Blogs

culture

Ghouls and Goblins? Well... Not Exactly

Happy (Belated) Halloween!! So it’s Fall term midterms week at Caltech, and what does that mean? That it’s Halloween, of course! What better way to take a break from the grind of classes and exams than to dress up in crazy outfits and have fun with your friends?! Well…there isn’t one so that’s what I did. My Halloween has been pretty busy with a few different things going on, so let’s get started! Well…in my opinion an amazing way to spend All Hallow’s Eve Eve is with your best friend watching movies and eating snacks, so that’s what I did. Dannah and I (read: I) made some pumpkin pancakes to enjoy before having a movie marathon in the Braun “off-campus” house lounge. The movies we selected were “The Break Up” and “Election.” Both were pretty different but entertaining (and NOT scary - I hate scary movies). And of course our snacks were delicious!

By November 2, 2009

local

Just Down the Coast!

OK so I have completed my third interview in one week! It’s crazy to think last Monday I was in Chicago and I just got back from San Diego! Since I don’t have a car, I got there using the train. Amtrak was actually pretty convenient and got me from Union Station in Downtown LA to Solana Beach in Northern San Diego in about 2 hours. And what a beautiful train ride it was!

By October 29, 2009

research

A Hard Day's Night

This term, my weekends are almost as busy and hectic as my weekdays. Despite the fact that I have 2 homework sets due on Mondays, I also have group meetings, dance classes and of course, can’t forget the fun stuff!–it’s the weekend after all.

By October 28, 2009

research

Where's the Gateway Arch?!

So I have recently returned from my second Midwest trip this week - this time to the Gateway to the West: St. Louis, MO. I have never been to the city before, so I was excited to check it out! The school I was interviewing for was Washington University in St. Louis (WashU for short). It’s definitely been difficult to talk with my friends and family about it and tell them that this is NOT the school in Seattle (that’s the University of Washington).

By October 26, 2009

research

There were post-its everywhere...

Hello!! Just got out of E/ME 105 which meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30-4pm. Today we had some groups (including mine) present on their project goals and term objectives. The project I am working on with my team for the term is redesigning a honey centrifuge for some beekeepers in Guatemala so that they can produce more amounts of honey and better quality honey. In addition to improving the prototype, we will also focus on creating a business plan/model that will help them sell their product to an expanded market.

By October 22, 2009

culture

THE YANKEES WIN!!!

As the game progressed and the Yanks dominated, I also had to indulge in a Angels Stadium Hot Dog. In my official Caltech Food Critic opinion, nothing beats the Nathan’s Hot Dogs in Yankees Stadium…but then again, those are almost $10 and this was $4.50. So at least it was worth the money!

By October 21, 2009

local

Caltech in...Chi-Town?

PHEW!! Let me just start off by saying how EXHAUSTED I am! I just got back from a whirlwind 24-hour visit to Chicago! It was my first time outside of the airport in Illinois, so I was excited to see what it was like! Fortunately, in case you were worried about my packing skills, I did succeed in getting everything into my carry-on! My trek began, as many do, on the corner of San Pasqual and Holliston, where the Super Shuttle picks us up to go to the airport. Many Techers use this pretty convenient method to get to LAX or BUR.

By October 21, 2009

research

Career Fair and Interviews

This week has been so busy! We had the career fair on Wednesday—which meant a lot of prepping and revising my resume in anticipation of the event. There were about 60 companies in attendance, each with enthusiastic recruiters and booths stocked with pamphlets on career opportunities and free schwag (is that how you spell it?. Since I am a senior, I took this career fair very seriously and made sure to establish good contacts and drop my resume off to any company that could be potential employers. In the past years, I have been so lucky to have met companies at the career fair, interview with them, and getting hired for full-time paid summer internships (Boeing and Schlumberger). But this time–instead of inquiring about internships, I asked about full-time positions.

By October 19, 2009

culture

It all began this past summer...

Hey there! Welcome to my new blog, a continuation of my old blog: Adventures in Internships.

By October 16, 2009

research

Planning, Packing, Organizing

So I’m heading off to my first interview on Sunday - a bit nervous but also exciting! However, before then I have so much to do! Being a senior isn’t as easy as many would have you believe… First off, there’s my class schedule!

By October 16, 2009

research

Follow my new blog!

Hey Everyone! Thank you so much for reading this blog about my summer internship and travel! I hope you enjoyed it! Follow me on my new blog…“Class in Session: E/ME 105” where I will be blogging about the engineering course I am taking this term. The course is a continuation of the research project I began when I traveled to Guatemala this past summer. In addition, you can read about how I adjust to my busy senior year and get an inside look at what my life looks like when I’m at Caltech as opposed to a working in a different part of the country, or traveling to another part of the world!

By October 15, 2009

local

Moving into Braun

Hey everyone! Sorry it took such a long time for me to post–I have been super busy moving into my new room and beginning my senior year at Caltech! My month at home in San Diego was the best! I spent a lot of time with my family, celebrated my birthday, and got to relax after such a hectic summer. I even got to help out for Caltech undergrad recruiting by visiting some high schools in San Diego—including my high school, Westview High. All in all, I really enjoyed myself.

By October 2, 2009

global

The End of Days in Japan

Asuke

By September 25, 2009

research

Exploring Antigua

It was back to Antigua for us for the rest of our trip. We spent the days driving to the work sites to work on our projects, and the nights going out in Antigua.

By September 24, 2009

global

Last Days in Japan

Origami

By September 23, 2009

research

SURF Paper

I’ve mostly finished my SURF. By this, I mean that I’m no longer being paid. The thing about research projects, I’ve discovered, is that they never really end. You can always do more experiments, or refine your data, or go in a new and different direction. It’s one of the jobs of the professor in charge to call a stop to the work once there’s enough to publish.

By Dan Obenshain September 20, 2009

global

Last Weekend

Nishiura

By September 20, 2009

research

Rocking Out

The adapters that I spent so long getting were immediately put to good use. One of my friends had just bought a copy of Rock Band 2 (marked down because of the new Beatles Rock Band), somebody else had a XBox 360 we could use, we borrowed some controllers, and the house had speakers and a projector. It’s a bit like stone soup, if you remember that fairy tale, but we made it work.

By Dan Obenshain September 18, 2009

culture

Ixichme ruins

We left our campsite at Lake Atitlan by boat back to Panajachel. We were smarter this time and took three boats instead of only two. We did some shopping around the tourist market in Pana before packing ourselves into cars to see Mayan ruins.

By September 18, 2009

research

Mes derniers deux jours pres de Paris

Despite having work, my last two days in Paris were awesome.

By Anton Bongio Karrman September 17, 2009

global

Getting Cables or A Tour of Pasadena

The other day, I wanted some cables. What I needed were two 1/4” Stereo Male to RCA Female adapters, so I could hook up an X-box to the house speaker system.

By Dan Obenshain September 17, 2009

global

Around Aichi

Tokoname

By September 17, 2009

research

The Rain Really Makes My Day (Journey to Osaka)

Osaka Osaka is the “Anti-Tokyo”, as one would put it. That would make it the Anti-Anti-Okazaki, huh. Anyways, Osaka is the second largest city in Japan, and is famous for its laid back attitude despite the large-city feel. There’s also a ton of things to do there.

By September 15, 2009

research

Visiting the Sister

While I was home, my parents and I took a trip up to visit my sister at college. She’s a freshman at Carnegie Mellon and she had just finished her second week of classes.

By Dan Obenshain September 14, 2009

research

The Last Parisian Hurrah...

So picking up where i left off! That Sunday was a wacky day… I, yet again, was out until sunrise _ Regardless, I still managed to arrange a picnic with some friends (thank god for cell phones); they were Kerry and Katie, the MITers, and we had a delicious little lunch at Luxembourg Gardens.

By Anton Bongio Karrman September 14, 2009

research

Projects in Pasajquim

While we were camping by Lake Atitlan, we also took some time to visit Pasajquim. Pasajquim was the small village that hosted Caltech & Landivar students last year. Paired with the Caltech Y, the E/ME 105 class last year stayed with the families in Pasajquim and provided work and service to the small community. So we went back to visit the people and look at the improved stove that was built, and also test some projects for this year.

By September 14, 2009

global

Nagano

Gifu and Nagoya

By September 10, 2009

global

Gifu and Nagoya (Short Post)

Disclaimer

By September 9, 2009

research

Europe, je t'aime, mais il faut dire au revoir.

I am writing this as I sit in my room at Ecole Polytechnique intermittently packing my things. My plane will take off toward the fire engulfed city of LA in about 7 hours. I miss my friends. I miss my family. And I miss Paris and the people I got to know here, my new friends, and heck I haven’t even left yet. I’ll recap a bit of my final Parisian hurrah…

By Anton Bongio Karrman September 8, 2009

culture

Camping at Lake Atitlan

After lunch that day, we got ready to leave Panajachel in boats for our campsite on the other side of Lake Atitlan.

By September 8, 2009

global

A Hectic Day

Program Details

By September 4, 2009

research

Station Fire

Just a quick note about very relevant current events. Last week on Wednesday, a wildfire started a few miles away from JPL, up the Angeles Crest Highway. This ‘Station Fire’ has since grown to be huge. The main JPL campus (on Oak Grove) was closed over the weekend, and the fire line got quite close to here over the weekend – within a mile or so. But that part of the fire boundary was contained, and the active burning is not so close to the main JPL campus anymore, so it’s out of direct danger. Still, the Oak Grove part of the lab was closed for most people (like me) on Monday because of air quality concerns.

By Sedona Price September 3, 2009

global

Cuanto Cuesta?

Our huge group of 20 left Antigua at 6am to drive an hour to the Solola Market and the town of Panajachel.

By September 3, 2009

research

Now it's time to go, curtain's finally closin'

They say that time flies when you’re having fun, but this is ridiculous! I feel like I just showed up in Paris yesterday! Boy has a lot happened since I saw you guys last… Most notably I did the huge Eurotrip that any American traveling this continent really must do. Most people do tourism throughout this trip, but not me! Haha my plan was a bit more complicated (and in my opinion, fulfilling!) than that :D So why did I scurry around Europe for 12 days? The direction of my trip was motivated by several things, including opportunities to see some of my favorite musical artists perform, getting to know certain regions through the eyes of the people who live there, meeting up with tons of my family members, and even finding beautiful places to relax and do a lot of nothing! :)

By Anton Bongio Karrman September 3, 2009

global

First Day

Orientation

By September 3, 2009

research

Tour of JPL

On Wednesday, 12 August, during week 9 of the normal SURF period, Varoujan led the Astronomy summer student coffee group on a tour of JPL. Why so late? Well, at least one of the viewing galleries we were going to visit was closed prior to that, so late is better than never! And at least for me, my time out at JPL only led me to visit a couple of buildings, and none of the ones with the cool viewing galleries. So I was excited to see new things.

By Sedona Price September 1, 2009

culture

Visiting workshops and partying one night in Antigua

Hey everyone! I’m finally back in the states after spending 9 days in Guatemala—what an adventure! I didn’t have any substantial access to internet or time to blog—so I will be blogging about my travel from the comfort of my home in San Diego.

By August 31, 2009

research

The Surf Shop

When I came to Caltech, I had never surfed before. It was always something that I wanted to do one day, but the beaches in Maryland are crowded and the waves aren’t very good. So, I had no experience surfing and no idea how to start. Luckily, Caltech has a Surfing and Windsurfing Club.

By Dan Obenshain August 31, 2009

global

Arrival

I’ve just arrived at my living quarters in Okazaki.

By August 31, 2009

research

Data!

My SURF took quite a bit of work at the beginning, getting everything working. We built our whole system from scratch, so nothing actually worked until several weeks in. Now we have a working system! Currently, we only have one working client, a laptop in my SURF mentor’s office. We have ten of the accelerometers, though, so we’ll soon have more clients. The day after I installed everything for my mentor and got it running he came back with a list of improvements he wanted, so that will keep me busy! Our server had a bit of trouble towards the end of last week. Because of the construction in Annenberg, the power was going to be switched off, so we had to shut it down overnight. Unfortunately, the only people with root access to the server were in Norway for a conference! So, we had to turn the machine back on first thing in the morning, then wait for them to finish eating dinner (since they’re nine hours ahead), sign in, and set everything back to rights. Then the next day, do the same thing again! What a hassle! No matter. The SURF students working on the server side of the project whipped up a snappy little application that puts the data received by the server onto a Google map. Now we can see it all the way from thumping on the table to showing up as a dot on the map. Very gratifying.

By Dan Obenshain August 31, 2009

research

Finally, A BETTER ENZYME!!

By August 27, 2009

global

Introduction and Pre-trip Post

**Introduction** My name is Tony Z. Jia and I’m a senior double majoring in Chemistry and Business, Economics, and Management at Caltech. For the next month or so, I’ll be blogging about my experiences in Japan. I would first like to thank the Caltech Fellowships and Study Abroad office, which has graciously offered me the Dr. Amasa Bishop summer study abroad prize. Anyways, I will be going to the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki, Aichi, Japan for a Japanese language and culture program. This program has a classroom component where we will learn basic language and culture. There is also a practical component, where we will sit in on or learn various Japanese cultural customs, such as the tea ceremony or sumo wrestling. I’ll also be going on various trips, both with the program and independently. Thus through blogging, I hope that all the readers will be able to get a glimpse into the life of a Caltech student in Japan. I’ll also be attempting to post pictures onto Panoramio every few days (Panoramio allows you to place a picture at a specific location on a map, so you all can see where all of this is taking place). It’s here: https://www.panoramio.com/user/2916748/tags/Japan under photos tagged Japan.

By August 27, 2009

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