ESR08 – Hafte Hayelom Adhena – It was not just a secondment; I felt I was at home!
One of the benefits of working in MSCA project is to have a secondment at partner universities and companies. The main aim of a secondment is to share resources, teamwork, collaboration, and able to work independently in different working environment. For me, I will say, it is more than this. There are other interesting things to consider and enjoy during the secondment period. I will share an experience of my 1st secondment at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. I believe you will find it interesting, as I did.
My secondment journey started at East-Midlands airport, UK, because I prefer such small airports due to shorter queues and less chaos compared to the big airports. I took a flight from this airport to Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The flight duration should have been 1 hour, but we arrived within 39 minutes. It was great flight except the turbulence. The funny thing is we waited for around 2 hours in the airport for a flight duration of 39 minutes. That is how it works! Then we (there were other two ESRs from ETUT project, Seva and Peyman) travelled by train for 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Enschede, University of Twente.
Working in the EEMCS research group, University of Twente (UT)
During the first day at UT, we met with the other ESRs and project manager of the ETUT project. It was nice to meet them again after long period of time. I liked their collaboration and hospitality.
Picture 1: Group photo of ETUT project manager and ESRs at UT.
Starting from this first day, every one in the research group had lunch together which helped introduce us to each other in depth and share information.
For my research work, I started working in collaboration with Cathrine, ESR02. We had very good time and great work. We are still working to present our work in EMC Europe 2023. We hope our manuscript will be accepted and you will enjoy the result of our collaborative work.
Before moving to the next section, I have to add few things. You know that the working environment has direct impact on the people who are working there. When we are doing intensive research work daily for long hours, our mind needs some fresh energy and breaks every few hours. That’s why different companies and public sectors provide some facilities for their workers. It was my first time to get 40 euros per day for free to drink what I want from the coffee machine. Can you guess the price of single cup of coffee/tea/soup? It’s only 1 cent. So, you can drink 4000 times per day and the next day the money will start from 40 euros. You may say, hey man are you crazy? How it can be? I was also wondering but this is how it works there.
Picture 2: My first visit for summer school during June 2022.
EMC course by PAO
During my secondment I had a chance to attend the EMC course from PAO for six days in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Frankly speaking, this course was the best one that I had until now although I had chances to take several courses from different universities with high reputations during my MSc study. All the trainers (lecturers) are highly qualified and experienced in the EMC area. Most of them have more than 30 years working experience in EMC in industries and universities. So glad to be part of this program. During lunch-time, I asked one of the professors and coordinators of the course about his experience. He told me a lot, but I want to share with you one thing. He told me that he stared working with MATLAB version 2. Could you imagine this, now we are using MATLAB 2022b! I had a chance to learn the challenges and means of solution for EMC problems in different sectors. It was not only lectures but also demos, hands-on demos and industrial visits. We visited TUe EMC and high-voltage labs, Prodrives technologies. I recommend others attend this course.
Picture 3: Hands – on demo during the EMC course
Picture 4: Prodrives technologies tour
Picture 4.1: Prodrives technologies tour
Picture 5: PAO EMC course completion certificate
Picture 6: Thales Netherlands Tour
The other important and interesting tour that Sviatoslav (ESR12) and I had was the Thales Netherlands tour for one and half an hours with Prof. Dr. Frank Leferink, EMC director in Thales Netherlands and a supervisor at our host university, UT. I want to thank him for rearranging his busy schedule for us. It was a great experience to see the different radar systems and EMC testing technologies.
Chance to learn new culture, meet new people, and visit tourist places
The other interesting experience during my secondment was the chance to try different foods, learn about cultures, and explore some historical and tourist areas. One such experience was the glow week in Eindhoven, Picture 7. I had a chance to visit the glow because I was in Eindhoven to attend the EMC course. I had a chance to introduce new people to my research area and met my undergraduate classmates after 8 years.
Picture 7: St. Catherine during glow week
Picture 8: one of the local foods I had. For fish lovers
Since I am a graduate of an Erasmus program, it’s worth visiting the city where Erasmus was born. So, I went to the city called “New York of Europe”, Rotterdam, and I visited some historical places and engineering works such as Erasmusburg, Erasmus – Hendrick Keyser, Erasmus monument, Rotterdam central train station, the cube houses, market hall, and the destroyed city. Wow, it was nice time! I have some pictures here for you, enjoy them.
Picture 9.1: Cube houses visit, Wow! What an engineering work.
Picture 11.1: Erasmus – Erasmus monument
This is all for now. I hope you have enjoyed it and you get some tips for your next secondment journey. So, as I said at the beginning, it was not only a secondment for me, but it was also full of experience, joy, and shopping of new cultures.
Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!