Remote conferences - Conferences during the COVID19 Era

Lisboa, 2013 NY, and my Zoom background

COVID19 has made the conferences go remote. Some conferences, such as SDS 2020, were postponed in the hope that COVID19 will end soon. But eventually, COVID19 became a deadly pandemic that no conference could survive. Some conferences, such as DisCoTec 2020 became free to attend for any participants while charging the authors a negligible fee. Other conferences offered discounted rates, such as 50%. For those who have already paid the full registration fees, refunds for the overpayment were issued.

DisCoTec used the Zoom webinar for the conference. Unlike a Zoom meeting that lets you see and listen to every participant, Zoom webinar gives a monologue-kind of environment. Most, if not all, presenters had recorded their presentation as videos. It is similar to the SDS 2020 presentation that I am supposed to give by the end of June. We all have recorded PowerPoint presentations with our voice over and uploaded them as videos for the conference. DisCoTec had a similar approach, with the videos uploaded to YouTube, unlisted. I mostly attended the tutorials (Monday), and DAIS sessions (Tuesday - Thursday). I skipped the workshops (Friday).

There are several advantages in conferences going remote. First, remote online conferences let us continue conferences as usual, without giving up. Now the options are: remote conferences or postpone or cancel the conference. With the pandemic still going strong, postponing does not seem to work. That leaves us with either no conference for 2020 or a remote conference. Something is better than nothing! So remote conferences, it is. Second, they open up the conferences to a wider community - those who couldn't travel to conferences due to funding and visa limitations. Now, with less funding, we could join more conferences. OK, these advantages are quite obvious.

Now, let's look into the shortcomings of a remote conference, done in the DisCoTec way.

1. No scientific interaction between participants

Following the recorded presentations, there were live Q&A sessions that lasted up to 5 minutes. But, mostly, it was just listening to recordings. With time, I am sure the conference will list those uploads, making it possible for everyone to go and watch them on YouTube, on-demand. To incentivize attending to the conference session remotely, conferences must put additional efforts, beyond the Q&A. Otherwise, I may just watch them at leisure, and send my questions as emails to the authors.

Of course, the conference organizers created a slack channel (on Tuesday) for questions and answers from the sessions. Each conference session had its room. DisCoTec is an umbrella event with a parallel conference (including DAIS) and workshop sessions. So it had several rooms in the Slack channel with one general channel. 

2. No coffee-hour friendships and networking

One thing I usually love about conferences is the coffee hour discussions. We meet the presenter and ask questions or compliment their work. I am an extrovert when it comes to conferences. I roam around with a cup of coffee during the coffee breaks. I go and introduce myself to any lone participant and discuss their work. Penetrating an already existing group is harder. Sometimes, participants from the same university, company, or friends from the same country make a group and stick to each other. I always avoid that. Such groups usually appear less open to make new friends. On the other hand, I have always made friends with diverse groups that were formed on the spot. I have made groups at conferences, by joining several participants over the coffee hours. Then we all go for dinner or sightseeing together. The best of the conferences, indeed!

3. Less opportunity to find long-term collaborators

Conferences are an excellent opportunity to find long-term collaborators and even employers! During IC2E/SDS conference, I met my supervisor from Croatia for the first time. She had attended my presentation and found that her research aligned with my on-going Ph.D. research (which was still in its infancy). That's how I ended up in Croatia, spending a summer in a short-term scientific mission (STSM)! That STSM contributed to the core of my Ph.D. research. Such fruitful interactions won't happen easily in online conferences. At least not in this format. I tried to interact with participants on Twitter via the hashtags. But not much luck except for some minor chats. The potential to meet collaborators is highly limited in remote conferences such as this and almost non-existent for the audience. I hope that at least presenters got some visibility and interaction beyond the Q&A. Communications with potential future collaborators are the key motivation for conferences. Otherwise, I would rather publish my work in a journal instead. In fact, journals are even valued highly in academia. So there must be more incentives to submit and present our papers in conferences when the advantage of meeting researchers physically is no more.

4. Timezone differences

The timezone difference is the biggest challenge, even for an introvert who doesn't like to network with random researchers. The conference was in Malta timezone, as it was originally scheduled to be in Malta. So for the 10:00 - 18:30 sessions, I had to wake up early in the morning, as it is 4:00 - 12:30 in Atlanta time. I was planning to sleep early and wake up early. But I also had other work meetings, and I could not escape my work duties for the week. Hence, I ended up having to spend most of the week without proper sleep. I went to bed at regular times and woke up as early as 4 a.m. Given a chance, I would go to bed earlier and adjust my timing to the conference timezone, including the meal hours. That would have made me virtually travel to Malta!

Although when we travel to conferences, I still end up with little sleep - as I have to prepare my presentations and try to find some time to explore the city. I am used to timezone shifts. But the last week was like double work since I had the conference sessions followed by my regular work hours. If the conference sessions were held at Atlanta time, of course, I would have to sacrifice one of the two - either the work for the week or the conference.

Can we do better?

Yes. My university in Portugal (IST/Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa) is hosting remote seminars on Mathematics, Physics & Machine Learning weekly. I joined the session on "Learning from Distributed Datasets: An introduction with two examples" last week. It was interactive. The session was hosted in a Zoom meeting. So the participants were able to see each other and even interact with the presenters before the event. It was nice to introduce myself to my ex-colleagues remotely. It was my first IST seminar after two years. Also, it is my first remote IST seminar ever. These online open seminars are one good thing that happened out of the pandemic. The recordings are, of course, available to watch later.

So in my opinion, such Zoom meetings that allow the participants to see and interact with each other before the sessions and during the "virtual coffee breaks" is a better option. Of course, zoombombing will be an issue. Password-protected conference zoom meetings can fix that.

The current move towards online conferences to combat COVID-19 travel limitations is a welcome move. However, it is not sure how long this will last. It will depend on the COVID-19 as well as the associated travel restrictions. The conference committees should take extra measures to make the conferences more interactive, to encourage communications between the participants and networking, rather than merely playing the recorded videos followed by a customary Q&A. This is new to all of us. So, of course, this is going to take a lot of iterations. Moreover, I empathize with all the conference organizers. They all have made tremendous efforts to organize the conferences physically. But they had to cancel their plans and again prepare for the online conferences.

Now CoopIS 2020 has gone online. It is one of the conferences I have presented in the past (I had papers there in 2015 and 2016). I am looking forward to attending more remote conferences whenever the topic is relevant to me, as long as the registration is free for the participants. I am yet not sure whether paying the registration fee is justified for a remote session, unless my paper is published in the conference.

My "CAT"/ Ph.D. Proposal

Today I presented my CAT, " Software-Defined Systems for Network-Aware Service Composition and Workflow Placement". I should have presented the CAT much earlier. However, it was delayed, and now I have presented it just a few months before my final defense. I received a grade of 18/20 for the CAT. The presentation slides are attached below.

Software-Defined Systems for Network-Aware Service Composition and Workflow Placement from Pradeeban Kathiravelu

Lisbon, once more..

I cooked this wonderful Turkey meat curry

I realized, I didn't blog about my Erasmus Mundus adventures for a long time. This becomes the first post of the new year on my personal life in Lisboa. In fact, I had many interesting updates, where I didn't have time to sit and write them down. I came back to Lisbon on the 30th of December, after an eventful journey around the Nordic countries, using flight, cruise, trains, and trams. The new year celebrations in Lisbon reminded me the new year of 2013, as this was the second new year I had in Lisbon commercial square. I have started to work on my thesis, from INESC-ID, developing the distributed and concurrent cloud simulator. In the mean time, I enjoyed the second winter event of EMDC in Evora, Portugal.

Working from a cafe!

After a productive day at InescID, I was at a cafe next to SEF, metro station Parque. I opened my laptop and continued developing the next generation cloud simulator, whilst sipping the coffee. The gentleman at the cashier asked me something in Portuguese. I thought he was saying, "are you crazy or what?". I said, "sorry?" He asked me again in English, "Do you need the Internet connection?" AAAAAND BOOM.. I AM IN TEH INTERWEBS.. And the cafe has a much stronger internet than my room in the apartment. Long live the cafe, and the gentleman who gave me the access to the wifi, without even me asking. Probably you may see me around metro station Parque more often..

物是人非

..and this strawberry milk shake.. :D

These days I often go to the "Community Canteen" of Instituto Superior Técnico Alameda to have a meal for 2.40 Euro, for either lunch or dinner. I realized, I miss the moments I had with my friends in Lisboa.. (Xiao's small talks, Qi Qi's questions, Zell's drawings, Orçun's slow-paced eating (which is slower than mine), discussing Romanian music with Tamás, Dipesh's vegetables, and Pushparaj's lunch box full of chillies.. :D) Lisbon is full of memories for me. I saw a few familiar faces in the Canteen. But apart from that, I am mostly alone in the canteen. Memories define a place. For me, Lisbon is full of memories. I guess, there is a memory - location - people mapping. I will definitely miss the time I spent in Stockholm with the friends, when I go to Stockholm one day in the future. Without you guys around, Lisbon is not the same. Qi Qi says, this feeling is called 物是人非 in Chinese. Hope all of you guys have started your thesis in different corners of Europe..

Erasmus Mundus Presentation at the University of Moratuwa

Erasmus mundus presentation from Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.

Today I gave an introductory talk to the Erasmus Mundus program for the final year students of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. The presentation slides which complimented the discussion are given above, though the presentation doesn't capture much of the topics discussed in the session. I enjoyed doing the talk and the students showed great interest and involvement. 

This was a quick introduction to the Erasmus Mundus program, based on my personal experience with Erasmus Mundus after completing the first year of EMDC (European Master in Distributed Computing) at Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon. My blog posts on my stay in Lisbon can be found here. Feel free to drop me a line, if you require further information on this.

Lisbon - Week43

My posts at the zones, after a break!

[21/06/2013] - It has been a while since I wrote a weekly blog post on my stay at Lisbon. The last post was on Lisbon - Week29. Later I started writing fortnightly posts, or even once in three weeks, as I got busier with studies. As I have got some free time and content to write after the exams, here comes this weekly update.

Campo Pequeno

This week was full of movies, eating out, frequent drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe - Restauradores, varieties of hamburgers at h3 new hamburgology at Campo Pequeno, and some parties. I specifically enjoyed the movies at the Cinema City - Campo Pequeno. The City bar, adjoining the cinema city is very stylish and unique. It was unfortunate that I haven't watched any movies here previously, considering that Campo Pequeno is next metro station to the one close to my apartment (Saldanha), and also in a walking distance from my apartment. 

Llovizna

During this week, I managed to update my blog with some technical blog posts on Jikes RVM, something I researched for our AVExe group project. Most of these posts managed to get into the Architects Zone and Javalobby of DZone. I hope these posts will be of use for a bigger audience. Without the technical blog posts, recently my blog hits was facing a downfall. This helped me realize the readers of my blog.

Cherries!

In Sri Lanka, I have never enjoyed the cherries. It always has reminded me "Lama Panadol" (The Paracitamol brand made for the kids). However, I have started to enjoy the cherries in Lisbon. They are much fresher and sweeter here, naturally.

The exam days and the return of the summer..

Bird watching at Jardim da Esstrela

[12/06/2013] - Lisbon - Weeks 40, 41, & 42: Exam times. One more remaining. Among the 3 exams that are completed, we have already received the grades for two of them. We have also received all the project grades. It is interesting to note that we have got the highest grades for our Virtualization project. The project included research, internal mechanisms study (we studied MMTk and Optimization Compiler, and researched on the Garbage Collection), and development.

These three weeks were probably the busiest days we had so far in Lisbon. These days marked the project discussions, exam preparations, and exams. The summer is here; but it doesn't prevent the cold nights. Most of the nights still remain cold, though it is eventually getting warmer. I am really happy to see the day time getting longer. I can even see the sun light as late as 9 p.m.

The vacation days are reaching. We are awaiting some good time at Lisbon, after exam, before returning to our home countries, for the summer vacation.  Among all our batch mates, it seems I am the only one who is returning to IST/Lisbon for the final semester, for the thesis. Others are planning to have their thesis mostly in the companies or research labs in Sweden or elsewhere. I will miss them in the final semester. However, that is after the third semester, for which we all will be in KTH/Sweden.

My thesis will be at INESC-ID, supervised by Prof. Luis Antunes Veiga. I hope my second stay at Lisbon will be as interesting as the first stay, though I will miss most of the good friends that I made during the first year, including the EMDC friends. Let me see how it goes. 

端午節快乐 (Duānwǔ jié kuàilè) Happy Dragon Boat Festival.. ^_^

Lisbon - Week29

A nightly walk at Entre Campos

[14/03/2013] The second semester is getting hotter. ;) We have received the project specifications for 3 out of the 4 modules. We have already submitted the project proposals for 2 of them. We are researching Jikes RVM for the Virtual Execution Environments module.

[13/03/2013] - These days, I was busy buying flight tickets. It was a good learning experience. I was not aware of the clause, "LOW COST FARE. CANNOT BE CHANGED OR CANCELLED" and this means, we can not change a flight or cancel it. I confirmed it from the two airlines concerned, and they mentioned that this can be changed only by the travel agents (eDreams), but the travel agent eDreams policy doesn't let changing the reservation of the "Economy Restricted" tickets. I find it interesting. I should note that TAP Portugal outlet at Marques De Pombal officers were pretty much helpful.

I am enjoying the nightly walks in Lisbon. 2013 is different. I should start writing a blog post on how the year 2013 is remarkably different. :)

Lisbon - Weeks 27 & 28

From Cabo Ruivo to Parque das Nações..

[07/03/2013] - EMDC 2013 batch now received the official invitations, and they are being added to the Facebook group of EMDC. The group is getting more and more active. The excitement of the students remind me the early 2012, when I was expecting the day to join EMDC - good old days. ;)

[05/03/2013] - I have been elected as an Erasmus Mundus Course Representative for the EMDC, for the year 2013. However, since the GA is scheduled on the day of the AVExe exam, I had  to let one of my colleagues from UPC, Barcelona to represent EMDC in the General Assembly. I will miss the GA though.

[27/02/2013] - I bought a Sony Xperia J from fnac, and realized it was locked by Vodafone. It keeps asking "SIM Network Unlock PIN", when I start the phone with the MOCHE SIM, instead of the Vodafone SIM that came bundled with the phone, and without it, it was not working with the MOCHE SIM.

From Spain to Portugal - A boat of descubriter.

I visited fnac and asked whether they could unlock my phone, when I realized that I couldn't unlock it myself or via online services, without paying for their service. Fnac pointed me out that I should contact the service providers to unlock the phone. I reached Vodafone and paid 47.47 Euros to unlock the phone, which included the discount due to the bond with the service provider and the service charge + tax.

I was told I will be sent an sms with the unlock code, in 3 days, which is supposed to be a Saturday. I didn't get any. Assuming they may not work in weekends, I waited further, and eventually waited till the Monday. I still didn't get it! So I reached to them again on the Tuesday, where they unlocked my phone, by entering the unlock code themselves. Never mind, I got it sorted out, at least! :)

[22/02/2013] - Parque das Nações never fails to amuse me. It is full of interesting restaurants, seagulls, and cold wind. The small port of Parque das Nações provides a stay for the mini boats. Parque das Nações surely is a highlight of my year 2013.

Feelings of Erasmus Mundus

Baixa-Chiado Metro Station, a remarkable one for Erasmus Students

Week 26

[20/02/2013] - Since we don't have the lectures in Taguspark campus, we don't have to use the IST shuttle anymore. This saves us a lot of time this semester, compared to the last. However, we miss the good times we had at Taguspark, specially the lunch time together. I used to wake up at 5.30 a.m to catch the 7.15 a.m shuttle on Mondays. This semester, I wake up at 7.30 a.m, the earliest. More time to sleep!

6 months

Today we did our Mobile Computing presentation. This was the first team effort of Team XPD (Xiao Chen, Pradeeban Kathiravelu, and Dipesh Dugar Mitthalal). Now, I am having a break with some music, and decided to blog on the feelings of Erasmus Mundus, which was in my to-blog list for quite a long time. Interestingly, today it is exactly 6 months since I left home and my country, for my masters!

Feelings of Erasmus Mundus

My apartment - a usual meeting spot for us!

Erasmus Mundus is surely one of the best (if not the best) decisions that we all have made. We all came to Lisbon as strangers. I had interest in exploring Lisbon, but no real attachment to it.

Eventually!

Things started to change eventually. The support and helping hand of the locals surely made a positive impact on me. In my opinion, Portuguese are very friendly people. We, all the EMDC students became good friends. It felt good to be a student, after a break, as I became a student after spending two years working in a company. As Erasmus Mundus students, we had a huge opportunity to meet other mobility students, who follow Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, BRAZIL, and similar programs. Meeting points like Bairro Alto and specifically the Erasmus Corner, became regular places of visit. Moreover, the cultural diversity made our relationships more interesting and spicy! ;) 

Fresher Winds

Nightly walks over Lisbon neighbourhoods!

It was like a rebirth, where we started to learn and earn everything fresh - new courses, new friends, new people, and new experiences. We came to Lisbon, almost with an empty hand and mind, with nothing but hope and expectations. We started to earn people and knowledge. Our relationships are interesting and non-trivial. Erasmus Mundus experience has written many new interesting pages in our life.

Level - up

Erasmus Mundus experience was a level-up. We learned about people and culture. Tried different dishes. A few phrases from each language! From what I learned and experienced, I would recommend every student to study abroad, as an exchange student, or as a graduate student abroad, at least once in their life. The aspects of life we learned during the Erasmus Mundus is much richer than the technological knowledge we have gathered so far during our stay. Balancing the social life and studies without getting too distracted, enjoying the new environment without compromising our unique values and believes, accepting different view points and learning from them, broadening the horizon, were a few interesting challenges the students face.

Walking from Santos to Cais do Sodre

World is not that small. :(
A few friends have already left us and returned to their home countries, as they have completed their study. We already miss them. They have surely left a strong foot print in our minds, which will never fade away. I am sure, I will miss Lisbon when I go to Stockholm next semester, as much as I missed my country when I left it last year. Probably, even more! Lisbon has surely become a second home to me, during the stay of the 6 months. The interesting people we met here from different parts of the world - I am not sure how effective we will be in communication or how much will we be in touch, after we departed. The world is still not that small, and I don't think the online or electronic communication is strong enough to express the human feelings, or replace the face-to-face communications. Quoting our P2P professor, once more. "Human nature: It is difficult to understand."

I just wish everyone of you will be with me, forever!

EMDC Winter Event 2013

Picturesque Segovia

Weeks 24 & 25 

[13/02/2013] - The last two weeks of the vacation were spent at Spain (Photos), in Madrid, Segovia, Barcelona, Nuria, and Sitges.

2nd Semester!
The second semester started on the 13th. The new semester has an interesting time table. We have lectures on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Finally, weekend has become longer than the weekdays! Like the first semester, this semester too we have 4 modules - Middleware for Distributed Internet Applications (PADI764), Fault-Tolerant Distributed Systems (SDTF64), Virtual Execution Environments (AVExe364), and Mobile Computing (CMov764). We already have formed the groups for the projects, and are ready for yet another interesting episode. 

Sitges Carnival was full of partiers parading!

Trip to Spain

EMDC Winter Event (6th - 8th, Feb 2013) was held at Vall de Núria. We planned a Spain trip (3rd - 11th, Feb 2013) along with the winter Event, covering Madrid and Barcelona, along with the neighbourhood, including Segovia and Sitges. Our flight itinerary was, Lisbon -> Madrid -> Barcelona -> Lisbon.

We spent the first few days in Madrid (3rd - 5th, Feb). We were at Segovia on the 5th of Feb. Segovia is a silent and charming neighbourhood, with a wonderful architecture, including the Gothic Cathedral of Segovia and Aqueduct of Segovia. We went to Barcelona on the 5th night, and had a brief meeting at UPC, on the 6th.

La Vall de Núria

Heavenly Nuria - This is where we stayed!

Then we moved to Nuria, where we enjoyed the snow, skiing, food, games, and presentations. It was an awesome experience, and the special thanks goes to the professors who organized this event pretty well, and the industry experts and the senior students, who shared their knowledge and experience with us. Travelling by the rack train that connects Nuria to Ribes was a remarkable experience. The change in the landscape and the climate was obvious. Mountains covered with snow, and heavy snow was the norm in Nuria.

We noticed that French border is just in a walking distance, from where we are right now. Snow, and -10°c. (Feels like -24°c). However, in winter, I don't think it's even possible in this heavy snow, except for those who are into adventures.

The Erasmus Mundus EMDC 2012 students from IST and UPC introduced themselves with two presentations. The EMDC-IST introductory presentation introduced all 8 of us.

On the 8th, we returned to Barcelona, where we stayed for the rest of the days, visiting CosmoCaixa Barcelona (formerly known as the science museum of Barcelona), Park Guell, and the other attractions around. Interestingly, we also got the chance to enjoy the carnival at Sitges, on the 10th of February. I enjoyed Spain. However, my preference is still Lisbon/Portugal. The comforting weather, availability of varieties of stylish food, the lovely people, or just my personal preference. Probably, I am just addicted to Lisbon.

Lisbon - Week20

IST is full of oranges these days!

[09/01/2013] Exams have started, and are going pretty well. Done with Security and Parallel Computing, and remaining is cloud computing.
[08/01/2013] In the mean time, had a long shopping at Colombo, Centro Comercial. Lisbon is a good place to do some serious shopping.

Lisbon - Week17

[22/12/2012] - Lisbon is getting into the festival season. We are finally having the Christmas break. Our exams start on the 7th of January. We have got the time table for the second semester already. The below modules will probably be the subjects for the next semester.

SDTF64 - Fault-Tolerant Distributed Systems    

PADI764 - Middleware for Distributed Internet Applications
CMov764 - Mobile Computing    

AVExe364 - Virtual Execution Environments

[21/12/2012] - I got the residence permit from SEF. We also have already bought the flight tickets to Madrid and Barcelona, for the EMDC winter event 2013.

[20/12/2012] - We are done with all the project demos, discussions, as well as the Security presentation on SeCrawler, which is a role-aware Secured Crawler, based on Crawler4j library.

YaCy Introductory presentation for P2P module

Lisbon - Week16

[14/12/2012] - One of the busiest days. We submitted 3 final projects today, of Cloud Computing, P2P, and Security modules. You may have a look at the project.

[10/12/2012] Today we did an introductory presentation to the YaCy Decentralized Web Search - The Peer-to-Peer Search Engine, for the P2P module. The presentation we did can be found here.

Lisbon - Week15

[08/12/2012] - The project deadlines are approaching the coming week. Everyone is getting busier. A few interesting events did occur during this time span.

[07/08/2012] - Tivemos o exame de português hoje. Eu estou contente que eu não desisti. Muito graças ao nosso professora por seus cuidados. I feel a bit guilty of not putting enough effort on learning Portuguese so far. I have loads of Portuguese speaking friends - I speak in English with all of them, so far. :)

[05/12/2012] - We get a student visa for 3 months, when we fly to Portugal. However, we are supposed to be present for an interview at SEF to obtain a residence card, usually covers a period of a year, for the Erasmus Mundus students, as we are going to study here for a year. SEF can be reached by metro. From the metro station Porque, turn right (when facing away from the entrance) and walk to #20. The interviews start at 8.30. I reached SEF by 8.20 and had to stay for 1.5 hours to complete the interview. It is better to reach around 8 am to be the first in the queue, and leave early.

Documents to take to SEF (information provided by IST)

1.      Passport;

2.      Proof of Residency;

One way do make  proof of Residency

                                                       I.            Declaration passed by your landlord;

                                                     II.            A copy of the identity card from your landlord (SEF needs to check if the signature on the declaration passed by our landlord is the same);

                                                   III.            A copy of the deed to the house (For SEF to check if the house is really the propriety of the person who is passing the declaration).

Or

Other way do make  proof of Residency

Certificate of Residence passed by the  parish council (you landlord will assist you  in doing this.

Or

If you are in a residence

You must tell me in which one so I can include it in the declaration, therefore you don’t need to do the steps before described

3.      Proof of means of livelihood

If you have Scholarship, the documents that prove you are receiving it.

If not, a copy of your bank account transactions for the past six months.

4.      Declaration elaborated by your institution (A formal letter/document provided by IST, in our case.)

5.      A proof that you have health insurance

Sri Lanka - La Isla Bonita..

[20/11/2012] - Lisbon - Weeks 12 & 13 - 3 months since I left Sri Lanka. We celebrated Deepawali in Lisbon, the 13th of November, at the Radha Krishna temple, followed by an Indian dinner at the temple.

The International Day!
It was interesting to represent Sri Lanka in the International Day at the IST Taguspark, the 19th of November. The presentation I used is given below. Copyright holders or origins of the images are indicated below the photos that are not mine.

Sri lanka - La Isla Bonita from Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.

"Tropical the island breeze.. All of nature, wild and free.. This is where I long to be.. La isla bonita.."

Lisbon - Week9

Brigadeiro - A Brazilian sweet mix, made of
condensed milk and butter

[25/10/2012] We have completed six weeks at IST, and are currently busy with the projects.

Two months!
I usually live a life, something similar to that of a kids' fantasy movie. While completing my second month at Lisbon, I thank Instituto Superior Técnico, KTH - Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, and the EMDC Consortium for the great EMDC program, and my special thanks goes to my mom who supports me in all my crazy decisions. :-) It's a great pleasure to study at IST from a great staff and a wonderful set of friends. I always recall the blessings of Vishaka madam, Shehan Sir, Chandana Sir, and the staff of University of Moratuwa (UOM), which always give me a very strong positive energy. The greetings and prayers of the good people are always a great strength. I still recall the 19th of August, when I said goodbye to my friends. Just taking a moment to thank everyone who are with me during all the tough times.
 
Autumn!

Right now, Lisbon is really wet and cold! Rainy days. Have a look at the web site of the weather station at IST. Thank god, it is not that cold (yet)! Anyway, not to compare with the world's coldest spots, such as Oymyakon or Grise Fiord. I guess, Stockholm will be closer. Boa noite!

Lisbon - Weeks 7 & 8

oh, I am becoming a loyal customer of Pingo Doce.. ;)

[17/10/2012] - This fortnight went pretty fast. Probably, I am feeling so, because we are getting familiar with the lectures, the campuses, and Lisbon. 

Life at Técnico

We have two days lectures at Alameda, and two days at Taguspark. However, we feel more attached to Taguspark, as we spend more time there, where we just return home during the lunch breaks at Alameda. Returning to our apartment is not an option for Taguspark. Moreover, the shuttle travel is pretty interesting. I joined INESC-ID on the 9th of October. We got some interesting tasks to do. We got the access to campus Fenix site, and received the student identity cards, along with an email address. Portuguese classes have started at IST. It will be 40 hours, with 2.5 hrs a lesson, with 2/3 lessons a week, followed by a final exam. Seems it will be interesting.

Central Mosque of Lisboa

Mosque Visit

I have gone to many religious places including the Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Christian and Catholic churches, and Sikh Gurudwaras. But this was my first time to go to an Islamic place of worship. The Central Mosque of Lisbon (Mesquita Central De Lisboa) is situated at S. Sebastiao, the end of red line. We loved the mosque and the environment. It was remarkable.

Life as an exchange student
Moving to another country, as an exchange student or otherwise, gives an additional advantage. It gives you a chance to change your habits. Probably, you can overcome your addictions, or simply start a life with new paradigms there. For example, you may be a night owl in your home country, and in the host country, you may be able to overcome that habit pretty easily. We can always consider the positive effects of this.

Bairro Alto

Night skyline at Bairro Alto

Bairro Alto comes to life in the night. It is where the youths of Lisbon come for a road side beer, to stay on the roads for the entire night, talking to random strangers. This place is ideal to break ice with guys and girls, from different countries. As the famous Erasmus Corner and the related bars are located in this area, this place is always full of exchange students. Chances are high for you to meet a national of your country, if you regularly pay a visit here. We had our dinner at an Indian restaurant located here, followed by a long night over the roads of Bairro Alto.

Statue of poet António Ribeiro, the "Chiado", in the Chiado Square in the night.

It is rainy days here. We are already given the project topics for the modules. oh, and just noticed how clearly Google Maps shows my apartment. :) These days may be good, bad, busy, boring, fun, confused, tiresome, sleepless, or whatever. but are surely remarkable and unforgettable. :) vê-lo na próxima semana!

Lisbon - Week6

Arraial Do Tecnico at IST

[5/10/2012] - So the month of September is completed. Now into a new month.

Quotes from the lecturers!

The lectures are going pretty interesting. Some quotes from the lecturers are really wonderful and deserve sharing here.  

"If you think that way, the rocket to the moon is a glorified firework" - Our Cloud Computing Professor.
"Human nature - That is difficult to understand" and

"Small world, it's difficult to accept as being similar to reality"

- Our Peer-to-Peer Systems professor.
I am enjoying the analogies and thoughts shared by the professors at Instituto Superior Técnico.. ♥

Arraial Do Tecnico

IST by night

We had one of the most famous annual open music concerts of Lisbon, at IST last night and tonight. We enjoyed the music, and broke ice with many other local and exchange students. The night was colourful. We were listening to some nice music from José Malhoa, Dirtyphonics and a few other bands. I am becoming a fan of José Malhoa.

La Isla Bonita.. ♥

Everyone who has been an exchange student surely would have experienced the feeling of missing his country at times. This might have been considered a 'cultural shock,' but it is not. You can still miss your home country, while enjoying your stay at the host country, as an exchange student. Unlike the migration, where you usually migrate to another country with your entire family, an exchange student goes to another country, leaving his or her family and loved ones at the home country. 

The minor things that we did with our family or significant others will be truly missed. In one way, it gives some strong life experiences. Exchange programs are not just learning the course modules. It lets us learn to adopt to a new world, and to value our relationships. I surely had a nice time in Sri Lanka, the beautiful island, and truly miss it, and the memories I had there. It will be one happy day, when I return to my country, with an academic success.

2012

I smiled even during the most challenging times, and made many interesting and tough decisions single-handedly, this year. I am strong in my journey. 2012 is a beautiful year. Smile!

Lisbon - Week4

Instituto Superior Tecnico - Taguspark Campus

[21/09/2012] Yesterday, it was exactly one month since I left Sri Lanka. I flew to New Delhi on the 20th of August, with a transit of 3 days, and reached Lisbon the 23rd. That also means, I am marking my first month at Lisbon the day after tomorrow. The world is however highly connected. Thanks to the Internet, Skype, and Facebook, I am tightly connected to Sri Lanka.

Taguspark 

An IST shuttle service connects Taguspark - Oeiras campus with the Alameda - Lisbon campus, which is otherwise, poorly connected to Lisbon. Taguspark is a science and technology park, full of major companies and industries. It seems the easiest way to reach to Tagus Park through public transport is through the bus route 15, which is infrequent. Hence we have to be careful not to miss the shuttle. Taguspark area is closer to beach, where the shuttle often takes the route through the scenic road adjacent to the beach and the Tagus river.

Lectures!

Lectures are going pretty interesting. We have formed 3 groups of 3 consisting of the 9 EMDC students for the lab sessions and projects, for all 4 modules. Apart from the Erasmus Mundus students, some local masters students as well as the Erasmus Students too join our lectures. Lab sessions will commence starting from next week.

Integrity Aristotle

I recently joined Elance, and wanted to verify my profile. They scheduled a skype video for integrity verification with Integrity Aristotle, which is a global id, and age verification service provided by Aristotle. I was not aware of the existence of such service before, and it was a nice learning experience for me. The service called me on the scheduled interview time, just to take a quick photo through the video chat. Within a few minutes, my Elance profile got a "verified" badge. Sounds interesting. Isn't it?

Our lectures have begun, and chances are high that these weekly posts getting shrunk. Vamos esperar e ver. :-)

Lisbon - Week3

Delicious Octopus at Sintra-Pena!

[15/09/2012] we were able to meet each other following the same course, and break ice this week. We received our admission letter signed by the EMDC coordinators from KTH, along with the insurance for the year. We also had a welcome reception by NMCI, and received a welcome kit that included a local SIM, with the operator Moche. Our lectures begin the coming Monday, the 17th of September.

We got the time table!

The modules for the first semester will be, Peer-to-peer Systems and Overlay Networks (Codenamed "SERS"), Cloud Computing (CN), Network and Computer Security (SIRS), and Parallel and Distributed Computing (CPD). We will have the lectures and lab sessions of SERS and CN on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Tagus Park campus of Instituto Superior Tecnico, where the SIRS and CPD will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Alameda - Lisbon campus. Both campuses are connected by the IST shuttle service, for the students' transport.

Museu de Marinha

We paid a visit to Museu de Marinha (Photos). It is a wonderful place. It is free for entrance on Sundays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Make sure to enter the ticket counter before 2 p.m., and get the ticket, free!

Cascais

Sunset at Cascais

Cascais and Estoril are two of the mostly praised beaches in Lisbon. We walked from Cascais to Estoril (Photos). Seagulls everywhere! The Sunset was scenic. The beach water was cold, probably because we are reaching the end of the summer, and autumn is coming to us! I was able to notice the oil wastes leaking from the sailing boats polluting the sea water.

Sintra

The train travel to Sintra (Photos) was remarkable. Our 35 Euro monthly charge of the travel card covers only the Lisbon area. Hence we had to buy the train tickets (one-day) for Cascais and Sintra, as they are not under Lisbon urban area that is covered, though they are still in Greater Lisbon. The forests and environment of Sintra reminded me Sri Lanka, and its forestation in the places like Ohiya. I had grilled octopus at the restaurant of Pena Castle - Sintra. It was delicious!

ESN Card

Students are really interested in getting the ESN (Erasmus Students Network) and Erasmus Lisboa cards. ESN card is 5 Euro/month, and Erasmus Lisboa is 10 Euro/month. Both come with exciting offers, free parties, and discounted trips. We joined ESN. It was a long queue with students from different countries!

Connecting with family

Museu de Marinha

Studying abroad teaches some life lessons, while also letting us learn to survive in a new environment, alone. Communication with friends and those with an access to the Internet is always easy for me, as I am online, almost always, when I am home. But calling my parents who do not appear online much was always a bit expensive. Skype came to help at this point. I credited my Skype account with 10 Euro. It also charged an additional 1.5 Euro, as a tax, which is applicable only to the countries of European Union. Since I am from Portugal, I had to pay the additional amount! It costs 0.121 Euro/minute to call Sri Lanka. I found the country-specific monthly skype credit option cheaper. You can buy 60 minutes of skype credits for Sri Lanka, for a month, for just 6.29 USD (4.79 Euro). This is just 0.08 Euro/minute. I will go for this option henceforth.

Our lectures start the day after tomorrow. I have stayed at Lisbon for almost a month, without any lectures. Now the real schedule begins! You can expect more blog posts on the course works in Llovizna very soon. :) Bom fim-de-semana!