So we had our first day of Sloan Orientation today. What a difference from this summer. We were officially welcomed as a class of 393 students - 18 more than expected - including all the LFM's. From the 47 people that we had spent all summer with, to the 344 new faces of people to meet, we were all struck by the huge number of people that we'll be spending the next two years with.
After breakfast and the official welcome, we were introduced to our Oceans (smaller groups of 60 or so people that we will take the MBA core with this Fall) one of Atlantic, Baltic, Carribean, Indian, Mediterranean, or Pacific. I am in the Baltic Ocean (yes, we are aware that some of these are not in fact oceans) and then my core group is named the Cranes. Each core group of 6 or 7 students is named after a different type of bird. I don't remember all the different varieties off hand. But after being introduced to our core group, we split into our core group with our Pilot (a second-year MBA student guide who is one of many available resources for us to get acquainted to the program and the return to school) to continue our introductions and see what our groups are made of. It is weird to readjust after the summer semester and becoming such good friends with my group and now having to start all over again from the beginning to develop a new working relationship with a whole new set of people. I have high hopes for my core group and can't wait to see how everything works out.
After more group bonding and a couple lectures, we all congregated again with our SO's (significant others if I haven't mentioned that term yet) at a New England-style clambake with tons of lobsters, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, corn, clam chowder, and Sam Adams (not to mention a few other varieties of beer). Mmmm....so good. Definitely something to look forward to for any MBA's and LFM's next year! After spending the evening mingling with new students as well as seeing all the LFM's again after a week's vacation (it is amazing to see how much you truly missed your classmates after only a week! - especially after spending so many hours in the LFM offices working with them over the last two weeks of the summer semester). Hopefully, the bonding with the MBA classmates gets to this level too!
So tomorrow Oceans A, B, and C are heading out to an Outward Bound style program in Ashland, MA called the Warren Center to help push us to bond with our teams. It will be a beautiful day (weather-wise) tomorrow so we are all looking forward to it. Will let you know more about the trip later.
I am awaiting to hear about two classes that I want to take this year. One is System Dynamics with Prof. John Sterman. He gave a guest lecture at the InterviewFest that was amazing. It is a very popular class and I hope to make it into the class (currently I am #3 on the waitlist and we have been told that you will probably get in if you are below #7 or 8) so I'm hoping. Another class is a product development class that technically isn't until Spring semester, but for two MIT students and two Rhode Island School of Design students this class would start this semester as these students would be working with a group of 6 or 7 students from various universities in Finland while working on a project for Nokia. Such a great opportunity to work with a multi-national team on a product development project. I have an interview with the Professor who is teaching the course this Friday to see if I can be one of the two MIT students. I will let you know how it goes.
That is everything that I have for you now. More later....
Monday, August 27, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Some more photos...
Well, I have spent some time finally getting some of my photos in order. If you like the ones below, feel free to check out a quickly put together website here: http://picasaweb.google.com/drew.corum
I haven't had any time to title each picture or give a location, but feel free to e-mail me with any questions about locations or anything else.
Can't believe that the week of vacation is over. One more day and we start orientation.
More later....
I haven't had any time to title each picture or give a location, but feel free to e-mail me with any questions about locations or anything else.
Can't believe that the week of vacation is over. One more day and we start orientation.
More later....
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Summer Vacation....if you can call it that
So, classes finished Friday and we capped them off with a nice class picnic out on one of the campus lawns. We had a good class turnout and we all enjoyed a nice leisurely afternoon eating thai food and mixing and mingling with everyone before our week off of classes. Most people are heading out of town for at least a mini-vacation (our summer vacation...though summer is almost over) though some are taking the whole week off with trips planned for all over the country and more (California, Cabo, Paris, etc.). Alicia and I decided to take a mini-vacation as we still have a lot of errands to run that we haven't been able to do since moving to town.
Our vacation started Friday night with a trip to Tanglewood. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and they have a beautiful pavilion and estate that visitors are invited to roam around before the concerts begin. We rented a car to get to the concert with the plan of having a nice picnic and a chance to roam the grounds before the show, but due to excessive construction on the Mass Turnpike, we arrived just in time to find a spot on the lawn and settle in to see the show. The first half was Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" which I swear I have seen or heard before though I have no memory as to when or where (Mom or Dad, any ideas?). It was a great piece with two very talented soloists showcasing their skills. During the applause and then intermission, the wind kicked up and then the rain started pouring down. The entire audience on the lawn decided that it was too much for them and picked up their things and left. Alicia and I were determined to see the next piece (Alicia's favorite) Brahms' Symphony No. 1 so we decided to take shelter under a big tree. Apparently, this was not a good idea as the police and fire marshall came over to us and suggested we move under the pavilion. What a great idea! We were able to get some very nice seats in the relative warmth of the pavilion and truly enjoyed the balance of Brahms and the wild weather we were getting. Lightning and thunder pounded outside while the BSO did their best to counter. An amazing experience for all! Definitely one that we'll remember forever.
The next day, we had plans to head down to Newport, RI with some classmates and SOs. We got up early to return the rental car and then met up with everyone to catch a ride down to RI. 1.5 hours later, we arrived and found a great beach to hang out at for the day. A little cold out of the water due to a steady wind (not to mention a LOT of sand blown all over and in to our things) forced us to spend a lot of time in the water trying to bodysurf in the waves. First time for some of us to try and bodysurf so it was a fun and frustrating day. After tiring ourselves out, we went into downtown Newport and had lunch. Then we headed back home first heading through the Mansion Avenue - a road lined on both sides with ridiculously giant houses. What a sight to see! Definitely would suggest a visit down this road whenever you make it to Newport.
On Monday morning, we woke up early and headed out to Martha's Vineyard for a early-week-weekend-getaway. It only takes about 3.5 hours to make it from our front door to the island docks and so we were able to spend most of Monday exploring the island. It was suggested that we take the day to explore the up-island towns of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Vineyard Haven. Since we didn't have a car or moped (hated on the island), we used the Martha's Vineyard Bus line to get around. Only $6 per person for an all day pass, it was quite a deal for us. We had fun travelling from town to town window shopping (the weather was sufficiently cold to keep everyone away from the beaches) at all the ridiculous things that rich people like and buy. My favorite item of ridiculousness was a $2,000 diamond encrusted bracelet pendant that resembled Martha's Vineyard. The catch was that the band was a piece of string. If I owned a $2,000 bracelet, I would not trust a piece of string to hold it on my wrist! We grew tired of each town as every one had all the same stores and lacked the small town fishing village feel. I think that there were two Black Dog stores in every town! Talk about a monopoly! People everywhere all decked out in their Black Dog shirts, shoes, umbrellas, etc. They did have a great bakery though, which we would highly recommend. Another recommendation would be The Net Result in Vineyard Haven. Great seafood that you take out and eat on large picnic tables. Great food and a lot of fun! After spending the day at the up-island towns, we were a little disappointed with everything that Martha's Vineyard had to offer. We had a nice dinner in Oak Bluffs and then headed back to our B&B.
The next day we decided to head out to the down-island towns and Gay Head beach/lighthouse. Our first stop was the lighthouse and though there was a great view, we felt that it was just a tourist trap. The bus only came every hour and there wasn't a whole lot to do there (though there were plenty of shops for you to buy things at). The next stop was Menemsha and this was quite a treat. It was still the sleepy little fishing village that we were looking for. We had a lot of fun walking around this town (where the movie "Jaws" was based) and wished that we had more time to spend here. If we come back this will be our first stop, not our last! After a brief visit to Menemsha, we headed back home. Again, a roughly 3.5 hours of travel and we were home - tired, but very relaxed.
Well, I have to get going, Alicia and I are going to go walk the Freedom Trail this afternoon, so more later...
Our vacation started Friday night with a trip to Tanglewood. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and they have a beautiful pavilion and estate that visitors are invited to roam around before the concerts begin. We rented a car to get to the concert with the plan of having a nice picnic and a chance to roam the grounds before the show, but due to excessive construction on the Mass Turnpike, we arrived just in time to find a spot on the lawn and settle in to see the show. The first half was Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" which I swear I have seen or heard before though I have no memory as to when or where (Mom or Dad, any ideas?). It was a great piece with two very talented soloists showcasing their skills. During the applause and then intermission, the wind kicked up and then the rain started pouring down. The entire audience on the lawn decided that it was too much for them and picked up their things and left. Alicia and I were determined to see the next piece (Alicia's favorite) Brahms' Symphony No. 1 so we decided to take shelter under a big tree. Apparently, this was not a good idea as the police and fire marshall came over to us and suggested we move under the pavilion. What a great idea! We were able to get some very nice seats in the relative warmth of the pavilion and truly enjoyed the balance of Brahms and the wild weather we were getting. Lightning and thunder pounded outside while the BSO did their best to counter. An amazing experience for all! Definitely one that we'll remember forever.
The next day, we had plans to head down to Newport, RI with some classmates and SOs. We got up early to return the rental car and then met up with everyone to catch a ride down to RI. 1.5 hours later, we arrived and found a great beach to hang out at for the day. A little cold out of the water due to a steady wind (not to mention a LOT of sand blown all over and in to our things) forced us to spend a lot of time in the water trying to bodysurf in the waves. First time for some of us to try and bodysurf so it was a fun and frustrating day. After tiring ourselves out, we went into downtown Newport and had lunch. Then we headed back home first heading through the Mansion Avenue - a road lined on both sides with ridiculously giant houses. What a sight to see! Definitely would suggest a visit down this road whenever you make it to Newport.
On Monday morning, we woke up early and headed out to Martha's Vineyard for a early-week-weekend-getaway. It only takes about 3.5 hours to make it from our front door to the island docks and so we were able to spend most of Monday exploring the island. It was suggested that we take the day to explore the up-island towns of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Vineyard Haven. Since we didn't have a car or moped (hated on the island), we used the Martha's Vineyard Bus line to get around. Only $6 per person for an all day pass, it was quite a deal for us. We had fun travelling from town to town window shopping (the weather was sufficiently cold to keep everyone away from the beaches) at all the ridiculous things that rich people like and buy. My favorite item of ridiculousness was a $2,000 diamond encrusted bracelet pendant that resembled Martha's Vineyard. The catch was that the band was a piece of string. If I owned a $2,000 bracelet, I would not trust a piece of string to hold it on my wrist! We grew tired of each town as every one had all the same stores and lacked the small town fishing village feel. I think that there were two Black Dog stores in every town! Talk about a monopoly! People everywhere all decked out in their Black Dog shirts, shoes, umbrellas, etc. They did have a great bakery though, which we would highly recommend. Another recommendation would be The Net Result in Vineyard Haven. Great seafood that you take out and eat on large picnic tables. Great food and a lot of fun! After spending the day at the up-island towns, we were a little disappointed with everything that Martha's Vineyard had to offer. We had a nice dinner in Oak Bluffs and then headed back to our B&B.
The next day we decided to head out to the down-island towns and Gay Head beach/lighthouse. Our first stop was the lighthouse and though there was a great view, we felt that it was just a tourist trap. The bus only came every hour and there wasn't a whole lot to do there (though there were plenty of shops for you to buy things at). The next stop was Menemsha and this was quite a treat. It was still the sleepy little fishing village that we were looking for. We had a lot of fun walking around this town (where the movie "Jaws" was based) and wished that we had more time to spend here. If we come back this will be our first stop, not our last! After a brief visit to Menemsha, we headed back home. Again, a roughly 3.5 hours of travel and we were home - tired, but very relaxed.
Well, I have to get going, Alicia and I are going to go walk the Freedom Trail this afternoon, so more later...
Monday, August 13, 2007
Wow...an update...finally.
So life has been pretty interesting these past couple of weeks. Things have gone from a "moderate" level of work to a complete over-burdening of our time. This weekend was spent by everyone living in the LFM offices working on our Statistics helicopters and Systems Optimization Projects. The Statistics helicopters project is for each group to design the best helicopter that they can by running under 100 simulation flights with different designs. By applying statistics to the results of the simulation runs, we were able to determine which aspects of the design were important to the flight's success. By running successive models we were able to determine the optimized solution for our design. We had the "fly-off" today in class. Unofficial results: my group's heli was the closest to the target. I don't know about the time though. Note to future students: Get started on this project early on so that everything doesn't bunch up in the last week. It wasn't rolled out to us very well and so caught the whole class off-guard. So get it done. Early.
We based our Systems Optimization project on my previous work experience at Visteon scheduling production on the plant floor. We were able to set up a simulated factory using Excel and premium Solver and then we were able to set constraints based on the work environment (Labor Contract, hours worked, part/line constraints, etc). Pretty cool to see our model running as when I was the Supervisor, I would spend multiple hours everyday creating and adjusting the production schedule. Our model on the other hand gives a good idea of what parts need to run in about 5 minutes! It is a little simplified from real life, but what a great tool it could have been for me over those 3 years. Sat through 3 group presentations of the Systems project and I was really impressed by the results. We have two more classes and 6 more projects to see and I can't wait.
So classes end this Friday! None of us can believe that school is almost over. The summer just blew right by. Everyone is still having fun (though more stressed) and it is interesting to see how our class has come together over the past two and a half months. People are taking the week off and going on vacation, back home, or getting the things they need to do (that should have been done earlier but haven't had the time to do) done. Alicia and I are planning a day trip to Martha's Vineyard for the early part of next week and then after we get back we are getting our MA ID's, parking passes and running all the other errands that need to be run for the next semester. Another note to future students: spend a week or more in town before classes start. Get all your moving stuff taken care of during this time (ID, bank accounts, mail forwarding, etc) as you really don't have much time during the summer to do any of this. The summer moves really fast and it is hard to stay on top of the work let alone these extra tasks.
Well, I need to get back to class. More later....
We based our Systems Optimization project on my previous work experience at Visteon scheduling production on the plant floor. We were able to set up a simulated factory using Excel and premium Solver and then we were able to set constraints based on the work environment (Labor Contract, hours worked, part/line constraints, etc). Pretty cool to see our model running as when I was the Supervisor, I would spend multiple hours everyday creating and adjusting the production schedule. Our model on the other hand gives a good idea of what parts need to run in about 5 minutes! It is a little simplified from real life, but what a great tool it could have been for me over those 3 years. Sat through 3 group presentations of the Systems project and I was really impressed by the results. We have two more classes and 6 more projects to see and I can't wait.
So classes end this Friday! None of us can believe that school is almost over. The summer just blew right by. Everyone is still having fun (though more stressed) and it is interesting to see how our class has come together over the past two and a half months. People are taking the week off and going on vacation, back home, or getting the things they need to do (that should have been done earlier but haven't had the time to do) done. Alicia and I are planning a day trip to Martha's Vineyard for the early part of next week and then after we get back we are getting our MA ID's, parking passes and running all the other errands that need to be run for the next semester. Another note to future students: spend a week or more in town before classes start. Get all your moving stuff taken care of during this time (ID, bank accounts, mail forwarding, etc) as you really don't have much time during the summer to do any of this. The summer moves really fast and it is hard to stay on top of the work let alone these extra tasks.
Well, I need to get back to class. More later....
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