Master Britton

Do we have to call him Master now? Britton received his Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering last week. (two weeks ago?) And he's not done yet! He has about three more years of focusing on his research and creating a disertation masterpiece before he is completely done with school. And then even after that he will probably do a "post-doc" which will take another year. This man was made for school and homework. It's OK though. I love his flexible schedule.
So for this graduation we had just close family come. And Paola, Clark, and Clark's brother Bobby. It was a nice, to-the-point ceremony with only a small graduating class. Plus they tried to make it more entertaining than serious by introducing the professors with a baby picture along with their current picture. Very cute. One of the professors was shown riding a little airplane as a kid.
Congratulations Britton! You have really rocked this grad school thing:)

Quals: Day One

The end is in sight! I will have my husband back in three short days. Quals, for the layman, is short for Ph.D. Qualifying exam. Or in other words, Britton's test of DOOM! Britton chose two subjects, structures and controls, for his minors and one for his major, fluids. He is given two problems for each minor, and four problems for his major. Over three days he has sessions with different professors scheduled in which the present him with a problem, and then ask more questions until they determine they have reached the limits of his understanding. This takes about 15 minutes according to Britton :) It's a little bit tougher than the presidential debates because he can't weasel his way out of questions by saying things like, "When I was a boy...and that's why I love America and believe that someday the Cubs will win the World Series." No sir, they follow up on each answer Britton gives,and don't take no, "My wife just had a baby" for an answer.

My interview with Britton about his controls session on Friday:

Me: What kind of question did Dr. Enge ask you?

Britton: If I told you, I'm afraid I'd have to kill you. These are highly secretive questions and some other grad students would pay big money to know what I know. But basically, they asked me how I would figure out this problem, I derived some equations, plotted some rough graphs, and then we talked about it.

Me: I see. How did you feel? Were you more nervous or confident?

Britton: Confident. I wore my power tie and lucky fuzzy flip flops. I think it went quite well. (Ok, so I'm kind of spicing up Britton's answers to make them more interesting. He actually doesn't really want to have an interview right now because he's studying again.)

Me: The fuzzy flip flops I gave you?! Well, here's the last question. What do you look forward to most after Quals are over?

Britton: Spending more time with my lovely wife and adorable son! I was also thinking of doing some cleaning around the house. That toilet is just asking for a nice scrubbing. And then maybe getting some new tires for the car like your dad suggested.

Me: Well, it sounds to me like you have your priorities straight. It was wonderful talking to you. Let's do this again sometime. How about next Tuesday?

I still love you Britton! Good luck with the rest of your exam!