Emile: Jet lagged, foreign foods, opening ceremony, and snack trips!

1 day done! After arriving last night, we were able to get some dinner in before crashing in our rooms. For me, I woke up pretty early in the morning and wasn’t able to go back to sleep but my roommate, Geoffrey, was able to sleep for almost 11 hours! Crazy! We headed down to breakfast around 8 o’clock and we were able to enjoy some authentic Chinese breakfast; I ate watermelon, fried bread, steamed buns, and some coffee. Interesting note about the coffee—already creamed and sugared…not something you always see.

Setting up our posters after breakfast was great. We got to see all of the other delegations and enter the large gym in which we each have a booth for our posters and optional interactive display. The posters, printed on heavy vinyl, are much larger than any we have used before. Often, our posters our landscape-oriented on thick poster paper, which is much less “official” than the ones we put up today. We were also able to see the “Maker” part of the competition, with entries ranging from automated robot cars to a raft life-preserver system to Geoff’s novel water filter project. The Maker projects offer a different insight into the normal research we do. Rather than answering questions as if you will potentially make your project in the future, you have (at least) a prototype of your solution in front of you that people can lay their hands on. It’s something else.

The Opening Ceremony after lunch was great. Here, we got to see each delegation walk out with their brief introduction video and welcome slogan. Our slogan was “Beijing, we’re ready!” Alongside the delegations, we were able to see all of the officials associated with the competition. Many of them were scientists, but there were a few who seemed to be more affiliated with the Conference’s Administrative board.

The last part of the day consisted of a market/grocery store trip and dinner. We were able to get some food suggestions from our hosts and stock up on some snacks for the week.

As we all head to sleep early tomorrow, we are preparing ourselves for the four hours of poster judging that we’ll have. Wish us luck!