2011 has been a great year for me;
Graduated with a 1st MEng in Electronics & Software Engineering @QUB,
Got Job offer to a major financial house, which I turned down,
Got Job offer to a C|EH company in England, which I turned down,
Got DELNI Funded PhD offer (x4) from CSIT/ECIT, which I turned down,
Got selected to be one of the two UK projects within a Joint UK/FR Defence PhD Programme, which I accepted,
Saw fantastic growth in QUESTS and the Hacker^H^H^H^H^H^HMakerspace, including the beginning of a Major project, which we got EEECS Funding for and are also hoping to get QAF funding for QUESTS in general,
We are on track to get a actual space for the Makerspace circa Summer 2012,
Had the fantastic experience of living and working in Zurich for the summer with IAESTE / Pc Engines Gmbh, which gave me the opportunity to visit all over Europe, which was great for my confidence and self-belief, and also gave me a great many new friends all over the world,
Started (re-)learning French,
Came second in the UK Nationals of the IET’s Present Around the World Competition in Liverpool for my talk on Privacy in the Modern world (I keep meaning to screen-cast this but keep forgetting…)
Had a great time making an interesting site with Matt Campbell, Alastair McKinley, and the Sisk Brothers (was live for a few days over the summer, and we didn’t want to pay for it so let it die; may go back to it this year!)
Was asked to speak at the QUB EEECS RS Colloquium, representing Digital Communications within QUB/ECIT.
Travelled over 6,000 Miles, visiting at least 12 cities in 7 countries.
Lost a phone and a bike,
Went on 12 ‘dates’, 5 of which were worth while, 3 of which I’m still in touch with,
Taught at least 5 first years that C++ isn’t magic, it’s just poorly taught,
Sat on 5 committees, only one of which made me feel productive,
Had a pretty awesome time.
Going forward, I’m not going to make a load of promises I won’t keep. Thanks to all my friends, family, colleagues, competitors, enemies, bureaucrats, pencil-pushers, and random-folk who made my year what it was.
I plan on only two things; KISS, and…
