Gala report

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve got at least two post series going on about my research, and one about fat loss and fitness. Fairly general, in other words. Hence, I thought it would a nice change of pace to post something marginally more personal. This time, it would be a gala dinner I attended this week.

Sidenote: I’m writing this under the influence of coffee. No surprise there. But, I realized for me coffee is both very like and completely opposite to pizza. Paradoxical, right?

But you see, pizza is delicious in whatever form. Warm, cold, leftover from the day before, you name it. The same is true for coffee: I don’t care if it’s dark or light or whatever. I drink it.

But not for the taste. Now pizza, that’s what I eat for the taste, with no regard to what it does to my body. But not coffee. I don’t really like the taste of it. The only good versions are my protein coffee, and of course the liquid desserts you get from Starbucks and such. But that’s about it. No, I drink coffee precisely for what it does to me.

It’s a stimulant, after all. Liquid inspiration.

But back to the topic. The gala.

What I attended

You might remember that I recently got an incentive grant from Tekniikan edistämissäätiö, or The Foundation for the Advancement of Technology. TES, for short.

Well, they – together with the Centennial Foundation of the Technology Industries of Finland – organized an award ceremony in a hotel in Helsinki. Invited were all the grant receivers, along with the good teacher and young researcher of the year, and some prized STEM teachers from elementary school.

So, enjoy some snapshots from the event. You can find some more on my research group’s Facebook page.

Ah, wine. Always manages to set off the right mood. That’s even more vital here in Finland, where people tend to be quite a bit more reserved and quiet than elsewhere in the world. But give us even a scent of some booooze and suddenly we’re all over the place.

But, we can keep it civilized and nice. And we did.

The people at Tampere University of Technology are apparently studying some antennas related to wireless brain-machine interfacing. How cool is that?

Sounds somewhat like the black carapace from the lovely universe of Warhammer 40 000 in my opinion. I should definitely look into something as cool.

What I learned

Or rather, what I was able to confirm, that I already suspected.

The powers-that-be – big, governmental foundations and other similar huge players – have a severe tunnel vision. Right now, their unwavering gaze lies upon cleantech and circular economy, and digitalization. As far as they are concerned, no other fields of research exist.

And that’s completely fine by me. There’s an elegant saying about the number of arses you have and the number of horses you can ride. Meaning that trying to catch two rabbits at once usually results in a vegetarian dinner. The suits have picked their focus point, and should stick to it to see how it turns out.

I’ll back their decision, and make my own miracles in the meanwhile.

The lovely Jessi Frey also makes her own miracles. Apparently, she’s been “wrong as many times
as right” – a ratio I deeply envy. Workwise, I’m usually wrong about 90% of the time.

What I enjoyed

I think the main takeaway from the event was – wait for it – networking with some other researchers. Thoroughly unsurprising, right?

Well, might be, but I don’t mean networking in the most obvious sense of exchanging business cards and planning co-authorship. You see, there were not people present from my field, the analysis of electrical machines. So, it would be quite unlikely for me to interact with any of those folks in the professional capacity.

Instead, it was plainly refreshing to exchange some ideas and thoughts about research in general.

Everybody has the same problems, yeah.

But everybody is also enjoying the same kind of successes. And those are what we focussed on.

No use whining and wallowing in despair about unfair reviewers.

Gala report