Hit a snag

The College of Engineering only accepts dual degree applications from students in certain stages of their course of study. Students from outside engineering must apply in their second or third semester. This is my third semester, and I was previously advised to apply this semester so that the application could be processed after this semester's grades are finalized. However, I may have misunderstood, or there may have been some confusion somewhere, because the deadline for applying in this semester has passed despite grades clearly not being finalized yet.

That could sink my plans for a dual degree, but that's OK - a minor in CS or just graduating early are still very viable. I am looking into whether exceptions can be made to the deadline.

Still moving paperwork

Now that I have my dual degree form signed by an advisor in each college involved, I need to get signatures from deans. This morning I took it to the academic office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Apparently LAS has a designated dual degree advisor with the authority to sign off on these forms. She was not available at the time, so I left the form with the receptionist and will be notified when it's been processed.

Further plan adjustments advised

This morning I went to get my adjusted plan signed off on by an MCB advisor. I then had some extra time before class, so I went to see a CS advisor to get their signature. The advisor I met with also approved the plan, but suggested some changes that I will probably make. Two of the classes I had put into one semester are extremely time-consuming, so I will switch one of those with a less intense class I had put for the following semester. Physics on this campus requires a large time commitment, so students often take it at the community college in town and transfer the credit. I'm not certain I'll do that, but at least I have a while to think about it.

Plan further adjusted

This morning I went to see an MCB advisor to get my dual degree class plan approved. It turns out that I got one requirement slightly confused - I need 15 hours of advanced MCB classes, not just 12. Fortunately, I had room in one semester to add a class, so I've tweaked my plan and will try again tomorrow.

Plan rearranged

This morning, I tried to register for the other CS class I was planning to take next semester. Unfortunately, between general registration opening and my attempt to register, the lecture filled up completely. So I later went to an advisor to ask about an override. There, I learned that its prerequisite of the other CS class I'm already registered for will actually be enforced, and therefore I can't take the two in parallel.

That required me to rearrange my plan for my remaining semesters, which was tough, but I have something that works. This version has me taking a gen ed online over a summer, but at least I now have only one semester at full load instead of three. Conveniently, one of the CS classes I was planning for next fall is possible to take this spring and has seats open, so I got registered for that.

Tomorrow morning I'll see an MCB advisor to get my proposed schedule signed off.

Back on campus

I arrived to campustown late last night and returned to my dorm this morning. There's now only three weeks (a little less, since the last one is truncated due to finals) left in the semester. I need to finish my dual degree application before the semester ends - I'll hopefully get the dual degree worksheet/plan signed off this week. Tomorrow, registration opens for the other CS class I was planning to take next semester. There are ~80 seats left and the entire College of Engineering has already had a chance to register, so my chances are fairly good.

Long-term class plan made

Since I'm applying for a dual degree in UIUC's College of Engineering instead of just a transfer, I need to attach a dual degree planning worksheet to my application. That worksheet is quite a bit of work in itself; it requires signatures from two advisors and two deans regarding a full course plan. So this week, I pored over the online degree audits for MCB and CS, the last two semesters' course catalogs, and the MCB advanced courses list. I managed to create an Excel file containing the plan that I think satisfies the requirements for both degrees. It's intense, but it's the only way I could find to graduate with both degrees in the normal timeframe. This week, I'll meet with as many necessary faculty as I can to get their approval.

Doing some parsing

Today I worked on parsing a document for the lab. We're interested in various biochemical pathways and the enzymes involved. Much of the data we need already exists, but the web site that provides it has it an an inconvenient format with several different kinds of data smashed together into one string. Some records were missing the gene name; those had a somewhat different format. Records of one kind seemed to be already fused to the corresponding records of a different kind, even though one of the latter can correspond to one of the former, so there was duplication. My script picked out the individual pieces of data (using regular expressions) and deduplicated the combined records into several separate lists.

More data processing to do

In the research lab, I have two pending data analysis tasks that I hope to get done over break. One is a continuation of sequence alignment analysis work last semester. The other is pretty much just parsing for the researcher I've recently started working with.

On break

Today was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break. It was also the due date for the CS assignment I helped write, so before I left campus, I answered as many forum questions as possible. I'm now at home.

Even though I'll mostly have the week off from schoolwork, I have quite a few tasks I need to get done over break. I'll start dealing with those tomorrow.

Third MCB exam went well

Last night I took the third MCB 250 exam. Surprisingly, the answer key came out earlier today, so I went ahead and calculated my unofficial score. Just like the last two exams, I missed exactly one question of the 35. I'm very satisfied with that.

CS application started

I had a bit of free time after my MCB exam tonight, so I started working on the application/portfolio for the College of Engineering and CS major. There is a lot of writing to do about interests and performance so far. I plan to get the rest of the form (or at least as much as I can do at this stage) done over the Thanksgiving break.

Holding more office hours

The course assistant who usually staffs office hours tonight couldn't make it this week, so I picked up the shift. This time was much quieter than last week. Only about six people came in throughout the two hours, but most stayed for a while. Today's homework was a lot easier, but most people were at the really tough part of the current two-week assignment (the one I helped write).

First western blot done

This week in lab, my supervisor showed me how to perform a western blot, which is a way to visualize protein expression in cells. It's quite an involved process; I spent a couple hours in lab each day from Wednesday to today and only got the final images today. It worked fairly well for a first attempt!

Safety training

Tomorrow I'll attend an in-person seminar on the "safe handling of human cell lines in a research laboratory." The timing is very convenient, because almost immediately after the training session I'll go to lab and perform my first tissue culture task.

Some free time

For the first time in quite a while, I didn't have any work to do last night. So I went out walking around on my quest to visit every bus stop in the transit district. This time I went north of campus into a region with both businesses and residences. I've now visited over 200 stops, about 19% of all of them.

Assignment is out!

This morning, the professor of the class I'm on staff for published the assignment I've been working on for the past month. It was made available to students early in the morning; the first major wave of people started looking at it tonight. I'll make sure to monitor the course forum closely for the next two weeks to answer questions.