My first day of classes at UVA was a white one thanks to a thick blanket of snow that was laid over the weekend. We took some time to enjoy the fresh powder, but largely avoided the roads and focused on getting unpacked. Ruby loved the snow even more than her last snow in Davidson, as you can tell:

When Monday arrived the roads were cleared enough to travel and I took my first bus to Grounds (at UVA the campus is referred to only as the Grounds). The first stretch of sidewalk off the bus was a treacherous sheet of ice, but after that the Grounds were clear and bustling. I made my way to my desk and prepared for class.

This semester I am only taking two classes: Engineering Mathematics 1 and Multi-body Dynamics. It’s been 3.5 years since I graduated and almost 7 years since I took my last math class, so I wanted to dip my toe into the graduate school pool rather than diving head first. I have to take a total of 12 classes to graduate. The sooner I’m done with them the sooner I can focus solely on research, but I have more than enough time to take it slow. This degree will take me 4-5 years to complete!

My first class of the day was math. I have this class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10am for 50 minutes. I am very glad that I’ve got a good professor for this class. She understands that we all come from a variety of backgrounds and is taking the time to make sure we’re all on the same page before proceeding into the hard stuff. This week we’ve reviewed introductory differential equations concepts, which I welcomed with open arms. My pen-and-paper math skills have atrophied a bit since I was last in school, but with some dedication I’ll get back into the rhythm.

My second class is multi-body dynamics. This class is only on Monday and Wednesday, but it’s for an hour and fifteen minutes. Once again, I’m happy with this professor; It seems like I’ve done a good job picking classes to ease my reintroduction to college. We’ll be studying the underlying math that makes multi-body simulation software work, and we’ll be employing it in MATLAB. The majority of the grade in this class is homeworks and a final project (80% total), which plays well to my strengths, so I’m excited to be starting off with this class.

Aside from the classes I am taking the opportunity to explore the grounds and meet new people and even some old friends when I get the chance. I visited with the former Clemson ME Department Chair, Dr. Ramasubramanian who is now UVA’s Vice President for Research, and had a very nice talk about what I’ve done since we were at Clemson together and about graduate fellowships. I also met with several of the staff members of the mechanical engineering department to introduce myself. I know from Clemson that a good relationship with the staff of the department is the key to getting things done, and I’m excited to start working side by side with these people to complete my research.

As far as first weeks go I couldn’t be happier. I’m settling into the research group well, and my classes seem challenging but accessible. I’m looking forward to getting more involved with my research and using my professional experience to elevate the efforts of our research team. This weekend Laura’s dad will be making a brief visit and we’ll be wrapping up the apartment preparations. I’ll definitely post pictures when it’s ready!