Wrapping up!

I'm preparing to wrap up my research project here in Switzerland and will be heading back to the U.S. next week. I've collected behavioral data on lots of healthy controls and a few lesion patients, and my advisor and I will start to take a look at the results this week.

Had a great time in Bern last week. It was a really beautiful day, and it was interesting to learn more about Swiss-American relations. I wasn't aware that Switzerland is the protecting power for the U.S. in Iran and Cuba. And the next day, I went to the Montreux Jazz festival with some friends--there was such a great vibe and the setting on the lake was gorgeous.

Meeting at Bern and More

The meeting at US Presence in Bern was great. It was a perfectly nice day to be outside. We had a nice meeting with Mr. Lucien Aegerter followed my meeting with Mr. Marco Crugnola and a presentation by Mr. Claudio Fischer. We came to know about the swiss US partnerships amd the Siwss initiatives for Science and Technology, University system. We also had a brief discussion about the swiss education approach where college education is a right to anybody passing highschool.
Following the meeting, there was an excellent visit to the Museum portraying Einstein's life. The walk of a legend in Scientific world. It was very illuminating. The collection was impressive. I have a few photos on my web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/sumankalyan/ThinkSwissMeet.
Bern is a beautiful city. The city tour with Ms. Margaret was nice. Though we were a little tired by then and the heat was taking over we made a walk accross the city covering the Cathedral, the arcade and the clock tower. The 500 yr old clock mechanism is in true sense a mechanical marvel of its time.

I am towards the finishing of my work here. Working on the final array of tasks, before I present. Presently trying my hands on the real weather station to find out holes that I can mend. :)

pictures are worth 1000 words

The trip to Bern was great. Here are some of the beautiful sights of Bern. I especially like the fountain of the ogre that is eating a baby.

Tess update

EPFL

My new mentor has been wonderful, both monitoring my work and giving suggestions as to which directions to focus on as I progress. I have completed the first section of the project (creating a 2D model of the knee under load) and will hopefully now move onto working on 3D models. I have just been informed that I am expected to make a lab presentation on my project before leaving, which makes me nervous, but hopefully I will have guidance creating it.

This project has been especially useful for me because the background information that I am learning for it (knee anatomy and mechanics, finite element analysis) will be very useful for a undergraduate thesis project that I am considering: beginning the design of a low-cost prosthetic knee for amputees.

Geneva
The past couple weeks have led to some more exploration of the city. We were on our way to go swimming in the lake and ran into the Lake Parade (photos to come), which was 'fabulous.' It was interesting to talk to the people in a stand distributing information on the risks of drug use (including alcohol) and precautions to take. They said it is a program associated with the city of Geneva and they also work in nightclubs and other large events. I have never seen something like that in the States.

4 weeks

We finally finalized my project. I will make a list of the top Humanitarian Organizations and then I will interview them and ask them things like number of employees they have, number of those employees are in Logistics etc. all the relevant questions have not been finalized yet. Last week I was still doing research on 2 earthquakes and comparing how the logistics performed. I am glad that I am no longer writing reports since I am not big on writing. I can’t believe that I have already been here for 4 weeks. Time flies when you are having fun.

Research Day and More

5th July was IC Research Day. It was a very interesting event for people in the Computer and Information Science to present and discuss their research work with students and visitors from places. This is held in the middle of the summer research school which is going on here. These kind of events I feel is very effective in spreading the technology and the research at the edge to our peers and enthusiasts. I think similar events should be organized more frequently in every university and educational institutions.

Work is going on great. I am also looking forward to the interesting meet in the US Embassy at Bern.

Tess update

Project

Things are moving forward, though it is frustrating to wait for several hours for simulations to run now that I am working on a more detailed knee model in ABAQUS. The overall goal is to have many models in 2D and 3D from which to get results and measurements that are difficult to do in vivo, and then to compare results across models for accuracy. It is nice to learn something that is both biological and mechanical. I really enjoy working at the intersection of different disciplines and being able to spend time doing background reading on different topics.

EPFL

I feel more at home there now, but because Jess and I live in Geneva, we don't hang out in Lausanne much. Supposedly it is quite a fun city full of students and concerts. I hope to make time to explore it more before I leave.
I have not had much of a change to just wander around campus and look into labs in different departments. I don't know how open people are here to random visitors.

Geneva

Here are finally some photos from La Fete de la Musique which was a lot of fun! During the day it was nice to see families and people of all ages out enjoying the entertainment in the parks. In the evenings it was nice to dance around to peppy ska and funk in the rain.


The singer in a funk band on Saturday.

Jess in the moat in the Bastions on Sunday.