Harvey Scholar Travels - Alex in Thailand, Hungary, Germany and Much More
After 1.5 years at Mines I spent most of 2018 abroad. I was lucky enough to volunteer, study, and conduct research in three different countries as part of my travel grant adventures.
Figure 1) My sister Catherine, our mother Peggy, and myself at the Reno airport--the beginning of our journey!
My journey began in January as I headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Here I joined my older sister Catherine where she was studying abroad. Through her contacts at her host university, we were able to volunteer teaching computing to the students.
I was able to teach a short lesson on digital collaboration and working from your smart phone on school assignments. Most university students in Thailand have smart phones, but very few have laptops or personal computers. To help students work more efficiently and collaboratively, I taught them various productivity apps and tools. My sister was able to volunteer for the whole semester after I left. She taught a full course in Computer Science fundamentals; she even donated three laptops to the three students who completed the course. She’s not an Oredigger or a Harvey, but I thought she deserved this shout out for her generosity paying-it-forward.
After a short 2 ½ weeks in Thailand I continued on to Budapest, Hungary for my semester abroad. Here I attended BME, Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem (Budapest University of Technology and Economics). Before Budapest I had never deeply interacted with a post-communist country. Initially I was surprised at how stoic and cold everyone seemed to be, but learning Hungarian language and culture in my classes helped me understand the cultural norms and differences of Hungarian life.
Learning Hungarian was the hardest class I had, but it enabled me to gain the localized knowledge from my community. Because of my limited, poorly pronounced Hunarian I was able to interact with locals more meaningfully than as a tourist. Hungarian is really hard—I mean there are 14 vowels! I still don’t know the difference between all the oos and uuus.
Hungarian Vowels
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Short:
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a
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e
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i
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o
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ö
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u
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ü
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Long:
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á
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é
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í
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ó
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ő
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ú
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ű
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I had many adventures in Hungary and around Eastern Europe because I didn’t have class on Fridays (bless)! Many weekends were packed with seeing the sights; I visited my first concentration camp, snowboarded on the Slovakian slopes, and ate my weight and more in delicious food from many nationalities.
Figure 2) Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. A somber but impactful experience.
Figure 3) I conducted a service project during my time abroad by creating a STEM around the world video series for DECTech. DECTech is an outreach program through the CS department at Mines. Our mission is to keep young women interested in STEM by providing a safe and fun place to learn STEM outside the classroom.
Figure 4) I think 90% of my travel funds were spent on food (and that's saying a lot because food in Eastern Europe is not expensive--I just really love food).
While I was in Hungary the national election took place for both the Prime Minister and Parliament. I was shocked to learn the current leader, Victor Orban, is the longest reigning prime minister since the fall of communism in the late 80s. Surprisingly, there are no term limits for this executive power. The election was very heated (politics full of drama?? what a surprise) and there was questionable bending of the election rules. I actually wrote about this for my McBride Practicum essay so you can check out my political rant here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8p5st34o5adyxx/alexPollock_AnalyticalEssay.pdf?dl=0
If you don’t have a desire to follow Hungarian politics here’s the short summary. Orban won reelection and his party won over 2/3 of the seats in government. In a multi-party system (as opposed to a dual party here in America) this is extremely dangerous—regardless if you support the party or not. With the executive branch and the parliament under super control by a single party, they can pass constitutional changes without consulting anyone else. This is especially dangerous in a young democracy such as Hungary.
I accidently attended a political rally one day protesting the election and the corruption that took place to keep Orban’s party in power. I was moved by the passion of these people, but saddened by the reality of their situation.
Figure 5) Protestors on April 14, “The opposition makes the false election legitimate if they sit in Parliament.”
During my time in Hungary I was lucky enough to be notified I was offered a research internship in Germany through the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). I applied to this program the December before my journey and would highly recommend checking it out through the International Office at Mines.
Figure 6) I carried all of my possessions for this journey in two backpacks. I had to wear my bulkiest clothes when travelling even in the summer to fit everything!
I packed my bags and headed from Budapest, Hungary in Eastern Europe to Münster, Germany in Western Europe. Here I worked under a German PhD student on his project in ubiquitous computing in sports. It was the perfect work-travel balance for my summer. I got to engage in the global CS community, gain skills to build up my resume and career experience, and continue travelling to beautiful places across Europe!
Figure 7) The IMU sensors we used to track a runner's motion. The data from this sensor was fed to a smart watch for analysis and response.
Münster is actually the bike capital of Europe. I commuted everywhere by bike! It felt great to reduce my carbon footprint and get exercise while doing so! My time abroad was unforgettable and I have so many stories and lessons that I could not even dream of fitting in this already too-long blog post. I will remember my time fondly and I continue to reflect on the learning opportunities I experienced. Without a doubt, my 8 months abroad widened my worldview and excited my passion for improving the world with my technical skills.
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