En Route to AI PhD: NSF Fellowship Weeks 0–5

October 4, 2021: This post is a bit of a rush-up recap of the last month or so since this period of my life began. Finding out about the fellowship was a late-August surprise, after an unassuming email notification. I still remember Orthogonal Research and Education Lab PI, Dr Bradly Alicea for his letter of recommendation months ago. August was also my first month after moving to Boston, following a whirlwind of a summer abroad on a bit of travel, new jobs, research, and maybe "a week of vacation in London surrounding a business trip to Oxford." It was also exciting to be lead organizer and co-host for the Discussion Group at CogSci 2021 "Trajectories in Cognitive Science", as well as participate in a slew of other connference activity at OREL. Seeing Boston at the end of summer, and finding I know many colleagues, academic, general nerds, and friends here already, was a treat.