8 Weeks and Counting

Tuesday June 20th, we had our 8 week ultrasound. All hearts are still beating, and all measure to be the same size, or close to it. Still can't see if there's going to be red hair, or which is which, but can you find the head? You can only see it on #1, because they are already proving to be siblings by not wanting to share the spot light. We are still in a little bit of shock! :)

Reanna named them "Pink", "Purple", and "Orange", and we think those are excellent names, for now.

My Thesis Writeup

I finally received approval to convert my thesis into Adobe Acrobat, which is the final step! So it is done. Now I just need to route signatures to get it all complete and wrapped up.

Here is the writeup.

I's Gradumicated!!

Here's the official photo from my Graduation. I swear I was smiling at the time! They edited it out of the photo!! It's all a big conspiracy!!

My Thesis Presentation Video

Here is a low-res video of my presentation that Sarah wonderfully recorded for me. It is in 3 parts because of the restrictions on the free account at YouTube. I cut the video to occur between slide changes so it's easy to watch. Enjoy!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

My Thesis Presentation

The presentation on Friday went very well. Sarah says I was the best one of the group!! And we all know she's not biased... But I do think it went quite well. I was asked some very good questions, which means people were actually listening! I have made a video of it, but unfortunately it is way to long and too big to post. So you'll just have to settle for the powerpoint presentation I presented. Here it is:

My THREE babies!!!

Today was our first ultrasound of many. This is also the day we found out that we are going to have THREE CHILDREN!!! They printed a picture from the ultrasound for us. I've numbered them to help identify them.

Road Trip 2006 - Try 3

My orders arrived today to throw yet another monkey wrench into the well-oiled machine that is my plan for our cross-country trip. Here is try #3, I think this may actually be the final one! (knock on wood!!)

A Video of My Thesis Algorythm

Here is a video that shows the optimization routine that I wrote. Its about two minutes long.

The first block is the 3D flight path that is being tested. Every time it changes is a new test. Under the 3D flight path is the control effort required to execute the path. The red lines are the maximum capabilities of the missile (which varying by altitude), so an optimal path cannot require a control effort that crosses those lines. The set of 9 blocks on the right are the x,y,z plots of the path, the first derivative of the path, and the second derivative of the path (note: they are spatial derivatives not time derivatives, so they are not velocity and acceleration as they would normally be interpreted. They are instead the rate of change of the flight path).