The Final Surge

Thanksgiving break was a tease. Since late August, many students at University Park likely haven’t spent more than a few days—maybe a weekend or two—in their own homes. But for the most part, I didn’t mind. My first semester here at Penn State has been an amazing experience, full of meeting new people and adjusting to a new routine—new classes, new places, and, perhaps most importantly, a new way of living. And although Thanksgiving break was a welcome break, being home for a full week just seemed, well… weird. Not weird in a bad way, but different indeed. First of all, there was simply too much space that, after living in a comparatively minuscule dorm room for a few months, I didn’t know what to do with. Add to that a refrigerator stocked full of food (I don’t have to leave my building to go eat?) and my car in the driveway, and it was a completely different experience than college. I was surprised that it actually took me a little while to adjust to being home, but I think it might be a good thing; overall, I’m glad my college experience has been different from home.

 

But then I did adjust to my at-home lifestyle again. Seeing friends who go to other universities and family members whom I haven’t seen for months was great (as well as eating the homemade Italian food I’ve been craving). By the end of the week (which seemed to fly by) I was almost completely adjusted to living at home again, but alas, it was just a tease. After a week of no classes and maintaining a lengthy distance from any schoolwork, University Park students have to come back for another two (or three, depending on how many finals you have) weeks of school. And for me, these are/will be the busiest two weeks of the whole semester—projects, quizzes, and final exams are all looming, and it’s crunch time. Coming off of a weeklong break only amplifies the effect.

 

To top it all off, many other universities held their finals this week or are having them next week. However, these universities usually only have a few days for Thanksgiving break, compared to Penn State’s full week. It begs the question: is it better to have a shorter Thanksgiving break and end the semester earlier, or do students prefer having the longer Thanksgiving break and later finals? I’m not sure what my opinion is, but I have to admit that I’m a tad jealous of other schools that have 5- or 6-week winter breaks.

Penn State Recycling: For the Earth or For the Money?

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Have you seen this guy around campus recently? It seems that everywhere you go there’s a set of collection bins with a picture of a friendly Möbius loop urging you to recycle. As the posters around campus are eager to tell you, Penn State named its recycling program Möbius to represent Penn State’s commitment to “closing the loop” on solid waste. In other words, Penn State wants to divert as much waste as possible from the landfill. Currently, 65% of waste at Penn State does not end up in a landfill, which is projected to increase to 75% with the implementation of composting receptacles across the campus this year. In 2012, Penn State generated 15,372 tons of solid waste–that’s equivalent to the weight of almost 10,000 mid-size sedans, although the preferred unit of measurement by Penn State is (rather specifically)…adult bull elephants? I’m not sure what’s up with the elephants–my usual frame of reference for how heavy something is doesn’t usually include elephants, but hey, I guess whatever works…

 

However, while concern for the environment is likely part of the reason for Penn State’s new recycling and composting initiative, the main attraction is likely cost. The university has to pay about $70 for every ton of trash it disposes of at a landfill, but only $5 or $20 per ton for recyclables. If Penn State didn’t divert any of its waste, it would have to pay upwards of $1 million in disposal fees. The university saved almost $700,000 last year as a result of its waste diverting efforts. And that money goes to good use–so far, Penn State has raised over $800,000 for scholarships and charities as a result of its recycling program. And of course the rest of the savings help reduce the university’s operating costs. So every time we throw that water bottle in the trash because the recycling bin is too far down the hallway, we might just be adding to our annual tuition increase…

 

For more information: sustainability.psu.edu

 

Next week: a look into what actually happens to that bottle after you put it in the recycling bin.

 

So you think you know math (and other assorted topics): a class with Adrian Ocneanu

What do you do in your math class? This is a short sample of what Calculus II with Adrian Ocneanu sounds like:

 

On my first day of college classes, Dr. Adrian Ocneanu walked into class and immediately launched into a lecture about historical climate oscillations and trends, the rise of primitive farming, and the history of calculus. I honestly thought I might be in the wrong class, but a quick glance at the bewildered facial expressions around the room confirmed that everyone was just as confused as I. Fifty minutes later I left the classroom in a mental daze, attempting to comprehend what had just occurred. I wasn’t sure how it related to Calculus II, but I could tell that Professor Ocneanu wasn’t just a math professor–he was a true genius, and I knew it was going to be quite an interesting semester of Math 141H.

 

Professor Ocneanu is one of those special college professors everyone talks about–in a good way. He is from Romania and, according to him, he accent is most useful for impersonating Dracula on Halloween. He participated in the International Math Olympics in 1973 and 1974, earning silver and gold medals. He was offered the opportunity to earn his PhD from the University of Warwick in 1983, which he completed in 11 days. He has lectured all over the world, and he is fluent in about 10 different languages. His field of research is quantum field theory and operator algebras (…what?), but his knowledge and skills seem almost limitless. He sings opera and tangos in class (he claims to have a couple thousand stored on his computer), but before the last note of the accompaniment is done resonating he’s at the chalkboard beginning his lecture.

 

And the lectures are as challenging as they are fun. It’s hard to go through a class without laughing (in disbelief, awe, or humor), but Professor Ocneanu has very high expectations during lecture. He’ll almost never tell you information outright–of course he could just tell you a formula, but instead he’ll lead you to it, taking you through all the steps of reasoning as if you were a scientist discovering it for the first time and then showing you the proof and logic behind it. It’s a rewarding but complex process. Some of his favorite expressions used during lecture include: “Come on guys, are you sleeping??” (when you don’t answer a question fast enough and he thinks you aren’t paying attention, but really you have no idea what the answer is); “Nopes!” (when what you say isn’t correct–this one is used quite often); “Come on guys, you must have learned this in grade school!” (usually accompanied by a grin, it is used in reference to something extremely complicated you most definitely did not learn in grade school and probably not in high school either). But the amazing part is that he actually did learn most of the mathematics in our Calculus II course in grade school.

 

The class is hard, but Professor Ocneanu tries to introduce his students to a new way of thinking about problems, focusing on discovery, logic, and patterns rather than memorization without comprehension. He says, “When you look at an idea in science or mathematics, always think of how you could have discovered it yourself.”

 

And as a reward after quizzes he sometimes brings in homemade desserts from his wife. I’d say that’s a pretty sweet deal.

 

We learn calculus, but along the way he introduces us to many topics outside the scope of the ordinary course–problems and concepts that are thought-provoking (such as working with objects in an infinite number of dimensions). One of Professor Ocneanu’s more famous works is the Octacube, a sculpture in display in the McAllister building at Penn State. It is a sculpture of a 4-dimensional solid that he designed and Penn State’s machine shop built. Since a 4D object cannot exist in our 3D world, the sculpture is actually a “shadow” or projection of the 4D object, a process which he showed us in class before we took a field trip to the sculpture, a foot race that he handily won.

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Dr. Adrian Ocneanu with his sculpture, the Octacube

Although I know I’ll never even come close to the level of Professor Ocneanu’s knowledge of mathematics, it is an honor to be in his class and to have the opportunity to learn from such a brilliant person, even as an freshman. The fact that Penn State has world-renowned professors like Ocneanu is a tribute to the university’s globally-recognized academic prowess, and it makes me proud to be a Penn State student.

The Little ID that Could: An Analysis of the Campus Meal Plan

The Campus Meal Plan. For all students living on campus, the only choice is which of the six levels to pick from. The meal plan is convenient: swipe your card at any of the dining halls and grab as many plates as you can fit on your tray and at a minimum two drinks. Then go back for more. And at a-la-carte dining options your meal plan gets you a 65% discount on prepared items. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

 

We’ll see.

Below is a table with the prices of Campus Meal Plan levels for this year.

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For each, you pay a base cost of $1,295 plus one dollar for every Dining Dollar. But while this table may seem to indicate that each Dining Dollar is equal to one US dollar, this is in fact a bit misleading. Calculating the total cost per dining dollar (dividing the Total Cost by number of Dining Dollars) yields the following results:

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In fact, you’re actually paying somewhere in the range of two to three US dollars for every Dining Dollar.

 

Now let’s take a look at the prices at the all-you-care-to-eat dining commons.

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At first glance, the Campus Meal Plan certainly looks good; only $1.95 for breakfast! But what if you’re on meal plan Level 1, where each Dining Dollar is equivalent to almost 3 US dollars?

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This table shows the equivalencies between Dining Dollars and US dollars. In fact, the Campus Meal Plan is not much of a discount at all for the lower tiers. For example, dinner with Level 1 is equivalent to $13.01 US dollars–almost the cash price and actually higher than the Lion Cash+ cost (which gives you a 10% discount but has an equal conversion with US dollars). The midrange meal plan tiers offer a modest discount, and as expected the highest tier yields the largest discount.

 

But that’s only for all-you-care-to-eat dining commons. What about those awesome paninis from Redifer? The cash price of a panini is $6.99, but when you use your meal plan it’ll ring up as a measly $2.45. But that $2.45 is equivalent to $7.32 US dollars with a Level 1 plan or $6.44 with Level 3. Not much of a discount after all. With the 10% discount for using Lion Cash+, that $6.99 panini would only cost $6.29 US dollars. A small difference, but significant. Even with the advertised 65% discount, you can pay more than the cash price with your meal plan–that’s not a discount at all.

 

Worse yet, you can use your meal plan Dining Dollars at other places, like the Creamery or the Burger King at the HUB. There’s no discount for meal plan purchases at these locations, so you’re paying anywhere from 2 to 3 times as much for your meal! On one occasion I went to Burger King, unaware that Dining Dollars could be used there. I handed over my student ID, and the receipt came back listing a payment method of Campus Meal Plan, and no one even asked whether I intended to use Lion Cash+ or Dining Dollars. So that $4 egg sandwich really cost me $10.52. That’s an expensive breakfast!

 

So to everyone I simply recommend being conscious of this fact. Yes, the Campus Meal Plan is convenient and required, but it has better uses than others. Unless you have to use up Dining Dollars at the end of the year or you’re in an emergency, never use your meal plan Dining Dollars for anything that isn’t discounted. Your base cost covers the cost of operating the dining commons, so why give that money to somewhere else?

The Monster in the Bathroom

There’s a monster in the bathroom. It roars with an unrelenting fury that scathes everything in its path. Its raw force has the power to scour skin and irritate eyes. There’s a monster in the bathroom, and it looks like this:

showerhead

That’s right; it’s your bathroom shower head, but indeed it can easily be mistaken for a torture device that protrudes from the tiled walls. On my first night on campus, I walked into the shower, ready to be enveloped by a soothing cascade of warm water–just the right temperature. But what issued forth from the nozzle was an abrasive spray of water pellets that was concentrated on my back. Looking up, what was on the wall was unlike any shower head I was familiar with–the ones with a field of small nozzles, each one responsible for issuing a small jet of water. Combined, all the jets form a gentle shower of water. In contrast, the standard-issue Penn State shower heads consist of a small chamber that serves to aerate a high pressure stream of water into a spray. This is likely why the water pressure cannot be adjusted in Penn State showers; the shower head relies on the relatively high pressure to create its stream. Additionally, the barrel-shaped design facilitates easy cleaning and a greatly reduced chance of blockage from mineral deposits found in hard water.

 

The most obvious reason for the special shower heads is water savings. I did some probing on the Internet for information about low-flow shower heads for commercial applications and eventually found this website for High Sierra Showerheads/, a company that also specializes in manufacturing shower heads for use in prisons (that must be why they’re so luxurious). Indeed, the FCS-100 model looks exactly like the ones down the hall. These shower heads are, as expected, special models for commercial applications, where the potential for massive water savings exists. The FCS-100 is rated with a 1.5 gallon per minute flow rate. US legislation passed in 1992 placed a limit on the flow rate of shower heads at 2.5 gallons per minute, but High Sierra Showerheads takes the standard one step further.

 

But as much as I (and my scathed skin) hate to admit it, I think these shower heads are a great idea, and I applaud Penn State for its commitment to the environment. With upwards of 13,000 students living on campus, the water and energy savings from low-flow shower heads are very significant. With a 2.5 GPM shower heads, each of these students showering once a day for 10 minutes–a rather conservative estimate for college students–equates to an astounding 2,275,000 gallons of water just for one week’s worth of showering (not to mention other water usage and the energy required to heat that water and then process it at a wastewater treatment facility). A 1.5 GPM shower head can reduce that water consumption by 40%–that’s a reduction of over 13 million gallons of water per semester. And I think we can all agree that a bit of discomfort in the shower is a reasonable tradeoff for millions of gallons of water savings.

What is this?

Are you a first-year student at Penn State University Park? I am, and if you’re reading this there’s about a 96% chance that you are, too. It’s been just over 2 weeks, and I’m just beginning to get the hang of this new routine. There are so many things to explore on this massive campus–hundreds of buildings spread across almost 5,500 acres, according to everyone’s favorite internet encyclopedia.

There’s so much stuff to do here–that is, during the time not spent walking across campus (but that’s for a future post)–that I’m sure I’ll still be learning three years from now. Some of the things I’ve already discovered: You can eat ice cream at the creamery, navigate through all the construction zones on campus, eat ice cream at the creamery, play frisbee on Old Main lawn, eat ice cream at the creamery, and consume junk food at pretty much any hour you like. Oh and I think there are classes here, too.

 

But I digress.

 

What is this blog all about, then? A good question, indeed. The details, it turns out, are still a work in progress, so you–the (hopefully) faithful reader–will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the evolution of this blog over the next twelve weeks. Fascinating, if I do say so myself.

The basic premise is that over the coming weeks I will select an experience I’ve had at Penn State during the week preceding the post–a cool tip I learned, a minor annoyance (read: complaint), something weird, an interesting fact or statistic (I love numbers)–and write about it. I hope to conduct a few experiments of my own, as well. I’ll try my best to make it funny, interesting, engaging, and/or relevant.

So here’s to some cool adventures over the course of the semester. I invite you to tag along with me (virtually) as I explore this place we now call home.

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