by bena
31. October 2009 20:30
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Posted by Benjamin Ashman
Senior, Electrical Engineering
When I was giving a tour of our engineering building a couple weeks ago, a parent asked me an interesting question: what is the night life like for people who are underage? He assumed that there isn’t one, but this is incorrect! There many things for people to do who aren’t twenty-one, but personally I am very involved in Athens’ music scene. Uptown, there are a number of great venues where anyone can see bands play. Sure, a few require you to be twenty-one, but for most you only have to be eighteen. My favourites are The Union, Casa Cantina and Donkey Coffee (where all ages can get in). In addition to spending my weekend nights seeing great local bands, I also play in my own band, Five Deadly Venoms. We have played in several events for this weekend’s Halloween celebration, including a great house show last night. I play drums, keyboards (electric piano, ARP-OMNI2, Korg M500 Preset and Farfisa) and sing. Below is a picture of us, taken outside my farmhouse for Backdrop Magazine. I am on the far left.
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by bena
16. October 2009 17:18
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Posted by Benjamin Ashman
Senior, Electrical Engineering
The summer after my sophomore year I had an internship working in the Pentagon. I worked with an electrical contractor, M.C. Dean, on the building’s extensive renovation. It was a fun summer, living in the Washington D.C. area. I made a number of good friends, saw several great musicians and learned about being a professional engineer. I took the picture below from Robert E. Lee’s house in Arlington Cemetery. (Did you know they declared the place a cemetery to keep him from getting his house back after the war? A later court ruling admitted the property had been unlawfully seized and paid him for it.)
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But why do I bring this up now? Today, after being away from D.C. for over a year, my manager stopped by Athens to have lunch with me. We met at The Oak Room nearby the engineering building. Ostensibly the meeting was to discuss the possibility of me working for them after I graduate, but much of the time was spent just catching up personally, hearing what has been going on at the in the office since I left. I can’t help but feel very fortunate for the experiences I’ve been able to have through the career fairs and other opportunities here at OU.
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by bena
30. September 2009 23:49
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Posted by Benjamin Ashman
Senior, Electrical Engineering
Tonight I will be teaching my fourth swing dance lesson for the Ohio University Jitterbug Club. I started learning to swing dance when I was a senior in high school. Upon arriving at OU my freshman year, I went to the activities fair and joined the club before classes even started. It has been a great experience. Right from the first lesson I was welcomed by the veteran members. I soon found myself travelling to other cities and dancing to jumpin bands with a host of newly-made friends.
Suddenly, three years later, my friend Alicia and I are teaching the lessons ourselves (the picture above is of us at a dance in Columbus last spring). Tonight we'll be finishing a four-week introductory unit on East Coast. Despite having started with only four returning members, the club is already more than fifty strong. Several members have travelled with us to various dances around the state – this Friday we'll be dancing at a couple's swing-themed wedding reception in Hilliard, Ohio. Next week we'll be moving on to the dance that it is really all about: Lindy Hop.
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by bena
14. August 2009 17:17
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Posted by Benjamin Ashman
Senior, Electrical Engineering
I just finished my summer job, working at the University of Maine. I had a research fellowship from the National Science Foundation to research sensors at the university located in Orono, ME. The program that awarded me the fellowship is called Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and in addition to providing me with a stipend for living expenses, it gave me an incredible learning experience. I lived in a dormitory on campus. Although I wasn’t happy about moving into a dorm again after living in my Athens farmhouse, I can’t complain - it was provided free of charge. Every morning I attended a class on sensors, and then spent the rest of the day working in the laser lab you can see below.
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I worked on designing the transmission circuit for a LADAR system (Laser Assisted Detection and Ranging – essentially the same thing as radar, but with lasers instead of radio waves). I was fortunate to be working in the university’s great facilities with the constant help of an expert in the field, my adviser Dr. Emanetoglu. In the end I presented a paper at a conference with my fellow REU students and was awarded best presentation. Best of all, I found plenty of time to see the beautiful state, with its incomparable forests and coastline. Below you can see me standing on a natural seawall just outside Acadia National Forest. Now to drive the seventeen hours back to Athens!
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