A Day in the Life of Boris Sofman

9:30 PM

Boris gets back from a weekend of tennis matches in Maryland against Goucher College and Washington College. After losing a close match that would have clinched a spot in the NCAA national tournament, hopes are still high because there are two spots left and they can still make it if they step it up at the next few matches. After all, they did it last year! The long bus ride combined with much activity on the court all weekend has worked up quite an appetite for the team. They order pizza and Boris scarfs down a whole thin crust pepperoni—no problem.

11:00 PM-2:00 AM

Regardless of the late start, it’s time to get some work done. However, not before he IMs his girlfriend with tomorrow’s lunch plans and checks his email. Then it’s preparation for tomorrow’s recitation. This semester he’s a teaching assistant (TA) for Introduction to Computer Systems, so in addition to grading and holding office hours, he teaches a 25-person recitation section every Monday. Boris enjoys the material of the class and likes the extra cash it brings in too! He hits the sheets around 2:00 AM.

10:30-11:30 AM

During Intro to Computer Systems, he leads a discussion on how memory allocation works and various implementation techniques -- his favorite part of the syllabus. He offers the class some tips on how to approach the new homework assignment, which is to write their own memory allocation driver, stays after class to answer a few questions and leaves feeling quite on top of things.

1:30-3:00 PM

Boris joins his girlfriend and two best friends for lunch at his favorite Mexican restaurant in Pittsburgh, Mad Mex in Oakland, for one of their infamous huge burritos and wings. He knows that he should probably work instead of going out to lunch, but he can’t resist. Besides, he’ll just make the half-off student special. So it’s justified, right? A guy’s gotta eat!

3:00-4:15 PM

Boris rushes back for a meeting with his research advisor about his senior thesis, which deals with autonomous robot navigation and obstacle detection. After a year and a half of working together, they are pretty closehis advisor is cool and helps him determine his next move after graduation. He will start the Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. program at the Robotics Institute next year. Relieved after having made such a big decision, he runs out just in time for…

4:30-6:45 PM

Tennis practice! A tough weekend of tennis doesn’t stop his coach from scheduling practice, but he doesn’t mind. The weather is great and this is just the break he needs to regroup, release those endorphins, and motivate himself for his late-night study sessions. Boris thinks about how he’ll miss being on the tennis team next year.

7:30 PM-1:30 AM

He gets home, showers, and gets right to work. His load is pretty heavy this week. Plus, he has to finish a lot of work on his thesis before he goes on another tennis trip this weekend; this time to play the tough teams from Swarthmore and Franklin & Marshall. Go Tartans!