Introduction

Hello, I'm Adam Bosen, although most people I know just call me "Bosen", often at high volume. I'm currently in the process of graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) with my combined bachelors/masters degree in computer engineering and am preparing to embark on an exciting adventure on the other end of the country. I normally don't consider my life interesting enough to justify blogging about it but the program I'm joining seems like it will be sufficiently exciting to merit the occasional post. Plus, this is a decent way to keep everyone back home updated about what's going on while I'm out there (hi mom! I know you're reading this).

Now that I've hopefully piqued your curiosity, the program I'm going into is called Americorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). It's a ten month community service program for American citizens ages 18-24. The first month is training, after which we'll spend time traveling our region of the country working on 6-8 week community service projects. I've been assigned to the Pacific campus, which is stationed in Sacramento, CA and covers California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, and the pacific territories. This campus is home base for about a hundred or so of us, although for projects we're going to be split into 10-12 person teams. Projects can fall in the categories of disaster relief, education, environment, public safety, or unmet human needs, so we'll be doing all manner of work. Additionally, the pacific campus has an option for members to join a fuel reduction team, which works on fire prevention and suppression. I'm scheduled to leave for Sacramento on October 14th.

The reason I'm joining this program is for the chance to see what the rest of the country is really like and do some good on the way. I've lived in New York all my life (raised in Albany, school in Rochester) and I want to see as much of the country as I can before I settle down for graduate work. Also, I know I'm going to learn a bunch of new skills that I would never be able to gain elsewhere. I'm particularly excited for the opportunity to learn some firefighting skills. My whole life has been fairly easy so far; I grew up in a quiet suburb where I never wanted for much, so I think it's only fair that I do my part to give back to the country that allowed for the life I live.

As I mentioned before, I'm an engineer through and through. I'm just wrapping up my masters degree in computer engineering from RIT and I plan on going for my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering with a focus in Neuroengineering after I finish the Americorps program. I'm currently applying to Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Duke, Purdue, University of Rochester, and University of Pittsburgh, with the hope that I'll be accepted into at least one of the first three schools. My interest lies in processing signals from the human nervous system for use in control systems, with the ultimate goal being a brain-computer interface you can use to control anything from a prosthetic limb to a car. I doubt I'll see that final goal in my lifetime, but it's definitely possible to get at least partway there. There's some really cool research going on right now in this area, and I'd love to contribute my fair share.

Outside of academics I spent most of my time at RIT working for Residence Life, and in my rare free time I usually ended up playing games or trying to write music. Music is a big part of my life; I've played cello since I was nine and have started experimenting with the free production software that comes with Ubuntu Studio. My tastes are pretty wide ranging: I listen to pop, rap, techno, and rock pretty equally, although my favorite genre is probably industrial rock, with Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM falling at the top of the list. I'm kind of hoping that I'll meet someone in Americorps with similar musical tastes to collaborate with, creativity is easier when you have someone to bounce ideas off of. I was hoping to create more material over the summer, but the time seemed to just slip away.

Only eight days until I leave! I'm excited and nervous about heading out. It'll be cool to be working with like minded people doing good for the community, although I'm not sure how I'll react to having a roommate again. I've talked with some of the other members via facebook and they all seem like nice people, so this adventure should be pretty fun. I'll probably update again before I leave about the woes of packing and I'll try to update regularly once I get there to keep everyone in the loop.