Third Trimester Part II

Near the beginning of October students started to work on their third trimester projects. Many students stayed in Iceland, while others went to places such as the United States, Mexico, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and St. Vincent. Another RES student and I worked in the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

The thesis itself was difficult. A few in the program had experience writing research papers before, but I had none. It was my first real experience being almost entirely self driven. My advisers were fairly hands off and much of the project duration I worked on my own. This was challenging but rewarding, and I learned a ton in the process.

Of course, I was able to get out and enjoy some of the area around me. This was the event in downtown Lausanne for Climate Action Day 2009.

Lausanne

Switzerland is full of steriotypes. The alps, cheese, chocolate, watches, etc. Surprisingly, I found most of these to be true! Except for the fact that not all Swiss cheese has holes.


Of course, everyone in RES had their own thesis experiences and there was a lot of great work done. Everyone returned to Iceland at the beginning of February to defend their work from the last 4 months.