Category: Retirement PhD Page 1 of 6

Christian’s birthday

By Dad

On Saturday, September 7, 2024

In Education, Family, Retirement PhD

Christian’s birthday is past, but I have thought about it a lot of the last few days. It is a gift to have him as my son. It is not so much that he is so accomplished although few attain to the heights he has achieved at a young age (Summa Cum Laude Honors Applied Mathematics BS at 18, PhD in a VERY mathy aspect of Electrical Engineering–information theory, probability, and statistics–at age 23, 100% research appointment at MIT at 24, etc.), but that he is kind and not aggrandizing in the least. He got his PhD five years before I got mine and was instrumental in helping me with my publications, dissertation, and dissertation defense. He did stuff like help me get going on LaTeX, assure my equations were consistent, and all kinds of moral support. He attended both my dissertation defense and my graduation. The picture above was taken after my graduation last December. He always shows up. A gift.

Life long learning

By Dad

On Monday, August 26, 2024

In Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD, Software

My University of Nebraska professor, Troy, just sent out his “first day of school” picture for his 26th year of school. Because of the advent of Artificial Intelligence, he decided he needed some formal education in computer and data science. He started an M.S. in Data Science about a year and a half ago and this is the last class of the first half of the program. He is picking up a ton of skills like Python, R, and a bunch of database and visualization stuff. It would not hurt me to take a few classes like that. I am sure I would enjoy them, but I am leaning toward something, maybe a little less practical and little more esoteric like something in Art, History, or Philosophy.

The Sandhills in the summer

By Dad

On Wednesday, August 21, 2024

In Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD

Troy is out in the Sandhills of Nebraska again. I hope he views this as a major perk of his job. He sent this picture and several videos today. Imagine having to drive out their once every 4-5 months. And sometimes, he even gets to take his kids. I had no appreciation for that part of the world until I started my doctoral research which entailed taking pictures of the Platte River every fifteen minutes or so. The amount of wildlife, both birds and the four-footed kinds, was staggering. And the views, especially when appreciated over all the seasons, were breathtaking. The sad part is that I have never been there. I have only really just seen the pictures. The research we did was significant and I am glad for that, but I really hope I get to go there someday.

Washington state jam

By Dad

On Thursday, August 1, 2024

In Cooking, Retirement PhD

This is a little bit of a religious discussion. I always assumed that all of every kind of fruit and berry grown in the Willamette Valley in Oregon was better than its equivalent from Washington. Our experience living in Centralia demonstrated that I was clearly wrong about Washington apples which are clearly superior to those grown in Oregon. I know believe that stuff that grows on trees in Washington (with the exception of cherries–those, in my opinion are a wash) are superior to those in Oregon, but that the berries of the Willamette Valley are superior at the same category of difference as the Washington apples are superior to Oregon apples. Troy is testing that all out right now with jams we sent him as a thank you gift for my graduation events in Lincoln.

Research and grad students

By Dad

On Monday, July 29, 2024

In Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD

Troy (my professor at University of Nebraska), John (my old buddy from the Bronx, colleague, and fellow student), and I have big plans going forward. My main contribution will be to perform research on water level measurement with ground-based cameras and the use of the GRIME-AI software package from GaugeCam to detect and measure as yet undefined “things” of interests to ecologists and hydrologists. But first, I need to work with Troy to finish an in-progress article based on the fourth chapter of my dissertation, then gather data and write a second paper on our efforts to reduce the footprint of the calibration target we use in our water level measurements to the same size as a typical staff gauge used by the USGS. If that second paper is successful, we plan to extend the GRIME2 software package to accommodate those smaller calibration targets. Troy has a grad student who is currently writing code and running data for the second paper. It has been an enjoyable process working with him.

Nice minor events

By Dad

On Sunday, July 28, 2024

In Retirement PhD, Work

Lots of good and interesting minor events happening right now. My name got added to the Adjunct Professor list on the University of Nebraska–Linclon website, I got some cool new Thrive Bioscience bling for Christian and I (a winter vest from Land’s End with the Thrive logo, and I got a title change with new cards that feature the title change and the PhD suffix. Small favors can be nice.

Only one more to go (h-index)

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 25, 2024

In Education, Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD, Science

When I first started back to school at University of Nebraska, people talked about something called an h-index. It was almost universal that I got told two conflicting things about it. The first was that it was not a good measure of the quality of academic output and no one really puts much stock in it. The second was that, if a recently graduated PhD wanted to have a chance at getting a tenure track position, it was good to have an h-index of 10 or above. My future academic goals and age diminishes the importance of a high h-index even more. Still, it has been pretty cool to watch my h-index inch up. I have enough patents in process and technical articles in the pipeline that I have a decent chance of hitting at least 10, maybe even before I die!

GaugeCam GRIME Lab ML/AI

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 22, 2024

In Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD, Software, Technology

Dr. J is exactly half-way through to his PhD at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research software is turning into something amazing indeed. This is an example of his (very preliminary) instance segmentation. Even though it is very early in the process, you can see this is going to be a powerful addition to his already powerful GRIME-AI software suite of tools. The software already downloads and merges images and scalar data according to a user specified, GUI-selectable recipe that includes data cleaning and image triage. Can’t wait to see the finished product.The software is part of the GaugeCam GRIME Lab research initiative at University of Nebraska.

UNL Adjunct Professor final process steps

By Dad

On Monday, May 6, 2024

In Retirement PhD

I am profoundly grateful for having earned my PhD at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Like many American universities, they are experiencing moral and spiritual decay in many of their departments, but it seems like Nebraska, as a state, is ahead of the curve in combating that degradation. The experience of my graduation reset my view of the institution in a very good way. A way that prepared me to want to contribute transactionally, but as a volunteer. My experience of the people there was amazing. They were invariable of great, good will. I planned all along to continue working with my adviser, Troy, but this inspired me to think more globally–to contribute to the institution of UNL generally, and to the School of Natural Resources in particular. To that end, I asked Troy if he could make me an Adjunct Professor (unpaid). He started the lobbying and paperwork to do that several months ago. Some excellent people wrote me some excellent reference letters and now we are at the final decision point. If all goes well, I will be an Adjunct Professor at UNL before the end of May.

House visit (with our builder)

By Dad

On Friday, May 3, 2024

In Christianity, House and home, Retirement PhD, Work

Lorena and I had a really interesting day today. First, I had a meeting with a professor from the Guadalajara campus of ITESM (important Mexican university system). There is a great chance we will be able to work with him as part of my day job. He is a gifted researcher and just an impressive individual.

After that, our builder, Brad, invited us to visit a house he had built in Granbury. The owners were beyond gracious in showing us their house. Our (famous) house designer lives just across the street and he came out to see us after we went through the house tour. We cam away from all of that with stars in our eyes. Everyone seems to know about the exact lot we have purchased and believe it was a brilliant move. That is yet to be determined, but we were VERY inspired and we LOVED the houses in that neighborhood–mostly all designed by our house designer.

THEN, I had a Signal message from Christian waiting for me when we got home from the house visit. It was the picture Christian took of my professor Troy after my PhD dissertation defense. All of it is all good.

Grateful.

GRIME Lab articles

By Dad

On Thursday, April 18, 2024

In Retirement PhD, Science

Still more good things are happening with our GRIME Lab research team at University of Nebraska. Troy sent me links to two articles that were published yesterday. The first is an UNL general interest news story about the goings on at the GRIME Lab, who works there, and what we are doing. John S. and I are mentioned in the article in addition to Troy and others. The second is an open access article (you can read it and download it for free) on evaluation of whether there is enough information in images of a river to predict stage (water level) and discharge (flow). The article, published in PLOS Water is titled is Stage and discharge prediction from documentary time-lapse imagery. I am the primary author, but Troy, Christian, John, and several others are co-authors. The graph below is one of the prediction vs. actual comparison graphs from the paper.

Photo from Troy

By Dad

On Wednesday, April 17, 2024

In Education, Retirement PhD

Troy took this selfie of he and I while we were standing in the hallway waiting to enter the arena at University of Nebraska–Lincoln for the graduation and hooding ceremony (notice I do not yet have my hood on. I still marvel that we have made it this far and are going strong. We are up to about 17 years now working on these ground-based water imagery projects. God willing, I hope to continue contributing for many years to come. It is great to have our friend, John S., join the fray. I have to admit the guy is a monster in the amount of work he gets done. He has accelerated the project massively since he started.

Christian honors math degree

By Dad

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024

In Education, Post-doctoral research, Retirement PhD

Lorena found this in a file box today when she was looking for some tax documents for me. It reminded me of how proud we are of Christian’s hard work and dedication throughout his Bachelor’s and PhD degree and then on to his current research scientist position at MIT. As graduation approaches and we get invited to high school graduation ceremonies, it is nice to remember Christian graduated summa cum laude with an honors degree in Applied Mathematics from NCSU as his same age peers were graduating from high school. We are going to frame this and put it on the wall beside his diplomas.

Modeling UNL School of Natural Resources Spring Collection

By Dad

On Sunday, March 31, 2024

In Retirement PhD

I bought one of these long-sleeve t-shirts for everyone in the family and gave it to them when I graduated. I had never worn it and even forgot that I had it. This morning, I dug deep in my shirt draw and there it was. It is now my favorite t-shirt. Perfect to protect my delicate skin for walks in the sun.

Volunteer research update

By Dad

On Friday, March 22, 2024

In Education, Retirement PhD, WaterEval

My PhD adviser, Troy, at University of Nebraska just sent me an image from a new camera he put up for some research we are doing. I actually have quite a few updates about the work I am doing with Troy (and others) since when I graduated. It is still pretty weird to have people calling me Dr. Chapman, but it is also pretty fun. So, I am just going to do this as a list and might fill in details on some of it as things start to happen. Here is what is going on:

University of Nebraska-Lincoln is in the process of making me an adjunct professor
North Carolina State University (NCSU) is in the process of making me and adjunct professor
Our planned next article is a publication with additional data based on the fourth chapter of my dissertation
The article after that will be an analysis of how well we do with the very small octagon in the picture above relative to the bigger octagon (I will discus the calibration methods in a future post)
I am a committee member for a Bio-Ag Engineering PhD student at NCSU

Applying for adjunct

By Dad

On Wednesday, February 28, 2024

In Retirement PhD, WaterEval

Even after finishing my PhD at University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), I continue to work there as a volunteer. We have collaborative projects with the ITESM University system in Mexico, a public/private water services company in Australia, University of Nebraska–Kearney, North Carolina State University, and the USGS, with other potential partners on the horizon. My professor, Troy is working to make me an Adjunct Professor at UNL so that I can act as a committee member for appropriate graduate students and have an official, unpaid connection with the university for work I would be doing whether or not they give me that designation. Today, I wrote them a formal letter to request an adjunct professor appointment, so we will see where it goes from here. I continue to work on the GRIME2 software and support the research efforts that use it. It is kind of amazing to us that it continues to attract user and has different applications than what we could have imagined when we wrote the software.

Troy’s first textbook

By Dad

On Thursday, February 8, 2024

In Education, Retirement PhD

Congratulation to Professor Troy, Gilmore for the publication of his first textbook with co-author Kip Solomon. I am very proud to have gotten my PhD under his tutelage. It is great to be volunteering with him still at University of Nebraska. In addition to the University of Nebraska projects, I am also volunteering with Troy’s old North Carolina State University professor. It only takes a handful of hours per week and it is very enjoyable. I am hoping to continue to work on this for the foreseeable future, God willing. There are a number of opportunities I want to explore with universities in Mexico, too. The connection between UNL and ITESM Guadalajara continues with new initiatives cropping up. It is odd that I am working in an area way outside what has ever previously interested me and enjoying it a ton. In the end, it is the people of good will who make it worthwhile.

My buddy John forms his PhD committee

By Dad

On Wednesday, January 31, 2024

In Retirement PhD

I am very proud of my buddy John S. who had his first PhD committee meeting at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I meet John in 2007 when I started a new job in Raleigh, North Carolina. We worked MANY late nights together and formed a life-long friendship. He is about a decade younger than I am so, while he is younger then me, I could not say that he is young. One night when I was about a third of the way into my PhD program, we got into a conversation about what I was doing. He thought he might like to do something like that, too, so I connected him up with my professor Troy G. To make a long story short, they talked, he applied to the program and has been working on it ever since. He has had a HUGE impact on our area of research. I have to say that is significantly greater than my own research. I did perform the prototype work for his research topic, but he has taken it wildly beyond what I did or even imagined. I think he is about half-way through his program now, has been instrumental in helping to secure grants for Troy and is on the way to very big things in the area of ground-based imagery analysis and machine learning/artificial intelligence for ecology and hydrology. His committee meeting went really well. We are all very much looking forward to where his research leads.

Official graduation photos

By Dad

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024

In Education, Retirement, Retirement PhD

The offering from official photographer for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2023 Fall graduation arrived in the mail the other day. I was not planning on getting any more pictures, but I liked this one, so bought it. I am still struggling with what to next and now it is compounded by the fact that a couple members of my team are going to hang up their keyboards and retire. Mark and Frank are ages 77 and 78 and I cannot say I blame them. I would love to work at something I love as long as they have and contribute at their (extremely) high level of performance. I suppose it happens to everyone that they start noticing what the lives of their peers is like after they retire. The more I see that and think about it, the more I want to continue working or doing hard things as long as possible. Mike, my co-vice president, told me his dad was 85 years old and still goes into work two days per week to keep his mind active. Donald Trump seems to be getting more vigorous every day and it might be attributable to the fact that he has found something meaningful that he wants to accomplish that requires that vigor and an active mind. The older I get, the more I think maybe I need to consider trying to work until I am 80, God willing, of course.

Nebraska merch pays off

By Dad

On Thursday, January 4, 2024

In Retirement PhD

The University of Nebraska merch pays off! Just letting you know, if you have it you need to wear it. We have had MULTIPLE people either stop us to talk and/or yell GO HUSKERS in Texas, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Multiple in EACH PLACE! Looking forward to doing this on my upcoming trip to Oregon. I think I need to buy more because all I really have now is the ball cap in this picture. I lost my sweatshirt on a trip to Boston–think I left it on the plane.

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