Aloha from Waikoloa!
As I am writing this short letter, I am sitting in my hotel room in wonderful Hawaii! In January I submitted a manuscript on welding of clad pipes to ISOPE (International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers), and was actually lucky enough that I got to come here to present it! The ISOPE conference lasts almost a week and it is packed with sessions on various topics, such as strain-based design, arctic materials and high-performance materials, to mention some. In other words, lots of interesting topics for a materials scientist.
We are three students from NTNU travelling together with three scientists from SINTEF; Dr. Antonio Alvaro, Dr. Frode Grytten and Dr. Alexandre Kane, all involved in the Arctic Material symposium. The last week has been very exciting, starting off with the conference opening and student forum on Sunday. At the student forum we got the chance to talk with other students from around the world, in addition to some of the ISOPE staff, which was very interesting. Following this, we have mainly attended different sessions, in addition to presenting our own work. I think we all did well on our presentations (despite some nerves) thanks to the support of the more experienced SINTEF scientists. But the conference has not been just work: In the evenings we've had the opportunity to enjoy the sunset and the beautiful sceneries, good food and each other's company.
Towards the end of the stay, we went for a drive around the island. This place is so beautiful! You have everything from barren areas full of lava rocks, to lush and rainforest-like places. This has been such a wonderful trip, and I am so happy I got to be a part of it.
