ESOF 2008 - 3rd Day

Again I get up at 7:30 - and am alone in the breakfast room. Understandable - who would want to get up so early on a Sunday morning? But I am interested in the session "Are the arts the language of the brain?". Interesting talks, but they do not answer the question. That is a general "theme" of this ESOF conference: the titles are quite provocative and thought-provoking, but then the panels to not really live up to those ambitious titles, and instead of giving an answer to the question, they talk either about the problems and question itself or just about their own work which has some remote link to the question. Nevertheless, the talks are interesting. Overall, there are several main themes in this conference: Brain imaging, energy, environment, and health as main research topics. Europe as a Knowledge Society in the policy topic. A lot of sessions deal with how Europe can be made more competitive, and the EU is always compared to the US. An interesting demo from the realm of Mixed Reality: a music synthesizer which is assembled form tangible objects. Developed and demonstrated by the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona.

ESOF 2008 - Party in Pablo Espagnol

On Saturday evening, the ESOF conference holds a "party" at the "Pablo Espagnol" which is just a short walk from the exhibition centre. This "village" consists of a set of historic houses, taken from all parts of Spain and representing the architactural variety. One seems to pay admission for entering this village, but for us ESOF participants the entry is free. There are several restaurants in this quarter, but we have a large area in the centre which is specifically reserved for the conference, with a stage and life music on one end and many black-covered tables in the middle.

ESOF 2008 - 2nd Day

I get up early. In the breakfast room of the hotel I am the first and only one. Who has breakfast on a Saturday morning at 7:30? But the first talk starts at 8:30, and I do not want to miss it: as session on Biofuel.

There are 3 experts who point out the dilemma re using biofuels, as I already had debated it with myself a year ago. The experts, however, come to a positive conclusion, in accordance with the official EU position: they can provide additional energy, and not only that, but also can provide more benefits especially to the 3rd world, as they can plant it and create income their for the agricultural sector. I remain sceptical: the panelists did not show how much CO2 these fields actually consume, compared to a tropical rain forest for example. One of them pointed out that the energy is about 9 GJ per hectar. I would have to convert this into how much fuel this actually is, in terms of liter of Biodiesel or Kerosin.

After this session I walk through the exhibition area. There is the German DAAD there - I leave my address, as they may want to establish an DAAD alumni organisation.

I originally wanted to listen to another UK speaker, to as to support my current "home" country: a talk by Sir Richard Mottram about Science and Terrorist Threat. But I get stuck at the exhibition and the outreach expo...

Evening in Barcelona

No offical event tonight. The ESOF opening is over at 20:30. I am hungry, but the restaurants and bars I pass, are quite full. I could go again to the Bar Pepe, but I would like something more substantial. In the hotel is a restaurant which appears to be nice... but when I enter, everything ie empty. No buffet, no customer, no waiters. So I walk towards the centre. The Rablas Street is just about 10 minutes from the hotel. I have a look, and finally I walk into the "Gaudi Tapas". Have a salad and a Mixed Grill. The salad is ok, but the Mixed Grill is awful: the most significant taste comes from the burnt side, it tastes bitter of strongly burnt old oil. This was not a good choice...

ESOF 2008 - 1st Afternoon

As the participation at the Marie Curie workshop allows participation at the ESOF 2008 Conference, I begin to look at which of the talks I would listen to. There are many parallel session and talks. I decide to go to the one given by Sir David King from UK, U.Oxford,about the challenges of the 21st century. Naturally, a big challenge is the climate change. By 2050 there will be 9 Billion people on Earth, with the population growth fortunately levelling out. The CO2 content in the atmosphere had been in the past 300,000 years between 200 and 280 ppm. Right now it is about 380 ppm, and it will stabilize in the most optimistic scenario at about 450 ppm. He is a proponent of nuclear energy and of gen-manipulated (GM) crops. In some ways he appears to be a bit close to politics, as he had been an advisor of the UK government, and he made some remarks which imply his close links with the UK government.



I had sat down at a row far in the back, with a lot of leg space as a walk way was going through there. I sat down quite low, being exhausted from the long days, and at a few instances I had slightly dozed off. Hope that I had not snored...!

In the evening there was the official opening of ESOF, with 8 welcome speeches, 3 of them in Spanish.



A stage performance of two artists working with bib bubbles completed the evening.

Marie Curie Workshop - 2nd Day

The next day started with me setting up my poster, as today were the "even poster numbers" to be displayed. After attaching the poster, I picked up my registration for the ESOF conference. It turns out that a metro ticket is included for the nest 5 days - great! However I just had bought a secound T-10 ticket, because I had yesterday just sued up all my 10 rides on the previous ticket... well, I may just gove the remaining 9 rides on that ticket to someone.

The presentation session started with some general talks about FP7 and about successful proposals. I knew most of that already, as I had gone through the material of FP7 already in the last 2 years, and I also had participated in proposal workshops. Interesting, however, was the personal individual view of the panelists, as they gave some insight about their own individual perspective.

After a short coffee break, I go to my poster #58, to explain everybody about the Creative Technology.



The workshop ends with 6 selected presentations from Marie Curei Fellows, who talk about their work. A price is given to the best poster, and also the YouTube video competition is awarded. At 14:20 the workshop is over.

I had met a few people from Leeds University, among them Bogdan whom I had met last year at Falk's grill party.

Live from Avenida Paral-lel

This is something new: I as sitting right now on the street sidewalk, under an umbrella, eating Calamares and a sandwich with Jamon Serrano - and I am typing this blog entry. Am connected to the accesspoint "BADAR"... no idea who that is.



This morning was the first day of the Marie Curie conference. I actually woke up at 7am, as planned, without an alarm clock. My internal clock appears to work quite well. Have breakfast, then take the subway two stations to the Place Espagna. There are 300 participants at the workshop, all Marie Curie Fellows. There were presentation about research, EU, academia in Europe, and how to link research to industry. Quite interesting. Then there was a poster session. 150 posters in a quite small room, plus a few outside in the foyer. Way too little space, it was very cramped. Tomorrow I will bring my own poster.



But right now I enjoy the lunch break, here on the Avenida Paral-lel (no idea why it is written like that...).

Arrival in Barcelona

The plane lands on time in Barcelona. Only two hours away, but in a different world. The air looks hazy, but good-weather-hazy. No rain here, only warm sunshine. Temperature at arrival is 25 C. My luggage arrives promptly at the belt. Last time with Graham, in May 2006, we had taken a taxi into the town. I was considering this now too, but I am curious to try also the trains. After arriving at terminal A, the sign for the train departure points to Terminal B. From there, along a covered footbridge a few 100 m to the train station. I buy a T-10 ticket which is good for 10 rides. Has been recommended on one of the web site I had consulted yesterday. Waiting for 1/2 hour, the previous train must have just left. The ride takes 20 minutes to one of the main train stations. From there with metro L3 south. There is no esculator or elevator from the train station to the subway, I have to carry my luggage over the stairs down. A long walkway tunnel to the L3 line. Again there are only esculators upstairs, but none downstairs. It is very warm... finally in the metro train there is a cool breeze of A/C. 4 stations, then I get off. A very busy street, the Avenida Paral-lel. Modern buildings at the side, nothing spectacular. The hotel is supposed to be quite nearby. I see a building one a block away with a large "Hotel" sign, so I walk to there. But it is another hotel. So where is the one I am supposed to be? I cannot see any other hotel building. I have the full address with house number, but the houses here do not have any house number... so I finally have to overcome the male-chauvinistic attitude, and ask someone for directions. "Not far from here, just 25 meter". So close? Maybe I misunderstand, maybe he means 250 meter? I walk in the direction, cannot see anything... until I have a look at the building where I am standing now - and there is the hotel entrance. Right near the subway exit where I had come out...

First a refreshing shower. There is wireless internet in the room - great. Even an ethernet plug is in the wall, but I only need the wifi for now. Nice clean room, very business-oriented. The window "view" goes into a narrow courtyard, but I do not need a view anyway. From the roof, however, there is a nice view over the city.



I am getting hungry. On the way I had seen a couple of bars with tables on the sidewalk, and pictures of paella on their menus. I have an appetite for this, so I will go there. First I take a brief stroll around the hotel, into the back alley. Small shops, bars, a truly un-touristic area, for the locals. An old church is nearby. Children do some facade climbing on a kind of school building. I get now something to eat: first a small tapas dish, then a pan of paella. The menu says of minimum of two people only, but they can obviously make exceptions. I ask, and they make for me a single portion of paella.



When I am finished, the light blue of the sky has turned into dark-blue night sky. Time now to begin preparing the presentation for the next day!