The MIT team, despite having a budget of $10,000 and graduate students from Mechanical Engineering, Ocean Engineering, and Computer Science, lost out to a bunch of students from Carl Hayden High School in an Underwater Robotics competition. There are times when thinking outside the box still rules.

3/30/2005 11:10:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [14]

School

More rant from a former patient guy. This time, it's Product Design & Development or PDD. It is difficult to stay attentive to today's team presentation in PDD when 4 out of 5 presenters were rambling on and on about their product development process in a monotonous voice.

When you are making a presentation, what are you trying to achieve? You are presenting your ideas to the audience and so that they will stay interested. This means that the presenter is selling to the audience. If so, why are people still speaking in monotonous tone and reading from the slides? Also, the presentation slide is not a written documentation, so keep the content on the slide terse. If you need to explain the context, do it verbally. No slide should contain more than 50 words!!! Last but not least, always present the presentation within the allocated time slot.

3/29/2005 11:17:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [16]

Rants

I am usually a very patient person but I was about to pull all my hairs off at Professor Katz's class this afternoon when certain individual relentlessly kept interrupting the professor. I simply find it rude, disruptive, and counter-productive when someone starts babbling away without even raising one's hand. I know you have a lot of experience to share with the class but other people, especially the professor, have their opinions as well.

3/28/2005 6:26:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [12]

Rants

Wow!!! What a busy weekend it had been. I have a ton of problem sets and papers due next week at school. I still haven't started working on the marketing paper and the financial projection for my 50k competition.

But all work no play, makes Sam a dull boy. I took a break from study and went to Yoav's bachelor party at Boston Billiard Club on Saturday. It was a tamer than I had previously thought, but it was still fun to hang out. The poker game at Yoav's house was actually more fun than the billiards games. I caught a glimpse of the Illinois vs Arizona NCAA basketball at the Billiard club and I was disappointed that Arizona lost because sloppy ball handling, which consequently turned the ball over to Illinois twice in the last crucial minute.

It was a gorgeous day today. Yes, for the first time, it is finally starting to feel like spring in Boston. So I celebrated the coming of spring by running and swimming to prepare my triathlon this summer. My swimming strokes are in better form now than they were 2 weeks ago. I still find my breathing a little out of sync, which prevented me from swimming long distance efficiently.

Eimear organized an Easter dinner on Sunday night, which turned out to be a successful event. The usual suspects, Camille, Milt, Hanri, Fanny, Angela, and Alan (new guy) were there for dinner.I pretty tired after the Easter meal, but there's no rest for me yet. There's still a lot of school work that I need to do. I will probably stay up till 3am, which is typical.

3/27/2005 11:59:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [14]

Personal

I had dinner with Camille after swimming at the Z-center. Camille mentioned something interesting during our conversation. Being a product manager, he said the following: When you are a product manager, be sure to be involved with either the marketing side of things or the product design and development side of things. Either way, the work is appealing and interesting. However, if you are not involved in marketing or product development, chances are you are dealing with the mundane day-to-day operations, which can make the job of a product manager boring.

Speaking of product design & development, I found this article on 15.980/ESD.936 - Product Design & Development (a class I am currently taking at MIT) while surfing the Internet.

3/25/2005 11:49:16 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [14]

School

On other news, it looks like the management students in my 50k team will be taking control of the team while other team members take time off to complete their PhD thesis so that they can graduate in May. But seriously, both Peter and I have plenty to do before the business plan and financial projection are due in a month from now. While it is a lot of work, I really enjoying the experience with this 50k business plan competition. I often compare the 50k experience to the taking of a 12 unit (or 4 credits) MIT class. The difference is that you actually have to "get down and dirty" in building a real business plan in 50k.

3/24/2005 11:42:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [10]

Entrepreneurship

I spent this week meeting with former colleagues whom I worked with at Analog Devices. I caught up with Siobhan, Steve, Joanna, and Courtney this week. It seems like they are all enjoying what they are doing now, I am really happy for them.

3/24/2005 11:40:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [11]

Personal

You Know it’s spring break at MIT when:

I met up with Joanna, Zach, Stephanie, and Lewis in the Stata Center at MIT on the first day of spring break. Joanna who is an alumna of MIT hasn't been on campus since 2000. Since a lot have changed since 2000, I volunteered to give them a tour of the Stata Center, the Zesiger Center (Z-center), E40 (ESD faculty/office where my office is), and the Tang Center. Joanna was impressed how modern and well-equipped the Z-center is. Our tour of the campus ended with Joanna showing us Barker Library, a place she loved hanging out when she was grad student. Have you ever wonder what is inside the Great Dome, a distinctive architectural feature of MIT? Go to the Barker Library on the 5th floor of building 10 to find out.

3/22/2005 12:29:43 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [21]

School

I thought I could finally work on my tax return on Sunday afternoon but I ended up watching NCAA basketball on TV while simultaneously reviewing the business plan and presentation from my 50k team. Later that afternoon, I went to the Z-center to run and swim. I realized that I still have a lot to go before I can swim efficiently at the triathlon event that I will be doing this summer. I am not breathing correctly when I swim, which consequently causes me to tire out quickly through heavy breathing. After working out at Z-center, I met with my 50k team to go over the presentation slides for another business plan competition that we will be participating tomorrow in Lowell, Massachusetts. Oh well, just another typical day of my life. After this blog, I am finally going to start working on my tax return.

3/21/2005 12:43:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [9]

Personal

Milt and I spent the last 2 days in New York City hanging out with Siobhan and Steve. Siobhan is an MBA student at New York University and Steve is a Law student at St. Johns University, both staled to graduate in May 2006. Even though this week is officially the start of MIT spring break, I can't really afford to spend too much time away from town. There is simply too much things I need to get done this week. So I only stayed for the weekend before driving back to Boston. Both Steve and Siobhan are doing well, each thriving in their own environment. I can see that they will eventually become the power couple that I know.

On our first night in New York, we went to Rickshaw Dumpling Bar for dinner. I think Siobhan had wanted to try this place out since the founder of this company is an NYU Stern alumnus and the company won 2nd prize in a business plan competition at NYU Stern School of Business last year. Rickshaw Dumpling Bar is a trendy but fast-food style restaurant that serves Chinese dumplings. However, I have a very different opinion of the place (and both Milt and Steve agree with me). I feel that:

1. The ordering of food at this place isn't as easy as ordering a Happy Meal at McDonalds. The ordering proces is fairly complicated as you can mix and match different options to get the final order that you want. To make things worse, the menu at the counter is confusing. For instance, the menu isn’t clear about ordering the dumplings as deep fried or steamed. If it is ordered steamed, it comes with soup, while deep fried dumplings come with dipping sauce. It also doesn't tell you that noodles are $3 extra. This makes it hard for first time customers to order what they want. Moreover, the staff wasn't helpful in explaining how the ordering process works.
2. Dumplings are mediocre at best. I ordered the Peking dumplings, which I thought they tasted very bare and the texture isn't as good as I have expected what good Chinese dumplings should be.
3. Last but not least, the prices are way too expensive. A bowl of Peking duck dumplings in Shitake mushrooms soup with noodles and a side order of salad cost me $16!!! I hardly tasted the duck or the Shitake mushrooms.

I dislike restaurants that look trendy on the outside but lack the substance in providing good value and tasty food to customers. Sadly, this place seem to fit this description so it gets a thumb down from me. Oh, go to Chinatown and get the real thing for $6. As for Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, I'll give it a 3.5/10.

3/21/2005 12:03:45 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [11]

Food

Because UCLA, Creighton, and LSU lost last night, I am now last in the standings. Doesn't matter, Syracuse is going win it all.

I lift weights and run regularly, but I still feel sore after last night's swim.

3/18/2005 10:06:22 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [15]

Sports

So I started the swimming part of my triathlon training by attending my first swimming lesson at the MIT aquatic center. I have to say the Z-center swimming pool is one of the best indoor swimming pools I have ever swum in (but do keep in mind that I have not swum at many places). The chlorine level in the water is very low and you can tell that the pool is well-maintained from the overall cleanliness.

I have always struggled with swimming since I self-taught myself to swimming when I was younger. However, I am usually athletic enough that brute force had work well for me in the past but with the upcoming triathlon, I need more efficiency; hence my motivation for the swimming lessons to improve my swimming ability. From today's swimming drills, I think I still have a lot to work on, especially breathing, fewer strokes, and buoyancy. Right now, it takes me 26-30 strokes to swim 25m. It takes Michael Phelps, the freestyle Olympian, 12 strokes to cover the same distance. I still have a lot of strokes to reduce.

On other sports news, it looks like I am kicking ass in the SDM NCAA bracket. However, Creighton is losing to West Virginia with 2.4 seconds to go at this very moment. If Creighton loses to West Virginia, it can seriously jeopardize my No. 1 standing... And darn it (1 minute later), Creighton did lose. On the other hand, UCLA is losing too. Oh well, I got 11 out of my 13 first round picks correct so far anyway.

3/18/2005 12:04:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [14]

Sports

I got this picture from a friend. For you Apple aficionados out there, the following picture shows the entire Apple products that have ever been released to the public.

3/16/2005 6:05:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [26]

Computers

Having dabbled in stocks (and lost quite spectacularly in the Internet bust), I really find today's 3 hour System Optimization class on optimizing stock portfolio by Professor David Simchi-Levi insightful. We covered how we can use the principles of System Optimization to maximize returns and/or minimize risk.

I particularly enjoyed the part of the lecture on how we relate diversification to correlation and demonstrated that a diverse stock portfolio is a optimal portfolio that minimizes risk. It makes more sense to me after the professor had explained diversification with correlation.

All other factors being equal, let us consider a simple case of a portfolio that consists of only 2 stocks. If a their share prices are positively correlated, then if the share price of stock A goes up, stock B is likely to go up as well. In this scenario, it doesn't make sense to diversify since you can always invest all your money in either stock. If you are looking for low risk, invest in the stock with the lowest standard deviation. For high return, you invest in the stock with the highest return. For uncorrelated stocks, they tend to be unpredictable and hence uninteresting. With negatively correlated stocks, when 1 stock goes up, the other goes down which effectively mitigates the risk. Hence, when determining a stock portfolio where the objective function is minimal risk, the optimal solution is almost always a diverse portfolio of stock.

3/15/2005 9:50:22 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [12]

School