First Day of Spring Term and decisions need to be made

Today is the first day of spring term. We had 15.980 and ESD.802. 15.980 was .... entertaining. Looking forward to a lot of fun with Pref. T. Allen. His theory of the impact of physical location to communication pattern is quite interesting. It's like something "oh, right, now he mentioned it. I also noticed before".

ESD.802, thesis seminar, was quite ... depressing. To me, it's not like I didn't know the urgency of looking for thesis topic and advisor. I guess I just don't like to be reminded again and again. Well, I have written a few topics I'd like to look into. The biggest question I have right now is: should I do a pure technical thesis, or management+technical one?

The same question to what I want to do here at MIT: should I focus on technical side, or on the management side? I had clear answer before I came to MIT: I want to move to management side. The problem I have right now is: darn, there are so many cool technologies out there in MIT and they really get on my engineer nerves;). I can get involved with so many cool tech groups and research activities. Do I have enough energy? Let me see what I was checking tonight:

• Semantic Web: As mentioned before, I did a little this on Tech search paper for ESD.34. It's good that Shashi Kant sent his note to ask if anyone want to volunteer working with his start-up, which I replied with yes. Then I noticed his name in DIG website and then found his SDM thesis was actually about Semantic Web and its application. Very technical thesis. I definitely need to talk to him when we meet on Friday.
  
• Looked around CSAIL to validate my little thinking regarding AI, or my little theory of how a machine can learn. Obviously, I need a little more academic reading there. Not sure if my theory can totally fit into machine learning.
• After ESD.802, I talked to Pat regarding dual degree. The conclusion is that doing dual degree makes a lot of economic sense;). I only pay $3000 for each extra term. I probably can get into TPP easily. How about other department? How hard will it be, to get in and to finish? Do they fit into my interest areas, or what my interest area should be?
• Meanwhile, I also want to work on business skills: negotiation, finance, marketing (I want to listen in the finance and marketing classes). Damn.

Well, I really have to think about it. Am I being engineer for too long;)?

Oh, we also went to the tech fair today. It was much better than the European career fair on Saturday. Quite a few summer intern opportunities available in technology management area. Then, in the afternoon, I realized that I cannot do off-campus intern. Oh, well, a least I got 2 free T-shirt and a backpack;).