Howdy! My name is Josh Peschel and I am a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Zachry Civil Engineering Department at Texas A&M University. During my time at Texas A&M, I have probably been interested in, and taken classes from, almost every field of study offered. Ultimately I ended up getting degrees in engineering, which proved to be the best fit for me. Right now I like figuring out experimentally, the unknown ways water moves around in the world. In technical terms, I am investigating the nonisothermal diffusivity of water vapor in field soils under thermal gradients. Sounds sexy, right? It very much is. I have built an experimental device in my laboratory that isolates water vapor flux in a column of soil and I am now working to extend the results to the field where we can study the phenomena in space and time. I am also interested in engineering education. Actually, I always like to help people of all walks learn new things about science and engineering. I have a lot of fun trying to develop new instructional technologies that will allow people to better understand complex scientific and technical concepts. Among the many other interests and activities I have at the moment, I am also on a quest to teach a computer how to find and count orange trees from space. I’m trying to speak this in VB, which is usually my language of choice. I’m currently at 95% accuracy and that’s not too shabby ;-)
I am taking a course in Sketch Recognition this semester for two reasons: (1) it’s a new and emerging technology that I would like to be familiar with on more than just the literature level (i.e. I like to have skillz), and (2) having recently developed a real-time quiz system for classroom use, I would like to create a way for on-the-fly content upload for new quiz creation. The current system uses either pre-made quiz content or in-class written content that is lacking from an integrated perspective. In any case, I believe that Sketch Recognition is an area of research where I can possibly make a contribution in some way to the body of literature, probably from an application perspective, and therefore, find yet another research niche.
As for my future plans, if I have learned anything during my education, it is this: every time I make career plans, they never work out that way. However, I have been quite fortunate to have had many outstanding opportunities come my way during my time at Texas A&M. I have done extensive work for places like the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center, NASA, the State of Florida, the largest producer-exporter of citrus fruit in Mexico, just to name a few. And NONE of these I ever planned — they have just fallen in my lap. My wife calls me the luckiest person in the world as far as research and work opportunities go. Maybe so. But, I tend to think it’s largely been a function of being prepared when the right opportunity has come along. In the end, I can honestly say that the best opportunities I have had were the ones that I never ever expected to have. So while I am working on a Ph.D. and would like to become a faculty member because I would like to: (1) teach and (2) do research, I believe there are many pathways in life that would allow me to do those two things. Predicting the pathway is the real challenge…
In the other three minutes of my day, I typically do a lot of consulting work because hey, I have these engineering degrees so why not get a little financial return on investment? Outside of that I’m quite obsessed at the moment with learning to play the mandolin. Some people say it’s easier than the guitar to play but I don’t agree. Perhaps I will improve. I generally like science and engineering, politics, and people, not necessarily in that order. I honestly have the most randomly eclectic taste in music, but lately while driving I’ve been listening to The Ramones and GNR. I am also a big talk radio fan. I listen to Dave Ramsey, Bill O’Reilly, the more interesting NPR (Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and what used to be The Connection with Dick Gordon) and some Fox News programs, and whatever else I can find on XM. Generally I like to read. I prefer books on sci-fi, contemporary political issues, and history. But for sure I will be up for reading almost anything by Michael Crichton and any good science or engineering textbooks in areas that I have not studied before. Yes, I am one of ‘those’ people. I don’t watch a lot of television but I will make time for Numb3rs — Season 4 starts this next month. It’s not the best show ever, but it does hold my attention.
If you wish to know more, feel free to ask or just Facebook-stalk me. You’ll probably see a lot of this content over there but some things you will not. I tend to teach a lot and there are things my freshmen students don’t need to know and probably should never know about their TA.
