I met my advisor, Dr. Schrimpf today for the first time and so far everything seems good. He is a lead professor in the Radiation Effects group at Vanderbilt. For those who do not know (Currently I would put myself in this group) the group that I will be working with studies the effects of radiation (from the sun or otherwise) on the world of microelectronic devices and circuits.

I was pleased to find out that my advisor seems to be a real down to earth type of guy. He is able to hold a conversation and has a personality. I know that seems strange, but I think that it is absolutely an important trait for a professor to have. If I am unable to relate to a professor, it could make it excessively difficult to work with him on a daily basis. All that being said, we moved on to talking about what I could do for my project. It seems that the group is looking for someone who can fill the role of CS/Comp E. guy to do simulations and work on VAMPIRE, Vanderbilt’s Beowulf cluster. This seems promising, but I am going to try to keep all my options open at the moment! That was mostly it for our conversation. In passing we briefly talked about his many contacts in France. He mentioned that in the future it could be possible for me to go over there to study for a semester or two. I’ll defiantly keep my ears to the ground on that one! Free trip to Europe!!! Wee!!

All in all I have a good feeling about all of this. I am going to get the opportunity to learn more about EE. I feel like this will really round me out as far as the geek factor goes. By adding in EE knowledge I will be somewhat knowledgable of CS’ish programming topics, Comp. E’ish things like microcontrollers, assembly, drivers, and Computer architecture and lastly EE will fill in the gaps of things like how to build power circuits, how to put together circuits to accomplish a goal, and of course how they all work. All in all I am very excited to be where I am at.

One last note before I wrap this up. I feel much more happy here already than I ever did at NI. Not to fault them any, but I already feel like I have more freedom, am surrounded by more knowledgeable people, have much more opportunity to expand my knowledge, and am in a healthier environment. There are certainly interesting times ahead for me!