Maria and I came earlier than normal (actually planning to head out a little early as well) to work on finishing up the programs we've been working on here for a few days... this actually turned out to be a bigger task than expected.  Anyway, but we finally got it done about 10:30... which was when our weekly RISE team meeting began.

Today, Pamela gave us a 'tutorial' on noise (from an electrical signal perspective).  Even though I'm not as familiar with the electrical engineering topics that the others in my group are, I was able to grasp most of the concepts today because of my background in math.  Most of what Pamela was demonstrating on the board today was an application for many topics I've learned in Calculus classes over the years...

During lunch break, we all went our separate ways today... Amy had a doctor's appointment because she still wasn't feeling well from being sick yesterday.  Maria and I went to pick up pay checks in 2 different locations and Lindsay decided to go eat lunch with the boys in the lab.  Backup a second... I GOT PAID TODAY!  :)  YAY, and as a big surprise, we got the entire stipend for the program at once today, which was opposed to what they had told us before.  Originally we were supposed to get half today and then the second half in a month.

After lunch, we worked on converting the programs we had written in C to Matlab code... which has turned out to be VERY tricky due to the reliance on the GPIB library that is included. 

Also after lunch, Maria and I worked with Hong Hou again.  He taught us about the Optical Power sensor they have in the lab... which is one instrument we'll be using when we start doing tests for the optoelectronics portion of this.

Anyway, we kept working and working on trying to get our programs converted over into one programming language... and kept having problems.  Lindsay left about a half hour before the rest of us... anyway, around 5:30 we finally figured out what code we needed to add, but all of us were tired of being at work, especially Maria and I since we'd been there since 8:30 am.   Maria mentioned that she was going to probably just add in that extra code this weekend and have it done. 

After work, I got my car from the lot and drove to the metro station... I was going to 'explore' again this afternoon at museums, but by the time I got out of work and to the station it was 6 pm and most museums close at 7 pm... then I needed to go to my bank to deposit my check.  When I got off at the station to go to the bank, I was in a less than desirable part of town and I wasn't quite comfortable there, so I ended up just depositing my check and getting back on the metro and coming back to College Park. 

Then I drove to Target to buy Dawn and Geoff a wedding card and gift certificate since I'll be missing their wedding.  Also, I picked up a few groceries and dinner at Wendy's!  :)

Oh.. and I found out my design team from this year got 1st place in our competition!! :)  woohoo.  we win!

Finally I'm back here and typing this glorious message for ya'll to read.  :)  No plans for the weekend yet, but I'm kinda hoping to make a trip to Alexandria tomorrow to hang out.  We'll see what transpires. 

Oh.. and before I leave... here's a picture of the 4 of us RISE girls in our lab...