Disability, History, Wilderness, Natural Parks, and Urban Spaces (Part 3)

This post is a follow-up to a post [LINK] explaining my mindset toward the notion of "wilderness" and appreciation of natural scenery versus urban scenery in the US. (That in turn was a follow-up to a post [LINK] about an essay by the environmental history professor William Cronon regarding the delusional or dishonest way that many Americans & Europeans have come to see notions of "wilderness" since the 19th century.) This post, which was not part of my original plan for this series of posts, was motivated by a recent vacation that I took with my family to eastern Washington & northern Idaho (which together form part of the inland Northwest, along with eastern Oregon & southern Idaho). In particular, my family & I, with me sitting in my manual wheelchair being pushed by them, took hikes on trails, usually built on former freight railroad tracks, that were paved with asphalt which was as smooth as advertised (smoother than many roads and much smoother than many asphalt walkpaths, including in some other state parks that we visited in that region).

There were specific instances when hiking on those trails where I felt like I was being hypocritical or unduly entitled, possibly at least superficially in contrast to my views & beliefs that I have articulated in the linked posts preceding this post in the series. This post is an exploration of those sentiments of hypocrisy & entitlement. Follow the jump to read more.

My time at TRB CATE 2024

Last month, I attended the TRB 2024 Conference on Advancing Transportation Equity (TRB CATE 2024). The conference, which was held in Baltimore, was probably the most enjoyable conference that I have attended thus far (though I have not attended that many), for the following reasons mostly related to how good it was for networking. First, the number of attendees, which was around 500, was enough for almost all of the attendees to meet new people & network effectively; the presence of fewer attendees might lead to a situation where a large percentage of the attendees know each other, leading to other attendees feeling left out, while the presence of more attendees might lead to most attendees feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of meeting attendees unknown to them and therefore discouraged to do much other than spend time with known attendees (as often happens in the TRB Annual Meetings). Second, the conference was more focused on equity issues in transportation, so attendees were very passionate about this issue, and this led to more positive vibes & more fruitful discussions (in contrast to something like the TRB Annual Meeting, where the breadth of topics means that it is unlikely for someone working on pavement engineering to have much in common with someone working on public transit network redesigns). Third, conference organizers explicitly encouraged (at multiple points during the conference) attendees to network, and the schedule (especially including the presence of multiple poster sessions structured as receptions/mixers) included a lot of time for networking instead of being packed from start to finish with highly structured sessions.

I am especially grateful to my current employer for sponsoring my attendance given that I presented a poster about work from my previous job (and, interestingly enough, this was personally my first time presenting a poster in any professional setting). It reflects well on my current employer's willingness to take chances with their employees and supporting employees' presence at such conferences so that the employer's name is more publicized and the employee gets the professional development benefits of learning & networking. Additionally, I got to meet several of my colleagues in person, which felt even better given that most of us work remotely and many of them live in different parts of the US. As this conference happened during the second week of my current job, it really felt like an auspicious way to start this job.

Starting a Job at Cambridge Systematics

I am pleased to share that I have started a job at the transportation consulting company Cambridge Systematics as of 2 weeks ago, being based out of its office in the DC area (where I grew up). (Note that this company, which was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US, is a different company than the social media data mining company Cambridge Analytica, which was founded in Cambridge in the UK and was notable for its mining of user data from social media sites for the purpose of targeted political advertising in the 2016 presidential election in the US [LINK from Wikipedia].) The company takes on clients primarily from government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels to do work on long-range planning, travel demand forecasting, big data analytics & modeling for passenger & freight transportation, transportation safety planning, public transit planning & operations, and public transit & highway asset management. I will primarily be working on projects related to shared mobility, public transit, long-range planning, and transportation safety, but I will not necessarily be restricted to these areas.

I am excited to be working at this company, as it will give me a different perspective on transportation than I had within academia. Additionally, unlike in academia where I was focused on leading & managing a few projects over a long period of time in which those projects would lead to research products but might not necessarily have any more immediate tangible impact, in this company, I will be able to work on a wide variety of shorter-term projects that will have more immediate tangible impacts for people. I got into the transportation sector to help people with disabilities, and although many of the projects at this company might not directly relate to the needs of people with disabilities, I look forward to bringing up those issues where possible & applicable, using these projects to educate colleagues & clients about these issues where possible & applicable, and having tangible (even if incremental) positive influences on transportation for people with disabilities through the completion of these projects.

On Transitioning into Graduate Life, One Year In

This is a post that's more about what's going on in my life right now, so if you would have liked to see a software review or an otherwise more technical/generally topical post, fear not! That shall come in at least one more post this month. This post is more about some thoughts I've had about mentally and socially transitioning to life in graduate school after a little over a year in it, so I just hope that anyone going through a similar transition may find this even mildly interesting. Follow the jump to see more.

How the Economics of Rewards Relates to Open Source

As I just noticed, this is post #10000000_2, #80_16, or #200_8! (The underscore separates the number (on the left) from the base system (on the right).)
I got the idea for this post from a video embedded in an article on the website The Linuxologist. It deals with how incentives affect people's performance - specifically the incentive of a higher reward for better performance. Follow the jump to read the rest.

My Trip to MIT

I had an extremely enjoyable visit to MIT over the last few days. I got back home late last night.
Our hotel was quite nice; it was very well-furnished and looked quite clean and well-maintained despite being a cheaper hotel.
I got to sit in 2 classes: Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. I found the former to actually be easier to understand; I was completely lost in the latter.
I got to visit a dorm - Simmons Hall. It is totally wacky in construction and design.
I got to speak with all of the people that I intended [to speak].
I found myself loving Boston - it is quite safe and has a lot of nice parks, restaurants, and other attractions, as well as a whole host of other colleges.
Overall, it was quite a great trip, and I could definitely see myself going to MIT!