One of my absolute least favorite things to do concerning research is to back everything up. Though I’ve mostly optimized my setup the way I like, it’s not as simple as pressing go. I also take the time and zip up old log files, remove simulations that crashed, and reorganize my data (if needed). But! I finally did it due to an impending trip to a molecular dynamics workshop. Boy, am I glad I did. An email I got this morning:
Unfortunately, several subtle problems prevented us from opening the cluster back up to users last night. This morning, the problems became much less subtle.
Yiiikes. Back up your stuff on a regular basis!
Anyway, I’m at the workshop now (finished day 2 of 5) and am having a blast! The lectures have been clear and instructive, and the organizers and attendees are nice. Also it was a great kick-starter for me to work on this neglected project I started two years ago. The output from those calculations looked like a 5-year-old grabbed a tablet and drew zigzags randomly across the screen. I was working with an older grad student, and he tried some things, and I tried other things, but all to no avail. He graduated eight months ago. Since the workshop tangentially covered the calculations we ran, I went back and re-tried one of the things he did. I got zigzags… but at least in the rough shape of the (zigzag-free) true answer. Definitely an improvement!
But was it reliable? One of the workshop organizers put me in contact with the author of the code I used, and the latter observed, “Actually, I think the plot you attached looks pretty good.” Ah!! What a huge relief. So now to figure out how to reduce the zigzags. More calculations? Longer calculations? This is a very simple test system, so what does that imply for when I move to my actual, more complex system?! I’ll worry about that bridge later…
The point of this post isn’t to rant about my project (though I can certainly do that anytime, anywhere because #gradlyfe). I think it’s super cool how I got here and how fortunate things worked out. Here’s a brief play by play:
- January — I went to this 2-3 day workshop right after New Year’s. At the time, I wasn’t even sure if I should have gone; it was for a side project I was working on, and I felt like a very tangential part of the larger collaboration that was happening. I roomed with one of my labmates (who is very intricately involved). She reminded/urged me to apply for this travel grant for women for a particular conference.
- March — I receive the travel grant and attend the conference. ALSO wasn’t sure if I really “belonged”/should go, since it was hosted by a software company whose tools my lab uses a lot but I don’t use super extensively. I was worrying for nothing; it was an informative, fun, and worthwhile trip. At this conference, I had a long conversation about another type of conference I’d always wanted to attend. I was slowly getting over my hesitancies/fear to pursue this other one. Another unrelated conferee prodded me to go as well.
- July — I go to that other conference! It was amazing. Learned a ton, met a lot of new people, and got ideas for my own work. Also, enjoyed nature. One of the speakers at that conference wrote a textbook that I’ve found super helpful for understanding and analyzing my research. I found an opportunity to sit next to him at breakfast one morning, and we had several conversations (science and general life) throughout the conference. On the final night, I happened to be sitting in the lobby with some other folks, so I saw when he was leaving and was able to say farewell. He brought to my attention this workshop, which I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
- August — I was on the fence about it but decided to apply. Got the acceptance a few weeks later and was still on the fence. The topics were very relevant, but I didn’t want to miss another whole week of work. Then, talking it out with my boyfriend, I realized that this was actually the perfect time for me to go. It wouldn’t have made sense to go my first year because all I’d done were classes. Second year, nope, because was still learning the ropes of basic molecular dynamics. Third year, also nope, because overly mentally occupied with quals. So, really, this was perfect. (Also, I didn’t realize this, but this is only the 2nd year this workshop has been offered.)
- September — I’m here! And wow, two of the methods I’m using in my main PhD projects are discussed here. One I’ve used fine(ish) and one that was less amenable (the zigzag inducing one). And I have been planning to use this third method, but have been stalled by compile/install issues, then computer architecture integration, then how to actually analyze the results. So, having not really made headway on the last part, I’m excited to learn about it. (Tangentially, I learned that the software package is about to release a new version which would have the compiled binary meaning that I wouldn’t have had to deal with much of the first two issues I listed. :'( Bye, time.)
I’m pretty amazed at how things led me to here. One of the organizers told me that there was pretty wide interest in attending. The spots were limited to 25 participants, and I highly suspect that I was able to snag a seat from my conference connection. How cool is that. (!!!)
Alright it’s 2 a.m. right now. Gotta get up in too few hours, but it’s okay since I probably would’ve just been tossing and turning in bed like I did the past two nights. Adios!
Image credit.