Let's be proactive about things
So I think this quarter holds more potential for me to make huge strides towards what I want to be than has any other quarter so far. I'm finishing up my honors thesis. I got turned down by the Baltimore thing, which is pushing me to formalize own project idea I've had in a sort of vague floaty form to do this summer with a URO summer research fellowship. The application for which is due a week from Monday.
This might be the most important bit. The project I did before and presented in Norway fell out of speculation and trying to think clearly about basics. I made the connections to other research and questions after the research inspiration in that project. This new project, on the other hand, is firmly grounded in research that has already been done, including my own, and starts out with a specific research question. It bridges all the fields I'm interested in. Moreover, I think testing for some psychological reality of the computational model I plan to develop this Summer would constitute my Masters thesis.
I'm also not just taking classes solely because I'm interested in the topic. I have two courses on computational models of human auditory and speech processing, and my intention is to satisfy the final project requirements in those courses by developing a toolbox of sound processing algorithms for use in the project this Summer. I have a third course on neural net models of human cognition generally and in relation to language processing which uses a specific Neural Net toolbox. So by the Summer I should have the basic software done and be able to focus on the data and the question. All this is to say that I am taking courses with a purpose larger than the immediate course topic but more specific than ever before in my life.
Also, I have a seminar with one of my Masters thesis advisors. As in she is also enrolled. :D
This is also sort of intimidating too.
-=-raptur-=-
