Past activities of May

In the past month of May Ockham organized several events therefore it was a lot to write about! Our committee choose three to showcase the happenings.

Create tomorrow

Week of Inspiration

Change drink

After plenary drink

Nanolab Tour

The nanolab tour started off with getting a nice introduction in a meeting room while munching on some delicious sandwiches. We headed downstairs to the entrance of the lab and immediately saw tightly secured doors and radioactive signs which seemed a little daunting at first. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to go inside the actual lab as things had to be extremely sterile and as every single particle matters for experiments. Though we couldn’t go inside we certainly could see what was going on inside. From very big machines to smaller but nonetheless powerful microscopes, it was great to see all the latest technology that goes into chipmaking etc. It sometimes felt like watching some animals in a zoo with windows at almost every corner. I kind of felt bad for them, but at the same time it might be required by the law or something so that people can’t do things in secret and hence have a more transparent research for the sake of science. Overall it was a very fascinating tour to participate in and I am curious to see how nanotechnology continues to develop. 

-Julia

Techmed Centre Tour

Another tour we had was the Techmed Centre tour, where we got to see and experience a lot of medical equipment/technology. Thankfully they don’t operate real people in the mock-up operating room they had, but the equipment were all very much real and used in medical practices. MRI scans do get conducted here sometimes as the university has fully working machines that would go to waste otherwise. After visiting the OR, we went upstairs to do simulations on the computer with scissor-like sensors that we had to use to navigate the scissors in the simulation. You had to pinch a red cylinder, which was supposed to be a loose vein (ew), and put it in a white bag. It was a bit difficult to navigate at first but I got the hang of it pretty quickly, maybe not the best as the screen flashed red several times while doing it, meaning that I’ve poked my scissors too close to the edge of the fake person. Lastly we went into the emergency room (ER) simulation and saw a half-alive android who was breathing very loudly and technically had a pulse, that scary thing even blinked! It was really cool to see the professional medical equipment and it definitely is an activity I won’t forget. I hope you had as much as I did joining this tour :) 

-Julia

Crochet workshop 

A yarn and a crochet hook is the only thing that you need to start crocheting, or well, at least that is what I thought. Not just the materials but your motorics skills with your hands are needed to become a good crocheting granny. In this workshop, you could get those basic skills from our professional crocheting grannys that led us through the process; some were faster learners than the others, but at the end everything turned on into patience to repeat what we were taught over and over again in order to make a perfect small pouch. Will we get another workshop to make our winter blanket? We will see 🙂 I am looking forward to it. 

-Carlos   

Table Tennis workshop

Thales Lunch lecture