w/c 4th January: It's back to work we go...

Well, this has been a busy, busy week. By its nature, returning to work after a holiday means lots of new things get started (all the stuff there was no point starting before), and that means that while lots of things go onto the To Do list, very few get to a point where they can be crossed off*. Such has been the case this week. Apart from anything else, the first morning was taken up with drawing up my To Do list and planning out my diary. Always a frustrating exercise, when you feel like you should be doing things, but I long ago learned the hard way that if you don't invest the time to get organised you'll be in chaos for the rest of the term. So, time well spent, and it has enabled me to draw up a priority list and focus my time. And there's been plenty to focus on.

A big grant proposal went in to EPSRC this week - I wasn't leading, but it meant planning in time to review and comment on the draft in enough time for it to be returned.

The new FATKAT manipulandum has reached a new prototype stage, which has meant playing around with bolts, nuts, lockwashers, drain connectors(!), and Lego (naturally). That's it at the top of the page. It's very much a prototype, still, and it looks rough, but I think this is what I'll stick with for the first batch of testing. It isn't pretty, but it works - and investing a load of time in laser cutting or 3D printing parts just runs the risk of delaying Will Shaw's data collection. Plus Lego gives us the flexibility to attach a Delsys accelerometer to it, without the need for making a permanent difference to the design.

The WHISPER prototype has continued to develop - after an initial demonstration and discussion with Bryan Matthews from ITS, we've got some good ideas for initial feedback signals, and I'll be off to implement them next week.

Finally, we've gathered some aiming data from CKAT, to test some of my theories about grip control and aiming movements. That's entailed writing some new programmes to translate CKAT data into the form that I use for processing Optotrak data. I've managed that, and got it all processed - the results give me cause to be optimistic, but the current sample size (N=1!) isn't nearly enough to rule out chance, so now that we've got that it's off to gather more datasets to test and interpret.

And then there are reports to mark, PhD students to supervise, a bid for commercialisation funds to redraft, and three theses that need reading before I examine them in the spring (and one corrected thesis that needs reading as well!). So, lots of new things on the To Do list, not many crossed off - but lots of progress despite that. It's nice to feel like you're building up a bit of momentum...