Things
have finally kicked into full gear for all of us the past few weeks – we
presented to Tom and Dr. Searson for our midway updates and have all made good
progress on our projects. On my own project, I’ve wrote numerous scripts to
sweep over various parameters, including the radius of the scatterer, width of
the waveguide, depth of the reflecting mirror, as well as the phase-change
material to be implemented in the device. With increasing dimensions for the
arrays, the simulations have begun a considerable amount of time, even when I
tap into the computing power from the clusters here at IMEC. Once I obtain the
results, I analyze the data and make adjustments to the design, finding the
“sweet spot” for each parameter to optimize and obtain the desired scattering
behavior. So far, I’ve characterized a single scatterer as well as a 1x3, 1x5,
and 1x10 array as well, moving forward to a 3x3 matrix and then, if time
allows, a larger-scale matrix of scatterers.
In
addition to the sweeps, there’s been a few swigs as well – one of the grad
students graciously took us to Sint-Sixtusabdij Westvleteren, a monastery in Westvleteren.
Located virtually in the middle of nowhere, the monastery can’t be reached by
public transport and took us a 2-hour drive across Belgium. After an amazing
culinary experience, we went north and dove into a surprisingly
not-fatally-cold Atlantic Ocean at a beach near Bruges. The next day, we walked
around Bruges, the capital city of West Flanders with a quaint, enchanting small-town
feel.
The
next weekend Diego and I ventured north to Copenhagen, Denmark, drifting from
museum to museum. Tivoli Gardens was a very interesting experience – a mix of
an amusement park, carnival, upscale eateries, and a quirky park with
free-roaming peacocks. Also included in our adventures were boat rides through
a multi-colored canal called Nyhavn, walking up an open stairway wrapping
around a church’s spire 90 meters up in the air, and eating open-faced smørrebrød sandwiches. The last day was spent
across the bridge in Malmö, a quiet way to end a lively weekend.
The
next weekend I took the Eurostar to London, a city I’ve always wanted to visit
since reading all the Harry Potter books approximately 10 times each. Walking
into a sea of English accents out of the station, I felt like I was inside a
Harry Potter movie…
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Turning torsos at the
Turning Torso (Malmö, Sweden)
 |
When you try to be
artsy (Copenhagen, Denmark)
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| Jellied eel…breakfast of champions (London, United Kingdom) |
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