I have an hour before my club meeting so I will try to cram all that has happened in my life lately into this blog post in that short span. Wish me luck.
So where did we last leave off? Well for most of you it was over Winter break. Whether I saw you in the paradise which we call home or at your college it is not a stretch to say I enjoyed seeing every one of you. So what's happened in the mean time? Well school has started back up which means back to the old grind. I kind of missed going to the library every day. In a sick and twisted sort of way at least. Masochism? You could call it that.
Except I haven't got completely back into my routine. I've been blessed (or cursed? I'll get to that in a sec) by an end-heavy semester so the first couple weeks have been quite lackluster. I haven't holed myself up in the library too much, yet. This week I've started getting back into the grind. Perhaps a bit too late, maybe I relaxed too much the first two weeks but I think I'll be able to pick up the slack.
Classes this semester? I'm glad you asked.
First, I'm taking CS 61A. Yep I know numbers mean a lot to you. It's the first computer science course (intro to computer programming) that computer science or EECS majors take (so not the baby non-cs comp sci). So far it's a lot harder than I thought it would be, but overall I like it. Solving problems in CS is quite the brain exercise and solving a tough problem is one of the most rewarding feelings ever. And for anyone who cares the language is Python and we might do some Scheme.
Next, I'm taking EE 143. This is an electrical engineering class on microfabrication. What is microfabrication you ask? Well look around you and I'm sure there is at least one product of microfabrication in your vicinity; and if not then props to you, props to you. Microfabrication is the manufacturing of semiconductors, so any of the chips in your cellphone, computer, or any other electronic device lying about are a product of this field. Instead of soldering components onto circuit boards, which is the common understanding of modern day electronics, a series of chemical steps take place that allow modern semiconductors to have nanometer size devices. Modern technology, whoa.
This class is by far my favorite class so far. I absolutely love learning about the different steps and how they fit together like a puzzle to form a complete integrated circuit. It has made me realize that I might have enjoyed electrical engineering more than chemical engineering, but I realize its too late to switch now and besides, I do like chemical engineering, just maybe not love. But no regrets, right? RIGHT!?
Lastly, (finally? lastly? idk which sounds better, they both sound bad) I'm taking CBE 162. This is my ChemE class for the semester and its on control processes, which I don't have time to explain now but I'll do at some later post. In theory, it's an interesting field to learn about, but this is my least favorite class so far. Not only has the progress been slow, the teacher is boring, and the GSI (graduate student instructors, TA's) suck. And I mean they REALLY suck. They come unprepared to section and then mandate that no one "disturb" them outside of class because they have lives too. So no emails, no questions, nothing. Fucking awful. Also I just submitted our first lab, and I realized I messed up the format a little bit and I just re-read the syllabus and they have a "zero for incorrect format" policy. They better not give me a fucking zero for about 10 hours of work. I'm going to be really pissed if they do. I would understand if they did, but I really wouldn't. I guess I'm just bitter. Nah this class just sucks.
Oh something I forgot to mention about EE 143 is that it's a lab class. And not just any lab class, a fucking awesome lab class. We work in a clean room and manufacture our own semiconductors on 3" wafers. I had my first actual lab about 5 hours ago and it was awesome. I get (note "get" not "have") to dress up with full lab coat, booties, safety goggles, hairnet, and gloves. It's great. And then we wear additional protection for the chemicals we work with, one of which being concentrated HF. Yeah, we're bad asses. This class does come with a catch of sorts I guess. I mentioned that my semester is end-load heavy, well it's because of this class. We have no homework and two lab reports due at the end of the semester. Each lab report cannot be started until about two weeks prior to the due date, and each is about 60 hours of work. SIXTY HOURS OF WORK. That's mind-boggling. Luckily I really like this stuff so it might be fun? And by might be fun I mean I hopefully won't drop out of school over the gray hairs this report is going to create.
Okay well time is about up I have to go to my club meeting. But this was fun, we should do this more often. Wait you're saying it's only up to me when I post. Hmm, that complicates things. Well I'll talk to you guys.... sometime in the future then. Hopefully soon, realistically not.
- Jason
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