Today we had a Jet Energy and Resolution mini-workshop, in the CDF theatre. The activities of our working group have faded in the last few months, after the release of the latest package of jet corrections, and we reorganized our meetings in a monthly schedule. This was the first of our mini-workshops, and we had a very full agenda, with 12 talks packed in two and a half hours.
One of the talks was given by Mia, one of the two summer students from Padova. She had never given a presentation in English before, and was quite worried about the result... Moreover, I had been a bit too optimistic about how long it would have taken her to produce a presentation according to the skeleton we had agreed upon, and about the results of a program we had been running, and which had to provide the plots for her talk... Finally, I discovered this morning, upon arriving at Fermilab at 6.30AM to fix her slides, that she had been working all night here, and had caught sleep in her office, on top of a row of chairs!
So it was with a bit of apprehension that I listened to her talk today, partly due to the fact that we had not had enough time to run it fully once among us as a test. But she performed well... Her English was not too steady at times, but I place her above average for a first exploit... Here she is, pointing at one of her first slides.
After her performance, she was quick at questioning me about how she'd done... Not bad, Mia, but sleeping at night before a talk is rule number one!
Well done Mia!!! :-)
I still have my first talk in English in like 2 weeks. *runs away scared*
Posted by: Helge | September 14, 2005 at 12:02 PM
Congratulations Mia..I was thinking of you this morning and hoping your presentation went well!! However in defense of Mia and sleeping the night before a presentation...it would be alot easier for a student to do if her professor had not had guests late the night before!!! :) It was great to see you Tommaso and wonderful to meet your students. The food was great. Talk to you soon! Love,Gina
Posted by: Gina LePar | September 14, 2005 at 02:09 PM
oh good god mia... don't do that...
i pulled an allnighter (doing more trivial work though, just a load of homework from civitas) before my calc exam, and it was only because of keely, a very endearing classmate of mine, that i even kept myself awake during the actual test (my xanga = http://www.xanga.com/little_miss_demosthenes, last paragraph)
i also got a 33% on it...
sleep is, indeed, the most important thing you can do for yourself before anything big. granted, a 33% on an exam doesn't hurt me in any way shape or form, but that allnighter i pulled offset my whole week...
Posted by: little miss demosthenes | September 14, 2005 at 07:12 PM
Hi Demie!
Not been around much lately, have you ?
I'm happy to hear from you anyway. Hope your life is good and hope that your novel is almost finished!
Cheers
T.
Posted by: Tommaso | September 15, 2005 at 07:59 AM
congratulations!
But,as usual you are too apprehensive!!
I'am proud of you.
Kisses.
Posted by: francesca | September 16, 2005 at 05:07 AM
Oh Mia, even wih a few hours slept in the nite, you perform as usual; you're a robo-woman! I really like your plastic pose in the pic. So keep it up & I say thank you for the congratulations. I never thought about winning twice in Venice!
A lot of kisses.
Your friend,
Alberto
Posted by: Alberto - ROVIGO - ITALY | September 16, 2005 at 07:59 AM