Clare’s blog

Long time no update. So, a bunch of health problems jumped on me very soon after my previous post on here; I don’t have much to say about the Hopper conference, as I pretty much missed all of it. The good news is that I’ve been back at work for a fortnight now, and all is going well.

I had the viva on my lit review back on 11th. It went really well! The examiner seemed happy with my report, and I think the discussion of where to go next went extremely well: I’m very excited about all the possibilities. It’s funny: I started off looking at assistive tech for learning, particularly for students with issues such as dyslexia. Somewhere along the way, my direction altered. I’m really intrigued by how different generations/cultures approach and use technology, and how we can use techs to help ‘unusual’ (i.e. non-standard, maybe elderly or disabled) users, particularly socially. (Wendy asked me to put my lit review online, so if you’re interested by this stuff, it is here: you’re probably better off just chatting to me, though!)

I read a fantastic paper today, which is here. It’s all about the design of assistive technologies for use by elders, and discusses the importance of aesthetics. I’ve always felt that interfaces are key (I have been known to say that the smartest, most fantastic technology is useless if no one can use it), but the paper explains this far better than I ever did, particularly with regard to assistive technology for the elderly.

It looks at how the perception of your abilities affects those abilities, and how devices can cause feelings of shame and powerlessness. For example, it describes a woman who resisted leaving her home once wheelchair-bound, due to embarrassment about this; she therefore lost social ties, became more isolated, and engaged in far less physical activity. (Compare a wheelchair with the motorised scooters you see the elderly zipping around in. The functionality is pretty similar, but the image is utterly different.)

The paper concludes that you can’t assume elders will use an assistive technology just because they need it: if it makes them feel embarrassed or incapable, they may avoid it even at the expense of independence or social interaction.

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I’ve just spent an exceptionally busy four weeks writing, reviewing and improving my literature review. This is the first major deadline in a doctorate, and at the least catalogues your chosen research area, and helps you to work out where to go next; the good ones do some analysis, too. I’m pleased to say I handed mine in yesterday. It was very hard work, and I was very pleased to get rid of it! It isn’t over, though, as I have a viva in just under three weeks. I hope, in the viva, to get in some good discussion about my future direction.

I won’t be thinking about that immediately, though, because I’m off to Florida on Monday. A group of us from ECS are attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing - I’m thrilled to have a scholarship! I attended a very useful briefing earlier this week. I have discovered that it isn’t a research conference, and it is very parallel: loads of streams to choose from. It’s all about motivating and inspiring women in computing, and is full of talks from women in industry and research, speaking about what they are doing, and why. (I think!) Another purpose of the conference is, I gather, recruitment of women who are about to graduate: so there’ll be lots of undergrads, and lots of big companies. That said, I hear there are plenty of postgrads there, too. Most of all, I am told, it is a celebration. I am intrigued!

The astute among you may have noted that the conference isn’t actually starting ’til the week after next: this is because myself and a friend are going out a week early, for a well-earned break!

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I discovered yesterday that I’m quoted on the ECS page about EngDocs!

The ECS page explains what the programme is, perhaps a little more clearly (certainly a little more formally) than my previous post.

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A month and a half ago, I (finally) moved house. The following information is hopefully of use to the prospective house buyer within Southampton:

Firstly, I’d recommend getting a mortgage broker. (The guide here is rather useful at explaining why, but in summary: there are thousands of products on the market, so whole-of-market brokers are A Good Thing, as they can find the best deals.) Specifically, I recommend Compass Mortgage Services: they’ve provided nothing but excellent advice, both to myself and to some friends of mine. (They were also ace at hassling the mortgage company to hurry things along.)  These guys earn their money via commission from mortgage companies, so they don’t charge you any fees.

While we’re on the topic, mortgage companies: we went with Abbey National. They are very, very, very slow when it comes to admin. That said, we’ve had no serious problems.

Next, to consider estate agents:

Connells Southampton were absolutely rubbish. I failed to move house in February because they lied to me for well over a month, claiming that the sellers of the house in question had moved out and were ready to go. In fact, they were half-way through buying another house, and had in no way left the vicinity. Not recommended.

Enfields Eastleigh, by contrast, were nothing but a pleasure to deal with. Efficient and professional, they went to great lengths to help get the sale through. This is despite the efforts of various solicitors, to whom we shall now move…

Coffin Mew were… interesting. The service we received was absolutely abysmal: I can barely face detailing it. However, just to throw a few random examples out there: our solicitor told us she’d do things, then didn’t; ‘forgot’ that our mortgage offer expired on 31st May; let us think there was a chance of exchanging and completing on 31st May (up to and including the day itself), when several forms and queries were outstanding; and so forth. She was totally disinterested in our case.

However… that particular solicitor is apparently no longer working for Coffin Mew, and when we complained about the above, they promptly apologised and refunded the conveyancing fees, plus an amount of compensation.

As such, I can’t say I’ll be using these guys again, but perhaps they don’t entirely suck. Our experience did, mind you!

Michael Hayes & Co (another solicitor): this guy is, by all accounts, genuinely useless. He was the solicitor working for the sellers in our second, successful transaction. From what I can gather, the chap seemed to be entirely disinterested in the sale. Our useless solicitor claimed that he was referring pretty much every query to her to do; when the estate agents tried to convince him to do a particular piece of work, he apparently told them that he ‘didn’t give a f***’. Interesting… my suggestion is, avoid like the plague.

Meanwhile, it’s lovely to actually be in the house! It was a long haul getting here, but well worth it.

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A friend passed me this link a little while ago. It is entitled The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?, and it made me laugh.

I was also made aware of a tribute to this fantastic comic, which is all about playing chess on a rollercoaster. Yes. That’s right. A bunch of people did it!

The sparsity of updates lately is almost entirely due to my having moved house at the very end of June. There’s been a lot of decorating, buying of furniture, sorting out of utilities, and general Being Grown Up. Most distressing! (But fun, and worthwhile, all at once.) We’re gradually winning the fight to get our home homely, so perhaps I’ll be around a bit more soon… but no promises.

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Splitting my time between two locations means that I’ve never full-time anywhere. As such, it’s not too unusual for people to ask me what, exactly, it is that I do: what is an EngD?

Hopefully this post will answer that question.

A Doctorate of Engineering is very similar to a PhD. It has the same major requirements, with a few extras thrown in for good measure. Unlike a PhD, it’s integrated with industry. It takes four years, not three. One of these years is taken up with a mixture of MBA and masters-level technical modules. One of the years is spent carrying out research at the university, and the remaining two years are spent carrying out research at the sponsor company; in my case, IBM.

Traditionally, the EngD student spends two straight years at uni, then two straight years at the host company. Why aren’t I doing that? Well, there’s so much going on in Hursley that it seems a waste! With so many exciting projects and technologies, it’s good to pop in (if only for a day a week, which has been the case for most of this year), and at least stay in touch with developments at the office.

Officially, I’m part-time at IBM over the four years of the course, but what’s really happening is that, having started on one day a week, I’m ramping it up as things progress. Once my lit review is done, and I know where my research is going, I’m better placed to get on with stuff at Hursley. Towards the end of the course, I’ll be in almost full-time… but keeping in touch with the uni, in the same way that I’m currently keeping in touch with IBM.

At least, that’s the plan!

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It’s been a bit of a mad time since I got back, but I’ve finally go a mo to blog about the Anita Borg Scholarship retreat…

So, the event ran from Thursday afternoon to midday on Saturday. I got NDAed, so I can’t go into depth, but in brief:

Had an uneventful journey; being met at the airport by a taxi driver was particularly nice! As was the hotel. It’s a Swiss stereotype, but everything really was clean and quiet! Zürich is a beautiful city.

Thursday night involved a meal out, and a talk by a woman from the Mountain View offices, all about women in computing, and computing, and how exciting our field is at the mo (it’s true!). She also touched on what it’s like to work at Google. The meal itself was lovely, as were the other finalists; I really enjoyed getting to know them, and hope to stay in touch.

Friday was a long day, with plenty packed in. After a breakfast buffet, we headed to the Google offices, and started with a tour; the NDA apparently covers this, too, but I will tell you that these offices are super-cool!

We had a welcome talk from the director of engineering, who discussed how Google are currently opening offices all over the place, the variety of nationalities in the Zürich offices, and the particular focus of work in Zürich.

The next talk was about the scholarship, and how it started in 2003 when Anita Borg died. This is the first year that it’s run in Europe.

The next talk was techy, on algorithms for web search. I shan’t go into detail, but it covered ranking, eliminating near-duplicate pages, and load balancing. I enjoyed it very much, though it was super-mathsy in the middle!

Next up (this was a busy day!), a career panel; this was mostly focused on what it’s like to work at Google. I think ‘intense’ and ‘fun’ might both be words to cover it, from what I can gather! Like IBM, they allocate some of your time to cool (appropriate!) projects of your choosing. Good call! They aren’t so much up on part-time work, or working from home - having seen their culture, I can see why. It’s all about being around with your team, as far as I can tell.

After lunch was another talk, on geo-web stuff; Google Maps, My Maps, Mapplets, the impact of these technologies… all very good.

The next workshop was on women in careers, which did what it said on the tin; a discussion of how companies can attract, and retain, tech women. I agreed with the observation that there can be too much emphasis on the ‘women in computing’ thing. Maybe we just want to do our jobs without a fuss being made?

Next we headed to the other set of Google offices in Zürich, for their TGIF event, which was relaxed, fun and had a real sense of community. Here, I chatted more with one of the scholars, and was astonished to discover that whilst doing her full-time PhD, she’s bringing up her two year old child, with her husband is currently living in Canada! I was really inspired; I’d just assumed that no woman would have a child during a PhD. She was really relaxed and happy talking about her child, which was lovely. Good on her!

This session also included a really touching video about Anita Borg.  I’m glad they showed it.

After all this, we head out for a very nice evening meal, in a super-lush restaurant. Lots of interesting conversation, including the discovery that it’s illegal in Switzerland to to wash your car or hang out laundry to dry on a Sunday. Genuinely illegal, as in you get fined if you do it!

Saturday marked the close of the event, with a great big brunch in town.

All in all, it was an amazing (if exhausting) day or so. My fellow finalists and scholars were a vibrant, smart and wonderful bunch, and I was very well looked after - I had a great time!

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Ever wondered where cats go each day, and what they see?

One answer.

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Three that I’d like to share:

Firstly, these wonderful people sell a multitude of colourful, daisy decals for cars (via Dan). What a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, I’m not sure that my other half would be happy driving a flower-covered car… ho hum.

The second link is via Dave. This continues the LOLCATS meme with - was it inevitable? - LOLCODE. A quick Hello World example for you:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE

Finally, via Carrie, is The Great British Duck Race! It involves many, many rubber ducks, setting a world record, and supporting charities. It sounds great!

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I’ve been marking first year Computer Science coursework, this weekend - software engineering. It felt very odd to start with! I took a while to get into the rhythm of it, not having done this sort of thing before - working out how much feedback to give, what tone to take, and so on. It’s somewhat frustrating when they misunderstand, or somehow just don’t see, questions.

The first couple took an hour to do, as I had to refresh my memory about UML, and generally get the hang of it all. After those, though, I was zipping along!

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