Location, Location, Location

Everyone knows it's all about location. Here at school, it is no different. MIT as a campus has a great location. It sits on about a mile long river front section of the Charles River directly across from Boston (more specifically Back Bay in Boston). In this picture you an see Boston in on the right, the Charles river in the middle, and Cambridge on the left. You will find the heart of MIT's campus at the north end of "Harvard Bridge" which crosses the Charles (it's the longest bridge in the picture).

Here is the campus itself (MIT campus is in color, everything else is grayscale). Between the two maps, you can see the large amount of river front property that campus sits on.

The view across to Boston typically looks like this:

Which can be VERY distracting on a beautiful day. Luckily last week's weather was terrible, so I could keep my head down in my homework/class load.

The Step Function

I have learned the definition of the step function as it pertains to my schedule. Here is my schedule for the week of June 14th.

Here is my schedule for the week of June 21st.

Over the course of a weekend the class time essentially doubled. Also there was significantly more homework resulting in almost no free time. Luckily I had the weekend to un-bury myself.

This week should be somewhere in the middle... I hope!

I owed you one

I believe that I owed someone a picture of New York City... so here it is! NEW YORK CITY! More specifically, Times Square, which is like most "squares" that I have found here in Boston - not a square at all. Chalk that up for another Bostonism.

Overall, the picture reminds me a lot of my trips to China! Lots of people, lots of lights. Almost like a sensory overload. If you look close, you can see the famous ball that drops to start the new year (it says 2009 just underneath of the ball, you might have to click on the picture to make it bigger). From what I understand, it is a new ball this year. According to wikipedia, for 2009 it is bigger (12 feet in diameter instead of 6) and 20% more energy efficient (GO GREEN!). Apparently this is the first year it has been left up all year... lucky me!

The Beer Game

Sounds like a fun friday night... right? Well, it was actually a game we played in our Operations class. It simulated the supply chain for, well, beer!

Here's basically how it works:

There is a factory that "sells" beer to a wholesaler who sells beer to a distributor who sells beer to a retailer who sells beer to a consumer. A pair of students represents each level of the supply chain and has a warehouse in which to store beer. Consumer demand is simulated by turning cards over, much like the game of Sorry. Each pair of students must then order beer to keep up with demand of the supply level below them. The trick is that it takes 4 weeks for your order to arrive (assuming your supplier has stock). Inventory is bad, backlog (unfilled orders due to lack of stock) is worse. Add the two together to get your operating cost.

Overall, there were 6 "supply chains" in the room. Everyone threw in a dollar. The team/supply chain that had the least operating cost won.

The game did a very nice job of simulating the reaction, over-reaction, and oscillations that supply chains face everyday as demand changes. It was interesting to see that a change in demand of just 4 cases sometimes caused orders or backlogs of 50 to 100.

When it was all said and done, our team "St. Anky's Beer" came in 2nd. Not to bad for "freshman". By the end of the 4 hour session, we were ready for some beer, but given this week's work load, it didn't happen. More on the work load to come... all I can say now is 'picture a step function'.

First Day of School

My mom has taught me well. The much hated ritual of taking a first day of school picture is so ingrained into my system that I willingly took a first day of grad school picture. This was not at the request of anyone (other than my own request of a roommate to actually snap this picture before I marched out the door to greet the world of grad school).

Thanks Mom!

P.S. That's me in my apartment. Apartment tour blog coming soon... once the weather turns non-rainy enough to be worthy of a picture.

Cold Calls... oh boy

According to wikipedia:

Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word "cold" is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person.

However, in the sense of class participation, cold calling is when the professor calls on someone who doesn't have their hand up with absolutely no warning. I have experienced several instances of "slightly chilled calling" when there were several seconds of intense eye contact before the professor actually called on me. Fortunately, in those cases, there was no original thought required. We had just finished small in class group discussions and merely regurgitated our results.

Yesterday, during the very first System Optimization class, the professor was working through the very first example. The problem had been defined, and he was now ready to start showing us the work. I suddenly had to scratch my head, not because I was puzzled, but because I had an itch. The professor whipped around, noticed that I was scratching my head and immediately called on me to tell him how to do the work because, and I quote, "Brad, can you answer this because you are scratching your head". Vertigo set in, my heart raced, did he really just call on me? I was only scratching my head. Luckily, I had been paying close attention (because I ALWAY play close attention to the professor as I sit in Probability class writing this) and was able to successfully answer the question.

One of my goals for the next two years is to learn how to think on my feet better. According to the book The Alchemist "the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". I guess the universe is conspiring through my professor. Let the adventure continue.

Out of the blocks and running

I believe that I promised several people before I moved out to Boston a blog of some-sort to keep you up to date with my happenings. Well here it is. For those of you who weren't promised a blog but are here reading it anyways... SURPRISE!

About three and a half weeks ago on May 27th, I made the 1000 mile U-Haul trek from Indianapolis to Boston in the company of a classmate who was making the same move. The official MIT LGO academic program started 3 weeks ago on June 1st, 2009 with a week long leadership seminar. True classes started 2 weeks ago on June 8th. It is now June 22nd and I have two full weeks of classes under my belt.

I would say that I'm current out of the blocks and running... quickly. Classes have started at a very reasonable 9:30 am four days a week, and 8 am one day. The program does not have a rigid schedule. If teachers need back to back sessions for special projects or lectures the schedule is modified for such activities. The flexibility in the schedule provides the teachers with better teaching conditions and a nice variety to the students. Back to the running quickly concept... we have only started 4 of the 5 classes that we are enrolled in. The 5th starts on monday (there's that flexible schedule), so I have a feeling the running will soon turn into sprinting. Classes will now start almost everyday promptly at 8 am. I anticipate homework will also increase. Given these two changes, I predict that the 8 hours of sleep per weeknight baseline that I have thus far established will soon be reduced.

Given that the course load is about to increase and due to extensive class participation, we are a little behind on the syllabus in a particular course (behind in the course means ahead in the homework), I realized that this weekend's homework load would be slightly less. I also happen to have 7 undergrad buddies of mine convening in New York City this same weekend. Given these two situation, I decided it was imperative that I head to New York City, a city which I have never visited.

Which brings me to where I am now. I am currently on a bus headed back from New York. The weekend was great. The city was spectacular - for those who have never been there, it is definitely worth a visit... for those who have been there, you know what I mean.

Back to the bus... this bus is spectacular. It costs $18 each way to get from Boston to New York City leaving almost every hour. The busses that run between the two cities are double decker busses complete with AC power to each pair of seats and wireless internet which allowed me to create and write this blog completely on the road. The double decker feature of the bus was really cool driving into New York for the first time. I was sitting on the top level, front row, drivers side. I had a panoramic view of everything in front of me and to the sides. We were very high up so nothing was in the way of my view! I was so high up that I would look down at your typical trash truck! I was poised to entire the famous city of New York with a view fit for a King.

Overall, the bus has been a very inexpensive and enjoyable way to get to New York City. I could see myself doing it again someday!

Hope you enjoyed the first entry. Let me know if your want any specific further details about the adventure so far! I'll be happy to write about them!