Wednesday 24.10

On Wednesday we visited a Agricultural research institute of Northern Ireland. After happily arriving to our destination we were greeted by some fellow. After being sitting idle for about fifteen minutes our hosts started to hand over these smurf-costumes to all of us. 

After that we visited “a gas chamber” where they locked cows in for scientific purposes, it’s not as bad as it sounds… The visit continued through a cow house, which seemed to too much for some of us due to the smell of manure. At the cow house we got a change to pat some of the more bold creatures and got to see couple of young individuals also. After that we got to see their slurry containers. Our visit also included a tour across their biogas burners central where we got a lecture on their burners. 

When the tour was over we hopped onto our bus and headed towards the city of Belfast. On the way to Belfast I was informed that we were having our late lunch in a McDonald’s, gladly there was on alternative option, the local big store. Inside the store they also had a liquor store, which we were happy to see! 

In Belfast, we headed straight to the Titanic museum in the dock area. The museum had a large exhibition on display and we had a blast. They had a “roller coaster ride”, it was a kind of a carriage that was hung from the ceiling on a railing system. The carriage spun and rambled while making its way back to the start. After finishing our tour, we had another happy encounter! They had their own beer! 

After our museum visit we went to the city central for couple hours. Where, of course, we had couple of beers. The odd thing about Northern Ireland was their currency, the pound sterling, it felt like toy money. 

After the beers we hopped again to our trusty bus and headed towards our hotel.

Monday 22.10

At first today we ate breakfast at the hotel as usual. Same old recipe: some bacon, fried egg, baked beans, mushrooms, toast and two glasses of orange juice. Then we waited for bus to pick us up from the hotel.

We had one hour bus trip to see a wetland somewhere nearby North Ireland border. At the wetland we had a guided tour around the system. The guide told us many interesting things about the system and how it works. That wetland consisted of couple of ponds and a control room. Wetland is an area which roughly purifies waste water. So it’s not drinkable water after going through wetland system. Finally purified water is directed to a river.

After that site visit we went back to the school by bus of course and we had lunch. Then we had a lecture about ”water is life”. We were told about for example how people in Uganda manage with their water situation and what kind of systems they use to purify water.

JJ

Tuesday 23.10

Tuesday 23.10

After having delicious and greasy breakfast we walked to the UNI with full of joy!

Topic`s of the day were wind power and grids. An Austrian professor showed us differences in grid structures between Ireland, Austria and Finland. The professor had a good sense of humor and he told few good jokes which was needed because the lesson was 3 hours long. Middle of the day we had 1,5 hour off-time so some of us went to the shopping centre to buy some toys. But place was disappointment and no toys were found.

The afternoon session consisted wind power and lecturer by Credit introduced us the campus wind turbine which was very interesting. The professor showed us some facts and figures of wind power. One of the most fascinating things mentioned and discussed was the use of local small wind turbine and how fast it pays itself back. Although the turbines are very expensive they really can pay itself back quite quick, if they works. After all, very small wind turbines are not profitable yet if the price of electricity doesn´t rise significantly. 

At the end of the day we had a student hub where we were finalizing our projects. That was very interesting! Most of us got the poster ready.

S & J

Thursday 18.10.2012

Day started in the usual way by having Irish energy intensive breakfast and by walk to DkIT.

First lectures were given by professor Jurgen Neugebauer from FH Joanneum Austria. Title of the presentation was Civil engineering and sustainability. Mr Neugebauer told us first bit about civil engineering in general by showing illustrating pictures of different kind of build infrastructure. Night time photo of Earth taken from space showed nicely how we waste energy by lighting the night sky. Then he concentrated more on buildings and used material and the most energy efficient building shapes.

We continued with the space heating demand calculations taking into account different factors like wall materials and thicknesses etc. Naturally the location of the building (Austria, Ireland, Finland) has big impact on the energy demand and solar gain.

Lunch time. Salad for the Finns please.

Afternoon we had interesting presentations and introduction to school research group CASALA (Centre for affective solutions for ambient living awareness). Several researchers from the CASALA presented what they are doing and trying to study there. They are for example studying how elder people could continue living on their own more longer. For this they have implemented a system involving different kind of sensors telling e.g. when person is in the room and when not. Final goal being that the system could form kind of activity pattern of the inhabitant behavior and detect if there are changes for the worse.

After the presentations we were introduced the 3D CAVE at the site and then we went to see the Great Northern Heaven resident. In later there is real elder people living their lives and the sensor system have been implemented and tested in cooperation with the inhabitants.

After another long day we walked back to the hotel for recovering - everyone with their own style.


Traditional cultural evening at the Oriel Centre Dundalk (old Jail)

Our Irish hosts had kindly arranged us a cultural evening happening with traditional Irish music and dancing. There was a big band of c. 10 musician/dancer telling a story from Irish history. We get to hear many traditional instruments like harp and Irish bagpipe and solo singing telling both funny and sad stories from the Irish history. Irish dance with the rhythmic slapping looks bit funny at first but sounded strong with the hard stepping gave finally kind of impressive image.

The audience enjoyed both the show and the refreshments of the local jail bar. After the show we continued the evening in local pub with our Austrian and Irish friends. Finally the next morning was bit heavy for most.

On Wednesday we all woke up feeling absolutely great and went have a full Irish breakfast. Then the bus went to pick us up from the hotel and we headed to the Meath. They separeted us in to two groups and headed to the different locations. First one of us went to site visit on the factory and saw all the different parts of production line and second part of us had a presentation about the whole process of waste management in Ireland.

After getting known to the different parts of the waste management we went back to the school and had lectures which talked about the Waste Management options in Agriculture. After that we had a interesting discussion about the different Sustainable Waste Management Options in Cities hold by our teacher from SAMK.

During the evening we went to our nearest pub Jckie's pub and had a lovely dinner including local lasagne and local Guinness.
  

Sumati!

At last we have time to write this blog :P

This blog is written by 20 engineering students from Satakunta University of Applied Sciences faculty of Technology and Maritime management from Pori and Rauma. 6 girls and 14 boys. We are participating on an intensive course funded by Erasmus at Dundalk, Northern Ireland.

Vihdoinkin saadaan aikaiseksi kirjoittaa blogia :P

Eli : tätä blogia kirjoittaa 20-päinen joukko satakuntalaisia insinööriopiskelijoita. Kuusi tyttöä ja 14 poikaa Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulusta, Porin ja Rauman toimipisteistä. Olemme Erasmuksen rahoittamalla intensiivikurssilla Dundalkissa, Irlannin pohjoisosassa.

Sunday 14.10.2012

Some of us started the trip to Ireland from Pori at 5.00am. We sat in the bus for 4 hours before we arrived to Helsinki. Bustrip didn't go as well as planned because one of our student fellows almost missed the bus in Humppila. Fortunately he was not forced to take a taxi. We arrived to Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 9 o'clock and met the rest of the students. We flew from Helsinki to Copenhagen and after 5 hours of waiting onward to Dublin. Then we sat in the bus for another hour before arriving to Dundalk. In all it was 15 hours of travelling plus timezone differences. We arrived at the Fairways Hotel at 10pm.

Sunnuntai 14.10.2012

Osalla matka alkoi Porista kohti Helsinkiä klo 5.00, joka tarkoitti 4h bussimatkaa. Bussimatka ei suinkaan sujunut täysin ongelmitta, kun Humppilan kohdalla yksi matkakumppaneista oli joutua taksikuljetukseen. Lentokentällä olimme yhdeksän pintaan ja saimme kaikki 20 henkeä ensimmäistä kertaa kasaan. Lento Helsingistä Köpikseen ja sieltä jatkolento 5 tunnin odotuksen jälkeen Dubliniin. Reissu ei tietenkään ollut vielä lopussa, sillä edessä oli vielä tunnin bussimatka Dundalkiin. Olimme perillä Fairways-hotellilla noin 22.00, joten matkan pituudeksi tuli 15 tuntia plus aikavyöhyke-erot.

Monday 15.10.2012

Breakfast , CULTURE SHOCK! After eating we started to head out to the Dundalk Institute of Technology. Everything didn't go as planned when one of the hotelroom doors wouldn't open. So we decided that some of us should head out to school so that all of us would not be late. Eventually nobody was  late because the Irish are so punctual... or not. First we had a welcoming ceremony. After that we made a tour around the campus area. Then we did some grouping exercises which turned out to be a pleasant suprise. The school lunch followed the same unhealthy path as breakfast. We ate french fries with different sides. With full stomaches we headed to the next lesson where we were told how to do the group work of the next two weeks. The day ended with some brainstorming in mixed groups (2 Irish, 2 Austrians and 2 Finns) which were organized at the end of grouping exercises.
After school some of the guys were dreaming of going to the town, but local pubs got the best of us. As a matter of fact, the shopping center closed at seven. One fellow student forgot his backpack in the first local pub, which caused a minor incident. Everything ended well though, because the backpack was found unharmed. As we were getting familiar with the pub culture we came across with an "Eggspress" machine, where you could buy a large pack of eggs. Eggspress wasn't the only useful machine that amused us. There were vending machines in the pub toilets where you could buy adult toys...

Maanantai 15.10.2012

Aamupala, KULTTUURISHOKKI! Aamupalan syötyämme tarkoituksenamme oli siirtyä kohti Dundalk Institute of Technology:ä. Kaikki ei kuitenkaan mennyt suunnitelmien mukaan sillä kahden reissuun osallistuvan henkilön hotellihuoneen ovi ei useista yrityksistä huolimmatta auennut, joten sovimme että osa lähtee koululle edeltä, jotta kaikki eivät myöhästyisi jo ensimmäisenä päivänä. Irlantilaisten täsmällisyydestä johtuen (tai pikemminkin sen puutteesta) kukaan ei kuitenkaan myöhästynyt tervetulotilaisuudesta. Tilaisuuden jälkeen oli luvassa kierros kampuksella. Kierros päättyi ryhmäytymisharjoituksiin joka osoittautui positiiviseksi yllätykseksi. Koulun lounas jatkoi aamupalan viitoittamalla tiellä, ruokana oli ranskalaisia eri lisukkeilla. Vatsat pyöreinä menimme seuraavalle oppitunnille, jossa ohjeistettiin seuraavan kahden viikon ryhmätyö. Koulupäivä päättyi brainstormingiin sekaryhmissä (2 irkkuu, 2 itävaltalaista, 2 suomalaista), jotka jaettiin ryhmäytymisharjoituksen päätteeksi.
Koulupäivän päätteeksi osa porukasta haaveili keskustaan pääsystä, mutta paikalliset pubit pitivät insinööriopiskelijoita liian tiukassa otteessa. Kaiken lisäksi keskustan liikeet menivät seitsemältä kiinni. Eräs opiskelijakumppanimme unohti reppunsa ensimmäiseen paikalliseen pubiin, joka aiheutti pienehkön episodin. Kaikki päättyi kuitenkin hyvin, koska yksikään voro ei halunnut korvata kyseistä henkilöä projektissa. :(
Pubikulttuuriin perehtyessämme kohtasimme "Eggspress-automaatin", josta pystyi ostamaan suuren kennollisen kananmunia. Eggspress ei ollut ainoa hyödyllinen automaatti, joka aiheutti meissä kummastusta. Pubien vessoissa oli automaatti josta myytiin apuvälineitä petipuuhiin...

Tuesday 17.10.2012

In Tuesday the day began with a lecture on ocean energy (wave energy in particular), which turned out to be very interesting since people around Dundalk have a lot of expertise in this field. In the afternoon we had a guest lecturer from a local company that specializes in tidal turbines. Day ended with some brainstorming on our projects.
After school some people of our group wanted to go to the city, and this time we finally got there. We found Penneys from a local shopping mall where guys could buy some clothes to fill their almost empty suitcases. Dinner was eaten at a local Subway, although the food made us miss Finland a bit...:) helped by a midway beer we headed back to the hotel with a taxi. It wasn't long that we found the hotel a bit boring so we went to the nearby pub, where we met the fellow students from Austria.
If laughter expands your lifetime, we're immortal...:D

Tiistai 17.10.2012

Tiistain koulupäivä aloitettiin luennolla aaltoenergiasta, joka osoittautui mielenkiintoiseksi, sillä Dundalkissa on paljon asiantuntemusta aiheesta. Iltapäivän ohjelmassa oli vierailuluento, jossa paikallisen yrityksen edustaja kävi puhumassa heidän aaltoturbiineistaan. Koulupäivän päätteeksi brainstormasimme jälleen projektiryhmissämme.
Osa porukasta halusi kaupungille ja tällä kertaa myös pääsivät sinne asti. Löysimme suuresta kauppakeskuksesta paikallisen Penneysin, josta pojat saivat täydennystä valitettavan kevyisiin matkalaukkuihinsa. Käytiin syömässä subwayssa samanlaista mutta erilaista kuin kotona (: siitä välikaljan kautta taksilla hotellille. Hotelli alkoi kyllästyttää taas parin tunnin jälkeen, joten suuntasimme lähipubiin. Siellä tapasimme myös itävaltalaisia intensiiviopiskelutovereitamme.
Mikäli nauru pidentää ikää, tämä tiistaipäivä lisäsi elinvuosia ainakin kolmella.

"Ei mikään oo niin ihanaa
kuin katsella Litmasen Jaria
mmmmmm, kevätaikaan
kun maa alkaa tuoksua"