Just like that, the weeks have flown by. I anticipated that
this might happen, but it was definitely not my intention to go a month without
writing. Nonetheless, I will do my best to catch everyone up on the events of
the past month.
Research has settled into a fairly standard routine. Now in
the 8th week of term, I have been spending my time in the continuous
quest of successful MATLAB models. Since my research will seek to assess the
effect of pedestrian loads on bridge motion, it is relevant to begin by
modeling two main systems. First, I worked on developing a model of the
displacement of a “single degree of freedom” structure. Basically, an ‘SDOF’
structure is one that can only displace in one shape, such as a spring. If you
think of a vibrating string, the first degree of freedom has only two nodes, which
looks like a bent archery bow. Like a vibrating string, structures also displace
in harmonics. The first harmonic is the
simplest shape of deformation. At any rate, this displacement of a structure can
be modeled by a differential equation with inertial, damping, and stiffness
terms.
Having modeled the motion of a structure, I also started to
model the lateral motion of a pedestrian. Existing research shows that the
lateral movement of a person’s center of mass can be modeled as an inverted
pendulum (like a mechanical metronome), in terms of the person’s foot placement
and the horizontal displacement of the ground. Thus, since a person really has
an inverted pendulum for each footstep, I have been trying to develop a
numerical solver (i.e. an estimator) to predict such motion.
Well enough about research. Last week was Thanksgiving and I
spent all day in the lab, hard at work… dreaming of turkey, cranberry sauce,
American football, friends, and family. Indeed, I did reflect during the day,
as I have so much to be thankful for. Let me count some of the ways:
-New friendships in the UK. I’m extremely thankful to have
met so many great people in Keble, the lab, and ballroom dancing. They have
made my first term an easy adjustment to international living, so I am really
grateful for them. Something that I’ve taken to doing in my spare time (“spare
time?” I hardly know the meaning of the words) is cooking for lots of the
people in my dorm. The first time I did it, I cooked American fried chicken and
homemade biscuits for 15. It was a huge hit, so I have since added a Mediterranean-style
pizza night with homemade crust for 25, and a fajita night for 15. It is a
great way to bring everyone together to catch up and enjoy conversation. This weekend
– to up the ante a bit – a fellow American and I are going to host a grand
Thanksgiving dinner and gag gift exchange for 20+. The menu is quite extensive,
but for whatever reason, I’m not particularly worried about it. Clearly I am my
parents’ son. More to the point, however, the fresher grad students here in
Keble have really bonded well this term, and I am really excited to have them
as friends.
While I won’t go into too much detail on this here, I am
also really fortunate to have a great group of colleagues in the lab. With
students from across the world, we seem to have a strange mix of uniqueness (due
to background, lifestyles, culture, etc) and commonness (civil engineering,
Oxford, traveling, sports, etc). They are a fun group to be with, and incredibly
smart to boot. I’ll certainly be learning a lot from them!
-Ballroom dancing. Dance has been an amazing addition to my
life! I have been very fortunate to be paired with a fantastic partner, whose
name is Jenna. She’s finishing up her undergrad degree at UCLA in psychology
next fall, but she is taking a year of study here in Oxford. Lucky for me, she has
done a variety of dance in the past. We’re both committed to success on the
dance floor, so it has been and will continue to be excellent to work with her
throughout the year. For the beginners’ team as a whole, a good deal of
camaraderie has developed among the 30 couples already, which makes the
rehearsals and competitions much more fun. Two weekends ago, we had our first
competition at Nottingham University. The competition began at 10 am and did
not conclude until 11 pm! Even though it was a long day of dancing, Jenna and I
enjoyed the competition atmosphere. On top of the thrill of the event, we
actually placed quite well too. In quickstep (which we thought was our worst
dance, haha), we placed third among all beginners. In waltz, we placed second,
and we won the jive outright! Unfortunately, we didn’t even make the finals in
cha cha, which we thought was our best dance... but we are quite happy with the
results all the same! The second event was this past weekend at in Birmingham
(hosted by Warwick University) where the competition was much fiercer. Our
rivals, Cambridge, went toe to toe with us, but we were surprised that Cardiff
and Imperial universities placed even better than we. Nonetheless, Jenna and I
were still fortunate to dance quite well – we finished 3rd in jive
and 5th in cha cha among all beginners, but we did not crack the
finals in either quickstep or waltz. We are both optimistic about our chances
in the spring, but we also know that we have a lot of practicing to do. So far,
the plan is for each of us to do 50 spin turns per day until Christmas as
practice. Hopefully that will whip us into proper shape!
-Old friends. On 11 November, Kalli made the jump across the
pond to visit and do some sightseeing with me. She was amazing for putting up
with my dance and lab schedule, and we really enjoyed Oxford and London a lot.
I would have to say that the highlight of her visit was taking a three-day adventure
to Paris. Last Monday morning, we left Oxford at sunrise and took the Eurostar
train across the English Channel. Actually, due to the long dance competition
the day before, we were so tired that we slept for the whole ride. Once we
checked into the hotel, we walked to the Trocadero and La Tour Eiffel, where we
admired the sunset and took a ton of artsy pictures. I had a delicious crepe
filled with chocolate, banana slices, and Chantilly (whipped cream). From
Eiffel, we headed north, stopped at a grocery store for some cheese, bread, and
wine, and found a beautiful bridge looking over the Seine to have our dinner.
It was really an epic dinner! The last thing we did that night was walk the
Champs Elysees, where they had a fantastic Christmas market set up. Little
booths were filled with food, crafts, toys, clothes, and other Christmasy
items, and it really helped me get into the holiday spirit.
On our second day, we started in the Latin Quarter, which is
south of Notre Dame. There is one particularly narrow, cobble-stone filled
street which is lined with some great stores. Kalli picked up some chicken and
roasted potatoes in a sachet (British and French for ‘bag’), and I grabbed two
yummy baguettes. We ate our delicious lunch next to the Pantheon looking down
over Notre Dame in the distance. Of course, having stared at it from a
distance, it was then obligatory to walk to the cathedral and take more
excellent, artistic pictures. On a side note, I really like Kalli’s Canon Rebel
SLR camera… I think I may need to ask for one for Christmas ;-) Anyway, we
grabbed some gelato, listened to a really good street violinist, and walked
around, admiring the area. Finally, we returned to Notre Dame for a choral
concert! Half the concert consisted of Bach works for organ – which were
stunning in the grand cathedral – and the other half was comprised of chorales
from the Romantic period.
For our last day, we spent most of the day in the Louvre. We
saw the Mona Lisa, and we wandered around looking at the various paintings and
artifacts from the Italian Renaissance and ancient Rome/Egypt respectively. For
a change of scenery, we also went and took a quick tour of the National Opera
House, upon which Phantom of the Opera is based. As you can tell, it was a fun
trip to Paris, full of walking and sightseeing.
Well, this post is bordering on epic novel, so I’m going to
move to the big finish now, even though I have so much more to be thankful for….
CULTURE CORNER
As anticipated, the arts in Oxford are quite prevalent. One
can attend a concert, dramatic performance, or see some art almost any day of
the week. Last week, I was able to see Mozart’s Don Giovanni and hear the Handel Messiah Oratorio. This week – amongst my choice of concerts – I am
considering going to see A Man for All Seasons,
which is about Sir Thomas More’s dissent of King Henry VIII’s move to initiate
the Church of England.
On top of those performances, a motion has been put forward
to campaign for Oxford to be recognized by UNESCO as the “book capital of the
world.” If you were to step into any of Oxfords dozens of libraries or
bookstores, you would understand why. The wealth of knowledge is incredible
here and it is amazing to be in such an academic atmosphere.
WORDS OF THE DAY:
Because I’ve faltered as of late, there are multiple words
of the day today. Enjoy!
Aubergine: n. a vegetable with purple skin and fleshy
interior. Syn: Eggplant.
Croquette: n. a vegetable with green or yellow skin and a
cucumber-like interior. Syn: Zucchini.
Literally (pronounced: lit-tral-lee): adv. when something
means exactly as the person says it does. e.g. Believe it or not, there were
literally only five people attending that amazing performance!
Quid: n. slang for an amount of money. Syn: Bucks. e.g. How
much did you pay for those trousers? Oh, they were a great bargain, only 8 quid
at Primark!
Rubbish: n. 1. Items that are of no further use and are
discarded. Syn. Trash, garbage. 2. Something that is completely and totally
ridiculous. e.g. I can’t believe they served those terrible carrots for dinner
again. They were completely rubbish!
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