My First Blog Post
Welcome to my blog! A little about me…I am Farakh Zaman. I am currently a 2nd Year PhD student at Tufts University. I have been married to Rebecca for nearly ten years and my family and I live in the Boston suburbs. I am also an Active Duty Officer in the U.S. AIr Force, and basically won the lottery when it comes to jobs. School is my current job and the Air Force pays me to go to school while also paying for school…it’s an awesome way to get a PhD and I highly recommend it. If you have questions about the Air Force or Tufts, feel free to leave a comment and ask.
A little about the site…My wife & I originally had this website years ago for photography and our wedding. Over the years we had not maintained it. This year as I continue coursework towards my PhD, I was asked to create a blog & portfolio website, so I repurposed this site for that. The course is Human-Machine Systems Design taught by the world renown Dr. James Intriligator…responsible for selling most of the chocolate to consumers in the UK as I understand it. He is also my dissertation advisor and an all-around great guy. I recommend you check out his site here. Most of the blog posts you will see on this site over the next 4 months or so will be part of that course as assignments…and with that a transition to my first assignment:
A few thoughts on Human-Machine Systems Design and Automation
Humans have been using machines since someone picked up a rock and used it to smash open a nut, oyster or other prehistoric food. Since then, humans have continued to get better at building and using machines, and today we live in probably the most exciting time for humans and machines to be interacting. Everyday new machines are being made that make life easier for us and in some cases take a burden away completely. This example from farming is one that comes to mind. Another example is Moley…it is amazing and one day I hope we all have these in our kitchens!
The design of these machines and systems really is more than an engineering endeavour. It is the intersection of mechanical & electrical engineering, computer science and engineering psychology. Over the next several months I hope to learn more about it and discuss my thoughts here.
Cheers,
FZ
Audrey Balaska
September 20, 2019 at 7:38 pm
Farakh,
I really liked your first blog post! I feel like you did a great job establishing who you are, and what you are interested in.
The details you included about Professor Intriligator were both interesting and informative.
I recommend in the future including a sentence summarizing whatever it is you are linking to. Based on your post, I did not understand what Moley was (except that it could be in a kitchen) until I followed the link. Though some people will follow your links, not all people will.
Overall, this was a very solid first blog post!
~Audrey
P.S. the chatbot is very cool