Tag: blog

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PEC projects

Let’s start a new project

My absence from this blog has been for too long. Not that it disappeared from my mind, far from it; like any good academic, a combination of having too much to do + a dread to start yet another big project + the feeling of guilt for having yet another neglected project… Let’s forget all these bad habits and let’s get cracking with an exciti my new project.

The Lego Piece

Many of the ideas and projects that I want to push will require some some of power electronics in them. Instead of designing a power conversion from scratch every time, I suggest to focus on one module to build them all; thus a basic Lego piece of some sort.

To keep track of this project and ensuing numerous blogposts, I’ve created a new page in the project area. Stay tuned ;p

Categories
diary general announcement

Hiatus

Happy New Year and Good Health

As much as 2022 started with good vibes (covid seemed behind us, starting the blog, new projects…), the giddy feelings all came to an abrupt end in February. An unfortunate accident with my bicycle on the way to work resulted in a badly broken elbow and, a couple of weeks later, the world woke up to the abject invasion of Ukraine. The good year wishes didn’t last very long, did it?

Life Goes On and Has So Much to Offer

Nevertheless, obstacles remain just that; obstacles. We stumble on them but we get back up, learn from them, and push forward. After a mentally costly surgery, my arm is on the path of full recovery and mental health keeps its steady ascension from the gloom of 2020.

I am now back on the daily blog and have so many projects to start, share, and thrive on. 2022 may have stumbled a bit in this first quarter but there is so much more to live for; I’m very excited about what’s coming 😀

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So, how has the beginning of 2022 been treating you? Any topics you would like to see covered here?

Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.

Categories
diary Mental Health

Let’s Discuss Burn Out (Part 1)

Beginning of the Week and Yet…

Something I was definitely not prepared for my adult life was to tackle recurrent bouts of burnouts.

Yes, there are many other aspects of adult life that we are not ready and sometimes never will (I’m looking at you obscure admin tasks). We live in a pretty free world, which means that we are free to do what we want. The corollary lies in the fact that there is always more we can (have to) do than we physically can deliver. Depending on the level of commitment to all these tasks, we highly run the chance of burn out by drowning under all these workload.

Today is Monday and I’m already feeling overloaded with so many tasks, ideas, projects; all of which need/should/ideally be finished by ‘yesterday’.

I’ve already touched on this topic of burnout in a previous post and will expanding on this topic over the course of this multi-part blogpost.

The Sinking Feeling

I used the word ‘drowning’ on purpose here.

One defining sensation when a burnout shapes up in our mind is the overwhelming feeling of drowning. It mentally feels like we are running out of oxygen and are surrounded with water. The outlook on the world becomes darker and darker and soon enough we can even lose our bearings of in which direction is the surface. This makes the recovery even more challenging as we lose sight of how to get out of this feeling, further accelerating the piling-on effects as productivity plummets and unfinished tasks accumulates. Soon, our ability to move (aka think) becomes impaired and despair takes hold of our mind.

If all sounds very dark, it’s because it is.

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What is your view on burnout? Have you or witnessed someone going through it? What are your short- and long-term tips for coping with it?

Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.

Categories
diary

Bad Habits Show their Face Fast

The Challenge in a Writing Challenge

It was pretty obvious when I started this writing challenge that there will be days when it is ‘challenging’ to publish the daily post.

Yesterday, a cumulation of high workload (marking is almost over as well as the looming deadline!) and mental echaustion meant that I went to bed forgetting to finish typing the blogpost. Luckily, I had started it (as with many other drafts) so it only took minimal efforts to finish it the following day (today). The tricky aspect however lies in the fact of not breaking the cycle and keep releasing a blogpost everyday. I’ve had too many instances were a simple lapse in a new habit cycle meant that the streak was broken and it ended there. The excuse was (un)surprisingly always (read never) valid.

Actually, on this topic of forming and breaking habit, i highly recommend you to listen to yet another episode of the Huberman Lab podcast on this very topic.

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And what do you think? How do you enable habits or inhibit bad ones?

Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.

Categories
diary

Marking in Progress

This is going to be a short post as it’s already late and tomorrow will be a long day as well.

This Part of the Education Cycle

Marking constitutes an inherent part of any teaching job, as much as exams are an inherent part of any students’ journey.

Exams are dreaded by students for the stress during the examination and the release (and consequences) of the resulting marks. Teachers also have to put a lot of efforts (aka time) into writing exam questions. Once the examination completed, the teachers will also spend a significant amount of time marking all these exam transcripts.

All in all, we all have to commit to exam and marking.

A Love Hate Relationship

I’m sure this is a feeling shared by many colleagues, but I’ve have a love-hate relationships with exams.

I like examining my students to measure (relatively quantitatively) how they have grown as skilled engineers. However, the volume of marking (easily 30min per transcripts and hundreds of them to mark) makes it a very daunting task…

To help me motivate myself to even start each mini marking sessions (it is unrealistic to mark everything at once), I usually keep picturing the curious and engaging students I have so much enjoying sharing knowledge and interacting during the course. Even if the transcripts are anonymous (which is an essential aspect of marking), my mind remains curious about how closer to a full engineer these students have become.

This means that I need to examine them. This means that I need to mark…

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How do you tackle marking? Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.