Space Robots II Attack of the Paradigm Shifts

Space Robots II Attack of the Paradigm Shifts UROPs. Youve heard about them before, but heres a refresher. At MIT, we have lots of professors doing research. We have lots of undergrads who would love the opportunity to do research and learn about their field. And we have the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program doing all the magic in-between dealing with proposals, funding, and listings. (Though listings are far from the only opportunities available if youre interested in a professors research, just go ask about it and see if they have space for someone. Thats how I got my first UROP!) The experience is incredibly valuable. A few years ago, back when I was Course 7 (thats Biology, for all you havent-learned-MITese folks), I UROPd in a really amazing and informative lab working on the genetics of regeneration. Slicing up regenerating organisms with a certain gene turned off to see that they grew heads at every new cut was a real whoaaaaa what? moment :) But though fascinating, I somehow felt like I was missing something biology, in its pure form, didnt seem like it was quite for me. When I started my next set of classes in the fall, I realized that I was heading in the wrong direction. But how can this be? This is an unallowable paradigm shift! Im a biologist, I was always going to be a biologist! Biology was like the best class in high school! This… is unimaginable, what else would I be?? I got through the rest of term. Sometime over IAP, I started hanging out in the SIPB office (MITs computing club). And then I did something very strange. I did a thing that I had believed all my life was supposed to be a thing only incredibly boring people. I wrote a program. def Hiya(): print pony Yes, it failed to work, because I didnt put quotes around pony and thus let Python know that it was a string and not a variable. With a quick question to a nearby SIPB member, this was fixed. And pony was printed to my screen. In a reckless, rash, and intuitive leap-of-faith, I filed to change my major. Electrical engineering and computer science. Course 6-2. I registered for, among other things, 6.01 (intro to EECS). I decided to see where this went. Fast forward. Piper is pretty happy with her life, including her major. Piper is looking more into applying her EECS skills (especially the EE side) to biological problems she still, after all, loves biology. Piper is looking for a summer UROP in bioEECS when… Space Robots It wasnt bioEECS but it was an awesome summer gig. If I was chosen to be part of the team, I would get to code satellites on the International Space Station! How cool is that?! Just a summer gig. A really cool summer gig. That was all. At the end of the summer, thats still what it was, in my mind. It was a really cool project that I was proud to have worked on, nothing more. (But aero/astro is cool… no harm in taking a class as an elective, right? Talking about plane crashes is just fun! But no, I have no aero/astro bug, of course not!) And then came the email in the fall another awesome project with the Space Systems Laboratory. I had, in fact, worked a little on this one over the summer, in my spare work time. It was another satellite project, designed to help protect other satellites by knocking harmful particles out of the Van Allen Radiation Belt HOW COOL WAS THAT?! I was in. (But its just an IAP gig.) ((Thatll Ill be continuing into the spring.)) (((And beyond?))) Oops. (No, this isnt about another change of major. The nice thing about being in a major that is both interesting in itself and widely applicable… you can kind of take it anywhere your interests go. This is a very good deal for me ^_^) And thats when I realized that the paradigms I had for my life, they were shifting again.   Not quite as dramatically as when I went from biology to EECS, but a nonetheless unpredictable ride that I find myself in the middle of yet again.   I have no idea what I will become, I dont know where things will lead me!   Ten years from now, what will I be doing?   Zapping bacteria with my EE skills?   Tinkering with ground code for another satellite?   insert your suggestion here?   I just have no idea theres to much exciting and wonderful in the world, and I havent got it all planned out right now.   Not anymore. But there are certainties in my life, and they are these: I have such excellent ways to figure out the rest of my life and I plan to use them :)