Anshiqa Agrawal

Day 0 - arrival at Melbourne

Itinerary -
Arrival + Registration at Monah Residences
Tour at Chadstone Mall and lunch from Food Trucks!
Games and meeting up with other delegates
Dinner


Major Learning points -
I got to really see how different Singapore and Melbourne are. Because of space limit in singapore, buildings are all tall and compact but here, they are vastly spread out with huge open areas and big houses. Also, summer here is literally rainy season in SG. When we arrived, the temperature was about 14 degrees Celsius! In summertime! The peopel here, especially are our buddy, Micheala are very amiable and nice too.


Arrival





Day 1 Reflections
Itinerary -
1. We had the science communication challenge where we had to present some data in a creative way. The great part was that we were grouped with different people so I got to interact with an American, Indonesian and Australian.
2. We then visited the Australian Synchrotron where electrons are accelerated at angles, giving off light in all forms, which is used for highly specialised equipment. So there is another use for electrons and particles accelerators, other than just finding new matter.
 2. We visited the centre for additive manufacturing, where metal 3D printers are in use! It was my first time seeing metal in place of regular plastic polymers for 3D printing.
3. After that and tea, we headed over to Green Chemistry site. We saw how labs are cleaned completely by reducing dust particles in the air from more than a million per area to ten hundred down to a hundred by filtering. This clean environment protects essential and pure materials from  getting contaminated for greater advancements.
4. Lastly we presented our creative data and really understood how big of a difference proper communication makes.





Day 2 Reflections
Itinerary -
1. We had the city challenge which gave us an opportunity to view the city and sightsee. We also learned a little about the history of Australia and its culture. I got to know that because 5% of the city has to be dedicated to art, there are quite random sculptures positioned strangely around the city.
2. We then had the poster presentation. This was a really engaging session for me as I got to talk about our project and learn about the rest too. One of the projects that really caught my eye was the one about Artificial Vision from Egypt. They developed a method that let blind people see white light by sending EM wave impulses to the brain's visual cortex.
3. Lastly, we went to the beach! It was so unexpectedly cold there, one of the most coldest winds I had experienced in Melbourne so far. We enjoyed playing games like sand sprinting and tug of war as well as having dinner there.








Day 3 Reflections
Itinerary -
We went to Quantum Victoria for some workshops, which unexpectedly turned out to mainly focus on 3D printing. The workshops conducted were quite independent as they simply explained a little and then let us on our own with some tutorials. I got to adapt from a earphone holder tutorial to make it uniquely my own. After that, he explained some of the future applications for 3D printing.

Next, were the presentations. They were held at Monash Uni and were separated by the themes. I learnt a lot from listening to the other presentations. For example, a student from Japan modelled congestions in stations where a large width of people have to squeeze into a smaller width stairway. He used marbles to model the people and generated various cardboard models to simulate a better way of arranging the path. The interesting questions posed by the judges also gave us insight on improvements.







Day 4 Reflections
Itinerary -
Today, we went to Healesville Sanctuary! There we had a chance to see the bird show and many other animals that are native to Australia, such as the Tasmanian Devil and Wombat. The captive breeding workshop was really informative. I got to know how endangered bird species are raised and then released in the wild. So many things have to be taken into account and a lot of effort is needed like teaching the birds how to identify a predator bird and seek protection.
Next, were the very interesting cultural presentations. Seeing science innovations fro  so many countries was really inspiring. There was even a Russian dance, Indonesian medicine and JMSS song!






Day 5 Reflections
Itinerary -
Today, I went to PACE in Monash University in the morning. This was within the school of Physics and Astronomy. For the first half, we had some activities such as a Q&A session with PhD students and even a Quantum tic-tac-toe game. These were really interesting as they deepened my knowledge and interest in particle physics. The students there were very receptive to all our questions, no matter how basic for them. We even got to see liquid nitrogen! Next, we had a short session on finding our own exoplanet using the radial velocity method. The best part was that we were getting to experience and do something that had been done previously by experts and scientists with much more knowledge.
After that, was the closing ceremony, which had some great performances, especially from the jazz band, sadly marking the end of an incredible fair.
Finally, to end off, the disco party held at JMSS. We interacted in a much more relaxed manner with everyone and took some final pictures with those we may not see again the next day. There was a whole lot of souvenir exchanging along with contact exchange on facebook, watsapp etc. The fair truly ended with a bang.







Final Reflections
Major Learning points for this camp -
I learnt so much about various science aspects in the fair. Not just from the university and big companies, but even from other delegates and their presentation. Along with the academic portion, I also got to explore the culture of so many countries, especially Australia. The people there are not as conservative and express themselves very creatively. They are open and friendly to everyone and I felt no hesitation in saying what really mattered. I had never expected such a marvelous and rewarding trip, where I would make all these friends from around the world. I will really miss everyone, Australia and our buddies Micheala and Michelle.







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