Livia Kalossaka

June 2019 marks the start of my collaboration with TUM. I took part of the Future Cities Global Fellows Programme hosted in Munich, Germany.

The multi-disciplinary aspect of the summer school was my favourite part. We were placed in teams of 8-9 people and had to work on a project with a final pitch on the Friday.

 Our team comprised of an interesting mixture of personalities which finally played an important role in making the work more effective and enjoyable, greatly contributing to our team winning the competition.

During the week in Munich we also had the chance to visit the car-crashing test facility - CARISSMA  – where we had the opportunity to talk to safety experts about the challenges of future cars including 5G connectivity.

The week was overall one of the best experiences of my PhD so far, the atmosphere was friendly and despite the long hours we had plenty of time to visit Munich in the evenings. I would definitely recommend to visit the English Gardens where you can find the locals literally surfing on the Danube. 

I then proceeded my German experience with a research stay at the Sustainability Campus of TUM. To my surprise, even though still affiliated to TUM, the research centre is located in Straubing, a small bavarian village about two hours away from Munich. There, I had the chance of experiencing the life of a small town. For instance, everybody knows each other, shops close early and you can find everything you need within a ten minutes walk. On top of that, I had the amazing chance of seeing spectacular views of the Danube during my daily walk to go to work. There I was hosted by the Biogenic Polymer Group which is focused on synthesizing polymers of natural origin. The group was very welcoming, I was introduced to all the group members and spent time understanding their research to establish a collaboration. After a few days, I decided to create an aerogel based on a derivative of seaweed and experimented with the group's new gas adsorption machine to quantify the porosity of the aerogel. The following weeks passed by very quickly and as I started making progress and getting used to the routine, I soon realised it was time to leave.

I had a marvellous experience on the Global Fellows Programme. I developed on both professional and personal levels, getting exposed to a different culture and working environment was eyes-opening .I feel more confident in pursuing an international career, and feel better equipped to quickly adapt to new cultures. I highly suggest this programme to anyone pursuing a PhD.