After six long years of courses and research, I graduated with a Masters degree in industrial engineering from Wichita State University. I did the majority of the degree part-time while working at Hawker Beechcraft and finished it after moving to the WSU College of Engineering. My thesis was entitled Energy Consumption of Manufacturing Equipment in [...]
Every two years my advisor attends the International Symposium on Flexible Automation (ISFA) Conference, and was able to take one student with her this year. She invited me to go with her and to present a portion of my masters thesis research at the conference. This conference is held every 2 years and alternates between Japan [...]
I safely arrived back in Wichita on Friday night at 9 PM. Thank you everyone for your comments, emails, texts, and most importantly, prayers! I hope you enjoyed reading my posts and following my trip.
The Mexicans we met were hard-working during the day and fun-loving after work. They know how to party and relax. Besides enjoying their food, everyone plays soccer, there is a large baseball stadium not far from the facility, and both the circus and an ice show were in town during our trip. One night we [...]
I love maps and am pretty good at compass directions. When we go on trips I get to be navigator. Except for this trip. No maps, no grid streets (except downtown), no directional signs, nothing. Lucky for us there were three co-workers that had already been there for over a month who had learned how [...]
Chihuahua is in an arid climate and, except for areas that are irrigated, is covered in dried brown brush. Most of the city is encased in cement or mountainous rocky soil and green spaces are a rarity. Quite the opposite from the 40 shades of green we saw on our Ireland trip this past summer! [...]
This afternoon we drove downtown but went in the opposite direction from yesterday (I would give you the compass direction, but I really have no idea in this town). We parked and walked to a large building that contained dozens of shops the size of small shipping containers. The shops were laid out in a [...]