I just graduated in May with a MS in biology, focused on animal physiology and biomechanics. I learned many things about myself during my graduate education; in particular, I learned that I truly don't want to continue in biology. Suffice to say, killing my research animals made quite an impression.
Throughout my studies, I had a growing interest in pointing my biomechanics knowledge less toward animal systems and more toward robotics. My interests grew until finally I broke biology ranks and took an introductory robotics course through the computer science department at my university the semester before I graduated. I didn't have the background everyone else in the room did, and I spent a lot of time outside of class catching myself up on unfamiliar material. I loved every second of it.
My new goal is to develop this interest to the point that I can pursue a graduate degree in robotics and make contributions in that field. Since I'm now out of school, a lot of this development is must be done informally. I'm documenting the process on my blog, robotfrogblog.blogspot.com. I'm hoping to use this record as a way to keep myself motivated, to follow my progress, and especially once I have something concrete in my new graduate school search, to set an example for anyone else out there who finds themselves wanting to re-chart their course. As I've been told, it's never too late to start over... or to change.
Cheers!
Paula Sandusky
[email protected]
Tampa, FL, USA