holy moly, it's been nearly 3 months since my last post! woops.
basically, i finished school in march. before starting my job, i went on a 5-week vacation, visiting:
basically, i finished school in march. before starting my job, i went on a 5-week vacation, visiting:
- BP in seattle
- kazi at berkeley
- sheley in indonesia
it was a great time, and i think i wrote about some of this in past posts. during this vacation time, i also rewrote my entire master's project and re-submitted it to my adviser. he loved it. that made me happy.
in june, i moved to boston. it's small, but i'm trying to make it cozy and make it mine. as previously mentioned, it's $1600/month, has a parking spot, washer and dryer, and is in the heart of boston (beacon hill). after 4 trips to ikea, i'm finally pretty much done furnishing it :-) i'll post a video of it later.
as for my job, i love mit lincoln lab. i cannot imagine a better place for me. i interned here last summer, so i had an idea as to what i was getting myself into. but, i'm now further convinced that this is where i belong.
short version, i love it because:
in june, i moved to boston. it's small, but i'm trying to make it cozy and make it mine. as previously mentioned, it's $1600/month, has a parking spot, washer and dryer, and is in the heart of boston (beacon hill). after 4 trips to ikea, i'm finally pretty much done furnishing it :-) i'll post a video of it later.
as for my job, i love mit lincoln lab. i cannot imagine a better place for me. i interned here last summer, so i had an idea as to what i was getting myself into. but, i'm now further convinced that this is where i belong.
short version, i love it because:
- im researching and developing ai and data mining algorithms
- unique opportunities and applications of the work
- industry jobs would require me to have phd in order to do anything remotely comparable
- the environment/atmosphere
- it's challenging
- benefits are great
long version, i love it because:
i am on 2 projects: (1) face recognition; (2) stream analytics. both are in its infancy, and are VERY small teams. the work includes ai and data-mining-related algorithms. i love it. that's what i went to grad school for.
also, it's not just a code development job. MITLL is a FFRDC (federally funded research and development center). so, research is a large role. that's awesome. i am essentially tasked with doing stuff that i wouldn't have the opportunity to do anywhere else, unless i had a phd and a strong publication record. so i just saved myself from wasting like 3+ years of my life. yet, the stuff i learned in grad school is part of the stuff i work on and read every single day. i am really glad i took the classes i did. oh, and the application of our work is really cool, too. our sponsors are some pretty cool organizations :-)
the environment is kind of like a glorified grad school environment. i am in group 62, "information assurance." the group has many people and is essentially divided into two halves: (1) speech; (2) networking. i am the only person who has a project on each side of the group :-) everyone's office door is always open. it's understood that everyone is responsible and will work 40+ hours. with this, the hours are pretty flexible. people sometimes come in to work a few hours late, work from home occasionally, etc. don't confuse this with slackness. the employees are smart and definitely get work done. some of the people in our group are highly well-known, and a couple have written textbooks. the group consistently ranks well in world-wide speech competitions. it's a great environment, and it's challenging work that i enjoy.
i'm becoming more acquited with boston, and i look forward to knowing it more.
sheley is visiting next week! i can't wait.
i am on 2 projects: (1) face recognition; (2) stream analytics. both are in its infancy, and are VERY small teams. the work includes ai and data-mining-related algorithms. i love it. that's what i went to grad school for.
also, it's not just a code development job. MITLL is a FFRDC (federally funded research and development center). so, research is a large role. that's awesome. i am essentially tasked with doing stuff that i wouldn't have the opportunity to do anywhere else, unless i had a phd and a strong publication record. so i just saved myself from wasting like 3+ years of my life. yet, the stuff i learned in grad school is part of the stuff i work on and read every single day. i am really glad i took the classes i did. oh, and the application of our work is really cool, too. our sponsors are some pretty cool organizations :-)
the environment is kind of like a glorified grad school environment. i am in group 62, "information assurance." the group has many people and is essentially divided into two halves: (1) speech; (2) networking. i am the only person who has a project on each side of the group :-) everyone's office door is always open. it's understood that everyone is responsible and will work 40+ hours. with this, the hours are pretty flexible. people sometimes come in to work a few hours late, work from home occasionally, etc. don't confuse this with slackness. the employees are smart and definitely get work done. some of the people in our group are highly well-known, and a couple have written textbooks. the group consistently ranks well in world-wide speech competitions. it's a great environment, and it's challenging work that i enjoy.
i'm becoming more acquited with boston, and i look forward to knowing it more.
sheley is visiting next week! i can't wait.
