Research

Looking back at my time-tracking history, I can safely say that I have been very productive the past ten days or so. I spent most of last week on finishing the Hyperloop research project I've been working on for the last ten weeks. We presented it yesterday to the transport consultancy that asked us to research Hyperloop. Our findings were received well, even by the two guys from two Hyperloop startups whom we invited.

From Saturday until about an hour or two ago, I spent most of the day doing research for my thesis and writing my proposal. I was legitimately stressing out about my thesis so I put in all the effort that I could muster until I had something that I think is great. Yesterday, instead of spending yet another day between these four walls, I trekked around The Hague from one cafe to the next with my laptop which is definitely something I'm gonna do more often. After presenting our Hyperloop project yesterday, I talked to someone who has also done research into automated vehicles and traffic models, and he thought my proposal was really interesting, which took away the large amount of self-doubt that I had all weekend.

Basically, what I want to research is in a nutshell 'AVs as a force for good', quantifying the potential benefits of a small-scale AV network on areas that are currently poorly accessible and suffer from so-called transport related social exclusion. I think it would be fantastic if the first AV networks, which are most likely won't be much larger than a neighborhood, can provide good and affordable transportation precisely to the people who need it most. What I hope to be able to tell cities at the end of my research is a precise(-ish) number on how many people will be positively affected by AVs coming to their neighborhood. If anyone wants to read my current proposal, I pasted it here. If anyone wants to call me an SJW, go ahead. ;)

Home

I'm very probably going to move this summer. There's a new apartment tower opening up on campus with only studios for students. While I can likely only live there for about a year, I would have a room that's about 40% bigger with my own damn bathroom and shower for about 40% less per month. Which means that I can finally have room to make a small home gym so I can finally exercise and have no excuse not to stick at it. (Yes, I know about the /r/bodyweightfitness stuff, but I get RSI from their routine.)

Next up

Tomorrow's Kingsday here in the Netherlands! I'm going to Utrecht to spend time with my gamedev friend, help him out with some artwork for his most recent Ludum Dare game. It's a fun game and he's thinking of putting it up on the Play Store, but it can use something better than ugly pixel art not moving on a grid at all.

I'm going gliding for four days in a row this weekend. I'm still in doubt whether the sport is something for me. The club is great, but piloting an aircraft is frustratingly hard and I wonder if I even can become good at it. Constantly paying attention to everything is not exactly my forte.