About My Research

This site serves as a reflection of my graduate thesis work in automotive textile design at North Carolina State University.  I began this site in January 2009 and plan to maintain it until my graduation in December 2009.  I have been in the graduate program at the College of Textiles for 1 year of a 2 year program.  During this first year, I have focused on the automotive industry, design, and sustainability.  Now at the half-way point, I have selected my thesis topic and made plans as to how to approach my research so that my work is complete by October 2009.  In the right column of this blog, I have posted my personal timeline to ensure that I am meeting my deadlines.  Please take time to look through all the information included in the right hand column, especially if this is your first time visiting this site.

The purpose of this site is 3-fold.
1) Most scholars are only given 1 chance to write a thesis, and 2 years to learn how to do so.  Sure there are books on research methods and databases of theses to form a background or starting place for your work, but no one really explains to us exactly what this process is like from start to finish.
2) Over the past year, I have learned beyond my expectations about the automotive industry, past, current, and future.  Throughout my next year of study, I have access to resources that would be coveted by any designer in this industry and plan to uncover valuable correlations between design and success.  I will post many images and articles which I find the most enriching.
and 3) Writing my thoughts and progress where it is publicly available will encourage me to meet deadlines and provide a clear platform to keep my committee informed.

My Topic
I will be examining the history of automotive bodycloth development and aligning this with outside factors such as the economy, increase in mass production, increase in technical standards and regulations, the importance of fashion and color, along with what at this time is an unpredictable number of additional variables.  The ultimate question I aim to answer is if there is a concrete way to measure and predict success in order to save time, money, and resources.

7.13.2009

Back from NYC

The City must love me :)  
The weather was perfect the entire time I was in New York, and I was welcomed back to North Carolina on Sunday to 99*F and 12 new mosquito bites.  But I also got to spend a surprise evening with my whole family because they were in town celebrating my sister's birthday!

And now...it is back to the research world!
I have exactly 25 days before I leave for the interview portion of my research in Michigan, California, and North and South Carolina.  So its time to center myself again and see what's left:

1) COLOR ANALYSIS 1960-2006  (July 13-19)
2) CONTACT INTERVIEWEES  (July 13- August 7)
3) FACTORS portion of Literature Review (July 20-31)
4) Create a MODEL demonstrating the relationship between Observed Trends and Researched Factors (August 3-6)
5) Finalize Travel Plans based around Interview Schedules (August 3-6)

Lets just see if I can pull this off!  There's little time for error or the unexpected, but there are very few interruptions in the upcoming weeks and I'm confident that I can keep my head in the game!

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1 comment:

  1. LisaJuly 13, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    Go Jenna Go - you 'kin do it!!!

    Glad you had a great trip :-)

    ReplyDelete

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