Welcome to the Good Life - Jay

I took my fourth and final chemistry midterm on Tuesday and in order to celebrate I went to the LA Auto Show with some of my friends to check out those sweet cars of today and tomorrow. It was pretty cool to see all the sports cars (like the many Ferraris, Maseratis, Lambos, Aston Martins, and Bentley's) but I thought it was even more interesting to see all the concept cars. Lots of company's had fuel cell concepts and almost every automaker had a hybrid on display. Considering the shaky status of American manufactures and the ever changing oil prices, it was encouraging to see hybrids and electric cars everywhere. On a side note, I am researching energy storage technologies and it was interesting to see that most cars had lithium ion batteries (typically found in Ipods, laptops, etc) instead of the nickel cadmium batteries that are found in the ever so popular Prius. Perhaps lithium ion batteries are getting big and cheap enough to work well in these future cars. Enjoy a few pictures from the show.

 Oh, and today I flew back to Redmond for the break. It's good to be home and I can't wait to eat turkey and play football. Have a great Thanksgiving!

 Jay

I'm famous! Well, not really. But I did have a blurb at the end of one of the articles on the front page of the Daily Trojan. It's my first appearance in a newspaper since high school and that one time my 7th grade baseball team won distrcits. So I thought it was pretty cool to read my name in the paper even though it was pretty insignificant. Check it out - it's at the end of the story:

  http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/new_contest_will_reward_innovation

 I will save a later post to tell you more about Kairos Society - it is officially launching at USC December 2nd to promote entrepeneurship and innovation at USC.

 Take it easy!

I had a great time this weekend. On Friday morning I went to the Energy Institute Retreat. It was a great experiece because I got to meet faculty doing all kinds of research, the director of the Energy Institute, and the former CTO of Chevron (retired last year) who is a special advisor. I felt extremely lucky to go because I was the only undergraduate at the retreat, and I got to meet some grad students and got some great advice from them. It was a great academic experience and I am excited to continue on my project researching energy storage technologies.

Right after the retreat I hopped in my friend's car and we drove up to San Francisco. We met up in downtown with another group of my friends and we grabbed some food and explored Union Square. The next day we got up and drove into Chinatown to explore in the morning and then went to Fisherman's Wharf to get some sourdough bread bowls with chowder. It was an awesome way to start the day. The weather was beautiful (sunny and low 80s) and being down on the waterfront made me miss Seattle. After lunch we drove into Palo Alto to explore Stanford and hang out with the many Trojans who made the trip. The game was incredible! We had pretty good seats in the lower level and while the first half was a little nerve racking the Trojans pulled through strong in the second half. That night we went to Little Italy in San Francisco for some pasta and gellato. We drove back this morning/afternoon and I was able to get some work done. It was a jam packed weekend but it was awesome! 

I took my last math midterm (ever) yesterday! This is my last semester of math (Math 245) and it's been a good run. But since math is a Monday-Wednesday-Friday lecture with Tuesday-Thursday discussions I am looking forward to the flexibilty of future classes which often meet just once or twice a week (albeit for more time). But I am going out strong...yesterday's test went well.

 I am also getting ready for a big weekend. I got invited by the professor I am working for, Dr. Meshkati, to attend the Energy Instute Retreat tomorrow. Although I'm not a fan of the early start (I wil probably get up around 6:45 or 7 on a Friday morning...ugh), I am looking forward to meet many of the prominent researchers in many different fields of energy. As someone very interested in alternative energy, I am really excited to network and hear what the brightest minds think about our future. I feel very honored to go to this event as just a sophomore and learn from the best. 

 And tomorrow I am going up to San Francisco with my friends for the Weekender (every year many USC students make the trip up to the Bay area to watch USC play Cal or Stanford - depending on who we play that year). It should be a blast, but I don't really get any transition time from the Energy Conference. My friends are picking me up from the conference at 2 and we will drive for the next 6 hours or so. Basically, this weekend is going to be super busy but I am really excited for it. I will be sure to post more info about how it went! Oh and in the spirit of Trojan football, here's a picture of the team taking the field last Saturday vs. Cal

Take it Easy!

Jay

My dad was in town yesterday for business but came by USC to see my apartment and have dinner. It was great to see my dad and get a free meal (never underestimate the value of free meal as a college student). I'm happy he got to see my apartment since he had only seen my dorm room last year.  It's weird to think that it's such a big deal for family to visit me at school when some people go home every other weekend or monthly. I wanted to go to school a little farther away from home but you definitely do miss out on the little things (free meals, laundry, cast away furniture from you parents, etc). I don't regret going to school far away from my family (in fact I wanted to try living on my own in a new city), but it's always nice to have your family visit.

 On the other hand, while it's great to have visitors, I'm hoping to make an east coast trip to visit some of my friends at Duke, UPenn, George Washington, and Dartmouth but we'll see how the timing and money works out. Enough of my daydreaming about trekking all over the country, it's time for dinner!

 -Jay

I just finished my third chemistry exam of the semester and it went well for me. But it also went well for everyone. So it will be interesting to see how high the average is and how the curve breaks down. Hopefully I will be on the front end of the curve. I've been busy studying for that test and now I have to shift gears to prepare for my physics exam on Thursday. But right now I need to buy some groceries (I haven't been in a while so I'm running low on food) and then watch some CNN. I'm excited for to watch the election coverage tonight and witness history! Hope you're following the election.

 -Jay