Thursday, June 21, 2018

Hitting the Ground Running - Dante Navarro


After a long day of traveling, leaving Sunday before lunch and arriving early Monday morning, we went straight to our work at imec. Our wonderful guide, Laurien, helped us get acclimated to the huge campus of imec, a campus reminiscent of the tech giants of Silicon Valley. We went to the cafeteria for lunch (everyday our group eats lunch at the same time, 11:30) with the entire group that we would be working with for the summer. It was amazing how accepting and inclusive everyone was immediately.   

The next day we walked and rented the most important thing for staying in Belgium for a summer: a bike. Everything became accessible within Leuven now and the commute to work became even shorter. Through the next few days, we finished up all of the administrative tasks we had like declaring our stay and finishing up safety trainings at imec.  On the weekend, we were invited out to spend time with our work group who we bonded with right off the bat, making me feel at home the first night out. 

On Saturday, we explored more of Belgium and ventured to Brussels. The train system is amazing here as far as being quick and economic. In Brussels, there was so much to do but we stuck to the main tourist attractions of the Royal Palace, city center and especially the food, since we knew we’d return. Belgium is known for waffles and fries which is understandable because I had both in Brussels and they were the best that I have ever had in my entire life. 

Returning to work on Monday, I began working on my project within the wearable technology department that utilizes biologic vital signs to produce a calculated stress values and how to visualize this on an iPhone Application. I am enjoying my time at work, but I am also very excited for my trip to Madrid this weekend!


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