My first assignment as a PhD student

So, what do you see here? Actually, nothing special. Yes, it is my first assignment as a PhD student in the Media and Arts Technology programme at Queen Mary University of London. And yes, it is a simple arduino exercise. So why does it deserve a blog post?

The thing that make this assignment interesting, for me, is the shift in mindset that it proposes. In the last two years I've been working as a software developer. As I see it, software engineering most of the time aims to "solve a problem". It can be a bug fix or a new feature, but the motivation is similar. Here, on the other hand, the motivation is completely different - more like "try something new that might be artistically interesting". Personally, I can find both approaches motivated, but it about time to start to explore the 2nd one a bit more.

In addition, I think that this assignment also demonstrate that:

• Trying out new things should be fun.
• You don't need take yourself too seriously when doing science.

I really hope that all of these will continue to resonate throughout my PhD.