Happy Design Wednesday!

No, that is not a new thing. I just wanted a cool name to call me drooling over cool tech online.

Check out the new Bend desk!  Imagine modeling or creating digital art on this thing. Not having to worry about your bamboo tablet not syncing correctly with your screen or having to pen something in then upload it then deal with photoshop not recognizing part of your piece; everything is created in one place.

I want one of these; well....one day when its not so bulky. Until then I will be content with my extended screens and tablet making it impossible to see my desktop.

Cheers,

N. Riazi

Autodesk Education Roadshow

Autodesk Education Roadshow at Yale University

So a month or so ago I had the opportunity to be a part of the Autodesk Education Roadshow. Me and a couple buddies helped build the model of the Rallier Roadster. We got to go out, see the car, and get to know the people who built it and it was an incredible experience. The team is now traveling the US in it visiting schools. Find out when the Roadster will be coming to your school here.


In addition me and my friend Eric got interviewed about the vehicle and about our work on it which you can see here.

I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of such an incredible project. Has the Roadster hit any of your schools yet? If so what did you think?


Cheers,

N. Riazi
Autodesk Platinum Expert
West Regional Manager

I Want That Hair

So I (and every other persian I know) have been overflowing with pride after Bobak Ferdowsi, the Mars Curiosity Flight Director, helped land the rover. I've had the international satellite hooked up while I've been home and every one of my home channels have been raving over him. I personally cannot get over that hair . After the event he has apparently become an overnight heartthrob.

"Instant fame led to a NASA Needs More Mohawks  Tumblr dedicated to him, a rash of online marriage proposals , a string of meme photos of Ferdowsi at mission control, and loads of adoring fan art. " (source)

My favorite meme of these being:

So I just wanted to say how happy I am seeing someone from my country involved in the same field making history. Kudos to you Bobak and best of luck in the future; hopefully that'll be me someday. 

Cheers,

N. Riazi

Values

So if you read my PhD post, I talked about what I value in life. We all value something. But what's different between us is what we hold in the highest regard.

Throughout my undergrad, I wanted to simply find a job within a company, and hopefully, align my values to the companies. But with 3 internships (but basically four), I've realized that you can't do that. Some engineers are lucky, finding a company that aligns with their values on the first try or unconsciously. But your values are part of your integrity, which you shouldn't give up.

Although this is an extreme analogy, Nazi Germany required many people to either surrender or defend their integrity.  Some still defended their values, and were placed in dire circumstances due to their unwillingness to join the Nazis, and some were even killed. We still respect those people 70 years later.

So I've started to make a list of what I value, and some of it is very obvious. Here is part of my list:

• Meaningful work. not copying papers for the sake of copying papers.
• Education. I need to continue learning. And I want to continue teaching and mentoring others.
• Heath of the mind, body, and spirit...it should be encouraged.
• Openness to alternative and interdisciplinary solutions. It really irritates me when other engineers scoff when I talk about social interaction and trends.
• Social encouragement. Others flourish when they have friends and feel welcome. I know I do, and I love to see people excited about the above.
• Building up the next generation. It makes me so happy when I see young kids excited about science...and I want to be part of that mentoring and encouragement.

Those are just a few. Although they seem similar to "what-everyone-values," it's not. Write down your own list. What are you proud of? What gets you up in the morning? What makes you work harder during the 2 o'clock slump? 

Find out what you value, and then find a company. Trust me, you won't become a disgruntled employee (I've met many even in my few internships of experience, haha).

-Serena

To PhD or Not PhD. That is the Question!

I haven't been posting as much lately, and that's probably due to the fact that I'm working full time (AND HAVE WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME!). Hahaha, getting A's in school is much more difficult and time consuming than getting "Good Jobs" at work. I've been watching too much of the Olympics. hehehe

I'm at the end of my undergrad career, and I basically have 1 more engineering class to take which I'm super excited for. It'll be the only main challenge I'll have with an awesome professor I had during Winter Quarter. Other than that...I'm taking stupid general classes, and I'm trying to pick out the most "useful" so I'm not bored out of my mind this fall.

But, actually, I've been struggling a lot with whether or not to pursue a PhD program.  As many of you know, I will be applying in Fall for graduate school.  And I'm thinking of not pursuing a PhD...here's how I did my research.  First, I thought about this blog, where I spill wonderful advice to current or future engineering undergraduates. I figured, "Well there's gotta be a few engineering-female-phd-professor-like blogs out there." Well I found several. And I realized that the PhD (and the later career) is surrounded by data. Creating data, analyzing data, finding more ways to create data. Which, it may be for some...but maybe not for me.

I was thinking about what I value in life... and I've seen myself promoting the creation of something "useful" from that data. That's the whole reason why I became an engineer! Notice: I know having the data is important...but I see myself using it rather than creating it. So therefore, I think having a research background is important. But I've seen the PhD in a new light, and it's re-affirmed what everyone's told me. The lead scientist I worked for at NASA said, "Serena, we need people who can find meaningful information and trends from data." I always saw the PhD as a stepping stone to doing something "useful" with that data. But I've realized...I can do something "useful" now, and the PhD would be superfluous for me.

I'm still on the journey of life...but these are my observations so far. :-D


-Serena

Chicago!

So some of you have probably been thinking dang, Serena's been posting a lot. That Nassim chick is such a slacker. Well, I have an excuse haha. I've been taking summer classes and am now in training for my Autodesk Position in Chicago.

SO much has changed since lat year. Our numbers have gone from 30 to 150. We have 75 here this week. There's one more mech-E girl here! I've also gone from the bottom of the ranking to the top now with my role as Platinum Expert/West Regional manager.

So what do I have to share. I've been getting tons of goodies (maybe we'll do a giveaway!) and been learning new software to come back and share when I get back home. I've toured Chicago Architecture, I've successfully broken my favorite (new ><) bag. It's an amazing experience. I'm also getting two projects 3D printed right now!

Anywho, just wanted to check in, I'll be back with some meaningful posts whenever I get back to my nice California Weather.

Cheers,

N. Riazi

Programming

With my new internship, I've found myself doing something that I never really considered enjoyable...until now. People always asked me, "So, do you like programming?" I was always stunned at the question, because I had taken one programming course (until my Senior year of college), and I replied, "Well, if there's an application, I probably would like it more. Before, the "application" was trying to find a sequence of numbers line up in a certain way, or somehow creating a Christmas tree while using a for loop (which I thought was such a waste of time).

However, this last Winter quarter, I had the opportunity to program more in Matlab. (Now, I understand that "real programmers" don't consider MatLab a real programming language. But it's very useful for some applications.) Basically, we had to model how a spring-damper system would move based on a certain input. For example, viewing how a rider would move up and down based on how-stiff-the-spring-was and how-strong-the-damper-was. It was a lot of fun. We got to model a motorcycle going over a bump (I know it sounds super simple...but it's not.)

For my current internship, the interviewer asked if I knew Visual Basic (another programming language). I replied that I knew MatLab. Basically, he laughed, saying that people (at least in the company) don't use it, but said I could probably pick up Visual Basic for Applications, or VBA.

So my first week at this new internship, I was given a database project using Microsoft Access.  It's like taking Excel to a different level by creating multiple dimensions of relationships between cells. (For instance, a customer is linked to a product, but different customers are linked to multiple (but different) products). So for the last month or so, I've been learning how to program behind Microsoft Access using VBA. My first three weeks kinda looked like picture below...basically, I had no idea what was going on. But boy! Was I grateful to know how to use for-loops, do-loops, the need to define variables/data types...and so on. I didn't need to learn how to program logic. Instead, I could concentrate on the syntax (basically, the specific triggers for the language) in order to create the program.

So next time you're complaining about how-much-you-loath-programming, think about if you would hate it so much if there were a decent application attached to it. You may change your mind. (Not to mention that you may, simply, be required to program...whether or not you like it!)

-Serena