Today I had my interview for a full time position in the Engineering Leadership Program at National Instruments.  And by that I really mean that I had five interviews and also had to give a technical presentation.  All in all I think it went pretty well.  I was definitely worn out towards the end of the day, but I think I was able to keep my game face on.  If all goes well I’ll begin my senior year at Rose-Hulman with a job offer in hand.  It’s hard to say just how amazing that would be.  If things don’t turn out like I hope then I’ll have had a chance to speak with the recruiters about why I wasn’t given an offer which will help me prepare to pursue other job opportunities.  It’s win-win, but I definitely would like to win more and get an offer.

Austin has been a great place to live this summer and I really think I’d like to start my career here.  That being said I’d like to welcome any advice anyone has about keeping an open mind during the job search.  There’s more to consider than just location and salary, but those are definitely big factors for me.  I love the culture at NI and it’s a company with no shortage of career paths and development opportunities.  But I want to keep an open mind as I think about starting life in the “real world.”

Wish me luck…

I’ve been trying out the Media Management features of Wordpress for a couple days now in my development environment as a possible replacement for my Gallery installation.  For those of you that have viewed my photos, you know that the interface gets the job done but also leaves a lot to be desired.  I’ve found that while the interface for my readers will be improved (check it out here), the back-end administrative interface it much less powerful than I’d like it to be.

Gallery allowed me to upload files via FTP and import them into it’s database, WordPress only allows me to upload via a web interface.  WordPress include any form of image manipulation either.  I’ve come to rely on the server side image resizing feature of Gallery to manage multiple image sizes on the Web.  The real deal killer for me though is that I cannot create an album and then add multiple images at once.  Considering the amount of photos I generally take, it adds a lot of time when I have to add each file individually.

As it stands, I think I’ll stick with Gallery.  The administrative interface of WordPress simply isn’t powerful enough for the types of media I’m looking to upload and manage.  If you have any ideas or comments, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below.

As some of you may know, my good friend Nick and I were workout partners for a good deal of the 2007-2008 school year.  What you may not know is that at one point I promised him that I would create a Bodyspace account when I reached my goal of weighing 150 lbs.  In honor of that agreement (and about 1.5 months late), I present my bodyspace account.

My friend Ben pointed me towards MapMyRun.com as a tool to determine how far you’ve run on a given route.  I’ve decided to give it a try and will be posting my results and routes here, so be sure to check back.  I’ll be going on my first run tomorrow morning bright and early before I have to head to work.  You can see my route on the map below: 

It’s short, it’s simple, and it will be a good start for me to get back into running.

I began my internship at National Instruments this past Monday and have pretty much fallen in love with the company. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s in Austin, Texas which is one of the most exciting cities in the country right now. I’ve met a lot of amazing people this week and am constantly surprised by just how bright they are. This week has also included more sand volleyball than any previous weeks of my life.

All this week I’ve been doing some basic training in LabVIEW and I’ve noticed a couple things. First, graphical programming is the way to go. I can think of no better way to implement an idea than to pretty much program with a flow chart. The graphical environment of LabVIEW complements my visual learning style very well. The other thing I’ve noticed is that Discrete Time and Continuous Systems would have been so much easier had we gone through a short course in LabVIEW. There are so many simple features that I’ve learned in the past couple days that I wish I had known earlier. Hopefully I can share some of what I’ve learned at school next year.

That’s all for now.

I’ve just uploaded some photos from the 2008 Rose-Hulman Commencement Exercises.  Feel free to check them out over on my photo page.  As always, if you see a picture that you’d like a higher quality copy of or want touched up just let me know.

I recently finished ny junior year of college at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and in a lot of ways I’m excited to say it was one of the best years of my life.  In a way this post was inspired by Nick’s end-of-the-year post.  I had a chance to get to know a lot of really great people through my Resident Assistant and Student Activities Board President positions.  I also had a lot of really great opportunities for personal growth.  Not to mention I made the Dean’s List the past two quarters, which I was beginning to suspect might never happen again.  Though I plan on detailing some of my personal growth in later posts, I wanted to use this post to talk about my summer plans and give props to some of my good friends.

Before I let me ego run away with the show, I just wanted to let some of my good friends know how proud I am of them for graduating and getting amazing jobs or starting companies or going to grad school.  I also want to mention to a few others to represent Rose-Hulman well in Japan (you know who you are) but also to have a great time.  I’ll miss you guys, but I know I’ll be hearing great things from you soon.

I’m excited to say that I’ll be an intern at National Instruments this summer, in the Engineering Leadership Program.  I’ll be living with my good friend Josh in Austin, TX.  In all the conversations I’ve had with anyone about Austin, I’ve only heard great things.  I look forward to getting to know the area and the company.  And Dave, I’m looking forward to those free meals

I’ve just uploaded some photos from Skinnerfest 2008. Check them out here and let me know what you think in the comments.

Skinnerfest photos
 

I had a chance to play with Sulfur Hexafluoride today at Skinnerfest, check it out…

Here’s my first try at turning a picture of myself into a cartoon, let me know what you think…