Mike Pinkowish » Academic

Sensation and Perception Experiments

Mike Pinkowish — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:50:45 +0000

This fall, I took a psych class, Sensation and Perception, with Brett Fajen. The class focused on how our perceptions of the world (primarily through the vision system) are formed and altered. One part of the course involved designing and conducting experiments to measure the abilities and find the limits of human perception.

I designed two of these experiments using HTML5 canvases and JavaScript. I’ve modified them slightly to work on the web (as opposed to locally on my laptop), and so that they display the experiment results to the test subject (instead of storing the data).

Both experiments measure how well people count and identify certain objects under varying conditions. The first experiment constrains subjects to only a glance at scene, while the second experiment has subjects count objects in a fast moving stream.

Objects in experiment 2 are in a fast moving stream.

I’ve updated The Labs with a link to the main experiment page.

Fall 2009 Courses

Mike Pinkowish — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:49:57 +0000

It took a bit longer than I would’ve liked, but I’m now registered for the classes for the fall. It may have had to do with the layoffs in December or the non-rehiring of annual faculty, but my registration process was plagued by restricted and filled up courses.

Regardless, I was able to get into classes I wanted. This fall, I’ll be taking Operating Systems, Database Systems, Communication Design for the WWW, and Sensation & Perception. I’m looking forward to taking them.

First Impression of Classes

Mike Pinkowish — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:47:04 +0000

My spring semester at Rensselaer began on Monday, and I think it’s off to a great start. My Economic Analysis of Technical Change class looks really promising. My professor described it as the ‘economics of knowledge’ and said it was his favorite course to teach.

My other classes look good, too. Cost-Benefit Analysis seems like an extension of Managerial Economics (which I took last semester). Plus, the same professor who taught Managerial is teaching CBA this semester. My Differential Equations professors is great at explaining things and my Models of Computation professor really seems like he knows what he’s talking about.

Registered for Spring 09 Courses

Mike Pinkowish — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:36:40 +0000

I just finished registering for my Spring ‘09 classes here at Rensselaer. I’ll be taking Models of Computation (sort of a computer algorithms course), Economic Analysis of Technical Change, Cost Benefit Analysis, and Differential Equations. By the end of next semester, I’ll have completed my minor in Economics.

Absent from my schedule for next is semester is Chinese 4. While I do really enjoy Chinese, I feel that it’s taking up a disproportionate amount of time. Sadly, my time’s been stretched thinly lately, and next semester isn’t going to be any better in terms of time.

This doesn’t mean I’m giving up on Chinese. I’ll be using the Rosetta Stone software to keep myself up to date, just like I did this past summer. I’ll pick up Chinese again in a few semesters, but for now, I need to put it on hold.

On an unrelated note, I may be working to revamp the calendar/events system at RPI to provide a completely different experience for finding out about what’s happening on campus. I’ll talk more about this later.

Mike

FSBO Albany and Course Selection!

Mike Pinkowish — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:35:56 +0000

I made a few changes to the site last night. First, and most importantly, I added a new item to my portfolio. Secondly, I added a little widget that displays the 5 most searched terms on Google, courtesy of Google Trends. Thirdly, but unrelated to the site, I’ll be choosing courses for my Spring 09 semester.

Since January 2008, I’ve been doing work on and off for For Sale By Owner Albany, a home selling website. They recently launched a new version of their site, which I helped build. You can see more details about what I did for them on the portfolio page.

It’s that time of the semester again, course selection. For the spring, I’m considering taking Models of Computation, Chinese 4, Economic Analysis of Technical Change, and Differential Equations. I’m also thinking about adding Parallel Computing to the mix, but it may be 4 credits too many. I’ll update again once I’ve finally chosen.

Mike

Registered for Classes

Mike Pinkowish — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:26:21 +0000

As of 30 minutes ago, I am all registered for my Fall 2008 semester at Rensselaer. My final schedule consists of 18 credits of some of the more difficult and time-intensive courses offered. As it stands, I will be taking Data Structures & Algorithms, Computer Organization, Programming in Perl, Chinese III, and Managerial Economics.

Also, I’m running for Vice-President of the RPI Ski & Snowboard Club. If elected, I’ll be responsible for advertising (something I really, really look forward to doing), organizing meetings, and other miscellaneous tasks all amounting to a slightly significant amount of work. Elections will be held next Tuesday, the 8th.

-Mike

Course Selection

Mike Pinkowish — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:24:13 +0000

On March 31st, I’ll be picking courses for my Fall 2008 semester at Rensselaer. I plan on taking 18 credit-hours worth of classes, 2 less than this semester. While that may seem like a step-down, it will be as much, if not more work, than my current schedule.

Data Structures & Algorithms and Computer Organization are two higher-level computer science courses I plan to take next semester. Additionally, I will to take Chinese III to continue my planned minor in Chinese. Finally, I plan to take a public speaking/writing class as well as Programming in Perl.

As always, I’m excited to start new classes and learn new things, but summer will come before the fall. My plans for the summer are not set in concrete just yet. I’m considering a few options and may not know for a few weeks exactly where I’ll be working this summer.

-Mike