Earlier we have been talking about how life is as a PhD student here at KTH. Today, I would like to describe another part. As a PhD student I am in the early stages in my professional career, still with limited knowledge, experience and network. The PhD studies helps with all of these. While knowledge and experience are build up on a daily basis, a network is built and expanded through talking people. Throughout the last two years, due to the pandemic, we did not have the chance to meet many other people working in our area, especially outside of KTH.
With the pandemic seemingly to be over in Europe, I was given the opportunity to attend a PhD summer school on power electronics, electrical machines, energy control and power systems in Gaeta, Italy. This was the first opportunity for me to attend an event to meet with other young researchers in my field. Furthermore, the course helped me to earn the required credits.
The summer school was organized by the university of Cassini and as they are in charge of the medieval castle in Gaeta, that was the venue. Gaeta is a small medieval town at the shore of Italy south of Rome. With a total of five PhD students from our division we took the airplane on Sunday to Rome and took the train to Gaeta, enough time to check in the accommodation and take a round in the town.
On Monday, the school started. After the introduction, throughout the week we listened to lectures from professors of several European universities on various topics in the topic. One lecture on wireless power transfer, with details on why, how and where. Other lecturers spoke about the global elevator industry, the overall development as well as special challenges from a technical perspective. We also received information on practical laboratory work, i.e. how to implement power hardware in the loop tests.
Next to listening to lectures, one essential part of a researcher’s life is to present the own work. A common way is to use a scientific poster. I was not in the group who had to present a poster, but I took the chance to have a look on other students work. A poster is a short summary of one’s work and a starter for a discussion. Everyone of us, who attended from KTH, found a fellow student who works on something similar. A great chance to see how other people approach a problem and maybe a source of inspiration for the own work.
Last but not least, one intense week also has space for informal exchange. For that purpose, the summer school organized lunch, coffee breaks and night filling dinners for us to get to know each other in a casual way. And since it was Italy, of course the food was amazing.
After this one week, did I not only listened to a wide selection of experts of my field, but also gained insight into PhD life in other countries and universities. I found PhD students to discuss academic topics but also how to master the pitfalls of mastering a PhD. Returning back to Stockholm, I was happy to get some rest and not having 100people around me but also sad to leave my new gained contacts behind.
This week, I took the final test of this summer school. With this, the summer school is finally done. With this experience in the mind, one more motivation to publish on a conference in order to meet more fellow PhD students.
If you would like to know more about this particular summer school, you can have a look here: https://www.ecpe.org/events/european-phd-school/european-phd-school/