What I got up to this afternoon:

This is a Pioneer Robot autonomously driving and navigating in my office. I programmed the A* search of the map of the environment and the waypoint generator which is then passed to an autonomoy controller (not programmed by me) which moves the robot.

Students’ Associations appear to be up in arms about New Zealand universities kicking out students who perform poorly.

From the Stuff.co.nz article:

Financially stressed universities have revealed they will significantly increase the number of students who are shown the door, saying they only want “motivated students”.

The university has introduced a policy in which any student whose grade point average is less than 1.5, or who has not passed half or more of their courses will have their progress automatically reviewed. Grade point averages are ranked up to nine.

Student associations were concerned that toughening up admission requirements went against New Zealanders’ sense of fairness and their sentiment that people should be given a “fair go”.

Students are already given a fair go. They are given a fair go through doing well in the exams before getting into university or in their first semester. If they do not take their fair go to do well in their exams through study then they should be shown the door. If they are not then the education system in New Zealand becomes nothing more than people paying for the piece of paper they get after three years and not earning it through hard work. This cheapens the quality, value and prestige of the institute so good on them for taking a tough stance.

There is a big problem with attitude amongst students at New Zealand universities many students have the attitude that C’s get degrees. At the moment that is true. But it shouldn’t be. Passing with a GPA of 1.5 is hardly passing – it is the equivalent of 4 C- and 4 C grades. A pass yes. Success no. At a minimum to get into post-graduate study you need a GPA of 6.0 (B+ average). To pass a degree you should have to maintain an average of 3.0 (C+) throughout your study. This would allow you to do bad on those papers you are naturally not good at, but at the same time provide enough of a challenge for you to work hard at those that you are good at.

Everyone should be given a chance to get into university and do their best. But university is not for everyone and once you have been given your fair go and have not succeeded you should give up your space for the next person – this is a fair system.

The last eight days have been simply amazing. For most of the past year my life has been like a giant jigsaw puzzle. A whole lot of pieces messed up, some missing, and some from the wrong puzzle set. But this week they have all slotted together perfectly and the result is simply awesome.

As I blogged a week ago I achieved first class honours for my honours degree. This was the centre piece to my future. I had applied for PhD programmes at Massey University, Monash University, and The University of New South Wales, however first class honours is the prerequisite into all three universities.

The next piece of the jigsaw was non conditional acceptance into the PhD programme I had applied for at The University of New South Wales – I got this on Tuesday. This left me with acceptance into the programme I wanted to do but no funding to actually do it.

For funding I had applied for the relevant PhD scholarships at all three universities. I was not expecting to hear back from any of them on the results of these scholarships until Monday next week. However, to my surprise around midday on Friday I got an email informing me that I had been awarded a scholarship for Monash. This was great news, although Monash has been my backup plan to UNSW, at least going into the weekend I would be calm that no matter what my future had been secured for the next three years.

Then even better news came at 6.45pm on Friday night. I got an email informing me I had been awarded the Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship and an Engineering Research Award scholarship at UNSW. This is exactly what I wanted and will allow me to complete PhD at UNSW, Sydney. The total combined value of these two scholarships over the next three years is in excess of $110,000 NZD. And is the best Christmas present anyone could get. It is as close to winning lotto as I will probably ever get – (especially as I don’t pay as the stats say it isn’t worth it!).

To make the week that much better I started a new job on Monday which runs until the end of January. I am working as a Web Monkey (yes that is the job title) for Mighty Ape – if you need Christmas gifts avoid the malls and shop online.

I am so stoked with the way that all of this has fallen into place. The last year has been incredibly tough on so many levels but to finally see the rewards at the end of it is such an awesome feeling. I have a new jigsaw to sort out now – planning and moving to Sydney in less than 7 weeks, but I am now sure that jigsaw will fall into place a lot more smoothly.

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Psalm 103:1 NKJV

And if you read this expecting a blog about a real jigsaw puzzle check this out: Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzle: Bombardment of Algier (9000 pc)

I have just uploaded my thesis and source code for my honours research project to the site. You can find them in the Research section.

Earlier today I received my final grades for my research project and three papers from Semester Two. I scored an A+ grade in all three papers and the project. I am absolutely delighted with the marks and my overall performance this year. In total, for both semesters, I scored 7 A+ grades and 1 A grade. This is by far my best ever set of marks and as a result I have been accepted into a PhD programme at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia beginning early next year.

In time I will blog about some of the challenges I have faced this year (it has not been all plain sailing), as well as this I am working on uploading some of my past assignments to the site (some with and without source code – and minor modifications). I never imagined I would progress so far in academia and now I feel like the journey has only just begun.

It is currently 1am as I write this and unless I am sleep blogging I am still up.

There are two reasons for this. The first is my desktop system is currently trying to work through the process of building Google Chrome OS from source – I will blog on that when it is complete. The second is my mind going nuts about what the future holds.

I have yet to really blog in detail about the last few months of my uni career as I am yet to receive my official results so I do not know if I should rejoice or cry. However, I feel like I am at a major turning point in my life.

At the start of this year, after visiting Melbourne, I set myself a goal of getting a PhD Scholarship for next year. Throughout this year I have worked towards that goal my working my hardest and producing some of the best assignments and research I can possibly deliver. I have had much pain through this process mainly through stress and anxiety which have both at times felt overwhelming.

Now I am at the point where five days ago I handed in my thesis and now I am in limbo for the next two weeks awaiting the marks of this and three other papers. While I have hopes and expectations of good grades the wait is agonisingly painful for someone who always wants to know now what the outcomes are. And that brings me back to PhD scholarships in three weeks from now I will know if and where I will be studying next year – Auckland, Melbourne, or Sydney.

If I am successful in getting either of the two Australian based scholarships it is more than likely that in ten weeks from now I will be living in a different city, in a different country, without any family or friends immediately around me to support me. It is a scary prospect. On one hand it is a very exciting opportunity for growth and development. On the other it is the point at which you realise you are no longer that kid who always wants to grow up and see the world, instead you realise that the world is a very different and somewhat scary place from what you imagined.

One of the scariest things about growing up is money. As a kid my parents always told me that money doesn’t grow on trees. But somehow I never quite believed them. Throughout my undergraduate years at uni I was never a rich student, however, I was never poor enough or dumb enough to drive myself financially into the ground either – although I did come close on a number of occasions. Now having just finished my honours degree and looking out on this exciting and rewarding opportunity ahead money is suddenly a huge issue again. Most importantly where do I get the few thousand dollars from that I require to move country? It does not cost a lot to move across the ditch, however, it does cost more than I currently have and with no fixed job it makes for an interesting scenario.

The next ten weeks are going to be interesting. Normally I look forward to the summer holidays – as a chance to relax from uni, get out and enjoy the sun, and spend time with friends. However, this summer is looking very different, it is a summer that I would rather just hurry up and finish, I have a burning passion and desire to reach that goal that I had at the start of this year. The outcome of this goal is now out of my hands as I await the results of my efforts but inside I am in turmoil I want to know, I need to know, can someone please let me know!

I need something to get my mind off things, a distraction that does not cost money, but is enough to get my mind focussed on other matters. Anyone got any ideas?

I am tired as so no real comments to be made, but lots and lots and lots of photos.

In quick summary UNSW equals about 4 times the size of Auckland Uni, just massive.

I have safely arrived in Sydney for my visit to UNSW tomorrow.

Flight over was good, the plane before us was cancelled so we ended up with a 747 to take us over because of all the people.

Despite a few bumps leaving a very stormy Auckland everything went smoothly.

And even better I have free internet in my hotel room.

Another week, time for another video.

This one shows changes that have been made to the intersection controllers within the Traffic Simulator.

The give-way controller makes all the cars give way to all the other roads connected into the intersection with a minimum of 2.5 seconds between vehicles.

The traffic lights controller makes all the cars on the green road go at 2 second intervals and makes the others queue with a minimum wait time of 16 seconds.

The round-a-bout controller makes each car give way to the right and then go with a minimum of 3.9 seconds between each car on a road, but multiple cars from multiple roads can cross the intersection at the same time… hence the chaos on the video.

This one turned out much better than the first one, enjoy.

Yes I am still making DLAs just trying to make the maths that little bit nicer, and get that all impressive performance boost.

This is a 6,000 point balanced model, it took just under 1.5 hours to generate, compared to 4+ hours for a 5,000 point unbalanced DLA on Sunday