Tag Archives: IEEE

Hello from CERN

Christian M. Schmid,
,

We’ve made it and it is actually our second day at CERN. I am sitting at a table in the CERN cafeteria, a sunny spot right next to one of their magnets they have on display. More than 1000 of these are somewhere below me, in a 27 km long ring. That’s where they accelerate junks of protons to have them finally collide.

As I am sitting here sipping my coffee I enjoy the spirit and the excitement of all of the researchers and “science tourists” around me who have come from all over the world to participate in and witness R&D at the forefront of science and technology!

Yesterday we had the chance to talk to one of the scientists from the core team of the Neutrino experiment, where in short they send Muon Neutrinos from CERN to some place in Italy (roughly 730 km from here) to see if some of the Muon Neutrinos change into Tau Neutrinos, as predicted by some theory that is not confirmed yet. I am sure you’ve heard about that experiment, which was in the media excessively because of some measurement setup error which lead to the suggestion that neutrinos may be faster than light. It’s just so much more exciting to really talk to the people who actually do the experiments as opposed to just following some copy-and-paste flawed media coverage by some journalist who might not even care. I’m getting goose bumps again as I think about those interesting discussion!

ATLAS experiment control room

LHC computing grid

CERN, here we come!

Christian M. Schmid,
,

We’re on our way! As I am writing this we are on the bus already!

The IEEE student branch JKU Linz is going to CERN. There are 14 more hours of bus driving ahead of us. But I have a feeling that this is absolutely doable given the amount of beer that people brought on the bus ;) — Not to forget everybody’s excitement that is even more energizing and rewarding. I am really looking forward to this once-in-a-lifetime trip!

IEEE SBC 2012, Madrid

Christian M. Schmid,

Looking at the amazing amount of blog posts that I’ve written so far (can you hear the sarcasm?), I guess I’ll just have to admit it: I’m not much of a blog writer. So the best I can do right now is to refer you to other blogs.

One that is definitely in my top 10 list of blogs right now is the blog by the IEEE SB Ljubljana on the IEEE SBC 2012! Most of you will probably ask what is IEEE, what is an SBC? The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, read I-Triple-E) is a professional association … well you can look that up on wikipedia yourself. Basically it’s a worldwide network / non-profit organization for engineers of all ages, colors, … and they have Student Branch Congresses (SBCs) every year, where students from all over the world meet to discuss the latest trends in EE and to … well … just meet each other. And that is what the IEEE SB Ljubljana blog is about.

So here’s what I suggest you should do: If you are an engineer and not an IEEE member yet, get a membership NOW and try to get to the next SBC. You can thank me later. What is in it for you is meeting some of the brightest, most inspired, open-minded, innovative people you will find out there, a mix of great minds with cultural backgrounds as diverse as the cities where these events are being held and memories and experiences that you won’t forget too quickly.

I was fortunate to write one blog post for my friends from Ljubljana, which you can find at http://sbcmadrid2012.ieee.si/?p=296.

I am IEEE …

Christian M. Schmid,
,

Finally I have found some time to finish the video editing. So I proudly present:

A big thank you goes to Karl Zeilhofer who did a tremendous job shooting the videos and doing some preliminary editing! Also thank you to all who stepped in front of the camera! – Great job!

IEEE CEuSBC 2011 in Linz

Christian M. Schmid,

Long time no hear. I was quite busy lately, but it was worth it. We, the IEEE Student Branch, JKU Linz, hosted the very first edition of the IEEE Central European Student Branch Congress (CEuSBC) in May! We had 40 participants from Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. Apart from interesting talks about different engineering related topics, we also had fun social activities and the feedback we got from the participants was amazing!!! You guys rock!!!

Also thanks a lot to the people who made this possible, especially to the local IEEE Student Branch, JKU Linz executive comittee:

Norbert Eidenberger
Gregor Gerstorfer
Werner Scheiblhofer
Jochen Schrattenecker

and to the IEEE people who supported this event:

Manfred Sampl
Eva  Lang

Piotr from Poland already told me that the Opole student branch would like to host the 2nd CEuSBC in 2013! Go for it!!!!

Wind Power and Mailüfterl

Christian M. Schmid,
,

Another visit to Vienna. Apart from the IEEE Officiers meeting, which was quite interesting, I have two other interesting findings to share! It was a really great day with lots of sunshine, so driving was fun. What I came to realize is that we have a lot of wind power plants in Austria:

Whatever this means, I think I like it ;) Secondly, while on a short break from the meeting, I realized that we had the meeting right next to Heinz Zemaneks office (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Zemanek)!!!! Yes, the famous Mailüfterl (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail%C3%BCfterl) Zemanek ;)

All in all it was a great day!

Vienna …

Christian M. Schmid,
,

Yesterday we had the IEEE Austrian Section general assembly. I managed to be in Vienna two hours before the meeting(s) got started. So I had like 1 1/2 hours to walk the city. It was a wonderfull, chilly day in fall. Here’s a pic of the opera in Vienna

Wennst in Wien bist musst in Steffl besuchn – When you are in Vienna you have to visit St. Stephan’s Cathedral. And I did it:

After paying my dues to the Steffl i went to Karlskirche, which is right next to the Technical University of Vienna.

Later I met wonderful friends from Graz and Vienna that I acutually had met in Belgium for the first time. The general assembly itself was a very unorganized event and not really exciting.

But I met a lot of new people and so it was worth it. I arrived back home in Linz at 12:00 pm with Andrea already waiting for me.