I've had a couple of requests to update people on what's been going on;

This week has been a good week, I'm starting to feel like I fit into uni a bit more than when I first started and Laura also seems to be getting on ok too, she has made a few friends and we've been out a couple of times with other couples and groups. In fact, the last few weeks we've been out quite alot over the weekends, last week we enjoyed our first clubbing experience in Dublin, at the Dandelion club, which was very busy, but big enough so that it wasn't over crowded, it was after this, that we make an annoying discovery; there are not enough taxis in Dublin. There are far more people wanting to get home than there are taxis to take them. We waited at a 'taxi rank' for well over an hour and a half before we managed to get into one, after fighting off cue jumpers, the journey home was like a bad zombie movie, with staggering bodies nearly falling in front of the taxi, arms outstreched, in the hope of getting a ride. We later learned that there is a night bus/nightlink service, which we could have got.

I actually have a bit of a goal now, with regards to a PhD project; I have been tasked to write a paper ready for Ubicomp 2008, which will effectively be categorising types of sensors and implementing a sensor based version of ConStruct which was developeed here in the Systems Research Group at UCD.

I've also been doing modules, which forms part of my structured PhD program, i've elected to take; Natural Computing, Machine Learning and Distributed Systems. I will also need to pick up at least one more module.

I remember having a chat with James before I came over about evolving algorithms, and that is the subject of Natural Computing, more specifically: Grammatical Evolution (GE), Genetic Programming (GP), Partical Swarm Optimisation (PSO) and Immunocomputing (so far). My particualar project for this will be Optimizing a set of senors(beacons/wifi points) to have be best coverage over a given area, using partical swarm optimisation. I particulary fancied using PSO after reading the book PREY by Micheal Crighton, it's not the same as my project, but its still interesting.

There are loads of clubs and societies here, and i've decided I should take up at least two evenings a week doing something that isn't anything to do with my PhD. So this week I have also taken up Archery! As you can see from the picture, i'm not a bad shot! Before this I aslo managed to get 3 int the yellow bit, plus its only 10Euros membership for the year! My second escape from the matrix is to start playing 5-a-side football on a Friday night with some of the others from my group, tonight is my first time, and they invited Laura along too, which is nice :)

Now we've settled in a bit, it would be nice to see some people, so if anyone fancies a trip over to Dublin, give us a call, we might be able to put you up!