“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” -Soren Kierkegaard

It has been a while since I have posted. I figured it would be time to talk about my 2015 resolutions and update everyone on how my 2014 goals went.

The Past

These are the goals I had laid out for myself in 2014. I managed to complete most of them!

  • Graduate!
  • Determine where I will be in September 2014. Hopefully I will be starting my Masters/PhD, or working in company where I truly enjoy my work.
  • Reconnect with my high school friends. It is time to start networking. As most of us have graduated or will be approaching graduation, it will be nice to get back in touch with my friends and see what their plans, goals and career aspirations are for the next 5 to 10 years.
  • Continue developing and improving my website. Spend a minimum of 2 hours improving the site or writing tutorials per month, with a minimum of one blog post every 2 months.  This one did not happen. I’m not happy with the progress of the site, I was hoping to have more content up, and a better design by now. I’ve not prioritized it as highly as I originally planned, and don’t foresee myself putting major time to develop it at the moment.
  • Complete 2 puzzles of 1000 pieces or more This one surprisingly worked out well. I started to stress during Nov/Dec, so completing the second puzzle gave me a chance to relax and spend some time alone with myself.
  • Read 5 new books before the end of the year Also did not happen. I’ve managed to finish two during my summer travels, but I did not reach my goal of 5.
  • Increase website traffic to 5 recurring and 1-2 new users per month Hard to define. I’ve got new traffic, but I guess without new content and posts there is no incentive for you readers to visit monthly!🙁 I will try to improve this point for 2015.

The Present

I am currently pursuing my PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. I’ve changed focus since arriving at Stanford, taking more courses with focus in biomedical and medical devices. Last quarter I look a Light in Biology course, which covered all sorts of microscopy techniques from simple bright-field to super-resolution (FRET) and two-photon fluorescence imaging. This quarter I am taking the Biodesign Innovation course which is a collaboration between engineers, medical students, and business students to work collectively on designing a medical technology, from the needs finding stage to brainstorming and prototyping. The second course I am taking is on bio-chips and nano-medicine.

The Future

I’m looking forward to the next few years. I think they will be the best and most interesting years of my life here at Stanford. The number of motivated people is amazing. Everyone is driven, and looking for the next big start-up idea. The connections I make over the next few years will be pivotal in my life.

Goals of 2015

By announcing my goals of 2014 publicly, I hope to be able to keep true to them. It will serve as a constant reminder to myself about my goals and keep me in line and focused towards achieving them.

  • Keep expanding my knowledge in medicine. One thing I was not able to focus on in undergrad is medical aspects of engineering (eg. medical imaging) because the facilities (hospital) was not there. Now that Stanford Hospital is across the street from my department, I hope to take courses, collaborate, and network.
  • Stay in touch with my undergraduate friends. We are all in awesome places now (some in graduate school, others working) and each one has their own expertise and areas of interest. I would like to keep in touch to know their interests, locations, goals, as the years progress. I will make it a goal to talk to (call/chat) at least two friends a month, and at least 15 different people over the year.
  • Complete my newest 2000 piece puzzles.
  • Complete the website. I want to create a travel/photo section, EE Quals, and other thoughts on my mind before I forget them, so that I have a permanent record in the future.

In the same theme as last years post, I will leave you with a picture of the current puzzle I’m working on. I got started over the break, and hope to complete it soon. Can you guess what it is?