21st August: First
workshop was a good one which was about establishing a new 'brand' sort of
thing which could attract people to use equipment with natural working fluids
in order to reduce the global warming and ozone depletion which the synthetic
refrigerants have been causing. After the workshop, there was a conference
welcome reception, at the university itself. It also had a social event, where
a choir sang a few songs. It was just the beginning of a big event.
22nd August: The
inaugural of the conference took place, followed by a key note. Then, the paper
presentations started - as usual - parallel sessions at different places. I
began my duties conversing with the speakers and the chair of the session at
the session I was assigned to. It was nice, as I could directly interact with
them. Since 2012, I had been reading research papers. I remembered a names of
few authors who had written those. Here, those authors were present. Though I
didn't know their faces, the IDs hanging around their necks were fine and I
stalked. I saw Dr. Eckard Groll, Dr. Peter Neksa……… it was like watching Gods
of my field walking around. Just saying 'Hi!'. THAT WAS AWESOME! In the
evening, there was a networking meet at the Dynamic Earth. The venue itself was
a great place. Worth the visit! The networking meet was the best idea you could
try at any conference. All speakers were assigned to tables, and the conference
assistants who were students, like I was, were to change tables after each
course. I mean, we sat on some table, took starters, then changed the table,
then had the main course, again changed the able and then had desserts. At each
table, we met people from different parts of the world! We spoke of where we
came from, what we wanted to do in life, what we were actually doing, how the
situation in our nation was, was brexit affecting, the quality of engineers we
were making, employability, economy…….lots of stuff. Felt I was really a very
small kid. Ya, I am, it was just the first time I was meeting such great
people.
People here, at UK
are too cool. They crack jokes at more than 1 per minute. Even their
presentations had jokes! Can you imagine that in India? You could end up
getting an extension or a very low grade if you try such things out. :-D It was
hilarious. Coming back to the conference dinner, the last table I had desserts
with, I sat next to the IOR president! AND I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS HIM! So foolish
of me. Luckily, a girl said, "Oh, they say you are the President
here!", and that's how I knew that. My part of the joke, wanna know? When
it was my turn to introduce, I just asked if they didn't really know me, I was
the one the president was paying for! Would you not know whom you are spending
for :-P That was a good laugh. We had a good time. I was just 1 feet shorter
than some people there.
23rd August:
Attended few sessions, got introduced to a few people. The presentations were
too interesting and I started regretting not getting my education in EU. The
kind of experimental facilities these people have, drive me crazy. They
experiment at the supermarkets! They have experimental data from the
supermarkets, industries! Could you ever imagine that? Danfoss had funded a lot
of agencies for ejector related research and researchers had commercialized the
ejector based systems. It felt so good that these people did what I always
wanted to do. I wanted to do something that could be applied instantly, and the
researchers in EU are doing it. Felt bad for Indian researchers in my field, as
most research ends up in publications which aren’t really used in daily life.
How strange that the same researchers show same things and get appraisals for
which we are infamous internationally! The day was awesome, had lot of
learning. And then we had the conference barbeque at the Botanical Gardens. It
was good. Had time for interacting with researchers!
24th August: The D -
day! I had to present. I was nervous. My presentation was scheduled at the Main
Auditorium. While returning from the the barbeque the earlier night, I had
talked about being a bit scared as I would be presenting at the Main Auditorium,
which was huge. I was told that I lost the best paper prize by a few votes and
my paper was well received by the reviewers. This, don't know whether true or
not, gave some confidence. So, with lots of thoughts in mind, about how people
made presentations for previous two days and the quality of work they did, I
had prepared at night. With some sleep, I stood there, on the stage, 2 minutes
before the scheduled time, because earlier presenter had finished earlier. Just
counted the audience (won't tell you the number :-P). As the presentation had
to be started on time, just made some jokes. Well, I had 20 slides, because I
knew I would rush through them if too anxious. The way I thought, I actually
finished far before time. Then, there were questions. Just two! I answered
them. AND THEN, a very very big person just hinted that I should come to him
after the presentation. And I went, we spoke of what I had done. Frankly, I am
pessimistic about using R744 in India, as of now, because of the low COP it will
give, causing indirect pollution while reducing direct pollution. Some things
were discussed with a reputed prof during lunch as well. Ya, and joking, though
I am not so cool, when first person raised a query after presentation, I did
tell on stage, that I am a huge fan of his. Off stage, I also told him I would
love working with him on any project he wants me to! Well, I fell in love with
the work he presented in multiple papers he presented at the conference.
That's how the
conference ended. With lots of fun, an exposure to exactly what people do in
US, Norway, Korea, China, India, UK, ……… and many other countries. If I were to
choose one place to work at, I would choose EU. And, as many working
professionals say, if UK gets out of the EU, stay with EU. Let's hope someday,
I do shift to EU for a long stay! I love Edinburgh! It’s a nice place, and do
visit in August as the festival is worth watching if you love watching live
shows.
