Gregory Mulholland

This is a short post to congratulate Saket and his team. They have been working on a business plan around a social entrepreneurship venture to use UV light to purify water cheaply and effectively in developing nations. Although I don’t know many of the details, they have been selected to present their idea to a panel of judges at the University of Washington to compete in the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition.

This is just more evidence that when I start a company, Saket will have to be a part of it. He brings the analysis of an engineer to the business world and has been invaluable in every project I have collaborated with him on. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry and Sergey, look out Saket Vora is on his way.

The last two weeks have been really busy. When I say busy, I mean the lots to do sort of busy more than the lots to talk about sort of busy. My time has mostly been taken by research. There have been a few non-research fun things that have gone on, and a success in research or two.

First, this last week, I attended formal hall at Queen’s College. I went under a program called a formal swap. We send 10 or so of our grads to their hall for dinner and they send a corresponding number to ours. It was a fun time. We all met outside Queen’s Porter’s Lodge (a professionally run 24-hour desk for the college) and headed into the college bar. The bar was really nice. There, we were served sherry and orange juice (not mixed, separate options). Since the sherry wasn’t very good, most of the Trinity Hallers went for OJ. We then proceeded to the formal hall. Scott, my neighbor, characterized as an elementary school gym. I was more apt to describe it as a mega-church. It was clearly 80s style architecture nowhere near as impressive as Trinity Hall’s. From what I understood, they have a smaller formal hall that is beautiful, but they don’t use it much since it only seats around 40 people.

Once dinner started, we all got to reading the menus:

• Lentil Soup
• Guinea Fowl
• Green beans and herb potatoes
• Chocolate Tort

Well, lentil soup was there, so were the green beans and potatoes. None of us, however, believed that the red meat in front of us was guinea fowl. It took a few tries asking, but we finally determined that it was lamb. Whatever it was, it was delicious. The dessert was the best part. The chef there apparently has a Michelin star (a huge honor is the culinary world) for his desserts. We all looked forward to that, and it by far the best part of the meal. Afterward, we all mingled for a bit and headed back to our residences.

On Thursday, two of us from my research group went to a meeting with the physics group with whom we collaborate. The purpose of the meeting is to see what methods and such we each have and how we can use them together. At first, they grilled Kevin, my groupmate, on his research. Then, when it was my turn, they really took it easy. I had mentioned that I had been working on my project for about a year less than Kevin had, so maybe that is why. But I could have answered most of the questions they asked him, so I was disappointed not to be tested. My chance to shine came sometime later though. One of the members of the physics group started talking about atomic layer depositon (ALD). He was saying that the process took days and months. Furthermore, it sounded as if most of the group was really just learning about the method. After about 10 mins of not being able to get a word in edgewise, I dropped the bomb that I had worked with ALD for almost 2 years back home in the States. Immediately, I went from being the new guy, to having a whole group trying to be my good friend. Now, I am helping to design a faster, more efficient system for them. Hopefully we can get it to work, and I will both be able to use it for my own experiments and include it as a major part of my thesis.

On Friday, I attended a seminar call “Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge”. It was held at the business school. The main question (debated the night before directly, but I couldn’t make it because I was at formal hall at Queen’s) was: how can Cambridge become the next Silicon Valley. My answer: work harder and stop being afraid of risk. The sessions themselves were concerned with the basics: IP, taking on existing big companies, how to get a product to market. Most of the people there were talking about software though. Although software is a lucrative area right now, you can’t run software without hardware. Because you can do things like fix bugs in software after you release a product, or do rapid development, the culture is totally different. I found myself frustrated with the suggestion that every product or idea could be handled in some way similar to software. I think they sometimes forget that software is free. If you have a week of free time, you can write a decent program. Hardware products require that you actually research and fully test before you release. Perpetual beta is not acceptable. The other thing that seems to pervade at these events is the existence of MBA students. They are obsessed with business plans. The Silicon Valley people could care less, and are sometimes jerks about it. I really think that if you are a garage entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, you automatically have a huge amount of disdain for MBA people. They are all that is evil: rigid business plans and (in many cases) lack of real technical understanding. It reality, you can’t get funding without a business plan, but if you spend too much time making up market numbers that everyone knows is just hand-waving anyway, you will lose your edge.

Overall, it was an interesting day. These kinds of things make me want to go out and start my own company. I know that with some of the right people working with me (Kelly, Saket, Win, etc), we could make some seriously cool things. For now, I get to go to seminars like this one and just learn as much as I can before I get involved myself.

Today was the Winter Head. It was a race on the Cam from the lock to the Penny Ferry pub (about 2.5k). It was a good race. Although results haven’t been posted yet, we think we held our own. This is sort of a surprise since we had never rowed in that configuration before. It was a good time. Tomorrow, we have the Emma Sprints. It is one of the few side-by-side races on the Cam. As such, the race itself is only 500m (officially, though I hear that it is actually shorter). We do it in “fancy dress” which just means in costumes. It should be fun.

Weather:
Saturday: Cool turning to cold…might rain
Monday: Getting chillier…might rain

On Saturday, 8 members of the rowing team were asked to take part in a commercial for Siemens. It was a very interesting experience. First, we assembled, in formal (gowned) attire at Trinity Hall and went to St. John’s College where the first part of the commercial was being filmed.

Disclaimer: This commercial was really more of a recruiting video for Siemens, so don’t expect to see my rowing physique on the BBC any time soon.

We then spent the next 4 hours on 3 scenes. There was 1 real actor there, and the rest of us were extras: talking in the background, walking by, laughing. It seemed like we were always waiting for sun (that’s what you get for filming a commercial in Cambridge) or redoing the shot because something tiny went wrong. Those four hours dragged on forever.

Then, after a quick lunch, came the part that we are experts at: rowing. We took the 8 out for a quick row, and it set up beautifully. For our first outing together ever, that was the most amazing row I have ever had. The day was getting cold, and since the sun sets here around 4:30 (at least from a film perspective), the crew was ready to shoot. We rowed under Jesus Bridge 6 times to get the shot. After each trip, Rosie, our contact told us how great a job we did and gave us a few pointers on how to do it better. The main problem with the filming, though, is that the film crew and director had no idea how boats work. They repeatedly told us to row by slower. Our response: “WE CAN GO NO SLOWER”. At some point, the boat just becomes too unstable. The only request that beat the “slower” one, was that we row as full speed, then pull all of our oars in and stay as close to the shore as possible so they could hold a camera on a boom over us. We quickly had to explain that a maneuver like this would give us all a swim in the lovely (read: disgusting) river Cam. It was a very interesting experience. We were compensated well, and it was fun. It did teach me, though, that I haven’t the patience for acting. Sooooo….sorry ladies, no Greg on the silver screen any time soon.

Tonight was the 5th of November. For those of you who are unfamiliar, that is Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfires Night. Basically, it is a celebration of the foiling of an attack on parliament. A (Catholic) conspiracy had planned to blow up parliament, by storing gunpowder in the basement. They intended to ignite it during the State Opening, when most of the Protestant Aristocracy and King would be in the building. The attempt was foiled and has been celebrated since. Early on, I have been told, effigies of the Pope have been burned. Now, there are just fireworks and carnivals. It seems to have lost most of the anti-Catholic bent. It actually is not unlike a state fair back home, without the livestock or fried candy bars (okay, so maybe it is nothing like a state fair).

Midsummer common, which is directly across the Cam from our boathouse, is where the fireworks were launched this year. The boat club held a cookout and sold burgers and hot dogs (hot dogs here are only about 3-4 inches long and still go in a standard bun, very unimpressive). Then, at 7:30, we watched the fireworks. They were pretty much the same as American fireworks. After the show, an enormous bonfire was lit. It was very impressive, although it was separated from the public by lots of fence and empty space. It was still a really huge blaze. The night was a fun one. Although I obviously don’t really identify with any religious meaning of the holiday, it was a fun time to barbecue with some people from the college and enjoy the show.

One last note: it is interesting here the way the temperature works. It is really not uncommon for it to get colder over the course of a day. Maybe it is just an illusion, but most days I am looking for an extra layer around 1 or 2 o’clock.

Weather: Cool, but comfortable…might rain today

So research is chugging along. I could probably go on for an entire post about adhesion layers, the frustrations of electrodeposition, Tin, Tin Oxide, Indium Tin Oxide…but I really get the feeling that no one really cares. So I will talk about more fun things. In short, research is going well. Obviously no breakthroughs yet, but things seem to be coming together for my next set of samples to show some promise.

Tuesday was our first race on the Cam. It was a beautiful day: sunny and mild. The craziest thing? it didn’t rain!! It was like being back in the US. We rowed down to the lock (about 5k from our boathouse) to the starting line. I have mentioned this before, but the Cam is far too narrow for boats to race side-by-side. It is a nice river, but it is not ideal for sprint racing. Thus, even 2k races like this one are raced by offset. We start 1.5 lengths behind the boat in front of us, and race to the finish line (ours is 1.5 lengths earlier). The races this week were all head-to-head, bracket style. Once you lose, you are out for the week. Tuesday, we raced First and Third Boat Club, Trinity’s Rowing Club.

Unfortunately, we lost the race. They weren’t a bigger or stronger crew, they have just had many more hours on the water. Their team came in 2 weeks before term, rowed every day during that period, twice a day. They then have been practicing as a boat together ever since. We just set out line up about two weeks ago. Considering the difference in practice, our boat is holding our heads high. We held our own. Over the next few weeks, we will probably be going to some races off the Cam, and we will end the month of November with Fairbairns, the big race in the Michaelmas Term.

In addition to rowing, I have joined the college basketball team. After talking to a friend of mine who tried out for the University team, it sounds like thats where the Americans belong. Basketball here is like badminton or squash at home. It isn’t even really like soccer, because in the US, most kids play soccer at some point. Here most people do not play basketball. It is fun to run around and play though. There are a few of us on the team who have played for a long time, and we are slowly teaching the others ideas like cutting through the key, shooting, and dribbling. Luckily, all the teams appear to have the same distribution of skill, so it is fun overall.

For now, that is really it. On Saturday, I am going to row for the college in a promotional video for Siemens I think. It should be interesting. It is too bad that it is for an internal promotion, so I am not going be the next star of the BBC, but at least I will get some free stuff. It is supposed to happen, we will see if it actually does. For now, I should probably get back to research

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