http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/ en Copyright 2009 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:41:51 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss October is going to be a really busy month for me, with a lot of stuff going on in BESS and NBSE, and this upcoming weekend I'm taking some time off to go to go away for the weekend with friends. The trip should be great, but it's requiring that I work 10 hour days this week, and 11 hour days Tues-Wed next week, and go in to work on the "off" friday next week. Last Saturday I went to the exhibition hockey game. Matthews Arena was just renovated and it looked great! The new seats, even in the student section were a lot better than the old ones and it even made for a little more space for that awkward situation when someone from the middle of the row has to get out past 8 other people. The Doghouse (student section) was nearly full, and it wasn't even a regular season game, I'm really excited about starting to go to more games that I have in the past. One thing I had missed from high school was the sense of schools spirit, but I guess I just wasn't in all the right places, Hockey games are certainly the right place for that. Also on Saturday BESS participated in a NSBE program called A Walk For Education, they'll be happening throughout the country this month, since October is NSBE's Technical OutReach Commmunity Help (TORCH) month. AWFE is a program where we walk through a community to distribute information about the college admissions process, local colleges, and financial aid. Here at Northeastern we also supplemented that with information about our other TORCH programming including a registration form for the computer classes we teach on Tuesdays. Last night we started the classes and for the adult computer literacy class, we had barely enough seats and have had some people call in and say that they couldn't make yesterday but they still want to come to the rest. It was really exciting to see that our classes were so well perceived and that our efforts to get more participants, including walking in the rain on Saturday had worked so well. I'd also like to thank the staff at the Madison Park Development Corporation for their help in spreading the word about the classes. Now I'm off to work, which is also going really well, but also really busy. As always, feel free to ask questions! http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/10/a_great_start_to_a_really_busy.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/10/a_great_start_to_a_really_busy.html Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:41:51 -0500 So the first week of classes and meetings is done and everything is settling into a nice rhythm, much less hectic on campus lately. Last week BESS had our first program of the year, Guaranteed 4.0, a seminar open to the entire student body about good study skills and habits, and our first General Body Meeting. At the meeting we introduced the eboard, played an icebreaker game, and introduced the core mission and goals of the organization. We're still going strong with a large community service program in October, as well as resuming our regular classes that we teach and hosting the New England Zone Conference. I'm excited for our last big recruiting event of the fall tomorrow, both the African American Institute Open House and the College of Engineering Freshmen Night. The Institute Open house has all of the Black Student Orgs with tables set up recruiting as well as food, fun and games and it's really a great event and a good time. It's a good start to showing how welcoming and supportive the Institute is and helps create a smaller close community within the large university. Freshman Night is mandatory for all COE freshmen as a part of one of the intro classes, but it's a way for them to meet upperclassmen, learn all about the Engineering Student Organizations, and there's raffles all night long! Well I have a conference call to continue preparations for the Zone conference in a few minutes so I'm off. If you have any questions, even if it's not about anything I've mentioned, feel free to ask. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/09/week_one_done.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/09/week_one_done.html Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:07:36 -0500 Two members recruiting new members. At our table with the Programs Chair, Janae. Thursday we had our first BESS event of the year, the kickoff to our Freshmen Mentoring Program. We had Ice Cream and just hung out, teaching the new potential members about our organization and giving them tips to navigating NU. Today we set up a table to promote our community service program, Technical OutReach Community Help (TORCH) at the Back to School Peace Concert in Madison Park. It was a really nice afternoon, despite the rain keeping everything indoors. There were a bunch of different resources for youth in the neighborhood with tables set up, a barbeque, and numerous gospel performances. We were able to talk with members of the community about the courses we teach and get some feedback about what might work to increase attendance in the adult courses. We also made connections with other organizations offering services to the same neighborhoods, so we can promote our events better and help each other serve the community.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/09/another_year_has_begun.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/09/another_year_has_begun.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:32:15 -0500 new year/ move in I got to see the new dorm last week, International Village. I was only there for a quick tour by a friend who lives there because we both had places we had to go, but It was still nice to see. The building is 22 stories tall and from the top floor the view is spectacular. In other news we're getting ready for fall now. Everything that was under construction over the summer is opening up with fresh new paint and carpet it lots of different offices. BESS is getting a new office in Ell hall with other Engineering student groups too. At the beginning of the month we were trained for the upcoming year at the NSBE regional Leadership Conference and some members of the Eboard also attended the College of Engineering Leadership Retreat. We're all ready for the fall. I'm also excited to move back to campus, living at home was kinda nice at first but I definitely miss my friends. The commute will be a little long, but I love my job and everything I do with BESS is fun too so it's worth it. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/08/almost_fall.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/08/almost_fall.html Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:03:56 -0500 I started my coop last week and so far it's great. I like the people I work with and the work I'm doing is really interesting. I've learned a lot so far and now I'm getting to contribute more in terms of writing code, testing stuff out in the lab, and contributing to demos and presentations. The group I'm in does really cutting edge stuff and then we show it off to the rest of the company for other groups to decide where and how they can use the different "building blocks" that we've developed. Also the company, BAE Systems, has a lot of summer interns so for the rest of the summer the other coop and I get to participate in those programs. Yesterday we got to go on a tour of the microwave electronics center in another facility nearby. They told us about how they fabricate all of the specialized chips and electronics for the rest of the company and we got to see (through windows) the clean rooms and equipment. Another great thing is that we get every other Friday off by working 9 hours instead of 8 Monday - Thursday, so I've had all day off today to just appreciate that it's finally a nice sunny day, not raining like it has for most of the summer so far. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/07/coop_has_begun.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/07/coop_has_begun.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:05:56 -0500 My last project for my writing class is due in the morning. All I have to do after this is my reflective portfolio and then I'm done with all of the requirements outside of my major. The next two years I get to take classes specific to my major or minor exclusively. My Microwave Circuits and Networks class is my first technical elective and I really like it because it's much more focused and applied to real world things than school has been most of the time up until now. Plus, with a technical elective instead of a required course the professor is almost always teaching something that aligns directly with his/her research. This professor is so much of an expert that instead of answering a question that was slightly off topic in class one day, he told us that we could look it up in the library, by searching his name. He's also really concerned with making sure we understand the material so offered us a choice of one of three take home finals for extra credit. We still have to take the final at the scheduled time, but he'll count these more if we do well on them. Because we can use a computer to do the calculations, a take home exam can be much more realistic than an in class exam. One of the options was to evaluate the power distribution from an antenna that was designed to be placed on a building, specifically how much power would be transmitted into the building. We are actually able to make the problem fairly realistic now, taking into consideration the construction of the building and how much that would sheild the residents and determine if the antenna would be safe for the people living in the building. The second exam is a three layer coating designed to absorb transmitted power and we have to determine the frequency range for which it is most effective. This type of coating has been used to coat planes for stealth operations to make them not appear on radar systems. The third exam is to read a journal paper and validate and confirm some of the results. This is someone's state of the art, new work, and it's exciting to be able to actually understand and reproduce their same results. After finals next week, I'm moving home for the rest of the summer and I start my coop in two weeks! http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/06/finals_again.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/06/finals_again.html Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:51:45 -0500 The past week I've been really busy i with my next project for Middler Writing, a mulitgenre research paper. Incorporating the other genres makes it a little more interesting, but at the fast pace of summer classes it's still pretty tough. Two weeks ago I participated in the last outreach program of the year, with a bunch of high school juniors. They came to campus for a day of activities and demonstrations in various engineering labs throughout the campus. As a student volunteer all I had to do was walk them from session to session, but it still gave me an opportunity to talk with some of them about NU, college, and engineering. After that I went home for Memorial day weekend, which was nice. I got to see some of my friends from high school Friday and then I joined my family at the lake on Saturday. The weather wasn't great, but Monday I did get out in the kayak for my usual trip up the lake, about 10 miles round trip. Now I'm going to get back to my research paper. I want to get it done before the weekend so that I can have a break, especially since some of my friends from other schools are back at NU for summer programs, and I only have two more weekends on campus until September. I'm excited about a break from classes for coop, but I'm still a little concerned with moving home since I haven't moved off campus in over two years. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/06/the_past_week_ive_been.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/06/the_past_week_ive_been.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:17:31 -0500 This is actually my third summer on campus. My first summer after college I went home for just a month before I began my research program, and last summer I didn't go home at all before I started working at Mass General. This is however my first summer with summer classes. Since classes started May 5th, today was the first day that I didn't have a writing assignment due. Granted, some of them have been drafts, but something is due basically every day in that class. Today is the 10th day of classes and that means the semester is already a third of the way over. Normally a third of the way through the class is a little over a month, but in summer it's just a day more than two weeks. Overall classes are going pretty well, thought the faster pace is something to adjust to. The weather is finally nice again today too, after raining for a few days. Unfortunately in the past week, both the Celtics and the Bruins lost in game 7 of playoff series, so there's no more chance of having all the craziness of a championship this summer. We'll have to wait until fall. BESS is back in full planning mode for the upcoming year. We've set dates and booked rooms for a lot of our major programs and we're currently strategizing and developing all of the supporting materials to recruit new members in the fall. Next week we're going to plan out our fund raising strategy and goals for the year and develop the materials we use to solicit for donations. It's been tougher to get donations recently as companies are pressed for funds, so we have to get our requests out early to be included in their budgeting process since managers are less likely to have large budgets for programs that come up later in the fiscal year. Now I'm off to do a little bit more homework before my afternoon class. As always, feel free to ask questions! http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/05/summer.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/05/summer.html Wed, 20 May 2009 11:58:55 -0500 Presenting my poster. After the CenSSIS Site Visit with the NSF I went to a Red Sox game with some friends. The game was rain delayed by an hour but it was still a good time. I have to admit until now I hadn't been a very good New Englander... that was my first Red Sox game ever. Being in Boston, we're just a 10 minute walk from Fenway, so even when it started raining as we started walking back it wasn't too bad. The day after the Site Visit I went on a Duck Tour with the students visiting from University of Puerto Rico. I've taken a few days to relax, done a little work and and gone to a graduation barbeque-turned Celitcs watching party since finals ended and now I'm getting ready to start the new semester. I'm taking the advanced writing class that all students are required to take and a technical elective for my major, Microwave Circuits and Networks. I haven't had a writing class since freshman year so it should be interesting to have to write for an English professor again, its pretty different than writing lab reports for engineering graduate students. The Microwave Circuits & Networks class looks like it will be pretty good, the professor wrote the text, and he hands out detailed lecture notes which are pretty clear to supplement the book, so I'm not too worried even though it's only a 7 week term. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/05/summer_at_nu.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/05/summer_at_nu.html Sun, 03 May 2009 16:46:38 -0500 It's officially finals here at Northeastern, and it's nearing the end of your time to make a decision. With the nice weather too, it's been really busy around campus the past few days. People have been out studying on the quads and the admissions tours have been full all the time. We also just had elections for BESS, I'll be president starting next week after our current president graduates. Last week we also won Community Service Organization of the Year at the Student Life Awards. My exams start tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday CenSSIS has guests in town for the Site Visit, where a team of NSF evaluators come and check up on the center and make sure that the grant money is producing quality work. Last week the other student I work with and I put together our poster to present there Wednesday afternoon. After the day of research presentations & the poster session, we have a closed student meeting with the NSF team, and then we're going to Jillians for a group outing. This is a great opportunity to meet the other students in the center, especially those at RPI and University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. As you're making your final decision feel free to ask questions. Last week I got a question asking about how to get a merit scholarship, so here's an answer: Most scholarships that Northeastern offers are offered to you with your acceptance letter. All students are automatically considered for the university's merit scholarship programs. If your aid package doesn't include any that doesn't mean there's no chance. Always look around at home for more help for your first year, a lot of towns have scholarships that are available to people graduating from high school. You can also talk to financial aid if your situation has changed since you initially filed your forms. Another thing to remember is that what you're awarded upon acceptance isn't necessarily all you'll have the entire time your here. If you can do well in your classes once you're here more scholarships are available, especially if you have financial need. Also one financial difference between Northeastern and other schools is the coop program. The fact that Northeastern is generally a five year program doesn't mean that you pay more tuition, you still only attend 8 semesters worth of classes, just like any other bachelor's degree. However, in those breaks when you're not in classes, depending on your major, you could be making a good amount of money, and if you live at home while on coop you can save a lot of that money to help pay for school when you get back. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/04/crunch_time.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/04/crunch_time.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:06:20 -0500 I recently got a comment asking if courses are accelerated in order to have time for the coop terms, and if there was a lot of pressure to keep up with the work, and I’d like to use this post to address that question. Coop rotations at Northeastern work out so that we have an almost normal academic calendar. We are on a semester schedule, but most students spend five years at Northeastern to complete a bachelor’s degree and 3 six month coop assignments. We have fall and spring semesters that run September to December and January to April, and two short semesters in the summer. When you start at Northeastern you are assigned to a coop division that determines when you go on coop and when you are in classes. I’m assigned to the division that has coop in the July - December and classes January – June. The exact patterns vary slightly by different colleges and departments, but I can describe how the pattern works for engineers. Freshman year everyone takes classes both in the fall and in the spring and then has the summer off. Sophomore year everyone takes classes again in the fall semester. In January half of my graduating class then went on coop but I stayed in classes until the end of April. I then had the option to have May & June as a vacation, but chose to start my coop job early and worked until December. Currently, in my middler (third year) I’m in classes for the spring semester and I will be taking classes again in Summer I (May & June). I’ll do my second coop from July to December of this year, then classes January – June of 2010, work July – December 2010, and then my final semester will be Spring 2011 and I’ll graduate in early May. This adds up to seven regular academic semesters, and two summer semesters. Since summer semesters are half as long, a full load is two classes instead of four, so that is a total of 8 semesters worth of coursework, the same as a regular four year program. Even though it is spread out over five years you take the same number of classes and pay the same amount of tuition as a standard program. Our semesters aren’t accelerated to fit in work terms, but our vactions are limited. The only vacations I have left for the rest of my time at Northeastern are the Semester breaks (2-3 weeks in December/January and 1 week in April/May) and Spring break. In the other division people get 2-3 weeks in December/January and about 2 weeks in August for their semester breaks, and most do not get to have spring break. I hope this helps. In other news, last week I attended the National Convention of the National Society of Black Engineers in Las Vegas, NV. The chapter won National TORCH Chapter of the year, for our outreach project in a local public internet center and Region 1 Chapter of the Year for our overall accomplishments and reporting of them. I'll post some pictures soon. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/to_answer_a_question.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/to_answer_a_question.html Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:30:53 -0500 Admissions decisions are being release and I'm sure many of you have been accepted here as well as plenty of other places. Where you decide to go is a big decision that can be pretty tough. As someone who used every bit of available time to make that decision, who is also about to have to chose between offers for coop, here are some of the things that helped me chose. Everyone always says to look at financial aid, and it really is an important factor. Not only does it effect your finances after you graduate, depending on how many loans you need, but it really will effect you immediately. If you can get away without needing to work crazy hours, college can be a lot more fun and less stressful. At Northeastern, most students go on coop, and while pay varies dramatically from major to major, at least in engineering we are generally able to make enough on coop to pay for at least all expenses while on coop and room & board when back in classes. Living at home while on coop allows you to make an even bigger dent in your expenses while in classes, though its not something I've chosen to do. The most important thing I would say is a visit, but not just with admissions. Admissions representative at every school are always going to sell the school in a predetermined strategic way, that's their job. Make sure that you visit the academic department that you're interested in. Faculty and students that host admissions guests are still going to be trying to sell the school, but probably in a more sincere way. When I visited I went on lab tours in my department and that was what sold me. Every other school I visited, showed a few things here and there within engineering, but none brought us into a lab and had us actually working with stuff. They also had students show us their capstone projects (major design project for seniors in engineering and some other departments). It was these interactions that really sold me on the school. You can tell when someone is telling you something scripted, and when they're truly really excited about it. Right now I'm trying to decide where to go for coop. I went on two interviews, and I've gotten offers from both of them. I've already decided that I will take one of these two and I've canceled the other interviews that I had tentatively scheduled. As I make this decision I have to weigh the locations, one is closer to campus, and the other is closer to home. One is a biomedical engineering position, and I'm leaning towards the biomedical industry long term. The other is defense, but completely unclassified, fundamental communication system and signal processing. One I'll get to see more of the whole function of a company, and nontechnical stuff that an engineer has to deal with, and but the other I think I will gain more technical skills. I wish you all the best in your decision and hope that I can make mine before I leave for a conference on Wednesday night. Please feel free to ask questions, I'd love to help you make your decision. I've found talking with other people to be one of the most helpful things to do. I look forward to hearing from you as you make your decision. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/tough_decisions_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/tough_decisions_1.html Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:52:15 -0500 The next month is looking a little crazy. In addition to my normal full schedule of classes and meetings with homework and research squeezed in between, I now have to fit in interviews for coop too. With the economy how it is many people are worried about jobs, but for the most part in Engineering our advisors have been able to place everyone, some people were placed late, but the advisors assured us this semester that some of the late placements were the fault of the students more than the economy. Right now for Electrical and Computer Engineering there are 225 jobs posted. More will continue to be posted as our coop advisors are constantly looking to secure more positions. It's nice to be in a department where jobs are available, especially with the economy how it is, but it doesn't make it any easier to fit interviews around class, meetings and homework. Additionally tonight officially marks the beginning of the Student Government Association President Direct Election Campaign period. I'm working on one of the campaigns so over the next few days there's a lot to do to get the website (http://www.foxfornu.com/) and facebook group and stuff all launched. Feel free to look around and let that inspire you to come up with any questions you may have. We'll campaign for the next three weeks and voting begins March 25th and is open until the 31st. Basically everything here is just running along smoothly and the year is actually not too far from over. Finals start in just 5 weeks, as scary as that is. As always, feel free to comment or ask questions. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/the_next_month_is_looking.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/03/the_next_month_is_looking.html Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:57:36 -0500 Instead of a regular BESS meeting last week we had some members of the Tuskegee Airmen come and talk to us. One of them is an NU engineering alum, and actually was a student of one of the current Deans of Engineering. They talked with us for a bit, showed a video and then we had a question and answer period. They told us about what motivated them to be pilots in the war, even when the country they were fighting for didn't treat them fairly here. They also talked of the shock of leaving the military, when it was desegregated but Jim Crow laws still ruled the rest of the country at home. The last few things they said was the same things our grandparents always tell us. They told us that we could do whatever we wanted, and emphasized not letting the fact that there are so few of us in Engineering hold us back. This weekend was open houses for early action students. Each college had its own assigned day, and COE was on Sunday. I was at the table for BESS from 10-12:30 in the Lobby of Snell Engineering during the activities fair that COE hosts at all open houses following the department presentations. After that I went to the reception for minorities and women in engineering. I got a lot of questions about my minor, even from the students instead of just the normal questions about logistics and stuff from parents, so I've decided to share a little bit of what they asked. So my minor is in Biomedical Engineering, which is offered by the Electrical and COmptuer Engineering Department. The College of Engineering also offers a Biochemical Engineering Minor in the Chemical Engineering Department and a Biomechanical Engineering Minor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Each of these minors includes classes that are technical electives within the respective departments in addition to traditional science courses. For example I need to take at least either Biomedical Electronics or Biomedical Signal Processing towards my minor. Each minor also requires a course or two in the Biology Department, Biomedical only requires anatomy & physiology, the others both require general Biology as well as Anatomy and Physiology for Biomechanics, and Genetics & Molecular Biology and Biochemistry for Biochemical. As far as additional courses, the biomedical is the most broad. We are required to take 2 electives off of a list that includes classes from Biology, Physics, Speech Language Pathology, Psychology, Cardiopulmonary Sciences and Physical Therapy. This allows us to focus on different areas within Biomedical Engineering by selecting the classes we are individually most interested in. Finally all three minors require that the capstone design project has a biomedical/biomechanical/biochemcial focus. If you came this weekend leave a comment and let me know what you thought, or if you have any other questions, feel free to ask as always! Also if you come to an open house later in the Spring, look for me. I'll most likely be around during the COE activities fair or the ECE dept. meeting. http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/02/open_house.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/02/open_house.html Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:07:24 -0500 It's midterms time!! The entire month of February is midterms around here, especially since some classes have 2 exams, like my physiology class. We had the exam last week. It was the first multiple choice test I've take since my AP exams in high school. It had to be because it's a 150 person class, but it was still a lot different than the exams I took all of last year with 3-4 problems for a one hour exam. It's also really busy with everything else around here. Admissions decisions are being sent out so open houses are coming up. BESS had a major fundraiser last Friday and another one coming up. In March BESS, SHPE(society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) and SWE (Society of Women Engineers) host our annual Joint Recognition Banquet. We're busy now selecting awardees and getting invitations ready for everyone. Finally with the CenSSIS SLC, we had our first event last week, and yesterday I went over to BU to recruit from there since BU is a partner school in CenSSIS. Now it's time to go be on a panel for middle schoolers to learn about college & then class for the rest of the day. Feel free to ask questions, and if you're admitted to COE find me at the open houses! http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/02/its_midterms_time_the_entire.html http://blogs.targetx.com/neu/SarahBrown/2009/02/its_midterms_time_the_entire.html Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:21:26 -0500