presentation

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I’ve been working on the presentation for the WCTRS-SIG2 conference “Key Developments in the Port and Maritime Sector” and I’ve finally finished and submitted it. It will be 10 nervous minutes, plus five for discussion. Now I must prepare myself for delivering it.

I said “nervous” but I realize I’m seldom nervous during presentations. I am when I’m drafting and preparing the presentation, I am even more the date approaches but once I’m doing it, I’m doing it. At the end I see whether I messed up or not.

This has the added difficulty of being my first presentation of a scientific paper, but I hope my previous experiences at academia can help me.

I’ll depart to Antwerp in Saturday and my presentation slot is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I’ll try to come back here before that.

wctr 2013 rio

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A strike of luck made me know (on time) about the abstract submission period for the 13th WCTR. I knew the conference would take place next year in Rio de Janeiro, but I was not aware the abstract submission deadline would be so soon as today. Anyway, I found it some days ago on the Facebook group Transport Planning and Analysis and decided to counter-challenge my supervisor (he had challenged me for the conference in Antwerp next month) for a co-authored paper about my PhD topic. This time I managed to draft the abstract in a more confident and right-to-the-point way, which I hope will help me when it comes to acceptance time…

The idea is the same with the Antwerp conference: using these opportunities for testing, with a large and informed audience, my progress, ideas and paths. The paper should be build on the paper written for Antwerp and on the work plan designed for my PhD research. This also has the added advantage of serving as intermediate deliverables with a fixed deadline, something of the utmost importance in a period my job is draining a lot of time and energy from me and I must use all tactics to focus and make the most out of my freetime. Let’s see if it works.

sterile update

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I decided to make an effort in order to post more regularly, namely e-v-er-y–d-a-y, hoping that would press me to present results / work harder / be embarassed to come here with nothing to tell or no progress to show.

I was wrong. I’m here, but there was nothing read, written or done today whatsoever. Now even recycling my German skills are ahead, reclaiming the place of marathon training.

I shall comeback tomorrow, hopefully with a conference paper half finished. Let’s go.

1h40’18”

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In the most rewarding 21,1 km  of my life, yesterday I ran – and finished – Lisbon Half Marathon. Running an half marathon for the first time, I set the goal of finishing and doing it below two hours; secretly, I believed that maybe I could reach something aroud 1h50’00”, preferably one second below that. But I ended up with 1h40’18”, a time I could not even think about when I register for the race. Nevertheless, the best part of it is really finishing it, after running through all those places we only do by car, including the 25 de Abril bridge. It was great fun!

meeting of the research group

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Yesterday I was in my first meeting with the research group on Transport Infrastructure, Systems and Policy (NISPT), our unit within CESUR (Center for Urban and Regional Systems) research centre.

The agenda dealt basically with the election of the new group coordinator and the discussion of NIPST’s new strategic guidelines. For me, it was a good chance to understand how the group works, to meet new colleagues and to catch up with friends I already haven’t seen for a while. Furthermore, I managed to snatch a fruitful crash-meeting with my supervisor, which is always a must.

pause?

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As you may have noticed, news here have became an endangered species. I was expecting that closing the issue “research proposal” would invite me for a more relaxed period, but I was not thinking about complete stoppage of production. But that’s what has been happening, which on one hand is normal, on the other hand is not recommendable.

I haven’t been working in the thesis nor in the paper I must finish. Apart from work at my office (which has been a lot), I’ve been basically practicing sports, with sailing on Saturdays, basketball on Sundays and running everyday competing for my date. Running is taking the lead, as I’m preparing to run Lisbon Half Marathon in late March. It will be my first attempt at such a long distance, but I’m taking workouts seriously.

For my defence, there must also be said that during January there were still many season events going on, especially lunches and dinners that didn’t fit in December calendar. And theather – I’ve been enjoying going regularly.

Only thesing is missing.

happy: comes with a :)

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All’s well that ends well. And even though this is just the beginning, my admission to km 0 of a very long road, at least I succeeded at my first checkpoint.

The session lasted for two hours. I managed to comply with the 20-minute limit for my presentation and all the rest was spend arguing with the jury, a fantastic chance to receive input, suggestions and contributions to improve my work and explore different paths.

At the end, I was very happy with my grade and looking forward to continue with my research. Some days are just great!

battle plan

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I’ve been trying to have things sorted out on time for tomorrow, but I guess I’ll only call it a day once I’m asked to start my presentation. For now:

  • Power-point presentation: too long, there’s a long night ahead;
  • Mock presentation: tried, but must do it with the right number of slides;
  • Summary report: check!
  • Discussion plan: check! It has framing questions, trained answers, rebutalls & justification brainstorming, and a presentation checklist with everything I’ll need, from cables to suit to water to watch to everything!
  • Readings about Viva preparation: been there, done that, bought the soundtrack.

See you in a couple of hours. If I survive, obviously.