It’s the last semester of my MSI degree, and my classes will be pretty good, on the balance.
First, of course, is my thesis. I had a bit of a breakthrough last week and I’m feeling really good about it. I’m ready to start moving into data collection and I could start writing any time–though I need to re-collect data and do analysis as well. It’s an intimidating amount of work, but I finally feel up to it.
Another three credits are devoted to SI 622, the usability evalution course that’s reknowned for eating up the students’ lives. I’m not enthusiastic about this class, and the combination of prior coursework and “living the dream” at Enlighten for the last couple years means that there’s almost nothing new here for me, except in the integration of learning around the evaluation of a single product. I think I could live without that experience, but it will doubtless have value.
What I am enthused about for 622, and very much so, is the real-life client I’ve recruited for my project group, whomever they will be. That client is Flickr. They are interested in seeing our project results and may be able to offer some limited support to our inquiry. If I’m spending all of this effort on 622, I want it to be on a product I care about, and I don’t want the effort to be wasted. And since I’m more interested in and passionate about Flickr than just about anything else, expending all the 622 project energy on Flickr will make for a much happier final semester.
My final cognate is EECS 594, “Intro to Adaptive Systems,” with the father of genetic algorithms himself, John Holland. My impression to date is that this class will be relatively easy for me, since I’ve been well prepared for it by my other coursework, but that it will provide a lot of good food for thought and new ways to think about the research problems that interest me. The main assignments for the course include a research proposal and presentation thereof, as well as critiques of the presentations of my classmates, which are very appropriate assignments for a future academic; I am pleased to have an opportunity to develop these skills.
The last credit on my transcript, which I really don’t need for graduation but have elected for pleasure and edification, is the ICOS seminar. I thoroughly enjoy interdisciplinary seminars, and this one is really excellent. Not only does the study of organizations fit in well with my past professional experience and current social computing research interests, but it also dovetails nicely with my fascination with complex systems and dynamic networks. For my tuition dollar, it’s really a great way to end the week, with a Friday afternoon seminar that hosts some undeniably great minds.
All that should keep me out of trouble and preoccupied with something more useful than obsessing over the status of my PhD applications. I can’t help wanting to know what to expect.