Linden + Jello

Semester Countdown

Here is my Interactive Information Retrieval class (IIR) - with Dr. Diane Kelly (far left). I learned a TON in this class - quite a learning curve but so many more things make sense now. For my final project I designed an experiment that would evaluate the use of automatic keyphrase extraction in web search results on a mobile device. Obviously since real estate on a handheld is extremely limited it's important to make every action and display efficient and effective for the user. Using an algorithm to extract keyphrases from the list of Google search results and display those keyphrases (instead of default metadata which is inconsistent at best) might better serve the user in determining which items are most relevant.

Anyway this was a really fun group. So now I've got 3 things left:
1. literature review for doctoral seminar (on visual display - but needs a lot of work)
2. statistics take-home exam
3. significant amount of work for Dr. Helen Tibbo

But then it's break time! We're heading to Virginia to stay with my folks for a few days - my sister Rebecca and Jim will also be there. I might also drive down to South Carolina to pick up my grandmother and bring her up to Virginia with us. Then we'll drive to Illinois to see Dave's family.

The fun begins again on January 8th!

Dave started his new job last week at Porticos. They work with Sony Ericcson in engineering and designing cell phones...probably other things too but that's what I know. It's a really small company and Dave will probably work much of the time over at the Sony Ericcson facility in Research Triangle.

Linden is doing great, she's learning to write her name. She spent a week up at my parents home in Charlottesville so I could get some more school work done. Parents are just the best, huh? They came down and helped us fix up the house and prepare a fabulous Thanksgiving feast.

-rachael

Below is Linden's first YouTube video!

Family Football

Playing indoor football with Papa

Fall in Chapel Hill

What a coincidence - just like the last post I am (or should be) wrestling with statistics. Whew, I've almost got the t-test down although the degrees of freedom thing is still a little fuzzy. [degrees of freedom here are not roll, pitch and yaw...]

So school is going well, learning new things everyday. Today I got to see a dissertation defense for the first time. At this point the doctoral candidate has completed comps, successfully defended their dissertation proposal, done the research and completed the dissertation. This was Ron Brown and he did work in exploring how teachers use a digital video library, specifically NASA's Educational Media Archive. I was also impressed (and perhaps frightened) by the sheer size of the dissertation - like 2.5" thick.

Last week I took Dave to a Interactionary Design Competition hosted by the Triangle Usability group which was really fun. After the keynote three teams of 4 usability professionals (web designers, interface designers) were given a design challenge - they had 10 minutes to come up with a solution. In that 10 minutes they can interact with the audience to do some "usability testing" and get feedback. The challenge this time had them design a Presidential voting system with 2 requirements: it must allow users to hear and see what each candidate says about hot issues; it must allow users to change their vote and move it to the leading candidate if they didn't vote for that person initially. Interesting stuff.

So Linden is learning to write some letters - her favorites are A, C, L and R. And she is picking up words and phrases that often surprise me. For example in the store the other day she said "Look Mom - check it out!" 'Check it out'??? That just doesn't sound right coming from a 3-year-old.

Dave is contemplating a job offer but also interested in contract work with Millen's, so we'll see what happens in the next few days. He has also been exploring some of the mountain biking trails here - they are pretty different from Carbon Canyon and Whiting Ranch terrain in SoCal. You don't have to worry about cactus and mountain lions here but it's pretty easy to get disoriented in the tall trees.

Last thing - the picture in the upper corner of this post is REAL - I'm not kidding - this 'thing' was actually in our garage. Actually there have been two of these so far. I remember someone saying a while back that this area has the most bizarre bugs. Yikes!

Okay, back to statistical significance.

Unpacking

Almost all the boxes have been emptied and taken to the recycling center; most of our stuff is somewhat organized; the paint is dry. Whew, it's a lot of work to get settled in while starting a graduate program - I don't know where I got the idea that the first month or so would be fairly light?!? Thankfully my folks came down to help us put things together and shape up the yard.

Anyway Linden enjoys our neighborhood as she can ride her tricycle to the small lake in 5 minutes to feed the ducks. Although the pool is now closed, the playground offers lots of fun. We finally found a preschool f0r her - quite an ordeal as every place gets booked a year in advance. But it's really small (i.e. only 3 other kids) and Ms Latha and Ms Radica are wonderful. Linden's vocabulary has increased dramatically with their help.

I put a few photos of the house in the Flickr set. We decided to repurpose the master bedroom for a family workroom - basically a place to keep Linden's toys and games.

So I am 7 weeks into the doctoral program here at SILS - taking three courses (Statistics, Interactive Information Retrieval and the doctoral seminar a.k.a. baby docs). Learning a ton of totally new stuff.

I am working for Dr. Helen Tibbo on an Institutional Repository project for the Digital Library at Carolina. An IR is an online space devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to the intellectual output of a university (faculty research, data sets, administrative records, university archival material). This basically falls into the area of digital archives - Helen and Dr. Cal Lee are two of the most prominent researchers in this field. So perhaps I will follow the digital curation path.

The IIR class focuses on the intersection of a systems-approach and a cognitive-approach to designing information retrieval tools. Much of the work in this area is conducted by TREC the Text REtrieval Conference. (One of my favorite things is that retired CIA folks typically participate as TREC relevance evaluators - how cool!)

The doctoral seminar is led by Dr. Gary Marchionini and there are about 12 other newbies in my cohort. They are from all over the place geographically and in terms of background. Research interests range from information visualization, bioinfomatics, hard-core information retrieval systems and information seeking behavior of various groups.

I have so enjoyed getting to know everyone here and spend hours everyday in the doctoral study room (working hard of course!) - there's a picture in the Flickr set of my little cubicle.

The campus here at UNC is absolutely gorgeous - mostly really old brick buildings with a very East Coast feel. The town of Chapel Hill is relatively small and the bus system is extensive and free so almost no one actually drives to campus (which is a good thing as there is very little parking).

I put up my new webpage: www.unc.edu/~rclemens and hope to be able to add lots under the "Research" section.

Better get busy finishing this stats take-home exam, sigh.

BTW: My new email is: rclemens@unc.edu

Vanishing Month

Well - somehow I have let an entire month elapse without updating this blog - SHAME! But we did indeed finish our journey to Chapel Hill. After Yellowstone we headed across Wyoming to Cheyenne. Very pretty country.

The entire next day was spent driving across Nebraska. I never imagined the sheer volume of corn fields - amazing - just miles and miles and miles of corn fields. Guess that's where all our high fructose corn syrup comes from.

Then we stayed a night in Lincoln, Nebraska and I must say that really seemed like a hip town! I'm sure winters are fierce but we really enjoyed the downtown area.

Then we headed to Dave's folks home in Millstadt, Illinois. We got to see a large percentage of the Clemens clan there: Jim and Jo Ann; Karen, Isaiah and Peter were up from Mississippi; Mary and Bill (and Doodle) and even Bill's mother from Modoc; Diane and Jan and MaryJane (Grandma Siebe); Dan and Julie, Jordan and Nicky.

Spade (the giant black dog) made quite an impression on Linden - she now refers to almost any large dog as 'Spade'. She and Isaiah had a grand time playing on the wagons (you can see in the photos).

We took the 64 down to Nashville - and then across Tennessee to Knoxville. Dave would not let us stop in Dollywood but we spent a bit of time in the Great Smokey Mountains. My grandparents took us to the Smokey Mountains when we were kids - and I distinctly remember meeting 'Chief Fish'. I believe he was still there.

We stayed in Asheville, NC and the next day headed for Chapel Hill. We picked up the keys to our new house and arrived very thankful that the electricity was on. Fortunately the AC is electric as it was over 100 degrees everyday for over two weeks.

I'll put up the next post soon about our arrival and orientation to Chapel Hill.

-Rachael

Yellowstone

Nothing terribly exciting on Saturday except for the sandstorm outside of Salt Lake City. We made it to Ogden, Utah for the night and on Sunday morning we went to church at Calvary Baptist Church. This was my father's first church after seminary - and he was pastor 1974-1976. We had a GREAT time there - Pastor Willie Martin and his wife Louise made us feel right at home. Walking around the church - much of it looks the same - although they've really done a nice renovation of the downstairs fellowship hall and nursery. Everything looks smaller than I remember - but I guess I'm a lot bigger now! They treated us to lunch at the 'Chuck-A-Rama' which was terrific.

We didn't hit the road until after 4:00 p.m. as we stopped by our old house on Ben Lomond Drive in Ogden. I didn't spot it the first drive down the block but there it was - a little brick house with a nice backyard. We made it to Jackson on Sunday night and finally found a room at the Wagon Wheel Inn.

On Monday we drove through the Teton National Park and then into Yellowstone. That's four National Parks - so we've already paid for our annual pass! We spent that night camping at Lake Lewis which is just a few miles into the park.

One side note: in case you didn't know, the 67th Annual Sturgis Rally is taking place this week in South Dakota. This is a HUGE gathering of motorcycle folks who flock here from all over the country (like tens of thousands). So Yellowstone was packed with Harley's. I mention this only because the sound of the un-muffled motorcycle is everywhere.

Early on Tuesday (well around 11:00) we lucked into a fabulous campsite on Yellowstone Lake - literally overlooking the water. We built a fire at night to roast marshmallows - YUM! We took in Old Faithful which erupts with some consistency - the rangers predict the next blast based upon the previous pattern.

[Myths: Old Faithful erupts every hour on the hour; the Rangers can turn it on / off; you can set your clock by it]

During our trek through Yellowstone we saw bison/buffalo, elk, squirrels, chipmunks, and ravens. They have both black bear and grizzly bear in the park - but we didn't see any which was okay with me.

We spent Wednesday driving across the big sky country of Wyoming and spent the night in Cheyenne. Lots of cowboys out here - real ones that wear spurs. Thursday we hit Nebraska - CORN CORN CORN - literally miles of corn growing in fields. We arrived in Lincoln last night and it really looks like a neat city. We're staying right downtown and plan to check out the beautiful capitol building.

More later