Six Dissertation Strategies

It’s so much easier to say it now that we’re into 2014 and the holidays are over (though I’ve got a Christmas tree to take down still). I hope with the blessing of 20/20 hindsight, your holidays went well and precious time was spent with loved ones.

 To me, the end of the holidays and the beginning of the year indicate that it is time to focus more than ever on completing my dissertation and ultimately a decade of post-secondary education. Naturally, with each passing day I struggle more to stay focused because anyone in this position has a lot on their mind. For me, I’ve got my mind on what I’m doing to be doing next, trying to decide exactly what I want versus need to be doing next, how to make the leap to the next step (which, for once, won’t be more schooling), and how to balance all of these nailbiters with my husband. Regardless, all of these changes have the ability to be really good, but they can be so darn distracting!

 I have managed to figure out a few strategies that help me stay focused on that end goal.

• Even if you’re just working on it at home in your pyjamas, schedule a minimum amount of time each day that is dedicated to dissertation work. More is better, but on those lazy days it seems much easier to put in the time if it’s staring me down in my Google Calendar.
• Have some healthy snacks and beverages available. I’ve met many grad students who swear by a bottle of wine to get the creative juices flowing. I think it’s merely important to make sure your thirst or hungry can be sated at arm’s reach. If you’ve got to get up for something, you’re going to get distracted.
• Take breaks. If you’ve been working for a few hours and your hands aren’t typing things correctly or you can’t seem to conjure up the right word, set it down. You might need more than fifteen minutes, you might need a few hours, but stop. The dissertation process is too long and arduous to let yourself get frustrated if you’ve already put in some time.
• Back up your work! Don’t go more than a day or two without emailing your work to yourself, saving it to Dropbox, or putting it on a thumb drive. If you do go the wine route and you knock the bottle over onto your laptop, you’ll want to be able to pick up, almost, where you left off.
• Kick the cats out of the room. I don’t know about you, but my cats are pretty awesome. They’re so awesome that they’re usually big distractions. Even if Sylvester is curled up in my lap behaving himself, he’s a distraction. I want to pet him. I want to give him little cat kisses. He’s just so darn cute!
• Get enough sleep. This may be last time in your life until retirement that you have a lot of control over your sleep schedule basically all of the time. Sleep until you can’t sleep anymore. A good night’s sleep is truly the best medicine for the ability to focus. The dissertation process is relatively long, you should have enough time for an entire night of sleep.
• Talk about what you’re doing to anyone who will listen. It’s never wise to discuss exact research methods, but talk about the general ideas. It will get you used to what you’re working on and how you want to describe your research and findings. The response from others could really help formulate that last chapter when you’re discussing how your awesome research could translate into awesome future research.

The length of the dissertation process sets it apart from most of the other things you’ll do in school. Good study strategies help but will not necessarily get you all of the way there. Everyone finds their own strategies that help them cross the finish line, these are mine, and I wish you the best in finding your own.

Could I ask you a few questions?

One component of my dissertation research is a pair of surveys. The purpose of the surveys is to find out how individuals and transportation agencies/organizations use social media. I want to understand how useful sharing transportation via social media is.

The survey targeted toward individuals is interested in the types of transportation information people consider best for sharing transportation information, what expectations (if any) they have of transportation agencies on social media, and how well they believe these agencies are using social media. If you’re interested in taking the survey and haven’t already, here’s the link: http://bit.ly/1eH28pa. Those who take either survey may also enter into a drawing to win one of two $25 Amazon gift cards!

The survey targeted toward agencies is interested if they use social media and why or why not, in what information they think is best to share on social media, if and how social media has affected their outreach strategies, and how well they believe they are doing in reaching their desired public. If by the off chance you’re at a transportation agency or organization and work in communications and haven’t already taken the survey, here’s the link http://bit.ly/182vw3X.

In February, the data from each of these sources will be analyzed statistically to hopefully derive what the best practices are in social media use for both agencies and the general public. By surveying both agencies and the public, understanding what is important to each group and what is feasible by each group, these best practices will hopefully be more meaningful than what has been developed so far.

Want to help? Share this post with everyone you think may be interested—social media users or not. If we understand what people need and what agencies are realistically capable of in austere time we can create a better informed transportation network!

Finishing Some Business, Closing a Chapter

With a moving date set, it’s finally real: I’m leaving State College. Of course, I will have to return several times as I work to complete my dissertation and finish the dissertation process. But I won’t have a place in State College to call my own. With less than a month until December 14^th, there are a few things that I would like to do.

I’d like to revisit my favorite nightlife spots. Penn State is known as a party school and the bar scene here is pretty good, or so I’m told. I only really ever went to two places: Café 210 and Bar Bleu. Frankly, my interest in both of those places was driven more by their food specials than anything else. What I also love about these places is that there are places to sit and talk with friends. They aren’t just a meat market.

Centre Hall is also a jewel on the other side of Mount Nittany, home to both my favorite breakfast and dinner places. Brody’s Diner was a recent discovery but stands alone in quality, especially in terms of its homemade French toast. When your French toast begins with homemade bread with the cinnamon swirl baked right in, you’ve got a winner. The Whistle Stop is my favorite place for dinner on a Saturday night, their prime rib special is outstanding and worth the trip from State College. They get bonus points for being in the former Centre Hall train station and for having a proprietress that hails from West Virginia.

The food has been wonderful, but so has the great outdoors. I’ve hiked so many wonderful places, but the egregious omission has been Mount Nittany. Even on weekends where I have stayed close all I want to do is get out of town or the weather has turned on weekends when I have planned to head up, but it’s now or never!

My college roommate, Jenn, and I made a hobby of taking “ridiculously long walks” around Pittsburgh. One of those around campus and downtown State College may be in order, just to commit this place and time to memory forever. My time in State College has been full of ups and downs as well as moments of intense stress and amazing accomplishments, it’s worthy of care in my memory.

Keep an eye out for photos and stories of my last month in the Happy Valley.

Nittany Dawn and Weekends of Fun

My favorite shift to work on the ambulance at Penn State is the day shift. It often begins like this.

Sunrise on a Monday morning in Happy Valley

The sun rising over Tussey Mountain and shining onto Mount Nittany, as seen from the top of the Eisenhower Parking Deck (conveniently located next to the Student Health Center, where the ambulances live). If that isn’t enough to inspire your day, the Berkey Creamery is a stone’s throw away. While the Creamery is known best for its ice cream, I am very fond of its French vanilla coffee. All of this was accomplished in the first hour of my shift on Monday, which alone made the sting of having to return to State College from a wonderful weekend in Morgantown with Chris just a little more gentle.

The trip back to State College would have been uneventful except for the fact it is that wonderful time of year when the deer become particularly stupid. I don’t understand why anyone needs a gun to hunt, if I weren’t careful I’d have had enough venison to last me for years of tasty stews from what the Cavalier would’ve caught. Though seriously, we don’t joke about that… too much. After striking a deer on I-64 near St. Albans, WV in 2009 at 70mph (in said Cavalier), I can attest that it is a terrifying experience.

The highlight of the day on Sunday was catching up with my college friend, Courtney, at Mountain State Brewing Company in Morgantown. We chose Mountain State Brewing because the food is incredibly delicious but it turns out they play Team Bingo on Sunday afternoons. We had never heard of such a thing but had a great time playing four rounds through wonderful food and conversation. They’re famous for their beer and flatbread pizzas, but I must give a shout out for banana pudding and root beer.

This came on the heels of a Saturday that could’ve been three whole days given the activities accomplished. We hiked four miles on the Mon Trail South (and I cut my left middle finger open, woohoo!), went to the 2^nd birthday party for our friend’s daughter, consumed some of the best BBQ in the world (Two Brothers BBQ in Presto, PA), and did all kinds of shopping on the I-79 corridor between Pittsburgh and Morgantown. I made some excellent finds at the newly expanded Hobbytown USA at Robinson and the Tanger Outlets in Washington, PA.

Magnetic alphabet train cars arranged interestingly at the Robinson Hobbytown

Pitching It: Social Media and Transportation

Tomorrow is going to be a big day.

The first part of a PhD program is spent mastering the work of others. It marks the beginning of the process of narrowing down to an area of expertise. In my case, I’ve compiled experience with transportation topics including safety, policy, human factors, design, operations, and network analysis. Ultimately, I found myself most comfortable in safety and intelligent transportation systems. Last school year, I developed topics in conjunction with my advisor in each of these fields.

Emerging in the lead was the use of social media by transportation agencies. You’re probably thinking that’s a pretty light, fluffy subject—especially for someone getting a PhD in Civil Engineering. However, with time, even I’ve become more and more convinced that this research has its merits.

First, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 67% of Americans are regular users of social media. Because so many people use social media, it is important to know if they would use social media for transportation information. If they would, it is important to fully understand what they want to know and how they want to know it. For some agencies, developing social media outreach has been a shot in the dark. Sometimes it’s worked out for the better and, occasionally, it’s been a flop.

Second, some platforms of social media have potential for integration in vehicle infotainment systems. If key traffic information can be delivered to a driver hands-free through their own vehicle, using social media as the means, it could help folks make smarter choices about their routing or trip timing.

Third, as social media has developed as a platform as have other mobile technologies. Over half of all social media use occurs via mobile devices. Because people are spending so much time on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, there could be other, more useful technologies to develop.

Ultimately, the goal is to define the state of social media in transportation organizations, both highway and public transit. Developing this profile poses a challenge because so many agencies have taken so many different approaches to developing their social media programs. To address these differences, three different methodologies are being employed, including surveys aimed toward agencies as well as the general public. A finished product will find the most effective strategies, identify particularly successful Twitter and Facebook feeds, and describe how social media users of the general public want to receive information via social media.

While working on this research, from time to time, I may even solicit your help. It’s only social!

Candidacy

In terms of academics, one thing has weighed heavily on me all summer: the candidacy exam. The purpose of the candidacy exam is to demonstrate that a student is sufficiently proficient in their subject area that they are qualified to add knowledge to the field. For many students pursuing a PhD this is the turning point from taking a full-time course-load to primarily focusing on research for their dissertation.

I had been warned in late April that I would be taking the exam soon. After differences in schedules among faculty members I finally received my dates in early July. Of course, the dates framed my planned great vacation. For my department the candidacy exam comes in three parts: a written essay to demonstrate English proficiency, a technical written exam, and an oral presentation.

My primary concern was the technical written exam. I’m a native English speaker and an experienced public speaker. So long as I did not allow myself to make any foolish mistakes, I felt confident in my performance. The technical written exam, well, that’s a completely different animal. It is nine hours answering some tough questions from four basic subject areas within transportation.

Thankfully, the essay and technical exam were before my vacation. But the oral presentation and the question and answer period on the technical exam came after my vacation. No matter what we did on our vacation, I was mentally going through every single thing I did on the technical exam to try and find faults, so I could share them with the faculty panel, explain the mistake, and beg them not to end my academic career. In retrospect, I was being just a little bit dramatic.

Two days after returning from my vacation I stood before the panel and gave my presentation. I chose to make minor modifications to a presentation I had previously given on the roundabouts in Fairmont, WV. Then, I had to respond to questions about the technical portion of the exam. The intention is simply to determine if a student sufficiently understands the fundamentals of the field, transportation engineering. Of course, regardless of your preparation it feels like you’re being ambushed. The first question in particular threw me for a loop, requiring me to remember basics from courses I took several years ago. While the faculty attempted to help me, I was getting more confused and froze up before the white board. I thought I was doomed. As I continued to answer questions I thought it was worthless because I bombed the first question.

When it was finished, I sat out in the hall certain that the verdict was that I failed.

After what seemed like an eternity, my advisor came out into the hallway with a smile on his face. He shook my hand and said that I passed.

I have a reputation for being tough, but once I was out of ear and eye shot of the faculty panel, I was fighting back the tears.

When I started college, I never imagined I’d be here. I had no plans for a PhD, let alone a PhD in engineering. I was ready to enter college early so I wanted to kill time before becoming a railroad conductor. But now that I’m here and a doctoral candidate, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Blowing in the Wind

One of the greatest benefits to going to a school like Penn State are the opportunities both offered to students and the opportunities students are able to leverage not only because of the university’s name but because at a university as big as Penn State, you can always find a small army of people with the same interest. One such example is a tour of the North Allegheny Wind Farm arranged by the Engineers for a Sustainable World student organization at Penn State. That said, on what felt like the coldest, most miserable morning of February, a small army of students gathered to convoy to the top of Cresson Mountain.

The North Allegheny Wind Farm is comprised of 75 wind turbines atop Cresson Mountain. Indeed, traveling U.S. Route 22 between Pittsburgh and Altoona will take you along the northern boundary of this wind farm. From the road it is difficult to fully appreciate the size of a wind turbine. But the noise you hear from the turbines while traveling the road is indicative of the noise generated by these behemoths.

Looking up to the blades of the turbine from the base you realize how massive these turbines are. From this vantage you also realize that they sound exactly like the wind. The only difference from the wind itself is that the sound does not cease unless the turbine is not operating. But I will be the first to admit, I would not want to live next to or among them, but a mile or more away would likely not differ from living a mile or so away from an industrial facility. In fact, here are two YouTube clips (one and two) of noise generated from wind turbines and you'll hear a significant difference between the two.

Looking up from the base of a turbine

Aside from the turbines, it was also incredible to see how healthy the land was. The streams between the turbines and along the service roads were crystal clear. The vegetation was abundant and the wildlife was described as being abundant, although that was not demonstrated on such a chilly day.

This wind farm could power much of Blair, Bedford, and Cambria counties and occupies land unable to be used for virtually anything else. In this case, the land is a former strip mine and is not close to homes. The fact the noise never ceases, even though it sounds just like the wind, could be a problem for people. I can also imagine that the buffeting may be unsettling if people lived terribly close to these turbines. But if kept a few miles from where people live and considerations are taken for wildlife, wind turbines are a fossil-fuel alternative to power generation.

At the base of a turbine at the North Allegheny Wind Farm

This is Why we THON

In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal it has not always been easy to be a Penn State student. It seems like the entire campus is subject to a greater level of scrutiny even in matters which have no connection to the absolutely tragic situation. But ever the resilient, Penn State students rallied all year to raise money for pediatric cancer. The culmination of these fundraising efforts is lovingly referred to as THON. THON is a 46-hour “dance” marathon, which over the span of the weekend will fill the Bryce Jordan Center to capacity several times.

As a graduate student, THON had largely been a mystery to me. Indeed I thank my EMS coworkers for not only teaching me but getting me excited for THON. THON is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. It is also one of most efficient charities in the world, 96-percent of funds raised go directly to families affected by pediatric cancer or to pediatric cancer research.

I worked as an EMT during THON. This offered a unique vantage point. I was able to explore the BJC and interact with more people than an average spectator. Throughout the weekend I treated dancers, volunteer staff, and spectators. Everyone had a moving story as to why and how they got involved with THON. In many of the Greek organizations on campus involvement is expected, but the idea of being 18 or 19 and having a chance to save or improve a child’s life is a deeply moving decision.

Negativity is simply not permitted inside the culminating event, despite the challenge of being awake for 46 consecutive hours for the dancers. To combat negativity and thoughts of quitting are moralers, family, friends, and thousands of people who often deprive themselves of sleep in the stands cheering dancers along. On both Saturday and Sunday I worked from midnight to 8:30am, and when I would walk out onto the floor of the BJC at 4:00am, I could see thousands of students dedicated to the cause dancing in the stands, right along with the dancers on the floor. Indeed, in the wee hours on Saturday morning my pager was completely silent. During a period when we normally would have several 911 calls, there was nothing.

The feeling of being inside the BJC during THON escapes description. The love in the air is palpable. It is dangerously close to euphoria. The colorful and whimsical clothing is almost dreamlike. Dancers wear neon colors with capes, sashes, and tu-tus—most spectators do to. And yes, despite the fact THON is a completely alcohol-free event, thousands of college kids would rather be there than in the bars. Truthfully, I can understand this. After all, this year THON raised $10,686,924.83, all for the kids.

Describing THON is a challenge, so I will leave you with a photograph. When I left THON at 9:00am on Sunday, seven hours before the dance marathon ended, this was the view from the floor. This is before we knew we beat the previous year’s record and at hour 39. Five minutes later when I left the BJC, the line was a quarter mile long outside because new spectators were only let in as spectators inside left. Truly, this is what Penn State is all about. This is part of why I am a proud Penn Stater and over the past week, the feeling has only grown.

If you'd like to contribute to the fight against pediatric cancer, please visit this website.