What made this past semester so heavy

Fall 2024 was one intense semester for the books. I’m held together by thin treads of caffeine and death metal. Not exaggerating.

So, what made this semester so heavy (I know this one was going to be a challenge when I started it, by the way):

• Writing: While I have not been working much on journal papers myself, I have a fair number of PhD candidates that I supervise, who have been producing work that requires my input. I also signed myself up as coauthor for 11 papers for a conference next year. My enthusiasm carried me away there, I guess.
• Research: I’m in grant writing season. I coordinated the proposal writing of a large consortium for a big grant, and it was quite an effort – I knew that it was going to be a lot of work and I also did not know what I signed myself up for. At the same time, I had to step up on a few research reports and carry out large parts of the work myself, for various reasons. And, I worked on a whole slew of other proposals this semester as well. I just counted them because I lost track and I worked on 15 proposals this year – and no funding confirmed yet. I also leaned in to All The Opportunities to travel and present my work online, as I still am looking for my next projects and collaborations.
• Teaching: I coordinate a course in Delft, which runs September – November, so that makes this semester always a bit heavier on the teaching side of things.
• Service: The number of committees that I serve on and that I have volunteered to help out with technical documents (or lead chapters, or lead entire documents) has increased as well. I will be retiring from some committees in the future, as I am ending my maximum term length, but I will still be quite occupied.
• Admin: Three years of preparation for the ABET accreditation culminated in the campus visit of the evaluators. And now we wait for the official news. But the emotional offload after the visit was quite some. In addition, the administrative role I hold at university related to the technical journal also got more intense, as we are preparing for the next indexations to send the journal to.
• Life: I have a 7-year-old daughter who has her activities, so by all means, this is just a busy season in life in general. It is good though – a lot moves, is in flux, and contributes to creating opportunities.

So, that is a recap of what made this semester particularly busy and intense.