Immer hier was los!

Hello everyone!

There has been so much going on I haven't even had time to post- Zurich and Switzerland offer incredible activities to do all the time. :) Last weekend Charlotte, Joseph, and I travelled to Berg Titlis, just outside Luzern, and about a 2 hour train ride away from Zurich....you can read more about this in Joseph's post below. It was absolutely AMAZING when the fog cleared away...who knew we had been hiking next to gorgeous mountains for most of our 4 hour hike?? Ahh yes, that's another thing we learned: when a hike in Switzerland says it will take 2.5 hours, better make that a little bit longer if you are inexperienced in hiking the Alps (no matter how fit you might think you are!) and for all the pictures you stop to take along the way! The top was snow-covered and breath-taking...better than what I had imagined. We celebrated reaching the top with some Swiss chocolate (ok, even if we did take the Rotair cable car as Joseph mentioned.) I spent a lot of the hike looking for Edelweiss, but alas, couldn't find any. The picture above is of a different flower.

During the week I focused on research (still collecting some data), rowing, and the day to day activities, and of course when time allows, planning out my next weekend. This past weekend was chock full of things! Friday night was the "Lange Nacht der Forschung", which means "long night of research". The ETH and several other universities and local companies here presented their research projects to the public in large tents that were set up along the lake in 2 locations. A ship was provided to transport you back and forth to each location to see the research. Very interesting research! A robot that can juggle, a robot that is being planned to go to the moon, a computer program/machine that scans a field for weeds and then sprays only the weeds with about 99.9% accuracy, and a study into the crime statistics of Switzerland and surrounding countries were just some of the things I saw. Of course there was also free chocolate. :)

Saturday was spent shopping and roaming around the Altstadt of Zurich, rowing, and trying to get tickets to one of the Zurich film festival movies...which ended up being sold out, but Joseph got to go. Sunday was also very busy with Ruderschule, church, climbing up Uetliberg, and watching one of the Zurich film festival movies called "Noodle". I would highly recommend the film! Very well done, and very deserving to be part of the film festival. The hike up to Uetliberg before seeing the film certainly wiped me out so that I was glad to sit in a movie theater. With such a steep incline, it's no wonder I'm feeling it in my legs today... but this Uetliberg hike was certainly no comparison to Titlis, which was an unending upward climb. :)

alright, back to work!

Schöne Woche miteinander,
Katherine

Atzmännig and Titlis (and I do work, really)

Hello, all. I haven't posted anything in a while, and quite a bit has happened, so this will be all-inclusive. First, the fun, then the work.

The Great Toboggan Ride

This past Saturday, Charlotte and I took an intriguing medley of trains and automobiles to the resort of Atzmännig to have a go on the giant slide. They've rigged a 700-meter-long toboggan run to keep things alive on the slopes during the summer. According to Charlotte, this is what Europeans do when they can't ski. Well, I've never skied, but this has to be just as fun. If you want to experience it second-hand, I've included a short video below.

In case you can't tell, I had a really good time. In addition to the slide, we got to experience the Swiss countryside; rather than sit and wait for a couple of buses, we walked to the next stop and got to see some gorgeous scenery. You can even see the southern end of the Zürichsee from one of the bus stops (below). I have a few more pictures here.
Titlis

Sunday, Katherine, Charlotte, and I went to Mt. Titlis as planned. We met up the main station and took a train through Luzern to Engelberg, which lies at the foot of the mountain. The four of us (Katherine's friend from Italy came too) hiked from Engelberg up to Trübsee, then took a chair lift and the rotating Rotair gondola up to the summit. The hike started off well, but pretty soon we were completely engulfed in a thick, cold fog. Visibility stayed within 20 meters for a couple of hours, but when we the fog finally cleared . . . oh my. We went from hiking in oblivion to this--> literally within seconds. We managed to take a few group pictures, thanks to a friendly local, but then the clouds rolled back in. The ride to the top was pretty entertaining, thanks to a tour group that was very appreciative of the scenery. As Katherine mentioned, it's pretty cold at 3000m, but the view was well worth it. On a clear day, you can see several other famous peaks from the heated terrace or the patio outside. When the clouds calmed down, the view was spectacular. Rather than post the rest of my pictures--tempting as it might be--I'm going to link to my album. You'll find some pics there from every stage of the trip, including some adorable Swiss cows and the man-made cave inside Titlis' glacier (that we almost didn't get to see). They tell the story better than I can, and with blog-friendly brevity.

It was quite a day; in fact, I was so tired that I slept most of the way there and back.

Research Update

Last week I broke through the "orientation" phase of my internship into the "doing stuff" phase, which comes as a huge relief. You can only read so many research papers and technical books before that section of your brain starts to melt. As of yet, I haven't done anything terribly complicated. Most of my days were spent setting up an experiment on the calorimeter in the morning and performing different analyses on our prospective feed product while the experiment runs. For the most part, I work without supervision. I don't really need supervision at this point, so that's a definite plus.

The best part of my work so far has been the surprises. I find that a process or a measurement or a reaction that goes as planned can be nice, but they just don't have the same excitement as a completely counter-intuitive reading from your machine or a sudden, unexpected change in your system. I've encountered a few hurdles, including a complete software meltdown in the calorimeter. I thought I had fixed the problem, but it took 3 consecutive 8-hour experiments to find out differently. Strangely, I don't mind at all. I came to here to experience the kind of research with which I will probably be involved in graduate school. I believe that I've found that here . . . and I like it.

Until next time,
Joseph

Einsiedeln, Rowing

Gruetzi! Things have been slow here at work this week, with me just reading things and getting a broad overview, so I will tell you about the places I've been to last weekend. The weather wasn't so ideal...very cold, rainy and misty, and foggy! Saturday I spent the morning rowing on the Eglisau, which is a river that runs very close to the German/Swiss border. It is just beautiful there!! I think I've written this before- that I joined the Seeclub Zurich for my time here so I can continue to row and train. Most of the other rowing clubs in Zurich train on the Zurisee, which we do as well, but the conditions aren't as perfect as they are at Eglisau. On the Zurisee you have to watch out for sailboats, motorboats, and the rather large ships that transport cars and passengers from one side of the lake to the other (so you don't have to drive all the way around). The Zurisee does have some good points though- if you row down far enough, you pass the Lindt Chocolate Factory, and inhale the yummy chocolate smell! Seriously, the smell is incredible...maybe a marketing trick to get you to eat the Lindt chocolate. ;) Above is a picture of the bridge under which the boathouse in Eglisau is- you can just see the very blue/green water!

On Sunday I desperately wanted to go hiking somewhere...but since the weather was being stubborn, I settled for Einsiedeln, which is a little south of Zurich beyond the lake. The views from the train of the lake were impressive enough! The higher in the train we climbed though, the harder it was to see much of anything beyond 50m. Luckily, in Einsiedeln there is a very impressive kloster called Kloster Einsiedeln, and I spent some time exploring inside. The description in my guide book says, "Records of pilgrims flock to the probably finest example of Baroque architecture in Switzerland. A pilgrimage on the Jakobsweg to the Benedictine abbey with the Black Madonna and the monastery is currently experiencing a veritable renaissance." So needless to say, it was impressive!! Inside there were many figures of a Black Madonna- which were different from the many white Madonna figures I have seen in my travels. I asked someone what the significance of this was and was told that many years ago, the Madonna was represented with fair skin, but after time, the soot from the candles dirtied her face to be almost black. After many years, the figures were all cleaned, but the townspeople were so used to the black Madonna that they insisted she be kept with a black face. Hence, the kloster being filled with the black Madonna figures.

On Monday afternoon I had off from work, along with the rest of Stadt Zurich for Knabenschiessen. I met up with other ThinkSwiss researchers (Charlotte and Joseph), and as Charlotte mentioned in her post, the festival was similar to a huge carnival! Lots of delicious things to eat, things to watch, and fun rides to go on. I'm not exactly sure of the history of the Knabenschiessen myself, but Switzerland traditionally has a history of excellent marksmen and sharp-shooters as the men in the army would perch from atop mountains and hills to protect their valleys and country many, many years ago. A twist on this tradition is now called the Knabenschiessen, which is a contest for the youth in Zurich (boys and girls) to practice their shooting skills. Whoever has collected the most points at the end of the competition is crowned "King of the Festival". Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of the competition, as it was held Saturday and Sunday, and Monday was just the handing out of the prizes. But we did see a parade with all the participants, which was cool!

This weekend we're taking on Berg Titlis, which is close to Luzern and Pilatus....it's going to be cold at the top (minus 3 degrees Celsius!), so I'm off to go buy some gloves and a hat!
Have a nice week everyone,
Katherine

Summer School on Nursing Advanced Quantitative Methods at Basel, Switzerland

I really had a fabulous time in Switzerland, even with my bad experience with the airlines and visa issues. The wonderfully opportunity to be in the summer school in Institute of Nursing at the University of Basel, Switzerland did refresh my head with the content of advanced quantitative methodologies, more importantly, gave me hands-on experience on SPSS, especially dealing with raw data and making it to be ready for data analysis. It is very intensive, however, comparing to the gained knowledge, everything worth it.

Through the final poster session, the communication with other students from other countries who had the similar research interests enriched my knowledge in medication adherence. Their work is very impressive. When I saw them using Help-hand in their clinical setting to monitor medication adherence and used it as an intervention tool, as well, I really opened my eyes to what is happening outside the U.S.

Everything's wondeful related to the support of ThinkSwiss and Summer School at University of Basel. I began to drink beer with my colleagues, to which I was not that used. Hanna, a master student from the Institute of Nursing hosted my stay in Basel. She's so nice and considerate. She prepared bicycles for another American student and me to travel to the summer school. Then, I realized I became a local person while I was riding a bicycle. She took us to the barbecue along the Rhine River, where I was introduced to Margret. She hosted my stay in Zurich after summer school, and planned my intensive two-day trip around Switzeraland by train. Living in Swiss family, I was very impressed by their organization of everything. Many cute things were designed to save space, they use every space for its purpose. The timing of the buses and trains is another impressive thing. We knew Switzerland is famous for its watch, but now we know it is also famous for being on time of all the buses and trains. Also, the planned trip by ThinkSwiss in Bern was wonderful, we have scoooters touring the city. I believe everyone has a great night at Bern, even Michelle and I missed the last bus to come back home, we made it back home by walking. Even we kind of worried about our safety, it turned out fine. Safety is also a positive part of Switzerland.

Deb, my fellow doctoral student, and I are both from University of Pittsburgh, same for the two professors teaching in the summer school. We all had some problems travelling to Basel. They had a hard time waiting for the delayed airplane. My major problem is the visa. I will share my experience to prevent other future students getting into the same problem. If you have U.S. passport, you won't get into any trouble as I did. I am a Chinese holding a Chinese passport, I travelled through Paris to Basel. Basel and Geneva airports are special, since these two airports have two sides, one in Switzerland, the other side in France. If I fly from Paris to Basel, I will land in the French side first, this way, I have to have a visa to France, which I didn't have at that time. I called the travel agency and Delta before I travelled, they said I would be fine, they didn't even know this international regulations. I bought my own ticket from Paris to Zurich and took the train to Basel, I didn't realize the same problem occurred when I planned to go back. The institute of nursing and their secretary are very nice to offer me phones to call some local places to tackle the problem. Finally, with the help of ThinkSwiss, I got the visa to France, even I found out they didn't check my visa when I came back in Basel airport. Since I arrived at the airport around midnight, I walked back and forth many times between two countries with legal documents, thinking of my hard time in making this travel. Anyway, that's the only bad part for my trip, I learned, cried and smiled again. I said to myself, how wonderful it is to come back.

Since I got my visa, and I have two days left in Switzerland, I went around Switzerland during these two days, I was impressed about the travel information, I could get maps of the city in each train station, they even told me where should I go for tourism purpose. I went to Interlaken, Top of Europe, Geneve, etc. I took the Glacier Express and went to the final destination where no vehicle is allowed. Switzerland is fabulous, I am sure I will come back in the future.

Picture Link

I 've had two primary travel goals in mind since my arrival: see as much of Switzerland as possible while its still "summer" and try to absorb as much Swiss culture/tradition before setting my sights on the rest of Europe. I would appreciate any advice on how I might achieve these ends!
Yesterday, the 3 Americans in Zürich (Katherine, Joseph and I) met at the Knabenschiessen to wander around. I am not too sure of the history of the event (so maybe I'll let Katherine explain), but I am certain that the carnival- featuring rides, games, and LOTS of greasy food stands- was one of the biggest I have ever seen. Katherine and I rode the "Star Power" ride in order to get a great view of Zürich, and we all enjoyed some delicious wurst.
On Sunday I went to Luzern specifically to see the Verkehrshaus- the Swiss Transport Museum. It was definitely one of the most interesting, thorough, and informative museums I have ever visited. The exhibits also attempted to present some of the social and environmental issues involved in transportation, so overall it was excellent. Anyone who has ever used any means other than their feet to move from place to place should visit this museum. There was even a "Swiss Transport Policy Game" where one reads about 12 different policy/construction options, then has 30 seconds to select which options should be adopted, limited by 100 million Swiss Francs. I was surprised that the young children were not as eager to play the game as I...
Below are some pictures from Knabenschiessen and Luzern. The kind people of ThinkSwiss requested I put a link to some of my other pictures on the blog-so this link is for pictures of our Scooter Tour on 21.8.08 in Bern. You can also view my other photos from here. My pictures will probably be more interesting than my writing...

A fraction of the planes on display at the Verkehrshaus.


This is a ferocious swan who tried to bite my hand off near the Chapel Bridge because I was holding bread. I threw my roll at it and ran away.

On the ride at Knabenschiessen- huge carnival in the background!

FINAL REPORT FOR THINK SWISS

My overall impression of stay in Switzerland and every thing related to the stay, including culture, research, meeting new people and seeing new places has been quite up to the mark. I would like to again comment on the beauty of Switzerland, which frankly far exceeded my expectations. I had always heard about how nice the landscaped and environment of Switzerland was, but to experience it first hand was something out of this world. I will be discussing some of the points, positive as well as negative that I encountered during my stay at Swiss.

First of all I would like to state some of the positive attributes of the stay, in terms of research and otherwise. First and foremost is the Swiss life, culture and its natural beauty. The environment it self had certain kind of soothing experience. May be it was the mountains and the running water, but it was all very good. The people I worked with were very dedicated professionals. The lab setups, the infrastructure and the system all seemed to be very appealing. Another positive point that I would like to emphasize is the size of the cities and their organization. I live in Chicago and it is kind of huge place. Basel on the other hand was quite small well organized town which was kind of easy to manage even though I had not lived there for long.

Now coming to few negative points or some things if present/not-present would have made my life much easier. One of the challenges that I had to face many times was that of the language. Every thing seemed to be in German, even the road maps and other essential stuff, like groceries etc. The other challenge that I faced, was the new working style and environment. The working attitude at Eth is a bit different, than the working environment in Chicago. I will say more about this in the document.

I found my colleagues to be very professional, very dedicated and very knowledgeable in their fields. I had the chance to work with physical statistician and mathematicians and was integrated very nicely in the team. We had kind of weekly meetings related to research I was involve, discussing the possible solutions to the problems arising and the ways to practically confirm the theoretical assertions.

I found the research team in Swiss to be somewhat similar to the team I work here with, in US. My team is always very helpful with anything work related (not to mention non work) and fortunately I found the same in the Swiss. The research mentality however, differed in some areas (such as how to approach the problem or confirm a theory etc), but that was partly because the interdisciplinary nature of the research that I was involved in the Swiss. Nevertheless, the research experience was very fruitful, and I learned a lot, acquired new skills and made a lot of new connections. I enjoyed my work at Eth Zürich.

I am currently in a PhD program, so I would rather finish my program here at US. Had I not started my PhD here at US, and the quality of research that I witnessed in Switzerland, I would have certainly considered pursuing PhD at any reputable Swiss university. Nevertheless, after my PhD if I get an offer for post-doc or a faculty position, I would seriously consider it.

My institution did not apply for my visit visa. I am citizen of Pakistan, and live in the US on student visa. I needed a visa to enter the Switzerland and I applied for it from Chicago, USA. I was told during the visa process that it would take around 4 to 6 weeks, and I had some trouble because my appointment date had already started while my visa was being processed. Anyhow, I got my visa in about 6 weeks and every thing went just fine.

The accommodation in Basel was difficult to get at first. I suppose it was due to the football games that were going on at the time I was looking for accommodation. It was extremely difficult to find a place at first, partly because there were very few temporary rentals available and partly because very few people replied back to my email in English. Anyway, I was supported by the nice admin people at Biosystems Science and Engineering Dep’t Eth Zürich. They contacted a few people and forwarded the links for the accommodations that were available at that time. I was lucky enough to get a room just 2 days before my flight.

I spent around 1200 to 1500 CHF per month during my stay in Switzerland and I stayed in Basel for little less than 3 months. In addition to the Thinkswiss, I was supported by the Biosystems Science and Engineering Department, Eth Zurich Switzerland.

Lastly, I would again like to thank ThinkSwiss organizers, Presence Switzerland, and the Swiss Embassy in Washington. I had a wonderful, enjoyable and unforgettable experience.....


Fahad Saeed

PhD Candidate
Parallel Algorithms and Multimedia Systems Laboratory,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Illinois at Chicago, IL USA.

Smart Energy Strategies Conference

Hello everyone,
The past 3 days I was busy with the Smart Energies Strategies Conference coordinated by the Energy Science Center of the ETH here in Zürich. It was tiring, but an overall excellent conference!! I learned a ton, which made the early mornings and late evenings setting up and closing down the conference definitely worthwhile.

The first day involved a panel discussion with several well known climate scientists, including as I mentioned in a previous post, Dr. Pachauri, who is the IPCC Chairman. You can read an interview with him from the conference here- but unfortunately I think it is only in German- and you can also find a link to a podcast of his talk (in English) at the bottom: http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/080908_Pachauri/index/

The first session was on global challenges that we face today, such as climate change and access to resources. I particularly enjoyed the talk by Justin Adams of BP, who stressed the fact that not all solutions to climate change would address all the challenges, and that separate solutions are needed depending on if the challenge is global, regional, or local. A poster session followed this first panel of talks. The poster entitled, “Integrated Assessment of Swiss CO2 mitigation policies- focus on the residential sector” was of great interest to me. The research combines an energy model with an economic model, and analyzes the effects of introducing a policy or economic measure, such as a carbon tax, on carbon emissions, and offers suggestions for current policy. I was able to ask a few questions, as I am sure I could find this information helpful for my further research here at the ETH. The second session of the day was on transportation systems…not something I am particularly interested in, but nonetheless informative and important to climate and environmental policy.

That evening was the conference dinner, at the Zunfthaus im Waag, downtown in Zürich. We had traditional Swiss food- Rösti and something that resembled the German Schnitzel- although I forget the correct name for it. Delicious!! My dinner table neighbors- a student at the EPFL in Lausanne, and a representative from the Swiss Federal Office for Energy- and I chatted all night about policy and models and feasible solutions, etc. It was great networking for me, and a great introduction into Swiss policy and politics on a national level, but also a canton (or state) level.

The second day began with a panel on Smart Conversion Systems, including a great talk by Dr. Larry Kazmerski of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. A very entertaining presentation on the past, present, and future of the solar thermal and solar PV field- complete with videos and props! I spoke with Dr. Kazmerski afterwards on the possibilities of solar thermal in the US, which ties into some work I did on renewable heating and cooling policies back in the states this past year. The afternoon session was on Smart Grids, where Professor Goran Strbac spoke, among others, on the electrical grid system. This was very helpful for me, as I have never really been able to grasp a visual image of what the “grid” really is…but Professor Strbac succeeded! After this the second poster session began. I had a chance to look at all of the posters, and especially liked the one titled, “Thermally driven residential heat pumps based on integrated organic Rankine cycles.” There was an Apero at the end of this second day, but I was kind of tired, so I did not stay that long.

The third and final day was on Smart industries, services, and buildings, and energy economics and policy design. Professor Manfred Morari and Dr. Jürg Tödtli were my favourite presentations. Their talk was on how weather forecasts enhance comfort and save energy. The most surprising fact that I heard from the conference was in the talk from Dr. Richard Tol on the economics of climate change. He said that despite the thousands of scientific studies and analysis done on climate change, there have only been 13 economic studies and analysis done on climate change!! I could not believe this…With the potential for jobs and economic growth from the renewable industry alone, I thought surely more economists would be interested and have performed more than 13 total studies!!!

All in all, the conference was a huge success, and I hope to be able to come back and participate in 2 years when the conference will be held again.
So much for now,
Katherine