Introductions

My name is Dustin Webb. As of this month I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah focusing on the application of machine learning to robotics. As any grad student knows, or is on the brink of learning, graduate school entails a great deal of writing. I'm starting this blog to refine my own writing skills.

As they are my writing skills aren't bad. However there are some issues I would like to work on. For example if I don't feel completely comfortable with the topic on which I'm writing I get stuck very easily. Unfortunately this has a tendency to lead to procrastination. Similarly when I encounter a question for which I don't have an answer I feel the compulsion to find the answer before proceeding.

My objectives for accomplishing this goal are as follows.

• Write daily - by writing everyday I expect writing will become second nature. Of course not every entry will be posted publicly. Ideally those that are will actually be interesting and I don't expect that everything I write will fall into this category.
• Write quickly - by limiting myself to 30 minutes I hope to learn to organize my thoughts more quickly. This will be most challenging when I don't have a specific topic to discuss or when I'm exploring a new topic.
• Ask questions - by focusing on the questions and not the answers I hope to become increasingly comfortable with not having the answer. Feel free to answer these questions or submit any you feel I may have missed.

I will likely spend most of my time discussing topics related to machine learning, robotics, or some combination thereof. Don't be surprised if I slip from these topics from time to time though.

Cheers,
Dustin