Today (actually the last few days) I embarked on something new - media releases.
QUT news story
I've always been the type to be annoyed by mainstream/popular media. Sensationalism, misquoting etc - it all annoys me to know end. And the fact that the lack of education of most of the population (often through no fault of their own) is preyed upon to make money in that way just makes it worse.
So all this flooding is of course actually quite sensational, but nonetheless, they still try to make it even bigger. "areas as big as nsw" flooded, "one in 100 year flood" etc. These are the types of lines that get used. Everyone wants to feel that their life, their story, their situation is important, newsworthy. I understand that. But the 1 in 100 year thing really annoyed me - this is even dangerous. I've actually heard people say that they aren't worried because we've already had a big flood. Or worse still that they won't take any notice of the BOM or the police because we are having "another 100 year flood" so obviously they don't know what they are talking about and aren't worth listening to. So this news story was born.
An interesting part of the process was finding out how the actual text comes into existence. I'm sure it isn't always like this but this was my experience. I wrote a one page rant first of all and sent it to QUT media services. Then I had a chat on the phone with someone from their and then a new version of what I wrote came back. It had been changed into the style of an interview - quite weird to see your own words requoted back at you. Then a couple more iterations and a couple of corrections and then release to the world.
Good news is apparently some outlets including AAP have picked up on the story so it might start to float around the same media I am secretly whining about soon!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Day 68-69
This will just be a short post. It's basically a flag to myself in that I am going to promise to deliver something here and hopefully that will keep me to my promise. I've started to teach myself optimal control for ordinary differential equations. That is, looking at solving systems of ODEs which involve some "control" that is involved in some other quantity that we wish to optimise in some way.
For example, say we have an exponentially growing tumour (#cells is x) being treated with some drug (concentration u) such that the governing equation is
x'(t) = ax(t) - u(t), x(0)=0.
Say that drug is also harmful to healthy cells as well. Then we might wish to minimise both the tumour size at some endtime (T) and also the effects over time of the drug. eg:
min { x(T) + \int_0^T u^2 dt }.
So basically I'm looking into optimal control theory for such problems. It doesn't look too horrific actually. I tried looking at this years ago when I did my postdoc (my boss had published some papers on optimal treatment of tumours) but it was over my head. Now I think I can actually understand some of the material that's available on the subject and I think I can write about it myself.
The plan is to write some short notes on the topic that are understandable and make them available here soon (next couple of weeks). Then y'all can let me know what you think. yay :-)
For example, say we have an exponentially growing tumour (#cells is x) being treated with some drug (concentration u) such that the governing equation is
x'(t) = ax(t) - u(t), x(0)=0.
Say that drug is also harmful to healthy cells as well. Then we might wish to minimise both the tumour size at some endtime (T) and also the effects over time of the drug. eg:
min { x(T) + \int_0^T u^2 dt }.
So basically I'm looking into optimal control theory for such problems. It doesn't look too horrific actually. I tried looking at this years ago when I did my postdoc (my boss had published some papers on optimal treatment of tumours) but it was over my head. Now I think I can actually understand some of the material that's available on the subject and I think I can write about it myself.
The plan is to write some short notes on the topic that are understandable and make them available here soon (next couple of weeks). Then y'all can let me know what you think. yay :-)
Friday, December 24, 2010
Day 65 - update
Things are coming together nicely!!! Some simple matlab-ing has led to some simulations that suit the needs of the paper perfectly! Outstanding!
Day 64-65
I went to bed last night at about 10.30. This is quite usual since the coming of Dan Jr. I don't tend to stay up late much at all for work or any other reason. Anyway, I sat in bed for about 30mins before realising I wasn't going to sleep. Ideas and mathsy stuff was running through my head - so I got up and started doing some work. I did a fair bit of work on the stability analysis (of steady states) for my 3 PDE model of Chlamydia infection model.
I decided that the work I did a few days ago was for an overly complicated model - I didn't see the point of having both an exponential death term (remnant from a previous version of the model) and a logistic growth term...so I've dumped the death in favour of the logistic growth. This also (of course) has the effect of somewhat simplifying the analysis/algebra for the stability work.
One of the great things about this place we live is the glass doors that I can use to write on...basically big enough to work like a blackboard. This is great for doing algebra and messy stuff that you want to scribble out and over the top of - like stability analysis and nondimensionalisation etc. It looks difficult to read, but it's actually ok once you focus. Particularly at night it is good to work with too.
So anyway, I worked on this until about 4am this morning which is basically unheard of for me these days. I really only went to bed then because I had hit the end of the algebraic work and I thought to bust out some matlab to start doing simulations and numerical work at this stage of the night was getting kind of ridiculous. I really should have kept going though - I felt fine waking at 7.30 this morning, so I'm sure I'd have survived.
Anyway, more tonight - I think I can finish off the draft of this in the next couple of days or so.
I decided that the work I did a few days ago was for an overly complicated model - I didn't see the point of having both an exponential death term (remnant from a previous version of the model) and a logistic growth term...so I've dumped the death in favour of the logistic growth. This also (of course) has the effect of somewhat simplifying the analysis/algebra for the stability work.
 |
| A little 3am mad scientist action. |
So anyway, I worked on this until about 4am this morning which is basically unheard of for me these days. I really only went to bed then because I had hit the end of the algebraic work and I thought to bust out some matlab to start doing simulations and numerical work at this stage of the night was getting kind of ridiculous. I really should have kept going though - I felt fine waking at 7.30 this morning, so I'm sure I'd have survived.
Anyway, more tonight - I think I can finish off the draft of this in the next couple of days or so.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Day 61 - Things will get in the way
So even on holidays I'm distracted. I spent a long time today doing algebra (stability analysis on the steady states of my PDE chlamydia model) which was really great (haven't done that in ages) but then at 5pm as I'm walking through the door bringing little Dan home, work calls. I had forgotten to rerank applications for the QUT vice chancellor's scholarships.
Rerank? Yes rerank. I already did it once. I had ranked all but about 7 of the fifty or so applications in my pile, all along the way thinking that some of the written statements and supporting materials didn't match. Then finally I realized that they were all wrong. The cover sheets with written statements had been given to me with the wrong supporting materials. I was so pissed. I was meaning to do this Friday before I left work, but forgot. So I've tried to do as much as I can tonight but will now have to go to work in the morning to finish it off.
The point is, even when things seemed to be going well, something came along and stuffed it up - now I will need to attempt to catch up with where I wanted to be somehow.
Although in good news my algebra on the stability analysis revealed an error in my previous work and a nice new result about the stability requirement for one of my steady states - yay!
Now off to read about the Ruth-Hurwitz stability criterion.
Rerank? Yes rerank. I already did it once. I had ranked all but about 7 of the fifty or so applications in my pile, all along the way thinking that some of the written statements and supporting materials didn't match. Then finally I realized that they were all wrong. The cover sheets with written statements had been given to me with the wrong supporting materials. I was so pissed. I was meaning to do this Friday before I left work, but forgot. So I've tried to do as much as I can tonight but will now have to go to work in the morning to finish it off.
The point is, even when things seemed to be going well, something came along and stuffed it up - now I will need to attempt to catch up with where I wanted to be somehow.
Although in good news my algebra on the stability analysis revealed an error in my previous work and a nice new result about the stability requirement for one of my steady states - yay!
Now off to read about the Ruth-Hurwitz stability criterion.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Day 60 - two months in
So, it's basically two months down today. I guess I'd say I'm reasonably satisfied with my progress even though I've really got nothing to show so far. Lots of different projects are progressing well and I've had a whole heap of new opportunities open up too. I have one completed manuscript (the one that's been rejected three times!), another of Masoum's very nearly there (needs a couple of pages cut down to meet the 10 page limit), and another three manuscripts nearly half written. I've also got two conference papers about 80% written.
I'm on holidays now for about 15 more days. I'm on recreation leave til Friday and then we have holidays until January 4 because QUT is closed for Christmas. Obviously there will be things going on like Christmas and so on, so I won't be working all the time and I have to take this into account when thinking up any plans or goals, but I'm still hoping to get a fair bit done this week in particular. My current aim is to resubmit the thrice-rejected paper, finish my CTAC paper and another chlamydia modeling paper by the time I return to work. Let's see how that goes!
I'm also planning to get right back on track with the projects of my phd students. Sometimes I feel that they really suffer with me having a dual job (ie my admin-ish job and my academic job)...actually it's more that they suffer because my time is constantly full of meetings. Although at the same time it might be good because they seem to be really good at dealing with being in the deep end looking after their own research! Anyway I'm planning on getting on top of their current models and getting some really good input too them by week 1 of 2011.
Another interesting development: I'm the acting head of maths from January 4-14. I'm curious to see how much less or more work this is compared with being acting assistant dean. That position can be quite time consuming.
Anyway I guess we'll see how I'm going by e end of the week!
I'm on holidays now for about 15 more days. I'm on recreation leave til Friday and then we have holidays until January 4 because QUT is closed for Christmas. Obviously there will be things going on like Christmas and so on, so I won't be working all the time and I have to take this into account when thinking up any plans or goals, but I'm still hoping to get a fair bit done this week in particular. My current aim is to resubmit the thrice-rejected paper, finish my CTAC paper and another chlamydia modeling paper by the time I return to work. Let's see how that goes!
I'm also planning to get right back on track with the projects of my phd students. Sometimes I feel that they really suffer with me having a dual job (ie my admin-ish job and my academic job)...actually it's more that they suffer because my time is constantly full of meetings. Although at the same time it might be good because they seem to be really good at dealing with being in the deep end looking after their own research! Anyway I'm planning on getting on top of their current models and getting some really good input too them by week 1 of 2011.
Another interesting development: I'm the acting head of maths from January 4-14. I'm curious to see how much less or more work this is compared with being acting assistant dean. That position can be quite time consuming.
Anyway I guess we'll see how I'm going by e end of the week!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Day 57
Thoughts and reflections
Wow, the days are ticking by fast. Tomorrow is my last day of "work" until January 4. Next week I decided to take 5 days off to read books and work on things that I want to work on...and essentially ignore my email. The plan is to put together more concrete plans for my various projects that I'm working on at the moment and get my head together about what I'm doing next year.
I've realised something over I guess the last year really, but it's probably a culmination of the last three years where I have been focussed on the whole Teaching and Learning thing as Director of Studies (and its predecessor job titles). I need lots of things on at once to be able to make progress on anything. When I don't have much going on, I don't get much done. It's almost like I'm too free and can't focus on tasks. When I have a LOT on, I do little bits and pieces, but I get things done. When I'm super-stressed for time, with back to back meetings etc (say filling in for the A/Dean) I get LOTS of things done and can be really productive. Also, I've noticed that I really benefit from outlining my tasks to myself and sorting out how to get through each project - maybe that's obvious to most people, but I never worked that way before and haven't worked with anyone like that either. So for me, it has been enlightening.
Skype!
This morning I had a skype meeting with Dr Dan in Trondheim to restart our Chlamydia research work. It was good to get back onto this and get some plans down on paper. I think it ended up with Dan to be working on some coding for solving our (not yet really written) stochastic DE model.
That's another thing I've learned - my progress/productivity is really dependent on "check-in" meetings like this. I need constant reminders and kick starting to get through things. I can't just do it myself.
I think it's really great that I've been able to realise these things about myself - it seems to me it's important to get to know how you work and to know how you can get things done and why you sometimes don't get things done.
Wow, the days are ticking by fast. Tomorrow is my last day of "work" until January 4. Next week I decided to take 5 days off to read books and work on things that I want to work on...and essentially ignore my email. The plan is to put together more concrete plans for my various projects that I'm working on at the moment and get my head together about what I'm doing next year.
I've realised something over I guess the last year really, but it's probably a culmination of the last three years where I have been focussed on the whole Teaching and Learning thing as Director of Studies (and its predecessor job titles). I need lots of things on at once to be able to make progress on anything. When I don't have much going on, I don't get much done. It's almost like I'm too free and can't focus on tasks. When I have a LOT on, I do little bits and pieces, but I get things done. When I'm super-stressed for time, with back to back meetings etc (say filling in for the A/Dean) I get LOTS of things done and can be really productive. Also, I've noticed that I really benefit from outlining my tasks to myself and sorting out how to get through each project - maybe that's obvious to most people, but I never worked that way before and haven't worked with anyone like that either. So for me, it has been enlightening.
Skype!
This morning I had a skype meeting with Dr Dan in Trondheim to restart our Chlamydia research work. It was good to get back onto this and get some plans down on paper. I think it ended up with Dan to be working on some coding for solving our (not yet really written) stochastic DE model.
That's another thing I've learned - my progress/productivity is really dependent on "check-in" meetings like this. I need constant reminders and kick starting to get through things. I can't just do it myself.
I think it's really great that I've been able to realise these things about myself - it seems to me it's important to get to know how you work and to know how you can get things done and why you sometimes don't get things done.
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