O B E
Posted by yoseph on Thursday, 29 January 2009
Overcome By Events…
That pretty much sums it up right now. My research has hit a wall. First, we (my adviser and I) were trying to convert my code and run it in an older version of the optimization program we were using (ILOG OPL is the name). The newest version we have here at K-State is OPL 4.2, and it isn’t working. My adviser was pretty sure he could get it to work in an earlier version, but after a half hour of jacking with it, he’s now convinced that we need to put it in a completely different computer language, CPLEX. If you know anything about coding, this is about like having something the way you want it in HTML, but it just won’t work, so you now have to convert it to C. Not fun.
So when my adviser told me this yesterday, I felt like I had been hit. A little dazed, a lot confused, and very frustrated. Now we have to get this code working, AND I still have the whole thesis to write. It is doable, but very daunting.
So, I thought I would check out one other option. Graduating with a M.S. is all the Army wants me to do right now, so why do I need to kill myself this semester with this coding nightmare and writing a thesis (expected to be roughly 80 pages). I could graduate if I just dropped the thesis hours this semester and picked up two courses to get to the required 30 hours for the degree. I found two courses, and they’re both open. But, the last day to add classes without instructor approval was last Wednesday. I could still do it. Both instructors are in my department. One even has an office directly across from me and the other has been published over 70 times. One of the classes is also part of the Masters in Engineering Management (MEM) a degree I’m interested in getting anyways (down the road a ways, life 5 years or so).
But, it is OBE. At this point I realize that this thesis is more for my instructor in many ways. He’s young and I’m not sure he’s published much in the academic journals. The goal is to tie my research in with the military background and possibly get published (again, down the road, but more like a year to two) in one of the obscure military journals.
Now if we can just get it to work and I can stay motivated to finish…
sbanders said
You can do it baby! I know that you can. Chin up young person!
Wendy F. said
So you’re thinking of dropping one thing to pick up two more??? I know that a thesis is extremely frustrating now, but how much better will you feel about yourself when finally accomplished this tasks instead of just completing your master’s requirement by filling it in with 2 other classes? Get out of your “funk” by getting “funky”.
yoseph said
Yeah, I was thinking that maybe I could pick up the two classes and drop the thesis, but I’m sticking with it now. Partially because it is OBE, and partially because I know that I should just stick it out and go.