NationStates Jolt Archive

I’m interested in hearing about your major academic projects and accomplishments, or projects still under way.

I’ll start with myself, an economics student. I’m currently half way through my honours dissertation on the importance of state business cycles in Australia. I’m also working on a major article about the relationship between inflation and interest rates (mainly the Fisher effect) in Australia, which dismisses all past Australian Fisher effect research as erroneous.

Lets hear about what you’ve added (or are planning to add) to the academic world.

Oooh, my favorite subject...ME!!

I'm currently working on my PhD thesis, a study of the structure and function of second-order vestibular neurons which participate in the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

My senior thesis in undergrad was a study of how monoamine neurotransmitters impact precocial foraging behavior in ant species.

Oooh, my favorite subject...ME!!

I'm currently working on my PhD thesis, a study of the structure and function of second-order vestibular neurons which participate in the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

My senior thesis in undergrad was a study of how monoamine neurotransmitters impact precocial foraging behavior in ant species.

:eek::D

I have to write one of those thingies in a year or so.....I have no doubt mine won't be as cool as yours. (because my degree isn't as cool as yours)

:eek::D

I have to write one of those thingies in a year or so.....I have no doubt mine won't be as cool as yours. (because my degree isn't as cool as yours)

Can't possibly be as uncool as an essay making a case for interpretation of certain video games and their storylines as New Media.

Yeah, I'm a geek. :p

Can't possibly be as uncool as an essay making a case for interpretation of certain video games and their storylines as New Media.

Yeah, I'm a geek. :p

I have no clue about what I might write about, but I am very sure it will be a long drawn out process and I will hate/love every minute of it.

:)I have no clue about what I might write about, but I am very sure it will be a long drawn out process and I will hate/love every minute of it.

Neither did I up until about 5 minutes before I started writing it, and if it's not a long process with a love/hate relationship then it isn't worth doing. :)

*edit: perhaps you could write about your recent rise to apparent NSG superstardom and it's effect on the society here ;)

:eek::D

I have to write one of those thingies in a year or so.....I have no doubt mine won't be as cool as yours. (because my degree isn't as cool as yours)
I gotta be honest, I think the subject material of my senior thesis was cooler than my PhD thesis. But I find social insects totally amazing and fascinating, so that might just be my personal taste.

What I love about my PhD thesis is that it involves so many different techniques. It's great from a training standpoint. By the time I'm done, I will have experience with immunohistochemistry, three different types of microscopy, electrophysiology, and a host of brain slice and brain chunk dissection methods.

Plus I get to look at lots of neurons, which--in my humble opinion--are the most beautiful cells in the body.

:eek::D

I have to write one of those thingies in a year or so.....I have no doubt mine won't be as cool as yours. (because my degree isn't as cool as yours)

What degree are you doing?

What degree are you doing?

M.S. in HDFS with a specialization in early childhood education.

HDFS = Human Development and Family Science

I built a little heightmap-rendering engine (for terrain, but any heightmap would work) which let you write plugin DLLs to do the actual rendering and detail-reduction, swap between them, etc. It also did dynamic loading.

It doesn't sound impressive, but it was (accidentally) unique, pretty interesting, scored 65%, and got me a 2:1 on my Masters. So not all bad.

My dissertation was on power in the reign of Edward VI, something I consider to be a very interesting topic but to which the usual response is 'when was that?'

It was going to be on something even more interesting - Cold War nuclear bunkers in Essex (there's 14 of the buggers, don'tcha know) - but then the would-be supervisor for that one got pregnant...

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that during the reign of Edward VI, power was lusted after and abused in pretty much equal measure. Who would have thought.

I may get an essay of mine published titled "Social Darwinism Verses Animalistic Evolution in McTeague: Why Leave the City?"


*shrug* Well, it interested me :)

It was going to be on something even more interesting - Cold War nuclear bunkers in Essex (there's 14 of the buggers, don'tcha know) - but then the would-be supervisor for that one got pregnant...

I've always found the idea of living in one of those appealing. Are they expensive?

Nuclear bunkers, not pregnant project supervisors :p

I've always found the idea of living in one of those appealing. Are they expensive?

Nuclear bunkers, not pregnant project supervisors :p
To build, buy or rent? :p Expensive, expensive and expensive, I imagine.

The ones in Essex are mainly tiny ones in council buildings, but there is a large one at Kelvedon Hatch that the prime minister and select members of the Cabinet would have lived in in the case of nuclear war. It's now a museum, and is actually quite a fun way to spend an afternoon.

To build, buy or rent? :p Expensive, expensive and expensive, I imagine.

The ones in Essex are mainly tiny ones in council buildings, but there is a large one at that the prime minister and select members of the Cabinet would have lived in in the case of nuclear war. It's now a museum, and is actually quite a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Ah well, never mind. Too rich for my blood then, probably.

OK, cool. I'll try and remember that and pop by if I'm ever in the area. That looks like the kind of thing I'd like :)

My Masters thesis in political science was titled "Horrific Politics and the Politics of Horror." It was a theoretical analysis of horror fiction in literature and film.

I have also co-authored a paper with Rick Matthews (Lehigh University) titled "Jefferson Un-Locked: The Rousseauan Moment in America." It is currently at press.

I just finished helping Drucilla Cornell (Rutgers University) with her new book, "Clint Eastwood and American Masculinity." Not a co-authored work, but I had a significant influence on its development and I'm very proud of it--plus it will mean a fantastic recommendation letter from one of the top philosophers living today.

Finally, I am currently on Chapter One of my Ph.D. dissertation in political theory, titled "Freedom's Paradox: Hoping against Hope in a Freedom of the Will."

I wrote an essay and gave a presentation on Proxy Wars throughout the Cold War...and I had to do another project and presentation on America throughout the 20th Century

well i dropped out of uni in my second year, but my A level economics coursework was pretty damn good! it was on the relative economic welfare of russia and poland post breakup of the USSR.

however recently for work i've just completed (well, almost) a 400 page market research project on the state of local foods in Wales for the welsh assembly. i'm proud of it :)

My last bit of big coursework was about how liberty, justice and decency was presented in 1984. I got a B for it :).

I wonder what I'll have to do at university. I'll be doing a Combined Hnours in Journalism and English Litreature.

Oooh, my favorite subject...ME!!

I'm currently working on my PhD thesis, a study of the structure and function of second-order vestibular neurons which participate in the vestibulo-ocular reflex.

My senior thesis in undergrad was a study of how monoamine neurotransmitters impact precocial foraging behavior in ant species.

I have very little idea what this means. I recall neurons, neurotransmitters and ants; but the other words leave me scared and confused.

I did a Synoptic study in Philosophy (basically a big chunk of coursework worth 20% of the entire A-level) on David Hume's contribution to the Philosophy of Religion. That was cool, as I got to include a lot of evolutionary science when discussing the Teleological argument and I also got to skip all my Philosophy lessons and work independently as nobody else was doing my topic and the teachers weren't teaching it. I don't find out what grade I got for it 'til 14th August though. :(

Eh. Never had to write a formal paper, aside from term finals, which I pretty much can't even remember. I usually got high marks, though, so they must've made enough sense at the time. :p

My senior thesis was effect of tcp and congestion avoidance on performance in a wireless environment.

My masters "Project" For networking (Thesis included) was the implementation an study of large scale modeling accuracy and predictions in a 6000 + node distributed environment

My Masters "Project" For my security masters was correlation and prediction metrics for intrusion precursors.

My diss. focus was on robotics, looking into basic reactive "thinking" to various environments; my previous major project was trying to program a solar system model (for a second-year project I found that much harder to go through than the dissertation) :confused:
I still have most of the robot I built, but had to give the microprocessor back to the department after the demo :(

My major last and biggest major academic project was for a Class the functionally worked as a senior thesis in Poli Sci: Constitutional Design.

The catalog describes it as: "Basic empirical, normative, and analytic principles of constitutional design are used to develop a constitution for a fictitious country."

We were given a detailed overview of a semi-fictional country (based on the Solomon Islands, with a few tweaks), for which we had to write a constitution and give a detailed explanation/defense/"Federalist Papers".

I ended up writting around 150 pages.

In another year or so I'm probably going to do some research in to the correlation between resource and labor intensity and the deterioration of growth rates in the Eastern Bloc. I'd also like to look in to the relationship between the spending patterns of the early 1970's and the rise in infant mortality/stagnation of life expectancy in the Sovet Union.

All in due time, however. I'd like to get a few more economics courses under my belt so that I can look at more angles of the situation and find a good place to focus my efforts.

My sister recently finished her phd, on something to do with enzymes and the liver/stomach, I don't know the details as I'm a music student and more physics-based in terms of scientific knowledge. I've thought about whether I want to continue after I finish my undergrad degree, but I think it may be better to get straight into industry. However, my mind may well change over the next 2 years.

When I think back on my academic papers, I feel they were a waste of my time.

Formal papers that I've written on the job have changed companies and changed the lives of thousands of people all at once.

I feel they were by far the most important things I've written.

I have a bachelor's degree from Yale University in Political Science, with a background in international political economies. My honors thesis was written on how developing nations could apply certain economic and political principles in order to spurn development, and the potential pitfalls these strategies might have.

I have a Juris Doctorate from Harvard University School of Law. Following lawschool I have completed specialized training in Uniform Commercial Code governed transactions especially security agreements. Additionally following receiving my JD I clerked for a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

I have a bachelor's degree from Yale University in Political Science, with a background in international political economies. My honors thesis was written on how developing nations could apply certain economic and political principles in order to spurn development, and the potential pitfalls these strategies might have.

I have a Juris Doctorate from Harvard University School of Law. Following lawschool I have completed specialized training in Uniform Commercial Code governed transactions especially security agreements. Additionally following receiving my JD I clerked for a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The question I have is - do you think the things you've written while working are more important than the things you wrote while studying?

The question I have is - do you think the things you've written while working are more important than the things you wrote while studying?

Well I don't really work in my undergraduate field, so i tis hard to define that work as "important".

However writing in lawschool is as much about form as it is about content. Legal wirting is effectively a form of technical writing. It has a specific form and structure and methodology to it. Writing a brief is certainly not like writing an essay. As such writing in law school, even on hypothetical matters, was important to me as it helped develop a background in legal writing.

That being said, when I clerked on the first circuit I helped draft opinions that are now constitutional law. So I mean, it's hard to top that.

Of course, one could say that I would have never had the opportunity to do the work I did in my profession had I not done the work I did as a student.

This past year I did an undergrad thesis project where I determined the age of a globular cluster and this September I'll be starting my Masters and doing a project where I'll be determining the emission and absorption lines for a certain molecule that my prof thinks is around a particular star (so I get to see if he's right or not :p).

This past year I did an undergrad thesis project where I determined the age of a globular cluster and this September I'll be starting my Masters and doing a project where I'll be determining the emission and absorption lines for a certain molecule that my prof thinks is around a particular star (so I get to see if he's right or not :p).

I didn't think complex molecules existed in close proximity to stars...

M.S. in HDFS with a specialization in early childhood education.

HDFS = Human Development and Family Science

Through OSU? Do you know Dr. Gary Conti?

Through OSU? Do you know Dr. Gary Conti?

know, is such a relative term......know of? sure. could pick out in a line up? yes. would he know who I was? doubtful.

know, is such a relative term......know of? sure. could pick out in a line up? yes. would he know who I was? doubtful.

Perhaps I should have asked if you ever had him as the professor in any of your classes. I did and think he is a great prof. We are on the opposite end of the educational philosophy scale but we respect each other's point of view. If you ever have the opportunity to take one of his classes don't hesitate to do so.

Perhaps I should have asked if you ever had him as the professor in any of your classes. I did and think he is a great prof. We are on the opposite end of the educational philosophy scale but we respect each other's point of view. If you ever have the opportunity to take one of his classes don't hesitate to do so.

haven't had the pleasure yet, but I get my new schedule at the end of next month, I don't even know what classes I have left before I have to start to work on my thesis (that is if my doctor lets me go back to school at all)

haven't had the pleasure yet, but I get my new schedule at the end of next month, I don't even know what classes I have left before I have to start to work on my thesis (that is if my doctor lets me go back to school at all)

I hope your you do get back to school an I wish you the best. The thesis isn't that bad. Lots of research, lots of books, magazines, and articles on the table, computer desk, and floor. Lot's of colored marker tabs sticking out of all that stuff lying around. Lots of writing and editing, but it's all worth it. Actually, my paper wasn't technically classified as a thesis it was a "Masters project." I ended up doing two projects one of which was published and 36 hours. Sometimes I miss school. It can be so much fun and a lot of work. I think the Masters program was a lot easier than the BA program. Well, it was more fun.

I hope your you do get back to school an I wish you the best. The thesis isn't that bad. Lots of research, lots of books, magazines, and articles on the table, computer desk, and floor. Lot's of colored marker tabs sticking out of all that stuff lying around. Lots of writing and editing, but it's all worth it. Actually, my paper wasn't technically classified as a thesis it was a "Masters project." I ended up doing two projects one of which was published and 36 hours. Sometimes I miss school. It can be so much fun and a lot of work. I think the Masters program was a lot easier than the BA program. Well, it was more fun.

what is your masters in?

and I got to choose between doing a master's project and a thesis, and I just thought everyone should have the experience of writing a thesis and since I am going to school for fun......it sounds really fun!

My school day consists of getting coffee for my teacher -- while telling her how disappointed I am because she wanted decaf. I then sneak in a little time for my own little breakfast with all the 80 year olds at Arby's. Then I usually spend the rest of the day designing ads.

My class work is too uneventful to be considered "major"..

I was found adequate to graduate from high school.

Does that get me anything?

If all goes as planned, I'll finish my bachelor in nanotechnology engineering in a year. The latest project was on polymer embedded magnetic particles, and I hope to do some solid state matter tweaking later on.

what is your masters in?

MS Ed in Occupational and Adult Education (OAED). I actually ended up doing two projects. One was a research paper about how to get minorities and women interested in aviation careers. That paper ended up getting published in an obscure, and now defunct, peer reviewed journal. The other was revising the curriculum for a program that uses aviation and space to teach math and science to at risk kids.

I was found adequate to graduate from high school.

Does that get me anything?

A start in life on your own. :p

MS Ed in Occupational and Adult Education (OAED). I actually ended up doing two projects. One was a research paper about how to get minorities and women interested in aviation careers. That paper ended up getting published in an obscure, and now defunct, peer reviewed journal. The other was revising the curriculum for a program that uses aviation and space to teach math and science to at risk kids.

those both sound like really important subjects..... I am having that "I will never think of something interesting and important to do" days. (well, it's been a week now)

those both sound like really important subjects..... I am having that "I will never think of something interesting and important to do" days. (well, it's been a week now)

You could try looking through recent journals in your field; specifically at the end of the articles where they suggest what should be the next area of research.

Either that or harass an academic; their always full of daft ideas, but since they also know what academic's look for in a paper...

A couple of papers come immediately to mind:

1) University of Wisconsin-Madison -- Criminology class

I was writing an anti-DP (death penalty) paper, giving (and backing up) the usual reasons why the DP is totally invalid/illogical. It was a Wednesday night, and the paper was due the next day. The minimum length requirement for this paper was eight pages.

Of course, I'd put the project off until that Wednesday. I'd gone out and copied/checked out/printed my supporting info earlier in the day (which I would loosely plagiarize. hehe).

So I sat down and started typing on my lap top comp, in my room, at maybe 4pm.

I got to about page 6 and realized I was hungry. It must have been, oh, 7-8pm or so. So I saved the progress to my disk, shut down the computer, and went down to La Bamba for a burrito as big as my head (on State Street -- La Bamba has since closed, sadly).

I got back, switched on my comp, double-clicked the disk and then double-clicked the file, and received the following error message: I/O Error.

Shit

So I started over.

I re-wrote the first six pages (more or less -- this was half BS, so I wasn't able to go verbatim) and then finished it by writing five more, for a total of 11pages. I wrote 17 pages, with no research done beforehand, between 4pm and about 2am. Take out several smoke breaks, room invasions from house pals, and the trip to La Bamba... and I wrote those 17 pages in about 8.5 hours.

I cited eight sources... but, like I said, the crux of the paper was 5 or 6 main points against the DP, putting in a supporting quote or two from a resource, and then BSing for a page or so about why it makes sense that that point detracts from the validity of the DP.

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2) Belmont University -- MBA -- Corporate Financial & Managerial Accounting

We had to write a 10-page paper explaining how a line item change on a financial statement would affect a company.

This was the worst -- dryest, most boring, and I hate accounting on top of it -- paper assignment I have ever received.

It was BONE DRY. I have never bullshitted so cluelessly in my life. What I handed to the prof was shit, and she told me, and told me to re-write it.

So I did. I still had no clue, but apparently did a better job at making up some changes that could follow (or precede, I guess) a line item change, so I got a B.

ROFL

That was the worst.

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My favorite papers to write were Sociology papers. The class was called "Population Problems" at UW.

I distinctly remember one assignment:

We were given two statistics for a population. Based on those two statistics, we were to use them to extrapolate an overall description of the population.

Total bullshit. But in this case, it allowed me to use my imagination, which I loved.