Welcome to the archives. This is a list of all the content I have written for this site, sorted by topic. If you have trouble finding what you are looking for, you might try the search tool in the sidebar.

Academia

The unsolicited advice I give new grad students about doing research.

• May 2012 » Unexpected results are good
• May 2012 » Problem to be solved
• Apr 2012 » Reading research papers on the iPad
• Mar 2012 » Keeping seminar questions classy
• Feb 2012 » Breaking down your research problem
• Jan 2012 » Corresponding authors who don’t correspond
• Jan 2012 » If it disagrees with experiments, it’s wrong
• Dec 2011 » “This has at times hurt my career”
• Dec 2011 » Finding papers that use—but never identify—a specific software platform
• Dec 2011 » Graduate school—now or later?
• Nov 2011 » Advice for new university instructors
• Nov 2011 » How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX
• Nov 2011 » Numerical models and crystal balls
• Oct 2011 » How to end your seminar or conference talk
• Oct 2011 » Doing science in the open—thoughts from Michael Nielsen
• Sep 2011 » Survival guide for your first year of graduate school
• Aug 2011 » Liberating and future-proofing your research data
• Aug 2011 » Does teaching make grad students better researchers?
• May 2011 » Giving a conference talk John Wheeler style
• May 2011 » How to build a great academic website
• May 2011 » Why build a website to archive your research?
• Mar 2011 » Are you actually good at what you do?
• Feb 2011 » Putting the thesis into proper perspective
• Jan 2011 » Why we have to nail practical design guidelines
• Jan 2011 » Giving technical talks to a target audience
• Dec 2010 » My conversion to the open scholar cause
• Dec 2010 » Writing in an infinitely editable medium
• Nov 2010 » Things you never say to a graduate student
• Nov 2010 » Books every graduate student should read
• Nov 2010 » The choose your own adventure PhD
• Oct 2010 » John Nash on sharing credit for ideas
• Oct 2010 » Quote: believing experiments vs simulations
• Sep 2010 » Why you should re-read your article
• Jan 2009 » Engage challenge

Engineering

Buildings, bridges, and how to innovate and make excellent contributions to our society.

• Jan 2012 » You might be a structural engineer if
• Jan 2012 » When building collapse simulation meets social science
• Jan 2012 » A 25-year retrospective on the finite element method
• Jan 2012 » Improving the human condition with space houses
• Dec 2011 » Merry Christmas from an engineer!
• Dec 2011 » Hire engineers and teach them to program? Or the other way around?
• Dec 2011 » Teaching computational thinking
• Nov 2011 » Is engineering education too hard?
• Oct 2011 » Visualization of leaning buildings
• Oct 2011 » Advice for great bridge photographs
• Sep 2011 » The sad state of computer science education for engineers
• Aug 2011 » How to “predict” an earthquake
• Mar 2011 » What do structural engineers do?
• Jan 2011 » Engineers and “exact” calculations
• Jan 2011 » Why we have to nail practical design guidelines
• Dec 2010 » How finite element mesh generation algorithms work (video)
• Dec 2010 » Why engineers need a master’s degree
• Nov 2010 » Henry Petroski- “Engineering is not science”

Miscellany

Everything that doesn't fit into an existing category but I think needs to be archived here.

• Oct 2011 » Typographers care (way) more than you do
• Nov 2010 » Why I started this blog/website
• Sep 2010 » I belong to Jesus Christ
• Aug 2010 » Music animation machine

Modeling

Technical posts on the finite element method, structural simulation and nonlinear material constitutive modeling.

• Apr 2012 » Burj Dubai finite element model
• Apr 2012 » Dealing with temperamental scientific models
• Mar 2012 » Expanding your finite element toolkit
• Jan 2012 » A 25-year retrospective on the finite element method
• Dec 2011 » Hire engineers and teach them to program? Or the other way around?
• Dec 2011 » Grad students always use the most complicated model
• Dec 2011 » Finding papers that use—but never identify—a specific software platform
• Mar 2011 » How to learn a new finite element analysis code
• Feb 2011 » Introduction to Abaqus FEA (tutorial)
• Oct 2010 » Lessons learned from forensic FEA of failed RC structures
• Jul 2005 » A finite element approach to reinforced concrete slab design (Master’s thesis)

Productivity

Getting things done more efficiently and accurately.

• Mar 2012 » Indefinite social media hiatus
• Mar 2012 » CS Lewis quotes on reading
• Jan 2012 » Artificial scarcity and your laptop charger
• Nov 2011 » Don’t waste your slot
• Sep 2011 » Know your tools better, test ideas faster
• Jun 2011 » Does the Kindle provide an immersive reading experience?
• Jun 2011 » Is the Internet making us anti-intellectual?
• Mar 2011 » Are you actually good at what you do?
• Feb 2011 » Do you need ideal conditions to do great work?
• Feb 2011 » Why trust your instincts when you discover new tools?
• Dec 2010 » Writing in an infinitely editable medium
• Oct 2010 » How I started reading again
• Sep 2010 » The human impact of your work

Teaching

The future of engineering education, how to succeed in engineering courses, and advice for other instructors.

• Jan 2012 » Who should you study with?
• Jan 2012 » How to email a professor (and make them want to help you)
• Dec 2011 » Should you drop my class?
• Dec 2011 » Teaching computational thinking
• Dec 2011 » Graduate school—now or later?
• Nov 2011 » Advice for new university instructors
• Aug 2011 » Does teaching make grad students better researchers?
• Jul 2011 » Embedding real-time feedback loops in exams
• Jun 2011 » How to stand up to fellow (graduate) students who cheat
• Jun 2011 » What I (really) think about people who cheat in engineering classes
• May 2011 » Teaching and notetaking in technicolor
• May 2011 » Time spent on basic ideas is never wasted
• Jan 2011 » Engineers and “exact” calculations
• Jan 2011 » Before you skip my class
• Dec 2010 » Reducing bias when grading exams
• Dec 2010 » Why engineers need a master’s degree
• Nov 2010 » Teaching math in a physical world- SOHCOHTOH (sic) edition
• Nov 2010 » And that’s why you always solve your own exam first
• Oct 2010 » What can a EE learn from statics?
• Sep 2010 » A homework solution format that works
• Sep 2010 » How to succeed in engineering courses 101
• Aug 2010 » Course average calculator

Technology

Programming, software reviews, how-to's, and finding the right tool for the job.

• May 2012 » PDF syncing in Sublime Text for LaTeX on Windows
• May 2012 » Enough Python to keep me happy
• Apr 2012 » How to digitize a graph on Windows
• Apr 2012 » Reading research papers on the iPad
• Mar 2012 » Two weeks with the new iPad
• Mar 2012 » Militarize your backyard with Python
• Mar 2012 » Indefinite social media hiatus
• Feb 2012 » Fix the table of contents line breaking headache in LaTeX
• Feb 2012 » Before you read Bringhurst on typography
• Jan 2012 » Toward better blog archives
• Dec 2011 » Filter a website’s RSS feed for your specific interests
• Dec 2011 » How to improve font rendering on Windows
• Nov 2011 » Book review—Visualize This
• Nov 2011 » How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX
• Oct 2011 » Make links in LaTeX documents print in black and white
• Oct 2011 » How to generate ternary plots in Matplotlib
• Sep 2011 » iOS apps for LaTeX aficionados
• Aug 2011 » Liberating and future-proofing your research data
• Aug 2011 » How to make Windows more Mac-like (for frequent switchers)
• Jul 2011 » Why I really love LaTeX (and you should too)
• Jul 2011 » A few thoughts on O’Reilly Media
• Jul 2011 » Speed up plot rendering in Python/Matplotlib
• Jun 2011 » Software applications so transparent they disappear
• Nov 2010 » How to digitize a graph on a Mac
• Nov 2010 » How to automatically buzz guests in your neighborhood or apartment
• Nov 2010 » No more FM transmitters: My quest for iPhone audio sanity
• Jan 2009 » Dual units in scientific plots using Matplotlib