Passed my test

[ChrisM]

Nothing to do with skirts (except that I do wear them to the office) but...

I passed my PhD General Exam today and had my dissertation Proposal accepted by the college. Looks like I am really a Ph.D. candidate now.

Now for the "easy" part of writing several hundred pages of research!

Chris

[crfriend]

Congratulations are in order, sir! Well done!

However, I will posit that it's not the alphabet-soup that one carries after his name that denotes his worth, it's the deeds, creations, and inspiration to others he's done in his life. If one dreams big, builds big, and inspires others to do so, he's attained something vastly more important than a few extra letters can even potentially offer.

Best of luck on the design, presentation, and defence of your dissertation! I hope it'll be an interesting and inspiring one. (Although why naval architecture might qualify one for a Doctor of Philosophy rather escapes me. One would think that would fall into the harder (as in more concrete) realm of science.)

[sapphire]

Congratulations! to a job well done and a journey arduous.

What is the title of your Proposal?

[ChrisM]

The title is "Innovation in Marine Design" and the hypothesis is approximately "Formal methods for innovation can be applied to Naval Architecture." Sounds very simple when reduced to that level, but it really is something that nobody has ever done before - or even talked about, as far as I can tell.

[crfriend]

"Formal methods for innovation can be applied to Naval Architecture."

You, sir, are going to have your work cut out for you, for what you are proposing is turning what has pretty much been an art into a science. The tools (the science) are well known, as they are in most fields, but the ingenious application of those tools to produce novel results is where art enters. The tools today are vastly better more refined than they were in the days of tall ships that went down to the sea, but I would posit that the art then was as developed as it is now -- the primary difference being that we do not now rely on wind alone (Oh, if we could harness what came from various capitals around the world!) and instead produce our own motive power whether it be through long-dead-and-decayed organic matter, recently-converted organic matter, or fission of stuff the stars have left us.

Sounds very simple when reduced to that level, but it really is something that nobody has ever done before - or even talked about, as far as I can tell.

That's not simple at all; you're talking about turning the entire field on its head!

...And as always, should you, or any of your team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck Chris!

[skirtyscot]

Have you been to Stockholm and seen the Gustav Vasa? It had a great innovation - an extra gun deck, as befits the flagship of the royal fleet. Unfortunately that put the centre of gravity above the waterline, and the boat sank within about half an hour, the first time there was a decent gust of wind. With the King watching the launch! It somehow became a subject not to mention, and the site of the wreck was forgotten until the 1960, when they lifted what was left out of the mud and put it in a museum. Fascinating - unmissable if you are in Stockholm.

Presumably at some point in the last 400 years naval architects innovated formally to stop that from happening again!

[Kirbstone]

A similar fate befell King Henry VIII's flagship, 'Mary Rose', which was laden with 700 extra soldiers all wearing heavy armour, thus raising her c.of g. so high that she literally capsized in Portsmouth Hb., in full view of his Majesty and lay half buried in mud for 400+ years. She was raised and kept cool & wet and infused with wax over 25 years and is now well worth visiting, but there's less than half of her left, unlike the Vasa, which is intact.

Tom K.