Week 0

Welcome to week 0 - the week before my REU starts! This week was all about buying last-minute things for Raleigh and packing. My flight was booked for Sunday at 12:30pm and I leave from the LGA, which is an hour and half drive from home. I also spent my week reading up on the papers my mentor, Arvind, assigned our group to read. My group is three people, and we have a post-doc mentor as well. Our project for the summer is going to be related to using algorithms to solve inverse problems. Specifically, our project title is "Randomized algorithms for Bayesian Inverse Problems based on random Fourier features" - I still don't know exactly what that all means, but essentially, we are trying to estimate and reconstruct the state of a system with limited and noisy data. Our focus will be on sensor placement and determining where to place sensors and how many of each type to use (i.e. cheap, high-noise sensors vs. expensive, low-noise sensors) - with a budget constraint while balancing sensor cost, noise levels, and the quality of state reconstruction. It's a mouthful but I'm excited to learn more and see where this research can lead us by the end of the summer!

Thanks for reading, see you next time!

Once I landed at the airport in North Carolina, I was welcomed with this sign on my way to baggage claim!

Gaby