The best way to convey competency in a language is just to speak in that language and let other people see.
Below I include some short pieces of writing in the various
languages I have spent time learning to provide a sample of my ability.
All of these have been written first-draft, exclusively by me, without the use of translation software or spellchecker, and so the mistakes within should provide a good metric of my ability.
These texts were all written on November 2, 2023.
Norwegian
Jeg begynt å lære norsk som alle begynner med språk på Duolingo.
Heldigvis, bare noen uker etter jeg hadde lastet ned appen, skolen min ble kansellert på grunn av pandemien og jeg fant meg selv med ingenting å gjøre ellers en å studere norsk.
Jeg registrert meg selv på norskeprogrammen ved universitet i North Dakota og gjennom pandemien tok fem kurs der (NORW 101, 102, 201, 202, 433) og fikk certificat i norsk fra dem.
Det var vinteren 2021 da jeg ble ferdig med norsk 433, og jeg bestemte å ikke fortsette på norsk der først og fremst fordi det var vanskelig å ta norskkurs på toppen av det vanlig arbeidet i fysikk i Edinburgh.
Den andre grunnen var at, etter å ha lærte masse norsk, det ble klart og tydelig at det finnes ikke mange nordmenn i hverden, og de fleste snakker skikkelig god engensk.
For disse grunner, jeg sluttet med norsk og gikk over til å ta kveldkurs i kinesisk i Edinburgh.
Det finnes masse flere kinesisk folk i hverden enn nordmenn, og kveldkurs var litt mer rolig en den formelle universitetskurs i North Dakota.
Med det sagt, jeg var ikke helt ferdig med spåket. Sommeren 2022 jeg tok "Intensivt mellomkurs i norsk - trinn III" ved internasjonale sommerskolen i Oslo.
Det var et skikkelig hyggelig erfaring, og jeg kan nå demonstrere B2/C1 compentanse i språket.
Jeg elseker både språket og landet, og er alltid glad for å finne meg tilbake i Norge for å kunne bruke språket og hoppe rundt de fine fjellene.
Om det har bruk til deg kan jeg selvfølgelig gi deg karakterutskrift fra enten universitet i North Dakota ellers universitet i Oslo.
Mon français c'est assez terrible.
Au Canada, J'ai pris l'immersion francais pendant huit ans en école elimentaire, mais j'ai absolutment détesté l'expérience.
Il'yavait un temp je pouvais parler B2 français, mais maintenant ce n'est plus cette époque.
Je me sens un peu gêné que je ne peux pas parler un langue je me sens je devrais pouvoir parler, mais ça fait longtemp depuit que je faudrais utiliser la langue.
Peut étre, dans l'avenir je vais essayer de reapprendre un peux de mon français, mais maintenant je suis très contente à apprendre autre langue.
About
Hello hello! I am Jack Beda. I currently study MPhys Mathematical Physics (5 years) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in my 4th year. I grew up in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
and attended high school at Kenner CVI in the IB program. Primarily, this website is a side project to help me learn HTML and Javascript when I have little better to do, but you may find some useful information here regardless.
Outdooring
I have a keen interest in hiking/canoing/mountaineering/biking/skiing/running/climbing and all sorts of things outside. In Canada I primarily enjoy admiring the lovely trees and lakes of Algonquin and the Kawartha Highlands. In the UK, where fewer trees, lakes, and canoes are to be found, I enjoy climbing all of the various grassy, rocky, and snowy lumps around whenever I can.
Academics
Below is a list of all of the courses I have taken so far (or are currently taking) at the university of Edinburgh. Each course links to the relevant DPT (degree program table) at the university.
Some of the DPT pages will gradually go out of date.
Dr. Florian Ströhl's research requires synchronizing of a plane laser with a rolling-shutter camera at high precision. The camera takes a rolling shutter picture as the plane laser sweeps through a biological (or any) sample, such that a particular section of the sample is only illuminated when the camera is exposing that part of the image. The camera outputs an electrical pulse
signal when it is exposing (which drops to zero at the end of the frame). My project was to recieve as input this pulse signal to a raspberry pi pico, and produce as output,
using a DAC (digital to analogue converter), a voltage that steadily increases when the camera is exposing, and drops to zero when the camera is not exposing (almost like a sawtooth wave). This output voltage can be connected to a galvometer
so that the plane laser moves in sync with the camera (Fig. 1). In this project I :
Wired up various test circuits on breadboards using the raspberry pi pico and the DAC
Coded software for the raspberry pi pico in C, MicroPython, and Arduino (primarily C)
Used the SPI (serial peripheral interface) protocol to transfer data from the raspberry pi pico to the DAC
Soldered together a circuit board comprising the raspberry pi pico and DAC
3D printed a housing box for the soldered circuit board
Used an oscilloscope extensively for testing and debugging
Succeeded in achieving ~10 μs response times between input signal receipt and output signal display
Fig. 1: The completed circuit board takes a square wave from the camera as input (green trace on the oscilloscope), and produces a sawtooth-like wave as output (blue trace).
Location: Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada
Dates: Summer 2020
Dr. Aaron Slepkov had at the time been studying the birefringence of various household tapes (packing tape/cellotape/sticky tape), with the aim of collecting sufficient data
on the tapes to predict the colours produced when the tapes are viewed between crossed polarizers, at arbitrary angles. When viewed between crossed polarizers, birefringent objects, like the
tapes, appear vividly coloured, and this phenomenon can be used to create pretty pictures among other applications (Fig. 2). In this research project
I assisted by taking large quantities of spectrometer measurements on the tapes, to verify the data previously gathered by Dr. Slepkov.
Related to this project is an article I wrote, that was listed as the jIAPS (journal of the international association of physics students) article of the month on birefringence.
Fig. 2: A stained glass like effect can be created by viewing layered tape through crossed polarizers.
Contact Me
Click the button below to download a .vcf file to add to your contacts:
At the moment the best method of contact is by email or my UK cell. But I include all methods below:
If you are considering offering me a position, I would be happy to provide a cover letter, references, and/or a tailored version of my resume.
Outdooring
Photos
There are too many pretty things in the world. Here are some of my favourite photographs, but there's lots more on my instagram. Unfortunately I don't have any sort of fancy camera, these were all taken on my phone.
2024: On the Pictish trail.2024: Outside of Santander, Spain.2023: Above the clouds on Tromsdalstinden, Tromsø.2023: Tromsø arctic botanical gardens.2023: Whiteout on Cairn Gorm.2023: The Arrochar Alps.2022: The Trotternish ridge on the Skye trail.2022: The trollstigen pass.2022: Sunrise on Liatach.2020: Bandit lake, Algonquin.
Places I've Slept
I have for a long time wanted to make a map with all of the places I had been to,
but it was hard to decide what counted as having "been" somewhere. I decided a good enough metric was if I had slept somewhere,
so this is the map of all the places I have ever slept. Note that the locations have been randomized to within 1km.
Archival
This tab displays the original "jack.beda.ca" website, as made by my dad a long long time ago.
The address for this page is <http://jack.beda.ca/>. Any other addresses may change without notice. Please bookmark and link appropriately.
There really is not anything here yet, except for links to photos that my parents have taken of me.
Here is my birth announcement:
From: John 'Johann' and Rachel Beda <johann-st@beda.ca>
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 3:17 PM
To: John 'Johann' and Rachel Beda
Cc: Rachel Wortis Beda
Subject: Jan 'Jack' Francis Beda born September 19, 2003
Avast ye maties!
We are very pleased to announce the birth of our second son,
Jan Francis Beda (who we have been calling "Jack"), at 5:30 AM
on Friday, September 19, 2003. Weighing in at 8 lbs 1.2 oz
(3.665 kg) and a length of about 21.5" (55 cm).
Rachel and Jack are doing very well. Johann is a bit sleepy
having gotten up at about 2:30 AM, and Robert is excitedly waiting
to visit Jack this afternoon for the first time.
A very few photographs are on the web, but more will probably
follow fairly soon. Jack's email address and web pages should
be operational fairly soon.
Jack's Home Page - Robert's Home Page - Johann's Home Page - Rachel's Home Page
