Sunday, August 9, 2009

August the Ninth

Current schedule for Fall 2009:

CORE
ChE 535 3 Graduate Reaction Engineering
Chem 457 2 Physical Chemistry Lab
NOT-REALLY-CLASSES
Engr 497I 0.5 Teaching Intern Orientation
LA 498H 1 Honors Orientation
ChE 494H 3 Honors Research
ChE 496 3 Independent Study
DEFINITELY-NOT-GOING
BMB 400 2 Molecular Genetics
ChE 320 3 Phase and Chemical Equilibrium (Web)

Total Credits: 17.5 (10 of courses, 6 of research, 1.5 of orientations)

May just audit ChE 320; may just skip BMB 400 (5 credits overall)
========================
Current schedule for Spring 2010:

CORE
ChE 470 3 ChemE Design
ChE 480M 2 ChemE Lab
Chem 452 3 Quantum Chem
Chem 466 3 Statistical Thermo
NOT-REALLY-CLASSES
ChE 494H 3 Honors Research
ChE 496 3 Independent Study

Total Credits: 17 (11 of courses, 6 of research)

May just skip Chem 452 (3 credits)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

June the 16th

Carnivorous Plant Toolkit:

Sterile Microcentrifuge Tubes
Sterile 1mL Pipette Tips
1mL Pipetteman

Sterile 25mL graduated cylinder
Sterile 500mL distilled water
Sterile Forceps
Sterile Spoonulas

Timer
Tabletop centrifuge
Bleach
Tween-20
=============
Species:
  1. D. capensis "Narrow"
  2. D. capensis "Albino"
  3. D. burmannii
  4. D. tokaiensis
Technique:

http://brandon.curtis.googlepages.com/carnivorousplants4

Friday, April 3, 2009

April the Third

So... that bike ride never happened. I ran into a prospective student on my way out, and I put the hour toward a tour of the place instead. After that I tutored physics and got half-price dinner at Pita Pit, and planned to finish off the night with a physics lab. Unsurprisingly, I got distracted in Fenske... and ended up spending ~5 hours teaching material balances and thermodynamics to a group of students that had gathered.

It's almost 5am again... and probably a good time to look at tomorrow.

A Full Day

1200-1400 Tutoring (organic chemistry)
-- Lunch and coordination with home --
-- Review Session planning --
1640-1730 ChE 340 Review
1800-2300 Ag Ball

The Weekend

-- Review Session Coordination --
1400-1800 OChem Review Session
-- Apartment Redux --

The Further Weekend

-- All day reserved for biochemical engineering --

Thursday, April 2, 2009

April the Second

This morning I got caught up with some organizational stuff in my apartment, and ended up skipping my first class (along with my last two classes as well!) I managed to sort through all kinds of junk from home, and filter out a good many useful things that I had lost (gloves) or didn't know I had (a million pens). Feeling very well-armed for the day, I DID make it to my second class almost on-time.

Speaking of filtering... apparently bovine serum albumin is used as a stand-in for antibodies in viral filtration studies? BSA is a model protein, but it binds non-specifically to lipids, other proteins, and itself, thanks to hydrophobic patches on the outside of the molecule. Nothing indicates to me that anything learned from BSA would carry over to actual monoclonal antibody production. This is something to look into.

After class, I spent a solid two hours on my network sync project, helping it along by manually transferring files on a 300GB removable hard drive. All of my stuff is almost sync'ed! Once it is, I can begin the long, slow process of organizing everything and doing manual 'version control', culling out the junk that's outdated or no longer useful.

As part of my file management, I've taken to re-learning some Windows command prompt stuff: http://commandwindows.com/command2.htm
Very useful, for anyone who does anything remotely administrative.

My internet domain is almost completely set up! Obviously this account transferred without a hitch, but my Logical Extreme site is also going along as planned: I have Google Apps installed and working on it, and I have all of the FTP and DNS stuff worked out so that my own content uploads and displays correctly. The plan is to use this as a model to show the utility of this hybrid Google/Custom HTML system for managing teams (more specifically, for dealing with the complexities that arise when a single academic research project has active members that are separated by distance and time). Could this turn itself into a business? Dunno if the market is large enough, but it's always worth a shot.

More after the break... weather is just too nice, and it's time for some cycling before I tutor and prep for tonight's physics lab.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

March the Twenty-Seventh

*Wakeup* (11am)
Tutoring (12-3pm)
Mentoring stuff
ChE 340
Dinner
Nap (8-12am)
*Sleep* (6am)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

March the Twenty-Fifth

*wakeup*
Major OChem Review (all non-rxn Midterm 3 material)
-- breakfast --
12:00-3:00 Tutoring - Chem 210 and BMB 251
Head back to apartment to clean up...
Reformat refurbished hard drive (with external adapter)
-- Dinner -- (quesadillas with Ben)
4:30 - 6:00 ChE 340

AIChE Signup (extended until April 8th!)
Collect some research direction from emails
Backup to Transfer Drive

Review ChE 210, 220 material
Apartment Phys 214:
  • ( ) Read chapters 33, 34
  • ( ) Prewrite lab report
Begin prepping OChem Review Powerpoint
======================

BMB 402
  • Finish "electron transport chain" readings
ChE 597C
  • Organize Website
Other
  • Rescue plants; check on CPTC
  • Rebuild transfer hard drive
  • Activate sync on P4_H2O
  • Learn how to use RefWorks
  • Pfalzcraft warranty information
  • Jesse's Project
===========================================
AIChE Regionals (Mid-Atlantic)

Very little information available!
  • Register for $65 until April 8th
  • Register for $80 until the day-of
  • Paper and Poster Competitions require the following:
    Name, Email, Institution, Research Area and Topic
    Description of the Paper/Poster
  • AIChE Paper Competition website

RHODOBACTER:
Pushing forward the HERSHEY collaboration seems like something that could be done with minimal effort since they are very interested and very excited about potential of isotopic labeling.
BRANDON ... do the sell N-15 labeled yeast extract?
The primary NMR work would be done with just N-15 labeling and not carbon. Some planning there would also be useful.

Building a floatation meter (with multiple LEDs) is still something i would like to undertake ASAP. Working with the details of the algae floatimeter would lend directly to constructing a simple flow through device to monitor absorption ratio for example for a computer controlled feed strategy for a reactor.

RHODOBACTER:
BRANDON, we need to push hard for a conference call with ARGONNE - tomorrow if possible.
Push for new round of data as well as cloning maps for planning.
I will send email this AM.
Clearly need to take a shot at draft of Woodward grant to get that off dead center.
The details of what Hershey will do will have to be super crudely sketched out to help them start filling in blanks.
I sent letter to NIH to request ability to update the NIH-RO1 proposal for the updated strategy for membrane proteins with Hershey.


Tuesday, March 24, 2009

March the Twenty-Fourth

*wakeup*
Shower; file download
-- breakfast --
8:45-9:45 Tutoring - Chem 212
9:45-12:30 Class

Head back to apartment to work on Phys 214:
  • (X) Set up WebAssign
  • ( ) Read first chapter (33)
  • ( ) Do first WebAssign (Hwk 2)
  • ( ) Prewrite lab report
4:00-5:00 Tutoring - Phys 250
-- dinner --

Review ChE 210, 220 material
Begin prepping OChem Review (aromatics)
======================

BMB 402

  • Finish "electron transport chain" readings
ChE 597C
  • Organize Website
Research
  • AIChE Presentation details
Other
  • Rescue plants; check on CPTC
  • Rebuild transfer hard drive
  • Activate sync on P4_H2O
  • Learn how to use RefWorks

Chemical Engineering
  • Experimental Design
  • Rational Data Fitting
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Numerical Methods and Modeling
  • Biochemical Thermodynamics
  • Molecular Stability, Enzymes and Kinetics, Concentration, Pathways and Regulation
Thought: teach a ChemE 'overview course' that treats the cell as a chemical reactor!