairs. Their answer was that they don't want to be just another company. They want to be someone different and a place that draws the best talent. Well whatever they are doing, they are certainly doing a good job.
A tip for those looking to get a co-op. Be enthusiastic and passionate about what you do. If you just take classes you are no different than thousands of others. Join one of the may team projects find a faculty advisor and work in their lab. Companies like Qualcomm want people who know their sh*t and have gotten their hands dirty, made mistakes and have experienced overcoming roadblocks.
I'm a firm believer that you have to do things wrong in order to know how to do them right. That means building things and breaking them and fixing them enough times that you know it inside out.
You can't get that from just taking classes and doing homework. And they want people that can work together in collaborative environments. You can be the absolute best at what you do but if you can't work with someone else then you become a roadblock rather than an asset.
Oh, and learn how to work in both fixed and floating point!
They might not be a household name to the general public, but anyone in wireless communications knows about them. For some Google is the ultimate place to work but for a lot of our wireless students, Qualcomm is the destination of choice. But as I learned today they are much more than wireless with needs in multimedia and general processor development.
I asked them why they make so much of an effort to recruit when most would stand in line anyway just to have an opportunity to apply for a co-op. Because they make some pretty significant efforts to reach out in terms of hosting talks (with free food) and sending 6+ people to career fairs. Their answer was that they don't want to be just another company. They want to be someone different and a place that draws the best talent. Well whatever they are doing, they are certainly doing a good job.
A tip for those looking to get a co-op. Be enthusiastic and passionate about what you do. If you just take classes you are no different than thousands of others. Join one of the may team projects find a faculty advisor and work in their lab. Companies like Qualcomm want people who know their sh*t and have gotten their hands dirty, made mistakes and have experienced overcoming roadblocks.
I'm a firm believer that you have to do things wrong in order to know how to do them right. That means building things and breaking them and fixing them enough times that you know it inside out.
You can't get that from just taking classes and doing homework. And they want people that can work together in collaborative environments. You can be the absolute best at what you do but if you can't work with someone else then you become a roadblock rather than an asset.
Oh, and learn how to work in both fixed and floating point!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
SDR Forum Workshop on Smart Communications in Transportation
The SDR Forum is hosting a Workshop on Smart Communications in Transportation June 18 in Dearborn, Michigan. I'm still trying to work out my schedule to see if I'm going.
My understanding is that some one from ITS America the trade association for Intelligent Transportation Systems is going to be speaking there on the current state of communications in transportation.
SDR is certainly going to have a future in transportation technologies be it in the vehicle or in the infrastructure or both. When Vehicle Infrastructure Integration, or as it is currently known, IntelliDrive comes to fruition the number of individual nodes deployed is going to be staggering. Imagine every major intersection or every vehicle containing some type of communications device. Without some sort of reconfigurable component to them there is no way that a strictly hard devices will ever last beyond the inevitable obselecense built into to the changing world of wireless technologies.
Additionally, regardless of the need to adapt and change, there is the issue of interoperability. While standards are well and good, when you are dealing with so many different 'drivers' pardon the pun, between Federal, state, local and commercial who are going to be involved there is bound to be some differences in large scale deployments. SDR will be helpful in enabling some ability for easy modification.
My understanding is that some one from ITS America the trade association for Intelligent Transportation Systems is going to be speaking there on the current state of communications in transportation.
SDR is certainly going to have a future in transportation technologies be it in the vehicle or in the infrastructure or both. When Vehicle Infrastructure Integration, or as it is currently known, IntelliDrive comes to fruition the number of individual nodes deployed is going to be staggering. Imagine every major intersection or every vehicle containing some type of communications device. Without some sort of reconfigurable component to them there is no way that a strictly hard devices will ever last beyond the inevitable obselecense built into to the changing world of wireless technologies.
Additionally, regardless of the need to adapt and change, there is the issue of interoperability. While standards are well and good, when you are dealing with so many different 'drivers' pardon the pun, between Federal, state, local and commercial who are going to be involved there is bound to be some differences in large scale deployments. SDR will be helpful in enabling some ability for easy modification.
Synergy
I had a meeting with Dr. James (Jody) Neel of Cogntive Radio Technologies (CRT) to discuss some 'synergistic activities'.
Jody's an alum of Wireless@VT and is a force of nature with more things in the fire than anyone I know. Well almost anyone.
I'm always hitting him up for pearls of wisdom for how he gets so much done with his time. I haven't figured out if he's just super efficient or a work-a-holic!
Synergy.. Not just a buzz word marketing speak. As I'm quickly learning around here, there are so so many things going on leading to a myriad of different pathways that draw your time and energy. Jeff is always trying to hammer home that if you ever hope to accomplish forward momentum you have to strive for synergy in your activities.
Sometimes I feel like I'm pinballing a little bouncing back and forth between one fire and another fire without making forward progression, yet still getting tired. But that's not really true because since I've started on this pathway towards furthering my education and expanding my work horizons I'm trying to see the beauty in the journey rather than the destination. And every step, even if it is in a diagnol vector rather than straight forward, still has a forward component.
Jody's an alum of Wireless@VT and is a force of nature with more things in the fire than anyone I know. Well almost anyone.
I'm always hitting him up for pearls of wisdom for how he gets so much done with his time. I haven't figured out if he's just super efficient or a work-a-holic!
Synergy.. Not just a buzz word marketing speak. As I'm quickly learning around here, there are so so many things going on leading to a myriad of different pathways that draw your time and energy. Jeff is always trying to hammer home that if you ever hope to accomplish forward momentum you have to strive for synergy in your activities.
Sometimes I feel like I'm pinballing a little bouncing back and forth between one fire and another fire without making forward progression, yet still getting tired. But that's not really true because since I've started on this pathway towards furthering my education and expanding my work horizons I'm trying to see the beauty in the journey rather than the destination. And every step, even if it is in a diagnol vector rather than straight forward, still has a forward component.
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