You can change in a day

You can change in a day

In the movie about the Enron scandal: "The Smartest Guys in the Room", the CEO Jeff Skilling supposedly woke up one day and transformed himself from a paunchy, balding, glasses wearing, semi-quiet guy, into a fit, post-lasik, attractive, alpha male.

Not the best inspiration, but you can change in a day. I've been neglecting this project for a host of reasons and I'm turning a corner - for real this time. No more excuses. I've bought my books, designed the survey I've been procrastinating about (click on the post title for the link), and sent out the emails I've been on the fence about. I can do this. I just need to take deep breaths and keep pushing ahead.

In other news, I finally had my interview with the president of my alma mater. I was expecting more help and insight but I think it's hard to give help when the person doesn't yet know what they need. She mostly wanted to follow up with me about my life after college and give me advice on why I shouldn't run away and do an American wine tour for a year.

But, she was helpful in a lot of ways. She re-iterated that I should focus on more than just faculty and based on talking to my peers, I think she and others are right. It's the undergraduates, recent alumni, and graduate students who are probably going to be more into this. I'd like to target professors, but maybe they will be for phase 2, not phase 1 of this project.

She also suggested an implementation idea that I didn't think about: going to Web 2.0 conferences and seeing what's out there. I'm glad she suggested it because just via searching and looking up some of the companies who regularly attend, I already found a couple potentially viable platforms I could build upon. She also suggested Mahlo.com - a human search engine. If nothing else I could use it to do a more intelligent search to see if something like what I want to do already is out there (of course this depends on who frequents Mahlo.com but should still be a good start.

I think my favorite part of the interview was when she said:

"Creative expression is synergistic with being a scientist/engineer whether in a product based or research role. It is the wave of the future and is growing at the college level. It's coming, but how wide spread or how fast the change will occur I don't know."

Now I just need to find out how wide spread it is...

She also relayed a story about how while at another college she ran into a Dean who was also an artist and just being able to say to one another "I am an artist" and not have it be pushed to the side in favor of a conversation on science or being a Dean was a novel concept. And how having a colleague who not only understood what it meant to be an artist, Dean, and scientist, but with whom you cold collaborate artistically with was truly refreshing.

The interview went well. I plan on contacting her again once I have a more concrete idea of what I'll be doing and have some things implemented.

I feel positive about this project and I know I can do this. I just need to kick myself into gear, focus, and get it done.

wish me luck =)

New Take on Project

New Take on Project

I had another interview with another professor. She took the project idea in a new direction: imagine a creative center for science people. Part networking but mostly part displaying science people being creative.

She envisioned not just creative writing, but songs, artwork, videos, etc. she wanted something that as a professor you could go to for examples of a lab experiment come to life in a fun unique way. The more I thought about it the more I like the idea of not excluding any creative genre. I'm still working to define exactly what I'm looking for from potential contributors, but I've already toyed with the idea of a website like the one she suggests and I think it would appeal to a wider audience - not just creative material by science professors for science professors, but also for high school science teachers and science hobbyists - people I hadn't really considered before.

I've been working my college network and have an interview with my alma mater's president and am going to set up meetings with someone from our alumni network. I am also looking for insight from people currently in this industry but am skeptical of whether or not they will actually respond to me. I am also talking my idea up every chance I get and came away with a potential 5 - 10 people to talk to. Now I just have to make that contact happen.

I think this has proven the idea is viable/people are interested, now I just need to define it in a more professional manner, solicit contributions/get people aware of my project, and execute it by launching a website of some sort.

wish me luck!

Progress!

Progress!

...sort of...

I had my first interview with a professor who taught a short story class I took back in college. we had a really good discussion and I was able to get the following information/takeaways:

- She gets a lot of science majors who want to switch from science to the humanities - most of them are biology majors

- Thinks it'd be easier to start with undergraduates/grad students because professors are busy most of the time. She mentioned that it's difficult to write novels, even for English professors when it's expected of them. So she imagines that for science professors whose main focus should be on their research, any and all creative writing would be put on the back burner and/or not necessarily approved by their departments. That's what I've got to look into more. See if they have the time to write or if it's as she said and they're swamped with research work, students, and family with no time for anything else. I'm hopeful though =)

- Recommended a work by another one of my previous professors about this mountain in Nevada. So i'm going to check it out. apparently it's about science type things (nucleur waste, experiments, etc.) but it's written in a very literary and memoir-esque way.

- Thinks this type of idea naturally lends itself to a blog or online journal format.

And that's where it will be for now.

This talk motivated me to schedule some more meetings and buy a couple books for research. I'm optimistic but am still trying to sort out what exactly I'm going to do. I'm hoping between the research, talks, and any feedback from this blog I will be able to complete this. =)

Round 1 was reaching out to my past professors. Only got 2 responses - i think everyone is super busy =/. Round 2 is reaching out to admin at my college. Received 4 responses. So I'm following up with them. Round 3 will be contacting people in the business with a more formal and concrete interview.

wish me luck!

A change of focus

A change of focus

I enrolled in Antioch University's publishing arts program in LA. part of the requirements for completion is an internship or doing a project in the publishing arts industry. I've decided to go with the project since I work full time.

The project idea I have is to develop a publication by math, science, and engineering professors FOR math, science, and engineer professors, but NOT, necessarily, on the subject of math, science, or engineering.

I haven't really found anything comparable out there except for Isotope, a nature writing journal linked above, and a couple of science blogs. I think that my engineering degree from a primarily math and science school puts me in a unique position to pursue this niche.

At college, there were so many people who wrote and drew and painted and whatnot that I just can't accept that that drive and passion disappears once you become a hermit in your research lab. That is why I've decided to pursue this venture. the quality of writing is something I've yet to think about, but i think that the passion is there.

ather than a completely self-absorbed blog, this will be from here on dedicated to this project.

please let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,
Diana

A More Formal Concept Statement:

At the undergraduate level, there are numerous math, engineering, and science majors who write avidly. Often, limited information reaches them as to the publication process and next steps for their writing. I believe that this persists as students age and is also the case for math, science, and engineering professors at major universities. Because of this, I want to develop a journal/anthology targeted to math, science, and engineering professors, with submissions from math, science, and engineering professors that are non-technical but science influenced/related. Means of distribution would be at science conferences and conventions, college campuses, and word of mouth between colleagues. Payment for submissions would be handmade copies of the journal. As a subscription base develops and money is available, a prize would be offered to undergraduate math, science, and engineering majors who write material comparable to the journal's contents.