Student SPHere 2008-09

This semester, both of my finals come in the form of projects, and I couldn't be happier. For Sudipto's spatial class, I'm exploring a dataset he received from collaborators but hasn't yet had time to investigate. This part of research is one of my favorite-- it's like meeting a new person for the first time, getting to know her, learning what makes her tick. Thus far, I've been tabulating variables to get a sense of the design space and plotting the observations to get a sense of the spatial sampling scheme. Eventually, I'll get around to crafting a few models and fitting them, but right now, I'm enjoying uncovering new aspects of the data at every turn.

This is why I love working on research projects. It's a double-edged quality, the open-endedness and freedom of data analysis versus a theory problem. The latter offers a satisfying solution and finite end. But the former yields so much possibility, so much room for innovation and creativity.This semester has offered me more in the way of projects and analysis than proofs, but I know the pendulum will swing back again before too long.

For Cavan's class, the data scope is more limited, so I am focused on model fitting, selection, and validation. It's a small set of repeated measurements on a single variable with no covariates other than time. These sparse data compel me to focus on getting all the power out of each observation, not wasting any variance, and fitting lean models that are carefully tailored. It's another kind of challenge and I'm having fun with that project as well.

Finally, in my research life, I finished a big revision of the recruitment paper from Positive Connections, complete with lovely new figures and a re-vamped intro and discussion courtesy of my colleague Marg. They may come back with further revisions, but at least it's off my desk for the moment!

As an extra bonus, grading is almost finished for the semester. One more homework in the baby Bayes class and then Brad will take care of grading their final projects. Being TA for this class the second time around was seriously a joy. I have enough experience with the material to feel competent and helpful when students have questions. And having all the solutions written up in advance makes posting solutions keys a breeze. It's a shame most students lack the opportunity to serve multiple times as TA for a class, I really think everyone wins.