WPI

Welp, I’ve been accepted to start my M.S. and eventually start my Ph.D. at Worcester Polytechnic Institute this fall! I will be studying fire protection engineering, a continuation of my bachelor’s degree. The school is populated with just under 4,000 students and it is a private engineering school. Not only does this school house one of the top fire protection engineering programs in the US, but the faculty and their work align closely with my values and passions in life.

The big move will look something like this in 8 weeks:

Some cool info about the school includes the fact that Robert Goddard went there and graduated in 1908 – he was the gradnfather of modern rocketry with the first liquid fueled rocket. Also, the fire protection engineering department has about 150 masters of science students and 4 (!) doctoral students. This is quite the opportunity I smell.

What I did during the summer of 2008

So far this summer I’m being funded by UHD as a last request to make a catalog of fire models for various textbooks. The work is very refreshing and I love to work when I learn much more than I expected. Another cool side effect of this work is that I can include the FDS models and example writeups on my website, free for anyone else in the world to see and learn from. The technical writeup is located here and it gets updated automatically anytime I change a single word in there. Eventually it will have links to FDS files for FDS users and students around the world to download and use on their own – I love technology.

FDS MESH Size Calculator tool

Finally, to finish off a nice post about fire protection engineering and FDS: I updated my FDS Mesh Size calculator on my other website to include some awesome and never-before-done functionality! It now takes in x, y, and z dimensions and an expected heat release rate and gives the user three MESH lines (coarse, moderate, and fine) to guide them on making an FDS file that has an adequately resolved MESH.

The tool can be found here on my FDS/sciency website and the nice folks at NIST gave me a link on their third-party tools page of the FDS website: http://fire.nist.gov/fds/thirdparty.html

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I know I post out-there stuff like this on my blog here sometimes, but this is what is on my mind and taking up my mental cycles and daily days. Jump in and read the linked pages or play with the tools of my creation!

It’s raining pretty hard here, the rain that lets you know that the earth is still here. I have been thinking a lot lately. Even the past two days. Which I haven’t been working much in the past two days, or crossing off things from my GTD to do lists. Just being.

And in that I find confusion, like the mind wasn’t made to think without a pen and paper. It just walks repeatedly in circles.

University of Maryland. Maybe not. Mountains in Virginia. Culture in DC. My favorite research firm down the street. Maybe not. Damnit.

The other university in Massachusetts. I realize that I need mountains and a motorcycle season and a season of deep relationships and culture. That I am not the person who thrives on just one branch of life, but a life of Renaissance. All of the arts come together, the sciences. Traditional and new age. What’s next then?

An internship at a place like Google? Teaching at UHD for a few years? Work at an actual job? Who knows. Questions bring more questions, and that’s usually a comforting thing for me. Except when it’s real.

A draft of wind just blew by from the Northeast direction of the water-soaked sky. And it smelled deeply of endearment. Of where I should be. Where Every Part of Me Wants To Be. And the next breath smells of the past. The air is cool and full in my lungs; they can think too, you know.

My lungs are full, but nervously anticipating what is to come. They know. The heart knows. But does the world know?

“We need to find a balance.” The phrase of a lifetime.

During my odd and exciting lifetime, I have been paid to put out fires. I have been paid to prevent fires. I have been paid to provide warning and detection against fire. I have been paid to model fires. I have even, as of recently, been paid to talk about fire (in fire dynamics and fire modeling courses).

But today sets an important milestone in my life as a fire science student. Today was the first day in the 22 years of my life, in which I was paid to set something on fire. Not that money is everything, no not at all. My point is that my value is being successfully transferred to others and it is through a medium that I have found works for me – professing.

What am I saying? Excellent question. Earlier this afternoon, I performed two trials for my first fire validation experiment. The experiment involves burning ethanol in a rectangular pan and measuring the mass loss rate as the fuel is consumed and translated into heat energy. Following this burn, I will create a representative fire model, input the appropriate material properties, and compare the mass loss rates and see which parameters worked, what they were doing, and why.

This is validation work at its heart. Verifying and validating if what I see on the computer screen in front of 20,000 lines of code and man-made programming can accurately represent this natural process that sits as a burning pool of ethyl alcohol in front of me, combusting as it did twenty-thousand years ago. And it burns out, my pan is empty.

Sounds exciting, no? It always goes back to fire dynamics and the relationships of nature that we are exploring everyday, and there is never a dull moment for me in that. It gives me a working motivation when staring at lines of code for hours and flipping through five books that are each larger than a casserole pan as I hunt for a single number to describe how much energy will be required to convert a gram of polyurethane into a gram of something that I can burn. So yes, this validation work is sort of like what I did this summer at NIST during my fellowship. Even then, this is very insightful as it provides practice through a fundamental and practical exercise in applying the scientific method, basic fire dynamics, chemistry, and many other subjects and concepts that I am merely a newbie to. These realizations are what make this scientist The Artful (and Applied!) Scientist.

So, do you remember when you translated your beloved subject or area of life into a real value for others to peruse and cultivate from? Then, do you remember when that value finally revealed itself in a monetary shape or form? Finally, like a scorching meteor of thought, something clutched your mind as you realized that you could do what you love all day, have enough money to keep doing what you love all day, and get to experience the ever-so-missed opportunity to live out what you love one-hundred percent – each and every day. You do remember, don’t you?

I just consumed perhaps the best homemade taco meal ever made. Thanks , of course to a Texas-style care package that my lovely friends Marcos and Jose sent over. I opened this mysterious 30 lb. box only to find it filled with old-school Lone Star beer, classic taco seasoning, a pound of tortillas, Lucas, and then some. Delicious! You guys rocked my soul with that care package.

A lot has happened even with only 7 days left. I spoke to a faculty member who works at the University of Maryland (UMD) and NIST, as he came to meet with me regarding graduate studies in fire protection engineering. He heads up the FDS research there, apparently at the #15 ranked research school in the nation. That makes my head warm like a toaster. UMD has been eons more responsive than the other school than I am considering, and its funny how an hour and a half meeting can rearrange your whole view of a lifetime. This happens to me more often than I can even dream up. So, next week I will be visiting the UMD campus and get to meet the fire superstars and plentiful brainy resources there.

Will I be feeding my brain with fire in Maryland or Massachusetts in a year?

On a much more easy to stomach scale, as far as this weekend goes, I have just been catching up with some administrative stuff. Getting ready for some fall courses: to take some and to teach some. Perfect. Also, I’ve been preparing the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Student Chapter for a rockin’ semester. Writing out words and words about fire, FDS, community, teaching, fire, cables, cables on fire, and soybeans.

But wait, getting ready to move into a new house is another thing excitedly looming in the humid August air! A thinking room therein will contain a huge black chalkboard, fire books staring over my shoulder – waiting to be written from, a large window facing West to take in the cool orange sunlight in the evening, three colorful pens for editing, and enough paper to contain my thoughts for a year. I can’t wait, Ami and John.

Of course, transitioning into this means that there are some friends that I will be whisked thousands of miles from after I leave here, Gaithersburg. You remember that friend that was so amazingly insightful and inspiring to be around, that friend from four, maybe five years ago? When was the last time that you – yeah, it’s kind of like that. A mindful, overhanging death of a micro-era. Celebrate it with delight – the life edition.

Finally, my presentation is next week, so perhaps I should get to it. 15 minutes to leave my ding in the minds of a powerful few. It was a respectful privilege to do what I did this summer. 1000 pages of thought and exploration can only pinpoint what that thing was.

This summer really has had no price tag. So much development came from thousands of seen and unseen places, much like the making of a sweet, sweet, simple taco dinner.

I had an amazing Wednesday last week, and it is these days that make the trip up here worthwhile so much more than simply the project that I am working on. Like a waterfall of information lapping down into a vast blue sea, the opportunities light a bright and exhilarating path.

I visited a smoke detector laboratory where they perform detector activation experiments:

I got a chance to meet with the Executive Director of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers:

And my co-advisor accompanied me along the way and was extremely insightful as he shared some tips that will make my future ride in life sure to be a must-read story. It’s exceptionally nice to have people who are in a great position recognize the potential in you and to assure you of their confidence. It makes my brain spill happy juice to be told that I “get it” with respect to the bigger picture of things; and that is what will cause a single person to alter the world as we see it and make it a better place. Feynman comes to mind. And then goes.

Why get worked up with the small annoyances in life when there’s… this.

Sure, I am working on stage 2 of a cable failure model using fire dynamics simulator (FDS) research, and the best part:

• I get to act out the day-to-day life of a NIST FDS worker
• I wholly appreciate the resources here, such as the macronormous computer cluster and teeming fire literature
• I meet and immerse myself into the brainy and non-stop academic world of fire ‘people’
• My wisdom takes in the important and cutting-edge topics and gets familiar what doesn’t matter, which is usually more important than what does

Now, let us just hope that I can effectively take all of this back with me to Houston in 1.5 weeks!

Time is winding down here like a trickling cold spring. I already have feelings of missing the summer rapidly being replaced by the joys of the exciting fall semester coming up real soon.

After the summer, I’ll wholeheartedly miss:

• the community of nerds
• the few amazingly mental and livingly appreciative friends that I’ve made here
• the free golden breakfasts and dinners (seriously)
• the lack of humidity and the cool, crispy delicious mornings
• the vacant worries about so many obligations – the vacation-like atmosphere
• having the top fire scientists merely a few feet away to talk to and learn from
• peeking through the vast fire science library – like no resource that I have seen before
• the ability to SSH into a sea of 40+ linux computers to calculate my FDS curiosities
• sitting by the pond having lunch with a dear friend, dear deer, geese, and a shady tree in the breeze

This fall, I explodingly and excitedly look forward to:

• sharing what I’ve learned here for the rest of my life, scholarly and real-life related
• getting to teach classes!
• learning more and more about Fire Dynamics Simulator and the beauty of the dynamics of fire for the rest of my life – I’ve only been working with FDS for a year now, after all, I know nothing…
• the sickening number of trips, and thus, experiences that I will be able to take around the world
• growing with the dedicated students at UHD who wish to be something in the fire protection world
• writing non-stop all week long
• meeting more and more progressive people in the world
• moving into a new house and making the most mentally conducive, fire studying, brain leaking, progressively thinking, and soul soothing place in my universe
• wondering how the weather will be in Massachusetts in a year
• having a comfortable amount of money to perform my goods in life

It really has been a fantastically mind-expanding experience. It’s not over yet! I still have two projects to work on, a presentation to give, a paper to publish, a lab notebook to fill, and many more days and nights to grow.

Also, I am bursting for Wednesday to come, when I get to visit one of the coolest and most robust smoke detector laboratories as well as the headquarters for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and meet the director and such!

If you ever wonder what else you can do in life, take a moment to just start writing what you are thinking.

Where is halfway on this never-ending journey? Nonetheless, I have about five weeks left here, and if they were anywhere as amazing as the first half of my time here, well then this exceeded my expectations by about 482,000%.

The things I have learned pertinent to my studies have been astounding, but there has been so much more. Friendships, community, and resources that I can never forget.

Oh, in case you haven’t seen, here is a picture I took here a few weeks ago when walking home from the bowling alley on a rainy day:

The weekend has been good so far, very relaxing after a busy week at work. Well, busy bursts of work.

Finally, of all things that I have learned here, I have learned that I do not think that I would like to be a pure researcher. I don’t think that it would be for me to work at NIST. Granted, I am working with the people who do research and development on the number one project in my life, but I feel like my job is to teach. The life of a professor seems much more fulfilling to me.

Not to say that the summer is wasted, at all. I learned more about Fire Dynamics Simulator and fire research than I would have in years without working this fellowship. I just want to share the ideal that sometimes experiences will let you know what you don’t want to end up doing in life, and that is just as valuable as anything. I love experiences.

This has certainly been a life changing summer and a great part of my life so far, and considering the short length of time, I’d say that is pretty amazing. Time that would have otherwise flown by at home and dissolved into daily routines and overlookings.

I had an incredible weekend as AMi came to visit. I just left her at the airport a couple of hours ago and watched her fly back – heading 2000 miles home. We had very full, exciting, and vivacious days that make you happy to be alive wherever you are.

She was able to meet the quirky and great people here that I call my friends, do a lot of walking around Gaithersburg and DC, and chillax by the grill at night in this lovely weather that they have been experiencing here.

The week was certainly packed full of night frisbee, quirky social gatherings, delicious grilled food, a touch of good beer, lots of fun, oh and a ton of good productive work done by me. I’ll be sure to post more stuff as this week will be a bit more wound down.

Week four is coming soon! Ami is going to be visiting me this coming weekend: can’t wait! See you soon!

I added a few new pictures to my Google Picasa Web Album. You can see them by clicking the link below or anytime by using the link on the right side of the pages.

From NIST SURF 2007

Coming this week! Pictures of the robot that my roommate is working on, pictures of the autonomous Hummer that drives around the NIST campus, and the NIST boat! Stay tuned and have a great week wherever you are.

Today I did the ASSIST Evaluation at the Aberdeen Test Center, which is a military proving grounds. It was sweet. I volunteered to participate in a field experiment involving soldiers and facial recognition and real-time processing software. They also test high explosives on site, and you can hear/feel the bomb and artillery detonations from miles away. Inadvertently, the bomb explosions every ten minutes were definitely the coolest part of the day. That was very weirdly soothing.

I got to play an Iraqi student and a soccer player. All in all, very cool. I also got to hang out with my peoples and play ball and stuff.

I also got to think quietly. Waiting in very long lines can sometimes force one to do this. It is those quiet times that come that make you wonder what it is that you are doing in life. Loving? Thinking? Socializing? Living like an animal day to day in this world? Why do I do this or why don’t I do that. How am I living back at home?

THESE are the things that I am thinking. What do I do here in Maryland that I LOVE that I totally ignore at home? How can I change them? Should I change them? After going on and on about how this is the perfect community and all, why not change things? Here are a few of my notes on my progress, thinking, and whatnot:

WRITE MORE:
I love to write. Writing is my thing. I scribble, blog, doodle, technically write, etc. I love to write. I love to think. I must tie these things together better. By writing more, I can say things better. I can use the right word, just like my favorite authors write up thought processes. This comes with lots and lots of practice. Years even. Write letters, books, manuals, essays,etc.

By writing more, I think better, and become more interesting, which feeds the other values. I can have a tangible life. I can have output things that others can read and think about. Writing lives forever. WHO writes? Not many people do. That doesn’t mean that I can’t write. I can love deeper. I can express myself in weird poems to technical manuals. Everyone can read.

READ less:
Why less? I can’t take up ALL of my time, input, and thinking by reading about it! I have to write about it! I have so much stuff in my head, let me get it out there. Admittedly, this stuff came from reading a lot, but I am referring to where I am NOW. I can also read less as to not overwrite my passions. I push to avoid redundancy. How many books have I read about time management? Am I effectively managing my time?? Then why another book about time management??? And, by reading less, but very pertinent books, I can of course build vocabulary and in turn not overwrite or define my experiences with too much reading. Very important for me.

SOCIAL MORE:
Social life is definitely a huge thing here in my experience so far in NIST SURF. Point-ful socialization is a big part of every big thinker and successful person’s life. However, letting intellectual thought overtake your social interaction can break that very point. As one person (Proust) said: he does all of his intellectual work within himself and he doesn’t let that stop him from talking to anyone, as will I follow this wise concept.

I do this now, but I have to remind myself of this ever so important fact of social being. Also, socialization should be very open. It should be your closest physical friends that you can share ANY idea or opinion and get good feedback from. Not necessarily knowledge, but the sharing of experiences can be highlighted here. Onto comfort. This is important so that you aren’t filtering your thoughts and mind at any level because you are nervous or hesitant. And finally, platonic. You may or may not have a platonic relationship with someone. Not with your parents or significant other, but a good, platonic, true friend or friends. Platonic in the sense that Plato meant it. Not shallow, but a relationship that extends beyond the bounds of physical and even the mental world. One of spiritual closeness.

LOVE MORE:
Following on with the idea of socializing, then comes loving more. How can you love more? And why? It can be very different for everyone. Spending real time with your loved persons is key. Real, free, true time together, with no regrets, no appointments, and no obligations. Just fun life experiences. Funny how you learn that only when you are away from your loved one.

VARIETY MORE:
This involves sports and new people for me this summer. Play a new sport, go outside more, and meet new people. Of course, it’s easy in an environment of forced socialization. I’m in a hotel with over a hundred similar young students who are up for that kind of randomness. How then in the real world? Simple: do more stuff like that! Join a group, find that person that you need, and communicate. It really is simple, but I don’t do it enough at home. This is one of those times that I just say to do it. Get out there. Don’t ignore your other obligations, but do more to expand, every day. It’s hard when you have routines, too. It’s also hard to share good wisdom about improving this area because this is a largely self-motivated part of life, but one that gives the biggest and best results.

Well, that is where I am for now in the areas that matter most to me. These 2.5 weeks have been a fantastic part of my life.

Thanks for listening.