Introduction to the Wind Project

The day began with a campus tour provided by the admissions office. This was pleasant enough and the questions I asked were well answered. The MAC, a recreation center here on campus, is very well provided with basically any activity a person might wish, even including video games which is a little absurd. I was glad to find that the tennis racquets, climbing harness, and climbing shoes are free for REU participants. This evening I attended my first lecture meeting about my Wind Project. The concepts were pretty simple and even though I hadn't learned them before I grasped how to use the equations properly. I would have liked to have a little more explanation behind the statistical equations but at the very least I can make the ends meet. I suppose rather than plow through logical proofs I would rather move onto the modelling with RISA. At this time I'm slightly worried about how conservative Civil Engineering looks to be. The ethics certainly strongly advise against forward thinking it seems and today's lecture on statistics definitely seemed to paint a very dull picture of Civil Engineering of following what has always worked basing the future on the past. However I remain confident that before getting to the exciting stuff we need to trudge through the gunk. You can't just hand fledgling physics student a laser gun without instructing first that it is a very dangerous tool capable of vaporizing people into smudges of carbon smeared on the sidewalk.