My Bio

So, back at Case [case.edu] where I used to work, my former co-workers are submitting another journal article. Part of the research that performed there supports a conclusion that they are trying to assert in a journal article, so they added me as an author (5th or 6th in a list) to the journal article so that they could use some of my research. And that's totally fine, because it doesn't really matter to me either way -- I'm actually happy that they're getting more mileage out of that research.

Anyway, then I found out that I was going to have to submit a bio... Ugh. They just wanted to have these short blurbs at the end of each article, with a picture of each author, so that the readers would have some idea of whether the authors were qualified to make the conclusions they are making, etc.

I find it very difficult to write a summary of my life or accomplishments. I mean, I usually go out of my way to make sure that I don't sound like I am bragging about myself. And writing a bio about yourself just seems to close to bragging, I guess. Anyway, it makes me very uncomfortable. Here is what I ended up submitting:

Terence Wei received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2005. While performing research at the Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory at Case, he developed many types of vehicles, including single-legged hopping robots and six-legged walking robots. He has specially designed dynamic simulations for the purposes of optimizing robotic design and robot-ground interaction. He has also created several specialized apparatus for the purposes of obtaining insect locomotion and climbing behavior data, as well as novel feeding mechanisms for robotic manufacturing workcells. After finishing his Ph.D., he received an Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. As a postdoctoral fellow, he worked on the design and integration of insect-inspired attachment mechanisms for climbing robots. His other interests include mechanism design and vehicle dynamics.

Now that I've finished writing it, I'm not sure what is weirder -- trying to figure out what accomplishments in my very short career are really worth writing about, or seeing my entire life summarized in a few sentences.