WEEK 3
Starting off the week with a "check-in" call with my supervisor, I was encouraged by a newfound sense of clarity and purpose - so I ran with it. I began plugging actual material data (sourced from literature) into the actual simulation to produce some actual results. I'm not embarrassed to say this gave me a huge sense of achievement. I felt like I had jolted into the next stage and managed to get the ball rolling and of course, everything would be smooth from now on.
Surprise, surprise - it wasn't. The simulation was not behaving as I expected it to and was producing the same results despite me changing some inputs. After banging my head against the wall, hoping it would eventually work, I made the bold decision to email the simulation creator. Expecting to receive an email version of an eye-roll and a single sentence reading "press this button", I was admittedly relieved when he said that I had informed him of a bug in the system. He gave me some tips to work my way around it and I was back on my feet again.
Now I was fully empowered to mess around with lots of materials and interfaces and make a happy jumbled pile of results. Despite many efforts to organise my own data collection, my inquisition led me to explore every option I could think of. At this point I am quite familiar with the subtle art of organised chaos.
WEEK 4
I spent this week negotiating my time between undertaking some gritty data collection and getting deep into some more scientific papers that were increasingly relevant. Like every week so far, it was a marathon of sprints. One moment I would fly through a set of simulations or note-taking and next thing, I'd be searching for not even an ounce of motivation to get another task ticked. At moments like these, which occurred more than one would like to admit, I found it reassuring to remember that I'm as chaotically ordered as my research.
I mourn the idea that I could churn out 8 straight out hours of high-level research every day - 5 days a week. But, by forcing myself to sit at my desk for that extra hour would turn that hour into a slow and wasted one. Instead, getting myself outside, in the gym, or with friends would do way more for my mindset than that extra hour could of. Its cliché, but I sometimes find it too easy to forget, especially in a project like this - an almost entirely self-reliant one.
Despite the battles of work-life balance, bitter-sweet Friday came around quickly and I finished the week with a supervisor meeting. This was a 'bigger-picture' moment. With only 2 weeks to go, she gave me some tips on how to round off this routine. We talked data tables, graphs, diagrams, presentations and the 2 weeks ahead looked like they might burst.
WEEK 5
Up until now, I thought I had kept a good-enough eye on the organisation side of things. But, having to organise data in a comparative, sensible and comprehensive way should not by underestimated (at least by me). So that was my first priority. Next was to start building a presentation, one that would be a vessel to navigate my research so any non-thermoelectric experts can at least learn something, and decide not jump ship.
Once again, I was faced with another blank page. However, I was determined not to be intimidated by the "click to add text" so set out a POA that did, for once, save me. Riding on waves of clarity and conviction, I was clicking "add slide" before I knew it. With this, gaps in my research did reach the surface so a bit of patchwork was simultaneously getting done. But to my own delight, the creation process of my presentation has felt like slowly turning over a tapestry and seeing all the messy knots and long weaves pull together.
Of course, my research has one more official week left to squeeze out but I'm excited to see how much further it goes.