RyanHarne.com

With the spring semester in full … swing … I am once again immersed in research objectives. Last semester was based on acoustic localization methods but this time around I am working on noise cancellation. Similar to the techniques utilized by Bose for their Quiet Comfort headphones, I am in charge of a portion of a project where I must actively cancel out engine noise without the convenience of having a error-correcting microphone in the mix. This has been done before but is protected under the watchful eye of the USPTO, so my solution has to be novel and ignorant of the past successes in the field. In actuality, many people at VT know how to do this, several within the very lab I work in, but I have opted to struggle along with this new area until time constraints encourage my begging for assistance. It’s far more fulfilling to solve a problem under your own diligence, even if it has been solved a million times before. (Why learn calculus in the modern world of computers? Self-satisfaction, that’s why).

So, that’s how I’ve begun dissolving into academia this semester. Cycling is taking a prominent stage, but certainly not my focus. Were the weather kinder, I’m sure I would be on the bike more, but an hour+ at the gym is enough for me while the temperatures remain at freezing or below. I have hardly lost my love for cycling, but I am not willing to put myself at risk of further frostbite if it is unnecessary. My paychecks in the future will come from somewhere other than UCI, I’m certain of it. I hope to be a weekend group rider, in my later years, who can smoke the invincible freshmen attitudes and put a stopper on their hopes of le Tour. They’ll thank me later for that wake-up call.

And, finally, on a totally unrelated note, I’ve discovered that I enjoy the click of an analog wall clock. Mine isn’t even telling the correct time, but the regular tap of the second hand is more than enough soothing normalcy to make up for the misinformation. What a great Tuesday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 6:18 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.